We are all, in a sens, idolaters of this recent western cultural artifact called "shamanism"; we love, we cherish, we dedicate our self to it, but as much as we get involve, so little we have something to do with the original, indigenous shamanism; we've created a lie, an illusion and we keep doing it just because this is how our culture works... you don't practice shamanism to sell it and to achieve personal transformation, shamanism it happens to be practiced because the world has unmanageable situations and because life is precarious and unforeseeable , because some people (the shamans) are forced to talk to the spirits and to heal the sick people... they are not doing it for fun or for them, they are doing it because there are some forces beyond them that affects them. I'm not speaking about the "real" shamans, it does not matter this point of view, it only matters our illusion, our lie, our self-limitation. This is what I want to know about and I want to fight against.
My point is that the only accurate perspective or maybe the only "right" place of shamanism in our culture, can be found in the scholarly literature of ethnology, sociology, anthropology, psychology and history of religion, but not as a proclamation of scientific objectivity of our powerful western culture, but because this is the only really "fair" usage of this cultural artifact called "shamanism", meaning - the only aspect of our shamanic intelligibility that is not intentionally mixing indigenous culture with western culture, that is just acquiring information. I'm interested in scholarly literature at its most psychological or subjective (read it "weak") level, as a culture who tries not to conquer, to engulf another culture but just to understand it.
Note: this is an important shift of my search. Perhaps this blog will die or will become something else.
03.02.2009
I'm returning to this blog and leave it as it is, it's ok as it is...
I'll add some more links at the bottom.
30.12.2009
Nita mi-a luat saptamina trecuta de la biblioteca Mario Mercier "Samani si samanism" peste care m-am uitat zilele astea fugitiv. Mercier merge pe o idee specifica spiritului francez, anume de a cerceta un fenomen dupa specificul originii sale; desi n-am gasit deocamdata explicit motivata acesta maniera in carte.
Stiam de mult de dezbaterea academica asupra utilizarii termenului de "saman/samanism" si asupra ariei lui de aplicabilitate, acum inclin sa cred ca de fapt plecind de la aceasta problema si luind in considerare explozia occidentala a practitionarilor de samamnism si a micului negot pe care acesta practica o presupune, plus life-stylul samanic inerent, se poate face o analiza genetica revelatoare a fenomenului aproprierii samanismului si a neo-samanismului in cultura nostra.
Navigind pe internet esti bombardat de initiativa si practitionarismul samanic si neo-samanic. Numai sa incerci serviciul Google Alerts pentru "samanism" sau "saman" si este de ajuns. Tipic pentru cultura occidentala - tendinta de a verticaliza lucrurile care tin de spirit. Tot acest amalgam de mediatizare pseudo-publicitara, integrare in specificul economic occidental si fetisizarea stilului samanic, convin unei atitudini de prea marire si ridicare la valente exterioare a fenomenului "samanismului" indigen de propria noastra intelegere si acceptare. Lucrurile sunt luate de jos in sus.
Citind Mercier mi-am intarit critica vizavi de aceasta atitudine. Nu numai ca trebuie mers de sus in jos, adica excluderea oricarei integrari culturale a samanismului si apoi rezumarea la fenomenul originar ce a dat nastere cuvintului si interesului fata de spiritualitatea arhaica, anume samanmismul siberian, dar totodata trebuie sa reinterogezi mereu cit de jos este josul la care ai ajuns.
Este cadrul in care noi functionam pe masura aproprierii fenomenului samanic, este lumea in care traim spirituala indeajuns cit sa intelegm spiritualitatea arhaica sau poate ca insasi problema spiritualitaii contemporane ne izbeste invizibil cu fiecare ocazie?...
About
This is the log of a
work in progress. I'm tryning to keep here acount of all my quasi-shamanic inspiration -
the medium - so, please, do keep in mind that
these posts are in fact the actual WORK that some day will be presented as a finished work -
the message - (I hope it will be a book, but I certanly see this only as a last "bagage" that I have to throw away to free myself).
You can email me at -mariustoica_at_gmail_ dot_ com- for any question or opinion that you might have regarding my work.
Some info about myself: My name is Marius Stoica, I live in Timisoara (Romania), I'm 27 years old. Next week I'll get merried and my wife is pregnant in 4 months :) I've studied philosophy with an emphasis on contemporary french philosphy and some on phenomenology. In fact, I'm pretty influenced by authors like Battaille, Deleuze, Husserl or Marc Richir. I also don't like corporatism and imperialism and I try to resist to all the crap that the world is more and more filled in.
8 September 2007----------------
Trecem la modul freestyle
7 Octombrie 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment