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Summary: This module includes a short article (1 1/2 pgs) and suggested lesson plan on the dispute among anthropologists surrounding the definition and uses of the word 'shaman.' I think that it would be most appropriate for a high school social studies class, or, of course, for anyone who is just curious about the subject.
If voodoo or Santeria have ever sparked your curiosity, or if you have ever read up on the tribes of the Amazon, Native American or Central Asian religion, or if you simply enjoy reading fantasy and other fiction novels, at some point in your academic travels you might have come across the word "shaman." It might have given you pause; It is after all a pretty unusual word. You might have wondered how to pronounce it or what it meant and looked it up in the dictionary. But did you ever stop and wonder where it came from?
As it turns out, the story of how this word traveled all the way from the frozen Siberian tundra to the ivory towers of Europe and eventually worked its way into American pop culture is not only fascinating, it can also teach us a lot about how our knowledge of other cultures and historical fact is shaped by the way that we think about ourselves. The meaning of shaman goes deeper than the dictionary might suggest.
The word began its journey around the world when it was picked up by European scholars studying Siberian nomads in the late 19th century. At this time, anthropology (the study of human culture) was just beginning to blossom as a respected new field of social science. Several eminent anthropologists from this era believed that they could use this new science to break down human behavior into universal laws that were as steadfast as the laws of physics and chemistry; They aimed to create a sort of periodic table of basic human behaviors similar to the periodic table of the elements in chemistry.
It was a compelling idea, but unfortunately it came wrapped up in a good deal of prejudice. A key part of these early anthropologists' philosophy was the assumption that human civilization progresses through stages, starting with "primitive" nomadic hunter-gatherer societies and progressing to "complex" societies that build huge cities and practice intensive agriculture and trade. In particular, they believed that many peoples indigenous to Siberia, Lapland, the Himalayas, Australia, and the Americas who did not use plows for planting crops were less evolved and less civilized than European peoples.
This story of the progression of civilization from primitive to advanced may sound familiar to you. I would argue that it still makes an appearance in one form or another in many modern history textbooks, although it is couched in more politically correct terms (i.e. offensive words like "primitive" are avoided when talking about people living today). However, I must take a moment to protest against it. Many modern anthropologists will point out first, that these "less advanced" peoples are often infinitely better equipped both technologically and socially to thrive in their environments than people from the cultures that study them, and second, that the idea that their societies have remained unchanged for thousands of years and are identical to ancient societies is based on little to no hard evidence.
More importantly, though, I believe that this kind of story, no matter how politically correct the telling, lends itself to the belief that there is only one "right" way of living or being, that others are backwards and primitive and contribute no valuable knowledge or skills humankind. Pushed to extremes, this kind of thinking has been used time and again as justification for war, colonialism, and genocide. In more everyday circumstances, it simply causes needless pain and anxiety particularly among minority cultures who are pressured to conform to "modern" lifestyles.
Thus, I prefer a story of human societies constantly shifting, changing, building up, breaking down, condensing, scattering, and overlapping to change or even absorb one another as their members strive to find ways to prosper in their natural environments. Ultimately, the forces of nature and history cause societies to grow in different directions, but putting one society above another is like comparing apples and guavas: It's easy to have a preference either for the one that you are used to or for the one that is more exciting and exotic to you, but nonsense to argue that one is objectively better than the other.
For better or for worse, the story of the progression of human societies from primitive to advanced was critical for the anthropologists who would bring the word shaman to the English language. They were fascinated by the peoples that they believed to be primitive; Since they saw them as simpler and less evolved than Europeans, these peoples made a useful tool for breaking down complex human behavior into basic universal elements.
By way of example, I have included the following quote from anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor's book Primitive culture: researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, art, and custom which was published in 1874. In this book, Tylor wished to prove that culture progresses through stages (from primitive to civilized) which are comparable in peoples across millions of miles and millions of years (Tylor 1877, 7).
<quote type='block'>To general likeness in human nature on the one hand, and to general likeness in the circumstances of life on the other, [the] similarity and consistency [of mankind across the world] may no doubt be traced, and they may be studied with especial fitness in comparing the races near the same grade of civilization. Little respect need be had in such comparisons for date in history or for place on the map; the ancient Swiss lake-dweller may be set beside the mediaeval Aztec, and the Ojibwa of North America beside the Zulu of South Africa. As Dr. Johnson contemptuously said when he had read about Patagonians and South Sea Islanders in Hawkesworth's Voyages, 'one set of savages is like another.' How true a generalization this is, any Ethnological Museum may show (Tylor 1877, 6)... By comparing the various stages of civilization among races known to history, with the aid of archaeological inference from the remains of prehistoric tribes, it seems possible to judge in a rough way of an early general condition of man, which from our point of view is to be regarded as a primitive condition, whatever yet earlier state may in reality have lain behind it. This hypothetical primitive condition corresponds in a considerable degree to that of modern savage tribes, who, in spite of their difference and distance, have in common certain elements of civilization, which seem remains of an earlier state of the human race at large (Tylor 1877, 21).</quote>
The word shaman originally comes from the Evenk people of Siberia, a small group of indigenous Siberians who depend largely on reindeer herding for their livelihood. Whereas in English it is usually pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable--shaw-man or shay-man, in the language of the Evenk, Tungus, it is pronounced with long a's and stress on the second syllable—shaw-man . Among the Evenk, the word means a religious specialist, male or female, who serves his or her community by calling upon helper spirits using hand-held drums.
Some of the early anthropologists discussed above saw the Evenk, who were at that time an isolated nomadic people who made their livelihood through hunting and herding as opposed to European-style farming, as a perfect example of a "primitive" modern-day culture. Following this logic, they concluded that Evenk shamans represented the oldest and most primitive element of human religion. This was the step that would catapult the word shaman across the globe.
These European scholars transformed the word from a title for a tiny and remote group of Siberian religious practitioners into a category that included a wide range of "primitive" religions from nomadic hunting and gathering cultures around the globe. They began to call religious practitioners all over the world, from Siberia, to Australia, Lapland, the Himalayas, and the Americas, by the Evenk word shaman.
For some reason, even as anthropological thought changed and many of the first anthropologists' ideas became obsolete and politically incorrect, the category stuck. Many anthropologists today still use the word to talk about many religious practitioners from the same groups of people.
From Europe, the word worked its way onto the bookshelves of university libraries in the United States. In the second half of the 20th century, some American religious practitioners claiming to have studied under Native American teachers (most notably Carlos Castaneda and Lynn Andrews) made the word more mainstream by producing popular books, workshops, and classes on practicing shamanism in the modern age. Today, the word is used in English almost interchangeably with terms like 'medicine man,' 'witch doctor,' and 'sorcerer,' or to refer to any person who is in some type of contact with spirits, but is also often associated with charlatans and trickery.
However, some modern anthropologists have begun a campaign to take back the word for the Evenk. They argue that only Evenk shamans, from whom the word was originally borrowed--or, some would say, stolen--should be called shamans, criticizing modern English definitions of the word as having a Eurocentric bias, that is being based on a view of the world that places European thought and European people on a pedestal.
Thus there are presently a number of English definitions of the word, and anthropologists still disagree about how and when "shaman" should be used.
One of the major factors that leads to the disagreement is that, while nearly all modern anthropologists would probably agree that the original anthropological definition of "shaman" is based on outdated and biased ideas, it turns out that in a slightly modified form it still works very well as a category for a certain type of religious practitioner. There are in fact some almost unbelievable similarities between many of the religious specialists all over the world who early anthropologists labeled shamans.
Some modern anthropologists have used these similarities to develop new definitions for the word shaman. For example, some anthropologists separate shamans from other religious practitioners based on whether or not they practice trance. Religious practitioners from many of the cultures mentioned above, including the Evenk, enter trances in which they communicate with spirits. In many cases they believe in what anthropologists often call soul flight, that is that during these trances his or her soul actually leaves their body and enters an alternate universe inhabited by spirits. A definition of shaman based on trance and soul flight sets shamans apart from people who are possessed or controlled by spirits or who communicate with spirits using other means, but does not limit the word to Evenk religious specialists.
Wherever you stand on the issue, you will find a plethora of academic writing arguing both for and against your view. Thus, before you even begin to look deeper into the fascinating world of shamanism (if you choose to do so), you must first take a long and critical look at the word shaman itself and decide for yourself what you think it should mean. But that's what makes the subject such an interesting one... Right?
Sources:
Kehoe, Alice Beck. Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical Thinking. Illinois: Waveland Press, 2000.
Vitebsky, Piers. Shamanism. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
Vitebsky, Piers. The Reindeer People: Living with animals and spirits in Siberia. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
Do you have any suggestions or constructive criticisms related to any of my articles or lesson plans? I am an aspiring social studies teacher and hope to someday teach lessons on subjects like shamanism with an anthropological twist. I would absolutely love to get some feedback. Please e-mail me, Peggy, at peggy.llyn@gmail.com.
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This work is licensed by Margaret Jones under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
Last edited by Margaret Jones on Jan 31, 2012 12:44 pm -0600.
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