New Directions in the Anthropology of Dreaming
- 238 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
New Directions in the Anthropology of Dreaming
About This Book
This book presents new directions in contemporary anthropological dream research, surveying recent theorizations of dreaming that are developing both in and outside of anthropology. It incorporates new findings in neuroscience and philosophy of mind while demonstrating that dreams emerge from and comment on sociohistorical and cultural contexts.
The chapters are written by prominent anthropologists working at the intersection of culture and consciousness who conduct ethnographic research in a variety of settings around the world, and reflect how dreaming is investigated by a range of informants in ever more diverse sites. As well as theorizing the dream in light of current anthropological and psychological research, the volume accounts for local dream theories and how they are situated within distinct cultural ontologies. It considers dreams as a resource for investigating and understanding cultural change; dreaming as a mode of thinking through, contesting, altering, consolidating, or escaping from identity; and the nature of dream mentation.
In proposing new theoretical approaches to dreaming, the editors situate the topic within the recent call for an "anthropology of the night" and illustrate how dreams offer insight into current debates within anthropology's mainstream. This up-to-date book defines a twenty-first century approach to culture and the dream that will be relevant to scholars from anthropology as well as other disciplines such as religious studies, the neurosciences, and psychology.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Introduction
- Part II New theoretical approaches to dreaming: Implications for culture and identity
- Part III Dream cultures: Theoretical and ontological perspectives
- Afterword: On the varieties and particularities of dreaming
- Index