FOUR ARTICLES BY JOJO FUNG SJ
We have here four article written by Fr. Jojo Fung and their titles are as given below. If you wish to read any of the articles please click on the desired title. I regret to say however that for reasons unknown the footnote numbers do not appear, and so please read all the footnotes after having perused the article.
(1) DIALOGUE AS INSCAPING THE SACRED IN THE INTERSTICES A POST-TCMA PERSPECTIVE
(2) INDIGENOUS SHAMANISM: IT’S RELEVANCY IN A WORLD OF MANY RELIGIONS
(3) DIALOGUE AS INTEGRAL TO THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH IN ASIA
(4) ABORIGINAL DIGNITY ROOTED IN SUBVERTED YET SUBVERSIVE BELIEFS
(5) ABORIGINAL DIGNITY ROOTED IN SHAMANISM: EVER SUBVERSIVE EVER CREATIVE
1. DIALOGUE AS INSCAPING THE SACRED IN THE INTERSTICES A POST-TCMA PERSPECTIVE
INTRODUCTION
A gathering of TCMA chaplains comprising believers of Bahai, Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslims, aboriginal religions, traditional shamanistic beliefs, and Christianity constitute in itself a sacred space while acknowledging that there are still spaces in between occasioned by the unexplored and unknown unfamiliarity amongst the believers. Certainly the spaces in between persons of different religions have been narrowed due to interactive moments of sharing at or outside meal times or taking walks together.
In this article, I intend to offer some reflections in relation to the 2006 TCMA Perth Conference SPACES IN BETWEEN, beginning with the aboriginal ceremonial dance at the opening ceremony, the dialogue between the Buddhist and Benedictine Abbots, the interaction with Dr. Samina Yasmeen and finally the personal interaction with Chaplains of the different faiths.
INSCAPING the SACRED IN THE SPACES IN BETWEEN
The “welcome dance” performed by the aborigines of the Ngoongar Nation at opening ceremony has mythically created (albeit non-thematized) a sacred space within the circle enclosed by the ring of seated chaplains in the sports complex. The invitation to dance with them has been a ceremonial crossing of the threshold into the more intimate sacred space in-between the two dancers and it was a most profoundly mythical moment for a few of the guest-dancers. Finally, the invitation to witness the dance from spirit to warrior in the dance called Ngambi uplifted our human spirits to the transcendental level where the universal spirits “descended” into our midst, infusing the human with the divine spirits, thus sacralizing the encircled space.
The interpenetrating presence of the Buddhist and Benedictine abbots, Ven. Ajahn Brahm and Placid Spearrit, gave a sense that the space within the room occupied by the TCMA Chaplains is incensed by the Divine as mediated by these two ascetical symbols of the world religions. Momentarily, amidst their intimate exchanges and chuckles, one experienced the presence of something bigger than all of us humans put together. The boundaries between the chaplains of the different faiths have been unwittingly erased as we immersed ourselves in their dialogic presence. The accidental differences of race and religions pale into the distant memory, as we gradually become overwhelmed by the impinging presence of the Divine in our midst.
The presence of Dr. Samina Yasmeen, a Muslim women-scholar, in the same space has once again heightened our critical consciousness that while there is obvious heterogeneity within the Islamic faith in relation to the differences within the other faiths, all believers occupy the common space that God is one with us in our struggle for a world that honors critical thinking – a God-given gift that we exercise to collaborate with all believers in a concerted effort to move forward by moving away from all divisive discourses on violence to rhetoric of peace and harmony among adherents of the different religions in our world.
The formal sessions, and more so the informal interaction (walks, dinner and excursions) among the TCMA Chaplains, have gradually narrowed the spaces in between ourselves (some more others less) so that we move from mere acknowledgement (“we never talk”) of the other to joyful accompaniment (“let’s stay in touch”) as friends with whom the bonds of friendship and mutuality will only deepen over the years.
CONCLUSION
Sacralizing the spaces in between us who are fellow chaplains of the different faiths through our openness to the mystery of the other is always prophetic in that we point fellow believers to a possibility and a horizon that religions are all mediatory symbols for the Divine self-communication: that God desires to be with ALL HUMANKIND through moments when we stand with and by each other, and allow the other to stand within oneself so as to enable the other to look out from within the sacred space of one’s heart, and thus, arrive at an existential knowledge that we are ontologically (at the level of being) fellow humans in spite of our accidental and doctrinal differences.
2. INDIGENOUS SHAMANISM: IT’S RELEVANCY IN A WORLD OF MANY RELIGIONS
INTRODUCTION
In an age when human civilization in the greater part of the world has come under the influence of modernity, the practice of shamanism amongst the indigenous peoples has been increasingly subverted and relinquished to the margin of modern society. Yet the last century has witnessed a resurgence of studies in shamanism and revival of shamanic practices.
In this paper, I will attempt to begin with narratives of personal shamanic experiences in the first section. Only in the second section do I offer a conceptual framework of what shamanism is and who the shamans are. In the third section, I will enumerate the criteria and principles for the re-valuation and evaluation of indigenous shamanism. In the final section, I will argue for the relevancy of indigenous shamanism in that it has shaped our understanding of ourselves as beings implanted in this world.
1. INITIATION AS A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
The relevance of indigenous shamanism to the many religions in our times depends to a large extent on personal contextual experiences.
The most significant shamanic experience has been my own initiation into the world of indigenous shamanism by Garing, one of the most renowned legendary shaman in the village of Bantul, located at the border between Sabah (what was formerly known as North Borneo) and Kalimantan, Indonesia.
After two periods of living in the village, Garing mentioned to me the decision from the spirit-world, that I would be “initiated” through a bathing ritual known to the Muruts as “na rio.” I would be ritually inducted to become a member of his family. The spirits have instructed Garing to orientate me with regard on July 19, 2001 based on three conditions which I would have to consent before the initiation: (a) I have to become his son and visit him in the kampung regularly; (b) I have to be at his disposal when he comes to Kota Kinabalu when I am in town; (c) I have to be there for his burial whenever possible. But the first initiation had to be postponed, as the spirit Garing, due to the impending rain. We returned the following day and I was initiated. Garing asked me to squat in a pond of the running stream. Garing was squatting slightly further upstream. He instructed me:
(a) You have to “dip” for 4 days in the stream nearby and come back here so that the water-spirits could give you some “incantations.”
(b) You are not to engage in a fight when I am drunk, or scold/rebuke anyone or beat someone.
(c) You are to acknowledge me as your dad.
The initiation ceremony continued on July 20, 2001. When we arrived at the sacred spot upstream, Garing went further upriver to communicate with the water-spirits. With the instruction from the spirits, he broke the eggs and spilled the content into the stream. Then he asked me to bath. At the pool, he and I dipped and bathed.
Soon, Garing called me to come near to him. He asked me to bring the pen and book. I thought that he was to sit behind me. But he moved to sit on a rock. He beckoned me to come closer to him so that he could whisper to me.
I wrote down all that he dictated to me.
Garing cautioned me: “Do not use it for purposes not intended by the water-spirits or else I would have lost the power accorded by the water-spirits”
Jojo: “What is his name?”
Garing: “I will give you the name tonight.”
Then Garing mentioned to me the questions that they posed to him.
Garing: “Is he your son?” Then he swore to the “water-spirits” that I am his son.
Jojo: “Thank you!”
Garing: “Next time, when you are here, we would spent the night outside the cave on a moonlit night, and, we would be able to see them, really white in appearance.”
That night after the initiation, I was awestruck by the reality of the spirit-world, so sacred, so tangible, so very real, yet so everyday for the Muruts, and so readily accessible to Garing who crisscrossed with ease from the human world to the spirit-world. I am truly convinced that the spirit-world is REAL, as real as the shamans who converse with them, carried out their instructions, and communicated the incantations from the spirit, through him to me.
For the shamans like Garing, it is a given, the sacred is part of the mundane. In other words, the sacred mysteries of life is integral to their everyday existence because they have the knowledge and experience to travel between the different worlds and collaborate with the benevolent spirits for the wellbeing of the rural indigenous communities.
At the same time, I became keenly aware of my own biases. The spirits/spirit-world is not what many urbanites of the dominant religions imagine them to be. Many readily dismiss it as some hocus-pocus stuff or sheer figment of the imagination of the “illiterate primitives” who lack the education and the knowledge to explain/rationalize the supernatural worlds. It is in this light of systemic suppression and marginalization that I termed indigenous shamanism and the practices of the shamans as a ‘subaltern spirituality of suspect.” (Fung 2005:233)
Needless to say, such a prejudice is rather prevalent in the secularized world, which ignored and erased the ‘transcendental/supernatural reality,’ including the multiple worlds, not to mention the spirit-world. Such an erasure has denied the believers any access to this whole realm of the supernatural reality as affirmed in indigenous shamanism. This closure further reduces the human ability to listen and decipher the voices of the spirits, let alone be guided by them so as to bring about greater wholeness to human lives and the well being of the community.
In the final analysis, I must admit that amidst the material poverty of the rural indigenous communities, there is more “wealth” than the dominant society, cultures and religions want to concede and credit the indigenous peoples for their shamanic beliefs. When I contrast this newly found “treasures” with the modern techno-centric lifestyle, the latter really pales in significance because of its apparent “hollowness,” not to mention the “emptiness” it leaves in the hearts of many.
With this window that offers glimpses of indigenous shamanism from a context-bound locus of experiences, it is opportune to take the next step wherein a conceptual framework (called it a “framing story”) is offered to facilitate a deeper comprehension.
2. UNDERSTANDING SHAMANISM AND SHAMANS
Much anthropological research has since been generated with regard to indigenous shamanism. It is important to state that the intercultural dialogue with indigenous peoples must examine the indigenous institution of shamanism as it is inseparably linked with the shamans and their initiation rites, their indigenous cosmology and mythology, the rituals that they perform, with the accompanying signs and symbols. It is a whole system– i.e., without the shamans and the rituals, there will be no shamanism and vice versa. To this end, E. Jean Matteson Landon (1992: 20) contends, “shamanism is an enduring institution that must be comprehended holistically.” Mircea Eliade (1967: 56 quoted in Overton 1998: 27) describes shamanism as the “most archaic and most widely distributed occult traditions.” Eva Jane Newmann Fridman concurs by adding “shamanism is an ancient spiritual practice” which “has developed and changed over the centuries, allowing shamanic practices to remain significant in present-day cultures.” (Walter and Fridman 2004: ix)
As for its epistemological origin, Sandy Yule (1999: 45) argues, “shamanism comes from the Tunguso-Manchurian word ‘saman.’ The noun is formed from the verb ‘sa-‘ (‘to know’), thus, ‘shaman’ literally means ‘he (sic) who knows.” James A. Overton (1998: 27) opines “throughout most of the world (North and South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania), the shaman fulfills, or has fulfilled in the past, the roles of healer, master of the spirits, guardian of the psychic and ecologic well-being of his community, psychopomp, and intermediary between the natural and supernatural.” According to Ulla (1999:41), “shamanism is not a religion . . . but a phenomenon–namely, the activities of shamans–that can be found in various religions.” Her view is supported by Fridman who fine-tuned Johansen’s explanation that “shamanism is not one uniform phenomenon over a wide range of time and space; each culture lays its own imprint on the belief system, practices, and outward appearances of its shamanic practioners” (Walter and Fridman 2004: ix). Landon (1992:4) qualifies Johansen by viewing “shamanism as a globalizing and dynamic social and cultural phenomenon.” He further adds, “South American shamanism is a religious system. It contains ideas and practices about the world and its reproduction, the worldview and reflection of the world” and therefore, “ritual is an important and necessary expression of a belief system . . .. Rituals works because it expresses. Its efficacy lies in its power as metaphor to express and alter the human experience by altering perception” (Ibid. 11-12). Landon believes that “the shaman is central in ritual expression since he is the master of the ritual and its representations. His authority to conduct ritual comes from his position as mediator between various domains and superhuman, the natural and the cultural. He is an ambiguous or liminal figure. He is both animal and human, since he transforms into animals. He is neither inherently good nor evil, because he works for the benefit, as well as the misfortune, of others. His power derives in part from his ambiguity, since he does not fit into the mutually exclusive category that organized the world” (Ibid. 12).
Seen from the viewpoint of power, Landon explains the shaman as the “possessor of power, and it is power that enables him to mediate between the extrahuman and human. This concept of power is intimately linked to the idea of energy forces, the manifestation of these forces in the soul, and the growth and development of humans” as “manifested as light or aura . . . in songs” for “the shaman’s power interacts with the global energy system” (Ibid. 14). Indeed, the shamans have the ability to draw upon “this energy through the ecstatic experience, through dreams or through trances induced by drugs” (Ibid. 20). I fully subscribe to Landon’s notion that “the sources of the shaman’s power are the sources of culture itself, and the knowledge he acquires is culture’s content. Through ritual he is central to the expression of the cultural system. His role as mediator extends into the sociological domain, where he plays an important role in curing, as well as in economic, political, and other activities” (Ibid.). In view of this, I contend that a shaman derives his power by virtue of the fact that he is an existential embodiment and symbolic expression and content of the shaman’s culture (See Fung 2000).
Sue Jennings discovers that the Temiars of Peninsular Malaysia call their shamans halak, though occasionally the Malay words bomoh or pawang are used. Halak “also describes the potential for being a shaman and the meeting of an individual with a person’s spirit-guide in dreams. Although most halak are male, there are women as well. Robert Dentan remarks, “there are varying degrees of halak. Women are rarely more than just a little halak, but a really halak woman is more successful than most male halak in the diagnosis and cure of diseases” (Dentan 1968: 85, quoted in Jennings 1995: 138). However, the majority of the shamans, who are known as bobolizans among the Rungus and Kadazandusuns of Sabah, are women. So too their apprentices. Both George N. Appell and Laura W. R. Appell consider bobolizan “as an intermediary between human beings and supernatural beings, both upper world osunduw and the terrestrial rogon, to alleviate afflictions of disease, misfortune, and crop failure . . .. They go into trance to communicate with the spirit world in order to diagnose and cure illness and misfortune, and they then sing the long sacred texts that accompany the necessary sacrificial offerings to the spirit world (Appell and Appell 1993: 1920). As a result, “women are considered the authorities on the nature of the cosmos and are the interpreters of most forms of misfortune except those relating to farming activities, where there are male experts as well” (Ibid. 20). The bobolizans effect cures through the help of the luma’ag who are the spirit and the “celestial counterpart of a living individual, male or female” and sometimes “of her mother or teacher” which they call upon during trance (Ibid. 14). The luma’ag communicates to the bobolizans “information on the proper sacrifice to achieve cures, which then involve the performance of hymns to the gods and spirits over sacrifices of pigs and chickens” (Ibid.).
The Temiar believe that shamans are persons of knowledge and wisdom. They are divided into minor, middle and major shamans, even a fourth category, great shaman, to indicate the highest grade of shaman who are tiger shamans of whom there are very few at any one time (Jennings 1995: 139). Most shamans begin as “minor shaman following the guidance of dream revelation; spirit guides of off-the-ground species. Higher grades of shaman have spirit-guides from on-the-ground species. It is the major and great shaman that are able to accept power not just from the head-souls of off-the-ground and ground species, but also from the heart/blood-soul, the lower body soul, of species on-the-ground” (Ibid. 140). Finally, shamans perform rituals because of “soul-sickness: either head-soul sickness or blood/heart-soul sickness.” (Ibid. 151) It is not uncommon that shamans “also give amulets made from wild garlic which are tied round the neck or wrist to ward off malevolent spirits or prevent colds and chills. If an infant is unwell, the baby and its mother will wear an amulet.” (Ibid. 145)
In the encounter with the world of shamanism, most participants with a rational mindset (as impacted by scientific and technocratic) normally doubt and dismiss as “myths” what they witness and experience as unreal. Overton advocates the change of mindset, which involves what he calls shamanic realism. He defines it as “the realistic presentation of an esoteric worldview which is not the result of the imagination of the author, but principally of a system of beliefs of ethnographic origins. Shamanic realism, therefore, transcends, as does shamanism itself, the barriers of history and geography, and therefore of the Latin American continent and of the Spanish language or of its literary tradition” (Overton 1998: 25). He concludes that shamanic realism is the “result of the presence of a system of cultural beliefs whose indelible influence on the author becomes patent in his or her artistic representation” (Ibid. 53). Only shamanic realism enables participants to put on a shamanic perspective, which disposes them toward the experience of shamanic rituals, and better understand indigenous shamanism. Indeed, what is experienced is real, out there, before one’s very eyes, and all one can say is, “It is what it is.”
3. CRITERIA FOR VALUATION AND EVALUATION
Based on personal efforts in the area of “contextual theologizing” in the light of my ethnographic field research and experiences, has enabled me to advocate some criteria and principles of re-valuation and evaluation of the many indigenous cultures, with particular reference to indigenous shamanism and shamans.
As a Catholic, I take delight in the principles explained by the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference) and I found them to be useful presuppositions for re-valuing and evaluating the relevancy of indigenous shamanism:
(a) First, the FABC states “it has been recognized since the time of the apostolic Church, and stated clearly again by the Second Vatican Council, that the Spirit of Christ is active outside the bounds of the visible Church. God’s saving grace is not limited to members of the Church, but is offered to every person. God’s grace may lead some to accept baptism and enter the Church, but it cannot be presumed that this must always be the case. God’s ways are mysterious and unfathomable, and no one can dictate the direction of divine grace.” (BIRA II, art.12) In this way, the Spirit of Christ is certainly operative in indigenous shamanism and God’s saving grace is offered therein as well.
(b) Second, “dialogue is the openness and attention to the mystery of God’s action in the other believers. It is a perspective of faith that we cannot speak of one without the other.” (Theses on Interreligious Dialogue, art.6.5). The “project” of “contextual theologizing” calls for such an openness so that one crosses the threshold and beholds with the eyes of faith, the presence of sacred mysteries of life in the beliefs of the ‘other.’
(c) Third, the “Christian communities in Asia must listen to the Spirit at work in the many communities of believers who live and experience their own faith, who share and celebrate it in their own social, cultural and religious history, and that they (as communities of the Gospel) must accompany these others “in a common pilgrimage toward the ultimate goal, in relentless quest for the Absolute,” and that thus they are to be “sensitively attuned to the work of the Spirit in the resounding symphony of Asian communion.” (FABC III, art. 8.2). This enjoins on the believers in general to listen to God’s spirit while we step into the world of indigenous shamanism as accompanied by the reputable indigenous shamans.
(d) Fourth, religious pluralism is considered by the Asian bishops “as a grace and as a God’ given call to be co-pilgrims along with the believers of other religions in search of Truth in love.” (Fernando 2000:865). In this regard, religious pluralism must be inclusive of the indigenous cultures in which shamanism is a central and integral institution in their belief system.
Upon these presuppositions, I contend that the condition sine non qua prior to any efforts at re-valuation and evaluation be based on the principle of kenosis and pleroma wherein one must be able to immerse oneself in the life-struggles of indigenous peoples in order to be filled with a more adequate understanding of their life-worlds from within.
Based on the first principle, I like to proceed with the enunciation of three fundamental criteria which argues that:
(1) The indigenous peoples have the epistemological power of making a moral distinction between what is evil (a disservice) and good (a service) to the indigenous communities (Fung 2005:237).
(2) Their rite of passage as sacred and should be valued in themselves.
(3) Their rituals are efficacious insofar they bring about the desired good for the individuals and the community as a whole.
Furthermore, I have explained the need for six additional principles of re-valuation and evaluation:
(1) Creation is good and suffused with the splendor of God’s presence. So are the multiple worlds of indigenous cultures.
(2) God in the person of Jesus has come to bring healing to the world, including the cultures and belief-systems of indigenous peoples;
(3) God has created all persons and things good and they are pleasing in God’s sight. So too are the shamans who ritualizes the healing and deliverance;
(4) Through the resurrection, God’s effort becomes insurmountable and God brings about wholeness and fullness of life to creation and humankind. God can do the same through indigenous healing rituals.
(5) All of Creation is suffused with God’s life-giving and life-sustaining Spirit and the indigenous cultures and belief-systems too;
(6) Indigenous shamans who ritualize based on the belief-systems are best evaluated according to the gospel injunction of the sound tree that produces good fruits.
It is my contention that the relevancy of indigenous shamanism and shamans depend to a large extend on the presuppositions and the principles supporting the criteria of re-valuation and evaluation. Without enunciating such fundamentals, we will fall back on the age-old criteria and declare indigenous shamanism and shamans at best a system of superstitions or at worst, satanic.
4. RELEVANCE TO THE MANY RELIGIONS
Indigenous shamanism and the existential symbols of shamans have survived the hegemonic onslaught of modernity. The perennial existence of indigenous shamanism and shamans ought to pose the many religions a question regarding their relevance rather than irrelevance. As to how indigenous shamanism is relevant must be further explicated in terms of its contribution to humankind’s growing understanding of who we are - anthropic “implanted” in the cosmos.
The teachings of the major religions have given us insights that human beings are more than material beings. We are in fact spirits or spiritual beings who have the ability to go beyond our material world. This capacity is amply demonstrated by the power of human mind to imagine and visualize in times of when we are in meditation, and the human heart to intuit and empathize with those who suffers and yearns for peace. These are the abilities that enable us to go beyond who we are, even though our human eyes do not see how these human faculties are at work.
Nevertheless, the spirit-world that the shamans have introduced to the human world continues to pose a lasting challenge to humankind. In a world where virtual reality, science and technology have such dominance over our lives, are we prepared to ask questions like: If humans are spirits, are we open enough to wonder if life is more than what we see? In other word, is life merely one-dimensional? Are we prepared to rethink whether the material world is situated within a web of relationships that constitute an organic whole that is at once multiple because it has many layers? Besides, is reasoning or rationality the only yardstick in life? What about the collective experiences of the Muruts and the many religious believers of the dominant cultures of such worlds?
The shamans have taught us a basic truth about who we are as human beings (anthropic) - we are complex and wholesome beings, a notion that I believe subverts the mere rational notion that we are just material beings. Human beings have senses that enable us to go beyond ourselves. In other words, we have a yearning (call it an indefinite openness to the infinite) to want to explore the sacred mysteries of life, even to experience the different worlds beyond the material and physical world. Human beings live in a web of relationship that connects the everyday world of activity and events (happening in the physical/material world) with the world filled with peace, joy and a clear, a sense of awe and wonder before the beauty of creation as we realize gradually that we are really an integral part of the whole (the spiritual or transcendental world). We too are beings in which both the spiritual world and the physical worlds are held together inside of us so that we humans are truly a unified whole. As a wholesome being, there is a need to return to the liminal state when one comes face to face with the mysteries of the complex universe and grow in the sense of awe and wonder. It is in the constant return to this state of liminality that the anthropic grows in a state of openness to experience the transcendence even though all humans are caught up with the everyday affairs of our world. The end-goal is to become an anthropic whose daily rhythmic life is punctuated with moments of transcendence and attained the lofty vision that anthropic is indeed a “bodi-fied” spirit in earth space and time.
Shamans also taught us invaluable lessons about the world we live in (the cosmos). Many believers of the dominant cultures subscribe to the world of the good/evil spirits in the world that we live in, including the saints and angels living in another dimension of the cosmos, the dimension of God. In our midst, we have heard of or encountered persons who can and have crisscrossed the many worlds in this cosmos because they have the ‘know how’ to do so. Some are gifted to see the spirits of the departed and the spirits of the supernatural worlds though many of us do not see them. To the shamans who have eyes to see beyond the material world, the unseen worlds is real and true because they can collaborate with the spirits to improve the well-being of the people they live with.
The ultimate truth that the renowned shamans introduce to us is: Life is a whole, a network of relationships that is all linked, rather than mere parts that are disjointed. Life in its highest form, as taught by the shamans, consists in experiencing such ability to go beyond oneself and the material world we live in. In going beyond our physical self, and crisscrossing into the many worlds, we begin to have glimpses of how sacred the mysteries of life and how all aspects of life, including the mundane world with its everyday happenings, are part of the sacred mysteries of life. Perhaps, as the shamans have shown, all human beings have the innate capacity to arrive at a fuller understanding about who we are and what is this awe-inspiring universe that we live in. This is the truth that the reputable shamans stood for and this truth has withstood the test of time and continued to challenge and subvert the notion the world and we are just material.
The world is the place by which we human beings come to experience and know that the mysteries of life are already within us and around us even though they are beyond space and time. Many of us have a sense of the mysteries ‘beyond.’ It is a start. We need to begin to have further glimpses and understand that the ‘beyond’ is bordering on a sense that is no space and time beyond, best explained as ‘the eternal’ or ‘eternity.’ That which is eternal has a bearing on the everyday happenings of life, for we soon realize what comes to an end in time and space, actually lives on forever. There is life now, and there is life after life.
The one tiny step that each one of us can take is to be open and allow ourselves to be pleasantly surprised by the awesome wonders that the mysteries of life have installed for all of us. In the end, we may come one full circle to discover the sacred mysteries of life is part of us, for humans are in time and in space, yet outside of space and time, for we are indeed spirits. As a composite being of human-spirit, we are a mystery unto ourselves. We know we cannot fully fathom who we are. There is an abysmal depth in all of us. That gives us a sense that we not just sacred but eternal as well.
The multiple worlds expounded by indigenous shamanism subverts the worldview of scientific rationality that the world is one-dimensional in that the world is just material and therefore what we see is what we get. Supported by this rationality, cultural globalization continues to unleash hegemonic forces of erasure that premised on collapsing the many into one – there is only one laudable culture and valid rationality. However, indigenous shamanism poses a resistant counterculture by the keeping afloat a radically subversive paradigm that there are many in one cosmos.
The articulation of such an understanding in the field of anthropology and cosmology would not have been possible in the absence of the indigenous traditions whose existence has facilitated the intercultural and interreligious encounter in academic scholarship. The mere factity of indigenous shamanism as a contributive dialogue partner already underlines its relevance in the field of the production of knowledge, which enriches humankind’s understanding of the meaning of life as anthropic in the cosmos.
CONCLUSION
In an era when modernity has unevenly impacted human civilization, flattening and erasure of the local cultures seems to be the rule of the day rather than the exception. This trend impinges on the many religions a social responsibility to exercise a humble and sensitive respect of the ‘religio-cultural Other’ in order to foreground the ethical principle of “love of the other as we love ourselves.” Such a principle has to be the basis for a practice of interactive dialogue that is grounded on sustained field research in which the field experiences and narratives are critically reflected upon in the light of the teachings of the many religions. This practice will enable the many religions to be convinced of the relevancy of the indigenous beliefs and be enriched by the shamanic traditions and institutions. Only a mutual enrichment enables some of the believers and leaders of the many religions to lend themselves to the defense and promotion of the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their communal cultural heritage, which is the constitutive source of their cultural identity and sustainability as indigenous communities in the modern world.
ENDNOTES
Recently a two-volume encyclopedia of world beliefs, Practices and Culture have been published by ABC-CLIO, Inc., at Santa Barbara, California, USA, in 2004.
In Asia due emphasis is given to the importance of experiences which becomes the locus from which theories or conceptual frameworks are generated.
In order to foreground the voice of the shaman, the text is narrated as a dialogue.
I began my field research among an indigenous people of Sabah (former British North Borneo) known as the Muruts, a name that literally means ‘hill people’ from 1999 till 2006 during which I lived for a period from 5 to 14 days in the village.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Appell, Laura W. R. and George N.
1993, “To Do Battle With the Spirits: Bulusuís Spirit Mediums.” In Robert L. Winzeler (ed.) The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo. Williamsburg: Borneo Research Council Monograph Series.
Eilers, Franz-Josef. ed.
1997, For All the Peoples of Asia. Vol. II. Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Documents from 1992 to 1996. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications.
Eliade, Mircea.
1967. “The Occult and the Modern World.” In Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Pp.50-60.
Fung, Jojo M.
1998. “The Legendary Batu Punggul,” Sabah Society Journal, Vol. 15: 59-73;
2000. “Glimpses of Murut Shamanism,” SHAMAN, Vol.8, No.2 (Autumn): 181-193.
2002. “Toward A Paradigm Shift In Mission Amongst The Indigenous Peoples In Asia.” FABC Papers No. 105. Hong Kong: Federation Of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
2003 “Rethinking Missiology In Relation To Indigenous People’ Life-Struggle.” Mission Studies 20 (April): 29-54.
______“A Theological Reflection On ‘The Baptism Into The Deep’ and Its Missiological Implications For The Asian Catholic Church.” Mission Studies 20 (June): 227-247.
2004. “The “Subversive Memory” of Shamanism.” In Art Leete and R. Paul Firnhaber, eds. Shamanism in the Interdisciplinary Context. Florida, USA: Brown Walker Press. Pp. 268-79.
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3. DIALOGUE AS INTEGRAL TO THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH IN ASIA
INTRODUCTION
In a post 911 global era that witnesses an unprecedented escalation of militaristic violence sanctioned by political leaders to resolve conflicts, dialogue is being increasingly foregrounded as a viable means for fostering mutual understanding amongst the religions and nations. Asia, with its unique yet plural religious and cultural traditions, is no exception. It is a contested geographical locality and geopolitical site where the different degrees of conflicts are being staged, resisted and negotiated by the peoples of different histories, cultures and religions.
In this paper, I like to postulate that dialogue is indeed integral to the evangelizing mission of the Church in Asia. I like to state from the onset that my explanation arises from a particular Catholic lens that make constant reference to the documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference. In the first section, I like to describe the context of the Christian presence in Asia so that this postulation is situated within a particular time and space construct known as Asia. Then in the second section, I will proceed to explain that dialogue is couched in an emerging theology that is borne out of the life-struggles of the people of Asia as they live the Christian message. The Asian approach to contextual theology calls for the use of three important hermeneutical moments, i.e., the commitment and service to life, the dialectical social analysis, and the critical introspection contemplation that enable FABC to enunciate insightful theological principles that facilitate dialogue. In the third section before the conclusion, I will explain the holistic approach to dialogue in three related points that highlight the importance of dialogue of mission Inter Gentes, dialogue as a common quest for harmony and finally, dialogue as a Kin-dom-centered-evangelization.
I. ASIA: CONTEXT OF CHRISTIAN PRESENCE
Asia is home to some 50 nations and 3.5 billion people, numbering two-thirds of the world’s population, where Christians made up more than 2 per cent of the entire population of Asia.
On the other hand, Asia is a continent of ancient and diverse cultures, religions, histories and traditions. Asians of the diverse religions manifest a reverential sense of the mystery and the sacred, a spirituality that regards life as sacred and discovers the Transcendent and its gifts even in the hustles and bustles of everyday mundane affairs. While it is a continent laden with sufferings due to diseases, communal violence, natural disasters, poverty, malnutrition, overpopulation and economic globalization, it is at the same time a continent awakening to realize its new responsibilities.
The Christian presence, albeit a sizable minority to date, stands in the line of ancestry that dates back to the colonial times of the 15th till 18th centuries when the gospel came to Asia via the “power of the gun” in an era that witnessed the mercantile expansion of European powers to the rest of the world- Latin America, Africa and Asia.
II. AN EMERGENT THEOL0GY
One of the ways to understand Christianity in Asia is in terms of an umbrella-like network known as the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) and its emerging theology of dialogue in the context of Asia.
(i) Theology in Context. The theological and pastoral reflections of the FABC arises out of the lived-experiences of the Church wherein the biblical faith or the text and context are always in critical conversation with each other for reasons that the everyday life is a constant interaction between the Church leaders and the believers, the Christians and the people of Asia. By lived-experiences, we mean the everyday life of Asians in their joys and sorrows as couched in the socio-cultural-religious-political realities of Asia.
The lived-experiences are contextualized and hence there is a need to grapple with the word ‘context.’ Douglas J.Hall (1994:84) understands contextuality in theology as “the form of faith’s self understanding that is always determined by the historical configuration in which the community of belief finds itself. It is this world which insinuates the questions, the concerns, the frustrations and alternatives, the possibilities and impossibilities by which the content of faith must be shaped and reshaped, and finally confessed.” For Stephen Bevans (1992:1), it is “a way of doing theology in which one takes into account: the spirit of the Gospel; the tradition of the Christian people; the culture in which one is theologizing; and the social change in that culture, whether brought about by western technological process or the grass-roots struggle for equality, justice and liberation.” In addition to the two loci theologici of Scripture and Tradition, Bevans (1992:2) added a third, viz., human experience for “theology that is contextual realizes that culture, history, contemporary thought forms, and so forth are to be considered, along with scripture and tradition, as valid sources for theological expression.”
Hence, in the pursuit of a contextualized Christian Gospel, there is a greater awareness, in the words of Jerome Crowe (1997:153-4), that “the gospel can only be experienced and communicated in the form of a particular human culture” for “there is no such thing as a ‘pure’ gospel, untainted by incorporation into a human culture, because the gospel is not a system of divine truths existing somewhere outside this world and untouched by human feelings, language, and customs but God’s self-involvement in the concrete circumstances of a people’s history and culture.”
(ii) Commitment and Service To Life. This emerging theology motivates the church in Asia to exercise and embody the first hermeneutical moment as an unwavering commitment and service to life which arises out of holistic view of life that is no less laden with a traditional sense of reverence which perceives God’s Spirit as active in the diverse and pluralistic Asian milieu.
“We Asians are searching not simply for the meaning of life but for life itself. We are striving and struggling for life because it is a task and a challenge. But life is a gift too, a mystery, because our efforts to achieve it are far too short of the ultimate value of life. We speak of it as becoming – a growing into, a journeying to life and to the source of life (FABC VI, art. 9).
“Ours is a vision of holistic life …We envision a life with integrity and dignity, a life of compassion for the multitudes, especially the poor and needy. It is a life of solidarity with every form of life and of sensitive care for the earth.” (FABC VI, art.10).
“We see the work of theology in Asia a service to life. It has to reflect systematically on themes that are important to the common journey of life with other peoples of Asia, to the life of Christians and their Churches in Asian …To do this service in a way that is pastorally relevant and fruitful to life, spirituality and mission of the disciple-community, theology has to start from below, from the underside of history, from the perspective of those who struggle for life, love, justice and freedom. Theologizing thus becomes more than faith seeking understanding, but faith fostering life and love, justice and freedom. It is in this way that theology becomes a dynamic process giving meaning to and facilitating the Asian journey to life. It becomes part of the process of becoming and being Church in Asia. (Being Church in Asia, arts. 48-50).
In relation to this emerging theology that commits the Asian Church to the service of life are a number of theological principles. Amongst them are the (i) Mystery of Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery that underlines God’s solidarity with humankind, especially the poor and marginalized, as well as (ii) God’s participation in the experience of pain and suffering in their daily lives. The FABC adopts an important theological perspective that considers the experiences of daily living as the privileged locus where God is to be found and encountered, because God has made a deliberate choice to be identified with the Asian peoples, especially the poor and the marginalized.
Flowing from the theological principles is the pastoral principle that ‘What we are with the people is more important than what we do for them.’
“The Christian community, it seems to us, must live in companionship, as true partners with all Asians as they pray, work, struggle and suffer for a better human life, and as they search for the meaning of human life and progress. Because the human person created in Christ, redeemed by Christ and united by Christ to himself is the way for the Church, the Church must walk along with her/him in human solidarity. (FABC V, art. 6.2, emphasis is mine) “The Lord of history is at work in that world of poverty. Seeing the Lord in the poor, making sense out of his action among them, discerning the direction of his action among them – this we felt deeply within us was the more specific challenge we have to face.” (BISA VII, art. 20)
Active solidarity “calls for more than mere sympathy, empathy or occasional encounters of theologians, bishops and other pastoral leaders with the daily lives of the Asian peoples, especially the poor and marginalized. But, it calls for personal commitment, deep immersion and experiential participation in the lives of our people, not as outsiders who drop by to visit, but as insiders who are bound in solidarity with them” (Tan 2003:9) so that we do not just merely work for them “but with them, to learn from them their real needs and aspirations (FABC I, art. 20).
(iii) Dialectical Social Analysis. For the Asian Church to be effective in the commitment and service to life, FABC calls for a second hermeneutical moment: the dialectical social analysis, carried out through reading the ‘signs of the times.’ Using this moment, the Church identifies the challenges in Asia, always in dialectical tension with who we are as Church in Asia. First, there are positive challenges: Asia is a continent of ancient and diverse cultures, religions, histories and traditions wherein there is deep interiority (“a sense of being hugged by the divine”), that inherent (even latent) reverential sense of the mystery and the sacred, a spirituality that regards life as sacred and discovers the Transcendent and its gifts even in mundane affairs, in tragedy or victory, in brokenness or wholeness, a continent awakening to new and gigantic responsibilities.
In addition, there are the negative challenges: poverty and the inequitable distribution of wealth, economic dependency; unjust trade and aid conditions; unfair economic policies which discriminates against labor; landlessness and the destruction of the rural economy and small family farms; unemployment and underemployment; poor working conditions and inadequate wages; dehumanizing plight of slum dwellers, landless peasants and migrant workers; unjust exploitation of workers; child labor; marginalization of indigenous peoples; unjust exploitation and discrimination of women; exploitative tourism (including sex-tourism); prostitution; disintegration of traditional Asian societal and family structures; drug abuse; unbridled consumerism; ethnic minority discrimination; caste discrimination; religious strife; racial strife and communalism; human rights violations; war, increased militarization and nuclear proliferation; terrorism; violence arising from religious fundamentalism and fanaticism; the plight of refugees; unrestrained exploitation of natural resources; pollution, environmental and ecological damage; as well as social and cultural dislocation.
Underlying such challenges are structural factors such as: secularization; modernization; urbanization, illiteracy; untrammeled market forces of globalization; non-suitability of Western laissez faire capitalism; economic exploitation by huge business conglomerates and transnational corporations; export oriented industries which neglect the needs of the poor; corruption which is engendered by a “get-rich-quickly” mentality; oppressive socio-political structures such as feudalism, colonialism, neocolonialism, communism; and dictatorial and totalitarian governments.
By way of an analytical self-critique in the theological consultation, the FABC acknowledges the double marginalization in terms of first, the Christian gospel and second, the Asian local churches due to the marginal impact of the gospel message in the lives of many Asians. Moreover, the Asian Church has remained a church that is implanted in Asia by colonial-era missionaries, dominated by the existence of pervasive Eurocentric ecclesial structures, and still foreign in its theology, lifestyle, worship, western-trained leadership, Christian rituals often remain formal, neither spontaneous nor particularly Asian, with a recognizable gap between leaders and ordinary believers in the Church, with members of other faiths, a powerful priestly caste with little lay participation. Furthermore, the seminary formation often alienates the seminarians from the people, and the biblical, systematic, and historical theology as taught are often unpastoral and unAsian. (Theological Consultation, art. 13)
(iii) Critical Introspection Contemplation. The dialectical social analysis leads to what the FABC terms as the third hermeneutical moment: the critical introspection contemplation which then enunciates a clear theological realization that the great religions of Asia are “significant and positive elements in the economy of God’s design and salvation. In them we recognize and respect profound spiritual and ethical meanings and values. Over many centuries they have been the treasury of the religious experience of our ancestors, from which our contemporaries do not cease to draw light and strength. They have been (and continue to be) the authentic expression of the noblest longings of their hearts, and the home of their contemplation and prayer.” (FABC 1, art.14)
The moment leads the FABC to make not just a preferential for the poor and the marginalized, but also a preferential option for Asian cultures, spirituality and religiosity, in recognition of the fact that the Asian milieu is defined both its varying degrees of economic poverty as well as its multifaceted religiousness. The FABC seeks to draw upon the spirit of compassion and interiority, asceticism and renunciation, as well as intuition and mysticism of the religiosity of the Asian peoples to underscore the pursuit of integral human liberation.
The dialogue that the FABC calls for is thus a triple dialogue with the Asian Cultures, Religions and the Poor. The FABC understands dialogue as an Asian trait that involves “a process of talking and listening, of giving and receiving, of searching and studying, for the deepening and enriching of one another’s faith and understanding (BIRA, art.11), with the stated objectives “to promote mutual understanding and harmony” (BIRA 1, art.15), “to promote whatever leads to unity, love, truth, justice and peace” (BIRA I, art.16) and “sharing the riches of our spiritual heritages” (BIRA 1, art.17).
Such a triple dialogue, I must hasten to add, includes the traditional religions of Asia, and it entails a dialogue with the many poor, the diverse cultures and belief-systems of these ancient religions.
Based on own contextual efforts at theologizing in relation to my ethnographic field research and experiences, I have advocated some criteria of re-valuation and evaluation of the many indigenous cultures, with particular reference to indigenous shamanism. The condition sine non qua prior to any theological efforts at re-valuation and evaluation, I contend, must be based on the principle of kenosis and pleroma wherein one must be able to immerse oneself in the life-struggles of indigenous peoples in order to be filled with a more adequate understanding of their life-worlds from within.
Based on the first principle, I have enunciated three fundamental criteria. They are (a) indigenous epistemological power of making a moral distinction between what is evil (a disservice) and good (a service) to the indigenous communities (Fung 2005:237); (b) the rite of passage as sacred and should be valued in themselves; and (c) the rituals are efficacious insofar they bring about the desired good for the individuals and the community as a whole.
(iv) Theological Principles For Dialogue. FABC enumerates the following principles to enable dialogue in the Asian context:
• The first theological principle: “It has been recognized since the time of the apostolic Church, and stated clearly again by the Second Vatican Council, that the Spirit of Christ is active outside the bounds of the visible Church. God’s saving grace is not limited to members of the Church, but is offered to every person. God’s grace may lead some to accept baptism and enter the Church, but it cannot be presumed that this must always be the case. God’s ways are mysterious and unfathomable, and no one can dictate the direction of divine grace.” (BIRA II, art.12)
• The second theological principle: Yet dialogue does not preclude but necessitates the proclamation of the Christian gospel since there are moments when “we shall not be timid when God opens the door for us to proclaim explicitly the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior and the answer to the fundamental questions of human existence.” (FABC V, art.4.3)
• The third theological principle: However in Asia, proclamation calls for the witness of Christians and of Christian communities to the values of the Kin-dom of God, a proclamation through Christlike deeds. For Christians in Asia, to proclaim Christ means above all to live like him, in the midst of the neighbors of other faiths and persuasions, and to do his deeds by the power of his grace.” (FABC V, art.4.1)
• The fourth theological principle: “dialogue and proclamation are complementary. Sincere and authentic dialogue does not have for its objective the conversion of the other. For conversion depends solely on God’s internal call and the person’s free decision.” (BIRA III, art.4)
• The fifth theological principle: “While proclamation is the expression of its awareness of being in mission, dialogue is the expression of its awareness of God’s presence and action outside its boundaries…Proclamation is the affirmation of its awareness to God’s action in oneself. Dialogue is the openness and attention to the mystery of God’s action in the other believers. It is a perspective of faith that we cannot speak of one without the other.” (Theses on Interreligious Dialogue, art.6.5)
• The sixth theological principle: “Christian communities in Asia must listen to the Spirit at work in the many communities of believers who live and experience their own faith, who share and celebrate it in their own social, cultural and religious history, and that they (as communities of the Gospel) must accompany these others “in a common pilgrimage toward the ultimate goal, in relentless quest for the Absolute,” and that thus they are to be “sensitively attuned to the work of the Spirit in the resounding symphony of Asian communion.” (FABC III, art. 8.2).
• The seventh theological principle: Religious pluralism is considered by the Asian bishops “as a grace and as a God’ given call to be co-pilgrims along with the believers of other religions in search of Truth in love.” (Fernando 2000:865)
In addition, I have enumerated six theological principles for the evaluation of indigenous cultures and their belief-systems.
• The first theological Principle: Creation is good and suffused with the splendor of God’s presence. So are the multiple worlds of indigenous cultures;
• The second theological Principle: God in the person of Jesus has come to bring healing to the world, including the cultures and belief-systems of indigenous peoples;
• The third theological Principle: God has created all persons and things good and they are pleasing in God’s sight. So too are the shamans who ritualizes the healing and deliverance;
• The fourth theological Principle: Through the resurrection, God’s effort becomes insurmountable and God brings about wholeness and fullness of life to creation and humankind. God can do the same through indigenous healing rituals;
• The fourth theological Principle: All of Creation is suffused with God’s life giving and life-sustaining Spirit and the indigenous cultures and belief-systems too;
• The fifth theological Principle: indigenous shamans who ritualize based on the belief-systems are best evaluated according to the gospel injunction of the sound tree that produces good fruits.
Such a dialogue in Asia has to be carried out as “equal partners” amongst fellow Asians:
“We enter as equal partners into the dialogue in a mutuality of sharing and enrichment contributing to mutual growth. It excludes any sense of competition. Rather, it centers on each other’s values.” “Like Jesus, “We enter as equal partners into the dialogue in a mutuality of sharing and enrichment contributing to mutual growth. It excludes any sense of competition. Rather, it centers on each other’s values.” (FABC 1, art.12)
And understandably, such a dialogue is amongst Asian of diverse cultures:
“Each culture not only provides us with a new approach to the human, but also opens up new avenues for the understanding of the Gospel and its riches. When the Gospel encounters the tradition, experience and culture of a people, its hitherto undiscovered virtualities will surface; riches and meanings as yet hidden will emerge into the light.” (Theses on the Local Church, 20-21)
And finally, amongst Asian of diverse religions:
“Religions, as they are manifested in history, are complementary perceptions of the ineffable divine mystery, the God-beyond-God. All religions are visions of the divine mystery …We religious believers are co-pilgrims, who share intimate spiritual experiences and reflections with one another with concern and compassion, with genuine openness to truth and the freedom of spiritual seekers. In this process, we become increasingly sensitive to human suffering and collaborative in promoting justice, peace and ecological wholeness.” (BIRA V, art. 6)
A dialogue that is inclusive of the many poor among the many cultures and religions:
“Poor, not in human values, qualities, nor in human potential. But poor, in that they are deprived of access to material goods and resources which they need to create a truly human life for themselves. Deprived, because they live under oppression, that is, under social, economic and political structures that have injustice built into them. (BIRA I, art.19)
And “like Jesus, we ‘have pitched out tents’ in the midst of humanity building a better world, but especially among the suffering and the poor, the marginalized and the downtrodden of Asia. In profound ‘solidarity with suffering humanity’ and led by the Spirit of life, we need to immerse ourselves in Asia’s cultures of poverty and depravation, from whose depths the aspirations for love and life are most poignant and compelling.” (FABC VI, art.14.2)
III. TOWARD A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO DIALOGUE
Dialogue, when it is holistic, calls for mission inter gentes, directed towards a sense of harmony in Asia so that the end-goal of evangelization is the actualization of the Kin-dom of God in human history.
(i) Dialogue as Mission Inter Gentes. According to Jonathan Tan (2004:84), the mission strategy of the FABC is “missio inter gentes” for reasons that the Church (a) will never dominate Asia in the manner Christendom dominated medieval Europe; (b) the church has to become truly rooted in the Asian milieu, then a missio inter gentes approach would be perfectly at home within the diverse and pluralistic Sitz-im-Leben of Asian cultures and religions.” He added, “rather than proclaiming “to” (ad) the nations in the hopes of getting them to abandon their religions in favor of the Christian gospel, the FABC bishops have chosen a mission paradigm that seeks to “immerse” the local churches in the diverse and pluralistic Asian Sitz-im-Leben, sharing life in solidarity with the Asian peoples and serving life, as Jesus had done.
In this way, “the focus of the Asian local church’s missio inter gentes is identified with Jesus own mission of bringing about the Kin-dom of God among his people” in a manner that they collaborate with God’s ongoing mission (missio dei) of bringing about the Kin-dom of God through their life witness and threefold dialogue with the Asian peoples and their cultures, religions and marginalizing life challenges.” (Tan 2004:91)
(ii) Dialogue as A Common Quest For Harmony. The FABC realizes that dialogue is a means that enables the diverse religions and cultures of the various nations to work towards harmony in Asia. The FABC emphasizes that the quest for harmony is authentically Christian, yet quintessentially Asia, viz., harmony appears “to constitute in a certain sense the intellectual and affective, religious and artistic, personal and societal soul of both persons and institutions in Asia.” (BIRA IV/1, art. 13)
“Harmony can be perceived and realized at various levels: harmony in oneself as personal integration of body and mind; harmony with the Cosmos, not only living in harmony with nature, but sharing nature’s gift equitably to promote harmony among peoples; harmony with others, accepting, respecting and appreciating each one’s cultural, ethnic and religious identity, building community in freedom and fellowship; harmony in our collaborations as a means of promoting harmony for all in the world; and finally harmony with God or the Absolute or whatever we perceive as the ultimate goal of life.” (BIRA V/2)
True harmony must create space and acceptance of diversity in richness and unity in diversity.
“Harmony does not consist in the leveling off differences in order to arrive at consensus at all cost. Avoiding controversies and bypassing disagreements do not pave the way to harmony. To say that all religious are the same is simplistic and does not promote honest dialogue, but to argue that religions do not meet at all would block any creative interaction.” (BIRA V/3, art.7).
Such a true harmony has its foundation in God and in the Trinity.
“God is the source and summit of harmony. God is the foundation and fulfillment of it” (Asian Christian perspective on Harmony, art.5.1.1.4) since the “marvelous mystery of unity and communion of the Trinity is the model as well as a powerful challenge in our efforts to create harmony in all areas of life” (BIRA IV/11, art.7)
(iii) Dialogue As A Kin-dom-centered-Evangelization. The FABC is clear that “the focus of the Church’s mission of evangelization is building up the Kin-dom of God and building up the Church to be at the service of the Kin-dom. The Kin-dom of God is therefore wider than the Church. The Church is the sacrament of the Kin-dom, visibilizing it, ordained to it, promoting it, but not equating itself with it.” (Theses on Interreligious Dialogue, art.6.3)
As a result of this understanding of evangelization in relation to the holistic notion of dialogue, the FABC “views salvation history of the Asian continent as embodied in the history, religions, cultures, challenges, aspirations and hopes of its many people. (Tan 2004:89) Thus FACB enunciated two soteriological principles: (a) “salvation history did not begin with the coming of Christianity to Asia. Rather, it recognizes the Father’s and Spirit’s presence and saving activity in and through Asian religious traditions which preceded the coming of Christianity to Asia and which also continue as an integral part of ongoing Asian religious history”; (b) the “deep soteriological underpinnings of Asian religions and philosophies that have inspired multitudes of Asians are not evil, but from God. Hence, the FABC is unequivocal in asserting that the wisdom of Asian philosophies and the soteriological elements of Asian religions are all inspired by the Holy Spirit working outside the boundaries of the institutional Church.” (Tan 2004:92)
CONCLUSION
The Final Statement of the 7th FABC Plenary Assembly is worth our pondering in contemplative silence before the unfathomable presence of our infinite God:
“As we celebrate the Great Jubilee of the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior, and the Holy Doors of churches are being opened, we look at the image of the door and are gladdened to rediscover our calling to enter into the community of Christ’s disciples and to share in his life and mission. It is through the same doors that we now go out into the world of peoples of Asia and into their struggles and joys, which are also ours.” (Eilers 2002:15)
Dialogue is that door that opens the believers of the Asian Church to the incomprehensible wonders of the Lord whose Spirit beckons us to “come and see” and “taste the goodness of the Lord” in the profound reverence and insights of our fellow pilgrims in Asia.
Dialogue is the trail that many committed believers in Asia blast so that many other generations of believing pilgrims are able to sojourn forward together so that they actualize the distant dream that a world of harmony is not only possible but ours to enjoy as we live to appreciate more fully the multiple realities of our people in Asia.
Sept 24-29, 2006.
TCMA Conference,
Perth, Australia.
Endnotes
Out of the 2 per cent of Christian presence, some 97 million are Catholics, with East Timor, ranking as the nation with 95% of Catholics and the Philippines, second with 83%.
The FABC began in 1970 with the papal visit of Pope Paul VI. FABC consists of 14 full-member countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, East Timor, Japan, Korea, Laos-Cambodia, Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei, Myanmar, Paskistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and 10 associate-member countries: Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Siberia, Tadjkistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The FABC convenes in Plenary Assembly, the highest body, with the participation of all presidents and delegates of member conferences once in every four years. The FABC operates under the principle of collegiality (governs the Church together) and subsidiarity (that decisions are to be responsibly made at the different levels of the life of the Church). To-date seven plenary assemblies have been held: FABC I: Evangelization in Modern Day Asia (Taipei, Taiwan, 1974), FABC II: Prayer – Life of the Church in Asia (Calcutta, India, 1978), FABC III: The Church – A Community of Faith in Asia (Bangkok, Thailand, 1982), FABC IV: The Vocation and Mission of the Laity in the Church and in the world of Asia (Tokyo, Japan, 1986), FABC V: Journeying Together Toward The Third Millennium (Bandung, Indonesia, 1990), FABC VI: Christian Discipleship in Asia Today: Service to Life (Manila, Philippines, 1995), and FABC VII: A Renewed Church in Asia on a Mission of Love and Service (Sampran, Thailand, 2000). The recent FABC held its 8th plenary session in Seoul Korea, from August 18-24, 2004 with the theme: Family In Communication. Communication In The Family. Under the aegis of the FABC, there are different institutes: BILA- Bishops’ Institute for Lay Apostolate, BIMA – Bishops’ for Missionary Apostolate, BIRA – Bishops’ Institute for Interreligious Affairs, BISA – Bishops’ Institute for Social Action, BISCOM – Bishops’ Institute for Social Communication, FEISA – Faith Encounters in Social Actions, and the FABC Office of Theological Concerns. Each of these institutes produces its own documents and position papers as well to nurture the life of the Catholic Church in Asia.
I began my field research among an indigenous people of Sabah (former British North Borneo) known as the Muruts, a name that literally means ‘hill people’ since 1999 till 2006.
See Fung 2003:100, endnote 12. “Fully accepting the theological richness of the term basiliea translated as the Kingdom of God, I like to use a more Asian- and-gender-sensitive term called the Kin-dom, for kins denote the idea of family and extended family relationships in Asia. Furthermore, in the Christian sense, all of us are related to each other by virtue of the fact that we are created in God’s likeness and image.”
4. ABORIGINAL DIGNITY ROOTED IN SUBVERTED YET SUBVERSIVE BELIEFS
EXCERPT
On the occasion 40th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Australians recognized the human rights of Indigenous Australians, this papers calls for a retrospective recognition that the aboriginal dignity does not a priori depends on a referendum of the dominant “white society.” Aboriginal dignity is a primordial given and an experiential factity based on the ritualistic celebration (in the school of life) of aboriginal festivities and passages of life. This paper argues, albeit from an ethnographic point of view, that the rituals and shamanic experiences are constituents of existential DNA fabric of aboriginal human dignity. In Part I of this paper, the two narratives bespeak of the authors’ personal experiences of shamanic rituals, summarily described as the “subversive space” which continues to subvert the hegemonism of any systemic erasure of aboriginal cultures and religiosity. The latter can be outlawed but not outlived for the shamanic world are about transcendental realities known as the sacred world of spirits. The narratives of shamanic power-over the military might further postulates that shamanic power not only constitutes aboriginal dignity but preserves and promotes the dignity of one’s neighbors. The differences are discriminatory walls that segregate and yet the differences are causes for celebration based on the commonality of having experienced the shamanic world of the spirits. In Part II of this paper, the author enumerates viable strategies for both the members of the dominant society and the aboriginal communities, with special focus on women and the young, in the hope that the evolving society involves collaborative efforts wherein total human flourishing is attainable so that aboriginal peoples and ALL become equal citizens and equal disciples amidst their differences that must be celebrated by ALL.
INTRODUCTION
The shift in the regional and global perception of the aboriginal dignity and rights is perceptible before and after the UN Year and Decade of Indigenous Peoples in 1993 and 1994-2004 respectively. This paradigmatic shift is made possible by the local and regional efforts of the aboriginal subaltern movements around the world. The Australian aboriginal movements no less, have contributed their share to the ripple effects of the regional and global flow of heightened consciousness of aboriginal dignity.
The occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Australians recognized the human rights of Indigenous Australians enjoins us to retrospectively recognize that Australian aboriginal peoples celebrate their dignity as the people of the land even before the arrival of the British subjects. This landmark occasion needs to motivate us to join in the concerted efforts to reverse all policies that are determined to subvert the indigenous cultures and religiosity. On the other hand, this celebration has to energize us to lend a helping hand to sustain all life-giving cultural and religious practices that enhance full human flourishing of the aboriginal communities. Though the collective memory of the dominant society has chosen to dis-member rather than re-member the fact that aboriginal peoples became Australian citizens in 1947, it is the prerogative of this forum to discursively assert and ceremonially affirm and joyously celebrate the golden Jubilee of their recognition as Australian citizens.
This paper calls attention to the inherent fact that the aboriginal dignity is inseparable from aboriginal beliefs and rituals, especially their age-old institution known as shamans with its religio-cultural practices commonly denoted as indigenous shamanism. This paper attempts to contend that the everyday struggle for the full legal recognition of the aboriginal dignity is firmly grounded in aboriginal cultural and religious beliefs and practices. In the first section, I will establish that the cultural and religious practices manifest a certain subversive memory that defies the developmental logic of the authorities. I will attempt to foreground such subversive memory through three narratives. The first account relates to the current struggle of the Semai in Malaysia, which will offer a window of understanding of the intimate relation before ritualistic celebration, and everyday struggle. In the second narration, I will highlight shamanism realism as a non-negotiable condition non-qua for cross-cultural understanding of the focal role of indigenous shamanism. In part two, I will enumerate some viable strategies for participants from both the dominant and aboriginal societies in order to promote full human flourishing in a subversive space that celebrates our differences in an ever-evolving modern society.
PART I SUBVERSIVE MEMORY OF INDIGENOUS SHAMANISM
The systemic closure and erasure of indigenous cultural and religious beliefs and practices is common knowledge in any colonized society. According to Mark J. Plotkin, an American ethno botanist, “the denigration of shamanism is by no means restricted to one area of the world.” He cited few incidences to illustrate his point.
In Zimbabwe shamanism was outlawed by the Witchcraft Regulations of 1895 and the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1899. Guilty parties were subject to thirty-six lashes and/or seven years in prison. Throughout North America, American Indians, who have melted Christianity with their native beliefs, still struggle to be allowed to consume peyote, a traditional part of their religious rituals. In Indonesia island of Siberut, west of Sumatra, the Protestant church issued a declaration against the healers of that land. It states that the church considers the activities of the Kerei (medicine men) as heathen and blasphemous, and is determined to abolish the Kerei activities as fraud at the expense of the people. And in the Columbian Amazon, Protestant and Catholic clergymen set fire to holy longhouses and ornaments and exposed sacred musical instruments to the women and children of the tribe – a practice expressly forbidden by the tenets of the Indians’ religion.”
Given the historical evidences of hegemonic practices of colonial subversion, I postulate that indigenous cultures manifest a certain subversive memory as evidentiated in the following narratives.
(A) SEMAI STRUGGLE: A SUBALTERN NARRATIVE
An aboriginal community known as Semai located Perak, a state in the central part of Peninsular Malaysia, is in the midst of a conflict with the authorities, including the State and Federal Governments over their land that will be annexed for purpose of establishing a botanical park. The case, according to Tijah, the community spokeswoman, will eventually end up in the court and a long-drawn legal battle will ensue. She is convinced that judicial activism is the last resort for this aboriginal community. Yet this struggle is not just a matter of negotiation involving multi-party stockholders but it is also a symbolic struggle involving communal prayer.
At 11.00 pm on Thursday, March 22, 2007, the communal prayer known as “sewang” took place. Tijah and I went over to Pak Ipan’s house at about 10.45pm. Upon arrival, we were told that Pak Ipan was invited over to one of the participants’ house to shamanize (known in Semai as “jumpi”) because he was suffering from a “neck-pain.” (Malay: sakit leher). But as we decided to go back to the house, we met 3 young women and we doubled back to Pak Ipan’s house. Tijah went inside to the space at the back where the kitchen was, to prepare for the sewang. I stayed in the main hall (front-space) to watch a Cantonese Police Story. Then Tijah called me in and I went into the kitchen to have a drink (tea and some biscuits) with the gathering, some of whom are youths of the village. As we chatted, Pak Ipan felt that it was time to begin the ritual. So he requested that all of us faced the front of him as he sat at the back next to the leafy brushes (known in Semai as Canau), incense pot and the jar of flowers. Then the wife held the container with the “canau”” over the incense and then incensed the jar of flowers around the base. With the Pak Ipan began the ritual. According to Tijah, the long and short of it is: (a) as disclosed by her before the prayer for a spirit of tolerance on the part of the personnel representing the authorities (District Office, Public Works Department (JKR), Land Department (Jabatan Tanah), the Aboriginal Affairs Department (JHEOA)…etc.); (b) during the prayer: Pak Ipan called on the spirits of the trees, rocks, rivers, birds, animals, the ancestors … the entire environment to come to the aid of the negotiation and that the spirits will ameliorate the minds and hearts of those who are in charge so that they will be receptive at the negotiation. He prayed that the negative energy and harmful knowledge (ilmu Gob). To conclude the “Sewang,” the woman assistant, Kenmerija carried the canau (the action of carrying is known in Semai as repa) to the main entrance of the house to cast away whatever is evil and destructive, to the point that they may even recoil on the heads of the wicked. Then the “sewang” ended, and the Pak Ipan instructed and explained about the relation of the prayer to the negotiation process on Saturday and what they needed to bring with them to the negotiation session.
As the symbolic always impinges on the cultural struggle, and interested in the effect of the sewang on the negotiation which took place two days later, I enquired Tijah who responded that the stockholders at the negotiation she spoke with great confidence and the representatives of the authorities had their heads down, ashamed and guilty. Only the District Officer spoke in a manner she perceived to be open and friendly. She was grateful for the prayers offered in the village and she realized that her agency is never purely human but religious, symbolic of the world of the Divine and the spirits.
This current subaltern narrative from the Semai aboriginal community informs us that the dignity of the aboriginal community is indelibly rooted at the symbolic level in which rituals such as sewang is just a vital expression of inalienable dignity of the aboriginal peoples. This symbolic dimension is rightly a subversive space in which human efforts, when infused with the shamanic power of the spirits, subverts the very powers that attempts to subvert them. So the subverted victims become the subverting agents in the very space when the symbolic and the everyday are fused into a unitary seamless whole.
(B) A PERSONAL SHAMANIC ENCOUNTER
The aboriginal dignity, to my limited experience of the shamanic world of the spirits, is traceably grounded in an everyday experience of the spirit-worlds as the symbolic world is readily “accessible” in the physical world of daily human affairs. Any intercultural crisscrossing between the human-physical world and the world of spirits requires a mindful emptying of preconceptions and prejudices, including one’s binary mindset (read Euro-American scientific rationality) based on “my beliefs are true and superior versus theirs as false and inferior.” To a great extent, this dialogue calls for a willful suspension of one’s religious beliefs even values so that such emptying resembles an empty vessel that is able to “receive and cherish” what one has being gratuitously offered by the spirits.
Premised upon this, I intend to share a personal encounter with Garing, an existential symbol of shamanic crisscrossing wherein the shamanic power he exercised protects life and subverts the hegemony of a neighboring nation. My own intercultural crisscrossing of the “threshold” into the shamanic world took place in the village of Bantul, located at the border between Sabah (what was formerly known as North Borneo) and Kalimantan, Indonesia. After two periods of living in the village, Garing mentioned to me the decision from the spirit-world, that I would be “initiated” through a bathing ritual known to the Muruts as “na rio.” I would be ritually inducted to become a member of his family.
The spirits have instructed Garing to orientate me on July 19, 2001 based on three conditions that I have to agree to before the initiation: (a) I have to become his son and visit him in the kampung regularly; (b) I have to be at his disposal when he comes to Kota Kinabalu when I am in town; (c) I have to be there for his burial whenever possible. But the first initiation had to be postponed, as the spirit Garing, due to the impending rain. We returned the following day and I was initiated. Garing asked me to squat in a pond of the running stream.
The initiation ceremony continued on July 20, 2001. When we arrived at the sacred spot upstream, Garing went further upriver to communicate with the water-spirits. With the instruction from the spirits, he broke the eggs and spilled the content into the stream. Then he asked me to bath. At the pool, he and I dipped and bathed.
Soon Garing called me to come near to him. He asked me to bring the pen and book. I thought that he was to sit behind me. But he moved to sit on a rock. He beckoned me to come closer to him so that he could whisper to me.
I wrote down all that he dictated to me.
Garing cautioned me: “Do not use it for purposes not intended by the water-spirits or else I would have lost the power accorded by the water-spirits”
Jojo: “What is his name?”
Garing: “I will give you the name tonight.”
Then Garing mentioned to me the questions that they posed to him.
Garing: “Is he your son?” Then he swore to the “water-spirits” that I am his son.
Jojo: “Thank you!”
Garing: “Next time, when you are here, we would spent the night outside the cave on a moonlit night, and, we would be able to see them, really white in appearance.”
The moments right after the initiation left me in a state of sublimal liminality from within which I sensed a certain newness in my perception of reality. I realized that the world of nature is more than what meets the eyes. The beauty of the forest apparent to the naked eyes betrays the profound mystical wonders of the sacred mysteries oozing forth from the entire ecological world around me. The techno-world, with all its invented brilliance, pales in significance compared to the incomprehensible splendor captured in the rapture of having “seen, heard, touched” the sacred mysteries running through the veins of this abysmal and organic universe.
At the same time, I am more than convinced that the everyday experiences of the shamanic world constitute an important basis of the aboriginal dignity of Garing and those reputable fellow shamans. As I spent time with him, I became acutely aware of a noticeable sense of self-possession, confidence and ease arising from his long years of shamanic practices during the process of accompaniment and initiation.
Few days after the initiation, I became keenly aware of my own biases that bring differences into sharper focus between me and the aboriginal peoples. The difference is stark naked: the spirits/spirit-world is not what many urbanites of the dominant religions imagine them to be. Many readily dismiss it as some hocus-pocus stuff or sheer figment of the imagination of the “illiterate primitives” who lack the education and the knowledge to explain/rationalize the supernatural worlds.
Needless to say, such prejudiced preconceptions make the differences all the more pronounced in the secularized world as members of the dominant society continue to ignore and erase the transcendental/supernatural reality, including the multiple worlds, not to mention the spirit-world. Such an closure has denied the believers any access to this whole realm of the supernatural reality as affirmed in indigenous shamanism. This closure further reduces the human ability to listen and decipher the voices of the spirits, let alone be guided by them so as to bring about greater wholeness to human lives and the well being of the community.
Amidst the contrastive differences, I must admit that in the deplorable material poverty of the rural indigenous communities, there is more “wealth” than the dominant society, cultures and religions want to concede and credit the indigenous peoples for their shamanic beliefs. When I contrast this newly found “treasures” with the modern techno-centric lifestyle, the latter truly fizzles out in its apparent significance because of its apparent “hollowness,” not to mention the “emptiness” it leaves in the hearts of many.
Indeed, the shamanic world is different yet that difference unites the aboriginal peoples who subscribe to it and unites me with them. Now our differences on the common ground of the experiences of the shamanic world and I am invited to stand with them in the subversive space of indigenous shamanism. In this subversive space, the scientific rationality behind the current logic of globalization that reduces the “many worlds into one” world of neo-liberal capitalism is subverted by a “space” that promotes the many worlds in the one universe. It is in this light of systemic suppression and marginalization that I termed indigenous shamanism and the practices of the shamans as a subaltern spirituality of suspect. (Fung 2005:233)
(C) SHAMANIC POWER AS SUBVERSIVE
However, Garing’s composure is more perceivable through a really astounding narrative during the period known as confrontasi (a Malay word that signified the conflict) in which Garing was a border scout for the 2nd K.E.O. Gurkhas division of the British Army exercised his shamanic power.
One day, while on surveillance at the Sabah-Kalimantan border, the Gurkhas realized that there were Indonesian soldiers nearby. He was given orders to climb to the top of a Tarap tree and take secret photos of the enemy soldiers. He willingly agreed to do this as he could scale trees more easily than the others. However, the leafy branches of the Tarap tree blocked his view. He was then told to try and cut off some of the branches so that he could have a better view and shot. As he was cutting the first branch, it broke and made a loud noise falling to the ground. He decided it would be safer to get out of the tree. However, the sound of the falling branch had attracted the attention of the Indonesian soldiers. They spotted Garing trying to climb out of the tree and they shot at him. Somehow, the bullets hit the branches, breaking them, instead of hitting him. They shot off several branches of the tree. Mortars were fired on him as well. The Gurkhas ran off, thinking that he was killed. But later, he emerged amidst them. Unscathed. When he was sent back for another reconnaissance mission, they were again fired upon too. He instructed his fellow soldiers to cling onto him for protection. They escaped from the enemy without incurring any casualty. Only then it became apparent to the Gurkhas that Garing had power to protect as many as six of them at one time from any harm of bullets and mortars.
Garing’s bravery earned him the royal medal of Her Majesty, the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh. It was willy nilly a symbolic (albeit European) affirmation, of the local shamanic power that subverts the hegemonic might of the military of Indonesia, armed with weaponary of the powerful nations.
The subversive memory of the aboriginal communities of the Semai and the Muruts enables us to state conclusively that shamans and indigenous shamanism are symbolic of a power-over relation that baffles the mighty of the dominant society. This power is exercised in the actual asymmetric world where the unequal relation provides legitimacy to the systemic erasure of indigenous cultures and religiosity.
Landon believes the shaman are the “possessor of power, and it is power that enables him to mediate between the extrahuman and human. This concept of power is intimately linked to the idea of energy forces, the manifestation of these forces in the soul, and the growth and development of humans” as “manifested as light or aura . . . in songs” for “the shaman’s power interacts with the global energy system” (Ibid. 14). Shamans draw upon “this energy through the ecstatic experience, through dreams or through trances induced by drugs” (Ibid.: 20). In view of this, I contend that shamans and shamanism are existential embodiment and symbolic expression of subversive power yet unbeknownst to many in the dominant society (See Fung 2000).
For any cross-cultural encounters to be beneficial, Overton advocates the needs for shamanic realism. He defines it as “the realistic presentation of an esoteric worldview which is not the result of the imagination of the author, but principally of a system of beliefs of ethnographic origins. Shamanic realism, therefore, transcends, as does shamanism itself, the barriers of history and geography, and therefore of the Latin American continent and of the Spanish language or of its literary tradition” (Overton 1998: 25). He concludes that shamanic realism is the “result of the presence of a system of cultural beliefs whose indelible influence on the author becomes patent in his or her artistic representation” (Ibid.: 53).
Only shamanic realism offers, during such cross-cultural encounters, glimpses of the inalienable aboriginal dignity that is being constantly re-membered in shamanic rituals that enable them to attain full human flourishing in their everyday struggle for fuller humanity.
PART II VIABLE STRATEGIES OF STRUGGLE
As the global and local world is simultaneously evolving, although at different rates and at different levels, it is nevertheless clear that viable strategies need to be enumerated for a forward-movement of cross-cultural struggles for a fuller human flourishing of the dignity of the aboriginal peoples. I shall dwell on the strategies of struggle for members of the dominant society and the aboriginal communities, with a special focus on women and the upcoming generation.
C.1. Members of the Dominant Society
A. Believers of the dominant society have much to benefit from the academic research on the indigenous belief-systems and the cultural-religious practices of the shamans. Such seminars and symposia aimed at a critical reflection and understanding of the relation between the Christian faith and indigenous belief systems must involve a critical interface between theology and social sciences such as anthropology. In this way, believers undergo a paradigmatic change of perspectives with regard to fellow human beings (anthropology), the world (cosmology) and God (theology), including the end-goals of life in the world (teleology).
B. The anthropology that accords full dignity to the aboriginal peoples will be the horizon that motivates members of the dominant society to struggle for the promotion of the democratic space wherein aboriginal people’s voices will be heard. When spoken, members of the dominant society need to ensure that they are translated into policies that promote the full human flourishing of aboriginal peoples. In other words, aboriginal peoples must be respected as persons who are equal citizens of the nation and equal disciples of the local churches.
C. The anthropology of human flourishing must motivate members and believers to examine and recognize the morality (intention and values) of the shamans who work the system of indigenous beliefs to determine whether they are gifts from God and therefore agents of God’s Spirit or the evil spirit. Respect the inherent pool of indigenous wisdom embedded in their oral traditions and sacred narratives, for on the basis of such knowledge do they gain a deep understanding of the criteria, principles and norms that regulate aboriginal cultural-religious beliefs and practices.
D. Discourses in the academia and texts in educational systems must be rightly presented to re-present the rich cultural heritages of the aboriginal community so as to promote greater sensitivity and respect for the dignity of the aboriginal peoples.
E. Respectfully acknowledge that the shamans are in an authoritative position to explain (a) the kind of power with which they heal and exorcise for they can differentiate between white and black magic (known in Malaysia as “ilmu putih” “ilmu hitam” respectively); (b) the intended purposes of the use of such power. Reputable shamans are able to recognize and emphasize the selfless service of the community as a value and the selfish greed to enrich themselves as a disvalue to the community.
F. Death-dealing powers inherent in indigenous shamanism must be discouraged and denounced as a disservice to society after a process of critical examination with the assistance of multidisciplinary expertise, comprising local reputable indigenous shamans and wise community leaders.
G. Reputable shamans steeped in shamanic expertise must be regarded as partners in the concerted local and global efforts to develop more wholistic approaches to ecology, the bodily health and wellbeing of individuals and the local communities.
H. Periodically participate in the rituals of life and seasonal festivities when invited by the aboriginal peoples. Such participation sensitized members of the dominant society to aboriginal cultural ethos, values and worldviews so as to be to appreciate their worlds in their terms and become committed promoters of the sacred heritage the aboriginal peoples.
I. Solidarity with aboriginal women enjoins women in the dominant society to learn, value, defend and promote the subversive spaces that belong rightfully to aboriginal women so that they continue to exercise their roles in the promotion of aboriginal cultures and society.
J. For the young women and men, organize learning circles that encourage localized learning through sustained but periodic long-term exposure-immersion lived-in programmes in the aboriginal communities this passage to the aboriginal world and then upon the subsequent returns, will enriched the young so that the young in turn re-educate the young in the dominant society.
K. Organize work camp for the young women and men, always in collaboration with the local aboriginal communities, so that the young women and men work together on common projects that will deepen mutual friendship and build a world of equal citizens and equal disciples in the church.
L. Express solidarity with the aboriginal peoples by standing with them in their subversive space of shamanism wherein the power-over the mighty comes from the world of spirits and the Sacred.
C.2. Members of the Aboriginal Community
Given my limited experiences as an outsider, I wish to humbly propose the followings as ideas for the kind consideration of the aboriginal peoples. The aim is to further ground and re-roots the aboriginal identity and personhood, essential building-blocks of aboriginal dignity:
M. Participate faithfully in the school of life where rituals of the passages of life are celebrated to commemorate the origin of the world and aboriginal peoples and shamanic healings carried out and prayers offered by shamans to accompany the aboriginal struggles. [What is of the spirits is sacred and runs deep in one’s blood.]
N. Learn from the lips and hearts of the wise aboriginal women and men leaders and the reputable shamanesses and shamans of the community to reinforce the aboriginal identity and dignity. [What is heard reverberates in the deep recesses of one’s soul]
O. Organize and encourage the young to be involved in the activities of the school of life for it is a different space for unlearning what is learnt in the dominant society and re-learnt the age-old wisdom stored up in the womb of the aboriginal communities.
P. For the aboriginal women, stand tall and proud of the spaces uniquely belonging to aboriginal women and continue the struggle to be egalitarian society of equals citizens and equal disciples.
Q. For the young aboriginal women and men, give time to be alone with the wise, be they the respected elders and the renowned shamans, earn your places in their hearts that they may impart the wisdom to the young women and men and initiate the young into the world that they constantly crisscross back and forth in order to learn to appreciate and behold the sacred mysteries of life that lies the formulae for a harmonious nature in our ecological system.
R. The very young need be challenged to commit themselves to be apprenticed as shamaness and shamans so that the communities have access the subversive powers of the spirits in aboriginal everyday struggles.
S. Stand together, young and old, in the subversive space of shamanic world of the Sacred and the spirits in order to neutralize the subverting forces of erasure.
These strategies enumerated are by no means exhaustive and need to be reformulated with the change of times as they are context-specific, therefore value-laden as they time and space-bound.
CONCLUSION
The heightened local, regional and global flow of consciousness that promotes aboriginal dignity is based on the increasing appreciation of the capacity within aboriginal communities and their cultural and religions traditions to assert their subversive spaces in the exercise of their collective memory. Aboriginal dignity is firmly grounded in aboriginal cultures and religiosity and more particularly in aboriginal shamanism. The differences occasioned by the gaps in rationality and logics divide us. Yet the common experiences of the shamanic world of spirits enable the differences to be celebrated so as to foster the sense of a unifying solidarity among ALL. The growing sense of solidarity must be the condition of the possibility of the collaborative efforts of both members of the aboriginal community and the dominant society in the process of evolving any society. Conscientious and consistent efforts must be brought to bear on the authorities and their policies through the strategic involvement of multiple stockholders, especially organic and academic intellectuals, grassroots organizations, religious organizations, social movements and committed citizens in the civil society. The process of social transformation must ensure that in an evolving society, there is “democratic space and subversive space to coexist to bring about the full human flourishing where aboriginal peoples themselves know they stand equal with the members of dominant society.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS
Appell, Laura W. R. and George N.
1993. “To Do Battle With the Spirits: Bulusuís Spirit Mediums.” In Robert L. Winzeler (ed.) The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo. Williamsburg: Borneo Research Council Monograph Series.
Eilers, Franz-Josef., ed.
1997. For All the Peoples of Asia. Vol. II. Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Documents from 1992 to 1996. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications.
Eliade, Mircea.
1967. “The Occult and the Modern World.” In Occultism, Witchcraft and Cultural Fashions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Pp.50-60.
Fung, Jojo M.
1998. “The Legendary Batu Punggul,” Sabah Society Journal, Vol. 15: 59-73;
2000. “Glimpses of Murut Shamanism,” SHAMAN, Vol.8, No.2 (Autumn): 181-193.
2002. “Toward A Paradigm Shift In Mission Amongst The Indigenous Peoples In Asia.” FABC Papers No. 105. Hong Kong: Federation Of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
2003 “Rethinking Missiology In Relation To Indigenous People’ Life-Struggle.” Mission Studies 20 (April): 29-54.
______“A Theological Reflection On ‘The Baptism Into The Deep’ and Its Missiological Implications For The Asian Catholic Church.” Mission Studies 20 (June): 227-247.
2004. “The “Subversive Memory” of Shamanism.” In Art Leete and R. Paul Firnhaber, eds., Shamanism in the Interdisciplinary Context. Florida, USA: Brown Walker Press. Pp. 268-9.
2004 Ripples On The Water: Believers In The Indigenous Struggle for A Society of Equals. Plentong, Malaysia: Diocesan Communication Center.
2006 Garing The Legend: A Decorated Hero A Renowned Shaman. Sabah Museum, KotaKinabalu, Sabah: Percetakan Kolombong Ria.
2007. “Indigenous Shamanism: Its Relevance in a World of Religions.” Paper presented at the Workshop organized by the FABC Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, Asian Muslim Action Network, Asian Resource Foundation, and the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences and the Southern School of Social Sciences.
Harris, Annette Suzanne.
1995. “The Impact of Christianity On Power Relationships and Social Exchanges: A Case Study of Change Among Tagal Murut, Sabah, Malaysia.” Ph.D. Thesis, Biola University; Research Council Monograph Series.
Jennings, Sue.
1995. Theatre, Ritual and Transformation. London: Routledge.
Johnson, Ulla.
1999. “Further thoughts on the History of Shamanism.” SHAMAN, Vol.7, No.1 Spring: 41-58.
Landon, E. Jean Matteson.
1992. “Shamanism and Anthropology.” In E. Jean Matteson Langdon and Gerhard Baer (eds), Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America. New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. Pp.1-21.
Narby, Jeremy.
2001. The Cosmic Serpent DNA And The Origins Of Knowledge. USA: Tarcher/Putnam Books.
Overtone, James Alexander.
1998. “Shamanic Realism: Latin American Literature and the Shamanic Perspective.” SHAMAN, Vol. 6, No. 1 Spring: 151-170.
Plotkin, Mark J.
1993. Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rainforest. New York: Penguin Books.
Rosales, Gaudencio B. and Arévalo, Catalino G., eds.
1992. For All the Peoples of Asia: Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences Documents from 1970-1991. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books / Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications.
Schlegel, Stuart A.
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Walter, Mariko N. & Eva Jane Neumann Fridman., eds.
2004. Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Vol. I & II. Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman (eds). Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.
Winzeler, Robert L.
1993. “Shaman, Priest and Spirit Medium: Religious Specialists, Tradition and innovation in Borneo.” In Robert L. Winzeler (ed.) The Seen and the Unseen: Shamanism, Mediumship and Possession in Borneo. Williamsburg: Borneo
Yule, Sandy.
1999. “’Honour Your Father and Your Mother”: The Case of Christianity and Shamanism.” In K.C. Abraham (ed.) Ecumenism in Asia: Essays in Honour of Feliciano Carino. ATESEA, Bangalore: Association for Theological Education in SEA.
5. ABORIGINAL DIGNITY ROOTED IN SHAMANISM: EVER SUBVERSIVE EVER CREATIVE*
EXCERPT
This article argues that the Aboriginal dignity is a primordial given and an experiential factity reinforced by the seasonal ritualistic celebration of aboriginal festivities and passage of life. The more these rituals in relation to the spirit-world are being experienced, the more indigenous peoples become aware that the shamanic world is a foundational constituent or the existential DNA-stuff of their aboriginal dignity. This article begins with an anthropological inquiry. In this inquiry, I will explain how aboriginal dignity is subverted when their shamanic beliefs and practices have been denigrated during the colonial era, both by the powers that be and the mainstream religions. Yet the very experience of being subverted enables indigenous shamanism to be every more subversive and creative. The ever “subversive yet creative space”’ demonstrate a certain power-over the government official, the logging business and the Indonesian military. This space in reverse subverts the hegemonism of any systemic erasure of aboriginal cultures and shamanism. The latter can be outlawed but not outlived for the shamanic world are about transcendental realities known as the sacred world of spirits. In section II of this article, viable strategies are enumerated so that the Church, as a significant stockholder, can engage both the members of the dominant society and the indigenous communities in the promotion of aboriginal dignity, with a special focus on women and the young. These strategies aim at the kind of collaborative efforts that will bring about the total human flourishing of indigenous peoples so that they enjoy their rightful dignity as equal citizens in our world.
Jojo M. Fung, SJ
Malaysia
The shift in the regional and global perception of the aboriginal dignity and rights is perceptible before and after the UN Year and Decade of Indigenous Peoples in 1993 and 1994-2004 respectively. This paradigmatic shift is made possible by the local and regional efforts of the aboriginal subaltern movements around the world. The aboriginal movements in Asia no less, have contributed their share to the ripple effects of the regional and global flow of heightened consciousness of aboriginal dignity.
Any festive celebration of the recognition of Indigenous status enjoins the regional and global communities to retrospectively recognize that aboriginal peoples celebrate their dignity as the people of the land even before the arrival of the colonial subjects. The various stockholders in the civil society need to be involved in a concerted effort to reverse all policies that are determined to subvert the indigenous cultures and religiosity. On the other hand, concerted and collaborative efforts continue to sustain all life-giving cultural and religious practices that enhance full human flourishing of the indigenous communities. Though the collective memory of the dominant society has chosen to dis-member
* I would like to thank Daniel Kister, SJ for reading and commenting on the first draft which was a paper presented at the New Pentecost Forum 2007, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia.
rather than re-member the primordial factity of indigenous dignity, it is the prerogative of the civil society stakeholders to ceremonially affirm and assert, even joyously celebrate the aboriginality of indigenous peoples.
This paper calls attention to the inherent fact that the aboriginal dignity is inseparable from indigenous shamanic beliefs and rituals, especially their age-old institution known as shamans with its religio-cultural practices commonly denoted as indigenous shamanism. This paper contends that the everyday struggle for the full legal recognition of the aboriginal dignity is firmly grounded in aboriginal cultural and religious beliefs and practices. In the first section, I will establish that the cultural and religious practices manifest a certain subversive memory that defies the developmental logic of the authorities. I will attempt to foreground such subversive memory through three narratives. The first account established the fact that indigenous shamanism is a subverted space. The second narrative relates to the current struggle of the Semai in Malaysia that will offer a window of understanding of the intimate relation before ritualistic celebration and everyday struggle. In the second and third narratives, I will highlight how indigenous shamanism has become an ever subversive and creative space. In part two, I will enumerate some viable strategies by which the Church as a significant stockholder can engage members of the dominant and aboriginal societies in the promotion of the full human flourishing of the dignity of indigenous peoples in a subversive space that celebrates our differences in an ever-evolving modern society.
PART I AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL INQUIRY
I. Indigenous Shamanism: A Subverted Space
Indigenous shamanism constituted the practice of beliefs in an ever-subverted space. The systemic closure and erasure of indigenous cultural and religious beliefs and practices is common knowledge in any colonized society. According to Mark J. Plotkin, an American ethno botanist, “the denigration of shamanism is by no means restricted to one area of the world.” He cited few incidences to illustrate his point.
In Zimbabwe shamanism was outlawed by the Witchcraft Regulations of 1895 and the Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1899. Guilty parties were subject to thirty-six lashes and/or seven years in prison. During the 1930s and 1940s in Siberia, the cradle of shamanism, medicine men were considered counterrevolutionaries. Government officials went so far as to compose poems celebrating the godlike qualities of Lenin and Stalin, which they distributed among tribes people to convince them that communism’s leaders were more powerful than their own. In Mexico, the conquistadors destroyed sacred temples and built churches on the same foundations, then melted down sacred gold and silver idols and turned them into coins and crucifixes. And throughout North America, American Indians, who have melded Christianity with their native beliefs, still struggle to be allowed to consume peyote, a traditional part of their religious rituals.
In Indonesia island of Siberut, west of Sumatra, the Protestant church issued a declaration against the healers of that land. It states that the church considers the activities of the Kerei (medicine men) as heathen and blasphemous, and is determined to abolish the Kerei activities as fraud at the expense of the people. The Protestant church forbids their church members to have anything to do with a Kerei, and Kerei are banned from the church.
In Venezuela, whole villages of Panare Indians were terrified into converting to Christianity when a Bible published in their language claimed that the Panare had crucified Jesus Christ and had better be prepared to suffer the consequences. Only by following the way of the one true God could they expect forgiveness. And in the Columbian Amazon, Protestant and Catholic clergymen set fire to holy longhouses and ornaments and exposed sacred musical instruments to the women and children of the tribe – a practice expressly forbidden by the tenets of the Indians’ religion.”
The subversion of shamanism is no exception in Soviet Russia. Mariko Namba Walter describes how shamans were persecuted in the Soviet era at least from 1920s to the 1970s.
Shamans were severely persecuted by the government, through social isolation, purges, and extermination policies. This persecution was based on the cultural evolutionary theories of Marx and Engels who viewed shamanism, like any forms of religion, as superstitious and destined to end in alienation from the common good. Being treated as class enemies, thousands of shamans were arrested and deported from their homes, often dying in gulags, with a subsequent loss in the rich oral traditions of Siberian shamanism. (Glavatskaya 2001, 245).
Not only is shamanism subverted by the powers that be, but also by mainstream religions. As recent as 2003, my conversation with Inai Kusia, a well known shamaness of the Kadazandusun, the largest indigenous peoples in the state of Sabah (formerly known as British North Borneo) questioned and pleaded with me: “Why is the Catholic Church and the priests continue to preach against us? Can you talk to them to stop this?” Her plea represented a modern-day cry of an age-old practice and belief-system that is still being relentlessly subverted by the modern religions.
Given the evidences of hegemonic practices of subversion by the powers that be and the mainstream religions, I postulate that indigenous shamanism is an ever subversive and ever creative space whence the indigenous communities negotiate and resist the very hegemony that threatens and subverts their dignity as indigenous peoples of the land.
II. Indigenous Shamanism: Ever Subversive Ever Creative
The narratives in this section will foreground the fact that when the shamans and shamanic practices that constitute the ‘building blocks’ of aboriginal dignity are being subverted, the very subverted space become the site that is ever subversive and creative, in different ways at different times and places.
(A) A Semai Narrative
An aboriginal community known as Semai located in Perak, a state in the central part of Peninsular Malaysia. This community is in the midst of a conflict with the authorities, including the State and Federal Governments, over their land that will be annexed for purpose of establishing a botanical park. The case, according to Tijah, the community spokeswoman, will eventually end up in the court and a long-drawn legal battle will ensue. She is convinced that judicial activism is the last resort for this aboriginal community. Yet this struggle is not just a matter of multi-party negotiation involving several stockholders but it is also a symbolic struggle involving communal prayer when the dignity of a people is subverted.
At 11.00pm on Thursday, March 22, 2007, the communal prayer known as “sewang” took place. Tijah and I went over to Pak Ipan’s house at about 10.45pm. Upon arrival, we were told that Pak Ipan was invited over to one of the participants’ house to shamanize (known in Semai as “jumpi”) because he was suffering from a “neck-pain.” (Malay: sakit leher). But as we decided to go back to the house, we met 3 young women and we doubled back to Pak Ipan’s house. Tijah went inside to the space at the back where the kitchen was, to prepare for the sewang. I stayed in the main hall (front-space) to watch a Cantonese Police Story. Then Tijah called me in and I went into the kitchen to have a drink (tea and some biscuits) with the gathering, some of whom are youths of the village. As we chatted, Pak Ipan felt that it was time to begin the ritual. So he requested that all of us faced the front of him as he sat at the back next to the leafy brushes (known in Semai as Canau), incense pot and the jar of flowers. Then the wife held the container with the “canau”” over the incense and then incensed the jar of flowers around the base. With the Pak Ipan began the ritual. According to Tijah, the long and short of it is: (a) as disclosed by her before the prayer for a spirit of tolerance on the part of the personnel representing the authorities (District Office, Public Works Department (JKR), Land Department (Jabatan Tanah), the Aboriginal Affairs Department (JHEOA)…etc.); (b) during the prayer: Pak Ipan called on the spirits of the trees, rocks, rivers, birds, animals, the ancestors … the entire environment to come to the aid of the negotiation and that the spirits will ameliorate the minds and hearts of those who are in charge so that they will be receptive at the negotiation. He prayed that the negative energy and harmful knowledge (ilmu Gob). To conclude the “Sewang,” the woman assistant, Kenmerija carried the canau (the action of carrying is known in Semai as repa) to the main entrance of the house to cast away whatever is evil and destructive, to the point that they may even recoil on the heads of the wicked. Then the “sewang” ended, and the Pak Ipan instructed and explained about the relation of the prayer to the negotiation process on Saturday and what they needed to bring with them to the negotiation session.
Knowing the power of the symbolic and how it impinges on the cultural struggle, and interested in the effect of the sewang on the negotiation, which took place two days later, I enquired Tijah the result of the negotiation. She mentioned that she spoke with great confidence to the stockholders during the negotiation. The representatives of the authorities had their heads down, ashamed and guilty. Only the District Officer spoke in a manner she perceived to be open and friendly. She was grateful for the prayers offered in the village and she realized that her agency is never purely human but religious, symbolic of the world of the Divine and the spirits.
This current subaltern narrative from the Semai aboriginal community informs us that the dignity of the aboriginal community is indelibly rooted at the symbolic level in which rituals such as sewang is just a vital expression of inalienable dignity of the aboriginal peoples. This symbolic dimension is rightly a subversive and creative space in which human efforts, when infused with the shamanic power of the spirits, subverts the very powers that attempts to subvert them. So the subverted victims become the creative subverting agents in the very space when the symbolic and the everyday are fused into a unitary seamless whole. Such a reciprocal creative process is rightly called subversion-in-reverse.
(B) A Historical Murut Narrative
Garing is the key protagonist in a really astounding narrative in the period known as confrontasi (a Malay word that signified the conflict) in which Garing was a border scout for the 2nd K.E.O. Gurkhas division of the British Army. The conflict became the occasion for Garing to exercise his shamanic power.
One day, while on surveillance at the Sabah-Kalimantan border, the Gurkhas realized that there were Indonesian soldiers nearby. He was given orders to climb to the top of a Tarap tree and take secret photos of the enemy soldiers. He willingly agreed to do this as he could scale trees more easily than the others. However, the leafy branches of the Tarap tree blocked his view. He was then told to try and cut off some of the branches so that he could have a better view and shot. As he was cutting the first branch, it broke and made a loud noise falling to the ground. He decided it would be safer to get out of the tree. However, the sound of the falling branch had attracted the attention of the Indonesian soldiers. They spotted Garing trying to climb out of the tree and they shot at him. Somehow, the bullets hit the branches, breaking them, instead of hitting him. They shot off several branches of the tree. Mortars were fired on him as well. The Gurkhas ran off, thinking that he was killed. But later, he emerged amidst them. Unscathed. When he was sent back for another reconnaissance mission, they were again fired upon too. He instructed his fellow soldiers to cling onto him for protection. They escaped from the enemy without incurring any casualty. Only then it became apparent to the Gurkhas that Garing had power to protect as many as six of them at one time from any harm of bullets and mortars.
Garing’s bravery earned him the royal medal of Her Majesty, the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh. It was willy nilly a symbolic (albeit European) affirmation, of the local shamanic power that subverts the hegemonic might of the military of Indonesia, armed with weaponary of the powerful nations.
The creative yet subversive memory of the aboriginal communities of the Semai and the Muruts enables us to state conclusively that shamans and indigenous shamanism are symbolic of a power-over relation that baffles the might of the dominant powers. This shamanic power is exercised in the actual asymmetric world where the unequal relation provides legitimacy to the systemic erasure of indigenous cultures and religiosity.
Landon believes the shaman are the “possessor of power, and it is power that enables him to mediate between the extrahuman and human. This concept of power is intimately linked to the idea of energy forces, the manifestation of these forces in the soul, and the growth and development of humans” as “manifested as light or aura . . . in songs” for “the shaman’s power interacts with the global energy system” (Ibid.:14). Shamans draw upon “this energy through the ecstatic experience, through dreams or through trances induced by drugs” (Ibid.:20). In view of this, I contend that shamans and shamanism are existential embodiment and symbolic expression of the ever-subversive yet creative power still unbeknownst to many in the dominant society (See Fung 2000).
(C) A Recent Murut Narrative
In the year 2002, in the same village of Bantul, the son of Garing, Ringgo bin Garing, whose nickname is Elap, led the villagers on an assertive negotiation with an illegal logging company in the vicinity of the village. Elap creatively adapted the shamanic incantations, which he partly inherited from his Father and from those neighboring shamans in Kalimantan.
The logging firm, operated by a Chinese, which conducted illegal logging activities in the water catchment area near to the Bantul village has failed to hold any prior consultation with the village committee. From the commencement of the logging activities, the villagers have not been paid any form of compensation. So Elap took the matter into his own hand and decided to meet up with the Chinese businessman. In this preliminary encounter, Elap was insulted and ridiculed when he negotiated for a just compensation for his people. In vain, Elap admonished that he and a cohort of his men would come and confiscate the two tractors.
On the appointed day, Elap gathered about 20 young and adult male Muruts and urged the group to repeatedly chant the incantations after him, to call on the spirits to empower and protect them. In normal circumstances, these incantations would be used one on one rather than in a communal setting. The repetition gave the group a sense of confidence and empowerment. At the end of the chanting session, the group marched to the logging site, armed with sticks and knives. Elap was the official spokesperson of the group. Given their sheer numbers, the handful of workers on the logging site felt intimidated. At the start of the negotiation, the Chinese businessman was contemptuous and unyielding. Elap was persisted and Elap ordered two of the Muruts to mount the two tractors. They started the engine and drove them away. Seeing the confiscation of the two tractors, the Chinese businessman sensed his own defeat. He broke down and pleaded with Elap because without his two tractors, his whole logging business would crumbled. Elap took the opportunity to negotiate for a compensation, to be transacted in a time he stipulated. When the time came to collect the due, the Chinese businessman paid up and the compensation was divided among the different households in the village.
Though the indigenous shamanism illustrated in this narrative is tailored for resolving conflict, this narrative has demonstrated that indigenous shamanism as practiced, remains an ever subversive and creative space.
These narratives arise from poverty-stricken indigenous communities. Amidst the contrastive differences between these rural and urban communities, I must admit that in the deplorable material poverty of the rural indigenous communities, there is more “wealth” than the dominant society, cultures and religions want to concede and credit the indigenous peoples for their shamanic beliefs. When I contrast this newly found “treasures” with the modern techno-centric lifestyle, the latter truly fizzles out in its apparent significance because of its apparent “hollowness,” not to mention the “emptiness” it leaves in the hearts of many.
The contrastive differences further elucidates the many prejudiced preconceptions that become psycho-emotional boundaries that allow the differences to be all the more pronounced so much so that the dominant society continues to ignore and erase the transcendental/supernatural reality, including the multiple worlds, not to mention the spirit-world. Such a closure has denied the believers any access to this whole realm of the supernatural reality as affirmed in indigenous shamanism. This closure further reduces the human ability to listen and decipher the voices of the spirits, let alone be guided by them so as to bring about greater wholeness to human lives and the well being of the community.
In this interstitial space of indigenous shamanism, the scientific rationality behind the current logic of globalization that reduces the “many worlds into one” world of neo-liberal capitalism is subverted by a “space” that promotes the many worlds in the one universe. Indigenous shamanism also subverts the logic of NONE IN THE ONE WORLD with their traditional wisdom of ONE IN THE MANY. Indigenous shamans believe that the one Creative Spirit is present in the many indigenous cultures, making indigenous space (especially land) and time sacred. This logic subverts the modern rationality that the world is just material, the land, terra nullis, and the earth resources, to be exploited for profit.
From these subaltern narratives, it has dawned on me that the measure by which indigenous shamanism (the shamans too) has been systemically subverted by the powers that be, the more creatively subversive and subversively creative the shamanic practices and practitioners become. In this sense, the subverted becomes ever subversive and ever creative in the lives of the indigenous communities. Tijah, Elap and Garing have demonstrated the creative and subversive edges of indigenous shamanism in their own ways, at different times and spaces. The ongoing re-enactment of these shamanic practices continues to reinforce the uniqueness of their dignity as indigenous peoples of the land.
It is in this light of such systemic suppression and marginalization that I termed the subverted yet ever subversive and creative indigenous shamanism and the practices of the shamans, a subaltern spirituality of suspect. (Fung 2005:233)
Part II ROLE OF THE CHURCH AS A SIGNIFICANT STACKHOLDER
III. Viable Strategies of Struggle
As the global and local world is simultaneously evolving, although at different rates and at different levels, it is nevertheless clear that viable strategies need to be enumerated for a forward-movement of cross-cultural struggles for a fuller human flourishing of the dignity of the aboriginal peoples. I shall dwell on the strategies by which the Church can engage both the members of the dominant society and the aboriginal communities, with a special focus on women and the upcoming generation.
C.1. Members of the Dominant Society
A. Believers of the dominant society have much to benefit from the academic research on the indigenous belief-systems and the cultural-religious practices of the shamans. Such seminars and symposia aimed at a critical reflection and understanding of the relation between the Christian faith and indigenous belief systems must involve a critical interface between theology and social sciences such as anthropology. In this way, believers undergo a paradigmatic change of perspectives with regard to fellow human beings (anthropology), the world (cosmology) and God (theology), including the end-goals of life in the world (teleology).
B. The anthropology that accords full dignity to the aboriginal peoples will be the horizon that motivates members of the dominant society to struggle for the promotion of the democratic space wherein aboriginal people’s voices will be heard. When heard, members of the dominant society need to ensure that they are translated into policies that promote the full human flourishing of aboriginal peoples. In other words, aboriginal peoples must be respected as persons who are equal citizens of the nation and equal disciples of the local churches.
C. The anthropology of human flourishing must motivate members and believers to examine and recognize the morality (intention and values) of the shamans who “work the system of indigenous beliefs” to determine whether they are gifts from God and therefore agents of God’s Spirit or the evil spirit. Respect the inherent pool of indigenous wisdom embedded in their oral traditions and sacred narratives, for on the bases of such knowledge do they formulate their own criteria, principles and norms to regulate their cultural-religious beliefs and practices.
D. Discourses in the academia and texts in educational systems must be rightly presented to re-present the rich cultural heritages of the aboriginal community so as to promote greater sensitivity and respect for the dignity of the aboriginal peoples.
E. Respectfully acknowledge that the shamans are in an authoritative position to explain (a) the kind of power with which they heal and exorcise for they can differentiate between white and black magic (known in Malaysia as “ilmu putih” “ilmu hitam” respectively; (b) the intended purposes of the use of such power. Reputable shamans are able to recognize and emphasize the selfless service of the community as a value and the selfish greed to enrich themselves as a disvalue to the community.
F. Death-dealing powers inherent in indigenous shamanism must be discouraged and denounced as a disservice to society after a process of critical examination with the assistance of multidisciplinary expertise, comprising local reputable indigenous shamans and wise community leaders.
G. Reputable shamans steeped in shamanic expertise must be regarded as partners in the concerted local and global efforts to develop a holistic approach to ecology and bodily health and wellbeing of both individuals and the local communities.
H. Periodically participate in the rituals of life and seasonal festivities when invited by the aboriginal peoples. The end-goal is to be sensitized to aboriginal cultural ethos, values and worldviews so as to be to appreciate their worlds in their terms and become committed promoters of the sacred heritage the aboriginal peoples.
I. Solidarity with aboriginal women enjoins women in the dominant society to learn, value, defend and promote the “spaces” that belong rightfully to aboriginal women so that they continue to exercise their roles in the aboriginal cultures and society.
J. For the young women and men, organize learning circles that encourage localized learning through sustained but periodic long-term exposure-immersion lived-in programs in the aboriginal communities this passage to the aboriginal world and then upon the subsequent returns, will enriched the young so that the young in turn re-educate the young in the dominant society.
K. Organize work camp for the young women and men, always in collaboration with the local aboriginal communities, so that the young women and men work together on common projects that will deepen mutual friendship and build a world of equal citizens and equal disciples in the church.
L. Express solidarity with the aboriginal peoples by “standing with them” in their subversive space of shamanism wherein the power-over comes from the world of spirits and the Sacred.
C.2. Members of the Aboriginal Community
Given my limited experiences, I humbly propose the followings as ideas for your kind consideration in order to further ground and re-root the aboriginal identity and personhood, essentially building-blocks of aboriginal dignity:
M. Participate faithfully in the “school of life” where rituals of the passages of life are celebrated to commemorate the origin of the world and aboriginal peoples and shamanic healings carried out and prayers offered by shamans to accompany the aboriginal struggles. [What is celebrated runs deep in one’s blood.]
N. Learn from the lips and hearts of the wise aboriginal women and men leaders and the reputable shamannesses and shamans of the community to reinforce the aboriginal identity and dignity. [What is heard reverberates in the deep recesses of one’s soul]
O. Organize and encourage the young to be involved in the activities of the school of life for it is a different space for unlearning what is learnt in the dominant society and re-learnt from the age-old wisdom stored up in the womb of the aboriginal communities.
P. For the aboriginal women, stand tall and proud of the spaces uniquely belonging to aboriginal women and continue the struggle to be egalitarian society of equals citizens and equal disciples.
Q. For the young aboriginal women and men, give time to be alone with the wise, be they the respected elders and the renowned shamans, earn your places in their hearts that they may impart the wisdom to the young women and men and initiate the young into the world that they constantly crisscross back and forth in order to learn to appreciate and behold the sacred mysteries of life that lies the formulae for a harmonious nature in our ecological system.
R. Stand together, young and old, in the subversive space of shamanic world of the Sacred and the spirits in order to neutralize the subverting forces of erasure.
These enumerated strategies are by no means exhaustive and need to be reformulated with the change of times as they are context-specific, therefore value-laden as they time and space-bound.
CONCLUSION
The heightened local, regional and global flow of consciousness that promotes the dignity of indigenous peoples is based on the increasing appreciation of the capacity within aboriginal communities and their cultural and religions traditions to assert their subversive and creative spaces in the exercise of their collective memory. Aboriginal dignity is firmly grounded in the indigenous cultures and spirituality and more particularly in indigenous shamanism. The common experiences of the shamanic world of spirits enable the differences to be celebrated so as to foster the sense of a unifying solidarity among ALL. The growing sense of solidarity must be the condition of the possibility of the collaborative efforts of both members of the indigenous communities and the dominant society in the process of evolving any society. Conscientious and consistent efforts must be brought to bear on the authorities and their policies through the strategic involvement of multiple stockholders, especially organic and academic intellectuals, grassroots organizations, religious organizations and Church, social movements and committed citizens in the civil society. The process of social transformation must ensure that in an evolving society, there is “democratic space and subversive-creative space to coexist to bring about the full human flourishing where indigenous peoples themselves know they stand equal with the members of dominant society.
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