Shamanism in Contemporary Society Author(s): Justin Woodman Source: Anthropology Today, Vol. 14, No. 6 (Dec., 1998), pp.

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THE HMONG/MIAO IN ASIA

mono-ethnicconferences Since international are becomingincreasinglycommon, the recentgathering of kindredspiritsat the Centredes Archivesd'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France,on 11-13 underthe auspices of the September, Science Foundationand CNRS at European the Universityof Provence, was of interest in being an academicconference of a differenttype to those the Hmong have recentlyorganizedfor themselves. The shifting cultivatorsof Hmongare traditional SouthEastAsia and southernChina, whose to the West afterthe VietnamWar diaspora has resultedin new forms of transnational identity,and a veritableexplosion of publications.1 Hmong associationshave been formedand meetings held across France,Australiaand the US; there are Hmonge-mail networks,newslettersand increasinglytradinglinks. In the calm of the Indochinaarchives,the atmosphere intentionhere was to hold a more serious international meeting of Hmong scholars, of a type therehas not been since the early
1980s.2

An Orientalistdiscourse in which the names of 19th centuryCornishpastors and earlyFrenchIndochinacolonial officials figurelarge has succeeded in imaging the Hmong as a proud,free, independentpeople, fiercely opposed to the hierarchical of Asian despotisms condemned structures by missionariesand early explorers.And duringthis three-dayconference, organised by JeanMichaudof the Centrefor South-EastAsian Studies at Hull and Christian Culas of the Institutde Recherche sur le Sud-EstAsiatique in Aix, there was much discussion of the tribal,segmentary natureof Hmong social organizationin their traditional life as shifting cultivatorswhich, JacquesLemoine (CNRS) maintained,has survivedtheirtransitionto urbanlife.3 Certainlyattemptsby the Hmong to organize themselves as a political bloc seem often to have failed, and some of this atomism may have rubbedoff on those who have workedwith them. There was talk of Hmong Studies setting up an International Association, or startinga Newsletter, but we

settled for an electronic mailbox and a furthermeeting in Chiangmaiin 2000. A book of the proceedingsis planned.4 Alison Lewis spoke interestinglyon the impact of Protestantmissions on the A Hmao ('Flowery Miao') in Yunnanaround the turnof the century.Michaud spoke of his work on Hmong identity in the little-studiednorthof Vietnam, and Lemoine delivered a compelling lecture on the non-religiousnatureof Hmong shamanism. There were linguistic contributions(Ratcliff, Niederer),and more appliedconsiderations by Hmong researchersfrom Thailandand Vietnam (Leepreecha,Vuong). My own contributionattempteda critical bibliographyof works in 'Hmong studies'. Hmong identity is not so unproblematic as many ethnographers, and the refugees, have assumed. Stories were told at the conference of how Hmong from the US, recently visiting their original homelandsin Chinain search of their 'roots', were astonishedto be greeted by groups of people called 'Miao' speakingunfamiliarlanguages.Indeed there was a problemto know just what to call this conference;the derogatory'Miao' is resentedby all the Hmong outside China, while inside China they are officially known as 'Miao' along with distantlyrelatedgroups like the A Hmao of Yunnan,the Hmu of Guizhou, and the Kho Xiong of Hunan, whom several attendeeshad studied.Hence the double title. And many papersaddressedmore constructivistnotions of Hmong identity. Simon Cheungexamined textualizedidentity formationsof the 'Miao', arisingfrom his work with the Ge in China, a group resisting their official classification as 'Miao'; Louisa Schein dealt with issues of transnational identity exchange in her account of relations between the AmericanHmong and Miao in China. Some of the currentchanges in Hmong society were also covered. Bob Cooper's paperdealt with notions of 'rape', of topical concern after a series of teenage gang rapes in Minnesota,while Patricia Symonds gave a harrowingaccount of the impact of HIV/AIDS on Thai Hmong populations.5 The overseas Hmong refugee community

remainsdeeply divided between those who still supportcovert armedresistancein Laos and Vietnam, and those who do not. The formerhave their own campaignsand agendas on behalf of what are seen as Hmong interests,and it was not likely they would attendsuch a meeting. However, the conference was fortunateto secure presentationson the Hmong diasporaby two leaders of the Hmong liberal community (and the first two Hmong to obtain doctorates);GarryLee, and Yang Dao, who deliveredclosing papers. There seemed almost to be two languages talked at this conference;an older language concernedwith identificationand classification, and the newer language of culturalproductionand identity exchange which Schein and Cheung spoke particularly well; an approachtaking full account of the dislocatedpositions from which have for some time now ethnographers conductedtheir researchon 'fixed' ethnic groups. Not that the Hmong, traditionally, were ever that spatially 'fixed'; as shifting cultivators,they were used to taking their kinship relationswith them, and recreating their society whereverthey went, as Lemoine remindedus. But there did seem to be a disjunction,on the one hand a concern with the rapidloss of traditional'culture', and on the other, a feeling that what we were doing was also a partof Hmong culturalproduction;will a Hmong Studies Departmentbe the next step?E] Nicholas Tapp University of Edinburgh
1. Onebibliography over 1,000entries, numbers although missingmanyimportant ones andheavily biasedtowards English-language andNorthAmerican
publications; A Bibliography of the Hmong (Miao),

1983,compiledby DouglasOlney(Southeast Asian RefugeeStudiesOccasional Papers No.1);Centerfor UrbanandRegionalAffairs,University of Minnesota 2. The SecondHmongResearch Conference, of Minnesota, 17-19November1983. University
3. Lemoine's ethnography, Un Village Hmong Vert

du HautLaos,was published by CNRSin 1972. 4. SadlyProfessor Gordon Downerof Leeds,a pioneerof Miao-Yaolinguisticstudies,was unableto join us, havingpassedawayveryrecently; see Obituary by HughBaker,TheGuardian, Monday14 September. 5. BethHawkins,'TheCountry', CityPages (Minn.),12 August1998.

SHAMANISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

Society', an 'Shamanismin Contemporary international conference, was hosted between 23 and 26 June by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne's Departmentof Religious Studies. During the initial session, organizersCharlotteHardmanand Graham of the Harvey outlined the raison d'e^tre conferenceas providing a forum for the joint explorationof the perspectiveof academics and contemporary western shamanic practitioners alike. In the spiritof this goal, the usual conference formatof paper presentationswas broadenedto include several workshopsexploring the experiential dimension of a variety of shamanisms. Similarly,the conference was opened not with a traditionaladdress,but with a shamanicceremony led by GordonSharpe, where delegates were invited to enter into a sacredcircle and explore their sense of connection to the earthand to each other. This was followed by a participatory shamanicdrummingsession led by Carol Youngsonand the Deer Tribe. Paperswere a vibrantmixtureof experientialand theoreticalanalyses, encompassingsuch topics as the role of teacherplants in shamanicexperience, cyborgs, shamanismand postmodernism, shamanismin the corporatesector, shamanismin the Old Testament,soul-loss and spirit-possession,shamanicpower and the collective unconscious, and the shamanismsof Mexico and CentralAsia; workshopsvariously explored Inca shamanism,past-lifejourneying,Romani shamanism,and included a healing ceremony (the delegate being healed later reporteda cessation of the symptoms of her 23

TODAY Vol 14 No 6, December 1998 ANTHROPOLOGY

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themerunning ailment).The overarching most papersand workshopswas throughout of experiential engagement the importance of shamanicpraxis. in the understanding Given this thematiccontext,the general mood of the conferencewas markedby a of rationalist call for the re-evaluation invariable epistemologicalframeworks called uponby academicsin theirencounters Specifically,the with the otherworldly. an notionthatthe spiritworldmaintained existencebeyondthe scope of experiential tropeswas advocatedin scientific-reductivist numerous papersand workshops.This was by perhapsmost stronglyunderscored ElainePerry,who bravely neurochemist view of the offeredan alternative perspective,suggestingthat neuroscientific by the neurologicaleffects produced plantsmay in fact facilitate psychotropic genuineexperiencesof the otherworldly. Perrypresenteda numberof anomalous cases drawnfrom the medicaland to supportthis view. psychiatricliterature Notably,the numbersof academicspresent who were alreadyinvolved in some form of shamanicpracticesuggeststhata shift to towardsa moretotalizingapproach is well under phenomenon magico-religious way withinthe academicsphere. MichaelYork and NatalieTobertshared the view thatwesternperspectiveswere too deeply embeddedin a psychopathology which marginalized those sufferingfrom Tobertsubsequently psychic disorders. arguedthatit mightbe more meaningfuland beneficialto approach ailmentssuch as and multiplepersonality schizophrenia disorderas incursionsof the otherworldly, them as forms rather thancompartmentalize of mentalillness. Likewise, Alan Bleakley and reconsidered Freud'sclassic 'ratman'

'wolfman'analysesin the light of the shamanicidiom of the 'poweranimal', suggestingthatsimilarcases would reacha morepositive resolutionif viewed not as the symptomsof sexual neurosis,but as experiences. visionary,initiatory Both RobertWallis and Piers Vitebsky were, however,carefulto problematize westernshamanisms, contemporary critiquingthe co-optionand of indigenousshamanic decontextualization praxisby New Age shamans,and the apparent neo-colonialistovertures resultant in the privilegingof westernconceptsof over those of indigenouspeoples. spirituality by the fact This point was aptlyunderscored thata numberof delegateswere perturbed by an instancein MihalyHoppal'sfilm depictingthe sacrificeof a presentation, horse as partof a Tungusicshamanic to the co-option ceremony.As an alternative Daniel Noel shamanisms, of traditional should suggestedthatthe Jungiantradition be looked to as the 'indigenous'shamanism of the west. However,duringa panel discussionfocusing on his recentbook The Noel was criticizedfor Soul of Shamanism, the literaryoriginsof over-emphasizing in the worksof westernneo-shamanism The panel suggested Eliadeand Casteneda. was a neo-shamanism thatcontemporary that phenomenon moredynamic,grass-roots had arisenout of the dialoguebetween and western indigenousshamanisms Manypapersconsidered practitioners. in westernshamanisms contemporary relationto theirroots withinindigenous praxis,yet, given the conference'stitle, few papersexplicitlyexamined surprisingly the practicalrole of shamanicstatesof consciousnessin everydaylife in a modern, urbancontext.This issue was, however,

in most of the exploredexperientially workshops(which was perhapsmore focus of given the experiential appropriate, the conference). The conferenceevidenceda distinct flavour,most notablyin its postmodernist of individual focus upon the authority experience.As a consequence,I felt thatthe generalthrustof the debatewas sometimes experiential in dangerof accentuating over a moreobjective narratives what seemed to me methodology,mirroring that to be an implicitassumption scientific-rationalist epistemologieswere of to this subjectarea. limitedapplication asymmetry However,this apparent articulated a muchneededdeconstruction of the tendencywithinthe andre-evaluation social sciences to marginalize'shamanic' statesof consciousnessthrougha focus upon and socio-politicalcontexts.In this structural respect,the conferencealso successfully avoidedthe academicelitism often visible in conferenceagendas,where moretraditional discoursesare scholastic/theoretical privilegedover and above the frequently voices andexperienceof practitioners. the inclusionof experiential Furthermore, workshopsaddeda welcome participatory dimensionto the proceedings,circumventing in the drynesssometimesencountered similaracademiccontexts.I left the conferencefeeling thatit had been an experience;but enlighteningand informative above all else, it had been fun. A selection of the paperspresentedwill appearin a volume with the provisiontitle in Contemporary Society, which Shamanism is to be publishedin 1999. a Justin Woodman of Anthropology, Goldsmiths' Department College, London

OLLUI1LF
CARLOS CASTANEDA
the CarlosCesarAranaCastaneda, and best selling 'sorcerer' self-proclaimed died of liver canceron 27 April 1998 author, at his home in Westwood,California because aged 72. 'Apparently' apparently was an inveterate and unrepentant Castaneda liar aboutthe statisticaldetailsof his life; even his given name is in some doubt. Accordingto DeborahDrooz, a friendand didn'tlike executorof the estate,Castaneda attention,makingcertainnot to have his picturetakenor his voice recorded.He died, no as he lived, secretlyand mysteriously: funeralor public service was held and his spirited crematedashes were apparently away to Mexico. Despite, or perhapsbecause,of his tales of cultivationof mystery,Castaneda's

______

with a mentaladventures drug-induced Yaqui IndianshamannamedDon Juanonce fascinatedthe world and his ten books continueto sell in 17 languages.The book with a strange which launchedhis reputation allegory, mixtureof anthropology, Buddhism ethnography, parapsychology, and perhapsfiction, was The Teachingsof Don Juan, based upon a master'sthesis student graduate writtenas an anthropology at UCLA. He said he stoppedin an Arizona bordertown where he met an old Yaqui Indianfrom Sonora,Mexico, namedJuan
Matus, a brujo - a sorcerer or shaman - who

used powerfulhallucinogensto initiatethe student. tutelage, UnderDon Juan'sstrenuous which lasted severalyears,Castaneda

with peyote,jimson weed and experimented momentsof undergoing driedmushrooms, ecstasy and panic,all in an effort to achieve reality. varyingstatesof nonordinary said he saw giant insects, learntto Castaneda fly, grew a beak,became a crow and ultimatelyreacheda plateauof higher consciousness,a hard-wonwisdom that madehim a 'manof knowledge' like Don Juan. deathcertificate AlthoughCastaneda's he was married lists him as nevermarried, Runyan from 1960-1973to Margaret of Charleston, West Virginia. Castaneda Newsletter39:6) El (Source:Anthropology

24

TODAY Vol 14 No 6, December1998 ANTHROPOLOGY

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