Postmodern trickster strands in shamanic worlds

Abstract

This essay explores socio-philosophical meanings of shamanic cultures and practices and their affirmation and revival. What is their potential significance for humanity's future? I argue that shamanism engages humans in practices that put us potentially at the center of our creativity and creative visioning. The trickster figure, a pervasive indigenous presence, so often seems pivotal in this process and this pervasively male figure plays an important part in this regenerative interpretation of postmodernism; in fact, postmodernism can be understood as trickster. Just like the trickster, the nature of postmodernism is ambiguous. I explore this ambiguity and suggest that shamanic practices and paradigms may inspire a way out of our contemporary conundra with trickster help. This essay is concerned with paradigmatic issues, it presents broad brush strokes rather than ethnographic details. Its form attempts to honor trickster storytelling.