Supernatural Encounters of the Asabano in Two Traditions and Three States of Consciousness

Lohmann, Roger Ivar

doi:10.1057/9781403982476_10

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Domhoff says that ‘at least 10% of NREM reports are similar in their form and contents from REM awakenings’(2005: 4), and Hobson himself has noted that in ‘mental activity in NREM sleep later in the night ... brain activation approaches that seen in REM sleep’ (2002: 9). In other words, these sleep states should be seen more as being a continuum than as isolated states (this is analogous to the suggestion that dreaming and other forms of consciousness be seen as a continuum: Hartmann 2003; Lohmann 2003: 206). Despite recent advances made in neuroscience and the growing capacity to ‘map’ the brain and its various functions, Hobson admits that ‘we don't really know how the dream scenarios are composed, any more than we know how ideas are generated in waking’ (2002: 145).…”

Section: Culture Memory and The Shaping Of Autonomous Imaginationmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…How is our sleep experience integrated into our conscious, awake experience, and vice versa? Lohmann talks about ‘a continuum of consciousness’ that exists between waking and sleeping states, in which ‘memories of experience characteristic of one form of consciousness transfer to and shape perceptions in the other state of awareness’ (2003: 206). How then do memory, perception, and experience inform and shape one another across this continuum?…”

Section: Revelation Through Dreams In Aboriginal Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: creativity, culture, and the science of sleep

Glaskin¹

2011

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

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Ethnography from Aboriginal Australia attests to the significance of dreams in the creation of new songs, designs, and ceremonies. In this article, I examine the relationships between dreams, memory, and creativity in ritual, design, and song creation. Advances made in neuroscience mean that, increasingly, scientists are able to map neural activity occurring in different sleep phases. Can this capability help us to understand the emergence of creativity, such as that which appears to have its origins in dreams? Drawing on cognitive psychology and neurophysiology, I argue that much of the creativity that emerges from dreams is contingent on memory. Memory is both biological and cultural, so culture is implicated in how dreams are imaginatively shaped, remembered, reported, and experienced. Thus, an important link between the apparently autonomous aspects of dreams and the resulting creativity that has been reported in many cultures around the world, in ethnography and by dreamers themselves, is the encultured work of memory. Résumé L’ethnographie de l’Australie aborigène témoigne de l’importance des rêves dans la création de nouveaux chants, dessins et cérémonies. L’auteure examine ici les relations entre rêves, mémoire et créativité dans la création de rituels, de dessins et de chants. Grâce aux progrès des neurosciences, il est possible de cartographier de plus en plus précisément l’activité neuronale dans les différentes phases du sommeil. Cet outil nous aidera‐t‐il à comprendre l’émergence de la créativité lorsque celle‐ci semble prendre sa source dans les rêves ? À partir des données de la psychologie cognitive et de la neurophysiologie, l’auteure affirme qu’une grande partie de la créativité née des rêves est liée à la mémoire. La mémoire étant à la fois biologique et culturelle, la culture intervient dans la manière dont l’imagination donne forme aux rêves et dont le sujet se souvient de ceux‐ci, les relate et les vit. Le travail de mémoire intégré dans la culture constitue donc un lien important entre les aspects apparemment autonomes des rêves et la créativité qui en résulte et qui a été rapportée dans de nombreuses cultures du monde, que ce soit dans l’ethnographie ou par les rêveurs eux‐mêmes.

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Section: Culture Memory and The Shaping Of Autonomous Imaginationmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Revelation Through Dreams In Aboriginal Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: creativity, culture, and the science of sleep

Glaskin¹

2011

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

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“…They considered this personal experiential evidence of the Christian pantheon's existence, corroborating the missionaries' claims (Lohmann 2000). When I asked people who reported such dreams why they considered them to be evidence, they explained that such dreams are what human souls witness as they travel outside the body, including things shown to them by supernatural beings (Lohmann 2003b). Therefore, such dreams were not, for them, imaginary scenarios, but were, rather, akin to sensory perception.…”

Section: Studying Asabano Dream Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Evaluating Dreams Makes History: Asabano Examples

Lohmann¹

2010

History and Anthropology

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“…Creatures of the autonomous imagination are experienced as though they were foreign to one's own mind-that is, received from another source rather than created by the selfwhich facilitates the cross-culturally common attribution of its imagery to supernatural beings rather than personal creativity. The autonomous imagination is less constrained by sensory information and logical conventions than the purposeful imagination (Lohmann 2003a). It is often heavily involved in creativity, and may provide inspiration for problem-solving (Barrett 2001).…”

Section: Imagination and Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: The Anthropology of Creations

Lohmann¹

2010

Anthropological Forum

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This introduction provides an overview of the contributions to this special issue on the anthropology of creations, and identifies some central concerns and definitions. Juxtaposing emic and etic perspectives, I derive several principles to guide the study of creations. Culture consists of creations, which are products of minds, and exist in three media: thoughts, behaviours and artefacts. Only by being expressed as bodily movement or material culture can creations be transmitted to others. Creations are embedded in webs of mental, behavioural, and artefactual associations that vary across individuals, groups, and time. Imaginations generate creations by representing and manipulating mental images, primarily through recombining and recontextualising elements of preexisting representations. Purposeful imagining is conscious, goal-directed, and subject to agents' executive control. Autonomous imagining generates imagery independent of conscious control, typically in dream or trance; its creations are often attributed to spiritual others. Innovation is the process of imaginative conception, realisation, social adoption, and cultural incorporation of creations. Innovation not only changes but also maintains living traditions.

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Supernatural Encounters of the Asabano in Two Traditions and Three States of Consciousness

Cited by 14 publications

References 5 publications

Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: creativity, culture, and the science of sleep

Dreams, memory, and the ancestors: creativity, culture, and the science of sleep

How Evaluating Dreams Makes History: Asabano Examples

Introduction: The Anthropology of Creations

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