Ficto‐Primitive Capital: What Wellness Seekers Gain From Practicing Shamanism and Other Healing Traditions

The wellness industry commercializes non-Western and Indigenous healing traditions, including shamanistic practices, for North American and European consumers. This ethnographic study, based on participant observation and 41 interviews with self-identified shamanic and spiritual healers in the United States, introduces the concept of ficto-primitive capital to describe the status individuals pursue by cultivating practices, objects, and relationships associated with communities they imagine as pre-modern and pre-industrial. These 'American shamans' seek to heal maladies by collecting traditions from cultures such as the Q'ero people and the Sámi, aiming to escape problems of Western modernity like loss of community and isolation. Ironically, despite professed respect for these communities, they become agents of cultural imperialism, exploiting global inequalities.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Behind its worldly and socially conscious aesthetic, the wellness industry serves the health and fitness interests of North American and European consumers by commercializing non-Western and Indigenous healing traditions, including shamanistic practices. Explored in this paper, "American shamans" seek to heal a range of maladies by collecting traditions found outside of their own cultural heritage, from ceremonies of the Q'ero people in the Andes to those of the Sámi in Scandinavia. As part of an ethnographic study, this paper draws from participant observation and a sample of 41 interviews with self-identified shamanic and spiritual healers across the United States. I introduce ficto-primitive capital to describe the status pursued by individuals who cultivate practices, objects, and relationships associated with communities they imagine as being pre-modern and pre-industrial. American shamans accrue ficto-primitive capital in effort to escape problems they associate with Western modernity: loss of community, feelings of isolation, and lack of cultural substance. Ironically, despite having purported respect for the communities that inspire their healing methods, American shamans become agents of cultural imperialism and exploit global inequalities. Ficto-primitive capital offers an account of why shamanic and other wellness practices are growing in popularity among Westerners.