From: Bryan J. Maloney (jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu)
Date: Wed 23 Feb 1994 - 07:16:02 EET
All of the reading I've done on shaman and shamanism stress one fact:
African shamanism, by the by, tends to work via a VERY different path,
Shamans are spiritual warriors par excellence. Their healing ability
primarily derives from their ability to successfully combat spirits
of illness and ill fortune. The fact that RuneQuest has decided to adopt
the North American aboriginal model of shamanism to near complete
exclusion of Eurasian and African shamanism actually drives their model
of the shaman FURTHER into the spiritual warrior camp. Note that I always
say SPIRITUAL warrior, NOT physical warrior.
whereby the shaman gains power by being possessed BY benevolent spirits,
who then act through the shaman rather than having power by chasing down
and beating up spirits. The Loa of Voodoun are a Christianized version of
this principle.
0,,
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