Indigenous Shamanic Worldviews as Eco-cosmologies and Indigenous Knowledge Systems of Sustainability
Lidia Guzy
Religion and Development March 13, 2024 DOI: 10.30965/27507955-20230025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical and philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shamanic practitioners and communities in rural Odisha, India |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Indigenous Sustainability Traditional knowledge Environmental ethics Ecology |
| Citations | 5 |
| Key points | Argues that shamanic worldviews in Odisha, expressed through trance rituals such as those of nag bacca and alekh gurumai, transmit indigenous knowledge via songs, performances, and trance dances, with visions and dreams as central to shamanic epistemologies and ontologies. |
Abstract
Abstract This article discusses shamanic worldviews theoretically and empirically based on the author’s long-term comparative studies in rural regions of Odisha, India. It deals with local eco-cosmological worldviews expressed in trance traditions, interpreted by the author as expressions of contemporary shamanic worldviews and an indication of ways of transmission of indigenous knowledge. In this sense the comparative examples of shamanic traditions of nag bacca (snake children) and alekh gurumai (ritual specialists) in Odisha are examples of transformative healing through trance rituals based both on concepts of holy craziness and sacred play ( baaya/kheelo ) and on spirit possession rituals ( boil ), widely spread in cultures of orality. In shamanic worldviews, therianthropic transformations of animal human and ecological encounters are transmitted in a rich culture of orality expressed in songs, performances, and trance dances. In this indigenous knowledge transmission, visions and dreams are the most important expressions of shamanic imaginaries, realities, epistemologies, and ontologies, revealing imagined, dreamt, and lived experiences of local shamanic societies. In this way, the visual mental imagery experiences construe the inner and outer knowledge of shamanic life worlds and worldviews.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |