SHAMAN

Volume 30 Numbers 1 & 2 Spring/Autumn 2022

Articles

EUGENIA ROUSSOU and ANASTASIOS PANAGIOTOPOULOS:

Transreligious Shamanism(s): An Introduction

SILVIA RIVADOSSI:

Transreligious Shamanic Practices in Contemporary Metropolitan Japan

This paper discusses a specific set of new shamanic practices recognizable in the Japanese metropolitan context. Three case studies help illustrate the main characteristics of this “new” discourse and lead to a discussion on terminology. To effectively understand and analyze shamanic practices in contemporary Japan, I suggest the use of a new model for the study of shamanism. This could contribute to overcoming prejudicial and polarized views concerning the existence of a “traditional” and thus “authentic” kind of shamanism, on the one hand, and of a “new” and hence “inauthentic” one, on the other.

DENISE LOMBARDI:

Approaching Therapeutic Spirituality in Western Neo-shamanism

This article is based on data collected in the field in Italy and France through the method of participant observation. The contemporary neo-shamanic seminars analyzed have allowed the author to put forward some hypotheses regarding the functioning of the therapeutic mechanism that makes these seminars considered curative for the participants. At the same time, the different figures of shaman present in the Western context are highlighted and attention has been paid to the complexity of the dynamics established between the neo-shaman, the participants in the seminars and the entities that are summoned during the practices.

ATHANASIOS BARMPALEXIS:

Shamanism(s), Cultural Dynamics, and the Contemporary “Western” Context:

An Examination of Shamanism as an Emerging Vernacular Healing Tradition in North-East Scotland

This article, based on field-based research conducted between 2014–2020, examines the lives and work of three healers practicing and teaching shamanism in North-East Scotland. The article aims to situate contemporary “western” healers within wider academic debates about shamanism as part of a dynamic cultural processes and to compare and contrast them with “traditional” shamanic practitioners. The article also examines whether these healers constitute a wider regional Scottish shamanic tradition, similar to that of “non-western” traditional shamanistic cultures, or whether these are still emerging and autonomous phenomena.

EVGENIA FOTIOU:

How Transreligious Ayahuasca Use Challenges Conventional Definitions of Religion

In this article, I discuss some of the implications of the transnational expansion of ayahuasca shamanism, which was traditionally found in Amazonia. This expansion has resulted in new transreligious ritual forms that although derived from Indigenous Amazonian traditions have developed their own characteristics. These ritual forms combine spiritual motivations with healing, making them harder to categorize in the way that religion is usually defined in Western cultures. I present what I see as the two major paradigms within which ayahuasca, and other psychedelics are used currently, namely the therapeutic and religious paradigms, and reflect on what they mean for the future of psychedelics and religion, particularly in the U.S. context. The religious and therapeutic paradigms seem to be enmeshed within the transnational spread of ayahuasca and its use in contexts such as shamanic tourism and informal ritual circles that have emerged in recent years. Although several stakeholders and scientists are working towards establishing the safety and therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as ayahuasca, the religious paradigm shows just as much promise as a road to legitimacy. However, given the compartmentalization between religious and therapeutic uses, it is likely that if a religious discourse as a path to legitimacy becomes more pronounced in the future, it cannot be within traditional religious frameworks. I discuss the limitations of the Christian-centric religious paradigm that dominates how religion is defined in Western cultures and argue that the transnational expansion of ayahuasca circles shows the emergence of a new paradigm combining transreligious elements and has the potential of reshaping the way religion or spirituality is conceptualized.

ANGELA PUCA:

Can There be Shamanism in the Western World?

Shamanism has been defined in different ways by scholars over the years. Among practitioners in Western countries, the most common references are Mircea Eliade and his view of shamanism as a set of ecstatic techniques and Michael Harner’s idea of the shaman as a person who journeys to non-ordinary realities to gain power and knowledge. The label “shaman” has always worked by superimposition over local identifiers and, being a Western etic category of the nineteenth century, retains some degree of exoticism in its semantics. Yet, when the veil of exoticism is removed, it is possible to acknowledge that its core traits are found in a Western context as well. I will argue for a redefinition of shamanism that is context-sensitive and employs discourse analysis to better understand a malleable living phenomenon. As long as some form of “othering” plays a role in such definitions, an accurate understanding of shamanism will be hindered and retain cultural biases.

PABLO WRIGHT:

(Neo-)shamanic Chronicles of the Argentine Qom/Toba:

Between Love, Power, and Healing

In this paper, I chronicle two ethnographic cases of healing therapies among the Argentine Chaco region Qom/Toba of Formosa province, and the culturally situated hermeneutics they carry out about them. One case stars Feliciano Castorino, a Qom shaman, illustrating traditional shamanism which incorporates elements of the surrounding criollo (creole) culture. The other, Cresencio Justo’s, shows the dilemmas a member of the Qom contemporary native churches, generally known as Evangelio (Gospel) has in his ambiguous dealings with the realm of powerful nonhuman beings, and actual healing situations. My conceptual perspective is shaped by hermeneutical and existential anthropology, complemented by a political economy of cultural symbols. I argue that Evangelio could be defined as a contemporary ethnically bound phenomenon of neo-shamanism.

TIM HODGKINSON:

Shamans, Bodies, Words: A Non-cognitivist Approach

This paper proposes a non-cognitivist approach that interprets shamanism as a response to the tension between biological and cultural factors in human ontology. Shamanic affliction in childhood is considered as a problem of the self and of subjectivation. I address the question of how this relates to the normality of a shamanic culture (in Tuva), looking at how language is used to negotiate between sensory experience and narrative self. I argue that shamanic practice is a technique of subjectivation and body-image, and suggest that image outweighs concept whenever symbolic structure becomes active.

LIA ZOLA:

Souvenirizing Shamanism: Crafts, Artifacts and Mimesis in Eastern Siberia

Souvenirs usually refer to objects tourists buy when traveling on vacation: purchasing them is an integral part of the experience of travelers all over the world. However, in Sakha Yakutia (Russian Federation), an area with 958,528 inhabitants, mostly of Sakha origin, and with around 756,000 tourists visiting the Republic in the past five years (including the last two, particularly affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic), the souvenir market cannot rely totally on tourism. These items are in fact purchased above all by Sakha people, who keep them for themselves or give them as gifts to friends or to shamans. So, what would a shaman do with a shaman-doll souvenir in his house? The connection between souvenirs, authenticity, consumption and reciprocity has been adequately explored in Western ethnographic literature, yet the issue of souvenirs purchased not merely by tourists has not been properly dealt with. My paper aims to assess the ways in which the display of shamanic motifs and imagery in “shamanic souvenirs” operates in Sakha Yakutia, bringing to light issues such as native self-awareness and mimetic processes through the resurgence of shamanism.

 

Book Reviews

LAUREL KENDALL. Mediums and Magical Things: Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places (Davide Torri)

WALTER MONTANARI. Sciamanesimo e isteria artica: Archeologia della mente primitiva (1897–1939) (Carla Corradi Musi)

DAVIDE TORRI and SOPHIE ROCHE (eds) The Shamaness in Asia: Gender, Religion and the State (Ágnes Birtalan)