LINDQUIST, GALINA

Swedish anthropologist whose important fieldwork onneo-shamanismsin Sweden (1992–95) resulted in a doctoral thesis published asShamanicPerformanceon the UrbanScene:Neo-Shamanism in Contemporary Sweden(1997). Lindquist examines the groupYggdrasilin particular, and the way that indigenous and ancient shamanisms are relocalized in contemporary contexts, with such practices asseidrreenchanting practitioners’ lives, promoting “fuzzy community,” and resulting in a “new internal tradition.” From a practitioner perspective, Lindquist’s understanding of neo-shamanicritualas a form of imaginative “play” and performance might seem to demean neo-shamanic experience (as suggested byJonathan Horwitzand others), yet Lindquist’s work was formative in the emerging study of neo-shamanism, and this sort of approach usefully moves analysis away from the myopic focus on definition and what a shamanisto the complexity of what shamans do.