Fact In Furst's Definition Of Shamanism example essay topic

To truly understand the meaning of shamanism one must uncover the original definition. The word shaman comes from the language of the Even, a small Tungus-speaking group of hunters and reindeer herders from Siberia. It was first used only to designate a religious specialist from this region. By the beginning of the 20th century it was already being applied to a variety of North America and South American practices from the present and the past. Today people have gone as far as defining the word shaman as any human that acknowledges that he / she has had contact with spiritual entities.

Well at least the term still refers to human beings. The Siberian shaman's soul is said to be able to leave the body and travel to other parts of the cosmos, particularly to an upper world in the sky and a lower world underground. How can anyone know what the people of Mesoamerica were seeing if they in fact were even in these states of trance. A broader definition is that shamans would include any kind of person who is in control of his or her state of trance, even if this does not involve a soul journey.

This broader definition stills does not include a culture that no one was around to document. Does anyone really know if these 'shamans' controlled their state of trance? Not to mention, there is no evidence of a written language of either the Olmec or West Mexican regions to date. These definitions of shamanism are very brief and really can not be upheld as a specific precise and accurate definition, however shamanism within these parameters has been widely accepted both in the early and late twentieth century, and into today. Shamanism due to its many definitions could be just about any being that can be observed practicing. Shamanism is not a single, unified religion but a cross-cultural form of religious sensibility and practice.

It is a complex set of practices, beliefs, values and behaviors that enable the practitioner to elect a shift from ordinary consciousness into a trance state with a specific goal in mind. Such as healing, obtaining information, power, vision, divination, contacting the spirit of the deceased, soul retrieval or guidance for right action. Shamanism is scattered and fragmented and should perhaps not be called an -ism at all. There is no doctrine, no world shamanic church, no holy book as a point of reference, no priests with the authority to tell us what is and what is not correct. Shamanism is not a religion but could justifiable be a part of a religion.

The fact is that well philosophers can speculate, even by the vaguest definition of shamanism they can not prove that these individuals were taking part in these trance-like states without written or physical proof. Due to the theory of shamanism being introduced into the Mesoamerican culture because of the writings of Eliade and Furst, it seems only fair to look carefully at the relevance to their interpretations. Eliade had originally acknowledged the oddity concerning the concept of shamanism and, in turn, took it into his own hands to create a version this concept himself. (Klein, pg. 388) I can not reasonable enter into the idea of this model that he has created. He clearly explains the existence of shamanism in Siberia and inner Asia, in which there has been, documented proof. The idea that because this is happening there does not prove that it was happening over 2000 years ago across the world.

He fails to connect the two areas, in time and place, feasible. It is extremely interesting that only Eliade's point of view is found in the Encyclopedia of Religion. (Eliade 201-208) Despite Furst's attempt to redefine shamanism in terms of specific American religious beliefs and practices, the new criteria he provided have proved to be as unreliable as Eliade's. It repeatedly insists that the concepts of the universe divided horizontally into an upper world, a terrestrial middle world, and an underworld in the sense that shamanism would include most American belief systems. In fact in Furst's definition of shamanism he explains that the 'shaman' does not have to even take a hallucinogenic to reach a state of trance.

Basically, Furst redefined shamanism in terms that scholars, even Eliade, would consider to be vaguely described. Even so, many take Furst's explanations as reality. For example, his descriptions of a variety of sculptures and paintings from Mesoamerica, he referred to them as being part of or relating-to shamanism. In 'Dog with Mask' 100-400 AD Furst contributes the mask to the transformation that shaman's go through, which is happens to be a theory backed no hard evidence.

(See Figure 1. Some of the most popular figurines from Colima are the numerous representations of dogs, depicted in all sorts of activities: fighting, grooming themselves, standing or merely sleeping. Invariably, these dogs are short-legged and appear to be excessively fat. This may be due to the fact that Mesoamerican were no strangers to using dogs as food and they even fattened them just for that purpose.) Or in another sculpture found at Colima, 'Seated Figurine Wearing Conch Shell's culp ted between 200 AD and 300 BC, Furst decided that the 'horn' on the figures head was the horn that shaman's of Siberia wore, therefore this was a shaman.

Furst has proposed that the origin of the single horn may lie in observations of the native male turkey, which has a hornlike wattle above its beak that becomes especially prominent during mating season. Other possibilities include the horned serpent or the rhinoceros beetle, which some indigenous beliefs connect to the underworld. Furst suggests that the smaller, knob-like appearance denote a novice, while the larger horn indicates a shaman in full possession of his powers. (See Figure 2) ({S, T, and O} Furst, 69-82) When, in fact, the Siberians wore horns, but not conch shells as is being presented. Furst has also been quoted saying that shamans were a kind of leader within the Mesoamerican civilization.

Where is there any proof of this being the case? Furst discusses many times throughout his article about the Aztec civilization and references them when referring to the Olmec and West Mexican cultures which were 100's of years earlier in time and of which their civilization had fallen well before the Aztec civilization arose. ({ Introduction }Furst 1-29) Clottes and Lewis-Williams discuss the existence of three levels of trance in which would be experienced by a shaman. The first being the vision of geometric forms, the second being the shaman making sense of the geometric forms and the last being reached through a vortex and they attain their true hallucinations. When discussing these stages Clottes and Lewis-Williams explain that this is what happens when westerns go into this tr ancient state.

Is this feasible to assume that a Canadian 'shaman' went into the same state of trance as an Olmec 'shaman' that lived 2000 years ago in a different region? Clottes and Lewis-Williams try to argue the connection between the shamans in various parts of the world and the argument may have some validity if the term shamanism was not defined so vaguely. (Clottes and Lewis-Williams 11-29) (Bahn 51-56) Throughout portions of Klein's writing he critics the works of Furst and Eliade. The problem with definitions and criteria is engaging. The phrase referred to in the reading was 'a strange abuse of language', which in all reality is accurate in describing the term shamanism.

This has seemed to prove true, research on the topic, instead of coming to a conclusion on the topic, leaves one baffled and confused. (Van Gennep 51-52) Even in the event that one were to look up the term shamanism in more than one dictionary they would receive multiple definitions to this one term, all of which seemingly unspecific. This ushers in the question, 'Why is Shamanism so Popular?' Well with a definition of this sort, each scholar can make his / her own interpretation of what a shaman might be. Is a priest a shaman?

Well, depending on which scholar's interpretation is used a priest could be one. Klein (87-401) Pasztory discredits the use of the term shamanism in saying that 'shamanism belonged to simple hunter-gatherer societies and the term should not be applied to stratified agricultural ones'. She has a good point, it is almost if scholars would rather throw these creative practices into one category rather than individual look at the unique cultural differences and accurately record the information. If there simply is not physical record of this belief certain scholars speculate on little or no basis. (Pasztory 17-18) Hamayon discusses the problems with lack of specialists in the 'Western Shamanism'. Further more should there be a specialist and can there be without a unified definition of what this is.

First of all what has been universally established is that without institutional features shamanism can not be considered a religion, although it has been thought to be a part of some religions. Some have completely discredited the theory of Shamanism as a way of coping out in research. To completely convince readers of a theory, there should be a firm base to their argument and there is not one when it comes to shamanism in Ancient Mesoamerican cultures such as the Olmec and West Mexican cultures. (Hamayon, 1-5) The word 'shamanism' has been thrown around a great deal these days, and attached to a variety of behaviors, sometimes with only a vague understanding of its meaning. Most people who study the existence of shamans have very little knowledge of what actual tribal shamans practiced in any given culture. A researcher or interested seeker, looking through all the widely varied literature, will notice both similarities and differences between anthropological descriptions of long-ago tribal shamans and similar iconography of Mesoamerica.

Similarities could mean that there were rituals of a similar magnitude but it does not prove that they are all a part of a giant web that stretches across the world. Confusion on the topic and its many interpretations cloud its origin and force a compromising stance on the very word 'shamanism'.