Shamanism or samanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman or saman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way.
Beliefs and practices categorized as "shamanic" have attracted the interest of scholars from a
variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians,
religious studies scholars, philosophers and psychologists. Hundreds of books
and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed
academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism.
In the 20th century, non-Indigenous Westerners involved in
countercultural movements, such as hippies and the New Age created modern
magico-religious practices influenced by their ideas of various Indigenous religions,
creating what has been termed neoshamanism or the neoshamanic movement. It has
affected the development of many neopagan practices, as well as faced a
backlash and accusations of cultural appropriation, exploitation and
misrepresentation when outside observers have tried to practice the ceremonies
of, or represent, centuries-old cultures to which they do not belong.
Terminology
Etymology
The Modern English word shamanism derives from the Russian
word шаман, šamán, which itself comes from the word samān from a Tungusic
language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the
Sym Evenki peoples, or from the Manchu language. The etymology of the word is
sometimes connected to the Tungus root sā-, meaning "to know". However, Finnish ethnolinguist Juha Janhunen
questions this connection on linguistic grounds: "The possibility cannot be completely rejected, but neither should
it be accepted without reservation since the assumed derivational relationship
is phonologically irregular (note especially the vowel quantities)."
Mircea Eliade noted that the Sanskrit word श्रमण, śramaṇa,
designating a wandering monastic or holy figure, has spread to many Central
Asian languages along with Buddhism and could be the ultimate origin of the
word shaman. The word has been reported in Gandhari as ṣamana, in Tocharian A
as ṣāmaṃ, in Tocharian B as ṣamāne and in Chinese as 沙門, shāmén.
The term was adopted by Russians interacting with the
indigenous peoples in Siberia. It is found in the memoirs of the exiled Russian
churchman Avvakum. It was brought to Western Europe twenty years later by the
Dutch traveler Nicolaes Witsen, who reported his stay and journeys among the
Tungusic- and Samoyedic-speaking Indigenous peoples of Siberia in his book
Noord en Oost Tataryen (1692). Adam Brand, a merchant from Lübeck, published in
1698 his account of a Russian embassy to China; a translation of his book,
published the same year, introduced the word shaman to English speakers.
Anthropologist and archeologist Silvia Tomaskova argued that
by the mid-1600s, many Europeans applied the Arabic term shaitan (meaning "devil") to the non-Christian
practices and beliefs of Indigenous peoples beyond the Ural Mountains. She
suggests that shaman may have entered the various Tungus dialects as a
corruption of this term, and then been told to Christian missionaries,
explorers, soldiers and colonial administrators with whom the people had
increasing contact for centuries.
A female shaman is sometimes called a shamanka, which is not
an actual Tungus term but simply shaman plus the Russian suffix -ka (for
feminine nouns).
Definitions
There is no single agreed-upon definition for the word "shamanism" among
anthropologists. Thomas Downson suggests three shared elements of shamanism:
practitioners consistently alter consciousness, the community regards altering
consciousness as an important ritual practice, and the knowledge about the
practice is controlled.
The English historian Ronald Hutton noted that by the dawn
of the 21st century, there were four separate definitions of the term which
appeared to be in use:
The first of these
uses the term to refer to "anybody who contacts a spirit world while in an
altered state of consciousness".
The second definition
limits the term to refer to those who contact a spirit world while in an
altered state of consciousness at the behest of others.
The third definition
attempts to distinguish shamans from other magico-religious specialists who are
believed to contact spirits, such as "mediums", "witch doctors",
"spiritual healers" or "prophets," by claiming that shamans
undertake some particular technique not used by the others. (Problematically,
scholars advocating the third view have failed to agree on what the defining
technique should be.)
The fourth definition
identified by Hutton uses "shamanism" to refer to the Indigenous
religions of Siberia and neighboring parts of Asia. According to the Golomt
Center for Shamanic Studies, a Mongolian organization of shamans, the Evenk
word shaman would more accurately be translated as "priest".
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a shaman (/ˈʃɑːmən/
SHAH-men, /ˈʃæmən/ or /ˈʃeɪmən/) is someone who is regarded as having access
to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who
typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination
and healing. The word "shaman"
probably originates from the Tungusic Evenki language of North Asia. According
to Juha Janhunen, "the word is
attested in all of the Tungusic idioms" such as Negidal, Lamut,
Udehe/Orochi, Nanai, Ilcha, Orok, Manchu and Ulcha, and "nothing seems to contradict the assumption that the meaning
'shaman' also derives from Proto-Tungusic" and may have roots that
extend back in time at least two millennia. The term was introduced to the west
after Russian forces conquered the shamanistic Khanate of Kazan in 1552.
The term "shamanism"
was first applied by Western anthropologists as outside observers of the
ancient religion of the Turks and Mongols, as well as those of the neighboring
Tungusic- and Samoyedic-speaking peoples. Upon observing more religious
traditions around the world, some Western anthropologists began to also use the
term in a very broad sense. The term was used to describe unrelated
magicoreligious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of
Asia, Africa, Australasia and even completely unrelated parts of the Americas,
as they believed these practices to be similar to one another. While the term
has been incorrectly applied by cultural outsiders to many Indigenous spiritual
practices, the words “shaman” and “shamanism” do not accurately describe
the variety and complexity that is Indigenous spirituality. Each nation and
tribe has its own way of life, and uses terms in their own languages.
Mircea Eliade writes, "A
first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous,
will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'." Shamanism
encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between
the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments and
illnesses by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul or spirit
are believed to restore the physical body of the individual to balance and
wholeness. Shamans also claim to enter supernatural realms or dimensions to
obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans claim to visit
other worlds or dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to
ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. Shamans
operate primarily within the spiritual world, which, they believe, in turn
affects the human world. The restoration of balance is said to result in the
elimination of the ailment.
Criticism of the term
The anthropologist Alice Kehoe criticizes the term "shaman" in her book Shamans
and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking. Part of this
criticism involves the notion of cultural appropriation. This includes
criticism of New Age and modern Western forms of shamanism, which, according to
Kehoe, misrepresent or dilute Indigenous practices. Kehoe also believes that
the term reinforces racist ideas such as the noble savage.
Kehoe is highly critical of Mircea Eliade's work on
shamanism as an invention synthesized from various sources unsupported by more
direct research. To Kehoe, citing practices such as drumming, trance, chanting,
entheogen and hallucinogen use, spirit communication, and healing as definitive
of shamanism ignores the fact that they exist outside of what is defined as
shamanism and even play similar roles in nonshamanic cultures, for example
chanting in the Abrahamic religions. She argues that these expressions are
unique to each culture that uses them and that such practices cannot be
generalized easily, accurately, or usefully into a global religion of
shamanism. Because of this, Kehoe is also highly critical of the hypothesis
that shamanism is an ancient, unchanged, and surviving religion from the
Paleolithic period.
The term has been criticized for its perceived colonial
roots, and as a tool to perpetuate perceived contemporary linguistic
colonialism. By Western scholars, the term "shamanism"
is used to refer to a variety of different cultures and practices around the
world, which can vary dramatically and may not be accurately represented by a
single concept. Billy-Ray Belcourt, an author and award-winning scholar from
the Driftpile Cree Nation in Canada, argues that using language with the
intention of simplifying culture that is diverse, such as Shamanism, as it is
prevalent in communities around the world and is made up of many complex
components, works to conceal the complexities of the social and political
violence that Indigenous communities have experienced at the hands of settlers.
Belcourt argues that language used to imply “simplicity”
in regards to Indigenous culture, is a tool used to belittle Indigenous
cultures, as it views Indigenous communities solely as a result of a history
embroiled in violence, that leaves Indigenous communities only capable of
simplicity and plainness.
Anthropologist Mihály Hoppál [de] also discusses whether the
term "shamanism" is
appropriate. He notes that for many readers, "-ism" implies a particular dogma, like Buddhism,
Catholicism or Judaism. He recommends using the term "shamanhood" or "shamanship"
(a term used in Old Russian and German ethnographic reports at the beginning of
the 20th century) for stressing the diversity and the specific features of the
discussed cultures. He believes that this places more stress on the local
variations and emphasizes that shamanism is not a religion of sacred dogmas,
but linked to the everyday life in a practical way. Following similar thoughts,
he also conjectures a contemporary paradigm shift. Piers Vitebsky also mentions
that, despite really astonishing similarities, there is no unity in shamanism.
The various, fragmented shamanistic practices and beliefs coexist with other
beliefs everywhere. There is no record of pure shamanistic societies (although
their existence is not impossible). Norwegian social anthropologist Hakan
Rydving has likewise argued for the abandonment of the terms "shaman" and "shamanism" as "scientific illusions."
Dulam Bumochir has affirmed the above critiques of "shamanism" as a Western
construct created for comparative purposes and, in an extensive article, has
documented the role of Mongols themselves, particularly "the partnership of scholars and shamans in the reconstruction of
shamanism" in post-1990/post-communist Mongolia. This process has also
been documented by Swiss anthropologist Judith Hangartner in her landmark study
of Darhad shamans in Mongolia. Historian Karena Kollmar-Polenz argues that the
social construction and reification of shamanism as a religious "other" actually began with
the 18th-century writings of Tibetan Buddhist monks in Mongolia and later "probably influenced the formation of
European discourse on Shamanism".
History
Shamanism is a system of religious practice. Historically,
it is often associated with Indigenous and tribal societies, and involves
belief that shamans, with a connection to the otherworld, have the power to
heal the sick, communicate with spirits, and escort souls of the dead to the
afterlife. The origins of Shamanism stem from indigenous peoples of far
northern Europe and Siberia.
Despite structural implications of colonialism and
imperialism that have limited the ability of Indigenous peoples to practice
traditional spiritualities, many communities are undergoing resurgence through
self-determination and the reclamation of dynamic traditions. Other groups have
been able to avoid some of these structural impediments by virtue of their
isolation, such as the nomadic Tuvan (with an estimated population of 3000
people surviving from this tribe). Tuva is one of the most isolated Asiatic
tribes in Russia where the art of shamanism has been preserved until today due
to its isolated existence, allowing it to be free from the influences of other
major religions.
Beliefs
There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world,
but several common beliefs are shared by all forms of shamanism. Common beliefs
identified by Eliade (1972) are the following:
Spirits exist and they
play important roles both in individual lives and in human society
The shaman can
communicate with the spirit world
Spirits can be
benevolent or malevolent
The shaman can treat
sickness caused by malevolent spirits
The shaman can employ
trances inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy and go on vision quests
The shaman's spirit
can leave the body to enter the supernatural world to search for answers
The shaman evokes
animal images as spirit guides, omens, and message-bearers
The shaman can perform
other varied forms of divination, scry, throw bones, and sometimes foretell of
future events
As Alice Kehoe notes, Eliade's conceptualization of shamans
produces a Universalist image of Indigenous cultures, which perpetuates notions
of the dead (or dying) Indian as well as the noble savage.
Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is
pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.
Although the causes of disease lie in the spiritual realm, inspired by
malicious spirits, both spiritual and physical methods are used to heal. Commonly,
a shaman "enters the body" of the patient to confront the spiritual
infirmity and heals by banishing the infectious spirit.
Many shamans have expert knowledge of medicinal plants
native to their area, and an herbal treatment is often prescribed. In many
places shamans learn directly from the plants, harnessing their effects and
healing properties, after obtaining permission from the indwelling or patron
spirits. In the Peruvian Amazon Basin, shamans and curanderos use medicine
songs called icaros to evoke spirits. Before a spirit can be summoned it must
teach the shaman its song. The use of totemic items such as rocks with special
powers and an animating spirit is common.
Such practices are presumably very ancient. Plato wrote in
his Phaedrus that the "first
prophecies were the words of an oak", and that those who lived at that
time found it rewarding enough to "listen
to an oak or a stone, so long as it was telling the truth".
Belief in witchcraft and sorcery, known as brujería in Latin
America, exists in many societies. Other societies assert all shamans have the
power to both cure and kill. Those with shamanic knowledge usually enjoy great
power and prestige in the community, but they may also be regarded suspiciously
or fearfully as potentially harmful to others.
By engaging in their work, a shaman is exposed to
significant personal risk as shamanic plant materials can be toxic or fatal if
misused. Spells are commonly used in an attempt to protect against these
dangers, and the use of more dangerous plants is often very highly ritualized.
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