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Shamanism and Christianity: Models of Religious Encounters in East Asia

Yang Li

Religions January 24, 2025 DOI: 10.3390/rel16020128 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Historical analysis Peer reviewed
Topics Shamanism
Key points Argues that shamanism's encounters with Christianity in East Asia follow two models, "segregation" and "diffusion," existing on a dynamic continuum. The author contends that shamanism initially met Christianity in a segregation mode, often producing significant conflict, and later, as its religious attributes weakened, adapted to a diffusion model in which its ethos integrated into other religions, including Christianity.

Abstract

When exploring interactions between Christianity and other religions in East Asia, the place given to the shamanic tradition remains ambiguous and marginal. This article analyzes the religious encounters between shamanism and Christianity in East Asia through specific and representative case studies. This article is divided into three main parts. Section 1 introduces the core terms “shamanism” and “diffusionism”, explaining their general meanings and the specific ways they are used in this study, and provides a regional overview of the cases analyzed in this paper. Sections 2–4 present the historical context and analysis of religious encounters in regions such as Siberia, Mongolia, China (including Taiwan, Southwest China, and Northeast China), Korea, etc. Sections 5 and 6 seek to demonstrate that shamanism operates according to two models: the first characterized by “segregation” and the second by “diffusion”, noting that these models exist on a dynamic continuum. In most historical situations, this study argues that shamanism initially encountered Christianity in a segregation mode, often leading to significant conflicts between the two. Over time, as shamanism’s religious attributes weakened, it paradoxically adapted to a diffusion model, integrating its ethos into other religions, including Christianity. The diffusion model has thus become an appropriate way to understand the current existent form of shamanism in East Asia.

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

Citations in the library

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