Schaefer, Stacy B.

   Cultural anthropologist specializing in Mesoamerica, focusing on Huichol (Wixáritari) shamanism, art, and weaving (and the interface of these). Schaefer’s doctoral research examined backstrap loom weaving and the role of women in Huichol culture, for which she undertook a five-year apprenticeship to become a master weaver. As well as studying Huichol dyes and dying, she is building an archive of Huichol designs, many of which are derived from the shamanistic trances induced by the mara’akate’s ingestion of peyote. Schaefer’s volume exploring these issues is entitled To Think with a Good Heart: Wixarika Women, Weavers, and Shamans (2002), and she is also coeditor with Peter Furst of People of the Peyote: Huichol Indian History, Religion and Survival (1996). Schaefer is director of the Museum of Anthropology and assistant professor of anthropology at California State University, Chico.