Now that the age during which all human civilization developed is ending, it might be time to pay more attention to the experience of those whose world has already ended: indigenous peoples. Depending on how you count them, there may be up to three hundred million indigenous people still on the planet. Most are survivors of colonialism. The genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas was the beginning of the modern world for Europeans, but the former remain as veritable end of the world experts. Models for restoring our relationship with the Earth exist in the cultures of indigenous peoples, whose values and skills have enabled them to survive centuries of invasion and exploitation.
Establishing a relation to indigenous thought and practice is no simple task. Not only do we have different views, understandings, perceptions and cultures that see the world in different ways, we inhabit very different worlds. American Indian conceptions are grounded in perspectivism, a concept originally coined by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. Perspectivism, according to Viveiros de Castro, is the philosophical view that there are many different world views depending on an individual's particular perspective. Put another way, every entity views every entity and event from an orientation peculiar to itself. Perspectivism holds that only one spirit exists in everything. It implies that everything is alive, sentient and shares a common spiritual essence.
Perspectivism assumes multinaturalism, which is the polar opposite of our multiculturalism. In multiculturalism, there is only one nature, but there can be many cultures, and it sets about studying, documenting and classifying them. By contrast, in multinaturalism, there is only one culture (spirit/soul) and multiple natures. From an American Indian point of view, there is no singular nature as such because perception is dependent on perspectives (humans perceive nature differently than animals, and animals perceive nature differently than spirits, and so on), yet none of these natures is absolute and they are all just as valid.
Another way to view the difference is to put it like this: Westerners see themselves physically as animals and spiritually different; American Indians see themselves spiritually as animals and physically different. American Indians inhabit a radically different conceptual universe than ours where nature and culture, human and nonhuman, subject and object are conceived in terms that reverse our own. Every entity is conceived as having a soul -- intentionality and conscious perception -- like a human being. Moreover, all beings perceive themselves as humans and other beings as animals. While viewed by humans as animals, animals and other beings regard themselves (their own species) as human and live in conditions similar to humans; that is, they have a social and cultural life similar to those who inhabit an American Indian village.
Jaguars, for example, are thought to see themselves as humans, to see humans as human prey like deer, and their own food as that of humans. Establishing an authentic relationship with other beings therefore requires adopting their perspectives, as shamans do when they shapeshift into animals. Shamans will shapeshift into an animal so as to see the world through their eyes and to feel what they feel. Shamanism is a practice of defying the limits of human perspective, crossing borders into the social worlds of other species, administering relations between natures. Essentially, the shaman is a diplomat who creates a dialogue with other beings. As Viveiros de Castro puts it, "By seeing nonhuman beings as they see themselves (again as humans), shamans become capable of playing the role of active interlocutors in the trans-specific dialogue and, even more importantly, of returning from their travels to recount them; something the 'laity' can only do with difficulty." (1)
Shapeshifting is more than just transforming into an animal as is often depicted in shamanic accounts and tales. It is the art of shifting our old, entrenched thought patterns and perspectives in order to transform ourselves, both as individuals and communities. The purpose of shapeshifting is to develop new thought and behavior patterns in order to change the world. With all that is happening in the world today, it is good for us to get out of our own comfort zones in order to broaden our perspectives, to learn from and about others, to interact with the world differently, to see it with new eyes. By changing the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us, we shapeshift our reality.
1. Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics (Univocal Publishing, 2014) p. 60.
Establishing a relation to indigenous thought and practice is no simple task. Not only do we have different views, understandings, perceptions and cultures that see the world in different ways, we inhabit very different worlds. American Indian conceptions are grounded in perspectivism, a concept originally coined by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. Perspectivism, according to Viveiros de Castro, is the philosophical view that there are many different world views depending on an individual's particular perspective. Put another way, every entity views every entity and event from an orientation peculiar to itself. Perspectivism holds that only one spirit exists in everything. It implies that everything is alive, sentient and shares a common spiritual essence.
Perspectivism assumes multinaturalism, which is the polar opposite of our multiculturalism. In multiculturalism, there is only one nature, but there can be many cultures, and it sets about studying, documenting and classifying them. By contrast, in multinaturalism, there is only one culture (spirit/soul) and multiple natures. From an American Indian point of view, there is no singular nature as such because perception is dependent on perspectives (humans perceive nature differently than animals, and animals perceive nature differently than spirits, and so on), yet none of these natures is absolute and they are all just as valid.
Another way to view the difference is to put it like this: Westerners see themselves physically as animals and spiritually different; American Indians see themselves spiritually as animals and physically different. American Indians inhabit a radically different conceptual universe than ours where nature and culture, human and nonhuman, subject and object are conceived in terms that reverse our own. Every entity is conceived as having a soul -- intentionality and conscious perception -- like a human being. Moreover, all beings perceive themselves as humans and other beings as animals. While viewed by humans as animals, animals and other beings regard themselves (their own species) as human and live in conditions similar to humans; that is, they have a social and cultural life similar to those who inhabit an American Indian village.
Jaguars, for example, are thought to see themselves as humans, to see humans as human prey like deer, and their own food as that of humans. Establishing an authentic relationship with other beings therefore requires adopting their perspectives, as shamans do when they shapeshift into animals. Shamans will shapeshift into an animal so as to see the world through their eyes and to feel what they feel. Shamanism is a practice of defying the limits of human perspective, crossing borders into the social worlds of other species, administering relations between natures. Essentially, the shaman is a diplomat who creates a dialogue with other beings. As Viveiros de Castro puts it, "By seeing nonhuman beings as they see themselves (again as humans), shamans become capable of playing the role of active interlocutors in the trans-specific dialogue and, even more importantly, of returning from their travels to recount them; something the 'laity' can only do with difficulty." (1)
Shapeshifting is more than just transforming into an animal as is often depicted in shamanic accounts and tales. It is the art of shifting our old, entrenched thought patterns and perspectives in order to transform ourselves, both as individuals and communities. The purpose of shapeshifting is to develop new thought and behavior patterns in order to change the world. With all that is happening in the world today, it is good for us to get out of our own comfort zones in order to broaden our perspectives, to learn from and about others, to interact with the world differently, to see it with new eyes. By changing the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us, we shapeshift our reality.
1. Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics (Univocal Publishing, 2014) p. 60.
