[KS] Re: custom and new environment:dog-eating

[Keith Howard]

--============_-1247663898==_ma============
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 NANCY LEE concludes her stimulating comment on eating/killing:

"That is the belief system of some of our local tribes (I'm in Seattle), but
I guess I had always thought of this as being the attitude of
shamanists/animists more generally.  So now this discussion has me
wondering, is this kind of attitude found among shamanists/animists in
Korea?  Or do they have the same attitude as mainstream Americans: that
killing something you acknowledge a relationship with is wrong, and the
LESS relationship you have with something, the more justification you have
to exploit/destroy/consume it with no restrictions?"

Roberte Hamayon has written quite widely on the reciprocal nature of
shamanism in hunter/gatherer societies. Her basic approach is that animals
killed for food need in some way to ritually receive reciprocal treatment.
The spirits are perceived as animals (as is carried across into much
urban/new age shamanism and soul retrieval practices). This would fit what
you describe in First Nation communities in the Northwest, although Hamayon
writes primarily about Siberia. She suggests that as societies move to
pastoralism, so their spiritual canon changes, and moves away from animals
towards the spirits of nature (often perceived in anthropomorphic forms) or
of ancestors. Check out her massive La chasse =E0 l'=E2me: Esquisse d'une
th=E9orie du chamanisme sib=E9rien (Nanterre, Societe d'ethnologie, 1990), o=
r
her writings in English such as "Shamanism in Siberia: from Partnership in
Supernature to Counter-power in Society," in Nicholas Thomas and Caroline
Humphrey, Shamanism, History, and the State:76-89 (Ann Arbor, Uni of
Michigan, 1994). While I accept (as would she) that this characterisation
is too neat, the latter bit (pastoralism/anthropomorphic spirit canons)
seems to fit quite nicely with what little I know of Korean shamanism. I
will leave it to others to comment more fully.

Keith Howard

Dr Keith Howard
Senior Lecturer in Korean Studies and Music
SOAS,Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square,
London WC1H 0XG, UK
Tel: 020 7898 4687;  Fax: 020 7898 4699; EMail: kh at soas.ac.uk
--============_-1247663898==_ma============
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 NANCY LEE concludes her stimulating comment on eating/killing:


"That is the belief system of some of our local tribes (I'm in
Seattle), but

I guess I had always thought of this as being the attitude of

shamanists/animists more generally.  So now this discussion has me

wondering, is this kind of attitude found among shamanists/animists in

Korea?  Or do they have the same attitude as mainstream Americans:
that

killing something you acknowledge a relationship with is wrong, and
the

LESS relationship you have with something, the more justification you
have

to exploit/destroy/consume it with no restrictions?"


Roberte Hamayon has written quite widely on the reciprocal nature of
shamanism in hunter/gatherer societies. Her basic approach is that
animals killed for food need in some way to ritually receive reciprocal
treatment. The spirits are perceived as animals (as is carried across
into much urban/new age shamanism and soul retrieval practices). This
would fit what you describe in First Nation communities in the
Northwest, although Hamayon writes <italic>primarily</italic> about
Siberia. She suggests that as societies move to pastoralism, so their
spiritual canon changes, and moves away from animals towards the
spirits of nature (often perceived in anthropomorphic forms) or of
ancestors. Check out her massive <italic>La chasse =E0 l'=E2me: Esquisse
d'une th=E9orie du chamanisme sib=E9rien</italic> (Nanterre, Societe
d'ethnologie, 1990), or her writings in English such as
<italic>"Shamanism in Siberia: from Partnership in Supernature to
Counter-power in Society</italic>," in Nicholas Thomas and Caroline
Humphrey, <italic>Shamanism, History, and the State</italic>:76-89 (Ann
Arbor, Uni of Michigan, 1994). While I accept (as would she) that this
characterisation is too neat, the latter bit
(pastoralism/anthropomorphic spirit canons) seems to fit quite nicely
with what little I know of Korean shamanism. I will leave it to others
to comment more fully.


Keith Howard



Dr Keith Howard

Senior Lecturer in Korean Studies and Music

SOAS,Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square,=20

London WC1H 0XG, UK

Tel: 020 7898 4687;  Fax: 020 7898 4699; EMail: kh at soas.ac.uk

--============_-1247663898==_ma============--


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%