Thursday, April 05, 2012

The Shaman & the Anthropologist

I recently read about a very perplexed Anthropologist who had been spending some time with the Shaman of a tribe that was mostly untouched by Western Civilization. The Shaman had an incredibly bizarre belief system by which he guided the tribe.

One day, having gained the Shaman's trust, the perplexed Anthropologist confronted the Shaman: "Do you honestly believe all the crap you tell your fellow tribesmen?"
To which the Shaman replied: "No, I don't really but it honestly seems to cure them."

This was the Anthropologist's AHA! moment, and he went home to write up many theses on his "breakthrough".

After thinking about these events for some time, I offer you Sequel 2 of the story:

Upon hearing about the Shaman's answer to the Anthropologist, one of  the tribe Elders confronted the Shaman: "Is it true that you don't believe in all the spiritual stuff you tell us?"
To which the Shaman replied: "No, it is not true, I do believe in all the spiritual stuff, but the Anthropolgist was tormented by his inability to understand, so what I said cured him".

...and everyone lived happily ever after.  

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