Zulu dreamscapes: senses, media, and authentication in contemporary neo-shamanism
Reinterpreting indigenous traditions under globalizing conditions, Zulu neo-shamans have developed new religious discourses and practices for engaging dreams, visions, and extraordinary spiritual experiences. Dreams, which we might assume are immaterial, are interpreted through the senses, electroni...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2008]
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| In: |
Material religion
Year: 2008, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 136-158 |
| Further subjects: | B
Senses
B extraterrestrials B Neo-shamanism B Zulu religion B Media B Dreams |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | Reinterpreting indigenous traditions under globalizing conditions, Zulu neo-shamans have developed new religious discourses and practices for engaging dreams, visions, and extraordinary spiritual experiences. Dreams, which we might assume are immaterial, are interpreted through the senses, electronic media, and material entailments that require embodied practices of sacrificial exchange and ancestral orientation. Accordingly, in Zulu neo-shamanism, dreams become the embodied, sensory basis for a material religion. That embodied religion, however, has been radically globalized through electronic media. Considering the case of the Zulu shaman, Credo Mutwa, we find that this material religion has entailed the sensory extravagance of extreme pleasure in eating and the extreme pain of being abducted by aliens from outer space. Sensory derangement and global mediation merge in Credo Mutwa's vivid accounts of his encounters with extraterrestrials that circulate through videos, DVDs, and the Internet. While Credo Mutwa has been globalizing the material religion of dreams, other neo-shamans, including white South African expatriates such as the surgeon David Cumes and the singer Ann Mortifee, have followed the path of dreams to come home to the indigenous authenticity of Zulu religion. Whether dreaming of global exchanges or local homecomings, these Zulu neo-shamans regard the human sensorium and electronic media as crucial registers of indigenous religion because senses and media set the limits, evoke the potential, and provide validation for spiritual authenticity. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2752/175183408X328271 |