Shamanism

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Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. [2] A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, pronounced /ˈʃɑːmən/, /ˈʃeɪmən/, (|ˈshämən; ˈshā-|) noun (pl. -man(s)).[3]

Shamanism encompasses the belief that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls, to separate evil spirits from human souls, or to ameliorate illnesses of the soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.[4].

Etymology

The term "shaman" is a loan from the Turkic[5][6][7][8] word šamán, the term for such a practitioner, which also gained currency in the wider Turko-Mongol and Tungusic cultures in ancient Siberia. Shamanism played an important role in Altaic mythology. Tengriism which was the major belief of Xiongnu, Turkic, Hungarian and Bulgar peoples in ancient times incorporates elements of shamanism.

Sociology

Shamanism in sociology applies to various empirical investigative methods and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about shamanic social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare.

Role

The shaman's social role may be defined by a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation and the expected behavior in a given individual within their cultural social status and social position.

Shamanism is a 'calling'. Individuals who are 'called' experience an illness of some sort over a prolonged period of time. This illness will prompt the individual to seek out spiritual guidance and other shamanic healers. Such illnesses are usually not healed/curable by physicians and western medicine. The shaman heals through spiritual means that consequently affect the human world by bringing about restored health.

Cultural anthropology approaches shamanism as an integral part of the study of culture, belief, and practice. The New Age movement has appropriated shamanism.

Healer

Shamans gain knowledge and the power to heal by entering into the spiritual world or dimension. The shaman may have, or acquire many spirit guides in the spirit world, these often guide and direct the shaman in his/her travels. These spirit guides are always present within the shaman though others only encounter them when the shaman is in a trance. The spirit guide energizes the shaman, enabling him/her to enter into the spiritual dimension. The shaman heals within the spirital dimension by returning 'lost' parts of the human soul from wherever they have gone. The shaman also cleanses excess negative energies which confuse or pollute the soul.^{[citation needed]}

Mediator

Shaman act as "mediators" in their culture.[9][10] The shaman communicates with the spirits on behalf of the community, including the spirits of the deceased. The shaman communicates with both living and dead to alleviate unrest, unsettled issues, and to deliver gifts to the spirits.

Often, unsettled issues can be resolved with money. Paper money can be burnt to transfer its value to the spirits.

Among the Selkups, the sea duck is a spirit animal because ducks fly in the air, and dive in the water. Thus ducks belong to both the upper world and the world below.[11] Among other Siberian peoples these characteristics are attributed to water fowl in general.[12] Among many Native Americans, the jaguar is a spirit animal because jaguars walk on earth, swim in water, and climb in trees. Thus jaguars belong to all three worlds, Sky, Earth, Underworld.

Function

Shamans perform a variety of functions depending upon their respective cultures:[13] healing;[14][15] leading a sacrifice;[16] preserving the tradition by storytelling and songs;[17] fortune-telling;[18] acting as a psychopomp (literal meaning, “guide of souls”).[19] In some cultures, a shaman may fulfill several functions in one person.[13]

The functions of a shaman may include either guiding to their proper abode the souls of the dead (which may be guided either one-at-a-time or in a cumulative group, depending on culture), and/or curing (healing) of ailments. The ailments may be either purely physical afflictions—such as disease, which may be cured by flattering, threatening, or wrestling the disease-spirit (sometimes trying all these, sequentially), and which may be completed by displaying some supposedly extracted token of the disease-spirit (displaying this, even if "fraudulent", is supposed to impress the disease-spirit that it has been, or is in the process of being, defeated, so that it will retreat and stay out of the patient's body) --, or else mental (including psychosomatic) afflictions—such as persistent terror (on account of some frightening experience), which may be likewise cured by similar methods. Usually in most languages a different term other than the one translated "shaman" is applied to a religious official leading sacrificial rites ("priest"), or to a raconteur ("sage") of traditional lore; there may be more of an overlap in functions (with that of a shaman), however, in the case of an interpreter of omens or of dreams.

To quote Mircea Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy."[20]

Distinct types of shaman

In some cultures there may be additional types of shaman, who perform more specialized functions. For example, among the Nanai people, a distinct kind of shaman acts as a psychopomp.[21] Other specialized shaman may be distinguished according to the type of spirits, or realms of the spirit world, with which the shaman most commonly interacts. These roles vary among the Nenets, Enets, and Selkup shaman (paper;[22] online[23]). Among Huichol,[24] there are two categories of shaman. This demonstrates the differences among shaman within a single tribe.

Amongst the Hmong people, the shaman or the "shi yi", acts as healer. Shi Yi also performs rituals/ceremonies designed to call upon the soul from its many travels back to the physical human body. Shi Yi may use several shamanistic tools such as swords, divinity horns, a gong (drum), or finger bells/jingles. All tools serve to protect the spirits from the eyes of the unknown, thus enabling Shi Yi to deliver the souls back to its proper owner. Shi Yi may wear a white, red, or black veil to disguise the soul from its attackers in the spiritual dimension.

Soul and spirit concepts

The variety of functions described in the above section may seem to be rather distinct tasks, but the soul and spirit concepts may underlying to join them.

Soul

The soul concept can generally explain more, seemingly unassociated phenomena in shamanism:[25][26][27]

Healing

may be based closely on the soul concepts of the belief system of the people served by the shaman (online[14]). It may consist of the retrieving the lost soul of the ill person.[28] See also the soul dualism concept.

Scarcity of hunted game

can be solved by “releasing” the souls of the animals from their hidden abodes. Besides that, many taboos may prescribe the behavior of people towards game, so that the souls of the animals do not feel angry or hurt, or the pleased soul of the already killed prey can tell the other, still living animals, that they can let themselves to be caught and killed.[29][30] The ecological aspect of shamanistic practice (and the related beliefs) has already been mentioned above in the article.

Infertility of women

can be cured by obtaining the soul of the expected child to be born.

Spirits

Also the beliefs related to spirits can explain many different phenomena too,[31] for example, the importance of storytelling, or acting as a singer, can be understood better if we examine the whole belief system: a person who is able to memorize long texts or songs (and play an instrument) may be regarded as having achieved this ability through contact with the spirits (for example among Khanty people).[32]

Ecological aspect

Resources for human consumption are easily depletable in tropical rainforests. In the Tucano Indian rainforest culture, a sophisticated system exists for resource management, and for avoiding the resource depletion through overhunting. This system is conceptualized in a mythological context, involving symbolism and in the belief that the breaking of hunting restrictions may cause illness. As the primary teacher of tribal symbolism, the shaman may have a leading role in this ecological management, actively restricting hunting and fishing. The shaman is able to “release” game animals (or their souls) from their hidden abodes,[33] The Desana shaman has to negotiate with a mythological being for souls of game.[34] Not only Tucanos, but the Piaroa rainforest Indians have ecological concerns related to their shamanism.[35] Besides Tukanos and Piaroa, also many Eskimo groups think that the shaman is able to fetch souls of game from remote places;[36][37] or undertake a soul travel in order to promote hunting luck, e.g. by asking for game from mythological beings (Sea Woman).[38]

Economics

The way shamans get sustenance and take part in everyday life varies among cultures. In many Eskimo groups, they provide services for the community and get a “due payment” (some cultures believe the payment is given to the helping spirits[39]), but these goods are only “welcome addenda.” They are not enough to enable shamanizing as a full-time activity. Shamans live like any other member of the group, as hunter or housewife.[39][40]

Beliefs

There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; and several common beliefs are shared by all forms of shamanism. Common beliefs identified by Eliade (1964)[4] 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 good or evil.
• The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
• The shaman can employ trance 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 tell the future, scry, throw bones/runes, and perform other varied forms of divination

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.[41] Shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities and operates outside established religions. Many shamans operate alone, although some take on an apprentice. Shamans can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.^{[citation needed]}