Shamanism

My first reaction to the reading of Body Ritual among the Nacirema by Horace Miner: it was an eye-opening reading experience. I was unaware that this level of primitive magic was still practiced in North America. This group of people do things that have been unheard of in North America and Europe for centuries. Some of the things the Medicine men do make very little sense from a medical stand point. If the treatment is harsher than the disease that has been contracted, is it worth the treatment?…

Shamanism is a front running hypothesis and is associated with magico-religious expression through the form of cave art. However, it’s a highly contentious subject with some people fiercely opposing this theory and branding its advocates as ‘shamaniacs’. Perhaps the contention lies with “the loose use of labels and names such as shamanism that has led to some of the confusion” (Taçon, 2006). Often shamanism has been used to rationalize almost everything in a way that suggests it was “shamans and…

Last year, my family had a shaman ceremony to protect our family. A shaman ceremony is when a shaman goes into the spiritual world to talk to the bad spirits to stop making us sick. We called a shaman to come in to do a ceremony for us. We killed two pigs for the ceremony and it was mainly to protect my family from the spiritual world. Before the ceremony, we would call our relatives, families, and friends to come and help. The main idea of the ceremony was to offer money to all the bad spirits…

Isaiah Pitka Yupik Mask Do you know how the Yupik Mask was created? There were shamans in the past. Do you know shamans? Shamans are humans with powers living in 2 worlds. Shamans lived in the real world like the world we are living now. Shamans lived in the spiritual world also, its weird how they were part of the little human world, or they were able to talk to things that are growing. Shamans use to talk to trees, water, plants, anything that were in the spiritual world. Shamans had many…

Spirit possession Kazembe found that in order to commune with the spirits of their ancestors, as well as with non-human spirits, the Shona rely on spirit mediums who the spirits can possess. This process of spirit possession and communication can be complicated. "Different spirits may compete to possess one medium, and each such spirit may have its own pantheon of mashave spirits," wrote Kazembe. "Mashave are not spirits of dead people. No one knows their origin. They are believed to have…

The work Jim Withers does is he takes medicine with him were he goes and walks around Pittsburgh giving homeless people medicine which will save their lives and make them healthy again. He has seen many different types of people with many different types of stories on were there from. Jim never gets tired of doing what he does. Jim withers started doing this because. Jim withers brings students along with him when he is giving medicine to the homeless which he says helps the students learn how…

Totem poles Totem poles are important carvings, a type of Northwest Coastal art, consisting of poles, or posts, carved with symbols or figures. I am being required to make a fake totem pole. It will be made of a can wrapped with paper that has animals drawn on it. Totem poles serve many purposes, mine will be telling a story. This is my research on what four spirit animals, I think fit me best. Turtles take things slowly. They are very calm. They have emotional strength and…

In his essay “The Sorcerer and His Magic”, Claude Lévi-Strauss discusses his concept of what he calls the “shamanistic complex” (Lévi-Strauss 179) which based on research by Cannon that suggests people who believe in magic can be physically affected if they are cursed, bewitched or otherwise subject to magic (Lévi-Strauss 167-168). Lévi-Strauss then offers a qualification to Cannon’s assertion by saying that there are three elements which must be present in order for a magical ritual to have the…

For Hmong who maintain their traditional beliefs in America, the scientific worldview and Western medicine, have challenged their entire means of understanding the world. Likewise, Hmong beliefs have done the same to Western medical practice. In the story of Lia Lee, her treatment via her doctors seemed to be none the same as her parents’ perception of illness, yet there lies two crucial ideas in common. Foremost, they both wanted to heal Lia. Secondly, each party was forced to understand an…

Witch, a word that most people associate with images of hags riding on brooms, cackling into the night, long noses and pointy hats— some people even associate witches with devil worship. Some think Witches are only fairy tales, characters in scary stories you tell to children to make them behave. When I hear the word “witch” I think of my Abuelita, I think of the special Teas she taught my Meemaw and mother to make, I think of all the stories my Meemaw told me about her— how people used to…