Machine Totems: Hughes' Shamanic Poetics in the Age of AI
Amit Dhawan
RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary July 12, 2025 DOI: 10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n7.023 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that Ted Hughes's shamanic animal totems and ritualistic verse anticipate contemporary tensions between organic consciousness and machine intelligence, and that Hughes's fractured mythologies parallel the 'hallucinations' of AI text generators as both navigate liminal states. Proposes Hughes's work as a hermeneutic for understanding AI's mythopoeic impulses, bridging the ecological uncanny with posthumanist theory and cognitive science. |
Abstract
This paper examines Ted Hughes’ shamanic poetics through the lens of artificial intelligence, arguing that his animal totems (Crow, Pike, The Jaguar) anticipate contemporary tensions between organic consciousness and machine intelligence. By analyzing Hughes’ ritualistic verse structures alongside AI text generators’ ‘hallucinations,’ the study reveals how both systems employ fractured mythologies to navigate liminal states of being. The paper bridges Hughes’ ecological uncanny with posthumanist theory (Haraway, Hayles) and cognitive science (Hoffman’s interface theory), proposing his work as a vital hermeneutic for understanding AI’s mythopoeic impulses.
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 |