Shamanism and Religious Specialists

● The term “specialist” depends on religion/ culture/ context: unique individuals with particular skills in ritual/ religion that comes through training/ apprenticeship or inherent powers ○ Can be charismatic or outcasts ● Shaman: shamanism originally used to refer to religions of Siberia and Mongolia- from Evenk language (hunters/ reindeer herders of Siberian forests) ○ Ritual specialists in Siberia were called “shamans” by outsiders because the religion as a whole was labelled “shamanism”, but in local dialects there are distinct terms for different kinds of specialists ● Mircea Eliade: spent career studying religions, developed classifications in religious studies still used in anthropology/ philosophy/ history ○ Especially interested in commonalities across religions ○ Identified shamanism as an ancient form of religion and human universal ○ Published work on shamanism outlines the many roles/ practices/ characteristics of shamans ● Spirits and souls within the shamanic worldview: everything (animals, plants, rocks, wind, rain) imbued with spirits/ essence/ consciousness (spirits can sometimes deliberately act upon humans and cause events in life) ○ Shamanic worldview often includes sense of unity: all are distinct spirits but intimately connected ○ Early anthropologists labeled beliefs as “animism”- everything is animated/ alive ● Healer: illness tied to health of soul/ spirit, odd behavior can be attributed to possession by spirits ○ Shaman/ ritual specialist uses variety of means to heal patients: herbs, power objects, smoke, heat, incantations, prayers ○ Some communities today consult ritual healers along with medical doctors, or some ritual specialists combine tradition and modern medicine ● As a specialist with the gift to communicate with spirits- shamans and ritual specialists are often consulted/ directly involved in subsistence activities ○ Among hunting groups: negotiate with animal spirits to ensure successful hunt, take on spirit of animal to track them for hunting ○ Among agricultural groups: south/ southeast asia, women are particularly shamans, and in S Korea only women are shamans/ men dressed as women ● Ritual specialists: individual with the ability to access realm of spirits/ souls ○ Becoming a shaman varies cross-culturally: can include traumatic event (near death experience), for some groups you’re born with the gift and it is taken as a sign, some individuals are initiated through a series of intense trials/ visions ○ Two spirit/ berdache: male body with female characteristics, spiritually powerful because they could access spirits of men and women- widely shared tradition among western American indigenous people ● Power objects: spirits are often free flowing and can move between worlds/ material mediums ○ Ritual specialists often use objects/ plants/ animals to aid in their work ■ Kiktuk: power object of Inuit shaman, spirits enter effigy that can be used to cure, to kill enemy ● Costumes: ornaments/ masks, special dress to transform a ritual specialist into a particular spirit- often done to use spirit abilities to carry out a particular task ○ Different from possession as the shaman has control of the spirit ● Analyzing ancient shamanism: archaeologists often use information from contemporary societies/ historically recorded observations of shamanic cultures for comparison in practices and as well as objects/ costumes left by ancient cultures ○ Evidence of ancient use of hallucinogens through chemical residue analyses and paleoethnobotanical studies ○ Some ancient rock/ cave paintings attributed to shamanic trances/ evidence of ancient shamanism ● General types of religious specialists: ○ Shamans: male/ female, part time ritual specialists, often enter trance to interact with spirits ○ Healers: may retain use of trance, work focuses specifically on healing ○ Sorcerers/ witches: individuals that use magic to cause negative effects/ harm to others ○ Mediums: tend to be female, part time practitioners, can be possessed by spirit, used as intermediary between community and spirits ○ Priests: generally full time practitioners, in large societies, may obtain office through inheritance or political appointment ● Priests/ priestess: oversee temple/ church, communal religious space, typically concerned with high-level deities ○ Do not make direct contact with deities via trance- have detached relationship with supernatural ○ May undergo extended period of training ● Kogi priests of Columbia: Kogi are cultural group indigenous to Columbia, fled to area of Santa Marta to escape Spaniards over 500 years ago, small tribe of multiple small villages housing around 6,000 people ○ Horticultural subsistence/ few domestic animals: pigs, chickens, and often move between high/ low altitudes to grow crops ○ Anthropologist Gerardi Reichel-Dolmatoff working in 1940s-80s ■ Archaeologist/ anthropologist conducted excavations/ethnographyconsidered one of the foremost scholars of Columbian prehistory and contemporary peoples ■ One of the first to work directly with the Kogi in the highlands ■ Wrote extensively about shamanism in the Amazon and the priesthood of the Kogi in the highlands ○ Each village has a central temple overseen by the priesthood (known as mamas), women and children not allowed access to temple ■ Major deity is Mother-Goddess and four children (four cardinal directions) ■ Priest duties include overseeing annual/ biannual ceremonies, receiving individual confessions ■ Training for priesthood: extended period of training, young novices spend most of their time inside the ceremonial house, not exposed to sunlight/ moonlight, all activities done at night, abstinence (food, drink, sex, sleep), strict diet/ rules around eating, simple dress of white cotton woven by priests ■ Education includes: cosmology (organization/ nature of cosmos), myths (origins of Kogi/ Tairona), sciences, learning and memorizing Kogi genealogy and history, ritual dances, singing, linguistics (ceremonial language), interpreting dreams and animal behavior, diagnosing and healing the sick ■ “Aluna”: priests strive to achieve this inner reality which is the ability to see alternative relaties to reveal “chains of connections”- mamas practice through trance (physical trials, abstention, hallucinogenic mushrooms)aspect blurs the line between shamanism and priesthood ○ Kogi consider themselves as “elder brothers” of mankind, protectors of mountainous region they occupied for centuries- for the last decade have witnessed dramatic changes to mountain home, repeatedly made contact with govt. officials and media to bring awareness to environmental issues