This study explores the practice of shamanism from traditional healing practices to contemporary interpretations in Khandacakra Municipality of Kalikot, Nepal. Utilizing both primary and secondary data, the research examines the socio-cultural and economic factors influencing this transformation. The findings reveal that traditional shamanic culture is in practice in the community, with a...
The terminology and interpretation of the unique clothing and artifacts created for specific rituals among shamanistic communities significantly due to various factors, including the spiritual beliefs and lifestyle of the ethnic groups. An essential part of this shamanistic clothing culture is the headwear, particularly the “Orgoi” hat, which features an open crown. The body of this hat is...
SibScriptDecember 24, 2024Alexandr L. Zaika, Ivan V. Siryukin
The rock art of the Middle Yenisei often depicts shamans with various shamanic attributes. The local shamanism has its roots in the Bronze Age. It influenced the plots and patterns of the Middle Yenisei rock art. The earliest images of shaman figures with shamanic attributes date back to the Tesin period. Shamanic images also appear in the art of the Tashtyk culture. However, it is the shamanic...
The article analyses the social media activity of selected Mongolian shamans intended for dissemination of what they believe to be the correct knowledge about Mongolian shamanism. The Internet is a tool that, combined with their own creativity, allows themto convey aspects of this phenomenon that are difficult to verbalize. On the one hand, the shamans present a great diversity, make use of...
Since the collapse of the socialist system in the past 30 years, Mongolia has transitioned from an atheist state to one where multiple religions – such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam – coexist freely, with no restrictions on freedom of belief. This transformationhas also spurred the revival of shamanism, the indigenous religion of the Mongols. Despite its tragic history, Mongolian...
The article explores the concept of “shared subjectivity” in the shamanic practices of the Quechua people in the central Andes of Peru. It reveals the interconnection between humans and non-humans in Quechua shamanic practices, where various ritual objects (stones, coca leaves, guinea pigs, and eggs) play active roles in rituals and in the process of synergistic becoming and building...
This article examines the diverse forms of shamanic death rituals observed in Korea from a historical perspective. Korean shamanism, or musok, is a highly dynamic form of faith centred on the figure of the shaman, associated rituals, and a worldview that has been passed down orally among shamans from generation to generation. It is important to note, however, that this worldview, and therefore...
Certain forms of shamanism existed in many communities worldwide, including some of the indigenous cultures and tribes of North America, from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico and the desert areas of the Southwest, California, and northern Mexico. At least several American Indian and Inuit societies are known to have practised shamanism in bothpre-Columbian and other historical periods (even...
In this article, I start from the premise that the understanding of punishment is determined by the overall system of thinking, by the cosmology that underpins a given social order. In analysing the understanding of punishment in shamanism, I use a broad definition encompassing not only punishment inflicted by human individuals and communities, but also punishment by non-human entities such as...
The article provides a concise introduction to two issues in anthropological research on shamanism:1) the conceptual use of the term “shamanism” and 2) the main methodological approaches to its study. It proposes a kind of cognitive map of shamanisms, shaped by key ideas from anthropology. The text also suggests a way to organize the extensive literature on shamanism from both paradigmatic...
In this text, I describe shamanistic beliefs and practices of the Matsigenka Amerindians from the Peruvian Amazon. After an introductory section, I present the saankariite – beings from the Matsigenka cosmology which are important in the shamanism of this ethnic group. Then, I outline uses of visionary plants by the Matsigenka. This is followed by a descriptionof the functions of seripigari...
This study investigates the impact of shamanic practices, specifically Ayahuasca consumption and sound healing combined with guided meditation, on creativity. Using a mixed-methods approach, we examined changes in creativity, openness to new experiences, executive functions, and divergent thinking among 47 participants. Results indicate that meditation and sound healing positively influence...
Music is deeply rooted in the human experience as well as a fundamental part of psychedelic-assisted therapies (PAT) and entheogenic ceremonies. Although a large body of research exists highlighting the importance of music from rehabilitative, psychological, neurobiological, anthropological, religious, and sociological contexts, there is limited scientific literature regarding the specific...
This text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The paper also reflects on Langdon’s influence in the discussions surrounding gender and female agency in ethnographies of lowland South America. Jean...
Abstract Ayahuasca is a psychedelic beverage from the Amazon rainforest, used in spiritual and religious settings for medical purposes. Since the 1990s onwards, several religious and neo‐shamanic groups have been using it in Uruguay within the psychospiritual networks. Some participants go to rituals of ayahuasca looking for therapeutic alternatives to certain ailments, such as substance use...
This study critically evaluates the complex inter space of spirituality, drugs, and tourism through tourists’ and shamans’ accounts of ayahuasca tourism in Iquitos, Peru. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage traditionally consumed for spiritual and health purposes. Using micro-ethnography, one of the researchers was immersed for one month in the tourism experience of ayahuasca. The findings...
Shamanism is a spiritual tradition in which trance practitioners deliberately modify their state of consciousness to seemingly interact with an invisible world to resolve their community members' problems. This review aims to provide a multidisciplinary overview of scientific research on shamanic trance. The search was performed using PubMed and Google Scholar databases. Twenty-seven articles...
Abstract New Shamanism provides healing with the help of spirits that function as authorities and shape our understanding of human existence in the natural world. “Possession” with its idea of total external control proves particularly fascinating for those socialized in secular societies. Rituals give these states a spatial and temporal framework, and their treatment of mental disorders has...
Shamans, neo-shamans, atheists, and others describe gaining special knowledge from drinking ayahuasca, supporting the cross-cultural idea of ayahuasca as a plant teacher. While secular enthusiasts interpret this metaphorically, animists and others take it literally. This article examines ontological collisions at a healing retreat in the Peruvian Amazon, considering Shipibo shamans and their...
This article is about the ways in which shamanic practice is engaged in navigating and responding to the current climatic and geopolitical crisis in Far East Siberia, Russia, through proposing experimental multiversal projects. It traces the manner in which a Nanai (Indigenous peoples of Siberia, Russia; literally, people of the Earth) sama (shaman), hereafter, shaman, brings together diverse...