Reconfiguration of Korean Shamanic Ritual: Negotiating Practices among Shamans, Clients, and Multiple Ideologies
Dong-kyu Kim
Journal of Korean Religions October 1, 2012 DOI: 10.1353/jkr.2012.0023 (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 shamanic rituals should be understood as negotiating practices between shamans, clients, and competing ideologies rather than as expressions of an unchanging essence. Proposes that the ritual "matrix" allows shamans to reinforce their shamanship through looping effects between academic discourse and self-identity, and that mukkuri serves as an initiatory stage for further negotiation while modern kut performances undergo reconfiguration. |
Abstract
In this paper, I suggest that shamanic rituals should be understood as negotiating practices between shamans, clients, and competing ideologies rather than as expressing or conveying an unchanging essence or meaning. Here, the ritual space is assumed to be a "matrix" in which these practices occur and hence shamans can verify and reinforce their shamanship, which is constructed by the looping effects between academic discourses and shamans' self-identity creation. Within the matrix, shamans make their rituals seem more plausible and efficacious while encountering their client's various needs. Based upon practice theory and such concepts as looping effects and the matrix, I will here examine two kinds of shamanic ritual. First, I examine mukkuri (무꾸리, divination), which I define as an initiatory stage for further negotiation processes, such as kut or other rituals, while trying to show how a shaman utilizes a specific divinatory style to strengthen the plausibility of his or her divination. Second, I introduce some outstanding aspects of the reconfiguration of modern kut performance, and explicate the cause of those reconfigurations. This approach to shamanic rituals will provide an alternative interpretive framework to overcome "Restoristic Folklore Scholarship."
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 |