Paper short abstract:

Interest in shamanisms in the last decades has grown in both Europe and the United States. This leads to question which current social and spiritual needs are being addressed. With a comparison of case studies of animistic actors I wish to explore new approaches to human-world relationships.

Paper long abstract:

Interest in shamanisms and their animistic attitudes in the last decades has grown in both Europe and the United States. The rapid increase of practitioners and of shamanisms generally, leads one to question which current social and spiritual needs are being addressed. Especially in times of crisis people seem to search for alternatives to objectifying and mechanistic approaches to the relationships between humans and the world. Graham Harvey, a leading scholar of the so-called "new" animism, defines Animisms as "theories, discourses and practices of relationship, of living well, of realising more fully what it means to be a person, and a human person, in the company of other persons, not all of whom are human but all of whom are worthy of respect" (Harvey 2005: xvii). From this perspective the ideas and the interaction with an animated world provide an alternative performance to modern and colonialist ontolgies in which one's environment is seen as a resource there to satisfy human needs. Animism is understood in terms of its relationality and enacts a reevaluation of the boundaries between life and non-life, nature and culture, subjectivity and objectivity. With a comparison of case studies of animistic actors in curanderismo and paganism I wish to explore new approaches to human-world relationships.