Shamanism from Ecuador to Chicago: A Case Study in New Age Ritual Appropriation

✍ Scribed by Paul C. Johnson

• Book ID: 102619525
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 121 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0048-721X
• DOI: 10.1006/reli.1995.0015

✦ Synopsis

This article has three objectives: (1) to give ethnographic accounts of shamanism as practised by the Shuar of Ecuador and of one group of contemporary urban Americans who take the Shuar, as well as other indigenous groups, as their models: (2) to present a critical comparison of those practices; and (3) most importantly, to suggest methodological criteria by which such dislocated 'neo-shamanisms' might be usefully distinguished from indigenous shamanisms which are organically related to the surrounding culture and environment.

The whole of mankind becomes an imaginary museum: where shall we go this weekend-visit the Angkor ruins or take a stroll in Tivoli of Copenhagen? Paul Ricoeur, History and Truth.