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Shamanic Tourism - Lessons for the 21st Century


Web link: revista.drclas.harvard.edu/shamanic-...

Pages: 13 pages

Abstract

Shamanic tourism has no doubt forever changed the landscape in locales like Iquitos in Peru and Huautla in Mexico. If anything has emerged from the study of shamanic tourism in the last 25 years, it is the contradictions embedded within it. Shamanic tourism is transformational not just for the individuals participating in it but also for the local milieus where it takes place. However as some scholars have demonstrated, tourism does not necessarily destroy tradition but can in fact reinforce it. Particularly spiritual tourism can contribute to cultural transformation rather than loss, as is the case of the renewed interest in shamanism in Amazonia. However, as shamanism is transplanted and practiced in new contexts, it remains to be seen whether it will be recognizable only to the extent that it has preconceived notions reproduced in dominant narratives.