Category: Shamanism
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At the Symphony
It’s the first full day of spring, and snow has fallen, often heavily, for much of the day. The ground is warm, thanks to several days of temperatures in the fifties and sixties, and sun, so little snow has stuck. Last night we went to the symphony. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO), a “gem” of…
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Shamanism and the IMF
I’ve been reading Laura Kendall’s new ethnography of South Korean shamanism, Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF. Traditionally, Korean shamans have been mostly women, rural, and low in social and economic standing. In the second half of the Twentieth Century, they were often regarded as backward, and as representing a rapidly retreating, agrarian past. By the…
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Amazonian Shamanism, Part Two
Several years ago I spent a couple of weeks with friends and teachers on the Rio Negro, in northwestern Brazil. One day we were visited by a local healer and her daughter. The healer spoke to us about her practice, then went into a trance lasting two or three hours. During that time, she channeled…
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Amazonian Santeria
First Nations peoples in the Amazon basin practice an enormous number of spiritual pathways. Many tribal peoples have developed their practices over thousands of years. At the same time, they have been influenced by African practices imported by slaves, folk practices brought from Spain and Portugal, Catholicism, and beliefs and traditions borrowed from neighbors. All…
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