Korean shamanism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Korean shamanism - Research Paper Example It could be argued that shamanism embodies the oldest human religion, for the most adventurous of archaeologists provided evidence of shamanistic practices among homo sapiens. Its prevalence all over the world as well indicates that in several ways shamanism is the perfect example of human religiosity. It continues to be extremely important at present, less often clearly as in the case of Haiti than totally as in the case of the Pentecostal.2 The word shaman has a Siberian origin and a shaman is a person who arbitrates the connection between the natural world and a dynamic supernatural dimension or realm of spirits for the goal of obtaining some control over or wisdom of natural phenomena. The practice is indicative of situations in which individuals either had extremely little control over their fate as in ancient societies or whose individual power is inadequate in a world that appears overpowering or menacing as under contemporary capitalism. To obtain a union with a power that is mystical, the shaman is mounted by a spirit after having freed his/her mind from innate limitation. This emancipating process is frequently attained through drugs such as sot-weed or tobacco, whirling or dancing, thumping or singing yawning tones.3 The word shaman is not just Siberian in origin, but Northeast Asia appears to have been a key center of later transmissions of the spiritual practice into the Americas, particularly Native America, and later all over Eurasia, as in ancient Southeast Asia. For the reason that the deepest origin of Korean culture and civilization rest in the Altaic province of Northeast Asia, it is not astonishing that shamanism had a fundamental part in Korean civilization, as it as well does in the case of Tibetan. When the Yamacek, or also called the Tungusic people, moved to the Korean Peninsula at the advent of first millennium B.C., they pioneered a deeply shamanistic culture.4 Among the Yemacek-Tungusic society’s manufactured bronze