What has really been learned about shamanism?
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 1989 DOI: 10.1080/02791072.1989.10472142 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Citations | 11 |
| Key points | Argues that anthropological investigations of shamanism have followed prescriptive problems inherited from psychology, and that a resolution of these problems is lacking due to insufficient data. |
Abstract
Within anthropology, investigations of shamans and their altered states of consciousness have followed some of the prescriptive problems inherited from the discipline of psychology, coloring the assumptions and perspectives of students of shamanism. These inherited problems include the following: conscious/volitional versus unconscious/involuntary mentalisms; contentual objectivism versus contentual subjectivism; environmentalism versus nativism; monopsychism versus polypsychism; mechanism versus vitalism; and quantitativism versus qualitativism. Although the polemics of anthropological studies of shamanism have reflected these prescriptive perspectives, this has not inhibited the acquisition of new knowledge about shamanism. Nonetheless, a resolution of these problems is lacking due to insufficient data.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Shamanism and Altered States of Consciousness Anthropology of Consciousness June 1, 1994
- A philosophical inquiry to include trance in epistemology. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 1989
- From “mind–matter” duality to “body–situation” mechanism —the phenomenology of the body on how shaman soul retrieval heals the sick Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine October 6, 2025
- Becoming a Shaman: Narratives of Apprenticeship and Initiation in Contemporary Shamanism Religions July 17, 2020