Anthropology of Alternative Medicine by Ross Anamaria Iosif;

Author:Ross, Anamaria Iosif;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Shamanic Consciousness and Symbolic Healing

As far back as the nineteenth century, anthropologists (including Frazer, Tylor, Boas, Malinowski, and Mauss) have provided evidence that humans everywhere have complex religious traditions and practices, and elaborate myths about the origins of the cosmos, animals and plants, human diversity, valuable skills, and powerful knowledge. Native people on all continents are documented to have out-of-the-ordinary experiences of invisible (but often sensible) yet powerful forces, powers, qualities, or beings, as well as traditional practices for communicating and interacting with such forces, commonly described by Western observers as “supernatural forces” or “spirits,” except for the fact that they are very much part of everyday life and embedded in the natural world, as experienced in small-scale societies. In some cultures, such as the Ju/’hoansi or !Kung bushmen of the Kalahari, lengthy healing rituals take place, when men experience a state of altered consciousness as they dance, accompanied by the singing and clapping of the women. Anthropologists have richly documented the vibrant healing rituals of these native foragers of sub-Saharan Africa (Marshall Thomas 1989 [1958]; Katz 1982; Lee 2003). “Boiling energy” is generated by men who dance for many hours, then shared with others by laying hands on members of the band who need strength or healing. Some men experience a deep and potentially dangerous transformation of consciousness referred to as “half death.”

In small-scale societies of Mongolian herders, Inuit hunters, or Guatemalan villagers, a man or a woman performs the authoritative role of ritual specialist, regularly journeying into other realms of experience to communicate with ancestors, animal spirits, and forces of nature, bringing them powerful knowledge and healing (Tedlock 2005). Practices used to achieve experiential transformation that allows communication with non-ordinary dimensions of reality have been described by Eliade (2004 [1951]) as “techniques of ecstasy.” Bourguignon’s (1968) cross-cultural analysis of these states, traditionally called “trance” states, showed them to be nearly universal yet highly variable across cultures, being subject to local contexts, myths, environments, and interpretations. Historically, these experiences are also documented across large-scale religions and fringe religious movements, described as ecstatic, gnostic, or visionary experiences (involving internal and external sensations), and commonly interpreted as experiences of union with the divine, revelation, or enlightenment.

According to Michael Winkelman (1994:23), consciousness is an interpretive system that has adaptive value from the point of view of natural selection, and “a property associated with biological systems which manifest purposeful and intentional behaviors,” but it should not be conflated with ego or self-reflection, which would contradict findings from contemplative traditions, such as Buddhist and Asian philosophical and religious systems. A systemic function of natural organisms, consciousness includes awareness and interpretation of both internal and external stimuli, including one’s own thoughts and sensory information, enabling living beings to interact with their environment and maintain homeostasis through self-regulation, to respond, plan, and pursue goals; it involves symbolic capacities, such as represented in language and learning, as well as communal and cultural aspects, like conscience, empathy, and meaning-making (Winkelman 1994:24). There are numerous distinct states of consciousness, including meditation, drowsiness, sleep, dreaming, daydreaming, mania, stupor, or coma.

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