Shamanism CH - Grade: A PDF

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Essay on Shamanism. Short Essay ...

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ANTH305 Professor Afzal June 24, 2019 Final: Role of Context in Shamanism Shaman, a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experience, are common among people of Northern Asia, South America, Oceania, China, Tibet, and Korea. They also play a vital role in Native Americans, Inuit, and Celtic culture. Because shamans have powers to heal people of an illness by entering an altered state of consciousness, they are often stereotyped to be “witch doctors, New Age gurus, and Carlos Castaneda” (Split Horn: Life of Hmong Shaman). The film, Horn: Life of Hmong Shaman, is narrated by Chai, the daughter of a Hmong shaman by the name of Paja. Chai focuses on Paja’s role in the Hmong community in Wisconsin and the rituals of the Hmong religion. The film illustrates how Paja’s children are slowly moving away from their ancestral religion and becoming Americanized, much to the sadness of their family patriarch. The Split Horn portrays both the religion and traditions of an ancient culture, and what happens to the people of a culture, for instance Paja and his children, when they move into a new environment. As mentioned in the textbook, shamanic practitioners were directly impacted by political change, kinship, economic and religious circumstances, “Shamanism has changed over these centuries… the aims of inspirational specialists and therefore the content of their practices have responded to the different configurations of power in changing historical circumstances” (The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft, p.521)....