Nicole Berry- The Spell of the Sensuous

Required reading 2:

In Abram's book, The Spell of the Sensuous, he explains how there is an adolescent chosen to become the new shaman for their community. Before the adolescent can become the shaman, he must learn from the most knowledgeable current shaman. Abrams goes on to explain that the adolescent must first “learn his or her skills directly from the land itself- from a specific animal or plant, from a river or storm- during a prolonged sojourn out and beyond the boundaries of human society. Indeed, among many of the tribes, once indigenous to North America, a boy could gain the insight necessary to enter the society of grown men only by undertaking a solitary quest for vision-only by rendering himself vulnerable to the wild forces of the land and, if need be, crying to those forces for a vision” (Abrams 116). This is considered important to oral cultures because in their culture the land and nature speak to them and by listening to the land and nature, they are enhancing their interaction and connection with it. Oral communication is said to enhance our interactions with the environment. 

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