HEUSCH, LUC DE

(1927– )

Professor of anthropology at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. FollowingMirceaEliade’s categorical distinction between shamanism as “masteryofspirits” andpossessionas “being controlled by spirits,” Heusch presented them as opposing moves: the “ascent of man to the gods” versus the “descent of the gods on (and into) man.” From this, he elaborated a “geometry of the soul” that deserves consideration as a religious text, but not as an appraisal of ethnographic data about the real life and work of shamans.