Shamanic Rituals and South Asian Tourist Perceptions

Shamanic rituals have long been a subject of curiosity among researchers and tourists. While tourist motivations from a Western perspective and issues of authenticity have been explored in shamanic tourism literature, the interaction between the shaman and the tourist during a ritual and the power relations between the two have rarely been discussed. In this paper, I investigate the roles of, and the interaction between, the shaman and a tourist in a place called Mayong in India. Throughout the years, Mayong has become famous not only as the ‘land of black magic’ and its shamans (locally known as bej) but also a place surrounded by an aura of mystery, myth and topophobia. I employ Althusser’s theory of ideology, in particular, the concepts of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and interpellation to analyse the interpersonal relationships in shamanic tourism based on an analysis of tourist narratives and interviews with the shamans. The findings reveal a suspension of ideological discourse and a transfer of power between the tourist and the shaman during a ritual along with a generation or affirmation of belief immediately after this transfer of power.