The pilgrimage of french spiritual tourists to the wellsprings of mexican neo-shamanism (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ciencias Sociales y Religión/Ciências Sociais e Religião,, 2021
In this article, we will analyse a journey dedicated to the discovery of the 'sources of indigenous knowledge' undertaken in March 2009 by French people in a country unknown to them: Mexico. More specifically, we will look at their forms of participation in this journey organised by a shaman of Otomi origin called by the vernacular term of Bädi, i.e. "the shaman" in the Otomi language, by his followers. The aim of this trip is to enable them to discover the origins of shamanism, which the organiser links to the history of the indigenous people. In addition to visiting pre-Hispanic archaeological sites, the tour also includes a visit to Otomi country, which is presented as one of the centres of Mexican shamanism.
From medicine men to day trippers: Shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru
2010
This dissertation, examines the cultural construction of ayahuasca (an Amazonian hallucinogen) and shamanism, their manifestations in the western imagination and experience, and their localized experience in the city of Iquitos, Peru, in the context of the phenomenon of shamanic tourism. Shamanic tourism has flourished in the last few years and is promoted internationally by several agents both local and western. I embarked on this research in order to answer two questions: first, what are the motives of westerners who participate in ayahuasca ceremonies, and second, how do they conceptualize and integrate their experiences in their existing worldview. Iquitos, Peru was chosen as a research site because as a gateway to the eco-and shamanic tourism serves as a location where different cultural constructions of ayahuasca co-exist, namely the urban mestizo and western, it can offer a better perspective on the appropriation of ayahuasca by westerners.
This article has three objectives: (1) to give ethnographic accounts of shamanism as practised by the Shuar of Ecuador and of one group of contemporary urban Americans who take the Shuar, as well as other indigenous groups, as their models: (2) to present a critical comparison of those practices; and (3) most importantly, to suggest methodological criteria by which such dislocated 'neo-shamanisms' might be usefully distinguished from indigenous shamanisms which are organically related to the surrounding culture and environment.
Shamanistic Journeys and Anthropological Travels
1996
This article offers two instances of the anthropologist's engagement in local curing sequences as examples of the agreement of identities between anthropologist and shaman. This similitude of culturally disparate roles is rooted, we believe, in the power generally derived from the foreign and apart. It also comes from the nature of shamanism as the world's only universal" specialty," a congery of cures, techniques, and packaged knowledge.
Native Central and South American shamanism
Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, Vol. 1. Walter, M.N. and E.J.N. Fridman (Eds.). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 365-370., 2004
Vast and rich, harboring tremendous biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity, and heirs to a glorious and tragic history, Central and South America have given rise to some of the most ancient, enduring, and spectacular examples of shamanistic practice documented. The Asiatic peoples who migrated to the Americas during the Pleistocene appear to have brought with them a ritual complex that integrated religious and medical functions, centered around trance states, and may have involved hallucinogenic plant use. As in the case of the Siberian cultures to whom we owe the etymology of the term “shaman,” native societies throughout Central and South America distinguish ritual specialists who enter trance to commune with the spirits for purposes of healing, divination, and other matters of individual and collective well-being. Because of the presumed Asian origins of Amerindians, and partly because the Siberian term happened to gain wide usage, certain west Asian traditions and similar Arctic and North American examples have been treated as original or more “pure” versions of shamanism than their Central and South American counterparts. Yet recent archeological and genetic evidence suggests a much more ancient date for the arrival of humans in the Americas than had previously been assumed. Keeping this fact in mind, native Central and South American shamanism should be seen not as derivative of or secondary to “classic” Asian shamanism, but rather parallel, largely independent, and equally ancient bodies of practice that have evolved and diversified in response to heterogeneous ecological, sociocultural, and historical conditions.
Commodified spirituality: tourism and indigenous heritage practices in Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico.
Tourism, Culture and Communication, 2021
With the rapid emergence of ever more diverse forms of cultural tourism, sacred indigenous practices around the world are increasingly becoming part of the repertoire of experiences available in the global travel market. Particularly, the growing tourist use of sacred plants with psychoactive properties in shamanic contexts is a sensitive issue that is still under-researched. By implementing an ethnographic case study approach in the Mazatec town of Huautla de Jimenez (HDJ), Mexico, this study analyses the effects of the touristic commodification of sacred-plant ceremonies in the social capital of indigenous communities. Findings reveal that tensions and disputes based on differing aspirations between traditionalists and modernists residents of HDJ have emerged as a result of the commodification of sacred-mushroom rituals or veladas. The lack of trust relations among local stakeholders diminishes the collective capacity to implement community-based initiatives of cultural heritage conservation and sustainable tourism development, which is indicative of a fractured social capital. Although the effects of neo-shamanic tourism in HDJ match those of more traditional forms of tourism in rural and indigenous settings, the case study of HDJ exemplifies how the touristic commodification of culture has reached the most sacred and intimate cultural practices in the most remote corners of the world. Findings are placed on a global context to enhance a holistic understanding of how touristic commodification of intangible cultural heritage affects structural relations of social capital in destination communities.
Heart and Soul: A Natural History of Shamanism in Pre-Columbian South and Mesoamerica
2013
The history of shamanism in pre-contact South and Mesoamerica follows a diverse, ranging pathway, much like the Amazon and Orinoco snake their way through the physical landscape of those regions. Indeed, even determining the boundaries of who is a shaman and what activities connote shamanism is a difficult scholarly task. It has been noted that the term shaman "has come to mean many things to many people." Many scholars "are using shamanism to provide predictable, easy, and ultimately inadequate answers to what are often very complex questions about the relationship of ... religion, medicine, and politics in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica." Shamans bring to light the spirits of the past; they use their skills to open the doorway between worlds, obtaining assistance from more powerful forces. Calling forth the sacred, by use of festivals or at ritual locations, shamans "render primordial beings present again but in less absolute guise.