Shamans and Shamanism, Past and Present

In an age sceptical, even suspicious, of formal religion, the shaman has come forward to fill a spiritual void. Yet in anthropology, shamans and shamanism are controversial. Some believe that shamans and their visions were instrumental in the development of modern human consciousness and culture tens of thousands of years ago. Others argue that shamanism is a new age vogue ('neo-shamanism') of limited value in understanding religion and spirituality.

Siberian shamans and global shamanism

The term 'shaman' refers to the medicine people of the Tungus, a Siberian hunter-gatherer people whose rituals were described three centuries ago. In healing rituals Tungus shamans, helped by the beating of drums, entered altered states of consciousness. In trance s/he could visit the spirit world, aided by animal spirit guides.

Shamanism has since become identified by some as a specific type of religion practised world-wide, a notion popularised by the historian of religion (and some say armchair anthropologist) Mircea Eliade. More recently, it has been proposed that shamanism is characteristic of hunter-gatherer and early human societies. J.D. Lewis-Williams and colleagues believe that early 'seers' activated a nascent human capacity to make art and use symbols.

Shamanic arts

The idea that European cave art was made by shamans has been revived by Lewis-Williams and colleagues working on South African prehistoric rock art. Employing a neurological model, they argued that forms in San rock art corresponded to those seen in trance states, and by migraine sufferers. This hypothesis has since also been applied to European Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic art. Accepted as scientific evidence by some, it is also vigorously disputed.

Abuse of a concept?

Critics of shamanistic explanations charge that it is a false and anthropologically unsound category. Anthropologist Alice Kehoe argues that the supposedly defining features of shamanism (such as trance states, drumming, and travel in the spirit world) are features of many religions (including Christianity), and societies (not just hunter-gatherers). Kehoe also criticises the implicit idea that shamanism is a 'primitive religion' characteristic of an early evolutionary stage, and rejects the notion that it could have survived many millennia in anything like its original form.

Roberte Hamayon suggests that the shaman's popularity today relates to contemporary interest in the individual personality. In contrast, in healing in traditional societies personality is played down, with emphasis laid on group participation.

Art historians have been unconvinced by the idea that rock art derives from shamanic visions, arguing that the 'hallucinatory forms' such as curved shapes, lattices and dots are common pictorial elements. Even though some traditional societies are known to depict trance visions, this is weak support for the idea that shamans were the first artists. Neuropsychologists have criticised the neurological model of ancient art-making as simplistic. Helvenston notes that there are numerous types of trance, very few of which produce visual hallucinations.

Though attention to shamans has directed attention to the role of neurophysiology in the evolution of art and human-ness, it downplays human creativity and remains controversial. Shamanism seems too general a concept to be useful for understanding the complexities of religious thought.

Sources:

Roberte Hamayon. 2001. 'Shamanism: symbolic system, human capability and western ideology'. In: The concept of shamanism: uses and abuses, edited by H.P. Francfort and R.N. Hamayon, in collaboration with P.G. Bahn, pgs. 1-27. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
Patricia Helvenston and Paul Bahn. 2002. Desperately seeking trance plants: testing the "three stages of trance" model. New York: R. J. Communications.
Alice Kehoe. 2000. Shamans and religion: an anthropological exploration in critical thinking. Illinois: Waveland Press.
J. D. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce. 2004. San spirituality: roots, expressions, and social consequences. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.