Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Further information: Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Some adherents of traditional disciplines, such as the Lakota people—a tribe of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, reject "the expropriation of [their] ceremonial ways by non-Indians." They see the New Age movement as either not fully understanding, deliberately trivializing, or distorting their disciplines.[97]
They have coined the term plastic medicine men to describe individuals, from within their own communities "who are prostituting our spiritual ways for their own selfish gain, with no regard for the spiritual well-being of the people as a whole."[97] The term plastic shaman has been applied to outsiders who identify themselves as shamans, holy people, or other traditional spiritual leaders, but who have no genuine connection to the traditions or cultures they claim to represent. The academic Ward Churchill criticised the New Age movement as an instrument of cultural imperialism that is exploitative of indigenous cultures by reducing them to a commodity to be traded. In Fantasies of the Master Race, he criticises the cultural appropriation of Native American culture and symbols in not only the New Age movement, but also in art and popular culture.[98]
[edit]Goddess movement
Further information: Goddess movement
Followers of the Goddess movement have severely criticized the New Age as fundamentally patriarchal, analytical rather than intuitive, and as supporting the status quo, particularly in its implicit gender roles. Monica Sjöö (1938–2005) pointed out that New Age "channelers" were virtually all women, but the "spirits" they purported to channel, offering guidance to humanity, were nearly all male. Sjöö was highly critical of Theosophy, the "I AM" Activity, and particularly Alice Bailey, whom she saw as promoting Nazi-like "Aryan" ideals. Sjöö's writings also condemn the New Age for its support of communication and information processing technologies which, she believes, may produce harmful low-level electromagnetic radiation.[99][100][101]
