Criticism
Critics Daniel C. Noel and Robert J. Wallis see Harner's teachings as based on cultural appropriation and a misrepresentation of the various cultures he claims to have been inspired by (reference: "The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities"). Critics believe Harner's work laid the foundations for massive exploitation of Indigenous cultures by "plastic shamans" and other cultural appropriators (reference: "The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities", "Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking"). However, recent work by Peter N. Jones questions this criticism, as his work shows that the term shamanism has been used by a wide number of individuals, groups, and cultures across time and can not be linked to a specific group, culture, or ethnic identity (reference: "Shamans and Shamanism: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Terms Use in North America").
Read more about this topic: Core Shamanism
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“A friend of mine spoke of books that are dedicated like this: “To my wife, by whose helpful criticism ...” and so on. He said the dedication should really read: “To my wife. If it had not been for her continual criticism and persistent nagging doubt as to my ability, this book would have appeared in Harper’s instead of The Hardware Age.””
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art—and, by analogy, our own experience—more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)