BROWN, MICHAEL FORBES

The Lambert Professor of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at Williams College, Massachusetts, Brown authored books includingTsewa’s Gift:Magic andMeaning in an Amazonian Society(1986),The Channeling Zone(1997), andWho Owns Native Culture? (2003). Brown’s research onAmazonianshamanism led him to evaluate engagements between indigenous shamans andneo-shamans. As such, he is one of the few scholars to have offered a sensitive yet critical analysis of neoshamanisms, noting in particular that contemporary practitioners tend to ignore the “Dark Side of the Shaman” such assorcery; he has also problematized the issue of neo-shamanic appropriations of indigenous religions, as well as the “copyrighting” of culture more generally.

See alsoSharon, Douglas.