Does Shamanism Have a History? With Attention to Early Chinese Shamanism
Thomas Michael
Numen September 28, 2017 DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341477 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key points | Argues that existing approaches to constructing a history of shamanism are insufficient and proposes a third way between the alternatives offered by Eliade and Hamayon. |
Abstract
Abstract The article examines various options that scholars have explored in their efforts to construct a history of shamanism. Recognizing Eliade’s promise that such a history lies in the near future, the article then explores the important ways in which this has been undertaken. It specifies four such ways: with prehistoric rock art, the origins of cultural myths, memory studies, and movements of cultural resistance. Ultimately resisting each of these four options while paying particular attention to the case of early Chinese shamanism, its concluding sections recognize the work of Mircea Eliade and Roberte Hamayon as providing two alternative pathways that might lead into possible constructions of this history, and it then attempts to locate a third way between them.
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
- Scoping review on shamanistic trances practices. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies November 4, 2024
- Deconstruction of the Trance Model: Historical, Ethnographic, and Contextual Studies of Manchu Shamanism Religions April 4, 2023
- The Changes of Chinese Oroqen Shaman Culture in the Context of Social Transformation Religions July 3, 2023
- Potential identification of an entheogenic plant species on the Chu Silk Manuscript Time and Mind January 2, 2021