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Text File | 1995-05-06 | 13KB | 293 lines

Archive-name: shamanism/newsgroup-faq
Last-modified: 10 Sep 1994
Version: 1.1

soc.religion.shamanism-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This FAQ is a monthly posting in support of the newsgroup
soc.religion.shamanism. It is maintained by [e-mail]
(Dean Edwards). Send comments to [e-mail]

Contents

I.  Who are the moderators of soc.religion.shamanism
II. Submissions address and mailing list
III.The Charter  of soc.religion.shamanism
IV. Why is this news group in the soc.religion hierarchy?
V.  Where does the word "shaman" come from and how does
    it relate to "shamanism"?
VI. Submissions Details
VII. Comments on Etiquette
VIII. Comments on Flames
***************************

I. Who are the MODERATORS?
Skip Watson ([e-mail])
Dean Edwards ([e-mail])
Al Billings ([e-mail])

II. WHAT IS THE SUBMISSION ADDRESS AND IS THERE MAILING LIST
ACCESS?

Submissions/postings for soc.religion.shamanism should be sent to:
[e-mail]

Administrative material and queries should be sent to:
[e-mail] III. CHARTER of soc.religion.shamanism

Mailing List:
Yes, soc.religion.shamanism has e-mail support for those that do *not*
have any access to the actual newsgroup. It was brought to our attention
that some folks were unable to access the newsgroup itself and asked for
some way of getting the information. We set up a mailing list that the
newsgroup is gated into. For more information or to subscribe to this
mailing list send email to [e-mail]. Please note that this is
available only if you do *not* have any other way to access the group.
If you have access to the newsgroup please read it there ;-).

III. CHARTER of soc.religion.shamanism

1. PURPOSE

The purpose of soc.religion.shamanism is to provide a forum for
discussion and exchange of questions, ideas, views, and information
about historic, traditional, tribal, and contemporary shamanic
experience. Everyone is invited to take part in this discussion
by sharing views, ideas, opinions, experience and information
about shamanism.

2. BACKGROUND

Technically speaking, Shamanism is classified by anthropologists
as an archaic magico-religious phenomena which the shaman is the
great master of ecstasy. This view of shamanism is further detailed
in the Shamanism-General Overview Frequently Asked Questions
(which is available in news.answers). The distinguishing
characteristic of shamanism is its focus on an ecstatic trance state
in which the soul of the shaman is believed to leave the body and
ascend to the sky (heavens) or descend into the earth (underworld).
The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, which he or she
communicates with,all the while retaining control over his or her
own consciousness. Most importantly, shamanism as a spiritual
practice focuses on the personal experience of the shaman.
Everything that a shaman does depends upon this experience. Without
it, there is no shaman.

In contemporary, historical or traditional and nontraditional
shamanic practice the shaman may at times fill the role of priest,
magician, metaphysician or healer. Personal experience with and
knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the
cosmology of those regions are prime determinants of shamanism.
With this knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between
the mundane and the higher and lower states.
The shaman lives at the edge of reality as most people would
recognize it and most commonly at the edge of society itself. Few
indeed have the stamina to adventure into these realms and endure
the outer hardships and personal crises that have been reported by
or observed of many shamans.

For more information see the shamanism-general overview FAQ, which
has been posted to news.answers. In addition another FAQ, soc
religion.shamanism FAQ, will be regularly posted to once this group
has been created.

3. MODERATOR POLICIES

Anyone with an interest in shamanism is welcomed and encouraged
to post articles to soc.religion.shamanism. (See additional details
below.)

Moderators will only return submissions that violate this charter.
Any returned article will have an explanation attached to it about
which charter provision was violated.

There shall be one to four moderators for soc.religion.shamanism.

The newsgroup will be subject to conventions of network etiquette.
In practice, the moderators will reject personal attacks (flames)
directed at individual posters, similarly inflammatory attacks
directed at religious institutions, and articles which use offensive
language. These guidelines are intended to regulate only the tone of
the discussions, and not their contents. This instruction is not
intended to limit discussion and debate. Vigorous discussion and
criticism are encouraged, flames are not.

Repetitive postings (such as multiple responses to one request for
a book reference) may also be rejected.  Any rejected article will
be returned to the sender with an explanation.

Administrative communications, comments and inquiries should be
mailed to the moderator(s) rather than being posted to the group.

From time to time a moderator may choose to give up his or her
duties as a moderator. In such an event the moderators should select
a suitable replacement. The retiring moderator may take part in
this selection if he or she has not yet given up their responsibilities
as moderator.

4. SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES

Guidelines for submissions will be regularly posted to news.answers
in a soc.religion.shamanism Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Readers of soc.religion.shamanism submit articles to the moderators
by email. The initial moderators will be
Skip Watson ([e-mail])
Dean Edwards ([e-mail])

Note: since the original vote additional moderators have been added
as provided for by the terms of this charter. They are:
Al Billings  ([e-mail])

Submissions/postings for soc.religion.shamanism should be sent to
[e-mail]

A current list of moderators will be included in a soc.religion.
shamanism Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) article to be posted to
soc.religion.shamanism and selected 'answers' newsgroups.

Administrative matters will not be discussed in soc.religion.shamanism
administrative comments and inquiries should be sent to:
[e-mail]

5. COMMENTS ON ETIQUETTE

See the FAQ shamanism-general overview FAQ, which is
regularly posted to news.answers.

It is also recommended that the articles on network etiquette
posted to news.newusers.questions be read.

For information concerning excessive flames and personal attacks
see above comments.

For information on network etiquette please refer to the following
documents, among others:
Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
**********************************

IV. Why is this news group in the soc.religion hierarchy?

There have been some questions raised about the name of this
newsgroup  The topic of soc.religion.shamanism is 'shamanism.'
It is in the 'soc.religion' hierarchy. While shamanism itself is not
a religion, it is a religious practice. This was the appropriate
hierarchy for discussion of shamanism. ([e-mail]).

V. Where does the word "shaman" come from and how does
it relate to "shamanism"?

The practice, study and experience of the shaman is not
limited to any single cultural group. There has been some question
about this raised outside of soc.religion.shamanism. The word
'shaman' is from the language of the Tungus of Siberia. It is
variously 'shaman', 'saman' or 'haman'. Among the Tungus it is
both a noun and a verb. The Tungus themselves have no word for
'shamanism'. It is something that is done by a shaman. It is by no
means the name of their religion or of anyone's religion. That
being said, there is no provision in the charter of soc.religion.
shamanism for the general discussion of native religion. That is,
as it has been pointed out elsewhere, a very broad topic. The
focus of this newsgroup, according to its charter is much more
tightly focused. All submissions should keep that in mind.
([e-mail]

VI. SUBMISSIONS DETAILS:

A. At USENET sites that provide automatic mailing in support of moderated
newsgroups, posting to soc.religion.shamanism will transparently mail
the article to the moderators.  At other sites articles will need to be
mailed explicitly to the moderators.

B. The moderators attempt to handle each incoming article in a timely
manner, either posting it publicly or responding to its author
privately within four days of receipt.  If a post has resulted in
neither of these actions after four days, it should be assumed that
one's site is not configured to support submissions to moderated
groups, and the article should be resubmitted by mail to the above
address.

C. Please provide a signature with your name and correct e-mail address
(preferably in Internet format) at the end of your article; do not
rely on the article header's From: field to identify you, as this will
not necessarily contain your correct e-mail address.
(This language is taken from the soc.religion.bahai faq.)

VII. COMMENTS ON ETIQUETTE

The following suggestions are offered for your consideration before
posting.

A. An option in requests for specific information (how do I reach
someone, where is this quotation to be found, etc.) is to ask
explicitly that all replies be mailed directly to the poster, who may
then post a summary if it is of general interest.  This would result
in only 2 messages (or perhaps just one) being seen by all
subscribers, which could be desirable in some contexts.  Likewise,
responses to such requests may, in some cases, be most appropriately
addressed just to the original poster.

B. Please use line lengths of no more than 70.  This keeps your text
within the 80 character per line limit of most terminals, in both your
initial article and in any follow-up articles, where it is customary to
prefix each line of quotation from another article with a few
additional characters to indicate the material is quoted.

Please be merciful to email mail systems by limiting articles to 50
KiloBytes in length.  Posts that exceed this limit should either be
pared down or subdivided; or one could submit an announcement of the
item instead, asking that readers respond via private mail in order to
obtain the actual item.
(Note: some email gateways have only an 8K gateway!)

C. If you quote a previously posted article, please limit the amount of
quoted text that you include.  One may generally assume that readers
have already seen an article to which one is responding.  Therefore,
you need only quote as much as required for establishing a context.

D. Please choose your Subject: heading carefully!

E. If responding to an earlier article, it is not best to respond
to each paragraph therein. Rather, if there one statement that
succinctly summarizes the earlier viewpoint, use that or a
paraphrase instead.

F. It is useful if articles are written in such a manner that it is
relatively easy to discern fact from opinion.

G. A signature statement is not considered to be a part of
the article submitted. Percedence for this is found in net
etiquette where it is standard practice that excessively
long signoff statements (more than four lines in length) are not
considered goo practice> and as such are not a part of the body
of an article. Signoff which are excessive or violate a section of
the charter for the newsgroup will be removed by the moderator
rather than returning the article itself to the user for charter
violations.

VIII. COMMENTS ON FLAMES:

The newsgroup will be subject to conventions of network etiquette.
In practice, the moderators will reject personal attacks (flames)
directed at individuals, similarly inflammatory attacks
directed at religious institutions. For point of reference, this
charter will define a flame as the following: offensive insults
on ones intellect, mentality, physical appearance, race, and other
human characteristics. Flammatory attacks on institutions would
be comprised of the following: offensive and degrading slurs aimed
at the institution which includes the parameters defined under
flame above.  Offensive and degrading language aimed at a person,
people, and institution will not be acceptable.  Mild profanity will
pass the moderators if it is not offensive or inflammatory. This
will allow for open and free discussion although without extreme
flames. Moderation will be relaxed. These guidelines are intended to regulate
only the tone of the discussions, and not their contents.
This instruction is not intended to limit discussion and debate.
Vigorous discussion and criticism are encouraged, flames are not.
([e-mail])

Note: Send comments to [e-mail]

END OF FAQ