Gender, doubling and shamanism

I developed the idea of "shamanistic doubling" as a way to put across a certain methodology of dialectics to those who had no capacity to conceptualise anything more than relatively stable metaphysical essences.

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  Zisunko Simachaina Ndlovu likes this.
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    John Haigh but can you say that again in plain english?
    

    13 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong no
    

    13 minutes ago · · 2 people
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    John Haigh heh ok
    

    12 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong Oh, well, no it can't really be said in plain English without losing something, but I will say it, with the understanding that something will be lost.
    

    12 minutes ago · · 2 people
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    Charlton Tsodzo i have tried google translate...it can't seem to also find the english translation...this must be Facebookese :-)
    

    12 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong
    

    It means that some people see everything as having pretty much immutable (unchanging qualities) that are defined by something deep and essential to that type of thing. Thus, if we look at gender -- which is one area I continue to go on about -- we have the idea, for instance, that female humans, no matter who or where they are, all have (or ought to have) particular qualities that define them as "feminine", that these are not subject to change very much and that they belong to the inner core or 'identity' of every particular female being.

    
    
    

    9 minutes ago · · 2 people
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong So, that is "essentialism".
    

    9 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong Dialectics, is kind of the opposite of essentialism, in the philosophical realm, because it implies movement from one state or condition into another.
    

    9 minutes ago · · 1 person
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    Charlton Tsodzo sounds deep...me likes :-)
    

    5 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong A dialectical way of thinking is, in my view, way more sophisticated than essentialism -- yet most people are still very much stuck at a level of essentialistic thinking.
    

    2 minutes ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong If you are an essentialist and you encounter someone who thinks dialectically, they will throw all of your calculations out of order.
    

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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong Your predictions will end up all wrong and your actions will even have the opposite effect to what you had anticipated.
    

    about a minute ago ·
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    Jennifer Frances Armstrong For instance, treating a woman harshly because you want to make her more "feminine", will not lead her to retract into a particular essence. She may expand the other way, instead.
    

    A few seconds ago ·

So, to have the kind of vision that takes into account the likely or possible effects how identities can expand or contract in response to particular kinds of violence or provocations -- I call that kind of an awareness an awareness of shamanistic doubling. It's like seeing beyond the person to the kinds of responses they are likely to have to different types of pressure. They respond by changing and/or by hiding something of themselves. In every interaction that involves pressure, they become something other than they had been.