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Prophets Priests & Shamans

Shamans, priests, and prophets are all religious leaders but they differ in how they acquire and exercise their authority. Shamans receive authority directly from supernatural beings through personal revelation, while priests inherit authority through religious traditions and rituals. Prophets have authority based on personal charisma and receiving divine revelations, which they use to challenge the status quo. Together these religious leaders serve important social functions by mediating between humans and the supernatural, maintaining institutions, and addressing community needs through rituals and rites.

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David Burke
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200 views21 pages

Prophets Priests & Shamans

Shamans, priests, and prophets are all religious leaders but they differ in how they acquire and exercise their authority. Shamans receive authority directly from supernatural beings through personal revelation, while priests inherit authority through religious traditions and rituals. Prophets have authority based on personal charisma and receiving divine revelations, which they use to challenge the status quo. Together these religious leaders serve important social functions by mediating between humans and the supernatural, maintaining institutions, and addressing community needs through rituals and rites.

Uploaded by

David Burke
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Prophets

Priests
&
Shamans
Shaman Defined
• Can be male, female,
identify as both or
neither.
• Ritual practitioners
whose status is
acquired through
personal
communication with a
supernatural being.
Shamans & Rituals
• Perform curing rites for
the benefit of one or
more patients and
within a context of an
extended family group.
• Rites are contingent
upon occasions of
mishap and illness.
Shamans Control Spirits
Can be mediums,
deemed to exercise
developed techniques of
control over spirits,
sometimes including
mastery of spirits
believed to be possessing
another medium.
Shamans & The Supernatural
• Have the ability to
communicate with the
dead, or with demons
and nature spirits,
without becoming
their instrument.
• Purposes are good.
• Can move in the plane
of the supernatural.
Shamanism Affirms Life &
Can Spawn Death
• See themselves as
warriors in a struggle
against the shadows of
the human heart.
• Shamanism affirms
life but also spawns
violence and death.
• Are found in societies
all over the world.
Shaman Psychological Type
• Shamanism is a calling
for a particular
psychological type:
those who are less
stable and more
excitable than the
average, but who have
intelligence, ability
and drive.
Priest Defined
• Can be male or female,
identify as both or neither.
• Claim to religious
authority derives from
service in a sacred
tradition.
• Power is inherited from
the body of codified ritual
knowledge learned from
older priests, later
transmitted to successors.
Priests Prestige & Authority
• Have prestige and
authority, but their
position is so precarious
and easily damaged that it
is surrounded with taboos
to protect against harmful
contacts with forces that
might render him/her/them
ineffective.
Priests Influence Deity(ies)
• Communicate with
transhuman entities
through ritual that
involves cultural
objects and activities.
• Concerned with
influencing the gods;
appealing and
appeasing deity(ies).
Priests Act As Mediators
• Act as the socially
recognized mediators
between men and
supernatural beings,
although they do not
necessarily have a face to
face relationship with the
spirit world but must have
competence in conducting
ritual.
Priests, Institutions & Symbols
• Between the priest and
deity intervenes the
institution.
• Preside over rites.
• Symbols of a rite are
sensorily perceptible
to a congregation and
have permanence in
that they are culturally
transmissible.
Priestly Restrictions
• There may be some
restrictions on sexual
life.
• In some societies
priests are expected to
have families.
• Abstention from
sexual activity is
sometimes required
for ritual.
Priests, Monks, Nuns
• Sometimes priests
don’t preach to a
following but address
themselves solely to
the deities they seek to
influence.
Prophets Defined
• Get a ‘personal call’.
• Authority is founded
on revelation and
personal charisma.
• Purely the individual
bearer of charisma.
Prophets & Charisma
• Charisma contains a
systematic and
distinctively religious
ethic based upon a
consistent and stable
doctrine which
purports to be a
revelation.
Prophets Have A Mission
• Has a mission by virtue of
which he proclaims
religious doctrine or
divine commandment.
• Consider the relationship
between religion as a force
for dynamic social change
and as a reinforcement of
the stability of societies.
Shamans, Priests & Prophets (1 of 3)
• Are philosophers of
religion, theologians
of beliefs, and are
recognized as the
masters of worship.
• Act as part or full time
specialists, intervene
on behalf of an
individual client or
entire community.
Shamans, Priests & Prophets (2 of 3)
• Data has shown the
importance of these
religious leaders to the
maintenance of
economic, political,
social and educational
institutions of their
societies.
Shamans, Priests & Prophets (3 of 3)
• Anthropologists have
found it necessary to
consider all religious
specialists because
they fall in the realm
of religion and the
supernatural.
Theoretical Framework Contribution
Animism Animatism Science
Magic Religion Science
Shamans control and Priests (Monks & Nuns too) & Scientists do
communicate with the Prophets appeal to, appease personal research
sacred supernatural and serve deity(ies)

Shamans work to maintain Priests work through the Scientists


balance for community institution(s) and mediate contribute to body
between people and of knowledge &
supernatural, maintains the Institutions, follow
status quo, serve people and scientific method
institution through ritual, ritual
authority is from tradition

Shamans heal Prophets challenge the status Scientists


communities through rites quo and institutions with challenge theories
and rituals, they work messages from the
magic divine/deity(ies) to bring
change, have authority &
charisma

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