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.He grew to be a powerful and much feared noaide, whose temper wreakedhavoc on his family.One altercation led to the supernatural murder of his son, whileanother resulted in his wife becoming blind.Later in life, Káren-Ovllá becameincreasingly less able to control his helping spirits.Confronted by an associate about hisaggressive acts, Káren-Ovllá said: I no longer have great control over my noaide spirits:they do what they will.I do not have to do anything but think and it happens (423).When he unintentionally laughed at one of his helping spirits after it fell in the cookingfire, however, the spirit retaliated by killing Káren-Ovllá s best driving reindeer.Another 282time, the shaman s daughter found him turned upside down in a grove, again the victimof his spirits ire.In the end, Káren-Ovllá chose to bequeath his spirits to distantshamans in Russia rather than allow them to fall into the service of his irascible localkinsmen who were their next logical recipients.In Saba s community, such talesrecounted the memorable adventures of past noaide figures, while also helping explainthe fact that their skills were no longer common today.Reflecting the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of past generations, carefullyhanded down through processes of initiation and apprenticeship, and at the same timereflecting integrally the unique insights of the living practitioner, shamanic verbal art isboth weighty and yet fragile.Often equated with the very essence of shamanic poweritself, verbal art has the capacity to defy space and time in a manner as mysterious andinspiring as spiritual flight itself. 283Chapter 12: Shamanism under AttackDescribing the activities of U.S.Navy Commander Henry Glass among AlaskanTlingit people in the 1890s, Sergei Kan (1991:370) quotes the testimony of a Russianpriest who knew Glass well:[H]unting shamans was his favorite pastime and sport.A captured shaman wasusually invited aboard his boat and received with honor.Glass would talk to himin a friendly manner, inquiring about his life, the number of his yéik [spirits], theextent of their strength and power, etc.Then he would announce that he was alsoa shaman who owned yéik and suggested that they compete against each other.Upon his order, a charged electric battery was brought out.The shaman wasasked to hold the wires in his hands, while the two poles were being connected.The shaman s body would begin to twist.His own people, witnessing his strangeand funny poses and hearing his screams and moans, became frightened.Theshaman himself learned a practical lesson about the power of his white colleague.But the captain did not stop at that.Shamans always left his boat with their headsshaved and covered with oil paint, and having promised not to practiceshamanism anymore.(370)For myriad populations in various eras and cultural contexts, shamanic traditionshave proven cogent, convincing, and quite resilient models for how the world works andhow its forces can be controlled.In confronting the most vexing issues of human 284existence sickness, misfortune, interpersonal conflict, death, loss shamanicworldviews offer not only plausible explanations for the occurrence of unwanted events,but also pragmatic means of attempting to reverse or mitigate their effects.The shamanprovides the community with essential spiritual services, both through specific ritualprocedures performed as needed, and at a deeper level through upholding a coherentunderstanding of the cosmos which clarifies the significance and predictability of life sevents.Shamans and shamanic traditions help make sense of the world for theircommunities, for persons in the throes of disease or misfortune, and for shamansthemselves.Yet in the cultural encounters that have taken place since Western scholars firstbegan to describe shamanic traditions, these religious specialists, rituals, and ways ofunderstanding the world have often faced virulent, even ruthless, aggression.Shamanshave been tortured or discredited, religious practices banned, worldviews condemned.Itis no exaggeration to state that for the past several centuries, shamanism has faced aformidable and sustained attack.From a twenty-first century, culturally relativistic perspective, it may seemdifficult to fathom the virulence with which shamanic traditions were stigmatized andsuppressed in the past.Clearly, for a figure like Commander Glass in the account citedabove, the Tlingit ixt shaman represented an enemy who needed to be defeated, for theshaman s own good, for the good of his community, and for the greater good ofAmerican society.Glass regarded his actions not as a sadistic hobby, but as part of hisduty as a representative of the United States and as a Christian.It might also seemsurprising that shamanic traditions continue to face analogous pressures today: if outright 285torture and humiliation are less common in the religious confrontations of the current era,subtle strategies for marginalizing and discrediting shamanic worldviews or theirpractitioners often continue, even in societies that profess a deep commitment to religiouspluralism.This chapter explores some of the motivations behind attempts to displaceshamanic traditions over time and the regimens of suppression or persecution that havedeveloped in various contexts.We examine the shaman as a perceived enemy ofprogress within a given religion, or as an enemy of new religious notions being importedthrough missionization.We also look at the ways in which scholars and governmentofficials have perceived shamans as enemies of reason or as sources of unwelcomeresistance to colonial power or processes of acculturation.We discuss attacks onshamanism as a product of both intercultural and interfaith confrontations and as apreface to our exploration of shamanic revitalization movements in the chapter thatfollows.In a very concrete sense, this chapter, along with the two which follow, addressthose aspects of religion that Timothy Fitzgerald (2000) labels politics [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]
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.He grew to be a powerful and much feared noaide, whose temper wreakedhavoc on his family.One altercation led to the supernatural murder of his son, whileanother resulted in his wife becoming blind.Later in life, Káren-Ovllá becameincreasingly less able to control his helping spirits.Confronted by an associate about hisaggressive acts, Káren-Ovllá said: I no longer have great control over my noaide spirits:they do what they will.I do not have to do anything but think and it happens (423).When he unintentionally laughed at one of his helping spirits after it fell in the cookingfire, however, the spirit retaliated by killing Káren-Ovllá s best driving reindeer.Another 282time, the shaman s daughter found him turned upside down in a grove, again the victimof his spirits ire.In the end, Káren-Ovllá chose to bequeath his spirits to distantshamans in Russia rather than allow them to fall into the service of his irascible localkinsmen who were their next logical recipients.In Saba s community, such talesrecounted the memorable adventures of past noaide figures, while also helping explainthe fact that their skills were no longer common today.Reflecting the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of past generations, carefullyhanded down through processes of initiation and apprenticeship, and at the same timereflecting integrally the unique insights of the living practitioner, shamanic verbal art isboth weighty and yet fragile.Often equated with the very essence of shamanic poweritself, verbal art has the capacity to defy space and time in a manner as mysterious andinspiring as spiritual flight itself. 283Chapter 12: Shamanism under AttackDescribing the activities of U.S.Navy Commander Henry Glass among AlaskanTlingit people in the 1890s, Sergei Kan (1991:370) quotes the testimony of a Russianpriest who knew Glass well:[H]unting shamans was his favorite pastime and sport.A captured shaman wasusually invited aboard his boat and received with honor.Glass would talk to himin a friendly manner, inquiring about his life, the number of his yéik [spirits], theextent of their strength and power, etc.Then he would announce that he was alsoa shaman who owned yéik and suggested that they compete against each other.Upon his order, a charged electric battery was brought out.The shaman wasasked to hold the wires in his hands, while the two poles were being connected.The shaman s body would begin to twist.His own people, witnessing his strangeand funny poses and hearing his screams and moans, became frightened.Theshaman himself learned a practical lesson about the power of his white colleague.But the captain did not stop at that.Shamans always left his boat with their headsshaved and covered with oil paint, and having promised not to practiceshamanism anymore.(370)For myriad populations in various eras and cultural contexts, shamanic traditionshave proven cogent, convincing, and quite resilient models for how the world works andhow its forces can be controlled.In confronting the most vexing issues of human 284existence sickness, misfortune, interpersonal conflict, death, loss shamanicworldviews offer not only plausible explanations for the occurrence of unwanted events,but also pragmatic means of attempting to reverse or mitigate their effects.The shamanprovides the community with essential spiritual services, both through specific ritualprocedures performed as needed, and at a deeper level through upholding a coherentunderstanding of the cosmos which clarifies the significance and predictability of life sevents.Shamans and shamanic traditions help make sense of the world for theircommunities, for persons in the throes of disease or misfortune, and for shamansthemselves.Yet in the cultural encounters that have taken place since Western scholars firstbegan to describe shamanic traditions, these religious specialists, rituals, and ways ofunderstanding the world have often faced virulent, even ruthless, aggression.Shamanshave been tortured or discredited, religious practices banned, worldviews condemned.Itis no exaggeration to state that for the past several centuries, shamanism has faced aformidable and sustained attack.From a twenty-first century, culturally relativistic perspective, it may seemdifficult to fathom the virulence with which shamanic traditions were stigmatized andsuppressed in the past.Clearly, for a figure like Commander Glass in the account citedabove, the Tlingit ixt shaman represented an enemy who needed to be defeated, for theshaman s own good, for the good of his community, and for the greater good ofAmerican society.Glass regarded his actions not as a sadistic hobby, but as part of hisduty as a representative of the United States and as a Christian.It might also seemsurprising that shamanic traditions continue to face analogous pressures today: if outright 285torture and humiliation are less common in the religious confrontations of the current era,subtle strategies for marginalizing and discrediting shamanic worldviews or theirpractitioners often continue, even in societies that profess a deep commitment to religiouspluralism.This chapter explores some of the motivations behind attempts to displaceshamanic traditions over time and the regimens of suppression or persecution that havedeveloped in various contexts.We examine the shaman as a perceived enemy ofprogress within a given religion, or as an enemy of new religious notions being importedthrough missionization.We also look at the ways in which scholars and governmentofficials have perceived shamans as enemies of reason or as sources of unwelcomeresistance to colonial power or processes of acculturation.We discuss attacks onshamanism as a product of both intercultural and interfaith confrontations and as apreface to our exploration of shamanic revitalization movements in the chapter thatfollows.In a very concrete sense, this chapter, along with the two which follow, addressthose aspects of religion that Timothy Fitzgerald (2000) labels politics [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]