Mircea Eliade's Theory Of Shamanism

Mircea Eliade wrote an incredible book on shamanism. He describes shamanism as, "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism= technique of ecstasy". Shamanism cannot be explain in a simple sentence, but this is the safest one, without being incorrect according to Eliade. Even though his book is fantastic and loved by many, its problematic. He describes shamanism using unreliable sources, he never got involved with shamans, and he did not do research on any tribe. Other scholars and researches disagree with his findings. Eliade claims that his writing is truthful due to all the references he provides, however he fails to realize that his work is not completely credible, and many scholars
“His experience of non-Western societies was limited to three years in his twenties when he studied philosophy and religion in India. He wrote a book on Australian aborigine religion without ever going to Australia.". He never visited any tribe, or became involved in religious ceremonies. All the information in the book were obtained by using other scholar findings ,and then created his perfect notion of shamanism. "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy hit the postwar market of younger educated adults rebelling against their parents' adulation of "scientific" sterility and scheduling". When he wrote the book, it fit with the current issues going on in the 1950's. He clearly knew his
Not all his readers knew that he was part of the movement, if they knew their perspectives would change. "A "traditionalist" may be no more than a conservative, possibly a nostalgic person who hankers after the customs of his or her youth". The article by Mark Sedgwick titled Against the Modern World, explains that Eliade did not want people to know his writings had traditionalism inspiration. Eliade wanted to incorporate traditionalist ideas without having to cite his sources. "He also published scholarly book and best-selling novels. That he was addressing a general audience had several important consequences for his work. one was that the Traditionalist authors were rarely cited..." Traditionalist often times failed to provide reliable sources, and ignored factual evidence. It clearly shows that Eliade followed some of the footsteps of the traditionalist when writing Shamanism: Archaic techniques of