Blood, beasts, ecstasy: the bodily codes of shamanism in the system of archaic biopolitics
Elena Alekseevna Okladnikova, Alexander Mikhailovich Prilutskii
Manuscript July 7, 2026 DOI: 10.30853/mns20260152 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | MDMA Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that shamanism functioned as an effective technology for direct bodily regulation of social and environmental processes, with a triad of codes—'blood', 'beast', and 'ecstasy'—operating as a unified mechanism. Proposes that rock art served as a visual tool for population management, anticipating modern biopolitics. |
Abstract
The aim of the work is to rethink the sacred functions of shamans with an emphasis on the social functions that shamans/ritualists performed in primitive and then traditional societies, and not only on the mystical content of early forms of religious ideas described by ethnologists and art historians. The article implements a theoretical transfer of the postulates of biopolitics (M. Foucault, G. Agamben) from the chronological context of the Modern Age to the archaic pre-state era, which has expanded the ontological boundaries of the concept itself; a rethinking of rock art monuments: they are considered not as mythological illustrations or aesthetic objects, but as visual evidence of the biopolitical governance of ancient societies; for the first time, a stable triad of bodily codes of archaic biopolitics (“blood”, “beast”, “ecstasy”), functioning as the core of the technology of zoē (“naked life”) governance, is identified and systematized. The article demonstrates that shamanism was not an early form of religion, but an effective technology for the direct bodily regulation of social and environmental processes under conditions of constant uncertainty. It is established that a triad of codes functioned as a single operational mechanism: “blood” ensured the redistribution of vital force and the semiotic marking of transitions; “beast” (zoomorphic transformation) served as an interface for accessing natural resources and diagnosing hidden threats; “ecstasy” acted as a technology for expanding perception, neurophysiological synchronization, and the socio-psychological harmonization of the collective. It is demonstrated that shamanic biopolitics fundamentally differs from sacrificial and ancestral cults in its decentralization, functional (rather than status-based) legitimacy, and focus on the direct modulation of life flows. Rock art is reimagined as a visual tool for population management, anticipating the institutional forms of biopolitics of the Modern Era.
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 |