Katherine Swancutt - Demons and Gods on Display cover

Katherine Swancutt - Crafting Chinese Memories The Art and Materiality of Storytelling

Katherine Swancutt - Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge

Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledg

Katherine Swancutt

I am Reader in Social Anthropology at King’s College London, Director of its Religious and Ethnic Diversity in China and Asia Research Unit (REDCARU), and Project Lead for the ERC Synergy Grant titled ‘Cosmological Visionaries: Shamans, Scientists, and Climate Change at the Ethnic Borderlands of China and Russia’.

My area of research is Inner Asia. I have conducted fieldwork on animistic and shamanic religions for more than two decades among the Nuosu of Southwest China, the Buryats of northeast Mongolia and China, and the Deed Mongols of northern China. I teach on a wide range of topics, especially in the anthropology of religion.

Books and Special Issues
2023	Demons and Gods on Display: The Anthropology of Display and Worldmaking. Special issue of Asian Ethnology, 82(1).
2021	Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Blog entry available here.
2018	Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. First published as a Special Issue of Social Analysis. 60(1), 2016, co-edited with Mireille Mazard. Excerpt available here.
2012	Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Excerpt available here.

Journal Articles
2024	‘Dreams, Visions, and Worldmaking: Envisioning Anthropology Through Dreamscapes’ in Annual Review of Anthropology. 53:111-126.
2023	‘Guest Editor’s Introduction. Demons and Gods on Display: The Anthropology of Display and Worldmaking’ in Katherine Swancutt (ed), special issue of Asian Ethnology. 82(1):3-23.
2023	‘The Time of Red Snowfall: Steering Social and Cosmic Renewal in Southwest China’ in Katherine Swancutt (ed). ‘Demons and Gods on Display: The Anthropology of Display and Worldmaking’, special issue of Asian Ethnology. 82(1):141-164.
2023	‘Moved to Distraction: The Ritual Theatre of the Fire Festival in Southwest China’ in Mark Teeuwen, Moumita Sen, and Aike P. Rots (eds). ‘Festivals in Asia: Patronage, Play, and Piety’, special issue of Religion. 53(3):431-455.
2023	‘Of Cosmological Visions and Creativity: Shaping Animism, Indigenous Science, and Forestry in Southwest China’ in Gorazd Andrejč and Victoria Dos Santos (eds). ‘Religion, Science and Technology in Pantheism, Animism and Paganism’, special issue of Religions. 14(4), 449, pp. 1-20.
2022	‘Manifesting the Invisible: Writing, Piercing, Shaping, and Taming Potency in Southwest China’ in Aurélie Névot (ed). ‘Figurations chamaniques. Broderies, dessins et écritures comme interfaces entre le visible et l’invisible’ (‘Shamanic Figurations: Embroideries, Writings and Drawings as Interfaces between the Visible and the Invisible’), special issue of Études mongoles et sibériennes centrasiatiques et tibétaines. 53:47-77.
2021	‘The Chicken and the Egg: Cracking the Ontology of Divination in Southwest China’ in William Matthews (ed). ‘Calculation and Agency: Ontologies of Divination’, special issue of Social Analysis. 65(2):19-40.
2021	‘“It’s Scientific!” Play, Parody, and the Para-Ethnographic in Southwest China’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 27(3):559-578.
2020	‘Animal Release and the Sacrificial Ethos in Inner Asia’ in Thomas White and Natasha Fijn (eds). ‘Multispecies Co-existence in Inner Asia’, special issue of Inner Asia. 22(2):199-216.
2016	‘Introduction: Anthropological Knowledge Making, the Reflexive Feedback Loop, and Conceptualizations of the Soul’. Social Analysis. 60(1):1-17, co-authored with Mireille Mazard.
2016	‘The Art of Capture: Hidden Jokes and the Reinvention of Animistic Ontologies in Southwest China’ in Social Analysis. 60(1):74-91.
2016	‘Religion through the Looking Glass: Fieldwork, Biography, and Authorship in Southwest China and Beyond’ in Religion and Society: Advances in Research. 7(1):51-67.
2012	‘The Captive Guest: Spider Webs of Hospitality among the Nuosu of Southwest China’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 18(S1):S103-S116.
2012	‘Fame, Fate-Fortune, and Tokens of Value among the Nuosu of Southwest China’ in Social Analysis. 56(2):56-72.
2008	‘The Undead Genealogy: Omnipresence, Spirit Perspectives, and a Case of Mongolian Vampirism’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 14(4):843-864. [Republished in the 7 September 2020 Virtual Issue on ‘Distance’ in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute].
2007	‘The Ontological Spiral: Virtuosity and Transparency in Mongolian Games’ in Inner Asia. 9(2):237-259.
2006	‘Representational vs. Conjectural Divination: Innovating out of Nothing in Mongolia’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12(2):331-353.
2006	‘Fortuna, Sort i Destí a Mongòlia’ (Fortune, Luck and Fate in Mongolia) in Revista d’Ethnologia de Catalunya. 28:70-82.
2001	‘Sources of Charisma: Ritual, Household Knowledge and Inspiration in Mongolia’ in North Atlantic Studies. 4:39-43.

Book Chapters
2022	‘The Threshold of the Cosmos: Priestly Scriptures and the Shamanic Wilderness in Southwest China’ in Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro (eds). The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, and Sydney: Bloomsbury. Pp. 119-131.
2021	‘Introduction - Materiality, Imagination and the Memorable’ in Katherine Swancutt (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 1-22.
2021	‘Jailhouse Blues, Storytelling and Becoming the Stuff of Legends in Southwest China’. Katherine Swancutt (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 181-205, co-authored with Jiarimuji (嘉日姆几).
2021	‘Conclusion - Layers, Traces, Fields and Storehouses of Memory’ in Katherine Swancutt (ed). Crafting Chinese Memories: The Art and Materiality of Storytelling. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 206-219.
2020	‘Ethnic Minorities and Religion’ in Kevin Latham (ed). Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 447-460.
2018	‘The Anthropological Imaginarium: Crafting Alterity, the Self, and an Ethnographic Film in Southwest China’ in Liana Chua and Nayanika Mathur (eds). Who Are ‘We’?: Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 95-127.
2018	‘Introduction: Anthropological Knowledge Making, the Reflexive Feedback Loop, and Conceptualizations of the Soul’. Katherine Swancutt and Mireille Mazard (eds). Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 1-17, co-authored with Mireille Mazard.
2018	‘The Art of Capture: Hidden Jokes and the Reinvention of Animistic Ontologies in Southwest China’ in Katherine Swancutt and Mireille Mazard (eds). Animism Beyond the Soul: Ontology, Reflexivity, and the Making of Anthropological Knowledge. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 74-91.
2018	‘The Return to Slavery? Nostalgia and a New Generation of Escape in Southwest China’. James Laidlaw, Barbara Bodenhorn and Martin Holbraad (eds). Recovering the Human Subject: Freedom, Creativity and Decision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 131-147, co-authored with Jiarimuji (嘉日姆几).
2016	‘The Anti-Favour: Ideasthesia, Aesthetics, and Obligation in Southwest China’ in David Henig and Nicolette Makovicky (eds). Economies of Favour after Socialism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 96-116.
2016	‘Freedom in Irony and Dreams: Inhabiting the Realms of Ancestors and Opportunities in Southwest China’ in Hans Steinmüller and Susanne Brandtstädter (eds). Irony, Cynicism and the Chinese State. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 138-154.
2015	‘Imaginations at War: The Ephemeral and the Fullness of Life in Southwest China’ in Øivind Fuglerud and Leon Wainwright (eds). Objects and Imagination: Perspectives on Materialization and Meaning. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 133-159.
2012	‘Masked Predation, Hierarchy and the Scaling of Extractive Relations in Inner Asia and Beyond’ in Marc Brightman, Vanessa Elisa Grotti and Olga Ulturgasheva (eds). Animism in Rainforest and Tundra: Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia. New York and Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 175-194.

Encyclopaedia Entries
2019	‘Animism’ in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology.

Invited Commentaries
2022	‘Comment’ on ‘Reduction, Generation, and Truth: A Comparative Approach to Divinatory Interpretation’ by William Matthews in Current Anthropology. 63(3):344-345.

Writings for Exhibitions
2024	‘Nuosu Egg Divination’ in Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn (eds). Divination: Oracles & Omens. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing. Pp. 123-127.
2024	‘Buryat Mongolian Card Divination’ in Michelle Aroney and David Zeitlyn (eds). Divination: Oracles & Omens. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing. Pp. 135-139.

Films
2016	1956. A Briton in the Cool Mountains of China. [Chinese Title: 1956. 一个英国人在凉山, Nuosu Title: 1956. ꑱꇩꊿꂷꆀꎭꃅꈌꇁꊈꂮ]. (68 minutes). Produced with Jiarimuji (嘉日姆几).

Book Reviews
2024	Review of Robin Visser. Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan. New York: Columbia University Press, in The China Quarterly. 259.
2024	Review of Stevan Harrell. An Ecological History of Modern China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2023, in The China Quarterly. 258:580-581.
2021	Review of Graham M. Jones. Magic’s Reason: An Anthropology of Analogy. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2017, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 27(2):444-445.
2020	Review of Geng Li. Fate Calculation Experts: Diviners Seeking Legitimation in Contemporary China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, in Religion & Society: Advances in Research. 11(1):214-215.
2020	Review of Matthew W. King. Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, in Inner Asia. 22(2):347-349.
2019	Review of Donatas Brandišauskas Leaving Footprints in the Taiga: Luck, Spirits and Ambivalence among the Siberian Orochen Reindeer Herders and Hunters. New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2016, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 25(4):844-845.
2018	Review of Erik Mueggler. Songs for Dead Parents: Corpse, Text, and World in Southwest China. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2017, in The China Quarterly. 234:587-588.
2018	Review of Bjørn Thomassen. Liminality and the Modern: Living through the In-Between. London and New York: Routledge, 2016, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 24(1):217-218.
2014	Review of Manduhai Buyandelger. Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2013, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. 6(2):218-220.
2014	Review of Rane Willerslev. On the Run in Siberia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012, in Social Analysis. 58(2):140-141.
2014	Review of Andrew Kipnis (ed). Chinese Modernity and the Individual Psyche. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 20(1):182-183.
2012	Review of Esther Eidinow. Luck, Fate and Fortune: Antiquity and Its Legacy. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011, in The Classical Review. 62(1):221-223.
2011	Review of Chuan-kang Shih. Quest for Harmony: the Moso Traditions of Sexual Union and Family Life. Stanford University Press, 2009, in The China Quarterly. 208:1041-1042. [Also translated by Mumei Gui for publication in 世界民族 (World Ethno-National Studies): 评施传刚著《追寻和谐：摩梭传统的性联盟家庭生活》 [英] Katherine Swancutt (苏梦林) 著,桂慕梅译]
2011	Review of Rebecca M. Empson. Harnessing Fortune: Personhood, Memory, and Place in Mongolia. Oxford University Press, 2011, in Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. 3(1):107-115.

Translations
2011	Chinese-to-English translation of a Nuosu folkloric tale gathered by Xiao Jianhua (肖建华) and Qiu Zhongquan (邱忠泉), titled ‘Yi Shuang Cai Hong (一双彩虹)’ [A Double Rainbow]. Published under my Chinese name of 苏梦林 in Yi Wen (彝文). Yunnan Sheng Shehui Kexueyuan Ninglang Minzu Wenhua Yanjiusuo. 2:30-33.

Languages
Mandarin Chinese; Mongolian; Nuosu; Russian; some knowledge of other European languages.