White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men, Part 2 of 3

White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men is a documentary dealing with the popularization and commercialization of Native American spiritual traditions by Non-Indians. Important questions are asked of those seeking to exploit ritual and sacred ceremony and of those vested with safeguarding sacred ways. This documentary is thematically organized, and deals with romantic stereotypes and copying, the impatience of new age practitioners contrasted to the fact that indigenous spiritual traditions are thousands of years old, and the proselytizing nature of these new age practitioners. The film represents a wide range of voices from several native communities, and speaks to issues of cultural appropriation with humor, righteous anger, and thoughtful insight.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• mythology
• nativeamerican
• newage
• religion
• indian

[freealityful]

where is 3 of 3?

[encliticcopula]

WTF, white people? Do other people do this? Do Cherokees dress up in phoney yarmulkes pretending to be rabbis?

[lion3p0]

Pow wows, atleast for my people, aren't religion or like ceremony, its a social thing we go to be with friends and family and to eat and dance and sing and have fun

[jimbronaugh]

What White people do with this is the same as what they do with Christianity. They write a book, start a church, get a tax free status and make money. That's what white people do. When you have no soul, no amount of spiritual pretense is going to be of any use. Getting money doesn't mean you are on a spiritual path. I am white and I have been through a dozen churches and religions. It is always the same. It is always about the money.

[daniellewis214]

the point is, be yourself. stop stealing their thunder.

[GrowingTreeAz]

All tribes are assumulated into the dominent american culture. Look and compare photos of the old ones taken in the 1800s and compare them to modern photos of indians. They may be dressed in beautiful regalia and even be on horse back. But they still look much differnt than their ancestors. The face of our people is forever changed.

[TheThreeWeavers]

These people have NO originality. They probably have a wealth of customs and traditions which are attatched to their own ancestry but instead of doing the work to find them they've just sat back and stolen someone elses. It's a beautiful thing to be inspired by another culture and to perhaps even adopt some of the traditions but.. .geee... not like this. It's like when people come up to me and say they're 'celtic' or 'viking'... both of which are invalid, and hey, you're American born damn it!

[Legacychildren]

sweat lodges are amazing, awesome, and healthy

[billbromanowski]

@sonofthedestroyer vitamin D deficiency, only the lightest of the black people survived the travails of migrating to the cold, foggy, snowy european land, and as the native blacks stayed longer and longer, through the process of evolution their pigment lightened to get the most vitamin D from the limited amount of sun that was available, because lacking vitamin d produces rickets, and to this day in Africa there are people so dark they blockout that vitamin and suffer terribly from disease

[Marhaba1973]

Heh. Anyone remember "Wematanye" from King of the Hill?

Wematanye, I see sad-sack White people culture vulturing our Native friends!