Montrer pour cacher : la transmission d’un savoir rituel shuar (Amazonie équatorienne) dans le contexte néo-chamanique

Contemporary Shuar shamanism is both plastic and adaptable, serving a heterogeneous clientele that increasingly includes Western patients. In neo-shamanic rituals inspired by New Age religion, the shaman faces a paradox: traditionally, effectiveness depends on silence, as the shamanic experience is too complex and multi-sensory to describe and must remain secret. Yet European patients require explanatory discourse to believe in the shaman's efficacy. The shaman bridges this gap through simple speeches that often echo patients' own propositions, transposing into a discursive register the acts of mystification traditionally performed with objects. This constitutes a dissimulation that hides its own secret.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Contemporary Shuar shamanism is characterised by, on the one hand, its plasticity and its adaptability to new contests and, on the other hand, by heterogeneity of its clientele, which now includes an increasing number of Western patients. In the absence of a shared system of representations and with the necessity for an explanatory discourse, in these ‘neo-shamanic’ rituals inspired by New Age religion, the shaman occupies a paradoxical position. From his point of view, the effectiveness of an intervention rests on the traditional obligation of silence. The experience of shamanism is too complex, intense and multi-sensory to be easily describable and should thus remain secret. But for the shamans’ European patients his efficacy depends, on the contrary, on an aptitude for explicating their experiences. We will describe the interactions among the different participants in order to show how the shaman, by means of simple speeches which frequently take up the propositions of those he addresses, transposes, in a discursive register, the acts of mystification which have been reported, in the context of traditional shamanic practice, in the manipulation of objects. It is thus a dissimulation that hides its own secret.