kyung s hong

1. “Korean
Shamanism”
Evolving toward a
New Religion
in the U.S.

2. My research
* Duration: from 2004 to 2011
* Location: In the East Coast of the U.S.
* Main shaman informants: a female
shaman (mid 50’s), two male shamans (early
60’s) and about twenty clients

3. “Function of
the diasporic shamanic practice”
* a culturally alternative remedial mechanism
* mediating
between the culturally attributed power of
spirits and the currently “othered” life of the
Korean diaspora

4. Korean Diasporic Shamans
* as an insignificant presence,
if not totally negative,
within the substantially
evangelized Protestant
community
since the earliest migration
history in the U.S

5. Function of the Protestant church
* provides
the heart of Korean life in the U.S.
* itself represents a holistic web of cultural,
spiritual, psychological, and physical
resources
* helps to support the Korean diaspora
within varied contextual challenges

6. Korean Diasporic Shamanic Practice
* thus, culturally deviant and communally
isolated
* yet find ways to fill
“the little space for alternative
practice” (Sorrensen 1989, 163)
* continuing to reinvent the collectively
conventional homeland ethos in the life of
Korean diaspora.

7. Change
in the Diasporic Context
* by the feature of shaman’s
“individualization”
* by a virtue in effective “quickness” in the
ritual

8. Ritual Change
* to reduced forms of summary ritual
from the lengthy, time consuming ritual
* to casual clothing from the colorful
representations of shamanic costumes
* to less entertainments from human drama

9. Newness
* from “Subjectivization” of shamanic choices
* as a symbolic reaction as part of cultural
negotiation with the non-traditional, local spirits of
the foreign country by way of the recognition of a
new deity and invitation the pantheon of Korean
diasporic shamanism
* “a corollary process to de-institutionalization,”
according to James Davison Hunter (1983, 12)

10. Newness
* the display of
American national
flag on the altar

11. Newness
* “the U.S.
local san-shin”
(the mountain
deity)

12. Newness
* a Buddhist-shamanic effervescence
producing a buddhist-shamanic
congregation
* as an example of “subjectivization”
* influenced by the shaman’s previous
Buddhist career and personal relationship

13. Conclusion
* present Korean diasporic shamanism
malleable between the traditional forms of
practice and the potential for change
* the shamanic “subjectivization” and the
virtue of “quickness” as the most variable
factors while learning to respond differently
to the question as to how to Americanize
one’s own Koreanized practice of diasporic
shamanism