SOME ASPECTS OF SHAMANIC HEALING AMONG THE HUICHOL OF WESTERN MEXICO

Abstract

The article, based on the author’s fieldwork, examines key ideas about illness and shamanic treatment among the Huichol people of Western Mexico. Among the questions tackled are the status of the shaman in Huichol communities and the process of becoming a shaman. The article also contains the description and an attempt at the classification of shamanic methods of diagnosis and treatment. Particular attention is paid to the Huichol understanding of “illness”, to the forms that it takes and to the ways in which its origins are explained.

References

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