Shamanism by Rob Dufour

I plan to write my paper on essentially clarifying the misconception of the shaman in our own culture. I think that way too often people focus on the aspect of the shaman that makes them look like a witchdoctor or a magician, and are ignorant to what truly the shaman is in most cultures. Many Anthropologists define the shaman as someone who has a duty to bridge the gap between the natural world and the spiritual world for the betterment of their society. Shamans usually bridge this gap through traveling back and forth in these worlds through an ecstatic state or trance. When the shaman is in the spiritual world he can communicate with the spirits to ask for assistance in healing, hunting, or weather control. The term shaman is very culture specific and obviously there are many differences between cultures, but most shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world can be passed through by invisible forces or spirits that can affect the lives of the living. As I am breaking down shamanism to its essential core it begins to seem that shamanism isn’t so far fetched from our own Judeo-Christian culture. Maybe it’s just me but I view prayer as a way to bridge the gap of this world to the spiritual world so that I may be in communion with God. Usually when I am in communication with God I will ask for assistance in my life or possibly for the healing of a sick person. Is this so different from what the shaman is charged to do in their culture. Sure we don’t have all those crazy ritualistic bells and whistles such as bones through our ears, and staffs covered in beads, etc, but that stuff is just relative to their culture. I think that we have a very distorted view point of what the shaman is and their purpose, because they don’t seem to be too far away from some of the things I do daily – and I sure wouldn’t expect someone to consider myself some sort of witchdoctor just because I try to communicate to a spiritual world. I suppose it all comes down to perspective.