RELIGST 2WW3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ryukyuan Religion, Biomedicine, Veganism
15 Feb 2017
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David kinsley: individual shamanistic healers, shamans across cultures. The study of shamans (and shamanisms) has tried to create a satisfactory standardized de nition. This is seen as very dif cult to do because it is culturally dependent (based on outlook on the world by a particular culture) ex. Shamanism in south africa is very different than. Shamanisms are highly diverse, culturally and historically relative phenomena. Risk of generalizing what is a constellation of behaviours and beliefs. There is no xed or static de nition. This can miss the nuance, complexity, etc. of different shamanisms. That said, there are striking similarities among cross-cultural, traditional healing practices. The spiritual experience usually becomes a religion after politics has entered into it. So the renewed interest in shamanism today can be viewed as democratization, returning to the original spiritual democracy of our ancestors in ancient tribal societies where almost everyone had some access to spiritual experience and direct revelation. michael harner.
