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WOTC Possibly Removing "Druids" for Religious/Cultural Sensitivity Reasons
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<blockquote data-quote="Epic Meepo" data-source="post: 9165650" data-attributes="member: 57073"><p>I ask because I'm genuinely curious about the debate over the word shaman: Is calling religious practitioners all over the world "shamans" more or less problematic than calling religious practitioners all over the world "priests"? Is it the existence of an umbrella term that people find objectionable? The choice of one particular religious title over another? Something else?</p><p></p><p>Is "shaman" the problematic term, or is "shamanism" the problem? It was my understanding that "shaman" is just a local religious title being expanded to apply to a broader category (a la "priest"), whereas "shamanism" is a completely invented colonialism that stereotypes the religions of indigenous peoples by making them appear overly simplistic.</p><p></p><p>An unrelated question: Is there a consensus among linguists over the etymology of the word "shaman"? It's fairly well attested that the English word "shaman" ultimately comes from the word "samān" in either Evenki or a related Tungusic language. But do we know the etymology of the Tungusic word "samān"? An historian named Mircea Eliade speculated that "samān" could be a loanword derived from the Pali word "samaṇa," which was introduced to the Tungusic peoples via Bhuddist monks prior to the 1600's AD. If that proposed etymology is correct, then "shaman" is ultimately derived from Sanskrit, not the language of any indigenous people of northern Asia.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Epic Meepo, post: 9165650, member: 57073"] I ask because I'm genuinely curious about the debate over the word shaman: Is calling religious practitioners all over the world "shamans" more or less problematic than calling religious practitioners all over the world "priests"? Is it the existence of an umbrella term that people find objectionable? The choice of one particular religious title over another? Something else? Is "shaman" the problematic term, or is "shamanism" the problem? It was my understanding that "shaman" is just a local religious title being expanded to apply to a broader category (a la "priest"), whereas "shamanism" is a completely invented colonialism that stereotypes the religions of indigenous peoples by making them appear overly simplistic. An unrelated question: Is there a consensus among linguists over the etymology of the word "shaman"? It's fairly well attested that the English word "shaman" ultimately comes from the word "samān" in either Evenki or a related Tungusic language. But do we know the etymology of the Tungusic word "samān"? An historian named Mircea Eliade speculated that "samān" could be a loanword derived from the Pali word "samaṇa," which was introduced to the Tungusic peoples via Bhuddist monks prior to the 1600's AD. If that proposed etymology is correct, then "shaman" is ultimately derived from Sanskrit, not the language of any indigenous people of northern Asia. [/QUOTE]
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WOTC Possibly Removing "Druids" for Religious/Cultural Sensitivity Reasons
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