Shamans in Society and History
Caroline Humphrey, Urgunge Onon
March 28, 1996 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198279419.003.0007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that shamanic practice, rather than a fixed cosmology, creates its own social relations through an intertwined cast of ritual roles, and that this helps explain Urgunge Onon's claim that shamanism was about power while Daur public life was without conflict. |
Abstract
Abstract In the great ritual just described, shamans danced between the home trees, with their images of ancestral disasters, and the outer tree, bearing its spirits of double-edged fortune and maleficent void. Nothing in this shamanic universe was a single indivisible unit, and nothing was simple or devoid of threat. Such a universe arose, I suggest, from the shaman’s real-life practice, which was deeply implicated in the psychology of a knot of relationships. Although the individuals calling on the shaman’s services were different on each occasion, the shaman’s performance involved a necessary cast of intertwined roles. One can go further and say that shamans’ practice created its own social relations. Elucidating this can help us understand one of Urgunge’s most puzzling statements, his insistence that shamanism was about power, but Daur public life was without conflict.