Hi all,
First off, my thanks to the moderators and all the dedicated members of this forum who put in their time, research and effort to make NAFPS a valuable resource for people who care about learning the difference between time-honored religious practices and frauds who are just out to make a buck. Your work is tremendously laudable and I'm very glad that you do what you do.
I'm a plain-vanilla white Texas girl, with Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Danish ancestry, but more than anything I identify as Texan.
These days I work in computer science, mostly doing academic computer security research, but I have a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in linguistics, which is where my username comes from. I'm no longer as actively involved in linguistics as I used to be, but I'm still very interested in languages which don't get a lot of attention in academic circles. During grad school I did some work with Rukai, an indigenous language of Taiwan (part of the Austronesian language family). I also spent two weeks up in Resolute Bay, Nunavut about ten years ago, and have wanted to learn more about Inuktitut ever since. (I believe the dialect that I listened to was Qikiqtaaluk uannangani, but I'm not 100% positive.) If anyone has any pointers to good learning materials, I'd be very grateful!
Finally, I wonder whether anyone here has run across the book
The Shamanic Way of the Bee by Simon Buxton. I admit I've only skimmed through it, having run across it at a friend's house, but I'm rather suspicious about its authenticity for several reasons. The use of the term "shamanic" to refer to a spiritual path being taught in Britain of course immediately sets off alarm bells; equally so his use of the name "Melissae", an obviously Latinate term, to refer to a supposed order of priestesses within this tradition. (Certainly there's a degree of linguistic crossover between Celtic and Latin words, given how long Britain was occupied by the Romans, but I'm skeptical of the notion of an "ancient path" using Latin terminology that was never written down.) I also ran across an article at
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Plastic-shaman which appears to be an older version of the Wikipedia article on "plastic shamans" which asserts that Buxton's work is "pilfered from a Navajo Beauty Way song". I'd appreciate any insight or references that anyone could provide as to the source of this assertion. Buxton apparently runs "training workshops" at his "Sacred Trust Centre" in Dorset, England for nearly 500 pounds a throw -- if he's ripping off Navajo sources in doing so, this really ought to be exposed.
Thanks again for all the work you do,
philologist.
