> >they grant us a sense of control over situations that would otherwise make
> >us feel helpless.
>
> And I would retort that they give _themselves_ control over us by making
> us feel we need
>
> _them_ to lose this helplessness. This is their root falseness, and their
> cultural eliteness.
You will note I said "grant us a sense of control", not "grant us
control". Bloom emphasizes that shamans work in areas in which the
members of culture feel especially powerless because they lack knowledge:
medicine, religion, weather, fertility, etc. Any field in which actual
knowledge is sketchy is ripe for shamanism. And shamans, working with the
uncertainties, may well come up with methods of prediction or manipulation
that do work to some greater or lesser extent. Consulting an expert makes
us feel like we've done something, and if they actually get results
sometimes, all the better. Note also that Bloom counts modern doctors as
shamans. I'd say every field has its uncertainties, and to the degree
someone claims to control them (and is believed), he or she is a shaman.
Eva