Approximately five years after the Choi Soon-sil Gate in 2016, shamanic practices again attracted intense public attention in relation to politics. During the campaign for the 20th presidential election of the Republic of Korea (March 9, 2022), allegations concerning shamanic connections were raised against then-candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, which led to a steady proliferation of shamanic...
This article is not explaining how scientifically shamans are able to smooth the way for candidates in winning electoral politics, but rather this article aims to explain how the formation of discourse is built to support the rationality of political shamans so that there are still many who trust and use their services. Using the object of study at the moment of the election of the village head...
This study analyzes the folk tale Magical Ruler for Healing and Saving Lives from a shamanic perspective to identify the factors behind its enduring transmission and its structural characteristics. The core elements of the tale are deeply intertwined with the shamanic worldview. The ruler or stick is not merely a measurement tool but serves as a spiritual bridge—an axis mundi—that connects...
The robes unearthed from Tomb No. 1 at Mashan, Jingzhou, serve as typical representative artifacts of the ancient Chu state. Existing academic research has predominantly focused on the textile technology and stylistic evolution of these robes, yet the shamanic symbolism implied in their decorative patterns has long been insufficiently explored. To fill this research gap, this study adopts a...
This article explores the structural paradox of the byeong-gut (Korean shamanic healing ritual): why it adheres to the rigid and canonical format of the jaesu-gut (shamanic blessing ritual) instead of adopting a specialized clinical procedure. Critiquing the instrumental trap of previous scholarship that reduces shamanic healing to psychological comfort or social liberation, this study proposes...
Sorcery, black magic, and supernatural harm are central to many Amazonian shamanic traditions, yet their role in contemporary Western psychedelic culture has received little systematic empirical attention. Ethnographic work suggests that Western participants in ayahuasca tourism often downplay indigenous sorcery frameworks in favour of psychological or therapeutic interpretations of difficult...
This paper examines the relationship between women in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar who visit and become shamans and the violence they experience. It shows that in many cases, women’s engagement with shamanism arises in the context of physical violence from their husband or male kin. Yet this paper also resists functionalist explanations that render violence as the sole cause of shamanic...
This study presents a comprehensive analysis of Dolgan churchyards as a unique cultural space. It enables us to identify key features of material culture, to examine the mechanisms of religious syncretism and their connection with ethnic traditions, and to assess the significance of these sites for understanding the history of wooden architecture in the Arctic region. The research is based on a...
Here, the reader is taken through the history of shamanistic beliefs and practices to highlight its parallels with the contemporary helping professions. Seeking their power to heal, exorcise evil spirits, and commune with the dead, some consider shamans offer a mystical means of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. As can be said of people undergoing psychoanalytic treatment, altered states...
This interdisciplinary research monograph examines a broad range of Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs), including Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Reincarnation Memories (RMs), Deathbed Visions (DBVs), Terminal Lucidity (TL), Shared Death Experiences (SDEs), and Mystical Consciousness (MC). These phenomena have been reported across cultures and historical periods and continue to attract...
This chapter explores the cosmological continuities between traditional Naga shamanic practices and Christian faith healing in Nagaland, challenging dominant narratives of rupture and religious transformation in the wake of Christian conversion. While missionary accounts and contemporary church discourses often depict Christianity as a radical break from Indigenous spiritual systems, this...
Abstract Background and Aims Music has been associated with psychedelic experiences throughout human history, from ancient shamanic healing rituals to contemporary psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT), and is considered integral for positive therapeutic outcomes. Yet optimized protocols and best practice standards for the use of music in PAT are lacking. Methods This interdisciplinary literature...
World AffairsJune 1, 2026Riccardo Pelizzo, Nygmetzhan Kuzenbayev
ABSTRACT: This paper examines how traditional beliefs and practices influence trust in government in Kazakhstan. The country—and the Central Asian region more broadly—has a long and well‐documented history of traditional beliefs, traditional knowledge, and shamanic practices, which makes it an ideal setting to assess whether these cultural legacies continue to shape contemporary political...
This study examines the complex interplay between ecology and spirituality in Africana Indigenous Religions (AIRs), emphasising the influence of sacred worldview on environmental ethics and practices. The main aim is to investigate how AIRs perceive nature as a living, sacred entity, and how this worldview influences ecological stewardship, biodiversity preservation, and sustainable practices....
This article analyzes the system of characters in Uzbek shamanic legends from the perspective of folklore studies. The main characters found in shamanic legends – such as shamans, spirits, ancestors, natural forces, and mythological beings – are examined in terms of their literary and semantic features. The study also explains the close connection between these characters and the ancient...
У статті розглянуто феномен неошаманізму в сучасній Україні як результат локальної адаптації глобальних духовних течій. Проаналізовано основні напрями неошаманських практик: сибірський, слов’янський, урбаністичний і трансконтинентальний, та їхнє поєднання з психологічними, мистецькими й терапевтичними підходами. На основі концепцій Коку фон Штукрада й Андрія Знаменського показано, що...
Although the Chinese state is officially secular, practices and beliefs often labeled as spiritual or religious have never disappeared from everyday life. In recent years, shamanism, frequently framed as distant, mysterious, and archaic, has attracted growing popular attention in China. Through an analysis of literary works, documentaries, social media discourse, and interview data, the paper...
Abstract: Like the body, the drum, with its immense somatic power, is colonized in Western culture, the complex cause of which is directly tied to colonialist and missionary efforts to save African slaves from the perils of their so-called demonic religious practices, which involved cultivating possession states through drum and dance rituals. Yet, there is a much better view of drummers, one...
Background and Aims: This study investigates the historical evolution of Ganqi Dance, a prototypical form of Shamanic Ritual Martial Dance, and its structural transformation within the Chinese ritual-music system. By decoding its triadic structure of movement–instrument–space, the research aims to elucidate how this dance form transitioned from a shamanic martial rite into a formalized...
This article aims to investigate the perdurable presence of shamanic archetypes across world literatures with a particular emphasis on English and Turkic narrative traditions. As a manifestation of the primordial spiritual practice, shamanism provides a solid framework for understanding the tenacious engagement of humanity with transcendental experiences, healing rituals, the search for...