Dispelling Dispute in Native American Church Healing

Abstract

The anthropological study of religion has never been only about describing the internal logic of symbol systems, documenting exotic practices, exposing the mystification of the material conditions of society, or unraveling the problem of rationality. Insofar as it is also about elaborating existential meaning, the anthropology of religion has as a prime concern the intersection of imagination and experience. There are few domains of religion in which this concern is played out more vividly or compellingly than the ritual use of hallucinogens, where existential meaning is engaged in a manner as profoundly personal as could ever be envisioned by James and as deeply collective as could be expected by Durkheim. Yet another of those few religious domains is ritual healing, in which existence faces the experiential starkness of suffering and the absurdity of mortality, and embraces the imaginative challenge of transformation.KeywordsTherapeutic ProcessCardinal DirectionExistential MeaningStressful EpisodeMoral ElementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.