NAFPS Forum

I wonder if anyone can help.  I'm asking from the perspective of being a European with a spiritual practice, wishing to understand the ethical boundaries of that practice in terms of cultural appropriation.  Much of what I describe below doesn't necessarily form part of my own personal practice, but I may have encountered it in trainings/workshops or seen non Native practitioners use these practices.  It's OK if anyone has time to respond to this  to help me by linking to useful websites or resources and I would appreciate that a lot.

When I say "I understand" I mean this is my current understanding which is of course open to correction and elucidation from those who know more.  I don't mean "I understand therefore it's true."  Also please forgive my naivety and lack of knowledge surrounding which tribes may use which practices, which may overlap, etc.

Pipe Ceremonies

I understand these are Native American ceremonies (are they done in other cultures?)  Like many westerners my first exposure to these would have been through movies (usually with completely racist portrayals of native peoples) and the idea of the "peace pipe"

I encounter non native people who claim that they are doing pipe ceremonies but had been trained to do so/authorised(?) to do so by a Native person, and that the Native view is that pipe ceremonies are "for all" i.e. not to be restricted to Native people.  Is this true?  Is there consensus about this issue?  is it "OK" for a non native person to do this?   (NB I have no intention of doing this myself nor have I approached or been approached by a Native person with any view to doing a pipe ceremony.)

Smudging

I have seen this done by none native people in 2 ways - using a tied bundle of various herbs, or using an abalone shell into which white sage leaves are put and lit.  Often in the latter case a feathered fan is used to spread the smoke, which is used as a ritual cleansing practice before a ceremony.   Many cultures use incense/sacred smoke around the world, but are these particular forms considered cultural appropriation/unethical by native people?

Sweat Lodges

I have seen these done in a ceremonial way but with no overt (I stress, overt) Native American-specific references - and participated in one around 15 years ago.  This involved describing (if I remember it) the sweat lodge as the body of a turtle as a metaphor - I presume on reflection this is a native reference of some kind?  Once inside herb tea with lots of different fresh herbs was drunk.  Are all sweat lodges examples of cultural appropriation by westerners?  Or do they have to be called sweat lodges for this to count?

Dream Catchers

As I understand it these are very popular but presumably have a specific Native origin.  Is there a consensus view that purchasing a dreamcatcher is unethical ?

Core Shamanism

The Michael Harner originated core shamanism model.  As I understand this, essentially this is about distilling from many(?) cultures a core practice of entering a "shamanic trance" through drumming or other ritual percussion, which Harner linked to brain waves.  Then the practice is to visit in trance the "lower world" or "upper world" and receive spiritual guidance through various animal spirits or deities/beings etc.  This seems on the surface to be not cultural appropriation, because what has been distilled by Harner has been the trance technique rather than the content?  Or is this itself cultural appropriation (removing context?)   What I am trying to get at is: someone could use "core shamanism" without any reference to Native spirituality?  For example say someone did an upperworld journey and only ever met Jesus in the upperworld, they are using percussive trance to access "non Native" content? So is this ethical?  What am I missing?

Native peoples teaching non Natives

I regularly see western practitioners claim authenticity/authority for their shamanic practice (and ensuing shamanic books, workshops etc etc) by having been trained by/recognised by/initiated by a Native person (not necessarily a Native American person, it could be Mongolian, Siberian, etc etc.)  What is interesting is these very practitioners often loudly decry new age/plastic/pretendian/wannabe shamanism from their position of having been authenticated by a Native person - but they are not Native themselves.

But something doesn't ring true to me personally about this situation?  Are Native people regularly (as it seems) singling out white people to tell them they are shamans too, or initiating them/authenticating them?  Or is it the case that the Native people that are doing this are not recognised in what they do by a larger community? or what?

Forgive my naivety and lack of understanding.  Thank you.

Any help appreciated.

Read the pinned threads in the forum.

Quote from: John Kester on March 14, 2018, 02:58:20 PM

Core Shamanism

The Michael Harner originated core shamanism model.  As I understand this, essentially this is about distilling from many(?) cultures a core practice of entering a "shamanic trance" through drumming or other ritual percussion, which Harner linked to brain waves.  Then the practice is to visit in trance the "lower world" or "upper world" and receive spiritual guidance through various animal spirits or deities/beings etc.  This seems on the surface to be not cultural appropriation, because what has been distilled by Harner has been the trance technique rather than the content?  Or is this itself cultural appropriation (removing context?)   What I am trying to get at is: someone could use "core shamanism" without any reference to Native spirituality?  For example say someone did an upperworld journey and only ever met Jesus in the upperworld, they are using percussive trance to access "non Native" content? So is this ethical?  What am I missing?

Native peoples teaching non Natives

I regularly see western practitioners claim authenticity/authority for their shamanic practice (and ensuing shamanic books, workshops etc etc) by having been trained by/recognised by/initiated by a Native person (not necessarily a Native American person, it could be Mongolian, Siberian, etc etc.)  What is interesting is these very practitioners often loudly decry new age/plastic/pretendian/wannabe shamanism from their position of having been authenticated by a Native person - but they are not Native themselves.

But something doesn't ring true to me personally about this situation?  Are Native people regularly (as it seems) singling out white people to tell them they are shamans too, or initiating them/authenticating them?  Or is it the case that the Native people that are doing this are not recognised in what they do by a larger community? or what?

Forgive my naivety and lack of understanding.  Thank you.

Any help appreciated.

We have threads on Harner and core shame ons. Do a search using the search button from the front page.

What I bolded above is purely a con artist running a ridiculously obvious con game.
Put it in other terms: A man calls your phone out of the blue and says you've won a million dollars.
How credible is that?
What's his likely motive?
Should you trust him?
If someone does, just how naive are they?
Same thing here...

Thanks for the responses. 

Hi,

I don't understand why it must be sweat lodges. Here in Europe we have saunas. Saunas are mostly known from Finland and Russia, but they existed a long time before in other places too, there also been a excavation of a sauna like building in Great Britain: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3253643/Bronze-Age-sauna-discovered-Scottish-coast-Building-used-religious-ceremonies-4-000-years-ago.html

Feel free to use a Sauna if your doctor checked up that you are healthy enough to do. Its more safe than self build sweat lodges, there had always been accidents and deaths in sweat lodges, build by frauds. In most saunas you can regulate the temperature in a safe way. Steam Bath is another option.

Dream Catchers?
There had also been something optical a little bit similar in South European history that everybody knows, Wind Chimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintinnabulum_(Ancient_Rome) But they had a different function and mythology.
In northern Europe it was believed, that bad dreams are caused by "Elves"(Alb, Nachtalb, Nachtmahr, Mär, Mara) which you could feel by being pushed into the bed, a cold, paralyzing feeling and optical vision of a black, heavy appearance. Some sources say that Artemisia vulgaris(Mugwort) was used to prevent it, however, placing your shoes in direction away from the bed should help too according to folklore, or this christianized charm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore)#Germany Other sources indicate the use of talismans(Amutlet) against nightmares/Nachtmahr.
If it is just for decoration and not because of nightmares, you can build your own Mobile/Wind Chime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2OowpygkK4

Upper world journey to meet Jesus?
My question for someone doing this is: Why? Why would someone need to do this? If you are believing in Jesus, a Christian Community and the Church are best places for practice. I,m not a christian, but I know that there was always dialogues in elementary school about a personal relationship to Jesus and the Lord, personal experiences and signs. So where I live, you can ask your local Pastor about questions of faith and personal experiences, if you are a member of the church. The Pastor is the spiritual authority, because he got a theological education and he can answer your questions and discuss the issue.

I´m not an expert in ethnology, but in my opinion this concepts of upper world middle world, underworld, nine worlds, and similar things, are not so easy to understand in the right historical context, so its more a personal belief, how you interpret them. Some educated people suggested, that places like Asgard had been not a mythological, but a geographical place somewhere in the black sea region ruled by specific tribe(s) and had become a myth by time after many generations of Proto-Indo-European people migrating to Europe. The concept of worlds nature, overlapped in ancient times in some places of the world, for example Buddhist, Hindu, Celtic, Germanic and Finnish cosmology. So this Concepts Harner tried to make a sense of, can only be understood in specific ethnic context. The whole Practice of Harner should be questioned.

When you seeking for trance experiences I personally would ask why, because is there a specific need for it, or is it just for interest, proofing personal belief, or even fancy adventures?

Next thing would be Harners concepts like power animals. Personally I don't know where I could relate to this idea anyway. So imagine a Wolf. What does a Wolf mean to you? To me it means not much, a animal in a zoo, something like an archaic dog, farmers hate it. I never was involved with wolves, they are not existent in the place I live. So every concept someone like me could have about a wolf is simply not what a wolf really is. I know nothing real about them, only from TV-Screen. So if someone would tell me, that a wolf is my power animal, it would be the same as saying cheetah is your power animal, or kangaroo. Absolute no connection in real life, so I think its just bullshit.

But I think it has to do with the majority of European way of thinking in general. Your parents gave you a name, this name mostly has an meaning, like Björn means Bear or Christian means follower of Christ. But who is selecting names in the sense of meaning today? Most parents think the name sounds cool, or somebody they liked also has this name so they name their kids this way.
The name has no meaning and no deeper intention, not even for the person itself and doesn't fit their personality and status in society, same as Harners power animals. Plastic animals for plastic shamans.

Hope it helps