IN THIS ISSUE Teaching about May 2004 Published by the American Academy of Religion Vol. 19, No. 3 Religions, Medicines, and www.aarweb.org Healing

Teaching Religion and Healing ...... ii Teaching about Linda L. Barnes

Religion, Healing, and the Embodied Subject ...... iii Suzanne J. Crawford Religions, Medicines, Teaching Religion and Healing in a Southern University ...... iv Kaja Finkler and Healing Spirituality of Healing . . . . .v Kwok Pui-lan Linda Barnes, Boston University Shamanism and Religious Healing ...... vi Guest Editor Michael Winkelman and Christopher Carr From the Editor’s Desk Shamanism and Religious Healing ...... vii Islamic civilization. It is possible to discern European languages and went through 40 Amanda Porterfield two interdependent spheres of healing and editions between the 15th and 19th cen- medicine in Islam: a science of medicine turies. His magnum opus, Al-Hawi or the Magic, Witchcraft, and that develops on the basis of rational Compendium, was one of the most compre- Healing ...... viii inquiry, observation, and clinical experience; hensive medical texts written before the Arvilla Payne-Jackson and traditions of healing that evolve from 19th century and was a standard reference ethico-moral, spiritual, and metaphysical for physicians in Europe. It covered subjects Teaching Chicanos/as and ideas. Within the Islamic ethos, medical such as surgery, clinical medicine, skin dis- Religion: Traditions and practice must be based on humanly con- eases, diet, and hygiene. Al-Razi was also a Transformations ...... ix structed theories, observation, and experi- master of psychosomatic medicine and mentation — processes given to rational treated maladies of the psyche and the body. Lara Medina investigation and revision. Healing, howev- His work Spiritual Physics offers prescrip- er, entails a synchronicity of intelligent tions on how to overcome moral and psy- Medicines, Healing, and Tazim R. Kassam human effort through medical science, as chological illnesses that ruin health. Spiritualities: A Cross- well as superrational, divine grace received Cultural Exploration ...... x Spotlight on Teaching Editor through prayer and ethical conduct. The other towering figure in Islamic sci- Paula Arai Healing in Islam is thus construed within a ences, Ibn Sina, came to be regarded as the holistic paradigm of the human being as greatest Muslim writer on medicine. His constituting a complex unity of body, encyclopedic work, Al-Qanun or the Selected Resources ...... xii EVEN YEARS HAVE PASSED mind, and soul, a microcosm of creation. Canon encompassed anatomy, diseases, since Linda Barnes, the guest edi- hygiene, disorders of the limbs, and herbal tor of this issue of Spotlight on S Accordingly, an ideal physician must not compounds and other medicines. Together Teaching, invited me to discuss healing only be equipped with scientific acumen with Al-Razi’s Compendium, Ibn Sina’s Al- The AAR Committee on practices in Islam for a session on but also be a person of ethical and spiritual Qanun “was used as a basic text in Europe’s Teaching and Learning (Eugene “Religion and/as Healing.” The aim of integrity. These multiple requirements of medical schools almost until the beginning V. Gallagher, Chair) sponsors that panel was to explore the connec- intellectual rigor, humanistic faith, and of modern times.” (Howard Turner, Science Spotlight on Teaching. It appears tions between religions, medicines, and noble character are stated by the 12th cen- in Medieval Islam, 1995: 136). Ibn Sina also twice each year in Religious healing from the viewpoint of different tury author, Nizami-i Arudi of Samarkand did pioneering work on the psychological Studies News—AAR Edition and religious traditions. Linda argued con- (d. 1174) as follows: “And no physician can aspects of illness. Perceiving the integral focuses on teaching and learn- vincingly that while medical anthropol- ing around a particular theme, be of tender disposition if he fails to recog- relationship between the environment, ogy was a well-established and respected concern, or setting. nize the nobility of the human soul; nor of emotional states, and physical health, he discipline within anthropology, no com- wise nature unless he is acquainted with advocated vigorous exercise and listening to parable subdiscipline existed within the Editor Logic; nor can he excel in acumen unless he music for maintaining good health. Ibn field of the study of religion. Tazim R. Kassam be strengthened by God’s aid; and he who Sina’s greatest treatise on healing, however, Syracuse University is not acute in conjecture will not arrive at was a religio-philosophical work called Barnes’s efforts to gain formal recognition correct understanding of any ailment, for he Kitab al-Shifa, or the Book of Healing. The for such a subfield, and to create institution- Guest Editor must derive his indications from the pulse, focus of this metaphysical work was to al academic forums that would give sus- which has a systole, a diastole, and a pause show how to cure the soul of its diseases of Linda L. Barnes tained and systematic attention to healing intervening between these two move- ignorance that alienate it from true self- Boston University practices within diverse religions in relation ments.” (Quoted in Seyyed H. Nasr, Science knowledge and God. to modern biomedical practices, have culmi- and Civilization in Islam, 1968: 185). nated in several forthcoming publications, a In sum, healing in the Islamic tradition has Spotlight on Teaching consultation on Religions, Medicines, and The central figure of learning and healing in the following characteristics: it applies to is published by the Healing at the Annual Meeting of the AAR, Islam is called hakim. Traditionally a person every level of human existence from the American Academy of Religion the establishment of the Boston Healing of encyclopedic knowledge, the hakim was physical to the spiritual; it is incumbent on 825 Houston Mill Road Landscape Project that she directs at once scholar, scientist, musician, physi- Muslims to understand the nature of the Suite 300 (www.bmc.org/pediatrics/special/bhlp), and this cian, and spiritual guide. Many of the best- cosmos, including the human body, and to issue of Spotlight on Teaching, which profiles Atlanta, GA 30329 known Muslim philosophers such as Al- apply this knowledge to secure health and various pedagogical attempts to introduce Visit www.aarweb.org Razi (b. 865), Ibn Sina (b. 980), and Ibn well-being; and finally, healing has an ethico- students to healing traditions cross-culturally. Rushd (b. 1126) were also great physicians. moral precondition: a true physician cannot Al-Razi’s famous work, On Smallpox and be a healer without trustworthy conduct and A range of beliefs and approaches to healing Measles, was translated into Latin and other spiritual wisdom. ❧ and health can be found in the history of Religious Studies News — AAR Edition Teaching Religion and Healing

Linda L. Barnes, Boston University Guest Editor

introduce healing as a dimension of reli- gious studies or, as Suzanne Crawford describes it, “healing as a religious activity.” Healing permeates virtually every religious culture One can also use healing to illustrate a dif- around the world, and can occur within and outside ferent course theme. For example, I have taught a course on methods in religious “ of conventional religious boundaries. studies, using scholarship on healing to demonstrate applications of methods. Interdisciplinary courses, such as the anthro- tional healers). I also engage residents and As a result, death can only represent failure, pology of religion, would also lend them- faculty in developing teaching cases that and is often experienced as such by biomed- selves well to this approach. Indeed, one involve complex medical, cultural, and reli- ical clinicians. ” might see whether a medical anthropologist gious issues, drawing on their own clinical is on the faculty of one’s school, and explore experience. Paradigms of Suffering and Affliction the possibility of developing a course Linda L. Barnes is an Assistant Professor at together. For that matter, one could sit in I find that developing an awareness of the Paradigms of Suffering and Affliction repre- Boston University School of Medicine. She on related courses to get up to speed on local cultural groups present in a setting is a sent explanations for why suffering and directs urban fieldwork related to culturally another discipline’s approach to the topic. useful step toward exploring world tradi- affliction happen. Many traditions, for and religiously grounded forms of comple- tions and related practices in ways that can example, explain Suffering as the fruits of mentary and alternative medicine used by One can use healing as the organizing make the course material more immediate earlier actions, whether as a sign of judg- local cultural communities, incorporating this theme of a course in multiple ways. As the for students. Whenever possible, I photo- ment, punishment, and/or testing. The work into teaching medical students, resi- essays in this issue of Spotlight richly demon- graph such practices or purchase related explanation may reiterate core narratives of dents, fellows, and faculty. Barnes co-founded strate, well-designed comparative courses paraphernalia, and use both in my teaching. a tradition: some early individuals behaved and chairs the Religions, Medicines, and Healing Consultation of the AAR. prove highly effective. If focusing on a par- Such examples range from the festival for in a forbidden way, as a result of which all ticular cultural group, as Lara Medina does, Our Lady of Soccorso Boston’s North End subsequent humans suffer. Within the tra- one can explore the history and variations of and the festival for Saints Cosmas and jectories of Buddhism, the very nature of religious healing within that group. If con- Damian in my hometown of Cambridge reality is characterized as impermanent. The Introduction centrating on a particular tradition, one can (www.cosmas-and-damian.com/home.htm), to human desire to hold onto things is routine- EALING IS A PROCESS of restor- look at the history of different understand- photographing Chinese medicine practition- ly frustrated, causing suffering. ing a person and/or group to whole- ings and practices of healing within that tra- ers. When I travel, I look for sites related to Consequently, Suffering constitutes a funda- H ness and well-being, and relates to dition or complex of traditions. As Amanda healing, such as the church of St. Roch in mental human experience, until one learns the experience and outcome of that effort Porterfield shows, the history of healing in New Orleans, the Santuario de Chimayo in how to disengage from its causes. Generally, and its effects. Healing permeates virtually the trajectories of Christianity is a fertile New Mexico, or pilgrimage sites that often paradigms of Suffering and Affliction are every religious culture around the world, field. I have taught a course on the history include petitions for healing, such as the offset by paradigms of Healing. The former and can occur within and outside of con- of Chinese healing traditions, which has Hanuman Temple in Taos, New Mexico. attempt to explain why we suffer, the latter ventional religious boundaries. In some entailed not only introducing Chinese reli- offer possible responses and ultimate alter- cases, it means “curing,” the elimination of gions but also Chinese healing, particularly natives. symptoms; it can also refer to other kinds of as these have represented variations on reli- A Comparative Framework meaningful change. It is culturally and his- gious worldviews and practices. In all of my teaching, I have found it essen- Such paradigms may frame how each party torically informed by the tradition(s) within tial to use a comparative framework that interprets specific experiences. “Am I being which it is rooted. Scholarship in American medical history has draws on the work of medical anthropolo- punished? Am I being tested?” “Am I to included not only the emergence of gists like my own mentor, Arthur Kleinman, learn something from this?” On the other In the study of anthropology, systems of biomedicine, but also concurrent vitalist and Tom Csordas. Although each heading hand, actual experience may lead individuals healing have secured extensive scholarly practices that have regularly intersected with can be subdivided in various ways, I find to reject a paradigm as inadequate to attention, particularly in what has emerged religious/spiritual traditions. There is a sur- the following seven categories analytically account for a particular reality, and to strug- as the field of medical anthropology. Many feit of resources for syllabus development useful. gle to find some other reason for why that such systems are religious. Yet in the study representing both majority and minority reality is happening. In such cases, the per- of religion, issues of healing have often been groups in American culture and history, as Paradigms of Healing: Ultimate son is still searching for a paradigm ade- conceptualized as limited to bioethics, or to some of Arvilla Payne-Jackson’s scholarship Human Possibility quate to the experience. Some of these the study of groups whose religious world- illustrates. Advanced courses could include paradigms may be experienced as punitive. Paradigms of Healing — with a capital “H” views result in tensions with biomedical textual translation and analysis, or more If a family is told, for example, that God — refer to an understanding of ultimate caregivers. The influence of New Age and ambitious historical or fieldwork projects. doesn’t give them more to bear than they human possibility. Healing, here, represents self-help movements has generated can handle, it is hard not to think, “If we a tradition’s deepest hope and promise. It widespread popular sources on healing that In settings where professional development were weaker, would our beloved family may be a way of talking about a person’s are sometimes incorporated uncritically is foremost, as in divinity schools and semi- member be living with this disability? relation to a highest reality, whether that be when religion faculty address the topic of naries, one could teach how healing has fig- Would they still be alive?” The sacred may known as God, Yahweh, Allah, Atman, healing. ured in the history of a given denomination. be represented as indifferent or punishing. Nirvana, Obatala, kamis, Tian, or other One can also look at some of the cross-cul- Yet the paradox of many traditions is that names. It may take the form of salvation, a For a subdiscipline analogous to medical tural resources developed in relation to the sacred is represented as both merciful place in Heaven, life in a World to Come, anthropology to develop, five steps are chaplaincy training. Some medical schools and loving, and as a force of judgment that Paradise, Nirvana, freedom from cycles of essential. First, religion scholars — as part of now offer courses on “medicine and spiritu- is sometimes terrifying. The challenge may rebirth, immortality, sagehood, revered faculty development — must become famil- ality” — many of them reflecting little involve navigation through such paradoxes. ancestral status, remaining alive in human iar with the wealth of existing scholarship scholarship on religion and healing, and few memory, or something else not related to on religion and healing, both broadly and in preparing medical students to engage in cul- The Parts of Personhood any particular tradition. relation to their own fields. Second, we tural and religious pluralism. As a member must incorporate these materials into our of a medical school faculty, where I teach Virtually no tradition defines a person only Healing, understood in this way, relativizes teaching, using courses as contexts for deep- medical students, residents, and faculty, it in relation to bodily dimensions. Even everything else about human life. It func- ening our own knowledge, training stu- has been my experience that there is a gen- biomedicine includes “mind,” although tions as the frame of reference within which dents, and learning from their research. In erally untapped opportunity for religion often in relation to neurological structures. someone may interpret the rest of his or her this connection, we must also work towards scholars to engage in medical education. American popular culture, through the experience, including the meaning of health doctoral concentrations in the study of reli- influence of New Age thought, has oriented in this lifetime. The influence of such gion and healing. Third, we must engage To illustrate: I teach a semester-long elective many people to conceptualize “the whole visions of ultimate possibility is often read the issue in our own scholarship. Fourth, we for medical students on the cultural forma- person” as a combination of “body, mind, back into how people conduct their lives, must have forums where we can present tion of the clinician and its implications for and spirit.” Because these categories have leading them to try to live in ways that will such work — one of the rationales for the introducing unexamined biases into clinical taken such deep root in the culture, they bring about this healing. Religions, Medicines, and Healing practice — a course that includes a unit on can seem self-evident. But not every culture Consultation. Finally, we must publish this religious formation. I also present lectures or tradition understands “body, mind, and Many traditions and related systems of heal- work, with related attention to theory and on an integrative approach to culture, com- spirit” to be the only parts or aspects consti- ing represent some aspects of Healing as analysis, and have our colleagues recognize it plementary and alternative systems of heal- tuting a person. occurring after death. Death, therefore, as a legitimate area within religious studies. ing, and religious worldviews, and give a becomes a transition, marking a change of fourth-year intensive elective (one month) In some traditions, the key element may be state. In contrast, biomedicine is a tradition that introduces students to cross-cultural a vital force. In Chinese systems, for with no way of talking about what follows Types of Courses understandings and practices of healing death, since the demise of the body repre- See BARNES p.xi One can start small. A unit in a course can (including community site visits to tradi- sents the end of biomedicine intervention. ii • May 2004 AAR RSN SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING Religion, Healing, and the Embodied Subject

Suzanne J. Crawford, Pacific Lutheran University

own medical experiences, considering the unit four (“Active Bodies”), the purpose of legacy of colonialism? Unit six (“Gendered symbols, rituals, and messages that have which is to provide a space for comparison Bodies”) emphasizes the role of gender in been conveyed within them. between traditions. Drawing from phe- healing through a look at Christian, Islamic, nomenological studies of embodiment and Jewish approaches to pregnancy and I also encourage students to begin rethink- that emphasize the view from within — infertility, and at the impact of society’s con- ing fundamental understandings of heal- the experiential reality of being in a body struction of masculinity. For instance, stu- ing and illness. Healing can be seen as a — this unit focuses on the importance of dents read Howard Harrod’s powerful fundamentally religious practice if, as movement and performativity in these “Essay on Desire,” in which he reflects Hahn argues, illness is seen as “an healing traditions, and the transformative upon the impact that his battle with cancer unwanted condition in one’s person or power of such traditions, including yoga, has had on his sexuality and sense of self. self,” as an inability to be one’s self, an tai chi, healing dance, and ritual action. inability to fully engage with one’s appro- Most centrally, this unit reinforces the Finally, unit seven (“Political Bodies”) priate identity, and that “the soul of sick- notion of subtle physiologies: bodily sys- emphasizes the political implications of ness is closer to the self than the cell.”1 tems existing between pure matter and cross-cultural interaction and polarized This notion of illness conveys a sense of pure spirit which can be manipulated debates over parental authority, through a Suzanne J. Crawford is Assistant Professor healing as a religious activity, one that is through physical and spiritual practice, careful reading of Anne Fadiman’s The of Religion and Culture at Pacific fundamentally about self-making, through and which appear to be present in nearly Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Lutheran University in Tacoma, ritual, symbol, and storytelling. If healing every healing tradition outside of Western Through its presentation of Hmong Washington. Her publications include is linked to notions of selfhood, then biomedicine. approaches to healing, disease etiology, and Native American Religious Traditions determining culturally distinct views of the philosophical assumptions upon which (Prentice Hall and Lawrence King, 2004) the embodied self becomes essential. For these rest, the book demonstrates how and the three-volume American Indian this reason, much of this class is devoted Healing can be seen as a understandings of the self, the body, ill- Religious Traditions: An Encyclopedia to exploring selfhood as it is understood fundamentally religious ness, and healing are culturally distinct. It (ABC-CLIO, 2004). in a variety of religious and philosophical makes clear how healing is a process of systems. practice if, as Hahn argues, self-making for the community and for the “ illness is seen as “an individual, and it highlights the impact of We begin with the tradition of Western inequalities of gender, class, and ethnicity OURSES ON RELIGION and biomedicine. Readings present a com- unwanted condition in through the family’s struggles with Lia’s healing are uniquely situated to pelling argument that biomedicine itself one’s person or self,” as an doctors and Child Protective Services. C meet what I see as the fundamental can be viewed as a kind of religion, insofar educational goals of the liberal arts cur- as it is constructed around ritual practices, inability to be one’s self, an At the conclusion of this class, students riculum and the goals of religious studies ethics, faith, symbol systems, and a sacred inability to fully engage come to look at the work of healing as a as a discipline more specifically: to disrupt hierarchy. Getting students to see process of self-making, of navigating and students’ preconceived worldviews, present biomedicine as a religious system and a with one’s appropriate coping with illness, in all its wider experi- them with multiple alternative perspec- product of culture, based upon certain identity. ential implications. Healing requires ritual, tives, and challenge them to evaluate these philosophical, spiritual, and cultural ceremony, storytelling, community, and a perspectives critically. Hence, the goals of assumptions, is not an easy task. They sense of one’s location in the cosmos, and this course are to enable students to reflect continually tend to return to a sense of One primary goal of this course is for stu- takes place within subtle physiologies, not upon their own philosophical assumptions biomedicine as “real” medicine, and other dents to begin a process of critical reflec- merely biochemical systems. Students about the body, healing, and spirituality traditions as superstitious, inferior, or less tion on the nature of healing, and” what it reflect critically upon their own cultural with a new critical distance, seeing these evolved. Texts such as Horace Miner’s means to achieve wellness. Unit five background and biomedical tradition, dis- assumptions as a product of our own his- “Body Ritual of the Nacirema,” and (“Sacred Bodies”) continues this phe- play knowledge of other approaches to torical and cultural context; to appreciate Robbie Davis-Floyd’s Birth as an American nomenological look at healing, emphasiz- health and wellness, evaluate points of con- and critically empathize with alternative Rite of Passage can be helpful. I also have ing the role of healing traditions in self- nection and dissonance between them, and perspectives on the body and healing; and students explore their own experiences making, in crafting a new sense of person- suggest ways in which multiple perspectives to analyze the power relations that emerge with biomedicine in personal reflection hood. The purpose of the unit is both to on wellness might be brought together, when different perspectives (often linked essays. find points of connection between healing both within their own lives and within to class, gender, and ethnicity) come into traditions of the East and West, and to contemporary culture as a whole. Thus, as I contact with each other. Having established these notions of heal- continue this process of critical reflection suggested at the outset, a course such as ing and selfhood, and having disrupted on the meaning of healing. Here, this this uniquely meets the demands and peda- This course is divided into seven units, the a priori certitude of biomedicine, I involves traditions of Pentecostalism, gogical goals of religious studies as a disci- each oriented around particular modes of introduce units two and three, which pre- Catholicism, and Orthodox Judaism. To pline and the liberal arts as a whole: it embodied subjectivity: “Biomedical sent alternative perspectives, including help students engage with the notion of encourages students to reflect critically Bodies”; “Complementary Bodies”; Traditional Chinese Medicine healing as self-making, students are asked upon their own preconceived assumptions, “Porous Bodies”; “Active Bodies”; “Sacred (“Complementary Bodies”), Tibetan to apply the concept to a “real life” indi- it provides them with multiple alternative Bodies”; “Gendered Bodies”; and Buddhist Medicine, and healing traditions vidual. Throughout the semester, students perspectives, and it gives them the tools “Political Bodies.” The first three units are among the Diné, or Navajo (“Porous work in groups, creating a patient biogra- with which to crucially evaluate them. guided by theories from medical anthro- Bodies”). The course works to encourage phy (based on an actual or fictitious 1 Hahn 1996, 5. pology on the cultural specificity of heal- critical empathy: understanding the ratio- patient), and researching biomedical and ing traditions, drawing on the work of nale and reasoning behind other world- alternative treatment options. As they Arthur Kleinman and Robert Hahn; units views and traditions, seeing through reflect upon their research and compose Selected Resources four and five emphasize questions of the someone else’s eyes, without necessarily “treatment recommendations” for the Csordas, Thomas. The Sacred Self: A Cultural phenomenology of embodiment, using adopting that position as one’s own. These patient, they are asked to consider the role Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing. Berkeley: Thomas Csordas’s work; and units six and units seek to establish both a basic knowl- of self-making in their patient’s healing University of California Press, 1994. seven are guided by theories of the body edge of the physiologies, etiologies, and process. What is the self this person is and power, building on Michel Foucault, modes of cure involved in these medical meant to embody? What stands in the Davis-Floyd, Robbie. Birth as an American Rite Denise Riley, and Susan Bordo. systems; to introduce the notion that there way? How can these obstacles to wellness of Passage. Berkeley: University of California are multiple ways of perceiving the body, be overcome? As a whole, such projects Press, 1992. The first unit, “Biomedical Bodies,” is causes of disease, illness, and approaches help students apply abstract ideas to real- Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You devoted to disrupting established cate- to healing; and that these differences are life scenarios, thus expanding their under- Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American gories of thought, introducing key theo- based on culturally distinct notions of the standing of course material, as well as Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures. New retical principles, and enabling students to self. Again, students are asked to make gaining a better sense of how multiple York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997. reflect critically upon their own biomedi- connections between course materials and healing traditions compare and interact cal tradition. I want students to begin to their own lives. For instance, following a with each other. Hahn, Robert A. Sickness and Healing: An see even Western biomedicine as an inher- discussion of Tibetan and Diné dry paint- Anthropological Perspective. New Haven: Yale ently religious, ritual-bound phenomenon, ings, students are asked to construct their Having looked at healing traditions in their University Press, 1996. emerging from a particular culture-bound own mandala, and reflect upon their own idealized form, we turn to the final two Harrod, Howard. “Essay on Desire.” Journal of worldview. The second goal is to give stu- sacred geographies and the ways in which units, which seek to locate these traditions the American Medical Association 289 (2003): dents theoretical tools and terminologies their personal identities are tied into land, within the real world of political and social 813–814. to begin discussing multiple healing sys- lineage, and community. inequalities. If healing is truly about self- tems. In particular, this unit focuses on making, then the lived reality of that self Kleinman, Arthur. The Illness Narratives. New the distinction between illness and disease, Having introduced a variety of healing must be considered. What does it mean for York: Basic Books, 1988. and definitions of healing. Finally, this traditions outside of Western biomedicine an individual to create a working identity, if Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual of the unit seeks to provide students with an and having established the multiplicity of that identity is compromised by poverty, Nacirema.” American Anthropologist 58, no. 3 opportunity to reflect critically upon their views of the embodied self, I then turn to despair, gendered inequality or the historical (June 1956): 37–41. ❧

May 2004 AAR RSN • iii Religious Studies News — AAR Edition Teaching Religion and Healing in a Southern University

Kaja Finkler, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

actions by others, reflecting values involv- in the world. Since I dwell on the I usually underscore that when such states ing justice and social expectations. The Spiritualist healing that I studied, I discuss are reached in the context of a religious etiological belief about anger also suggests how a major way that Spiritualist healers ritual or healing, they happen under a form of social control; that is, if one know the world is through spirit possession. extremely controlled and usually commu- does not control one’s anger, one may fall nal conditions. Students recognize that ill. I want students to examine how any We then move to different forms of reli- such states have meaning within the reli- healing system, whether religious or secu- gious healing. I use Katz’s Boiling Energy, gious context, whereas altered states lar, is embedded in a society, and reflects which describes in excellent detail the involving drugs or sports are sought for major themes of that society. Much as Kung of the Kalahari Desert, their culture, recreational purposes and are devoid of biomedicine reflects a technological soci- religion, and healing. I follow with my such meanings. In the final analysis, how- ety in which we live, so does the Kung own work on Spiritualist healers in ever, it can be difficult to teach issues asso- healing system of the Kalahari Desert Mexico, and then with Fadiman. Her ciated with sacred healing that border the reflect the egalitarian nature of the society, work brings us back to Western medicine mystical and the enchanted, because stu- its lack of technology, its aesthetics, and but also gives us a fine view of Hmong dents themselves seem to acknowledge its emphasis on community. traditional healing beliefs and practices. It that these are alien to them. They admit Kaja Finkler is Professor of Anthropology is especially appropriate for this class to lacking a genuine point of reference, at the University of North Carolina at We have seen the burst of interest in com- because it brings into bold relief the clash except for the occasional student who Chapel Hill. She is the author of five books plementary and alternative healing in the between American and Hmong cultural comes out of a charismatic tradition. and numerous articles on religious healing United States. A core question I pose is understandings of sickness, illustrates and and its efficacy, and biomedical beliefs and “In light of the great advances made by explains Hmong shamanistic practices, Finally, we revisit the initial question practices in Mexico and the United States. biomedicine, why do more and more and raises numerous ethical issues. posed in the syllabus that relates to medi- 21st-century Americans resort to alterna- cal pluralism in America. As in most soci- tive healers?” I indicate that to answer this Since so many religious healing systems — eties, people in the United States tend to question is to explore the nature of several including the Kung, the Spiritualists, and resort to alternative healing systems when healing systems cross-culturally, including the Hmong — resort to altered states of they have been unsuccessfully treated by ECAUSE RELIGION is an emo- biomedicine. I ask students, when consciousness, I spend a considerable physicians — when biomedicine has failed tionally charged subject, teaching approaching ethnographic descriptions of amount of time discussing such states of them. We also explore the comparative about it and about healing tradi- B religious healing systems, to find similari- consciousness from cultural and experien- meanings of efficacy, including those of tions in entry-level college courses requires ties and differences between sacred and tial perspectives. We discuss the human biomedicine. By biomedical standards, for different approaches than teaching topics example, efficacy of any healing system that do not always touch on a student’s depends on eliminating the cause of a par- personal feelings. Consideration must ticular disease. Biomedicine has been suc- therefore be given to the specific back- cessful in eliminating the causes of infec- grounds of the students, particularly if tious diseases with antibiotics, and many come out of conservative Christian arguably with surgery or transplants. In traditions, as is the case with the Southern the majority of disorders, however, university where I teach. Because students biomedicine treats the symptoms and its from such backgrounds may be sensitive I want students to ministrations are palliative. In much to discussions of religious beliefs and prac- sacred healing — of which the tices from an analytic rather than a theo- examine how any Spiritualists serve as an example — most logical perspective, one must address such healing system, treatments do not eliminate the causes of topics with great sensitivity. At the same “ the disorder. Rather, they address the time, the influence of discourses based on whether religious or symptoms that may be associated with tra- scientific rationality requires subtle naviga- secular, is embedded ditional etiological understandings, tion when teaching about the mystical in a society, and including witchcraft, evil, and suffering. aspects of religious healing — including the use of altered states of consciousness reflects major themes Most important, teaching about religious — to students, many of whom are bound of that society. healing allows students to begin to recog- for medical school. nize and learn about “the other” by plac- ing themselves in the other’s shoes. For I require students to think critically about this reason I regard this enterprise as a all the readings and topics. They may moral endeavor since, as the philosopher come in with stereotypical views about the Levinas suggests, empathy may be the core nature of religious healing, either perceiv- ” of much of human morality. ing it as quackery or idealizing along the Spiritualist performing healing, Mexico (Courtesy lines of the “noble savage.” My aim is to of Kaja Finkler) disabuse them of either view. I want them, Resources instead, to recognize the multidimensional Fadiman, Ann. The Spirit Catches You and You nature of any healing practice, including Fall Down. New York: Noonday Press, 1998. biomedicine, and to learn that all healing secular healing systems — how they differ desire to know reality through an altered systems may be effective in some cases and Finkler, Kaja. “Sacred and Biomedical Healing and how they are the same. We examine state, contrasted with scientific views of ineffective in others. Compared.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 8: the role of symbols in human life, includ- what happens to human consciousness 179–197. ing those used in both sacred and secular when people are in a trance, or become I stress that they must distinguish “the for- healing. We also analyze the healing pro- possessed by spirits, and their brain waves Finkler, Kaja. Spiritualist Healers in Mexico: est from the trees,” a metaphor they seem cess, including differences between healing deviate from the usual patterns. I ask Successes and Failures of Alternative Therapeutics. to remember years later better than any and curing, and the meanings of efficacy “Why do human beings seek transcen- New York: Praeger, 1985. specific point discussed in class. We may in different systems. We address ethical dence through altered states?” focus on specific healing systems — the Jordan, Brigitte. Birth in Four Cultures: A dilemmas resulting from differences trees — but each one opens windows onto Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in between cultural understandings, as for Students find the section on altered states of the broader society of which it is part — Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States, example between biomedical interventions consciousness both far and near. It is far the forest. I draw on my extensive field- 4th ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, and the convictions of groups who refuse when we talk about forms of apotheosis and work in Mexico, where I not only studied 1993. such treatment and interventions. transcendence, when a person confronts the both biomedical practices and Spiritualist Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You “true reality,” as the Kung say. In such Katz, Richard. Boiling Energy: Community healing, and the efficacy of the healers’ Fall Down raises many of these questions. instances, students often recognize that they Healing among the Kalahari Kung. Cambridge, ministrations, but also trained to become live in a society dominated by skepticism MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. a healer. Using these materials, students By way of introduction I discuss the and disenchantment, making it difficult for learn how beliefs regarding the causality of Strathern, Andrew, and Pamela J. Stewart, eds. nature of religion in general; I call atten- them to comprehend such mystical ideas. It sickness can illuminate broader social pro- Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in tion to some major characteristics of many is near when the discussion turns to altered cesses and cultural contexts. Global Perspective. Durham, NC: Carolina religious systems, including attempts to states achieved by using drugs, including Academic Press, 1999. ❧ explain how the universe works, the cre- marijuana and LSD. Occasionally students For example, in Mexico anger is viewed as ation or emergence of the world, how may note having entered an exalted state a major cause of sickness. While the attri- humans came to be, and how to explain while attending a sports event that is simi- bution of sickness to anger is in and of adversity, with sickness and suffering larly a communal event, but then quickly itself significant, we also discuss notions being a central concern. All religious sys- recognize that it lacked the sacred context to about anger as moral statements that may tems promote a way of knowing and being give it significance. suggest responses to injustice, or improper iv • May 2004 AAR RSN SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING Spirituality of Healing

Kwok Pui-lan, Episcopal son is capable of integrating the body, to legitimate discrimination against gays It is helpful to ask students in the begin- Divinity School mind, and spirit, of maintaining just and and lesbians. Many gay and lesbian theolo- ning to name their fears and vulnerability right relationships with other human gians have helped rediscover the profound in taking this course, and to suggest ways of beings, and of communion with the divine connection between sexuality and spirituali- overcoming such challenges. The course’s and the whole cosmos. To counteract the ty, and between human eros and the love of success also hinges on, and is dependent prevalent body-mind split in higher educa- God. We challenged each other to think upon, the general learning atmosphere of tion, I want to engage the body, and respect how an expansive understanding of human the school. Otherwise this type of learning the different ways of knowing and multiple sexuality would influence our sexual expres- is likely to be labeled “soft” or “nonacadem- intelligences of the students. We began each sion and bodily practices as both gay and ic.” My school’s mission statement stresses class with a short meditation guided by a straight people. The closing ritual was led the goal of embracing diversity and multi- chant from Thich Nhat Hanh. I also teach by a student, who created a wonderful litur- culturalism in our curriculum and peda- them tai chi, and explain how the move- gy blessing our bodies. gogy. Students are asked to integrate their ments enact the interplay between yin and own spiritual pursuit with what is happen- yang, and amply illustrate the principles of I concluded the class with a section on ing in the classroom, which does not always balance and transformation in Chinese healing and social transformation, because I happen — even in a divinity school. We medicine. When I invite an acupuncturist wanted to include practical suggestions and say repeatedly in class, “When the student to demonstrate in class, many students are strategies for how we could bring what we is ready, the teacher will come.” eager to be “guinea pigs.” had learned into congregations and work- Kwok Pui-lan is Professor of Theology at the places. We engaged in a critical analysis of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Learning to Teach Massachusetts. Her areas of teaching and For each session, I ask one volunteer to cre- the middle-class structure and ethos of research include Christian theology, world ate a centerpiece as a visual focus for the mainline congregations and workplaces, In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer Christianity, religion and culture, Asian topic discussed, and another to select a and explored ways that spirituality could be explores the inner spiritual landscape of the religions, and women’s studies. poem or invocation to read. In the class- more relevant to corporate life. teacher and emphasizes that we teach who room we often debate about truth and dis- we are, and that the identity and integrity cuss virtue, but seldom attend to beauty of the teacher matter. In teaching this and imagination. The creation of center- course, I have experienced a dynamic and pieces becomes an important channel for intimate interplay between my knowledge URING ORIENTATION, I tell The issue of sexuality students to interface what they are learning and passion for the subject, my embodi- students that if they want to train with their own spiritual journeys, and a has direct bearings on ment of the values taught in the course, not just the mind, but also the D means for community building. We con- spirituality and healing, and my role as a model for the students. body, they might want to consider taking clude each class with a short ritual led by Throughout my graduate training, I never the course “Spirituality of Healing.” My “because it touches on me for the first few times and then by stu- participated in a class that involved the students come from diverse backgrounds: dent volunteers. Over the course of the the desire and longing for body, which means I have had to acquire a health care professionals, priests, cancer term, the centerpieces and closing rituals new set of skills and expand my teaching survivors, musicians, artists, teachers, and intimacy. create a rich visual memory, much like a repertoire. I applied for a grant to go to business people. The majority of them are mosaic of contrasting colors, shapes, and Italy to learn more about religious arts, and Christians who are interested in exploring sizes. To allow creativity to flow and to fos- visited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village in the spiritual foundation of healing, and ter a noncompetitive learning atmosphere, Southern France and the Taizé community the connection between the body, the students are encouraged to take the course as a participant observer. I discussed with mind, and the spirit. pass-fail, instead of for a grade. Success and Evaluation ” colleagues in theological schools about teaching spirituality and exchanged syllabi As a Chinese professor, I want to intro- How do we evaluate the effectiveness of a with them. I practice tai chi and yoga and duce a cross-cultural perspective of heal- course that includes meditation, music, Personal and Systemic Dimensions have observed reiki, chi gong, foot massage, ing, drawing insights from Chinese and poetry, lecture, discussion, centerpieces, and and demonstrations of healing touch. Christian traditions. I believe that if stu- of Healing ritual? The most important indicator, by far, Located in Boston, I have used the dents can learn to appreciate Eastern and Because American culture is highly individ- is the level of student participation, because resources available from the Mind/Body Western ways of healing as cultural coun- ualistic, many popular self-help books on the course is designed in such a way that Medical Institute of Harvard Medical terpoints, they will develop a broadened healing focus on the personal dimension: collaborative learning is key to its success. School and Boston’s Chinatown to enhance understanding of healing, and acquire the diet, personal health, aging, and coping The enthusiasm shown by students in tak- my teaching. tools needed to learn from traditions other with pain and depression. To broaden stu- ing turns to create an aesthetic and commu- than their own. In the beginning of the dents’ horizons, I talk about the different nal learning environment, and their engage- 1 Jane Tompkins, A Life in School: What the class, I emphasize that healing is an open images and metaphors used to describe the ment with the readings and discussion, indi- Teacher Learned (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, book and no one has all the answers. I body, the diagnostic process, and the roles cate the degree to which they embrace this 1996), xii. ❧ encouraged students to share what they of the healer in Chinese and Western heal- pedagogy, which does not involve their know about the subject and participate ing systems. As students see that healing brains alone. Through reading their weekly actively in class, so they will feel a sense of has personal, interpersonal, cultural, insti- journals, I derived a broader picture of how ownership of the learning process. I share tutional, and spiritual dimensions, they individuals were learning in class. the insights from Jane Tompkins’s com- become more open to discussing the diffi- pelling book, A Life in School: What the cult issues of racism, homophobia, and Teacher Learned: “My chief concern is that gender discrimination. I use personal narra- our educational system does not focus on tives from well-known writers like James the inner lives of students or help them to Baldwin, Alice Walker, Richard Rodriguez, acquire the self-understanding that is the and Andrew Holleran to discuss racism and basis for a satisfying life. Nor, by and other forms of internalized oppression. I large, does it provide the safe and nurtur- enlist the help of both white students and ing environment that people need in order students of color to share their reflections, to grow.”1 and ensure that students of color do not feel that we were dealing with “their prob- lems,” or that their lived experience is put Engaging the Body under microscopic scrutiny. Healing has so much to do with the body. In Chinese philosophy and medicine, the As I taught the course in the fall of 2003, human body is often seen as a complex the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and integrated organism, a microcosm of ruled that gays and lesbians had the legal the universe, and not as a machine with right to marry under the Massachusetts con- separate parts to be fixed. In contrast, early stitution. The issue of sexuality has direct Christian writers were influenced by bearings on spirituality and healing, because Gnosticism and neo-Platonism and it touches on the desire and longing for inti- espoused a hierarchical view of the spirit macy, the seeking of fulfillment in erotic over the flesh. The Augustinian under- relationships, and the risk and vulnerability standing of sexuality and original sin fur- in opening oneself and loving others. We ther contributed to a negative view of the began the discussion with sexual identity body, the separation between spirituality development, so that both gay and straight and sexuality, and the repression of desire students would reflect on their journeys of in Western Christian traditions. coming to know their own sexuality. We discussed how sexuality is socially construct- In designing the course, I hoped to recover ed and different cultures have diverse Ex votos at the Santuario de Chimayo, New Mexico, petitioning and giving thanks for healing the body as a locus of spiritual wisdom. I expressions of the sexual self. It was impor- (Courtesy of Linda Barnes) define spirituality as that dimension of the tant to explore biblical teachings on sexuali- human subject by virtue of which the per- ty, since the Bible has selectively been used May 2004 AAR RSN • v Religious Studies News, AAR Edition Shamanism and Religious Healing

Christopher Carr, Arizona State University of spirits as manifestations of the Shamanism courses can attract students psyche and natural structures of with counseling needs beyond the capaci- Michael Winkelman, Arizona State University human consciousness — an ty of the instructors and ordinary class- understanding that represents etic room contact. Visionary experiences can (outsider) cultural perspectives. produce disturbing psychological material that cannot be adequately addressed (5) Interactions of cultural, social, because of classroom constraints or the biopsychological, and spiritual lack of professional qualifications. mechanisms that underlie shaman- Consequently, when teaching an experi- istic healing are also considered. ential class, we have counseling co-faculty Especially important are body- in the class (when possible) and arrange mind interactions, symbolic effects for referral to the student counseling cen- upon the body, psychosomatic ter to deal with any issues, should they reactions, and unifying psycho- emerge. We also feel that students should socio-biological effects of be advised about risks in experiential metaphor. courses, and should be self-screened to dissuade those with psychological and Photo courtesy of Robert Williams Experiential Approaches emotional disturbances. Christopher Carr is a Professor of Michael Winkelman is Director of A significant aspect of our teaching about The second challenge is the perception of Anthropological Archaeology at the Ethnographic Field School and shamanism involves engaging students in some Native Americans that shamanic Arizona State University, where he Head of the Sociocultural shamanic cosmology, worldview, and practices are Native American cultural teaches the archaeology of sociopoliti- Subdiscipline Department of ways of knowing, based upon direct expe- property — an exclusive cultural right — cal organization and belief systems, Anthropology at Arizona State riences produced by ritual, particularly and that white people should not engage the analysis of style in material cul- University. His primary research drumming and shamanic journeying. in any such activities. Whenever such sen- ture, mortuary practices, quantitative and teaching areas include medical Shamanic cosmologies — for instance, sitivities are present among local groups methods, material technological anthropology, particularly shamanic experiences of the levels of the world and (and one should check), one should avoid analyses, and Eastern U.S. prehistory. healing, and cross-cultural relations. the forces of the cardinal directions — using their materials to illustrate shamanis- can be described to students. But it is far tic practices. At the same time, we hold more compelling to allow students to that it is questionable whether any con- directly experience these elements for temporary Native American religious E ADDRESS SPIRITUAL Systematic, cross-cultural research that themselves. activities approximate core shamanism as healing practices of shamanism identifies social conditions associated with we use the term, and therefore that it is in a multidisciplinary context. different forms of shamanistic healers (core W Another significant aspect of the experi- important to differentiate core shamanism Our approach integrates the classic perspec- shamans, shaman/healers, mediums, and ential approach entails engaging the from Native American spiritual practices. tive of Eliade and Harner’s “core” shaman- healers) serves the pedagogical function in shamanic epistemology of the spirit Cross-cultural research has established that ism in the context of cross-cultural distinguishing “core shamans” from a vari- world, characterized as the “spirit hypoth- shamanistic practices are not the property research, prehistoric cultural-evolutionary ety of other “shamanistic” healers to whom esis.” We emphasize accepting the emic of any particular culture, but rather are research, evolutionary biology perspectives, the term shaman has been overextended. (cultural) perspectives that express views universal activities of premodern societies. and contemporary practices. We distin- Contextualizing shamanistic practices along of empirical reality of spirit experience, guish core shamans from other healing socioeconomic differences also permits us even as we also maintain a critical atti- Questions about cultural appropriation practitioners and address the bases for uni- to address issues of structural violence and tude about their ontological reality, the can also be addressed by presenting infor- versal manifestations of shamanistic healers the destruction of shamanic practices ultimate source of the experiences. We mation about the ancient roots of — practitioners who use ASC (altered through political integration, class warfare, address such questions from a number of shamanism in one’s own culture. states of consciousness) to interact with the colonialism, and other forms of repression perspectives, including an approach that Remnants of shamanism in European spirit world to heal, divine, and fulfill other associated with the development of state- naturalizes spirits as normal phenomena cultures would include the rock art tradi- needs on behalf of their communities. level political organizations. These histori- of human consciousness — the projec- tions, reinterpretations of ancient cal processes of repressing shamanic spiritu- tion of the human self and cognitive and witchcraft, and modern reconstructions ality are also related to contemporary atti- emotional capacities into the unknown. of Celtic shamanism. Course Goals and Content tudes towards shamanism and spirituality, Ethnography and archaeology deepen particularly in the “helping” professions. The experiential activities are often Some Native Americans, as well as some descriptions of shamanic practices, while offered in a separate context (e.g., week- colleagues, have objected to experiential the cross-cultural, comparative approach ends or evening classes), using structured aspects of shamanism being taught in a allows for identification of similarities and Theoretical Issues in Course Design rituals to help students directly experi- university, arguing that students should differences among shamanistic traditions The cross-cultural frameworks reveal struc- ence cosmological, spiritual, and personal not have spiritual experiences induced in and the social and other conditions shaping tural constants of shamanism and shaman- dynamics associated with shamanism. classroom settings. We have responded by their particular forms. Our course objec- istic healers, illustrating the universal prin- Engaging in ritual is a tangible way to pointing out that other academic fields tives also include (1) providing an under- ciples of shamanistic practices that we then learn aspects of shamanistic worldviews, — music appreciation, music therapy, standing of the empirical basis for the con- address from perspectives of human biolo- since rituals can produce profound alter- cross-cultural training, psychiatry, geolo- cept of the shaman; (2) exploring the social gy, medicine, and psychology. ations in experience. These activities pro- gy, and meteorology — induce experi- factors that produce differences in shaman- vide personal data for relating to read- ences related to the fields they study. istic activities; and (3) explaining the bio- (1) A cross-cultural approach establishes ings, and help students cognitively grasp Some may also object that teaching logical factors that have resulted in a world- universals of shamanism and cross- and directly come to know shamanic shamanism exposes students to powerful wide manifestation of shamanistic phenom- cultural differences in shamanistic concepts about the nature of mind, its forces they are not prepared to manage, ena. The experiential activities are designed practices, while also illustrating structure and content, mind-body inter- because of inadequate preparation, and to broaden student appreciation of non- social and cultural influences, as well actions, and spirit. the lack of a support system and long- Western cultures, to engage in shamanic as psychological healing needs term guidance to deal with great powers types of experiences, and to expand student embedded in a social-evolutionary The activities include: (1) guided imagery beyond their control. Students are understanding of the nature of the self. We framework. similar to shamanic journeying; (2) active advised of these potential psychological, also recognize, however, that these experi- imagination with music and internal social, and/or spiritual difficulties, and ential activities produce some personal and (2) The psychobiological bases of focus of attention; (3) exploring the spiri- are also told that the shamanic practition- professional concerns (addressed below). altered states of consciousness (ASC) tual dimensions of nature in relationships ers have always faced the risk of a world provide a framework for under- to rocks, trees, and other elements of of powers beyond their control. The We begin by introducing ethnographic, standing worldwide similarities in nature; and (4) using intuition to get other supports we put in place are cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary materi- shamanistic practices, placing the direction. Other course materials with an intended to offset such risks. In conclu- al to foster an understanding of the similar- bases for healing and divination pro- experiential aspect include nontextual sion, courses on shamanism have a pow- ities and differences underlying diverse cesses in the context of normal bio- resources such as art, shamanic artifacts erful potential in addressing a common manifestations of shamanism. Material on logical processes. and paraphernalia, and videos and pre- physiological basis for religion and heal- both classic shamanic healers and contem- sentations by healers, which are used to ing in “humanity’s original neurotheolo- porary shamanistic healers illuminate simi- (3) An evolutionary approach provides convey shamanic worldviews and ways. gy” — biologically based spiritual prac- larities and differences and the social condi- an understanding of the adaptive tices with healing as a principal focus. tions that produce them (e.g., the soul aspects of shamanic practices. flight vs. possession). Some of our primary Problematic Issues texts have included Harner, Doore, (4) An interdisciplinary approach inte- The experiential approach we take to Nicholson, Halifax, Walsh, and Vitebsky. A grates nonanthropological perspec- teaching about shamanism has revealed recent edited publication by Winkelman tives from transpersonal, depth, some problematic aspects, one related to can provide additional perspectives on con- Jungian, and Buddhist psychology the psychological status of the students, temporary “shamanisms.” and consciousness theory, proposing the other involving Native American cul- an understanding of the phenomena See WINKELMAN–CARR p.xi tural rights. vi • May 2004 AAR RSN SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING Shamanism and Religious Healing

Amanda Porterfield, Florida State University

Shamanism is a good place to begin a course We also look more closely at the social set- belief and practice that reflect larger currents on religious healing because it serves as a use- tings in which shamanic performances occur, of social unrest and development. We look, ful model for conceptualizing the general focusing on the role that such performances in particular, for ways that Christians have phenomenon of religious healing, and for play in constructing communities, and on utilized religious healing to negotiate social comparing different instances of religious the role these communities play in shaping unrest, initiate social reform, and develop healing. Defined as a ritual practice that rep- expectations, moods, and behavior. In the new strategies for constructing community. resents the hidden forces influencing human performances they conduct, shamans expel For example, in examining the popularity of life and material reality, shamanism helps us malevolent spirits from suffering individuals new forms of Christian healing in southern discern elements of ritual practice and dra- and invite beneficent spirits to extend their Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries, matic performance in many instances of powers to relieve sickness and misfortune. we focus on the infusion of traditional prac- healing. This appeal to shamanism as a con- The spirits that shamans invoke represent the tices into Christian healing. New combina- tions of Christian and indigenous forms of healing not only represented the suffering White coats, stethoscopes, medical jargon, and and injustice of colonialist and apartheid situ- antiseptic smells may not represent “spirits” in any ations, but also contributed to social reform, Amanda Porterfield is the Robert A. Spivey and to the development of political leader- Professor of Religion at Florida State customary religious sense, but they are manifestations ship in Africa. University. She has written books in American religious history, comparative “of otherwise invisible power, and they can function religions, and the history of Christianity. Native Americans have also combined tradi- much like the symbols of social authority and tional healing practices with Christianity, and individual transformation wielded by shamans. interpreted the healing messages of Christianity in light of sufferings endured as the result of colonization. Although in many Y COURSES on religious heal- ceptual model calls attention to ritual perfor- vitalities of particular communities and the cases conversion to Christianity coincided ing begin with a discussion of mance involved in Pentecostalism and other strength of ancestral taboos, totems, and kin- with missionary efforts to undermine Native M shamanism, presented as a type forms of modern faith healing, and even in ship structures. For individuals whose bodies cultures, and force Western culture upon of ritual practice. I define shamans as per- medical procedures in which the symbolic and life stories become centers of social” atten- Native Americans, Native people developed formers who interact with spirits and attempt and dramatic dimensions of healing often go tion in shamanic performance, engagement their own interpretations of Christianity that to manage the influence people believe spirits unnoted. White coats, stethoscopes, medical with these symbols of communal life can strengthened traditional community life, have in their lives and environments. jargon, and antiseptic smells may not repre- generate extraordinary feelings of power and facilitated individual vitality, and combated Defined broadly, shamanism can be found in sent “spirits” in any customary religious determination. the social ills resulting from the imposition of many different cultures and historical peri- sense, but they are manifestations of other- Western culture. To cite just one example ods, and can be considered one of the most wise invisible power, and they can function While uplifting in many cases, this engage- from a multitude of Native American inter- long-lasting and widespread types of religious much like the symbols of social authority ment with the symbols of communal life can pretations of Christianity, for participants in practice. and individual transformation wielded by also have coercive effects. Religious healing the Native American Church, Christian belief shamans. works as much to strengthen a group as its combines with traditional commitment to Shamanism’s appeal can be explained, at least does to relieve individual suffering, and con- visionary experience in devotion to Jesus as in part, by its effectiveness in promoting As we work toward a shared understanding formity to collective rules of feeling and the spirit of healing manifest in visions. human strength and healing. Shamanic per- of what shamanism means, we move further behavior has often been part of the social formances stimulate feelings of confidence, into the analysis of religious healing by responsibility entailed in religious healing. We also consider the historical interplay physical vitality, and relief from stress. While exploring both the biological and social The strengthening or restoration of group between Christianity and medicine in world often concentrated on an individual patient, effects of shamanic performance. We consid- integrity is such a powerful feature of history. Conflicted at times, but also often the benefits of shamanic performance also er the role that symbolic procedures can play shamanism that shamanic techniques have highly cooperative, this interplay has figured extend to a larger community. Onlookers get in stimulating cognitive, emotional, and bio- sometimes been employed to scapegoat indi- importantly in both traditions. For example, caught up in the drama of shamanic perfor- logical processes that alleviate stress, make viduals rather than heal them. For example, the origins, expansions, retractions, and trans- mances, and in the feelings of communal people feel stronger, and even slow or reverse the early-20th-century Danish ethnographer formations of hospitals contributed to the bonding they prompt. Shamanic activity the progress of disease. We consider literature Rasmussen reported that Inuit shamans historical development of both medicine and contributes to the construction and support on the placebo effect, looking at theories that attempted to reverse bad luck in hunting by Christianity. Beliefs about Christ as the Great of cultures that hold people together in social explain religious healing, and shamanism in pressuring women to confess to — and pre- Physician contributed to respect for physi- groups. Thus in addition to the immediate particular, in terms of symbols, and symbolic sumably accept punishment for — secret cians, as well as to the popularity and success effects of increasing people’s sense of control procedures, that generate expectations of miscarriages. of healing practices within Christianity. New over their bodies and environments, shaman- power, healing, and health. We also discuss developments in science often found their ic performances help sustain loyalty to the the meaning of the term placebo as it has In the second section of the course, we way into the language Christians used to spirits represented in sacred stories and ritual changed over time, and consider recent argu- explore historical changes in beliefs and prac- describe their healing experiences and expec- practices, and to the social groups associated ments calling for a moratorium on use of the tices associated with Christian healing. This tations, as in the case of modern Pentecostals with those spirits, stories, and practices. term. historical discussion of the healing ministry who often describe the healing work of the of Jesus sets the stage for moving forward in Holy Spirit as an invisible force or current time to consider some of the ways in which not unlike electricity. Jesus as Christ has functioned as an object of faith, and agent of healing, for countless believers. In shifting attention from consider- Selected Resources ation of the historical ministry of Jesus to his Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. presence as Christ in the minds and hearts of New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. believers, we enter into vast terrains of Frank, Jerome D. Persuasion and Healing: A Christian history characterized by a multi- Comparative Study of Psychotherapy. 3rd ed. tude of images, ideas, and ritual practices Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, across many centuries and in many different 1991. places, all of which are associated with the person of Christ, and with his healing and Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The saving power. Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. In working through some of the major turn- Kinsley, David R. Health, Healing and Religion: ing points of this history, we consider, in A Cross Cultural Perspective. New York: Prentice sequence, some of the ways Christian healing Hall, 1995. changed under the influence of Gnosticism; with the spread of Christianity into Europe; Laderman, Carol, and Marina Roseman, eds. in relation to differences between Eastern and The Performance of Healing. New York: Western churches; as a result of various Routledge, 1996. reform movements in the early modern peri- Orsi, Robert A. Thank You, St. Jude: Women’s od; as a result of the impact of modern sci- Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes. ence; and through the modern expansion of New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. Christianity in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. We build upon a lesson from the Porterfield, Amanda. Healing in the History of first section of the course, that performances Christianity. New York: Oxford University Murti of Hanuman, Hanuman Temple, Taos, New Mexico, a Hindu pilgrimage site of religious healing often have a social func- Press, forthcoming. ❧ (Courtesy of Linda Barnes) tion, by looking for changes in Christian

May 2004 AAR RSN • vii Religious Studies News — AAR Edition Magic, Witchcraft, and Healing

Arvilla Payne-Jackson, Howard University

Lectures provide the basic concepts and foun- Arvilla Payne-Jackson is a Professor in the dation for the topics covered in the course, Department of Sociology/Anthropology at including a historical overview, definitions, Healing is represented as more than dressing a Howard University in Washington, D.C., and theoretical perspectives. I give cross-cul- wound or medicating a disease, but also as a means where she teaches courses in anthropology, tural examples and make comparisons that linguistics, and ethnographic methods. She is highlight how different cultures frequently of making whole through reconciliation, purification, the co-author of Jamaica’s Ethnomedicine: use similar basic mechanisms of explanation Its Potential in the Healthcare System “ or cleansing — a restoration to wholeness — but dress them differently. Students engage in (2000) and author of John Lee — An different kinds of learning experiences — lec- physically, mentally, and spiritually. African American Herbal Healer (1993). tures, videos, assigned readings, discussions, and assignments that involve self-evaluation, Students undertake three basic assignments funeral reports reflect realistic circumstances. research, and some fieldwork. The learning over the semester: a ritual report, a funeral For example, a viewing or wake taking place goals are to stimulate students to explore their report, and a service learning project. The rit- during set hours on one or two days, but not HE COURSE “Magic, Witchcraft, own understandings of the supernatural, and ual report requires students to attend, as par- three full days from morning” until night. and Healing” is designed to stimulate how those understandings affect the ways in ticipant-observers, a ritual (secular or reli- students to think beyond understand- which they relate to others, live their daily T gious) of their choice (with permission from In summary, this course allows students to ing religion as simply a structured or orga- lives, and interact with the environment. the instructor) that they have not attended expand their understanding of their own nized institution or system of faith that Students are encouraged to share with others before. The report involves selecting a defini- worldviews, as well as to gain an appreciation worships a Supreme Being or multiple deities; many of their beliefs, stereotypes, experiences, tion of ritual, writing up preconceptions and understanding for others. They also learn magic as an art practiced by a magician and questions that they are otherwise hesitant about the event, describing the location and that religion, magic, witchcraft, and healing onstage who uses illusion and deception to to discuss, due to the stigma attached to belief actual structure of the ritual and the role of all do not exist separate and apart from each entertain an audience; witchcraft as the cast- in the supernatural and paranormal. the participants, discussing the latent and other. The course provides an opportunity to ing of evil spells and the use of powders and manifest functions of the ritual, comparing explore students’ own perceptions of what potions to cause harm or death; and healing Discussions held in class include sharing of their ritual to the definition selected, and these phenomena are, without feeling over- as treatment using drugs to “kill” germs or personal experiences that the instructor reflecting on what they learned from the whelmed or judged. Classroom discussions viruses. and/or students have had. Discussion flows experience. and assignments provide a format for students more freely if I open with my own experi- to come together as a group and openly dia- Students are challenged to examine their own ences and then asks students to share theirs. It The object of the funeral report is to help logue about their experiences and beliefs. belief systems and to explore the interrelation- is important to recognize and validate the demystify death and allow students to explore They leave the semester with a better under- ships between magic, witchcraft, religion, and shared experiences and maintain a nonjudg- their feelings about death and the afterlife. standing of how to view a culture holistically, healing. Readings and discussions help them mental environment. An alternative to dis- Students plan their own funerals or one for a explore cross-cultural similarities, and appreci- to address their view of religion not only as a cussing personal experience is to open with person of the same ethnic and social class ate the wealth of diversity. Students learn to formal institution, but also as an attitude — a examples of common experiences, e.g., think- background. The report begins with students examine beliefs within the context of experi- state of life, devotion, and conscience. They ing about someone and they phone, having discussing the philosophy that shapes their ence and strip away the labeling of “others’ learn to see magic as it is manifested in both premonitions or dreams following which the approach to planning the funeral. The report beliefs and cultures” as exotic. religious and health practices and beliefs event actually occurs, using a particular object also requires an obituary and death notice, as across cultures, and to distinguish between that is imbued with mana to insure success, well as a full description of how the service sorcery — a learned art — and witchcraft as or exploring cultural beliefs on a broader scale will be performed. Funeral home directors, Selected Resources an inherited characteristic or a religion, as in (e.g., illness as a result of breaking tabus), clergy, newspapers, and online resources pro- DeStefano, Anthony. Latino Folk Medicine. New the United States. Healing is represented as such as sexually transmitted diseases. vide the particulars of preparing for the funer- York: Ballantine Books, 2001. more than dressing a wound or medicating a al and the costs. They must also include rele- disease, but also as a means of making whole Videos illustrate cultural variations of topics Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. 6th ed. vant information concerning legal require- through reconciliation, purification, or cleans- under discussion. For example, we contrast Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. ments involved, from the time of death, ing — a restoration to wholeness — physical- great and little traditions of the Roman and through the movement of the body from Goodpasture, H. McKennie, ed. Cross and Sword. ly, mentally, and spiritually. Mayan civilizations, and how political leaders place of death, to the actual burial. New York: Orbis Books, Mary Knoll, 1989. used their religious cosmologies in similar This course is an adaptation of one taught by ways to build and manipulate the power base Hand, Wayland. Magical Medicine. Berkeley: The third assignment includes a service learn- the late Dr. Michael Kenny at Catholic and political structure of their governments. University of California Press, 1980. ing component. Students work with University. The significance of each topic is We then compare these examples with the Solutions VII, Inc., a faith-based organization Harner, Michael, ed. Hallucinogens and Shamanism. examined from a cross-cultural perspective. role of religious beliefs and cosmologies in that focuses on strengthening families and London: Oxford University Press, 1973. The underlying theme and organizational today’s political arena. Other videos cover bringing healing and wholeness to communi- concept is the seeking and manipulation of topics on syncretic religions (Bahá’í), symbol- Huntington, Richard, and Peter Metcalf. ties in the metropolitan area. This is an ongo- power. Topics covered during the course ism (Hopi), superstitions (Western), burial Celebration of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary ing project. Each time the course is taught, include religion, ritual, myth, symbols, mana, rituals (Jewish), exorcism (American and Ritual. London: Cambridge University Press, 1979. different topics are addressed according the tabu, cults, witchcraft, demonology, death Wape), folk medicine (African American), task at hand. These have included organizing Kiev, Ari. Curanderismo: Mexican-American Folk and dying, and folk medical and biomedical and divination (Africa). Television documen- and putting on a workshop on domestic vio- Psychiatry. New York: Free Press, 1968. healing systems, among others. taries on PBS and the Discovery Channel lence and the role of the faith community in provide an additional rich resource of videos. Knab, Timothy. A War of the Witches. San dealing with this issue, and organizing and Francisco: Harper, 1995. implementing the Race Against Violence. Landy, David, ed. Culture, Disease and Healing. The final exam, involving essay questions, is New York: Macmillan, 1977. handed out at the beginning of the semester Murphy, Joseph. Santería: An African Religion in and is due at the end. Students are required America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988. to discuss the relationships among the differ- ent concepts and topics covered during the Murphy, Joseph. Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of semester, and must include references (prop- the African Diaspora. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. erly cited) from their readings, the videos, dis- Olmos, Margarita Fernandez, and Lizabeth cussions, and their own research, observa- Paravisim-Gebert. Healing Cultures. New York: tions, and experiences. Palgrave, 2001. Occasionally a parent calls to find out what the Romanucci-Ross, Lola, Daniel Moerman, and content of the course is and to make sure that Laurence R. Tanoredi. The Anthropology of their child is not being taught “how to do” Medicine: From Culture to Method. Westport, CT: witchcraft. Most students are not experienced Bergin and Garvey, 1997. in doing field research or analyzing data collect- Snow, Loudell. Walkin’ over Medicine. Boulder, CO: ed firsthand. Therefore, they are allowed to Westview Press, 1993. rewrite their assignments to develop their skills of observation and writing. Funeral reports may Somé, Malidoma Patrice. Of Water and the Spirit: invoke apprehension, in that students are leery Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African of writing about their own death. Therefore, it Shaman. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1994. is important to offer the option of writing the Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti- report for a fictitious person of the same ethnic Structure. New York: Aldine DeGruyter, 1969. ❧ Herbs and books of Priestess Miriam, Mambo of the Voodoo Spiritual Temple, New and social background. It is also important that Orleans (Courtesy of Linda Barnes) viii • May 2004 AAR RSN SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING Teaching Chicanos/as and Religion: Traditions and Transformations

Lara Medina, California State University, Northridge

My emphasis on Indigenous epistemology and heart), sketching the fundamentals of challenges the majority to confront their this worldview. internalized biases toward non-Christian and non-Western worldviews. For Grounding the course in these concepts is Chicanos/as who are products of biological important, because when we look at the and cultural mestizaje (cultural and biologi- merging of Indigenous spirituality and cal hybridity), reconciling the differences Spanish Catholicism, and later Chicano and discovering the similarities between religiosity, we can name the Indigenous val- Christian and Indigenous traditions offer ues that continue to be active today. healing. Healing in this context is about Students can then identify how Indigenous bringing forth self-knowledge and historical epistemology and practice exist in much of consciousness allowing one to claim reli- their familial religiosity, such as the con- gious agency, or the ability to determine for struction of altars or domestic sacred cen- oneself what is morally and ethically just, ters, or the making of promises or mandas Lara Medina is an Assistant Professor in the and what enables communication with spiri- to divine beings as an act of reciprocity Department of Chicano and Chicana tual sources. For young women in the class, between humanity and divinity. What Studies at California State University, discussions about moral authority over one’s might have seemed “superstitious or old- Northridge. Her published work focuses on body constitute a central part of the healing fashioned” can now be understood as recip- Chicana/o spirituality and practices, U.S. process. The personal nature of the students’ rocal actions to maintain familial spiritual Latino/a theology, and Chicano/a religious interest in religion influences the course and cosmic balance. The experience of history, and includes Las Hermanas: design as I attempt to address their searches, mestizaje provides the foundation to under- Chicana/Latina Religious-Political as well as provide an understanding of how stand the process of conquest, colonization, Activism (Temple University Press, forth- religion shapes Chicano/a culture. and adaptation that occurred in Chicano/a coming). religiosity. I start with religious diversity within Chicano/Latino communities. While the I introduce the concept of nepantla spiritu- majority remains Catholic, I address their ality — a spirituality at the biological and historical presence within Protestant denom- cultural crossroads where diverse elements HAVE TAUGHT a course on Chicana inations, and growing numbers in Islam, converge, sometimes in tension and some- and Chicano religiosity since 1992, first Bahá’í and Santería. I also insert discussions times in cohesion. Nepantla is a Nahuatl at the University of California, Los I of gender within patriarchal religions, lead- term, meaning “in the middle.” Nepantla Impersonating Mictecacihuatl, goddess of Angeles, and now at California State ing to discussions about transformations spirituality is not syncretism, but an exam- Mictlan, place of the dead, for Días de los University, Northridge. The students are that women are making in religious dis- ple of transculturation, or a continuous Muertos in Olvera St., Los Angeles (Courtesy of primarily of Mexican ancestry, although course and practices. Beginning the course encounter of two or more divergent world- Lara Medina) more with roots in Central America are around multiple religious identities, which views. Much of Mexicano/Chicano religios- now attending, as the demographics in Los includes my own story, helps create an ity reflects nepantla spirituality, a creative Angeles change. The course also attracts a atmosphere that encourages diversity, dia- blending of symbols, rituals, and meanings We spend a significant amount of time on few non-Latinos preparing for teaching pro- logue, and critical thinking. that allows the Indigenous, European, understanding the Mexican Indigenous/ fessions in public elementary schools. African, and Asian to speak and coexist. Chicano tradition of honoring and com- I next provide a basic understanding of muning with the dead. As in many Many are searching for more knowledge Mexican Indigenous epistemology as a A critical historical perspective on Our Indigenous cultures around the world, the about themselves and notions of God. Many framework for understanding contemporary Lady of Guadalupe follows, as a fundamen- dead or the ancestors play a key part in cul- express interest in learning about their Mexican and Chicano/a religiosity. A central tal expression of nepantla spirituality. Her tural continuity. The ancestors guide the Indigenous roots, knowledge denied them in theoretical premise of the course is that mes- image embodies the coexistence of the living and offer protection. Constructing the Western educational system. Most have tizaje shapes the foundation of such religiosi- Spanish Catholic and the Mesoamerican sacred space in their honor, leaving them never studied religion from a nontheological ty. One cannot understand this mestizaje Indigeous symbol system. I balance a schol- gifts of food and drink, spending time with perspective, nor challenged Christian doc- without some understanding of arly treatment of Guadalupe with the sig- their spirits, and sharing in oral tradition trine. I provide the opportunity to question Mesoamerican Indigenous epistemology. I nificance of oral tradition in the ensures family stability and, most impor- religious “truths” constructed within histori- emphasize the concepts of duality, fluidity, “Guadalupe event.” Faith and the testi- tantly, reminds the living of their historical cal and gendered contexts, so they may think balance, metaphorical language, corporeal/ monies of Guadalupanas (devotees of lineage. For marginalized peoples in the critically about their own traditions and cul- spiritual animistic sites, circular time, inter- Guadalupe) receive equal treatment with United States, the simple act of remember- tures. It is through the process of critical dependency, reciprocity, sacrifice, flor y canto the lack of historical evidence for the event. ing family history holds spiritual and politi- thinking about religion that one kind of heal- (flower and song), and cara y corazón (face I provide a timeline beginning in 1521 cal significance. Whether celebrating the ing can occur. when the apparition is dated, and ending in dead takes place in public processions and 2003 with the canonization of St. Juan gatherings in cultural centers, or in the pri- Diego by the papacy, to illustrate the power vacy of a family altar, the tradition rejects that her mythology has on a culture and a mainstream attempts to ignore the histories global church. Students are required “to and traditions of nonwhite and mixed- read Guadalupe’s image” as a Nahuatl raced peoples. Through public ritual, codice, one that speaks with metaphors marginalized “others” claim public space through its colors and symbols. Gender and reject efforts to dismiss their presence must also be addressed, as Guadalupe has in an increasingly segregated society. The historically been used as a symbol of libera- tradition challenges a society that privileges tion in revolutionary struggles. Yet for youth and silences the dead, underscoring women, she continues to be used as an the distinctiveness of non-Western episte- archetype of the “good woman” — an all- mologies. sacrificing mother — negating her sexuality. Revisionist art by Chicana artists shows the At the end of the semester, students must feminist transformations that Guadalupe is construct ofrendas (offerings) to a deceased undergoing. member of their family or community. The ofrenda can be designed in a box that is easi- With so much focus on the Virgin, the next ly carried to class. They must decorate the step is to deal with religion and sexuality. We container with symbols and photos repre- explore the processes that demonized female senting the life of the deceased. In their oral sexuality. A discussion of contemporary sexu- presentations they offer a brief biographical ality and spirituality develops, drawing con- sketch followed by an explanation of the nections between the high rate of Latina symbols they chose to represent the teenage pregnancy and the silencing of female deceased. For many students, building the sexuality in Latino cultures. We also discuss ofrenda, explaining it to the class, and writ- the denigration of homosexuality in tradition- ing a summary facilitates a healing process An ofrenda created by Ofelia Esparza, a third generation altarista (altarmaker) for Días de los al Chicano/Latino cultures and how Christian by enabling them to confront the pain of Muertos in Los Angeles (Courtesy of Lara Medina) paradigms supplanted native understandings loss. Many express how meaningful the of the fluid nature of sexuality. See MEDINA p.xii

May 2004 AAR RSN • ix Religious Studies News — AAR Edition Medicines, Healing, and Spiritualities: A Cross-Cultural Exploration

Paula Arai, Carleton College

aware of in myself. Class policy is that no tighter bonds of trust, enabling students to can analyze an event or idea while being Paula K. R. Arai is an Assistant Professor at one has to reveal any information they do deal with some difficult issues in a non- less likely to project their own worldview Carleton College, where she teaches the reli- not want to. It is a priority to establish threatening environment. This is essential, inadvertently onto someone else. gions of East Asia. Her special interests respect and trust for each other in the class- because painful experiences and intense Highlighting the theme of healing goes include Japanese Buddhist rituals and prac- room. sadness often emerge, especially as students beyond theoretical concerns and requires tices, women’s experiences and contributions, delve into the field project. attention upon what people do. and healing. Her primary research is based Brainstorming on the board, we launch a Environment, diet, rituals, human rela- on anthropological fieldwork in Japan. She discussion of the meaning of the three The course integrates a field research pro- tions, gender-specific roles, and activities all is the author of Women Living Zen: main concepts of the course: medicine, ject into the broader investigation of the come into focus. It is in the messy details Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns (1999) and healing, and spirituality. As words go up on relationship of healing and spirituality, pos- that one can broach accuracy. Looking at several book chapters and journal articles. the board, students immediately see how ing such questions as “How do attitude and the specifics of what people do one begs their ideas are not always shared by their belief influence health and illness? What the question “why?” peers. We then probe to find what root difference does culture make to your HE PERSPECTIVES of modern assumptions of self, death, body, mind, health?” Each student must converse with a As students begin to see how different Western scientific (allopathic) etc., are implicit in their concepts of collaborator for at least three two-hour ses- things look from different perspectives, they medicine and several Asian healing T medicine, healing, and spirituality. They sions. They must then write a paper analyz- realize that a tight definition of the term and spiritual practices are the focus of the must analyze themselves and find a coher- ing the healing system and process of their “religion” is neither possible, nor even desir- course I teach entitled “Medicine, Healing, ent way to explain their thinking to their collaborator. able. So much depends on the details of the and Spirituality.” Analysis of cultural and specific context that generalizations can religious influences on the concepts of ill- simply be misleading. Students have ness and health and the relationship of observed that they even can reflect imperial- body and mind directs the inquiry. Linda Highlighting the theme of healing goes beyond istic arrogance, insidiously at work. Most Barnes’s “Integrated Model of Affliction often, misunderstanding and poor commu- and Healing” facilitates cross-cultural theoretical concerns and requires attention upon nication are the results of trying to under- understandings and discussions. Barnes’s what people do. Environment, diet, rituals, human stand “religion” with a generalized defini- list of questions that constitute the model relations, gender-specific roles, and activities tion. What I hope the students learn about are incisive in the way that they draw out “ religion through this study of healing is that core concepts that enable one to compare all come into focus. any topic must be pursued first with ques- divergent views. tions. By scrutinizing their own assump- classmates. I often analyze my own con- In order to collaborate with someone else tions and analyzing the assumptions of oth- Barnes’s model comprises seven issues: 1) cepts to model how to do this exercise. For in discussions about their healing process, ers, nuanced understanding develops and understandings of Ultimate Human example, I think healing is the result of one must have a complex set of skills. distinct perspectives emerge. It brings into Possibility; 2) understandings of Affliction accepting life as it is and not rejecting parts Therefore, the” course is designed to culti- high relief the particular concepts such as and Suffering; 3) understandings of the of it. This is based on my view that every- vate three kinds of intelligence outlined by life and death, body and mind. In my expe- Self; 4) understandings of Illness/Sickness; thing in the world is interrelated. So, one Howard Gardner: 1) linguistic (the ability rience, this is an essential foundation from 5) the Healers; 6) the Nature of the cannot be whole if one does not embrace to use written and oral language flexibly which to understand and appreciate what Intervention/Care; and 7) Efficacy. The all events as part of oneself. and productively); 2) interpersonal (the healing means in any given context. model helps one find clarity about specific capacity to understand other individuals, to differences and similarities between sys- I ask them to observe how their assump- work well with them, to motivate them); tems, while also seeing them in their own tions affect their perception of events and, and 3) intrapersonal (involving a correlative Resources: context. It facilitates discussions of cos- hence, their actions. The first formal course understanding of oneself: one’s strengths, Avedon, John F. “Tibetan Medicine: The mologies and epistemologies with precision, assignment is to answer the question weaknesses, desires, fears, and the capacity Science of Healing.” In In Exile from the helping students gain insight into the rami- “What kind of a researcher am I?” The to use this knowledge to make judicious Land of Snows. New York: Vintage Books, fications of differences. It makes it easy to response includes explication of one’s race, decisions about how to lead one’s life). The 1984. see that whether something is deemed gender, sexual orientation, age, educational writing assignments, oral reports, and for- “sound knowledge,” “New Age nonsense,” background, concentration of study, class, mal presentation foster linguistic intelli- Benson, Herbert. Timeless Healing: The or “primitive” turns upon one’s concepts of language(s), health/illness experiences, and gence. The collaboration, the actual collab- Power and Biology of Belief. New York: knowledge and self. Whether one’s concept anything else students think relevant to orating process, and in-class discussions Simon & Schuster, 1997. of self is a bifurcated mind and body or an becoming conscious of their assumptions promote interpersonal intelligence. inextricably integrated mind and body and gaining insights into the context in Intrapersonal intelligence is cultivated Crow, David. In Search of the Medicine makes a difference in what is deemed possi- which they are doing this work. The assign- through the self-reflexive questions that are Buddha: A Himalayan Journey. New York: ble and realistic. ment has either been a one-page paper or a discussed in class, but most pointedly in Penguin Putnam, 2000. five-minute oral presentation. Students the oral report on “What kind of a We begin this journey with students reported that doing several of these exercis- researcher am I?” The Dalai Lama, Herbert Benson, Robert becoming conscious of their biases and es in oral form, rather than written, helped A. F. Thurman, Howard E. Gardner, assumptions. To this end, I first articulate them more. They benefited from the views After their first collaboration session, stu- Daniel Goleman, et.al. MindScience: An biases and assumptions relevant to the and insights of others. It also fostered dents write or present a report on their East-West Dialogue. Boston: Wisdom course material that I have come to be relationship with their collaborator, noting Publications, 1991. issues that should be flagged for likely bias (positive or negative), issues of communica- Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of tion (similar styles, distance, etc.). As the Understanding. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, collaboration proceeds, they must also give 1988. a report on their field journal. At the end of the term, each student gives an oral pre- Kinsley, David. Health, Healing and sentation (more formal than a report, Religion: A Cross Cultural Perspective. New because it is timed and students polish their York: Prentice Hall, 1996. wording and organization) on their own research process. The final paper concen- Kuner, Susan, Carol Orsborn, Linda trates on their analysis of their collabora- Quigley, and Karen Stroup. Speak the tor’s healing process. Language of Healing: Living with Breast Cancer without Going to War. Berkeley, CA: Focusing on religion and healing is an Conari Press, 1999. effective approach for exposing students to the ramifications of religion on the way Morris, David B. Illness and Culture in the people perceive and experience life and Postmodern Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles: death. Examining fundamental concepts University of California Press, 1998. that make up a worldview, such as self, body, world, and meaning of life and Ni, Maoshing. The Yellow Emperor’s Classic death, facilitates seeing differences between of Medicine. Boston: Shambhala, 1995. religious traditions. The implications of those differences also become easier to Living Fully until Death. VHS. A identify. Once students learn that they need Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Herbalist weighing out herbs at Nam Buk Hong herbal pharmacy, Boston, Massachusetts to be clear about the assumptions at work Production, BVL6035, 1995. ❧ (Courtesy of Linda Barnes) in any given activity or concept, then they x • May 2004 AAR RSN SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING

BARNES, from p.ii Things get complicated when the parties which aspect of personhood was suffering, what are really individual expressions of involved conceive of the person in different and to what was the suffering attributed? social conditions. example, qi (pronounced “ch’ee”) is a subtle and even conflicting terms. A now-classic What intervention or interventions were force that has both energetic and material example is Ann Fadiman’s narrative about deemed necessary, and what was expected of The Essays in This Issue dimensions, and of which all reality con- the Hmong child, Lia Lee, in The Spirit each one? If the larger framework of sists. Rocks are qi, winds and clouds are qi, Catches You and You Fall Down. From infan- Healing is factored into the picture, then The authors in this issue suggest that heal- blood is qi, and so is everything else about cy, Lia suffered from epilepsy. According to the most meaningful kinds of change — of ing occurs in multiple domains, including the body and all its subtle aspects. Chinese her pediatricians, for whom her physiology “working” — may be understood to happen personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systems often emphasize patterns of process, and neurology were the key aspects after the person’s death. The expectation of social. It encompasses elite and popular sys- change, and transformation. A clear division involved, the initial problem arose in these some life after death modifies the time tems, as well as the interplay between them, between “body” and “mind,” therefore, does domains, and needed to be addressed in frame of healing. Other frameworks of hope and the ways they are inflected by specific not pertain. Even though there are words these domains. For Lia’s parents, however, a operate similarly. cultural, historical settings. Kaja Finkler for both things, their meanings are not the radically different key aspect involved Lia’s suggests that the study of healing opens same. souls, which could be stolen or lost. Efficacy is another way of talking about the windows onto broader social processes, Similarly, in traditional Chinese thought, form of change that is recognized and val- while Paula Arai posits that we examine For that matter, some traditions include one each person had multiple souls, all of them ued. It may be assessed as the process worldviews to understand why people expe- or more souls (which may be differentiated various forms of qi. After death, certain engaged in by the healer, as discussed by rience healing, and how it occurs through from the spirit). Here, the religious tradi- souls entered the ground with the corpse. If Winkelman and Carr; it is also related to the study of what they do. Crawford argues tion involved makes a difference. “Soul” in not properly tended, they could become whatever is meant by an outcome. To grasp that the study of healing addresses “funda- the Christian tradition is not the same thing hungry ghosts and afflict the neglectful the different meanings of efficacy involved mental educational goals of the liberal arts as “soul” in the Confucian tradition. If the descendant. in a situation, we must know how both curriculum and the goals of religious studies culture or tradition views reincarnation as a Healing and Suffering are understood, we as a discipline more specifically.” I concur process intrinsic to human life, then a per- Healers must understand the concept of the person with all of them. son is conceptualized not only in terms of at work, along with which aspect of the per- this life, but also of previous lives that may People identify different kinds of healers as son is viewed as having been affected, and underlie who he or she is. In some West best qualified to address different kinds of we must know how the person and his or Selected Resources African traditions, when elders die, they problems. Frequently, they will resort to her family envisions all the necessary healers Books reincarnate back into the family line. more than one — sometimes sequentially, and interventions, in order for both healing Barnes, Linda L., and Susan S. Sered, eds. Grandchildren may then be recognized not sometimes concurrently. The very term and Healing to happen. Religion and Healing in America. New York: only as themselves, but also as a returned “complementary and alternative medicine” Oxford University Press, in press (fall 2004). grandparent. reflects this reality in the United States. Systemic Contexts and Structural Healers arrive at this identity sometimes Violence Barnes, Linda L., and Inés Talamantez, eds. One particularly powerful and normative through culturally and religiously recog- Teaching Religion and Healing. New York: Oxford model of personhood in many Western cul- nized forms of calling or by taking steps rec- An ecological model encourages us to ask University Press, forthcoming. tures privileges the stand-alone individual. ognized as conferring a professional identity about how such variables as gender, race, Numbers, Ronald L., and Darrel W. Amundsen, Yet this is not an ideal in all cultures, some often modeled after the process of becom- social class, personal traits, family eds. Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in of which value the capacity to sustain inter- ing a physician. Healers may not only be economies, support structures, the chal- the Western Religious Traditions. Baltimore: Johns connectedness. For systems that view family, individuals, but also communities and lenges of acculturation (for families who Hopkins University Press, 1998. clan, tribe, or analogous networks as the groups. have relocated), and other factors constitute ground from which a person emerges and the systemic contexts in which each of these Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed. Healing and Restoring: finds meaning, the relational and commu- Related Interventions seven categories occurs. What happens Health and Medicine in the World’s Religious nal is yet another intrinsic part of the per- when the parties involved occupy one or Traditions. New York: Macmillan, 1989. son. Gender provides another key variable Just as people classify health conditions in more socially targeted positions? These tar- Kleinman, Arthur. Patients and Healers in the in thinking about understandings of per- different ways, so do they identify specific geted positions can include being a woman, Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of sonhood. interventions as appropriate and/or neces- being someone with a minority sexual ori- California Press, 1980. sary for each one. The identification of nec- entation, being part of a racial/ethnic Illness and Disease essary or desirable interventions is culturally minority, having a low socio-economic class Journals shaped. As Martin Rein and Donald Schön status, being a recent immigrant, belonging Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry Why does it matter to know how the parts have suggested, how a problem is framed is to a religious tradition that may suffer stig- of personhood are conceptualized? Because also directly related to what people think matizing in the media or in popular percep- Ethos if we do not know the parts of a person, we can and should be done for it. What should tion, living with the legacy of colonialism, Medical Anthropology do not know all the ways a person can get be done for it is, in turn, related to each of and so on. sick or be afflicted. Generally, each aspect of the aspects discussed so far. Each therapy Medical Anthropology Quarterly a person is conceptualized as susceptible to touches on these multiple levels, with differ- Such forms of targeting constitute what Social Science and Medicine particular kinds of illness or affliction. ent layers of hope, expectation, and things medical anthropologists have characterized Etiologies and causal factors point, on the at stake. The hopes and expectations are as “structural violence.” The term refers to Visual Images one hand, to broader paradigms of suffer- tied in both with normative ideas of person- social structures and systems that have per- The Image Bank, housed at the Center for the ing. As has been elaborated on by medical hood and, in the case of persons with dis- petrated and perpetuated unequal access to Study of World Religions (slides can be ordered): anthropologists like Kleinman and others, abilities, with how the disability is con- resources and justice for different groups. www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/publications/ImageBank/ there are also key differences between illness strued. Such inequities are often buttressed by eco- ImageBank_home.html — the term used to refer to the lived expe- nomic, political, legal, and religious influ- rience — and disease, the classification of Meanings of Efficacy ences, taking their toll on individual bodies. The Boston Healing Landscape Project: that experience according to a medical sys- When therapeutic interventions focus solely www.bmc.org/pediatrics/special/bhlp ❧ tem. Each reflects different illness models, It is a common question to ask whether a on individual bodies, however, they over- related to different forms of narrative about therapeutic intervention has “worked.” look the structural and ideological under- the etiology — the cause or causes under- However, this apparently simple question pinnings of the individual’s poor health — stood to have generated the problem. can hold many meanings. For example,

WINKELMAN–CARR, from p.vi Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1990. Selected Resources Nicholson, Shirley, ed. Shamanism. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988. Carr, Christopher, and D. Troy Case. “The Nature of Leadership in Ohio Hopewellian Societies: Role Vitebsky, Piers. Shamanism. Norman: University Segregation and the Transformation from of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Shamanism.” In Gathering Hopewell: Society, Walsh, Roger. The Spirit of Shamanism. Los Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, edited by C. Carr Angeles: Tarcher, 1990. and D. T. Case. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, forthcoming. Winkelman, Michael. Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing. Westport, Doore, Gary, ed. Shaman’s Path. Boston: CT: Bergin and Garvey, 2000. Shambhala, 1988. ______, ed. “Shamanisms and Survival.” Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Guest-edited special issue, Cultural Survival Ecstasy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964. Quarterly, Summer 2003. ❧ Halifax, Joan. Shamanic Voices. New York: Dutton, 1979.

Altar to the lwa Erzulie at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple of Mambo Priestess Miriam, New Orleans (Courtesy of Linda Barnes)

May 2004 AAR RSN • xi Religious Studies News — AAR Edition

MEDINA, from p.ix and/or ways to mediate with the dead. Many students have internalized Western Selected Resources assignment is not only for themselves, ignorance regarding curanderismo and but also for their families. Oftentimes have been socialized to think of it as Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the they will have to ask a parent to tell them “witchcraft.” Yet curanderismo underscores African Traditions Buddhist Monastery. New York: Oxford more about a deceased family member, the value of indigenous knowledge and Appiah-Kubi, Kofi. “Religion and Healing in an University Press, 1991. the exchange facilitating the sharing of the use of intuitive and cognitive skills to African Community: The Akan of Ghana.” In family history previously untold. challenge Western patriarchal norms. Healing and Restoring: Health and Medicine in the World’s Religious Traditions, edited by Lawrence Hindu Traditions A section on Chicano/a Catholic Church How this course evolves each semester E. Sullivan. New York: Macmillan, 1989. Desai, Prakash N. “Health, Faith Traditions, history maps out the role of the church varies, depending on the mix of students and South Asian Indians in North America.” in the Southwest, following the Treaty of and what issues might deserve more time Ayim-Aboagye, Desmond. The Function of In Religion and Healing in America, edited by Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, when one and attention. Overall, I try to have fun Myth in Akan Healing Experience: A Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered. New million Mexican Catholics found them- with the subject matter. Mexican/ Psychological Inquiry into Two Traditional Akan York: Oxford University Press, in press. selves under the authority of the U.S. Chicano religiosity is full of magic and Healing Communities. Uppsala, Sweden: Catholic Church. European-born clergy mystery and rich in material culture. Uppsala University, 1993. Desai, Prakash N. Health and Medicine in the ministered to the now-Mexican Faith has sustained the majority of my Hindu Tradition: Continuity and Cohesion. New Americans, and a legacy of discrimina- students’ families, but religion has been Feierman, Steven, and John M. Janzen, eds. York: Crossroad Press, 1989. tion ensued. We trace this legacy through passed on without room for questioning. The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa. subsequent periods up to the 1970s when I emphasize that questioning one’s beliefs Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Egnor, Margaret Trawick. “The Changed Chicano/a Catholics, priests, sisters, and leads to self-knowledge and self-knowl- Mother or What the Smallpox Goddess Did laity openly challenged the church for its edge leads to healing. Janzen, J. “Health, Religion, and Medicine in When There Was No More Smallpox.” In overt racist actions. Liberation theology Central and Southern African Traditions.” In Contributions to Asian Studies 18, edited by E. receives attention as a catalyst for change Healing and Restoring: Health and Medicine in the Valentine Daniel and Judy F. Pugh. Leiden, in both Catholic and mainline Protestant Selected Resources World’s Religious Traditions, edited by Lawrence The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1984. denominations. A brief overview of the Carrasco, David. Religions of Mesoamerica: E. Sullivan. New York: Macmillan, 1989. revolutionary struggles grounding the Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers. Prospect Gerke, Barbara, and Mataji Kumari. “Cintury: theology assists in explaining its extensive Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1998. Janzen, John, Adrien Ngudiankama, and Devi Healer Priestess of Darjeeling.” Curare influence on the global church, and its Melissa Filippi-Franz. “Religious Healing Dolan, Jay P., and Gilberto M. Hinojosa, eds. 22, no. 2 (1999): 157–164. positions on healing social inequities. among War Traumatized African Immigrants.” Mexican Americans and the Catholic Church, In Religion and Healing in America, edited by 1900–1965. Notre Dame, IN: University of Knipe, David M. “Hinduism and the To explore the role of Protestantism in Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered. New Notre Dame Press, 1994. Tradition of Ayurveda.” In Healing and Chicano history, I utilize the works of York: Oxford University Press, in press. Restoring: Health and Medicine in the World’s Gaston Espinoza, Daisy Machado, Paul León, Luis. La Llorona’s Children: Religion, Life, Religious Traditions, edited by Lawrence E. Barton, David Maldonado, and Arlene and Death in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Peek, Philip M., ed. African Divination Systems: Sullivan. New York: Macmillan, 1989. Sánchez Walsh. I also introduce feminist Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Ways of Knowing. Bloomington: Indiana theology, as Latina theologians are mak- University Press, 1991. Matovina, Timothy, and Gary Riebe-Estrella, Zimmermann, Francis. The Jungle and the ing significant contributions to the eds. Horizons of the Sacred: Mexican Catholic Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu rethinking of Christianity from a per- Pfeiffer, James. “African Independent Churches Traditions in the U.S. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Medicine. Berkeley: University of California spective of racialized women. in Mozambique: Healing the Afflictions of University Press, 2002. Press, 1987. Inequality.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16, I expose students to Chicanas who are Medina, Lara. Las Hermanas: Chicana/Latina no. 2 (2002): 176–199. retrieving cultural archetypes for the Religious-Political Activism. Philadelphia: Islamic Traditions empowerment of women and the recon- Temple University Press, in press. Ahmed, Musa. Health and Healing in the struction of culture. One primary African-American Traditions Sánchez Walsh, Arlene. Latino Pentecostal Qur’an. Sa’adu Zungur, Kano: Triumph, 1998. archetype in Chicano culture is the Anderson, Alita, ed. On the Other Side: African Identity: Evangelical Faith, Self, and Society. New curandera, the wise healer — usually an Americans Tell of Healing. Louisville, KY: York: Columbia University Press, 2003. ❧ Doumato, Eleanor Abdella. Getting God’s Ear: elder — who knows the medicinal prop- Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Women, Islam, and Healing in Saudi Arabia and erties of plants, corporeal energy sites, the Gulf. New York: Columbia University Bair, Barbara, and Susan E. Cayleff, eds. Wings Press, 2000. of Gauze: Women of Color and the Experience of Health and Illness. Detroit: Wayne State Hermansen, Marcia. “Dimensions of Islamic University Press, 1993. Religious Healing in America.” In Religion and Healing in America, edited by Linda L. Barnes Byrd, W. Michael, and Linda A. Clayton. An and Susan S. Sered. New York: Oxford American Health Dilemma: A Medical History of University Press, in press. African Americans and the Problem of Race. New York: Routledge, 2000 Rahman, Fazlur. Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition: Change and Identity. New Chireau, Yvonne Patricia. Black Magic: Religion York: Crossroad Press, 1987. and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Sengers, Gerda. Women and Demons: Cult Healing in Islamic Egypt. Leiden, The Townes, Emilie M. Breaking the Fine Rain of Netherlands: Brill, 2003. Death: African American Health Issues and a Womanist Ethic of Care. New York: Yacoub, Ahmed Abdel Aziz. The Fiqh of Continuum, 1998. Medicine: Responses in Islamic Jurisprudence to Developments in Medical Science. London: Ta- People paying respects at an altar for Días de los Muertos (Courtesy of Lara Medina) Buddhist Traditions Ha, 2001. Birnbaum, Raoul. “Chinese Buddhist Traditions of Healing and the Life Cycle.” In Healing and Jewish Traditions Restoring: Health and Medicine in the World’s Bleich, J. David. Judaism and Healing: Halakhic Religious Traditions, edited by Lawrence E. Perspectives. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing Sullivan. New York: Macmillan, 1989. House, 2002. Goleman, Daniel, ed. Healing Emotions: Feldman, David M. Health and Medicine in the Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Jewish Tradition: L’Hayyim - To Life. New York: In the Next Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health. Boston: Crossroad Press, 1986. Shambhala, 2003. Spotlight on Teaching: Isaacs, Ronald H. Judaism, Medicine, and Salgado, Nirmala S. “Sickness, Healing, and Healing. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1998. Religious Vocation: Alternative Choices at a Theravada Buddhist Nunnery.” Ethnology 36, Rosner, Fred, ed. Medicine in the Bible and the no. 3 (1997): 213–226. Teaching Talmud: Selections from Classical Jewish Sources. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House, 1994. Sivaraksa, Sulak. Global Healing: Essays and Interviews on Structural Violence, Social about Site Visits Sered, Susan S. “Healing as Resistance: Development and Spiritual Transformation. Reflections upon New Forms of American Distributed in U.S. by Parallax Press, 1999. Jewish Healing.” In Religion and Healing in America, edited by Linda L. Barnes and Susan Zysk, Kenneth G. “Medicine and Buddhist S. Sered. New York: Oxford University Press, Monasticism” and “Indian Medicine in in press. ❧ Buddhism Beyond India.” In Asceticism and xii • May 2004 AAR RSN