Conflicting
Perspectives on Shamans and Shamanism: Points and Counterpoints
Stanley Krippner
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, San Francisco, California
Abstract
Shamans’ communities grant them privileged status to attend
to those communities’ groups’ psychological and spiritual
needs. Shamans claim to modify their attentional states and engage
in activities that enable them to access information not ordinarily
attainable by members of the social group that has granted them
shamanic status. Western perspectives on shamanism have changed
and clashed over the centuries; this paper presents points and
counterpoints regarding what might be termed the Demonic Model,
the Charlatan Model, the Schizophrenia Model, the Soul Flight
Model, the Degenerative and Crude Technology Model, and the Deconstructionist
Model. Western interpretations of shamanism often reveal more
about the observer than they do about the observed; in addressing
this challenge, the studya psychology of shamanism could make
contributions to cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, psychological
therapy, and ecological psychologymay address this challenge.
Conflicting Perspectives
on Shamans and Shamanism: Points and Counterpoints
Recent developments in qualitative research and the innovative
use of conventional investigative methods have provided the tools
to bring both rigor and creativity to the disciplined examination
of shamans, their behavior, and experiences. However, a A review
of Western psychological perspectives on shamans reveals several
conflicting perspectives. This essay focuses on these controversies.
Psychology can be defined as the disciplined study of behavior
and experience. The term shaman is a social construct, one that
has been described, not unfairly, as “”a made-up,
modern, Western category”” (Taussig, 1989, p. 57).
The termthat describes a particular type of practitioner who attends
to the psychological and spiritual needs of a community that has
granted the practitioner privileged status. Shamans claim to engage
in specialized activities that enable them to access valuable
information that is not ordinarily available to other members
of their community (Krippner, 2000). Hence, shamanism can be described
as a body of techniques and activities that supposedly enable
practitioners to access information that is not ordinarily attainable
by members of the social group that gave them privileged status.
These practitioners use this information in attempts to meet the
needs of this group and its members.
Contemporary shamanic practitioners exist at the band, nomadic–pastoral,
horticultural–agricultural, and state levels of societies.
There are many types of shamans. For example, among the Cuna Indians
of Panama, the abisua shaman heals by singing, the inaduledi specializes
in herbal cures, and the nele focuses on diagnosis.
Shamanic Roles
Winkelman’s (1992) seminal cross-cultural study focused
on 47 societies’ magico-religious practitioners, who claim
to interact with nonordinary dimensions of human existence. This
interaction involves special knowledge of purported spirit entities
and how to relate to them, as well as special powers that supposedly
allow these practitioners to influence the course of nature or
human affairs. Winkelman coded each type of practitioner separately
on such characteristics as the type of magical or religious activity
performed; the technology employed; the mind-altering procedures
used (if any); the practitioner’s cosmology and worldview;
and each practitioner’s perceived power, psychological characteristics,
socioeconomic status, and political role.
Winkelman’s statistical analysis yielded four practitioner
groups: (1) the shaman complex (shamans, shaman-healers, and healers);
(2) priests and priestesses; (3) diviners, seers, and mediums;
(4) malevolent practitioners (witches and sorcerers). Shamans
were most often present at the band level. Priests and priestesses
were most present in horticultural/agricultural communities, and
diviners and malevolent practitioners were observed in state-level
societies.
Most diviners report that they are conduits for a spirit’s
power and claim not to exercise personal volition once they “incorporate”
(or are “possessed by”) these spirit entities. When
shamans interact with spirits, the shamans are almost always dominant;
if the shamans suspend volition, it is only temporary. For example,
shamans surrender volition during some Native American ritual
dances when there is an intense perceptual “flooding.”
Nonetheless, shamans purportedly know how to enter and exit this
type of intense experience (Winkelman, 2000).
Shamanic Selection and
Training
Shamans enter their profession in a number of ways, depending
on the traditions of their community. Some shamans inherit the
role (Larsen, 1976, p.59). Others may display particular bodily
signs, behaviors, or experiences that might constitute a call
to shamanize (Heinze, 1991, pp. 146-156). In some cases, the call
arrives late in life, giving meritorious individuals opportunities
to continue their civil service, or, conversely, an individuals’
training may begin at birth. The training mentor may be an experienced
shaman or a spirit entity. The skills to be learned vary, but
usually include diagnosis and treatment of illness, contacting
and working with benevolent spirit entities, appeasing or fighting
malevolent spirit entities, supervising sacred rituals, interpreting
dreams, assimilating herbal knowledge, predicting the weather,
and/or mastering their self-regulation of bodily functions and
attentional states.
The Demonic Model
Point
The European states that sent explorers to the Western Hemisphere
were, for the most part, the states that were executing tens of
thousands of putative witches and sorcerers. Torture yielded confessions
that they had made pacts with the Devil, had desecrated sacred
Christian ceremonies, and had consorted with spirits. Thus, many
chroniclers were Christian clergy who described shamans as “Devil
worshippers” (Narby & Huxley, 2001, pp. 9-10).
A 16th century account by the Spanish navigator and historian,
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo (1535/2001, pp. 11-12) describes “revered”
old men, held in “high esteem,” who used tobacco in
order to “worship the Devil” (pp. 11-12). The first
person to introduce tobacco to France was a French priest, Andre
Thevet (1557/2001). He described a group of “venerable”
Brazilian practitioners called the paje, describing them as “witches”
who “adore the Devil.” The paje, he wrote, “use
certain ceremonies and diabolical invocations” and “invoke
the evil spirit” in order to “cure fevers,”
determine the answers to “very important” community
problems, and learn “the most secret things of nature”
(pp. 13-15).
Another French priest, Antoine Biet (1664/2001), observed the
rigorous training program undergone by indigenous practitioners
or piayes. To Biet, the rigors of of a 10-year apprenticeship
provided the piayes the “power of curing illness,”
but only by becoming “true penitents of the Demon”
(pp. 16-17). Avvakum Petrovich (1672/2001), a 17th century Russian
clergyman, was the first person to use the word “shaman”
in a published text, describing one Siberian shaman as “a
villain” who calls upon demons (pp. 18-20).
Counterpoint
Shamans engage in shamanic rivalries, wars, and duplicity (e.g.,
Hugh-Jones, 1996, pp. 32-37). Even so, ethical training is a key
element of the shaman’s education; according to Harner (1980),
shamanism at its best has an ethical core (but see Brown, 1989,
for a discussion of shamanism’s “dark side”).
Walsh’s (1990) study of various shamanic traditions revealed
rigorous systems of ethics: “The best of shamanism has long
been based on an ethic of compassion and service” (pp. 247-249).
Dow (1986) conducted field work with don Antonio, an Otomi Indian
shaman in central Mexico, who described his fellow shamans as
warriors who must “firmly declare forever an alliance with
the forces of good, with God, and then fight to uphold those forces”
(p. 8). In addition, shamans must dedicate themselves to ending
suffering, even it if requires them to forego their own comfort
(p. 39).
In Retrospect
Modern social scientists do not accuse shamans of consorting with
demons. These accusations, however, are still being made by some
missionaries (see Hugh-Jones, 1996) as well as by shamans themselves
who may accuse rival shamans of using their powers for malevolent
purposesevil ends (p. 38).
The Charlatan Model
Point
Most writers in Western Europe’s “Enlightenment”
belittled the notion that shamans communed with otherworldly entities,
much less the Devil. Instead, shamans were described as “charlatans,”
“imposters,” and “magicians.” These appellations
undercut the Inquisition’s justification for torturing shamans,
but also kept Western science and philosophy from taking shamanism
seriously.
Flaherty (1992), however, noted that Europe in the 18th century
was not totally preoccupied with rationalism, humanism, and scientific
determinism; manifestations of romanticism and the occult were
present as well (p. 7). An example of this ambiguity appears in
the writings of Denis Diderot (1765/2001), the first writer to
define “shaman” and the chief editor of the Encyclopedie,
one of the key works of the French Enlightenment. In his definition,
Diderot referred to shamans as Siberian “imposters”
who function as magicians performing “tricks that seem supernatural
to an ignorant and superstitious people” (p. 32).
According to Diderot, shamans “lock themselves into steamrooms
to make themselves sweat,” often after drinking a “special
beverage [that they say] is very important to receiving the celestial
impressions.” He remarked that shamans “persuade the
majority of people that they have ecstatic transports, in which
the genies reveal the future and hidden things to them.”
Despite their trickery, Diderot concluded, “The supernatural
occasionally enters into their operations.... They do not always
guess by chance” (pp. 32-37).
The French Jesuit missionary Joseph Lafitau (1724/2001) spent
5 years living among the Iroquois and Hurons in Canada and reported
that the tribe’s people discriminated between those who
communicated with spirits for the good of the community and those
who did the same for harmful purposes. Lafitau argued that the
latter might be in consort with the Devil, but that demonic agencies
played no part in the work of the former, to whom he referred
as “jugglers” or “magicians.” On the other
hand, Lafitau admitted that oftentimes there was something more
to these magicians’ practices than trickery, especially
when shamans exposed “the secret desires of the soul”
(pp. 23-26).
According to Johann Gmelin (1751/2001), an 18th century German
explorer of Siberia, the shamanic ceremonies he observed were
marked by “humbug,” “hocus-pocus,” “conjuring
tricks,” and “infernal racket” (pp. 27-28).
A Russian botanist of the same era, Stepan Krasheninnikov (1755/2001),
reported to the imperial government that the natives of eastern
Siberia harbored beliefs that were “absurd” and “ridiculous.”
Krasheninnikov wrote that shamans are “considered doctors”
and admitted that they were “cleverer, more adroit and shrewder
than the rest of the people.” He described one shaman who
“plunged a knife in his belly” but performed the trick
“so crudely” that “one could see him slide the
knife along his stomach and pretend to stab himself, then squeeze
a bladder to make blood come out” (pp. 49-51).
Counterpoint
Not all Enlightenment scholars were hostile to shamanism; for
example, the German philosopher Johann Herder (1785/2001) noted
that “one thinks that one has explained everything by calling
them imposters.” Herder continued, “In most places,
this is the case,” but “let us never forget that they
belong to the people as well and... were conceived and brought
up with the imaginary representations of their tribe.” Indeed,
“Among all the forces of the human soul, imagination is
perhaps the least explored.” Imagination seems to be “the
knot of the relationships between mind and body” and “relates
to the construction of the entire body, and in particular of the
brain and nerves—as numerous and astonishing illnesses demonstrate”
(pp. 36-37).
There is a small body of parapsychological research conducted
with shamans that suggests that, on irregular occasions, some
practitioners may be capable of demonstrating unusual abilities
(Rogo, 1987; Van de Castle, 1977). These data were collected not
only by means of controlled observations, such as having shamans
locating hidden objects (Boshier, 1974), but also from experimental
procedures such as asking shamans to guess the symbols on standardized
card decks (Rose, 1956) or requesting that they influence randomly
generated electronic activity at a distance (Giesler, 1986).
As for the use of sleight-of-hand, Hansen (2001) has compiled
dozens of examples of shamanic trickery from the anthropological
literature butand adds that deception may promote healing (pp.
89-90). Unusual abilities, if they exist, are likely to be unpredictable;
trickery may accompany their use, as shamans are prototypical
“tricksters,” and, as do some contemporary psychotherapists,
believe that they must often “trick” their clients
into become well (e.g. Warner, 1980).
In Retrospect
Shamans operate on the limens, or borders, of both society and
consciousness, eluding structures and crossing established boundaries
(Hansen, 2001, p. 27). As liminal practitioners, they often employ
deception and sleight-of-hand when they feel that such practices
are needed. Thus, shamans can be both cultural heroes and hoaxsters,
alternating between gallant support of those in distress and crass
manipulation. Like other tricksters, however, they are capable
of reconciling opposites; they justify their adroit maneuvering
and use of legerdemain in the cause of promoting individual and
community health and well-being (pp. 30-31).
The Schizophrenia Model
Point
When mental health professionals first commented on shamanic behavior,
it was customary for them to use psychopathological descriptors.
The French ethnopsychiatrist George Devereux (1961) concluded
that shamans were mentally “deranged” and should be
considered severely neurotic or even psychotic. The American psychiatrist
Julian Silverman (1967) postulated that shamanism is a form of
acute schizophrenia because the two conditions have in common
“grossly non-reality-oriented ideation, abnormal perceptual
experiences, profound emotional upheavals, and bizarre mannerisms”
(p. 22). According to Silverman, the only difference between shamanic
states and contemporary schizophrenia in Western industrialized
societies is “the degree of cultural acceptance of the individual’s
psychological resolution of a life crisis” (p. 23).
Taking a psychohistorical perspective, deMause (2002) proposed
that all tribal people “since the Paleolithic... regularly
felt themselves breaking into fragmented pieces, switching into
dissociated states and going into shamanistic trances to try to
put themselves together” (p. 251). DdeMause added that shamans
were “schizoids” who spent much of their lives in
fantasy worlds where they were starved, burned, beaten, raped,
lacerated, and dismembered, yet were able to recover their bones
and flesh and experience ecstatic rebirth. DdeMause’s account
is reminiscent of the portrayal of shamans as “wounded healers”
who have worked their way “through many painful emotional
trials to find the basis for their calling” (Sandner, 1997,
p. 6) and who have taken an “inner journey... during a life
crisis” (Halifax, 1982, p.5).
Counterpoint
Roger Walsh (2001), an American psychiatrist, provided a penetrating
analysis of shamanic phenomenology in which he concluded that
it is “clearly distinct from schizophrenic... states”
(p. 34), especially on such important dimensions as awareness
of the environment, concentration, control, sense of identity,
arousal, affect, and mental imagery. Critics of the schizophrenia
model claim that shamans have been men and women of great talent;
Basilov’s (1997) case studies of Turkic shamans in Siberia
demonstrate their ability to master a complex vocabulary as well
as extensive knowledge concerning herbs, rituals, healing procedures,
and the purported spirit world. Sandner (1979) described the remarkable
abilities of the Navajo hatalii: to attain their status, they
must memorize at least 10 ceremonial chants, each of which contains
hundreds of individual songs.
Noll (1983) compared verbal reports from both schizophrenics and
shamans with criteria described in the third edition of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. He reported that important
phenomenological differences exist between the two groups and
that the “schizophrenic metaphor” of shamanism is
therefore untenable (p. 455). This assertion is supported by personality
test data; for example, Boyer, Klopfer, Brawer, and Kawai (1964)
administered Rorschach inkblots to 12 male Apache shamans, 52
nonshamans, and 7 “pseudoshamans.” Rorschach analysis
demonstrated that the shamans showed as high a degree of reality
testing potential. The authors concluded, “In their mental
approach, the shamans appear less hysterical than the other groups”
(p. 176). They ““are more mature and creative than
their peers”” (Boyer, 1979, p. 79) and are “healthier
than their societal co-members.... This finding argues against
[the] stand that the shaman is severely neurotic or psychotic,
at least insofar as the Apaches are concerned” (Boyer et
al., 1964, p. 179). and were “healthier than their societal
co-members.... This finding argues against [the] stand that the
shaman is severely neurotic or psychotic, at least insofar as
the Apaches are concerned” (p. 179). Fabrega and Silver’s
(1973) study used a different projective technique with 20 Zinacantecoan
shamans and 23 nonshaman peers in Mexico and found few differences
between the groups, but described the shamans as freer and more
creative.
The first epidemiological survey of psychiatric disorders among
shamans was reported in 2002. A research team associated with
the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization of Amsterdam (Van
Ommeren et al., 2002) surveyed a community of 616 male Bhutanese
refugees in Nepal and assessed International Classification of
Disease disorders using structured diagnostic interviews. Of the
refugees, 42 claimed to be shamans; after controlling for demographic
differences, their general profile of disorders did not significantly
differ from that of the nonshamans. Indeed, shamans had fewer
of the general anxiety disorders that afflicted nonshamans.
Wilson and Barber (1981) identified fantasy-prone personalities
among their hypnotic subjects. This group wais highly imaginative
but, for the most part, neither neurotic nor psychotic (Van Ommeren
et al., 2002). It is likely that many shamans would fall within
this category, as the shaman’s visions and fantasies are
thought to represent activities in the spirit world (Noel, 1999;
Noll, 1985). Ripinsky-Naxon (1993) concluded, “The world
of... a mentally dysfunctional individual is disintegrated. On
the other hand, just the opposite may be said about a shaman”
(p. 104). Along these lines, Frank and Frank (1991) traced the
roots of psychotherapy back to shamanism, and Torrey (1986) asserteds
that the “cure” rate of shamans and other indigenous
practitioners compares favorably with that of Western psychologists
and psychiatrists.
In Retrospect
Contemporary social scientists rarely pathologize shamans, and
when they describe them as “wounded healers” and “fantasy-prone,”
these attributions are often combined with admiration, respect,
or indifference. Of course, the variety of shamanic selection
procedures undercuts these generalizations, especially when shamanism
is hereditary and a novice assumes the role even without having
experienced a “wounding” illness. A far greater commonality
among shamanic practitioners is the attentionconsideration they
give to resolving the psychological problems and challenges faced
by individuals, families, and communities within their purview.
The Soul Flight Model
Point
The Romanian-American religion historian Mircea Eliade (1951/1972)
integrated the many tribal variations of shamanism into a unified
concept, referring to them as “technicians of ecstasy.”
According to Eliade, “The shaman specializes in a trance
during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascent
ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld” (p. 5).
For Mmany other writers agree, stating thats, altered states of
consciousness (ASCs) are the sine qua non of shamanism, particularly
those involving ecstatic journeying, (i.e., soul flight or out-of-body
experience). Heinze (1991) wrote, “Only those individuals
can be called shamans who can access alternative states of consciousness
at will” (p. 13). Ripinsky-Naxon (1993) added, “Clearly,
the shaman’s technique of ecstasy is the main component
in the shamanic state of consciousness” (p. 86).
Proponents of the soul flight/ecstatic journeying model point
to the close association between rhythmic percussion (and other
forms of perceptual flooding), journeying, and healing. Neher’s
(1961) investigations demonstrated that drumming could induce
theta wave EEG frequency. Maxfield (1994) built on and extended
Neher’s work and found that theta brain waves were synchronized
with monotonous drumbeats of 3– - 6 cycles per second, a
rhythm associated with many shamanic rituals. Harner and Tyron
(1996) studied students of shamanism during drumming sessions
and observed trends toward enhanced positive mood states and an
increase in positive immune response. Bittman et al. (2001) also
reported that rhythmic drumming had a salubrious effect upon immune
systems.
The term “shamanic state of consciousness” (Harner,
1980) infers that there is a single state that characterizes shamans,
even though it can be induced in several different ways. Winkelman’s
(1992) cross-cultural survey of 47 societies yielded data that
demonstrate that at least one type of practitioner in each populace
engaged in ASC induction by one or many vehicles. For Winkelman
(2000), each vehicle to the ASC resulted in an “integrative
mode” of consciousness. This mode reflects slow wave discharges,
producing strongly coherent brainwave patterns that synchronize
the frontal areas of the brain, integrating nonverbal information
into the frontal cortex, and producing visionary experiences and
“insight”.
Counterpoint
According to its critics, the soul flight model ignores the diversity
of shamanic ASCs as well as activity that does not seem to involve
dramatic shifts in consciousness. Peters and Price-Williams (1980)
compared 42 societies from 4 different cultural areas and identified
three common elements in shamanic ASCs: voluntary control of the
ASC, post-ASC memory of the experience, and the ability to communicate
with others during the ASC. Peters and Price-Williams also reported
that shamans in 18 out of the 42 societies they surveyed specialized
in spirit incorporation: 10 were engaged in out-of-body journeying,
11 in both procedures, and 3 in some different ASC. In other words,
there are several “shamanic states of consciousness,”
and not all of them employ ecstatic soul flight (Walsh, 1990,
p. 214). Eliade’s statements are further constricted by
his emphasis on flights to the “”upperworld””
rather than to the “”underworld,”” which
is of equal importance (Noel, 1999, p. 35).
The soul flight model also has been criticized by those who deny
that profound alterations of consciousness are the defining characteristic
of shamanismThose who deny that profound alterations of consciousness
are the defining characteristic of shamanism also have criticized
the soul flight model. Some shamanic traditions do not use terms
that easily translate into “alterations” of consciousness.
Navaho shamans exhibit prodigious feats of memory in recounting
cultural myths, and use sand paintings, drums, and dances in the
process, but insist “they need no special trance or ecstatic
vision... only the desire and the patience to learn the vast amount
of symbolic material” (Sandner, 1979, p. 242).
Berman (2000) suggests that the term heightened awareness more
accurately captures shamanic behavior than altered states because
shamans describe their intense experience of the natural world
in such terms as “things often seem to blaze” (p.
30). Shweder (1972) administered a number of perceptual tests
to a group of Zinacanteco Zinacateco shamans and nonshamans, asking
them, for example, to identify a series of blurred, out-of-focus
photographs. Nonshamans were more likely than shamans to respond,
“I don’t know.” Shamans were prone to describe
the photographs, even when the pictures were completely blurred.
When the examiner offered suggestions as to what the image might
be, the shamans were more likely than the nonshamans to ignore
the suggestion and give their own interpretation.
Paradoxically, shamans are characterized both by an acute perception
of their environment and by imaginative fantasy. These traits
include the potential for pretending and role-playing and the
capacity to experience the natural world vividly. During times
of social stress, these traits may have given prehistoric shamans
an edge over peers who had simply embraced life as it presented
itself, without the filters of myth or ritual (Shweder, 1972,
p. 81).
In Retrospect
When looking for a common hallmark of shamanic practice, itIt
may be more appropriate to speak of shamanic modification of attentional
states rather than of a single shamanic state of consciousness
(such as soul flight) as a common hallmark of shamanic practice.
Attention determines what enters someone’’s awareness.
When attention is selective, there is an aroused internal state
that makes some stimuli more relevant than are others are, thus
more likely to attract one’’s attention.
The suppression of seances, spirit dances, and drumming rituals
by colonial governments and missionaries led to the decline of
altered states induction in some parts of the world (e.g., Hugh-Jones,
1996, p. 70; Taussig, 1987, pp. 93-104). MorHence, more basic
to e basic to shamansism than “”altered states of
consciousness”” may be the unique attention that they
givea tounique perception of the relations between human beings,
their own bodies, and the natural world and theire shamans’
willingness to share the resultingis knowledge with others (Perrin,
1992, pp. 122-123.). The suppression of seances, spirit dances,
and drumming rituals by colonial governments and missionaries
led to the decline of induction procedures in some parts of the
world (e.g., Hugh-Jones, 1996, p. 70; Taussig, 1987, pp. 93-104).
The function of these procedures has been to shift the shaman’’s
attention to internal processes or external perceptions that could
be used for the benefit of the community and its members. Outsiders’’
bans on these technologies diminished the social role played by
shamans, and increased tribal dependence upon the colonial administrators.
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