Rejection of 19th century anthropologists' beliefs

In the years between the first anthropologists' discovery of Evenk shamans and the wildfire spread of the word shaman in the United States, anthropological thought changed greatly. Today, many anthropologists consider 19th century anthropologists' ideas about human evolution to be backward, offensive, and even dangerous; Many people blame the kinds of ideas promoted by early anthropologists for the rise of Social Darwinism and eugenics.

(Also loosely based on Darwin's theory of evolution, eugenics centers around the belief that the human race can be improved or perfected by only allowing the people with the most desirable traits to reproduce. It is associated with horrifying crimes like genocide, for example the extermination of Jewish people during WWII, and the forced sterilization of people with mental and physical disabilities or other traits considered undesirable by a dominant group.)

Thus, when it comes to discussing modern peoples, today words like "primitive" and "advanced" are practically taboo among many anthropologists. Many modern anthropologists embrace the ideas that all cultures should be treated with equal respect and that no culture should be put on a pedestal and used as a model for human progress.

A new take on an old definition

Never-the-less, the 19th century definition of shaman has, in a way, stuck around; Today many anthropologists still use the word to talk about religious practitioners from some of the same groups of people which the first anthropologists originally labeled as "primitive" cultures.

Why? Well, as it turns out, there are some uncanny similarities in the beliefs, practices, supernatural experiences, and cultural associations of many of the religious specialists whom early anthropologists originally labeled shamans. Some of these similarities are; belief in multiple souls and that souls are not strictly tied to our bodies; belief in spirits and spirit worlds that exist parallel to our own that, though ordinarily invisible to humans, constantly affect their lives; the practice of trance and soul flight; the use of helper spirits; initiation into shamanism through illness and visions of dismemberment; an association with hunting and healing; and depictions of shamans in artwork as skeletons.

Thus, 21st century anthropologists have not stuck with the 19th century definition of shaman so much as they have used these similarities to develop new definitions for the word. For example, some anthropologists separate shamans from other similar religious practitioners based on whether or not they practice controlled trance or experience soul flight. Others describe shamanism more as a state of mind: a constant awareness of the complex and intricate connections between ordinary reality (i.e. our human world) and the non-ordinary realities of the spirit worlds.

These types of definitions tend to include religious practitioners from many of the same groups of people from Siberia, Northern Europe, the Himalayas, Australia, and North America that 19th century anthropologists originally labeled as "primitive" shamanic cultures. However, they also tend to include practitioners from many other cultures who were not originally labeled shamans; the beliefs, practices, experiences, and associations mentioned above also appear in cultures from Africa, East and Central Asia, and South America. Thus, some modern anthropologists are expanding the definition of shaman to include even more types non-Evenk religious specialists. By their definitions, shamanism appears to be a world-wide phenomenon!

Other modern anthropologists, however, are working to narrow the definition of shaman back to its original Evenk meaning. Citing the history of the word's spread in Europe and America as proof (see prerequisite links), they criticize modern English and anthropological definitions of the word as inherently offensive and biased, arguing that only Evenk specialists, from whom the word was originally borrowed--or, they might say, stolen--should be called shamans.

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.

Walsh, Roger, and Charles S. Grob. "My Path in Shamanism: Interview with Michael Harner." Shamanism.org. Foundation for Shamanic Studies Founded by Michael Harner, 2005. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://www.shamanism.org/articles/article16page2.html

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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 May 2, 2012 12:25 pm -0500.