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University of Groningen Genealogies of shamanism Boekhoven, J.W. IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2011 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Boekhoven, J. W. (2011). Genealogies of shamanism: Struggles for power, charisma and authority. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 23-09-2021 Genealogies of Shamanism Struggles for Power, Charisma and Authority Cover photograph: Petra Giesbergen (Altaiskaya Byelka), courtesy of Petra Giesbergen (Altaiskaya Byelka) Cover design: Coltsfootmedia, Nynke Tiekstra, Noordwolde Book design: Barkhuis ISBN 9789077922880 © Copyright 2011 Jeroen Wim Boekhoven All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained here- in may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author. Although all care is taken to ensure the integrity and quality of this publication and the information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the authors for any damage to property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the information contained herein. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Genealogies of Shamanism Struggles for Power, Charisma and Authority Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. E. Sterken, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 9 juni 2011 om 11:00 uur door Jeroen Wim Boekhoven geboren op 19 september 1963 te Waddinxveen Promotores: Prof. dr. Y.B. Kuiper Prof. dr. J.N. Bremmer Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. D. Houtman Prof. dr. J.G. Oosten Prof. dr. C.K.M. von Stuckrad Contents Acknowledgements ix 1 Approaching shamanism 1 Dutch shamanisms 2 Methodology 4 Genealogical reflexivity 7 Three historical studies on shamanism 12 Pierre Bourdieu 16 Fields and habitus 17 Economies and capital 19 Strategies and games 21 James Beckford 23 Religion 23 Power 24 The argument 26 Outline of the book 28 2 Eighteenth and nineteenth-century interpretations 31 The eighteenth-century discovery of Siberian shamans 32 Enlightened interpretations 34 Romantic interpretations 36 Theological interpretations 39 Nineteenth-century interpretations 41 Folklore and nationalism 42 Comparative theology 44 Dutch and British colonial projects 46 British armchair anthropology 50 American art and anthropology 53 Theosophy and other esotericisms 57 Conclusion 63 3 Early twentieth-century American interpretations 65 Franz Boas 67 The Russian connection 69 American anthropological schools 71 Ethnobotany 79 The quest for genuine culture 81 vi Genealogies of Shamanism Jaime de Angulo 85 Conclusion 89 4 Twentieth-century European constructions 91 Sergey Mikhalovich Shirokogoroff 93 British social anthropology 99 Siegfried Frederick Nadel 102 Raymond Firth 105 Ioan Lewis 106 Theology and religious studies 108 Folklorism 112 Finnish forefathers 112 The Hungarian táltos 117 Old Norse Seiðr 120 Ancient poets 122 A field of shamanology 124 Conclusion 127 5 The Bollingen connection, 1930s-1960s 129 Archaic techniques of shamans 131 Young Eliade 134 Traditionalism 135 In exile 138 The Eranos network 139 The myth of the shaman 151 Eliade’s History of Religions 156 Conclusion 160 6 Post-war American visions 163 Countercultural revolts 165 Countercultural interpretation of a counterculture 166 Routinisation and institutionalisation 168 American psychology 172 Psychoanalysis 173 Humanistic psychology 178 The Esalen Institute 181 Countercultural Indianness 184 Psychedelics 188 Psychedelic virtuosi 191 Psychedelic rock music 193 Poetry 194 Conclusion 200 contents vii 7 The genesis of a field of shamanism, America 1960s-1990s 203 Carlos Castaneda 206 Psychedelic anthropology 212 Barbara Myerhoff 212 Peter Furst 214 Michael Harner 217 Four shamanisms 219 Core-shamanism: Michael Harner 221 Transpersonal shamanism: Stephan Larsen 224 Buddhist shamanism: Joan Halifax 225 Medicine power: Lynn Andrews 228 The rise of shamanic practices 229 Neoliberalisation 230 Esotericism 233 The economy of shamanic goods 235 Academic expertise 237 Shamanic entrepreneurs 240 Shamanic artefacts 241 Global flows of shamanism 242 Conclusion 246 8 A Case Study: Shamanisms in the Netherlands 249 The rise of esoteric practices 250 Counterculture, 1950s-1960s 251 The me-decade, 1970s 252 Neoliberalisation: from 1980 onwards 254 The rise of shamanism 256 A pioneer (1): Joska Soos 260 A pioneer (2): Ronald Chavers 262 The genesis of a field of shamanism 264 Four shamanic practices 270 Searching Deer Jan Prins 272 The School for Shamanism 277 The Asha Institute 280 The Institute of Siberian Shamanism 285 Conclusion 290 9 Struggles for power, charisma and authority: a balance 293 Participant objectivation 295 The field of shamanism 297 Individualism 298 Consumerism 301 viii Genealogies of Shamanism Authenticity 303 Empowerment 306 Shamanisms in society 308 Genealogies of shamanism 310 Continuities and discontinuities 311 Classification 314 Conclusion 317 Bibliography 323 Nederlandse samenvatting 377 Index 389 Acknowledgements Genealogies of Shamanism is the outcome of different struggles in different fields, during which friends, colleagues and supervisors helped me to finish this book. Here I wish to thank them all. To begin, however, I must express gratitude to the Dutch shamans and shamanists who allowed me to participate in their workshops, courses and ceremonies. Their kindness and openness was greatly appreciated. I am also most grateful to the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen for funding my research. My mother and the Theo van Baaren Stichting generously supported the publication of my thesis. I was fortunate in being able to work with a group of companionable and intel- lectually stimulating fellow PhD students. Above all, it was my great fortune to have Yme Kuiper and Jan Bremmer as supervisors. They gave me ample space to get to grips with the range of fascinating subjects that are related to the concept ‘shamanism’. When required, however, they tightened the reins. I greatly benefit- ted from our intellectually stimulating meetings and their opinions and suggesti- ons have been invaluable. Last but not least, I must extend my thanks to Margit. We bumped into each other shortly before I started my research on shamanism. Now, seven years later, we are a family with three beautiful children: Mees, Jonas and Noor. I regularly escaped from family life to spend time on this book, but just as often I postponed my research to have fun with them, which was always more important than my struggles with the separate reality of the study of shamanism. Even though they delayed the publication of this book, I am delighted to dedicate it to them. 1 Approaching shamanism On the Monday evenings of October and November 2005 I attended a course in so-called ‘shu’em’ shamanism meditation in my hometown of Groningen, which is situated in the northern part of the Netherlands. The course was managed by the Asha Institute, which organises a range of other workshops and educational programmes in what they call ‘mystical shamanism’.1 As one of the meditation ses- sions came to an end and I prepared to go home, one of the workshop assistants approached me. I had met him before, on different occasions during the period of fieldwork, and I knew that he was a student of the Asha Institute. He knew that I was participating in their workshops because of my research project. At other meetings he had told me that shu’em shamanism had helped him to acquire bliss and deep spiritual insights. Now, he wanted to tell me about a book that he had recently discovered. It was a fascinating study of shamanism, he told me, and he wanted to know if I had ever heard of it. As a matter of fact, I had. And no wonder, his recent discovery was Mircea Eliade’s 1964 landmark study Shamanism. Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. The conversation surprised me as it was the first time that I had heard a shaman- ist refer to a scholar whom I knew from my training in religious studies.2 A con- versation about Eliade with an informant was atypical, as it linked the scholarly background of the term ‘shamanism’ with the contemporary practice known as shamanism. The shamanists I had met during my fieldwork practically never re- ferred directly to scholarly works about shamanism, and yet I could not but won- der about their possible link. Could it be possible to compile a line of interpreters of shamanism that would include both Eliade and Dutch shamanists? In this chapter, I will set out to explain how my early experiences directed me towards my genealogical approach. I will start with my introduction to the world of contemporary Dutch shamanisms, as these experiences had a considerable im- pact on the way I conducted my research project. The effect of these encounters are the subject of the second part of this chapter. The third part consists of an outline of the reflexive genealogical approach that I opted to use. I will distinguish my genealogical approach from three major historiographies of shamanism in the 1 For a few sites related to the Asha Institute, see www.shuem.com; www.shuem.eu; www.