DRESSING UP FOR THE GHOSTS. THE ROLE OF (CULTURAL) GENDER, TRANSVESTISM AND CARNALITY IN SHAMANIC RITUALS

Abstract

In this article the author examines the ways of describing transvestism of shamans in the scientific literature. The author extends the analysis of literature through a case study based on fieldwork. The main objective of the study is to show how the image of apparently very similar phenomena changes when we put it in a broader cultural context. The main theoretical question is whether and to what extent it is justified to compare unusual ways of dressing and adopting atypical patterns of social roles related to gender in cultures observed by anthropologists with similar phenomena that occur in the context of Euro-American civilization. Analysis of the discussion concerning this phenomenon, and above all of attempts to explain the genesis and function of the transvestite or even transgender shamans elucidates how the Western perception of shamanism and shamans themselves is constructed. They are also instructive in the context of intercultural perception of gender.
The case study shows that transvestism of shaman has direct religious significance, which is based not on the fact that it conforms with the aspirations, inclinations of shaman, but on the contrary, its importance is based on the fact that the shaman is coerced by the spirits to such behavior. It is not an expression, but the refutation of her own gender and sexual identity.