Becoming an ethnic Okinawan shaman in Brazil

- The shamanization as a subjective and creative process of re-acculturation

Koichi Mori
In this communication, I would like to present the process by which two housewives
with Okinawan descent became Okinawan shamans (yuta) by practicing magical
activities of salvation and the ancestor cult. We can say that this is an acculturation
process based on a specific system of cultural possession the umbanda and the
Okinawan shamanism, which makes them acquire a new identity.
In other words, we can perceive it as a creative process of readaptation in which they
become Okinawan shamans of Brazil from the time when, by operating their culture
of reference, they learn the language of possession that their culture presents, its
symbols and its techniques, creating a cultural standard and a subjective and individual
life environment.
Despite these two women being Okinawan descendants, the process of becoming an
ethnic shaman varies according to the situation of the period in which each of them lives
and thus, in both cases, it is based in different cultural systems of possession as the
culture of reference.
In this communication I would like to present the case of two women, Nobuko and
Hiroko. Nobuko was part of the shamanization process in the period after the Second
World War. At that time, the Okinawan ethnical community in So Paulo was still in its
formative process and there wasnt a cultural system of possession segmented in the
community that could be called a communitarian treatment mechanism. That is, there
werent shamans previous to her who had participated in this re-acculturation along with
the process of becoming yuta Okinawan shamans. Due to this, the state of possession
by means of visions, hallucinations and losses of consciousness (named Sacred
Madness or Shamanistc Disease) which she suffered from, had to be interpreted through
another cultural system. In Nobukos case, it was Umbanda.

The second case is Hirokos. Hiroko suffered from the Sacred Madness and sought a
solution for it in the beginning of the 80s. At that time, the Okinawan local ethnical
community was already developed and the communitarian mechanism of treatment was
already prepared. That is, inside the community there were already some Okinawan
shamans in action. Therefore, Hiroko went through the shamanization process by direct
contact with those pre-existent shamans. And their cultural reference system was the
Okinawan shaman culture of the yuta.
In these two cases, the Umbanda and the Okinawan shamanism are the re-acculturation
cultural reference systems, and both women behave actively as operators of their
cultural systems based on the individuality of their own emotions and their religious
history. Moreover, they changed their reference system by negotiating their Brazilianity
(the country where they live) and their Okinawan background in order to create, in the
end, an integrated cultural model, subjective and individual.
Establishing a parallel with the idea of Kardecisms blackenning and Umbandas
whitening from Professor Renato Ortiz, I consider that Nobukos case can be seen as a
process of Umbandas yellowing and Hirokos case as an Okinawan shamanism
Brazilianising. One way or another, they are ethnicization processes of each cultural
reference system.
Therefore, I would like to think of these two womens life story in terms of the
shamanization seen as a re-acculturation process, dividing it into three phases. After an
overall presentation of these phases I would like to reflect on the subjective and
individual cultural model and a part of the peculiar salvation world created by each of
them.
1. Summary of the re-acculturation process of the two Marias
The baptism name of the two women I will present here is Maria. In Table 1 we can
see their birth date, generation, religious history, the period when the shamanization
began, the cultural system of possession, their ethnicization summary and the historical
background. In Graph 2 we can see, from a sociopsychological viewpoint, the
re-acculturation process of Hiroko and Nobuko. As it is noticeable (Graph 2), it is
possible to separate the life story of the two women into three main phases:

1) Acculturation dismantling/ risk period (socialization)

2) Re-acculturation investigation/ search period (socialization)
3) Establishment of the re-acculturation period
In the first period they experience a family conflict, death or disease of family members,
poverty, physical and psychological disharmony, entering a state of extreme stress. As a
final result, this culminates in a state of possession, with hallucinations, paranoia and
changes in consciousness, and they come across a risky situation in which it is difficult
to even lead a normal life. And so they start seeking a new cultural reference system that
can solve this explicit crisis. Realizing the inefficiency of the treatment offered by
modern medicine, they end up approaching the cultural system of segmented
possession.
In the second period, then, this disharmony which cant be solved by modern medicine
starts making sense through the language of possession. Their life experiences are
articulated in a unified way accordingly to language of possession (Crapanzano, 1977)
and the process of re-acculturation based on the cultural reference system is initiated.
As it has been commented before, in Nobukos case, her mediumistic manifestation
could be organized through the spiritist language of possession. She had reached the
time of her mediumship awakening as a result of modern medicine's inefficiency in
dealing with her mysterious state of physical and psychological disharmony. So, she
would have to participate in sessions and open up her path. For that purpose, she
receives an invitation through the cultural reference system of Umbanda.
In the second case, Hirokos state of disharmony is apprehended by the Okinawan
shamanism language as being a kamidaari, a calling for her to transform from kami to
yuta. In this way, Hiroko followed the cultural system of Okinawan shamanism.
From that, each of them starts actively studying the re-acculturation process through the
cultural code of each system of possession, the language of possession, the world-view,
corporal techniques and possession control. From the shamanist theory viewpoint, this
learning phase of possession controlling techniques is nothing more than the phase in
which the Sacred Madness is tamed.

Nevertheless, this process is not simply a passive acceptance of facts. Quite the
contrary. They actively operate in their cultures of reference recreating their personality
in an integrated way, being an active and creative acceptance process.
In Nobukos case, we can say that the passage from the acceptance of the cultural
reference system to a creative reorganization based on that cultural system, occurred the
moment she disconnected herself from the Umbanda centre where she had performed
her michiake. In Hirokos case it is possible to affirm that this happens especially when
she begins the training known as takiukushi, here in Brazil.
In this phase, the yellowing ethnicization of Umbanda and the Okinawan shamanism
Brazilianising occurred through a subjective and intentional change in the cultural
system of reference, creating a new self: the Okinawan type shaman.
The last phase of re-acculturation is when they become shamans and start receiving
clients visits.
2. The creation of a life environment and a subjective and individualistic cultural
model through the re-acculturation process.
According to Burguignon (1973), the conscience altering situation which was
standardized and culturally systematized, carries the possibility of causing sociological
changes. He separates theses changes into microchange and macrochange.
The microchange doesnt cause a change in the social system. It is a change which
occurs when the solution for the individual problem doesnt happen in the form of a
stereotype. It is a change that happens as a reflex of private life and personal
experiences. On the other hand, the macrochange brings changes in social structure
itself. Both cases being analyzed are examples of microchange.
2.1 The yellowing of Umbanda
1. The changes in Umbandas world-view model

As everyone must know, Umbanda is a cult of possession which originated in the

mid-20s to mid-30s in Rio de Janeiro and emerged from the syncretism of the African
cult, Kardecism and popular Catholicism.
The main spirits of possession are Preto-Velho (Old Black Man), the spirit of a black
slave, and the Caboclo, the spirit of a Native American, and its central doctrine is the
ideology of spiritual evolution borrowed from Kardecism. Many researchers who study
Umbanda define it as a Brazilian folkloric religion, and that is due to two reasons. First
because the main spirits of possession are spirits of people who were transformed into
Brazilians. An affirmation of Brazilianity takes place, since the African Deity doesnt
possess, it is only worshiped. Second, it is understood that the Umbanda carries a very
strong national character, since the structure of the spirits of possession describes the
racial and ethical structure of Brazilian society, the symbolic personality of the Brazilian
people.
Lets now briefly look at the process by which Umbanda, known for its Brazilian
character, goes through a new ethnicization by a woman of Okinawan descent.
There are some basic conditions that made the ethnic changing of Umbanda possible.
These conditions were:
1. First: the fact that the category of the spirits of possession was defined ethnically and
racially.
2. Second: there are categories of spirits of possession, but the spirits didnt have names.
3. Third: there was a strong syncretic nature.
Having these conditions as background, in Nobukos case, she implemented Umbandas
world structure and joined it to spirits and entities who symbolize Japan, creating a
peculiar separation of original roles amongst the spirits of possession and building an
original world-view model.
Graph 3 represents that new world-view model that was built. We can see that:

1. At the top there is the Umbandas highest divinity, followed by the entity (kami)
who doesnt possess, then the world of the possession spirits and, in the end, the
human world. Keeping this structure, Nobuko applies the entity who doesnt possess
(the so-called Spirits of Light), the Catholic religion (like Our Lady of Aparecida),
the Christian religion (like Jesus Christ, recognized as an entity of spiritism), the
Shinto (Jinmu Tenno, recognized as a Shinto entity), Buddhism (Kannon,
considered a Buddhist entity) and the Okinawan ancestry cult (Mutouya, considered
the Okinawan ancestry cult entity).
2. For the good spirits, there is an addition of a notorious entity, the Brazilian white
man (like the spirits of doctors, nurses and spiritist people) and the yellow spirits of
possession category from Okinawan origin (especially ancestors). The categories of
black, cabloclos and childrens spirits are kept. But Exus presence in the sessions
is denied, for he is seen as a spirit of low mediunistic development from the spiritist
viewpoint.
3. A structure of role separation within the spirits of possession in the sessions is
created. This happens by integrating the Entity-Spirit and Possession-Man
relationship lines with Brazilian and Okinawan elements, based on the relation
between entities and spirits.

2. The spirit of possession as a personal symbol

After enrolling in an Umbanda centre, Nobuko became a medium developed with the
possession of the spirits of Pai Joo de Angola (Father John of Angola) and her own
grandfather. Nevertheless, even after that, she kept being possessed by other spirits.
From the shamanistic theory viewpoint, we can say that the internal abnormal
experience (seen as a spiritual influence) is interpreted as a state of spirit possession and
is controlled by giving the spirits names as spirits who belong to an ethnic and racial
category, reorganizing their conduct. These spirits are what Obeyesekere (1999) called
personal symbol.
In this lecture it will not be possible to present in detail the structure of Nobukos
possession spirits, but it is possible to comprehend that she reorders them and organizes
her own life experiences (such as her home, religious history, etc.) through different
aspects.

3. The activities and the dual aspect of cause and consequence theory of
misfortune: The salvation of an Okinawan descendant Brazilian
Disconnecting herself from the Umbanda centre which had opened her way, Nobuko
began the process of creating her own peculiar cultural model of possession, by starting
to conduct salvation activities in her own house. At this time, her clientele changed
mostly to Okinawans. This change was due to a change in Okinawan descendants life
strategy, from dekassegui to a definitive stay, and the worries that came together with
that change, like practicing the ancestors cult and buying land and houses, questions
which were solved by the yuta in the Okinawan ethnical community. Besides, there was
the creation of an Okinawan local community, that is, it happened what Crapanzano
(1977) named negotiation of reality
It is in this context that Nobuko opens her own charity centre and creates, in her house,
an environment to practice salvation activities through magic as a medium and as a
yuta. On this subject, see Table 4.
2.2 The Brazilianity of the Okinawan shaman culture
Hiroko, our second case, began her process of re-acculturation having the Okinawan
shamanism as her cultural reference system. Table 5 shows this shamanization model. In
this process, the yuta that preceded Hiroko are important agents of her acculturation.
Hiroko goes through the shamanization process with the existing yuta in the community
and later on, frequently travels between Brazil and Okinawa. There she gets in touch
with the local yuta and, together with the yuta from the Okinawan community here, a
mutual influence takes place. In this context she goes through the shijitadashi,
takiukushi, tiriwakashi and tijiawase.
Today I would like to present a general overview about shijitadashi and takiukushi, two
main processes in shamanization.
1. Shijitadashi and takiukushi language: The reoganization of the world and life
environment
Both the shijitadashi and the takiukushi are techniques for controlling the internal

abnormal experience, considered an influence of ancestors spirits called shirashi. They

are ways of symbolizing, articulating and reorganizing the life environment and the
self. In the case of shijitadashi, this occurs through a projection of that abnormal state
in the patrilineal genealogy and, in the case of takiukushi, in places, constructions or
things.
The learning of this technique happens via a very close relation with the master yuta.
The apprentice tells the master yuta about her abnormal experience and she explains the
hidden meaning using the language of possession in the Okinawan shamanism. This,
apart from constituting the learning of a control technique, is also a process of
internalizing the language, the world-view and the cause and consequence theory of
misfortune featured in Okinawan shamanism.
If we were to explain the shijitadashi and the takiukushi according to the Okinawan
possession language, it would be as follows:
Shijitadashi is a warning about a salvation request from the paternal ancestors that are
suffering due to a lack of prayers (uganbusuku) or some mistake in the way of praying.
This mistake must be corrected from the youngest generations to the oldest ones and, as
final result, should reach the creation gods of Okinawa.
The takiukushi is performed when the kami to whom one is related to or close ancestors
are suffering from the lack of worship in the places where they used to live. A specific
place is then chosen and prayers made for the ancestors and the kami.
Graph 6 represents the world model and the subjective persons image created by
Hiroko via the practice of shijitadashi and takiukushi between 1983 and 1992, when she
visited Okinawa four times.
To Hiroko the shijitadashi was an activity performed together with the master yuta from
the Okinawan community and they reversed the linearity from the closest to the most
distant, until they reached in the end the Okinawa creators.

Hiroko believes that the Okinawan shamanism Gods worlds are made of three or four
layers. Having concluded this process of linearity reversing, Amaterasu-kami, the
presiding deity of Okinawa, gives chaplets and booklets, commanding the persons
salvation.
In contrast, the takiukushi takes place in Brazil. According to Hiroko, The disharmony
is a result of the revelation that the Brazilian gods have abandoned them and that,
because of this, they are suffering and asking for salvation, because they are not being
worshiped.
Differently from shijitadashi, in takiukushi it is possible to see that the paranormal
experience is projected into places and environments, being symbolized and articulated.
Both the shijitadashi and takiukushi are activities of reconstructing a hybrid self that is
influenced by an Okinawan cosmos based on patrilineality and on the spiritual existence
of Brazilian entities.
In Hirokos case, the places and environments of takiukushi in Brazil were places where
she had lived, places that symbolically represented her religious pilgrimage.

2. A new interpretation of the Okinawan shamanism based on the cause and

consequence theory of misfortune
Hirokos view on the cause and consequence theory of misfortune is different from
Nobukos. Hikokos view is based on the theory presented by the Okinawan shamanism
cultural system, but she divides the misfortune in two types: one would be caused by
her Brazilianity, by the fact that she is Brazilian and lives in Brazil. The other would be
a consequence of being an Okinawan descendant. The first type, as we can see in Table
7, is the misfortune caused by dead spirits or Brazilian living spirits. The second type is
the misfortune caused by the distance to Okinawas rules and the ancestors spirits.

The solution for these misfortunes happens via magical practices. The spirits and
entities that will participate in these rituals, as well as the offerings and the language
used, are clearly different. Especially in the Brazilian type of misfortune, there was a
creation of new forms of magic, like the one used to remove the macumba and
remove the native, along with the creation of a new entity, the Cruzeiro kami/divinity.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude by reinforcing the idea that the self who goes through this
re-acculturation process is a person constituted by a personality, intentions and emotions
and that this self, based in a specific culture of reference, operates those elements by
reorganizing creatively his life space and a new cultural model. That model is really
nothing more than the creative and individual process of constructing new identities.
And the culture that each one chooses as reference and how one participates in this
culture is, undoubtedly, strongly influenced by the historical aspects of his time.

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