SAS Carol R. Ember Book Prize
Toni Copeland
The Society for Anthropological Sciences Carol R. Ember Book Prize 2025 was awarded to Manvir Singh for Shamanism: The Timeless Religion.
Manvir Singh combines ethnography with cross-cultural analysis and insights from the cognitive sciences to explain why shamanic practices reliably emerge across human societies. He shows that shamanism endures as a powerful, recurrent cultural form because it taps into universal psychological mechanisms while adapting to diverse historical and social contexts.
The award committee noted that this work surveys shamanism using ethnographic research, cognitive methods, and cross-cultural datasets. It is written for any audience, yet without exoticizing cultural differences or downplaying anthropological theory.
Join us in congratulating Dr. Singh for this outstanding work of anthropological science.
(https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456535/shamanism-by-singh-manvir/9780241638415)
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Toni Copeland, Ph.D.
Society for Anthropological Sciences, President
Blount Scholars Program / Department of Anthropology