Book of the month for March 2006
Page date:1 March 2006
Galina Lindquist. 2006.
Conjuring Hope: Healing and Magic in Contemporary Russia. New York: Berghahn
Books.
Notions of magic and healing have been changing over past years and are now
understood as reflecting local ideas of power and agency, as well as structures
of self, subjectivity and affect. This study focuses on contemporary urban
Russia and, through exploring social conditions, conveys the experience of
living that makes magic logical. By following people’s own interpretations of
the work of magic, the author succeeds in unraveling the logic of local practice
and local understanding of affliction, commonly used to diagnose the experiences
of illness and misfortune.
Galina Lindquist was born in Russia, and trained as anthropologist in
Sweden. She received her degree at the Department of Social Anthropology,
University of Stockholm, for the study of urban shamans in Scandinavia. Since
then she has done work in medical anthropology and anthropology of religion,
with a special focus on folk religious and healing practices. Her other areas of
interest are play, ritual, and anthropology of consciousness.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1. Marketing Magic
2. Magic as Semiotic Changes: Ontologies, Rituals and Terms of Affliction
3. Magic as Management of Emotions
4. The Icons of Power: Constructing Charisma from the Means at Hand
5. Charisma of the Office: Healing Power and Biomedical Legitimacy
6. The Unspeakable Emotions: Spells and Their Use in Working Life
7. The Magic of Business and the Fostering of Hope
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Epistemologies of Healing Series
Publication date: 7/1/2005
272 pages, bibliog., index
ISBN 1-84545-093-0 Pb $25.00/£15.00
ISBN 1-84545-057-4 Hb $75.00/£45.00