Western urban postmodernism and Yuhupdeh indigenous shamanism : a comparative evaluation

Abstract

This research analytically compares the urban Western postmodern worldview with the indigenous shamanic worldview of the Yuhupdeh people of the Amazon Rainforest, with special focus on similarities in values. Ten worldview values are analysed, showing how they manifest in different ways in each society, but are, in essence, identical. The Yuhupdeh have been isolated in the rainforest until recently, neither experiencing nor being influenced by the historical events and movements that, it is understood, constituted the postmodern worldview. The hypothesis of this research is that the axiological similarities of such disjointed worldviews are not mere coincidences, but rather the result of the understanding developed about the fundamental reality of the universe and the consequent allocation of humanity in relation to the cosmos. For this, a specific model of analytical comparison was developed, with a theological-missiological orientation, in light of Calvin and Kuyper's assumptions about the fundamental relationships of life, God–Man–World, in ten thematic axes including binary scales of values. It proposes to make a new contribution to the theological understanding of postmodernism as well as to missiological reflection and missionary practice.