Virtually Shamans: An Anthropological Perspective on AI Chatbots
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2025 Mark Friis Hau, Jakob Krause‐jensen
AI chatbot users occupy a liminal position similar to shamanic intermediaries, navigating between mundane human experience and opaque digital realms of computational knowledge. Prompt engineering resembles ritual practice, requiring specialized techniques to communicate with entities that are simultaneously rational and mysterious. These interactions challenge conventional boundaries between human and non-human, and tool and entity, creating new forms of postmodern otherworldliness. The shamanic metaphor offers a novel perspective on how individuals navigate and create meaning in increasingly digital environments, contributing to broader anthropological discussions on technology, modernity, and cognition.