CAPSTRANS HONORARY FELLOW

Professor Geoffrey Samuel

Conjoint Professor for the School of Humanities and Social Science, currently seconded to a Professorial Fellowship, based in the Jan. 2005-Dec. 2009, School of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University, Wales, U.K.

Qualifications

University College, Oxford 1964-1967. Open scholarship. BA, Natural Science (physics), Oxford 1967 (first class honours). Converted to MA, 1972.

Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1967-1975. Part III, Mathematical Tripos (theoretical physics), Cambridge 1968.

Certificate in Social Anthropology, Cambridge 1969 (with distinction).

PhD, Social Anthropology, Cambridge 1975. (Dissertation, ‘The Crystal Rosary. Insight and Method in an Anthropological Study of Tibetan Religion.’)

1983-1984 Postgraduate Diploma of Computer Science, University of Newcastle, NSW, 1985 (with merit).

Research Programs

Australia in the Asia Pacific

Culture and Representation

Research Specialisation

My research extends over a number of interrelated areas within religious studies, social anthropology, comparative sociology, and cognate disciplines. Theoretically, my interests centre around the understanding of cultural processes and their effects on human behaviour, with especial reference to shamanism, healing, ritual and religion and their contemporary analogues. My main ethnographic focus has been on religion in Tibetan societies. My work on Tibetan religion has also extended into the social history of Indic religions more generally. Other research topics include Tibetan medicine and health practices, the anthropology of music, and research on Buddhism and other new religious movements (paganism, shamanism) in the UK and Australia. I have carried out extensive field research over many years in India, Nepal, Tibet, and other Asian and Western societies. At present, I am completing a book on the history of Indic religions until 1200 CE, based on the Wilde lectures in Natural and Comparative Religion that I gave at the University of Oxford in 2002. My future research plans centre about the understanding of healing processes in a variety of contexts: folk healing practices in Asian societies, ‘traditional’ Asian medical and yogic practices aimed at healing, and Western adaptations and developments of such practices within the field of complementary and alternative medicine.

Languages

• French,
• German,
• Tibetan (mostly reading); some Italian,
• Russian (mainly reading)

Current Research Projects

Musical Form and Ritual Meaning in the Phur-pa Ritual Cycle of the Tibetan Bon-Po Religion (with Ricardo Canzio)

Longevity Practices and Concepts in Tibet: A Study of Long-Life Practices in the Dudjom Tradition

Subtle Bodies in Indic Religions and Related Traditions

Muslims and Christians: Women, Religious Nationalism and Sustainability in the Asia Pacific Region (with Santi Rozario and Hilary Carey)

The Challenge of Islam: Young Bangladeshis, Marriage and Family in Bangladesh and the UK (with Santi Rozario)

Recent Publications

1. Forthcoming March 2008 The Origins of the Indic Religions: Yoga and Tantra Before the 12th Century. To be published by Cambridge University Press, 2007.
2. Forthcoming 2008 ‘The Politics of Tibetan Medicine and the Constitution of an Object of Study: Some Comments.’ In The World of Tibetan Medicine: Contemporary Trends in the Politics of Medical Practice, ed. by Laurent Pordié. London: Routledge. (Needham Research Institute Series.)
3. (2007) ‘Endpiece’ Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 3 (1), pp.177-188 (Special Yoga Issue, guest editor Mark Singleton)
4. (2007) ‘Spirit Causation and Illness in Tibetan Medicine.’ In Soundings in Tibetan Medicine. Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Mona Schrempf pp.213-224, Brill, Leiden. (Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (PIATS), Oxford Sept. 6-12 2003)
5. (2007) ‘Shamanic Powers, Village Religion and Esoteric Exchanges: How Far is Tantra a Specifically Indian Phenomenon?’ In Indian Religions: Renaissance and Renewal, edited by Anna King, Equinox, London.
6. (2006) ‘Healing and the Mind-body Complex: Childbirth and Medical Pluralism in South Asia’, Multiple Medical Realities: Patients and Healers in Biomedical, Alternative and Traditional Medicine, edited by Helle Johannessen and Imre Lázár,  Berghahn Books, New York, pp.121-135. 
7. (2006) ‘The Siddha as a Cultural Category’, Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, edited by Rob Linrothe, Serindia Publications, Chicago, pp. 36-47.
8. (2006) Mind, Body and Culture: Anthropology and the Biological Interface. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York. xii + 192pp.
9. (2006) ‘Tibetan Medicine and Biomedicine: Epistemological Conflicts, Practical Solutions’, Asian Medicine: tradition and modernity, Volume 2, Number 1, pp. 72-85.
10. (2005) Tantric revisionings: new understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian religion, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 384. 
11. (2004) ‘Introduction’. In Tantric Revisionings, see above, pp.1-26
12. (2004) ‘The Dissenting Tradition of Indian Tantra.’ In Tantric Revisionings, see above, pp.52-71.
13. (2004) ‘Tibetan Buddhism as a World Religion: Global Networking and its Consequences.’ In Tantric Revisionings, see above, pp.288-316
14. (2004) ‘The Westernisation of Tibetan Buddhism.’ In Tantric Revisionings, see above, pp.317-344.
15. (2004) ‘The Attractions of Tantra: Two Historical Moments.’ In Tantric Revisionings, see above, pp.345-366.
16. (2003) with Santi Rozario, ‘Tibetan and Indian Ideas of Birth Pollution: Similarities and Contrasts’, The Daughters of Hariti: Childbirth and Female Healers in South and Southeast Asia, Routledge, London, pp. 182-208.
17. (2002) with Santi Rozario, The Daughters of Hariti: Childbirth and Female Healers in South and Southeast Asia, Routledge, London, 302. 
18. (2002) with Linda Connor, Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies, Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT USA, 283.
19. (2002) ‘Buddhism and the State in Eighth Century Tibet’, Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet: Tibetan Studies II, Brill, Leiden, Boston, Koln, pp. 1-20.
20. (2002) ‘Introduction: The Daughters of Hariti today’, Daughters of Hariti: Childbirth and female healers in South and Southeast Asia, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, pp. 1-34.
21. (2002) ‘The Epic and Nationalism in Tibet’, Religion and Biography in China and Tibet, Curzon Press, Richmond, Surrey, UK, pp. 178-188. 
22. (2002) ‘From Tantric Cakra to Wiccan Circle? Indic borrowings in the Pagan revival’, The Development of Paganism: History, Influences and Contexts, 1880-2002, Open University , WaltonHall, Milton Keynes.
23. (2002) ‘Healing and the mind-body complex: Childbirth and medical pluralism in south Asia’, Engaging the world: Theoretical, Methodical and Political Challenges for a 21st Century Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.
24. (2002) ‘Healing the mind-body complex: Childbirth and Medical pluralism in South Asia’, Engaging the World: Theoretical and Political Challenges for a 21st Century Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.
25. (2002) ‘The hidden side of Ganesh: Levels of Explanation in Indian religion’, Sydney South Asia Seminar, Sydney, New South Wales.
26. (2002) ‘Ritual Technologies and the State: The Mandala-Form Buddhist Temples of Bangladesh.” J. Bengal Art Volume 7, pp.39-56.
27. (2002) 'The Other Side of Rationality: Desire in the Social System.' Review Essay. Public Organization Review Volume 2, Number 4, (Dec. 2002), pp.415-427.
28. (2001) ‘The Effectiveness of Goddesses, or How Ritual Works’, Anthropological Forum, Volume 11, Number 1, pp.73-91.
29. (2001) ‘The Religious Meaning of Space and Time: South and Southeast Asia and Modern Paganism’, International Review of Sociology, Volume 11, Number 3, pp. 395-418.
30. (2001) ‘Tibetan Medicine in Contemporary India: Theory and Practice’, Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies, Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT, USA, pp. 247-268.
31. (2000) 'The Indus Valley Civilization and Early Tibet.' In Samten G. Karmay and Yasuhiko   Nagano (eds), New Horizons in Bon Studies, pp.651-670.
32. (2000) ‘Book Review: Janet Gyasto, Apparitions of the Self’, American Academy of Religion, Volume 68, Number 3, pp. 642-644.
33. (2000) ‘The Indus Valley civilization and early Tibet’, Bon Studies, Volume 2, pp. 651-670.

Current Research Students

Dawn Collins, PhD, “Ritual in Tibetan Healing”, Cardiff University

Fiona Buckee, PhD, “Reconstructing an Indian Temple Tower: Temple 45, Sanchi” (jointly supervised with Adam Hardy) Cardiff University.

Valerie Brown, PhD, “Tourism and the Tibetan Community at Dharamsala” (external supervisor) Australian National University.

Past Research Students

Elisabeth Stutchbury, PhD (Anthropology), “Rediscovering Western Tibet: Gonpa, Chorten and the Continuity of Practice With a Buddhist Community in the Indian Himalaya” RSPacS, ANU, Canberra, 1991.

Ven. Naimbala Dhammadassi, PhD (Religious Studies), “The History of Religious Education in Sri Lanka” Lancaster, 1996.

Emma Tomalin, PhD (Religious Studies), “Transformation and Tradition: A Comparative Study of Religious Environmentalism in Britain and India” Lancaster, 1999.

Amanda Harris, PhD (Sociology and Anthropology), “Healing Knowledge, Healing Power: The Agency of Well-Being among Iban Communities, Sarawak” Newcastle, 1999.

Kylie Munro. PhD (Sociology and Anthropology), “Tibetan Mothers in India: Medical Pluralism and Cultural Identity” Newcastle, 2000.

Joanne Pearson, PhD (Religious Studies), “Religion and the Return of Magic: Wicca as Esoteric Spirituality” Lancaster, 2000.

Richard Shaw, PhD (Religious Studies), “Iconography of Siddhas on South Indian Temples” Lancaster, 2000.

Chongho Kim, PhD (Sociology and Anthropology), “The Cultural Paradox of Korean Shamanism” Newcastle, 2001.

Catherine Laudine, PhD (Sociology and Anthropology), “Expression, Consumption, and the Environment” Newcastle, 2002. 

Thessa Ploos Van Amstel, PhD, “Western Women as Tibetan Buddhist Nuns” University of Utrecht, 2002.

Nick Swann, PhD, “Marriage and Monastic Initiation as Tibetan Rites of Passage” (external supervisor) Roehampton IHE, University of London.

Julie Fletcher, PhD, “Autobiography among Tibetan Refugees” (external supervisor) Deakin University.

Barbara Gerke, PhD, “Long Life and Rejuvenation in Tibetan Medical Texts and Contemporary Tibetan Societies” (jointly supervised with Charles Ramble) University of Oxford., 2007

Organisational Affiliations

1. Member, International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS)
2. Member, International Association for Buddhist Studies (IABS)
3. Member, International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM)
4. Member, Royal Anthropological Institute, UK
5. Member, Association of Social Anthropologists, UK
6. Member, UK Association of Buddhist Studies
7. Member, American Anthropological Association
8. Member, Association of Asian Studies, US
9. Member, American Academy of Religion