Exploring Shamanic paths of traditional native healing : an ethnographic approach to health and healing
Valerie Cronin-Schaffnit
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study (ethnography) |
|---|---|
| Population | Native healers from different cultural groups across Canada, and Native and non-Native patients/clients participating in traditional Native healing ways; non-random sample not intended to be representative |
| Interventions | drumming rattling nature music pipe ceremony sweatlodge ceremony and feast for the dead |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key findings | Argues that traditional Native healing is a holistic, experiential process integrating physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects, using shamanic techniques such as controlled breathing, drumming, rattling, nature music, and shamanic journeys in altered states of consciousness. Contends that this process produces transformational healing for patients both physiologically and psychologically, and that patients and healers increasingly view Western medicine and Native healing as becoming more integrated. |
Abstract
This thesis explores a traditional Native model of healing. This holistic approach to healing is based on Native philosophy which integrates the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual aspects of being for the person to be healthy, balanced and in harmony. The healing process incorporates an experiential approach based on shamanic techniques of healing including breath work or controlled breathing, drumming, rattling, nature music and shamanic journey's during altered levels of consciousness where individuals can meet spirits, guides, animals and shamans to help them in their healing. Also illustrated is how patients and healers view Western medicine and Native healing as becoming a more integrated process. The fieldwork used a combination of participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and a transpersonal approach using experiential methods. The sample population included Native healers from different cultural groups across Canada, as well as patients/clients, both Native and non-Native, participating in traditional Native healing ways. The sampling method was non-random and does not intend to be representative of all healers or patients of traditional Native healing. Ethnographic information on healing ceremonies, the healing circle, pipe ceremony, sweatlodge ceremony and feast for the dead were gained through transpersonal participant observation. This method of data gathering is inherently qualitatively oriented, as opposed to quantitative. The therapeutic process involved in traditional Native healing, which produces a transformational healing experience for the patient, both physiologically and psychologically, is outlined. A n understanding of the healing process is provided through the biogenetic structural approach to consciousness, as well, the theoretical framework of analytic psychology as outlined in the personal and collective unconscious by Jung, and Gellhorn and Kiely's theory of the ergotropic-trophotropic process. In addition to the academic focus represented by the theoretical framework, an attempt has been made to present the healing process from the perspective of the Native worldview.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |