EXPLORING - PowerPoint Presentation

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EXPLORING

ARTISTS AS SHAMANS: A CRITICAL & HISTORICAL OVERVIEWDENITA BENYSHEKSAYBROOK UNIVERSITY SAN FRANCISCO, CAUNIVERSITY OF PHOENIXWESTERN WASHINGTON

INTERNATIONAL

SOCIETY FOR

SHAMANISTIC

RESEARCHERS

2011Slide2

Confluence

Art CareerMaster of Fine Arts, Painting.Professional visionary artist.Over 60 juried group exhibits. Work in many collections including the Glass Museum in Denmark.Multi-media performance works including dance.Choreography.Theatre: directing plays, acting, & scenic design.Poet.Art educator.Shamanism Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman. Ruth Inge-Heinze, seminar on shamanism, Saybrook University.Studied with Stanley Krippner.Experiences with traditional shamans, visions, & dreams.Currently, doctoral candidate

in psychology.

Understand how your unique background can contribute to the field of shamanic studies.Slide3

Historical Overview of Research LiteratureUnderstand trajectory of thought in studies of shamanism:

HistoryPhilosophyDominant voicesPrejudiceWhat is said can indicate what is not said.Slide4

EUROPEAN AGE OF

EXPLORATIONEuropean contact with Siberian shamans:Created conceptual relationship between shamans and artists.Described rituals with concepts from fine arts. (Dance, music, theatre.)Mixed interpretations“diabolic invocations,” Thévet, 1557.“mediocre performances by cheaters,” Gmelin, 1751.“tricks of charlatans,” Diderot, 1765.Slide5

ROMANTICISM

European fascination with esoteric religions and superstitious beliefs.Johann Gottfried von Herder (late 18th C):Shaman as artist, poet, healer, musician, magician, spiritual specialist. Create order out of chaos. Organize societies.Imagination:“…knot of the relationship between mind and body…”Would reveal truth about shamans.Slide6

ROMANTICISM Continued

Information drifted West, deeper into Europe.Shift:From Siberian and Sami shamans as artists.To European artists as shamans:Self-Image of artists.Subject matter of art.How fine art functioned for the audience.Slide7

ROMANTICISM Continued

Flaherty (1992), von Goethe’s (1808) Faust:“hovering forms” and “familiar phantoms” in dedication.Williams (1993):Flaherty confused shamanism with occult.Unstable definition of shaman.Provide validated definition for shaman.Read primary sources & make an independent, informed interpretations.Slide8

THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Ideal: Abstract reason would lead to emancipation through total knowledge of humanity, society, and nature.Method: Experience,Logic, andExperiment.Slide9

THE ENLIGHTENMENT Continued:

DENIS DIDEROTEncyclopaedie (1713-1784)Philosophe: “trampling on prejudice, tradition, universal consent, authority, in a word, all that enslaves most minds, dares to think for himself.”Shamans: “imposters” who performed “tricks that seemed supernatural to an ignorant and superstitious people.”Rameau’s Nephew (1762)Philosophe and an unconventional individual.Flaherty (1992): represented “things shamanic: acting or illusion, flights of fancy or genius, irrationality, heated enthusiasm, emotional agitation, frivolity, and androgynous childhood.” Slide10

Rameau’s Nephew:

“I don't think much of these eccentrics. Some people turn them into familiar acquaintances, even friends. Once a year they interest me, when I meet them, because their character stands in contrast to others and they break that fastidious uniformity which our education, our social conventions, and our habitual proprieties have introduced.” Slide11

“If one of them appears in company, he's a grain of yeast which ferments and gives back to everyone some part of his natural individuality. He shakes things up. He agitates us. He makes us praise or blame. He makes the truth come out, revealing who has value. He unmasks the scoundrels. So that's the time a man with sense pays attention and sorts his world out

.” (Diderot, 1762).Read original source.Slide12

AGE OF REASON

THOMAS PAINE (1736-1809)Rejected supernatural phenomena: Prophesies, Miracles, Divine inspiration, Revelation, and Most ritual.Slide13

AGE OF REASON DEISTS:

Reason and observation of nature proves existence of supreme creator.Religious toleration.Slide14

AGE OF REASON: DEISTS continued

Rational inquiry into all subjects.Although suspect, shamanism worthy of investigation.Slide15

MYTHOLOGY

James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (1900)Knowledge of prehistoric cultures could be gained by examining living societies at the same level of technological sophistication.Method: Cross Cultural Analogy with systadic societies. Sympathetic Magic:Based on “the principle that like produces like” (p. 23) and enacted through imitation. Influenced: Cartailhac and Breuil (1900)compared prehistoric cave art with contemporary stone age societies. Slide16

Problems:

Paleolithic cave art interpreted as hunting magic utiilized by men.Despite: Bogoras (1910), Chukchi women were shamanic leaders.Khagalov (1916), mythical matriarchal shamanic origins.Mongolian goddess created 1st shaman/artist.Majority of researchers/explorers were male (often not welcomed to rituals conducted by women).Slide17

WOMEN AS EARLIEST SHAMANS AND ARTISTS?

An excavation at Dolní Věstonice, Czech Republic, unearthed the oldest known grave of a shaman – a woman (60,000 BCE) (Tedlock, 2005)Forensic methods used to analyze graphic forms, known as finger fluting, in the Rouffignac cave in France. 5 of 7 patterns made by women (Van Gelder & Sharp, 2009).  Snow (2009) analyzed hand stencils in Peche Merle & Gargas caves (France) & El Castillo cave (Spain). Most were hands of women – which Snow then assumed were creators of nearby paintings.Beware of gender biased research & writing (“he”, “him”).Slide18

ICONOGRAPHY

Erwin Panofsky (1939) :Analysis of motifs in images, stories, and allegories; interpretation of themes through historical, cultural, or social context; revelation of “symbolic values”; iconographic synthesis; and discovery of intrinsic meaning.Slide19

ART HISTORY

Rushing, W. J. (1987). Ritual and myth: Native American culture and Abstract Expressionism. In E. Weisberger (Ed.), The spiritual in art: Abstract painting 1890-1985 (pp. 273-296). Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Abbeville Press.Tucker, M. (1992). Dreaming with open eyes: The shamanic spirit in 20th century art and culture. San Francisco, CA: Aquarian/Harper.Levy, M. (1993). Technicians of ecstasy: Shamanism and the modern artist. Norfolk, CT: Bramble Books.Weiss, P. (1995). Kandinsky and old Russia: The artist as ethnographer and shaman. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Slide20

THE TRAJECTORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Plato (360 BCE), The Phaedrus.“Divine Madness” referred to spiritual inspiration, often misinterpreted as insanity.Cesare Lombroso (1891), The Man of Genius.Phrenology & physical degeneration identified the insane genius: short, pale, hunchbacked, lame, emaciated, left-handed.Also: “Excessive originality,” symbolism, inspiration from dreams, losing sense of time.Slide21

THE TRAJECTORY OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY continued

Havelock Ellis (1904), A Study of British Genius.Population: artists, poets, judges, wrestlers, soldiers, sailors, etc. An earl who translated a Spanish work on metallurgy & a countess of “congenial tastes & qualities.”“…it cannot be said that we have seen any ground to infer that there is any general connection between genius and insanity, or that genius tends to proceed from families in which insanity is prevalent.”Slide22

THE TRAJECTORY OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY continued

Plato (misinterpreted), “scientific” studies of Lombroso cited and Ellis (also misinterpreted) by:Andreasen, N. C. (1987). Creativity and mental illness: Prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives. American Journal of Psychiatry(144), 1288-1292. Then, Andreasen cited by:Jamison, K. R. (1993). Touched with fire: Manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament. New York: The Free Press.Importance of reading original works.Slide23

THE TRAJECTORY OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY continued

Then, Andreasen (1987) & Jamison (1993) cited by:Whitley, D. S. (2009). Cave paintings and the human spirit: The origin of creativity and belief. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.Major premise: Prehistoric artists were shamans. Minor premise: All artists are psychopathological.Conclusion: Therefore, all prehistoric shamans were psychopathological artists. Fallacies: False assumptions in premises; therefore, conclusion is false. Slide24

THE TRAJECTORY OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY continued

Whitley ignored:Research literature that argued against the psychopathology of creative individuals, demonstrating the mental/emotional health of creators.Whitley misinterpreted: Richards, R., Kinney, D. K., Lunde, I., Benet, M., & Merzel, A. P. C. (1997). Creativity in manic-depressives, cyclothymes, their normal relatives, and control subjects. In M. A. Runco & R. Richards (Eds.), Eminent creativity, everyday creativity, and health (pp. 119-136). Greenwich, CT: Ablex. Slide25

THE TRAJECTORY OF ARTISTIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY continued

Richards (2011) stated “It was not the sicker people who were more creative. Better functioning individuals – or people during better functioning mood states – showed the highest creativity.” Also, the creative “compensatory advantage was also suggested for psychiatrically normal 1st degree relatives of bipolar probands.”Perhaps Whitley only read the popular, misrepresentative, mini version of the study that was widely publicized:Proving that creators were insane.In addition, Whitley ignored studies showing that shamans were either more healthy mentally and emotionally or the same as community. Avoid citing citations. Read the original publication.Read widely. Look for disconfirming evidence. Slide26

CREATIVE STUDIES

PERSONBiographyPersonalityPRODUCTIconographyFunctionENVIRONMENTAL PRESSHistory, Family, Socio-Economic Status, etc.Slide27

NEGLECTED:

PROCESS

How is the Artist’s Creative Process Shamanic?Slide28

ARTIST ART ART AUDIENCE (SHAMANIC COMMUNITY)

It has been said that art is a tryst,

for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet.

Kojiro

Tomita Slide29

Previous studies are also weakened by flawed research methods: Not designing explicit theoretical research methods;

Not establishing a validated definition of shaman;Using concepts without operationalization as constructs;Narrow literature reviews, flawed references, and inadequate expertise;Relying on data from secondary resources;Incorporating esoteric or spiritual practices that are not shamanism;Misapplying cross-disciplinary research findings; Excluding counter examples, andOffering conclusions without adequate support for arguments.Slide30

OPPORTUNITIESApplying data from the underutilized field of creative studies;

Focusing on properties of artists instead of art products;Including the art audience experience as a means of validation as well as a way to broaden our understanding of artist-art-audience creative systems;Contributing the participant-observer voice of an artist-researcher; andIntegrating innovative arts-based inquiry research methods.Slide31

GOOD LUCK!