Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Manvir Singh
The commentators endorse the conceptual and ethnographic synthesis presented in the target article, suggest extensions and elaborations of the theory, and generalize its logic to explain apparently similar specializations. They also demand clarity about psychological mechanisms, argue against conclusions drawn about empirical phenomena, and propose alternative accounts for why shamanism...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Etzel Cardeña, Stanley Krippner
The target article's use of core concepts is confused and excessively broad. Two main types of experiences have been described in relation to shamanism: magical flight and mediumship/possession. The first refers to visual and remembered experiences of events in other realms, the second to embodied experiences of ceding mental control and personality to a preternatural entity. These experiences...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
Singh places the understanding of shamanism within the cognitive/evolutionary psychology of religion but is then sidetracked by presenting unhelpful analogies. The concepts of "superstition" as a general term for religious rituals and of "superstitious learning" as a mechanism accounting for the creation of rituals in humans reflect an underestimation of the human imagination, which is guided...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Nicolas Baumard
I applaud Singh's proposition to use evolutionary psychology to explain the recurrence of shamanistic beliefs. Here, I suggest that evolutionary mechanisms (i.e., life history theory) also can explain the variability of the distribution of shamanism. When resources are abundant, individuals become more patient and more open minded to the point that science becomes cognitively attractive and may...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Stefan Linquist
The proposed explanation for the evolution of shamanism is not the only viable option. I sketch an alternative commitment hypothesis that views shamanism as an adaptation at the level of biological individuals or cultural groups. To the extent that these hypotheses make overlapping predictions about the culturally shared features of shamanism, we lack adequate evidence to discriminate among them.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
January 2018
Robert M Ross, Ryan Mckay
Singh's cultural evolutionary theory of shamanism is impressive, but it does not explain why some people become shamans while others do not. We propose that individual differences in where people lie on a "psychosis continuum" could play an important causal role.
Advances in Anthropology
2018
H. Tributsch
9 citations
Since palaeolithic times, shamans involved animal depictions in cave ceremonies and adopted animals as helping spirits during their trance journeys. This study aims at explaining the rituals with new evidence: the shamans were acting rationally to deal with an inverted otherworld, still rooted in many traditional beliefs, and seen as an impressive natural phenomenon in superior mirages. After...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2018
Aaron D Blackwell, Benjamin Grant Purzycki
Shamans can have efficacy at healing through botanical remedies and in observational and advisory functions through cognitive strengths, while shamanic acts of strangeness are likely honest signals of these qualities. Given this potential for shamanic practices to have true efficacy and the capacity for honest signaling, we expect efficacy will influence the spread, persistence, and loss of...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2018
Michael James Winkelman
Singh conflates diverse religious statuses into a single category that includes practitioners with roles that differ significantly from empirical characteristics of shamans. The rejection of biological models of trance and conspicuous display models misses the evolutionary roots of shamanism involving the social functions of ritual in producing psychological and social integration and ritual...
Psychosocial Interventions for Health and Well-Being
2018
Shubha Ranganathan
This chapter undertakes an exhaustive review of the vast literature on indigenous healing within anthropology and psychology. Although the topic of ritual healing has been popular within anthropology, in more recent times, it has also drawn the interest of scholars in psychology and related fields. Much of the early research on indigenous healing or ritual healing focussed on the practices of...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2018
Rachel E. Watson-Jones, Cristine H. Legare
7 citations
Cultural evolutionary accounts of shamanism must explain the cross-cultural recurrence and variation in associated practices. We suggest that Singh's account of shamanism would be strengthened by considering the social functions of shamanism in groups. Shamanism increases social group cohesion, making it distinct from other magico-religious practices.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2018
Connor P. Wood, Kate J. Stockly
5 citations
Singh deploys cultural evolution to explain recurrent features of shamanistic trance forms, but fails to substantively address important distinctions between these forms. Possession trance (vs. trance without possession) is disproportionately female-dominated and found in complex societies. The effects of cultural conditions on shamanism thus extend beyond its presence or absence and are vital...
Great plains quarterly
2018
Stacy B. Schaefer, Professor Emerita
Reviewed by: A Culture's Catalyst: Historical Encounters with Peyote and the Native American Church in Canada by Fannie Kahan Stacy B. Schaefer and Professor Emerita A Culture's Catalyst: Historical Encounters with Peyote and the Native American Church in Canada. By Fannie Kahan. Edited and with an introduction by Erika Dyck. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2016. vi + 126 pp....