Shamanism, Rituals and Religion - Research Paper Example

A shaman is an individual considered as having access to and power in, the world of malevolent and benevolent spirits, who normally gets into a state of trance during a ritual and practices healing and divination (Kehoe 3).

Rituals play a significant role in establishing and sustaining group solidarity. In totemic communities, each descent group has a plant, animal, or geographical element through which they claim descent (Baldick 33). Totems are at the peak of the ancestor of clans. Clan members cannot kill or devour their totem, except after one year when the clan members assemble for ceremonies in honor of the totem (Baldick 33). Totemism is a religion wherein elements of nature perform as sanctified templates for society through means of emblematic association. They express their religion by using nature as a model for society. Every descent cluster has a totem, which inhabits a particular niche in nature. Also, social differences echo the natural arrangement of the environment (Baldick 34).

For instance, the Ahimsa of the Hindu doctrine of nonviolence (a religion that is well known to practice Totemism) forbids the murder of animals. Finally, totems express their religions through the intimate association of friendship and defense between an individual and a natural object or a specific animal (at times, between an individual and different species of animals); the natural object can offer unique power to its holder (Baldick 34).
Shamanism is comprehended by some individuals to be a prehistoric form of religious magic or religion practiced by the aboriginals of the northern part of Asia and by all other aboriginals in other areas of the globe (Kehoe 56). This view is held by Kharuzin, Mikhailowski, as well as other Russian scholars (Kehoe 56).

Others argue that Shamanism was merely one form of religious expression of the cult of the northern part of Asia exercised to turn away evil spirits. Shamanism is always nearly in the company of a harrowing death-and-rebirth incident, after which the individuality is fundamentally changed. An imaginative practice of being dismembered and reconstructed differently by the spirits is clear cross-culturally in the reports of numerous tribal shamans and is nearly a trademark of the experience. Shamanic practice inhabits the main focus, energy, and time of the people’s life (Kehoe 56). All mundane projects, careers, relationships, and loyalties, are less important to the shaman's job of spiritual service (Kehoe 56). Finally, their lives are bound with many taboos, violation of which mainly brings instant pain, illness, or any other spiritual or physical retribution. Read More