Indigenous Shamanic Worldviews as Eco-cosmologies and Indigenous Knowledge Systems of Sustainability

Shamanic worldviews in rural Odisha, India, are expressed through trance traditions that transmit indigenous knowledge. Based on long-term comparative studies, the article describes two examples: nag bacca (snake children) and alekh gurumai (ritual specialists). These traditions involve transformative healing through trance rituals grounded in concepts of holy craziness and sacred play (baaya/kheelo) and spirit possession rituals (boil). Therianthropic transformations—animal-human and ecological encounters—are conveyed through oral culture, songs, performances, and trance dances. Visions and dreams are central to shamanic imaginaries, epistemologies, and ontologies, shaping inner and outer knowledge of local shamanic life worlds.

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Abstract

Abstract This article discusses shamanic worldviews theoretically and empirically based on the author’s long-term comparative studies in rural regions of Odisha, India. It deals with local eco-cosmological worldviews expressed in trance traditions, interpreted by the author as expressions of contemporary shamanic worldviews and an indication of ways of transmission of indigenous knowledge. In this sense the comparative examples of shamanic traditions of nag bacca (snake children) and alekh gurumai (ritual specialists) in Odisha are examples of transformative healing through trance rituals based both on concepts of holy craziness and sacred play ( baaya/kheelo ) and on spirit possession rituals ( boil ), widely spread in cultures of orality. In shamanic worldviews, therianthropic transformations of animal human and ecological encounters are transmitted in a rich culture of orality expressed in songs, performances, and trance dances. In this indigenous knowledge transmission, visions and dreams are the most important expressions of shamanic imaginaries, realities, epistemologies, and ontologies, revealing imagined, dreamt, and lived experiences of local shamanic societies. In this way, the visual mental imagery experiences construe the inner and outer knowledge of shamanic life worlds and worldviews.