Mana, Shamans, and the Cultural Misappropriation behind Fantasy Terms

[Hussar]

You mean this vague conversation some of us had about shamans? Which is (also) relevant to this thread.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day? Even a blind squirrel finds nuts once in a while? Take your pick.

The point is, fixing this problem is relatively simple. Shaman is not defined in 5e. It's not a class. It's not anything. So, wouldn't the simplest solution be to get out your word processing program of choice, click on find/replace and replace "shaman" with "druid"? It would change exactly 7 words in the Monster Manual and would solve the problem. Druids are not an issue (as far as I know) and since druids belong to both good and evil races, there's no issue there either.

Poof. Problem solved.

Why does this take eight pages of discussion to resolve? Oh, that's right. It's gets resolved on the second page, and then we have 6 more pages of sidebars, pedantic handwringing, and the occassional shot about how none of us are actually qualified to have an opinion and how this is all just people fabricating an issue to get attention.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

The point is, fixing this problem is relatively simple. Shaman is not defined in 5e. It's not a class. It's not anything. So, wouldn't the simplest solution be to get out your word processing program of choice, click on find/replace and replace "shaman" with "druid"? It would change exactly 7 words in the Monster Manual and would solve the problem. Druids are not an issue (as far as I know) and since druids belong to both good and evil races, there's no issue there either.

Poof. Problem solved.

Except if you are going to go by any historical version of Shaman, you have to do the same for Druid, and Druids are Celtic in origin. So don't insult the Celts if you don't want to insult the real world peoples who had Shamans. Same thing with Witch Doctors or Medicine Men. They all come from specific real cultures. If people don't like the use of Shaman, then they need to come up with a word that is generic as possible for that role. Or we could drag the whole OA argument over here and use one of the Japanese names for a Shaman, like Fusha or Miko.

 

[Derren]

Another case of someone playing the white knight again by insisting that somewhere, someone on the planet is offended and that everyone must cater to this unknown person.
And of course it doesn't matter if there really is someone who is offended or how silly the supposed reason for that is.

News flash: There is no problem. So no need to "solve" it.

 

[Maxperson]

Except if you are going to go by any historical version of Shaman, you have to do the same for Druid, and Druids are Celtic in origin. So don't insult the Celts if you don't want to insult the real world peoples who had Shamans. Same thing with Witch Doctors or Medicine Men. They all come from specific real cultures. If people don't like the use of Shaman, then they need to come up with a word that is generic as possible for that role. Or we could drag the whole OA argument over here and use one of the Japanese names for a Shaman, like Fusha or Miko.

And you have to get rid of Paladins, Rangers, Clerics, Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and Warlocks(and even more) which all have real world correlations. We wouldn't want the wrong cultures appropriating them.

 

[Derren]

And you have to get rid of Paladins, Rangers, Clerics, Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and Warlocks(and even more) which all have real world correlations. We wouldn't want the wrong cultures appropriating them.

As usual in such "discussions", appropriating white cultures is totally fine because "they got the power!".

 

[Aldarc]

Except if you are going to go by any historical version of Shaman, you have to do the same for Druid, and Druids are Celtic in origin. So don't insult the Celts if you don't want to insult the real world peoples who had Shamans. Same thing with Witch Doctors or Medicine Men. They all come from specific real cultures. If people don't like the use of Shaman, then they need to come up with a word that is generic as possible for that role. Or we could drag the whole OA argument over here and use one of the Japanese names for a Shaman, like Fusha or Miko.

I would honestly almost prefer going the Starfinder route: the equivalents of the cleric, druid, shaman, psion, etc. were all put under the umbrella class of “mystic.” To the best of my knowledge, the term “mystic” does not have its root in a particular culture. It equalizes conceptions of spirituality without the usual stratifications.

 

[Sadras]

I would honestly almost prefer going the Starfinder route: the equivalents of the cleric, druid, shaman, psion, etc. were all put under the umbrella class of “mystic.” To the best of my knowledge, the term “mystic” does not have its root in a particular culture. It equalizes conceptions of spirituality without the usual stratifications.

The term mystic is fine for a Sci-Fi setting but TBH it does not evoke much of an image in my mind as do the words - cleric, druid, shaman or psion. For D&D cleric to me - is synonymous with war-priest, belonging to an order, the mystic to me is not that.

 

[Hussar]

Except if you are going to go by any historical version of Shaman, you have to do the same for Druid, and Druids are Celtic in origin. So don't insult the Celts if you don't want to insult the real world peoples who had Shamans. Same thing with Witch Doctors or Medicine Men. They all come from specific real cultures. If people don't like the use of Shaman, then they need to come up with a word that is generic as possible for that role. Or we could drag the whole OA argument over here and use one of the Japanese names for a Shaman, like Fusha or Miko.

Why? Who is complaining about the Druid? Is there some issue with druid that has been brought up or are you inventing issues that don't exist.

 

[Hussar]

/edit - nope, not sinking to that level. My bad.

 

[Hussar]

Another case of someone playing the white knight again by insisting that somewhere, someone on the planet is offended and that everyone must cater to this unknown person.
And of course it doesn't matter if there really is someone who is offended or how silly the supposed reason for that is.

News flash: There is no problem. So no need to "solve" it.

Or, alternatively, there are people in the world with a modicum of empathy for their fellow humans and would like to make the world just a tiny bit better instead of pretending that everything is all rainbows and sunny days.