Shamanism in Trouble
Chongho Kim
January 18, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9781315198156-2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that Korean shamanism belongs to a separate 'field of misfortune' rather than to health care, that it is not a form of traditional medicine, and that its defining feature is the speech of the spirits, which explains both its use in misfortune and the negative attitudes shamans attract. |
Abstract
This chapter argues that the field in which Korean shamans work is ‘the field of misfortune’, which exists separately from the field of health care where medical practitioners work. It also argues that shamanism is not a sort of traditional medicine, and the utilization of shamanic healing is not a phenomenon of medical pluralism. The chapter deals with the definition of shamanism in Korean society. It describes the defining characteristic of shamanism in Korean society. The chapter shows that the speech of the spirits is the critical feature which explains both why Koreans need shamans when they find themselves in the ‘field of misfortune’, and why they have such negative attitudes towards them. Many anthropologists have regarded ‘shamanism’ and similar practices, implicitly or explicitly, as a sort of traditional medicine under the name of ‘medical systems’ or ‘ethnomedicine’.
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 |