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Volume 6 Number 1 (Spring 1998)
Articles
ANTONETTA LUCIA BRUNO (Rome): Communicating Experience
in Kongsu, the Korean Shaman's Oracle
The Korean shamanic ritual kongsu ('oracle'), which
is performed twice in succession (once for an ancestor,
and once for the divinity Taegam) is part of a funerary
rite held by a group of female shamans (mudang) in the
Seoul area in 1994. The study provides a word by word
transcript of the kongsu ritual, along with a literal
English translation. By correlating what happens in
the ritual 'on the stage' with what is implied to takes
place 'off stage' (i.e. during the pauses), the analysis
seeks to identify the various 'participants' and the
roles they play. The study focuses on the difficulties
of specifying the identity of the speaker at any given
moment of the ritual (the speaker has the multiple identity
of shaman/ancestor/divinity), and the identity of the
'person' to whom the speech is directed. It also suggests
what transformations of emotion the participants experience
during the ritual (e.g. their sense of the supernatural).
The study of kongsu is important also for what it reveals
of the way that the shaman identifies the cause of a
"crisis", and brings it to resolution—the
very aspects that makes each ritual (even ritual of
the same type) unique.
JAMES ALEXANDER OVERTON (San Diego): Shamanic Realism:
Latin American Literature and the Shamanic Perspective
The purpose of this article is twofold: 1) to provide
the reader with a new standpoint from which to effect
an analysis of those Latin American literary works which,
frequently imbued with various degrees of so-called
'esoteric' features, are often classified under the
rubric of 'magic realism,' 'marvelous real,' or even
'fantastic realism'; and 2) to present a functional
model which can be applied to similar literary works
across historical and cultural boundaries. The application
of this theory is based on the identification and contextualization
of shamanic and/or shamanistic characters, elements,
and symbolism presented in these texts and habitually
conjoined to formulate a worldview whose cultural roots
can be directly or indirectly traced to shamanic origins.
In order to derive deeper significance and understanding
from this often cryptic and enigmatic worldview one
must adopt a "shamanic perspective," a viewpoint
which will facilitate a literary analysis and comprehension
within the context of a unified interpretive and cultural
framework. The standpoint of the shamanic perspective
is the shaman and shamanism itself, and its formulation
is the result of an interdisciplinary study drawing
from comparative mythology, history of religions, cultural
and psychological anthropology, as well as history.
This shamanic perspective will be employed in the analysis
of selected works of Gabriel García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier,
Isabel Allende, and Julio Cortázar.
Book Reviews
DANIEL A. KISTER. Korean Shamanist Ritual: Symbols
and Dramas of Transformation (by Keith Howard)
MONGUSH B. KENIN-LOPSAN. Shamanic Songs and Myths and
of Tuva (by Kira Van Deusen)
L. SHUKOWSKAJA. Kategorien und Symbolik in der traditionellen
Kultur der Mongolen (by Catherine U. Köhalmi)
News and Notes
JOHN A. DOOLEY (Manciet, France): Report on the IVth
Conference of the ISSR, Chantilly, 1st–5th September,
1997
KEITH HOWARD (London): Report on the General Assembly
of the International Society for Shamanistic Research,
Chantilly, 4 September 1997, 12.00 PM
Conferences on Shamanism
Volume 6 Number 2 (Autumn 1998)
Articles
IRIT AVERBUCH (Tel-Aviv): Who's Possessing Whom? The
Complex Shamanic Presentations in Japanese Kagura Dance
Performances
The paper presents the shamanic dance tradition of
Hayachine Kagura and discusses a special dance this
kagura performs: Gongen mai, or the dance of the mountain
god, manifested in a mask of a mysterious animal. This
dance is central to the kagura of northeastern Japan,
which is deeply influenced by the doctrines and practices
of Japan's mountain ascetics. Kagura, itself an ancient
shamanic ritual performance, is the natural context
for shamanic dance. However, our case study of Gongen
mai presents us with a puzzling shamanic choreography,
which suggests a "reversed possession". Instead
of the common shamanic process in which a god possesses
the dancer, here the dancer possesses the god. In this
article, the case is presented and an explanation of
this intriguing choreography is attempted.
MIHÁLY HOPPÁL (Budapest): Vilmos Diószegi: Life and
Works
Vilmos Diószegi (1923–1972), a Hungarian ethnologist,
died more than quarter of a century ago, so it is timely
to review and evaluate his oeuvre. The article discusses
Diószegi's education and fieldwork. He studied the Buryats
and the Khakas in 1957, and, in the following year,
the Karaghas and Tuvas. In 1960 he spent three months
in Mongolia, and in 1964 he studied Kumandi shamanism
in Gorno-Altaisk. The article further describes the
Archive of Shamanism founded by Diószegi, and it evaluates
the Hungarian scholar's publications, including those
which appeared after his death. A section is devoted
to the research Diószegi conducted on the traces of
shamanism to be found in Hungarian folk beliefs.
JAMES A. OVERTON (San Diego): Shamanism and Clinical
Hypnosis: A Brief Comparative Analysis
The purpose of this study is to effect a comparison
between therapeutic hypnosis and shamanism. The conclusion
of this investigation is that clinical hypnosis in its
most comprehensive sense is simply a cultural and historical
adaptation of shamanism, the most widespread and archaic
spiritual and therapeutic tradition. The foundation
of this theory of the equivalence between hypnosis and
shamanism is the imagino-hypothesis. As applied to the
present study, the imagino-hypothesis holds that imagery
and/or imagination, in both shamanism and hypnosis,
play essential roles as catalysts in the process of
generating spiritual, psychological and physiological
responses. Although the imagino-hypothesis is not the
explicit subject of this paper, it is nevertheless useful
for the reader to keep in mind that it constitutes the
basis for the definition of both hypnosis and shamanism
as "images evoking responses." Through a brief
examination of hypnosis in its broadest terms, and after
dismissing the prevailing myth of hypnosis as trance,
a functional paradigm for therapeutic hypnosis will
emerge. This functional paradigm will in turn serve
as the foundation for the comparison between clinical
hypnosis and relevant healing facets of the shamanic
tradition. After drawing on numerous parallels between
shamanism and clinical hypnosis, both will be summarized
as variations of the same phenomenon: the masterful
manipulation and presentation of mental images in the
client for the purpose of achieving desired spiritual,
psychological, and physiological responses.
Short Communications
ART LEETE (Tartu): The Kazym Uprising: The West Siberian
Peoples' Struggle for Freedom in the 1930s
Obituary
Vladimir Nikolaevich Basilov (1937–1998) (by Mihály
Hoppál)
Book Reviews
W. N. BASILOW. Das Schamanentum bei den Völkern Mittelasiens
und Kasachstans (by Ake Hultkrantz)
AKE HULTKRANTZ. The Attraction of Peyote. An Inquiry
into the Basic Conditions for the Diffusion of the Peyote
Religion in North America (by Christopher Vecsey)
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