What Counts as Shamanism? Exorcism, Materialism, and the Future(s) of Shamanism as a Category for Interpreting Korean Religions

This paper takes Eliade’s Shamanism (1951) as a point of departure to examine accusatory and heuristic deployments of “shamanism” in Korean and global contexts. The paper examines uses that demonize indigenous religions as “demonolatry” and superstition and indict the theological orthodoxy of Pentecostal Christian churches, as well as efforts to resurrect the category in celebrating national heritage—most visibly in the 2025 film KPop Demon Hunters. Although critics charge traditional shamans and modern Pentecostals with materialism, both accusations reflect critics’ own materialistic assumptions and ambivalence about material prosperity, troubling the boundary between material and spiritual worlds. Even reclamations of shamanism as heritage risk reducing healing practices to commodified cultural resources. The paper concludes by gesturing toward a possible “Future” suggested by KPop Demon Hunters: the shaman as builder of community based on material, emotional, and spiritual reciprocity—challenging the assumption that shamanism must be defined by archaism rather than adaptability.