Review by Michael J. Rush (Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 46-48)
"One of the key questions Hunter asks in this book is, “How can we be sure that the world-view we have come to accept as dominant is really the best suited for accurately describing the universe?” The Paranormal, his first book, is a response to this question and an introduction to the new and expanding field of Paranthropology; the fusion of anthropology with parapsychology. In seven short but information packed chapters, Hunter starts by discussing some of the anthropological perspectives on ghosts and gods, shamanism and possession, and magic and witchcraft. He then moves on to review the relationship of anthropology to the paranormal, summarises the history of parapsychology, and concludes with a discussion of how these two disciplines can mutually inform each other. The book includes an introduction by Dr. Fiona Bowie, Honorary Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Bristol, and an afterword by Dr. David Luke, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich and Research Associate at the Beckley Foundation, Oxford.
Hunter begins by defining the ‘supernatural’ in broad terms and emphasising the importance of taking a cross-cultural approach. He points out that, in many cultures, the supernatural is not considered to be abnormal or unusual and that the meaning of these experiences is of primary importance, rather than their ontological validity. Similarly, he suggests that any definition of religion must take this into account, including the psychosocial aspect and the role it plays in believers’ lives. Hunter starts by summarising some of the main psychological, sociological, and phenomenological theorists of religion. The psychological theorists include E.B. Tylor who has a theory that religion stems from misinterpretation of dreams and altered states of consciousness (ASCs) resulting in animism; Bronislaw Malinowski, who suggested that religion provides stability in an unpredictable world; and Claude Levi-Strauss, who considered that religious ideas reflect deep structures in the human mind. The sociological theorists include Emile Durkheim’s argument that religion provides group cohesion and social identity; and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, who sees religions as components in a social organism bound together by performance of ritual. Finally, the phenomenological theorists include: Williams James’ view of such experiences as natural and having a “common core”; Rudolf Otto’s description of the “numinous,” that is at once both awe inspiring and fearful; David Hufford’s experiential source hypothesis based on the Newfoundland ‘Old Hag’ tradition; and Andrew Lang’s suggestion that it is actually genuine experiences of the paranormal that lead to supernatural beliefs. In true objective fashion Hunter diplomatically opts to take a pluralistic yet phenomenological approach.
Moving on to Shamanism and possession Hunter first of all acknowledges the different conceptions of terms such as the “soul,” “spirits,” and “ghosts,” and the roles that they play in supernatural beliefs. Examples are supplied by the ancient Egyptian system of a five-part soul, and the Trobriand Islanders studied by Malinowski, as well as the Judaeo-Christian tradition. With numerous examples from anthropology Hunter covers spirit worlds, ghosts, monotheism and polytheism, angels and demons, ancestors and saints, other-than-human-persons, propitiation, Marian apparitions, and psychedelic experiences. He refers to the putative origins of supernatural beliefs in the burial of grave goods during the Palaeolithic period and cave paintings from Lascaux, France from 17,300 years ago. Although recognising that Shamanism proper should perhaps refer only to the Siberian practitioners, he accepts four characteristics of shamanism in general usage: travel to the spirit world, use of ASCs, healing the sick, and taking on animal forms. Hunter distinguishes different forms of spirit possession as voluntary or involuntary, then discusses several theories of possession including: neurological conditions, dissociative identity disorder (DID), social empowerment, and misinterpreted cognitive processes. However, he does not rule out that these experiences could be genuine as reported by those who experience them.
In surveying magic Hunter notes that distinc-tions between so-called “black” and “white” are neither clear-cut nor particularly helpful. He also mentions the often overlooked but important point that branches of magic, such as divination, are part of a much wider cos-mological scheme. The theories he reviews are Sir James Frazer’s influential understanding of sympathetic magic; Marcel Mauss’ social function of the magician, magical beliefs, and magical rites; and Max Weber’s concept of the decline of magic leading to the disenchantment of society. Also included is Fiona Bowie’s division of witchcraft into medieval beneficent and ma-leficent magic, Satanic or anti-Christian magic, African and other traditional non-European beliefs, and modern Western paganism. Hunter notes that modern traditions of witchcraft are not necessarily invalidated despite their more recent and syncretistic origins.
Of particular interest are the experiences of anthropologists in the field. Hunter provides several ac-counts of ostensibly paranormal experiences such as Tylor’s participant-observation studies of Spiritualism, Evans-Pritchard’s experience with the Azande, and the even more dramatic experiences of Bruce T. Grindal with the Sisala, and Edith Turner with the Ndembu. From there he follows a rapid tour of parapsychology from Mesmerism, via the Fox sisters, D.D. Home, and Sir William Crookes, to the Society for Psychical Research, Joseph Rhine, and modern psi labs using random number generators and the ganzfeld technique. Hunter concludes that the main findings of psi research to date are: 1) the involvement of ASCs such as those in dreams, spirit possession, ganzfeld studies, or shamanism, and 2) the importance of mindset and cultural set-ting, such as the effects of beliefs and expectations on psi phenomena.
Finally, Hunter traces the origins of Paranthropology, the anthropological approach to the paranormal. Amongst the forerunners of this new discipline he includes Andrew Lang’s comparative psychical research, Ernesto de Martino’s emphasis on the need for ecological validity, Joseph K. Long’s “extrasensory ecology” that gave rise to the Anthropology of Consciousness, Charles Laughlin and transpersonal anthropology, Patric Giesler’s social perspective of “psi-in-process,” and the work of Young and Goulet that highlighted the experiences of anthropologists in the field and how those experiences affected them personally.
The book could be criticised on account of its title: "The Paranormal: Why People Believe in Spirits, Gods and Magic." The main title doesn’t do justice to Hunter’s topic, (i.e. Paranthropology) and the subtitle is misleading as he does not attempt to answer the question. To be fair, the answer to this question is not within the remit of the current book. The premise of this book is probably summed up best in Hunter’s own words, ‘To remove spirit possession, or indeed any supernatural practice or experience, from its cultural context and interpret it in alien terms is to lose sight of the true nature of the experience, and what it means…Paranthropology, therefore, takes a bold step in attempting to interpret supernatural systems of belief from the perspective of those who subscribe to them’.
On the whole, this is a useful and very readable overview of the growing field of Paranthropology that can be recommended to anyone interested in allied fields such as transpersonal psychology, religious experience, or parapsychology. Despite the book being an introduction there is much here to discover that provides exciting new avenues of exploration."
- Reviewed by Michael J. Rush in Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology (JEEP), Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 46-48.
http://jeep.eu5.org/index.php/jeep/is...
Hunter begins by defining the ‘supernatural’ in broad terms and emphasising the importance of taking a cross-cultural approach. He points out that, in many cultures, the supernatural is not considered to be abnormal or unusual and that the meaning of these experiences is of primary importance, rather than their ontological validity. Similarly, he suggests that any definition of religion must take this into account, including the psychosocial aspect and the role it plays in believers’ lives. Hunter starts by summarising some of the main psychological, sociological, and phenomenological theorists of religion. The psychological theorists include E.B. Tylor who has a theory that religion stems from misinterpretation of dreams and altered states of consciousness (ASCs) resulting in animism; Bronislaw Malinowski, who suggested that religion provides stability in an unpredictable world; and Claude Levi-Strauss, who considered that religious ideas reflect deep structures in the human mind. The sociological theorists include Emile Durkheim’s argument that religion provides group cohesion and social identity; and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, who sees religions as components in a social organism bound together by performance of ritual. Finally, the phenomenological theorists include: Williams James’ view of such experiences as natural and having a “common core”; Rudolf Otto’s description of the “numinous,” that is at once both awe inspiring and fearful; David Hufford’s experiential source hypothesis based on the Newfoundland ‘Old Hag’ tradition; and Andrew Lang’s suggestion that it is actually genuine experiences of the paranormal that lead to supernatural beliefs. In true objective fashion Hunter diplomatically opts to take a pluralistic yet phenomenological approach.
Moving on to Shamanism and possession Hunter first of all acknowledges the different conceptions of terms such as the “soul,” “spirits,” and “ghosts,” and the roles that they play in supernatural beliefs. Examples are supplied by the ancient Egyptian system of a five-part soul, and the Trobriand Islanders studied by Malinowski, as well as the Judaeo-Christian tradition. With numerous examples from anthropology Hunter covers spirit worlds, ghosts, monotheism and polytheism, angels and demons, ancestors and saints, other-than-human-persons, propitiation, Marian apparitions, and psychedelic experiences. He refers to the putative origins of supernatural beliefs in the burial of grave goods during the Palaeolithic period and cave paintings from Lascaux, France from 17,300 years ago. Although recognising that Shamanism proper should perhaps refer only to the Siberian practitioners, he accepts four characteristics of shamanism in general usage: travel to the spirit world, use of ASCs, healing the sick, and taking on animal forms. Hunter distinguishes different forms of spirit possession as voluntary or involuntary, then discusses several theories of possession including: neurological conditions, dissociative identity disorder (DID), social empowerment, and misinterpreted cognitive processes. However, he does not rule out that these experiences could be genuine as reported by those who experience them.
In surveying magic Hunter notes that distinc-tions between so-called “black” and “white” are neither clear-cut nor particularly helpful. He also mentions the often overlooked but important point that branches of magic, such as divination, are part of a much wider cos-mological scheme. The theories he reviews are Sir James Frazer’s influential understanding of sympathetic magic; Marcel Mauss’ social function of the magician, magical beliefs, and magical rites; and Max Weber’s concept of the decline of magic leading to the disenchantment of society. Also included is Fiona Bowie’s division of witchcraft into medieval beneficent and ma-leficent magic, Satanic or anti-Christian magic, African and other traditional non-European beliefs, and modern Western paganism. Hunter notes that modern traditions of witchcraft are not necessarily invalidated despite their more recent and syncretistic origins.
Of particular interest are the experiences of anthropologists in the field. Hunter provides several ac-counts of ostensibly paranormal experiences such as Tylor’s participant-observation studies of Spiritualism, Evans-Pritchard’s experience with the Azande, and the even more dramatic experiences of Bruce T. Grindal with the Sisala, and Edith Turner with the Ndembu. From there he follows a rapid tour of parapsychology from Mesmerism, via the Fox sisters, D.D. Home, and Sir William Crookes, to the Society for Psychical Research, Joseph Rhine, and modern psi labs using random number generators and the ganzfeld technique. Hunter concludes that the main findings of psi research to date are: 1) the involvement of ASCs such as those in dreams, spirit possession, ganzfeld studies, or shamanism, and 2) the importance of mindset and cultural set-ting, such as the effects of beliefs and expectations on psi phenomena.
Finally, Hunter traces the origins of Paranthropology, the anthropological approach to the paranormal. Amongst the forerunners of this new discipline he includes Andrew Lang’s comparative psychical research, Ernesto de Martino’s emphasis on the need for ecological validity, Joseph K. Long’s “extrasensory ecology” that gave rise to the Anthropology of Consciousness, Charles Laughlin and transpersonal anthropology, Patric Giesler’s social perspective of “psi-in-process,” and the work of Young and Goulet that highlighted the experiences of anthropologists in the field and how those experiences affected them personally.
The book could be criticised on account of its title: "The Paranormal: Why People Believe in Spirits, Gods and Magic." The main title doesn’t do justice to Hunter’s topic, (i.e. Paranthropology) and the subtitle is misleading as he does not attempt to answer the question. To be fair, the answer to this question is not within the remit of the current book. The premise of this book is probably summed up best in Hunter’s own words, ‘To remove spirit possession, or indeed any supernatural practice or experience, from its cultural context and interpret it in alien terms is to lose sight of the true nature of the experience, and what it means…Paranthropology, therefore, takes a bold step in attempting to interpret supernatural systems of belief from the perspective of those who subscribe to them’.
On the whole, this is a useful and very readable overview of the growing field of Paranthropology that can be recommended to anyone interested in allied fields such as transpersonal psychology, religious experience, or parapsychology. Despite the book being an introduction there is much here to discover that provides exciting new avenues of exploration."
- Reviewed by Michael J. Rush in Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology (JEEP), Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 46-48.
http://jeep.eu5.org/index.php/jeep/is...