Visions of Power: Imagery and Symbols in Late Iron Age Britain

Creighton, John

doi:10.2307/526880

Cited by 21 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Where druids and temples are attested, some scholars have a harder time imagining a complimentary shamanistic practice, and the idea that these systems could have coexisted among continental groups has been sharply critiqued in some quarters. Despite this, shamanism among the Celts and Britons is now an important topic of inquiry, addressing questions of whether freestanding shamans practiced synchronically with more organized groups, or if druidic practice included shamanistic trances, narcotic use, and possible creation of entoptic art (AldhouseGreen 2001b; Aldhouse-Green and Aldhouse -Green 2005;Creighton 1995;Green 1998c). Shamanism also may be reflected in the ubiquitous ''imagery of the space where the bard finds himself before the event of the vision'' in Celtic myths (Bȃlinişteanu 2003, p. 74).…”

Section: Other Religious Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

Thurston

2009

J Archaeol Res

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While some researchers continue to focus fruitfully on traditional issues, in recent years new perspectives, some strongly revisionist, have developed within European Iron Age archaeology, moving it from a long-static state into a rapidly changing milieu. Studies of colonialism, imperialism, and interaction have undergone sequential shifts into new territory, while topics related to sacred activity, political apparatuses, and the ruler-subject relationship have undergone substantial reworking. Perspectives absent from earlier literature have emerged: gender, age, ethnicity, and identity, and interpretations employing theories of practice, agency, landscape, and embodiment have emerged, mirroring broader disciplinary shifts. An overarching trend sees Iron Age Europe as a series of interactive societies with both broad similarities and sharp regional, even local, differences, moving through time and ever-changing relationships, influences, and trajectories. The collision of traditional and revisionist scholarship has produced debate, some heated, but has improved and invigorated the field.

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Section: Other Religious Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

Thurston

2009

J Archaeol Res

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“…Functionalist approaches (e.g. Collis 1974), have been criticised (Haselgrove 1993;de Jersey 2001;Van Arsdell 1989), with a strong argument to suggest that British Iron Age coins did not function as money (Haselgrove 1993;Wellington 2006 (Creighton 1995;Williams and Creighton 2006), where the imagery may be metaphors indicative of various trance states. Such approaches begin to set Iron Age coins within the world views of the societies creating and using them, linking them to evidence for religious performance and cult practice.…”

Section: Western Coinage In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-semiotics and the symbiosis of humans, horses, and objects in later Iron Age Britain

Pudney

2018

Archaeological Journal

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Using an approach derived from material culture studies and semiotics, this paper addresses possible relationships between humans and horses in the British Iron Age. Through a study of the dominance of horse imagery found on Iron Age British coinage, specifically the Western coinage traditionally attributed to the 'Dobunni', the author explores how it may reflect possible relationships between humans and horses and their personhood therein. Drawing on wider faunal and metalwork evidence it is argued that these coins could be interpreted as a manifestation of the complex perspectives surrounding a symbiotic relationship between humans and horses.

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“…This in turn was considered as suggestive of the involvement of shamanism in various contexts such as European Paleocene rock art (Lewis‐Williams et al. ; Hodgson ; Lewis‐Williams ) and European Iron Age numismatics (Creighton ).…”

Section: Anthropological Interpretations Of Shamanic Visionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shamanic Microscopy: Cellular Souls, Microbial Spirits

Herrera

2018

Anthropol of Consciousness

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In Amerindian ontologies, hallucinations or visions, rather than being dismissed as delusions or symbolic constructs, are recognized as means of perceptual access to physical reality. Lowland South American shamans claim to be able to diagnose and treat infectious diseases, and to assess the status of wildlife resources through interactions with pathogenic agents perceived in visions. This essay examines some perceptual capabilities that shamans might be employing to explore their physical reality. The structure of the eye affords a form of microscopy of retinal structures and of objects flowing within them, including cells and microbial agents during systemic infection. Lowland South American shamanic practices involve optical and physiological conditions that optimize entoptic microscopy. Images of those visions display the characteristic features of shadow formation, confirming their microscopic origin. This phenomenological access to the microscopic world and similarities with the panorama depicted by current microbiology indicate the commensurability of these forms of knowledge.

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Visions of Power: Imagery and Symbols in Late Iron Age Britain

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity?

Socio-semiotics and the symbiosis of humans, horses, and objects in later Iron Age Britain

Shamanic Microscopy: Cellular Souls, Microbial Spirits

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