Shamanism

Definitions of Shamanism Shamanism as a social practice, technique (not as a religion) that speaks for many different phenomena Origin: Tungus (Evenk) of Eastern Siberia: “someone who has the ability to enter a trance state in order to communicate and appease the ‘spirits’ for the purpose of healing, fertility, divination, protection, as guide for the living and dead” Features of Shamanism: Spiritual Practice Mystical Power Charisma Direct revelations Travelling and Dreaming ‘religious’ specialists Use/Experience of Trance Ecstatic behaviour Guardian Spirits Psychic Healing Holistic (mind/boy) understanding of environmental relations

Shamans in Context Siberian Shamanism Korean Shamanism Shamanism in Nepal and Afghanistan Japanese Shamanism Shamanism in Australia and America New Age and Shamanism

Shamanism as ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ Lewis (in Bowie 2000:192) “Shamanism involves the domestication, rather than the exorcism, of the spirits that possess the victim or initiate”. For Lewis a Shaman is a ‘master of spirits’ Eliade: Shamanism as a ‘technique of ecstasy’ “the specific element of shamanism is not the embodiment of ‘spirits’ by the shaman, but the ecstasy induced in his ascent to the sky or descent to the underworld; incarnatig spirits and being ‘possessed’ by spirits are universally disseminated phenomena, but they do not necessarily belong to shamanism in the strict sense” Halifax: an ideology identified by features such as: initiatory crisis, vision quests, ordeals, out of body experiences (dismemberment), regeneration, ecstatic trance, healer, intermediary between the community and non-ordinary reality.

Siberian Shamanism Syberian Artic No possession (Tibet and Central Asia) Little emphasis on ‘Soul Journey’ (Eliade) Many ‘shamanism’ Trance, direct contact with spiritual beings guardian spirits and mediation in a ritual. Mediator, cooperation with spirits for healing, recovery of souls, human-animal relations (Inupiat). Usually male ‘magician, conjurer’ ‘excited, raised, moved’ Tangus Shamanism: “It refers to persons of both sexes who have mastered spirits, who at will can introduce these spirits into themselves and use their power over the spirits in their own interests, particularly helping other people, who suffer from spirits’ in such a capacity they may possess a complex of special methods for dealing with spirits” (Shirokogoroff 1982:169 in Bowie 2000:198).

Korean Shamanism Korea Possessed, charismatic shamans, and hereditary shamans Shamanic calling (suffering sinbyong) Usually Female Spirit mother and spirit daughter: training and apprentice Possession and ecstatic trance (for them and their clients) 3 different types of trance. Spirit guide (the Shaman takes the role of the deceased) Songs and chants, performance of laments to take the dead to a better world. Séance. Splitting of cloth (detachment between life and dead, extreme state of emotion. Role-playing. Passing the dead through the gate to the other world (rope). Opening gates Dancing: excitement “Divine possession occurs at he moment when the resentment of the poor and the oppressed are suddenlty given vent” (Du-Hyun p164) Trance possession: role playing, assumption of identities, religious salvation, reduction of social tensions.

Rock Art Shamanism Vitebsky: a consistent corpus of belief. Shamanic thinking: ancestors and spirits as a form of authority Oriented to finding practical solutions for everyday problems by acting on the world and changing it The performance of the Shaman is understood by the community Rock Art motives: an abstract table of motifs found in early trance

Shamanism in Contemporary Society Healing Drumming Sand circles Power Animal Experiencing engagement Re-Evaluation of the rationalist framework Western perspectives (tend to focuss too much on the psychological elements – mental ‘disorder’) Problematic ‘adoption’ of ‘other people’s beliefs’. Neo-shamanism: dynamic, grassroots, a dialogue between indigenous shamanisms and western practitioners Individual Narratives Self-help Democratic ethos Self-actualisation

Neo-Shamanism Atkinson (1992) in Shamanism Today. Ann Rev of Anthropology: Shamanism as a ‘construction’. It stresses to much the difference between shamans and their associates, and the similitude between different types of shamans. Two themes: the psychological state of Shamans and the therapeutic value of Shamans as healers. The embodiment of social and psychological problems: corporal technique and spiritual exercise Political dynamics of authority in post-colonial periods Gender as a disruptive force for Shamans Shamanism as a performance (clients) Shamanism as a an eclectic practice (fast results) “I am standing with both feet in my own time and soil and society. Trying to learn things that were forgotten and forbidden for a long time. Then some people come and call me names. Or they call what I do names. I think you know the situation.     Depending on if they are anthropologists or Christians, or Americans or new age booksellers they call what we practice for neo shamanism, core shamanism or urban shamanism or something else. But none of those names or labels seems to sit really right. This makes me ask: What is really characteristic of our shamanic practice here and now, of our shamanic tradition? (…)