LET’S TALK ABOUT IT:
12 “Conversation” lessons
for an intermediate level class
by Michael Berman

Each month a new topic will be
available for download in Word

	1 - Feelings
	2 - Travelling around the UK
	3 - Travelling around the world
	4 - Jobs
	5 - Where we live
	6 - How many friends do you have?
	7 - Rich Man, Poor Man
	8 - The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
	9 - Animals
	10 - How fit are you?
	11 - What do you do in your free time?
	12 - Food & drink

www.Thestoryteller.org.uk
A bi-monthly magazine with traditional and contemporary stories from all
over the world, plus notes for teachers on how they can be used in the
classroom.

Michael Berman has a new book out Shamanic Journeys Through Daghestan [978-1-84694-225-9] £14.99 October 2009

: “All intellectuals driven by nationalist sentiments directly or indirectly are always preoccupied with searching for the most ancient roots of their budding nations in order to ground their compatriots in particular soil and to make them more indigenous” (Znamenski, 2007, p.28). In Daghestan, as in the neighbouring countries of Georgia, Chechnya, and Azerbaijan, these roots lie in shamanism and the stories in this collection clearly show this to be the case.

Known as the “land of the mountains,” Dagestan lies immediately north of the Caucasus Mountains, and stretches for approximately 250 miles along the west shore of the Caspian Sea. With its mountainous terrain making travel and communication difficult, Daghestan is still largely tribal and, unlike in most other parts of Russia, the population (2,576,531 in 2002) is rapidly growing. Despite over a century of Tsarist control followed by seventy years of repressive Soviet rule, there are still 32 distinct ethnic groups, each with its own language, and with so many indigenous ethnic groups, Daghestan is unquestionably the most complex of the
Caucasian republics. The histories and stories of the elders provide the
people with evidence of who their ancient ancestors were. This book, one of only a handful available in English on the country, contains both the texts of some of the tales and commentaries on them, focusing in particular on their shamanic elements.


ENDORSEMENTS AND REVIEWS:

By gathering and reproducing en bloc the various stories contained in this book, Michael Berman does a valuable service in that he reminds us of the rich and variegated religious-cultural heritage of the Daghestani peoples. For rendering otherwise dispersed source materials readily accessible in a single volume, this book is to be congratulated. ... I greatly enjoyed each of the stories contained in this book, just as I very much appreciated Michael Berman’s interpretation of them. I trust you will too.
Dr Andrew Dawson, Lancaster University, UK

An engrossing and enlightening journey into a fascinating country and
genre. The stories are skillfully narrated and critiqued in a manner that retains their original vigour while making them accessible to a reader unacquainted with the tradition. This is storytelling at its most insightful and potent.
Wayne Rimmer PhD, teacher trainer & Director of Studies at
International House in Moscow.

Michael Berman draws upon his extensive experience as a storyteller to
bring to life the fascinating shamanic traditions of the little-known Daghestani people.
Bob Trubshaw, author, photographer and Commissioning Editor of Heart of Albion Press.

Michael Berman understands better than most the power of the stories that make our world. In this, his latest study of shamanic narratives, he takes his skill in elucidating the unity in diversity to the mountains of Daghestan - and comes back to everyday reality with some real treasures to share.
Julienne Ford PhD, formerly a lecturer at Middlesex University and the founder of the publishing company Superscript.

In the shallowness of an unsettling time that equates myths with lies, and from a region, between the Black and Caspian Seas, where such a mixture of peoples hangs on to ancient traditions and the proud idiosyncracies of its own languages, Berman’s wide-reading and passion for the shamanic roots of stories (still being told) make for a disturbing vision of what the human race (in the grip of glib authoritarian pressures) no longer wants to face in itself. These stories have been hammered out of a harsh landscape, and break the bounds of all comfortable behaviour. They find their truth where reality stops; but they also expose, in the layers of their building, influences of folk-lore elsewhere. Berman is most interested in their shamanic echoes, but they are also a pared-down revelation of Daghestan itself, the rich residue of its history and culture, and a compliment to its hard-bitten, gnarled, but generous and perceptive grasp of the paradoxes of human nature.
R.G. Gregory, author and founder of Word in Action, a travelling theatre
company that has performed all over the world.

To see this at O Books:
http://www.o-books.com/product_info.php?products_id=615