Application of structuralism in understanding human society
in the case of shamanism
Levi Strauss had made this idea that how human mind thinks and understands through the efficacy of symbols created by shamanism, who only enables a person suffering from mental illness to understand and explain the disease within oneself.
When we talk of shamanism, 3 things are important to understand the relationship-
1. Shaman’s belief in the efficacy in their art; and
2. Not only shaman but the strong belief that people have in the efficacy of shaman.
So the belief is in both side, who is suffering from the illness and who is the treater.
While understanding the relationship of the structural analysis of magic, we have follow certain understandings like,
1. It has the effect of symbolism when patient narrates and shaman relates the elements in terms of certain myth. Then the shaman tries to make this myth real through connecting the myth with its concrete manifestation.
2. Then the abstract form of myth is transformed into reality by drawing, paintings and arts associated with the associated material culture, the object of reality comes to represent or symbolizes the elements of the myth. Linkages happens through the placing of the individual in the context of that painting.
3. The shaman links up the patient with the symbols of the myth, that he have made in reality.it could be linked up through certain actions. But it need to be linked up with the concrete representation of the myth which is created by the shaman. When the patient is linked up with the painting, shaman can not enters the patient’s mind.
4. When the patient is linked up, the shaman then only manipulates the symbols, he can manipulates the elements of the painting through which they manipulate the mind of the person who came for cure and once this whole process is done that’s also brings about the cure. This manipulation of the mind can be through 2 things-
§ After listening to the problem it made to understand
§ Once it is understood, process of curing starts, the probable cause of element is taken care of through the manipulation of the representative symbols, after which shaman manipulates the process of thinking of the patient.
The process of shamanistic cure can be applied to understand the symbols related to process of thinking and it can also be applied to understand how the relationship between the symbols are used in human mind and life, which is the vivid example of effectiveness of applying structuralism in human society. The shaman in this process only apply the knowledge which is there like the doctors. Symbols are known , they are not invented by the shaman themselves. In shamanistic cure the central role is only plays by the symbols to understand how they are interrelated with human mind.
Now, differing the shamanistic cure from the psychoanalytic cure, psychoanalysists only help or motivate the patient to look into their on mind, here the actual act of looking into the human mind is done by the patient themselves. So this process can be reflected as the process to help any individual to reach into the their mind. But on the other hand, in shamanistic cure, culture links the patient with the shaman, collectively belief is important here.
Therefore, shamanistic cure only works in a cultural context but in psychoanalytic cure there is no requirement of cultural context but a good psychoanalyst will have to understand human mind to motivate them or enable that individual to look at the relationships. Culture is only a causative factor in causing the element, it is not significant to originate about the cure but it is central in shaman as the diagnosis is based upon the displacement of an individual from their cultural matrix, which means the regular order of the things. The mental illness occur only when the ancestors are angry and cause a mental discomfort. There are many cure ritual which can be studied to understand this relationship between symbols and human mind.
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