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- Convenors:
-
Hope MacLean
(University of Ottawa)
Cheryl Gaver (University of Ottawa)
- Discussant:
-
Marie-Françoise Guédon
(University of Ottawa)
- Stream:
- Moving bodies: Shamanism, Spiritualism and Reliogiosity/Corps mouvants: Shamanisme, spiritisme et religiosité
- Location:
- MRT 211
- Start time:
- 2 May, 2017 at
Time zone: America/New_York
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on the sensory experience in shamanism, altered states of consciousness, trance and synaesthesia. We ask what ethnographic accounts of movement between senses can teach us about human potential, healing, inter-species communication and the neuro-chemistry of the brain.
Long Abstract:
Colour is the language the gods use to speak." "My pain has colours." "Animal minds communicate with sounds and songs." What do these phrases mean? How do we interpret sensual statements that have no clear meaning or interpretation in English or in Western scientific discourse? The ancient ontologies of shamanistic cultures have explored movements between animal and plant worlds, as well as through landscapes, that point the way to new understandings of human potential, especially in ways of perceiving and the neuro-chemistry of the brain. We are looking for stories, art, fieldwork accounts and juxtapositions that reflect a different understanding of the way our senses move, cross and interact. Altered states of consciousness, trance states, and synaesthesia are all possible avenues for sensing the world in unexpected ways. Shamans may make a specialty of it. Experiential interpretations are welcome.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Véronique Béguet (Université de l'Ontario français)
Paper short abstract:
Dans cette présentation, l’expérience extraordinaire (voix, visions, sensations kinesthésiques etc.) est envisagée comme manière différente d’être au monde (inscrite dans le corps et au-delà des sens habituels) et comme accès à une configuration différente du monde. En bref, comme une ontologie.
Paper long abstract:
Dans cette présentation, je propose de considérer l'expérience extraordinaire (des voix, des visions, des sensations kinesthésiques, des relations aux entités invisibles…) comme manière différente d'être au monde et comme accès à une configuration différente du monde. En bref, comme une ontologie alternative à celle, matérialiste et naturaliste, qui domine les sociétés dites occidentales.
Cette manière d'être au monde passe par des expériences à la fois profondément inscrites dans le corps et au-delà des sens habituels. La perception qui en résulte relève d'une conscience modifiée qui, sans nécessairement passer par les techniques habituelles de l'état altéré de conscience bien connues des anthropologues, ouvrent des fenêtres sur un monde différent, à la fois matière et dimensions subtiles/intangibles/invisibles.
Cette présentation se base sur deux recherches conduites entre 2009 et 2013 avec des canadiens et canadiennes (principalement du Québec) ayant vécu de telles expériences. Il s'agissait alors de recueillir ces expériences, les sens que les personnes leur donnent et leurs manières de les intégrer. En effet, ces expériences ont conduit certains en psychiatrie tandis que pour d'autres, elles ont constitué le socle d'une spiritualité dite alternative ou sans dénomination religieuse. Cette présentation porte essentiellement sur le second groupe.
Hope MacLean (University of Ottawa)
Paper short abstract:
Huichol artist Eligio Carrillo described to the anthropologist Hope MacLean how he perceives colours as a language the gods use to talk . This opens a new way of understanding visionary experience, synaesthesia, and colour symbolism that runs through ethnographic accounts of shamanism.
Paper long abstract:
Colour perception and the visionary abilities of shamans may be related. Interviews with Eligio Carrillo, a shaman-artist of the Huichol, Natives of Northwest Mexico, reveal that he conceptualizes colour as a language which the gods use to communicate. He describes color as part of a synaesthetic experience, combining taste, vision and art. The Huichol use peyote as part of their ceremonies. It may be that this hallucinogen opens the brain to color and other sensory experiences which are described in painted art and other ethnographic accounts.
This research is based on Hope MacLean's ongoing research with Huichol shamans and artists since 1988. Recent neurochemical research on brain states and hallucinogens is suggesting new ways of understanding what were previously regarded as abstract statements about colour symbolism of non-Western peoples. How can we bring this recent research into dialogue with traditional knowledge recorded by anthropologists?
Antonia Mills (UNBC)
Paper short abstract:
The Vision of the Witsuwit'en Prophet/Shaman Bini and the Beaver Indian.Dane-zaa Prophet/Shaman Charlie Yahey were profound and both revealed what their people must do to keep their worlds from becoming extinct due to changes to come from settler/invader society.
Paper long abstract:
The Vision of shamans and prophets are profound, as the experience the Witsuwit'en Prophet Bini and the Dane-zaa Prophet Charlie Yahey reveal. Bini told his people what he was shown during the three days his body was dead after he revived about the coming white men. His experience had a profound impression on his reincarnation who has died recently. Charlie Yahey left his body to see what the future would bring in the presence of his community and us, and after hours away revealed what he had been shown about what has to be done to keep this world from dying. These prophets shared their experience in the spirit world profoundly when back on the physical plane.
Shelley Rabinovitch (University of Ottawa)
Paper short abstract:
Contact with Spirits/Entities/Soul will be discussed as reported via smell, touch, and sound.
Paper long abstract:
Most discussions about contact with Divinities, Ghosts, and other spirits (e.g. spirit-guides, Helpers, and Grandfathers/Grandmothers) talk about *SEEING* - perception via the sense of sight. This paper is based on both emic and etic research during ceremonial and every-day experiences, where contact is expressed via sound: "I heard the Grandfather say this", "As soon as I hear this particular song, I am right back at the Sundance Tree" and/or smell: "I knew I had made direct contact with the plant because the room was suddenly flooded with the smell of its flowers", "Cedar smudge can bring you right back into the Sacred as soon as you smell it, and you never forget that smell".
Swati Akshay Sachdeva (Sikkim University)
Paper short abstract:
. Bhujel community of Darjeeling hills traditionally were animist and practiced Shamanism. However, the community witnessed disappearance of the shamanic rituals. Recently, the tradition of shamanistic practices is witnessing a revival among Bhujels.
Paper long abstract:
Shamanism has been regarded as one of the world's oldest religions. It is a religious belief system in which the shaman acts as a faith healer and is believed to communicate with the spirit or control them for the benefit of the community. Bhujel community who traditionally were animist, where the Shamans had predominant role in all socio- cultural and religious practices. This ethnic hill community is settled across southern slope of the Himalayas both in Nepal and India. A significant number of the Community has been residing in Darjeeling Hills and Sikkim. However, due to the absorption in predominant Hindu culture, conversion to other religion, introduction of modern medical facilities and rational based education, the community witnessed disappearance of the shamanic rituals and traditional medicine man (Shamans). Nevertheless, in recent times, with the trend and process of re-tribalisation, the tradition of shamanistic practices is witnessing a revival among many communities including the Bhujels. The aim of the paper therefore is to explore and do an in-depth study on the Shamanistic rituals and practices and highlight their significance in rites de passage, beliefs and religiosity . The paper will also highlight the effort of the community to retain and preserve the traditional values and culture in preserving their socio- cultural distinctiveness.