A MOTHER'S LOVE: GENDER, ALTRUISM, AND SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
Zygon® December 2, 2006 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9744.2006.00786.x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Female curanderas (healers) and their patients in northern Peru |
| Citations | 7 |
| Key findings | Argues that coessence, not transcendence, is central to shamanic healing among female curanderas in northern Peru, who use metaphors of maternal care and shared suffering to shape patients' understandings and encourage acceptance, empathy, and altruism as paths to regaining mastery over suffering. |
Abstract
This article explores the concepts of altruism, spiritual connection, and shamanic healing as practiced by female curanderas in northern Peru. It suggests how coessence rather than transcendence is at the heart of the shamanic journey that both healers and patients embark upon in order to transform suffering. Using ethnographic and case‐study research, it describes how the metaphors of maternal care, shared suffering, and compassionate love are used by female healers in this region to shape their patients’understandings of illness and health as well as to construct their own understandings of the shaman's role in their healing process. The healers studied adopt attitudes of acceptance, empathy, spiritual connection, and altruism as integral to their work and encourage their patients to do the same in order to regain a sense of mastery over their own suffering. Parallels are presented between the model of spiritual connection and healing described here and that described by both scholars of feminist theology and feminist spirituality such as Rosemary Radford Ruether and popular lecturers/authors such as Marianne Williamson.