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© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156852711X540087 Numen 58 (2011) 6–70 brill.nl/nu A Methodology for a Deconstruction and Reconstruction of the Concepts “Shaman” and “Shamanism” Lars Kirkhusmo Pharo Postdoctoral-Fellow in History of Religions, The Research Council of Norway Research Associate, Moses Mesoamerican Archive, Harvard University Research Associate, Institute for Signifying Scriptures, Claremont Graduate University l.k.pharo@ikos.uio.no & l.k.pharo@gmail.com Abstract Scholars routinely confront the problem of translating concepts from one cognitive- linguistic system to another. The concepts “shaman” and “shamanism,” which are employed particularly in comparative religious and anthropological studies, are a case in point. Scholars from various academic disciplines make use of different, indistinct, and indeed contradictory definitions of these terms. As a result, their content and meaning have been obscured. My aim in this article is to emphasize the importance of establishing comparative religious concepts as methodical research tools. In particular, I call attention to the need to distinguish between emic (indigenous) concepts and etic (constructed by the scholar) comparative “ideal types” (Max Weber) in cultural and religious studies. Through the methodology of constructing theoretical analytical notions advocated in this essay, scholars can identify similarities and dissimilarities between assorted phenomena by focusing on what Henri Hubert and
Numen – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2011
Keywords: indigenous religious systems; shamanism as a religious system; definition of shaman and shamanism; translation of concepts of various religious and cultural systems; methodology of constructing analytical comparative concepts
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