I don't know of any evidence to support the claim of the hard wiring of the
species, either for community size or religion--both seem to be socially-
and culturally-determined. If religion were hard-wired it wouldn't be so
easy for hundreds of millions to escape it. As to community-size, humans
began living in settled social units of over 200 7 to 10 millenia ago. No
one put a gun to their heads. Temporary groupings much larger than
200--annual gatherings, ritual or trade occasions--probably go back much
farther, long bfore settled communities.

How one defines community may have a lot to do with how one understands
what maintains it. New York, with its enormous diversity, seems to work as
both a series of communities--defined by neighborhood, language, class--and
as a megacommunity, united both by a sense of difference from other places
and a common need to deal with the stresses peculiar to its urban life--a
sense that we're all in it together. It feels immediately different from
other places, as does Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, Glasgow, etc., as did
medieval and renaissance Florence. In many of these cases there is a long
list of lovesongs in various media to the city as community.

In my understanding of shamanism (which I think is also Van Gennep's and
Turner's and Eliade's) inolve disability. Quite the contrary. Symptoms that
may be limited to psychosis in our culture were courted by the most able in
other cultures--think of native american vision quests. Both Sitting Bull
and Crazy Horse among the Ogallala had visions, and Sitting Bull was a
shaman. Which is to say that the same mental states and behaviors mean
different things in different cultural contexts.

The special ability of the shaman appears to be to enter and leave a
liminal state at will. His function is to guide other people through the
process, so that they can survive change, whether the change is age and
gender related or disease related. What poets tend to share with shamans is
our ability to enter liminal states. Our role is not as guide, tho. We
bring back information.

Barbara Myerhoff's Peyote Hunt follows a Huichol shaman on an annual
pilgrimage, complete with peyote-induced visions. I have some problems with
her methodology, but there's little doubt that what she reported was
accurate--there was another anthropologist, doing separate research, along
for the ride. A good place to start.

Mark



At 11:23 AM 2/15/2005, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Thomas Fallon" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:19 AM
>Subject: Re: poets and shamans
>
>
>
>>I live in a small American town. You have described the history of our
>>small
>>society above. We were, however, a town of 10,000, and we were still a
>>community. Part of the change seemed to have begun with increased wages,
>>children to college who did not return, the automobile and television as
>>they
>>took the small town people away physically and intellectually. A
>>shared religion
>>does not tie us together, shared life interests, marriage to the
>>"girl next door" and
>>jobs that were once plentiful here in the town. The jobs have been
>>decreased by
>>modern technology.
>>
>>Tom
>I didnt describe your community. My information comes from Robert Putnam's
>Bowling Alone which seems to have made a great impact.