What Is A Shaman

by Piers Vitebsky

Natural History Magazine, 3/97 (pictures are Yanomami shaman)

Flying above the earth to the spirit world or descending-into the underworld; being stripped to a skeleton, reassembled, and reborn; fighting evil spirits and sorcerers; and protecting their people from famine and disease these are powers commonly claimed by shamans throughout the world. The word shaman, sometimes erroneously used interchangeably with sorcerer or medicine man, comes from the language of the Evenk, a small group of Tungus-speaking hunters and reindeer herders in Siberia. In the strictest sense, it refers to a practitioner who can will his or her spirit to leave the body and journey to upper or lower worlds.

Shamanic beliefs do not constitute a single religion or doctrinal system, although worldwide shamanic traditions approach reality and human experience in similar ways. In shamanic thinking, every element of the world around us, whether human, animal, tree, or rock, is imbued with spirits. Spirits are conscious, often anthropomorphic, and can also be interpreted as representing the essences that underlie surface appearances.

Events in the spirit world are believed to be intimately connected to everyday occurrences, particularly in the realm of human health and fertility. By entering a trance state and allowing his or her soul to venture into other worlds, the shaman can seek out the underlying causes of mundane events, and then fight, beg, or cajole the spirits to intervene in the affairs of the living.

A shaman's soul - journeys are thought to take place within a layered cosmology, with the earth at the center of various upper and lower worlds. Illness is often ascribed to the kidnapping of a patient's soul by spirits. When a fisherman in the Peruvian Amazon is seduced by a freshwater mermaid, his soul must be rescued by a mestizo shaman whose soul travels along the river bottom. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, when a patient's soul wanders off into the sky, the Wana shaman pursues it in a spirit canoe that can traverse the heavens. Many traditional Inuit communities believed that the supply of marine mammals was controlled by a female water spirit who punished people for moral lapses by withholding the animals. One of the most daunting tests of a great shaman was to travel down to the sea floor to persuade the spirit to release the seals and whales into the hunters' path again.

Shamanic power is usually acquired through difficult initiations, ordeals believed to be imposed by the spirits. The accomplished shaman generally acquires "spirit helpers," with whom he is thought to associate. These may be gods or ancestors but are commonly the spirits of powerful, agile, or cunning animals. Often they enable the shaman to turn into one of these creatures or take on its attributes flying into the sky in the form of a hawk or diving into the water as a fish. Such powers remain elusive and as the need for spirit helpers suggests always partly outside the range of the shaman's unaided abilities. Acquired with difficulty, shamanic powers can be lost again in battles with spirit enemies or through failure to perform the rituals properly

Shamanic religion may date from the time of the earliest known Paleolithic drawings, which were made some 30,000 years ago by our hunting ancestors. Although many of these cave and rock paintings are of animals, some show humans wearing animal masks and other motifs suggestive of shamanic practices. Even today, belief in shamans seems strongest in societies that rely on hunting and gathering. In the absence of a priestly class, individuals believe they can communicate directly with gods and spirits. Agricultural societies seem somewhat inimical to shamans because of their more institutionalized forms of religion. In our own times, shamans have been widely persecuted and their activities suppressed by secular governments and by the major established religions. Yet, because shamanic thinking is flexible and adaptable, it often persists even in complex urban societies.

Although outside observers have called them madmen or charlatans, within their own cultures shamans are viewed as a combination of priest, doctor, social worker, and mystic. Eighteenth-century anthropologists and travelers encountered shamans in the Arctic and subarctic; throughout Siberia, Lapland, Tibet, and Mongolia; and among the Inuit of North America. Shamanic cultures are also widespread among rain forest tribes of South America, particularly in Amazonia, and throughout Southeast Asia.

Since he or she must often deal with illness, malevolence, and death, the shaman is often concerned with matters that are dark and dangerous. A youngster may dread being called by the spirits to follow the shamanic path, and some strenuously resist at first. Rather than seeing them as mad, their clients believe that shamans have extraordinary insight into the cosmic processes governing health, food supply, and fertility. After painful initiations, a shaman is entrusted with looking over the edge of the abyss without falling in, and returning with help for the people of this world.

Talking with the Ancestors

Another Perspective

Shamans and Priests

Shaman as a central unifying force in society