The supernatural salesman: unpacking shaman ‘witch doctor’ identity work
Journal of Marketing Management – November 22, 2018
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Shamans in South America navigate complex identities amid the booming ayahuasca tourism industry, where they face stigma as either witch doctors or drug dealers. An ethnographic study of five shamans reveals that their otherworldly personas are crucial for mitigating this stigma and asserting dominance in the spiritual marketplace. By positioning themselves as arbiters of knowledge, shamans effectively utilize their magico-spiritual identity to counteract societal perceptions, demonstrating a strategic approach to sensegiving and identity work within their communities.
Abstract
This ethnographic study examines the magico-spiritual identity work and sensegiving, carried out by five indigenous South American shamans engaged in selling and delivering ayahuasca ceremonies. Although ayahuasca tourism is the most popular and pervasive form of psychoactive tourism, shamans are routinely stigmatised from selling indigenous knowledge, either as demonic witch doctors from their local communities, or as drug dealers from the West. Unpacking the shaman identity, this study contributes to our understanding of how this hegemonic supernatural identity is well suited to mitigating stigma, and geared towards dominating the spiritual marketplace. Key findings indicate how the otherworldly is the foundation of the shaman identity, sensegiving, and shamans being viewed as the arbiters of all knowledge, unchallengeable by any other system of knowledge.