Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture

✍ Scribed by Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 1091
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices.

What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Foreword......Page 11
Preface......Page 13
Introduction......Page 17
Alphabetical List of Entries......Page 31
General Themes in World Shamanism......Page 35
Animal Symbolism (Africa)......Page 37
Animal Symbolism (Americas)......Page 41
Animal Symbolism (Asia)......Page 45
Archaeology of Shamanism......Page 50
Art and Shamanism......Page 55
Bioenergetic Healing......Page 63
Buddhism and Shamanism......Page 64
Christianity and Shamanism......Page 69
Colonialism and Shamanism......Page 75
Core Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism......Page 83
Costume, Shaman......Page 91
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Shamans......Page 95
Daoism and Shamanism......Page 105
Demonic Possession and Exorcism......Page 108
Divination......Page 112
Dramatic Performance in Shamanism......Page 116
Dreams and Visions......Page 123
Drumming in Shamanistic Rituals......Page 129
Drums, Shamanic: Form and Structure......Page 135
Ecology and Shamanism......Page 141
Entheogens (Psychedelic Drugs) and
Shamanism......Page 145
Entoptic Images......Page 151
Ethnocentrism and Shamanism......Page 153
Extraction......Page 158
Fire and Hearth......Page 161
Gender in Shamanism......Page 165
Healing and Shamanism......Page 171
History of the Study of Shamanism......Page 176
Horses......Page 181
Hypnosis and Shamanism......Page 183
Initiation......Page 187
“Magic,” Power, and Ritual in Shamanism......Page 195
Messianism and Shamanism......Page 203
Museum Collections......Page 208
Music in World Shamanism......Page 213
Neuropsychology of Shamanism......Page 221
Offerings and Sacrifice in Shamanism......Page 231
Pilgrimage and Shamanism......Page 235
Psychology of Shamanism......Page 238
Psychopathology and Shamanism......Page 245
Psychopomp......Page 251
Rock Art and Shamanism......Page 253
Soul Retrieval......Page 259
Spirit Possession......Page 262
Spirits and Souls......Page 269
Sufism and Shamanism......Page 272
Tantrism and Shamanism......Page 277
Trance Dance......Page 281
Trance, Shamanic......Page 284
Transformation......Page 289
Transvestism in Shamanism......Page 293
Trees......Page 297
Urban Shamanism......Page 299
Visions and Imagery: Western Perspectives......Page 301
Witchcraft and Sorcery in Shamanism......Page 305
Overview - NORTH AMERICA......Page 309
American Indian Medicine Societies......Page 315
Choctaw Shamanism......Page 319
Ghost Dance and Prophet Dance......Page 321
Great Basin Hunters and Gatherers......Page 326
Greenland Shamanism......Page 331
Hopi Shamanism......Page 337
Inuit Shamanism (Central Arctic)......Page 341
Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Shamanism and Secret Societies......Page 346
Lakota Shamanism......Page 349
Navajo Shamanism......Page 352
New Orleans Voudou (North America)......Page 357
North American Oral Traditions and Shamanism......Page 365
Ojibwa Shamanism......Page 368
Peyote Ritual Use (Central America and North America)......Page 370
Piman Oral Literature and Shamanism......Page 373
Pueblo Religion and Spirit Worlds......Page 380
Yokuts Shamanism (California)......Page 384
Yuman Shamanism (Northern Baja California)......Page 388
Yupik and Inupiaq Masks (Alaska)......Page 392
Yupik Shamanism (Alaska)......Page 396
Overview - CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA......Page 399
Afro-Brazilian Shamanism......Page 405
Amazon Funeral Rites and Shamanism (Brazil)......Page 409
Ayahuasca Ritual Use......Page 412
Central and South American Shamanism......Page 416
Curanderismo (the Americas)......Page 427
Dark Shamanism (Amazonia)......Page 430
Huichol (Wixárika) Shamanism (Mexico)......Page 433
Kanaimà Shamanism (Amazonia)......Page 440
Latin American Christianity and Shamanism......Page 443
Latin American Literature and Shamanism......Page 448
Mapuche Shamanism......Page 451
Maya Bone Divination......Page 459
Maya Cosmology......Page 460
Mayan Shamanism......Page 465
Otomí (Ñähñu) Indian Shamanism (Mexico)......Page 469
Peruvian Shamans......Page 473
Quiche and Zuni Divination (Guatemala and New Mexico)......Page 480
Santería (Afro-Cuban Tradition)......Page 483
Tarahumara Shamanism (Mexico)......Page 487
Toba Shamanism (Argentina)......Page 495
Overview - EUROPE......Page 499
“Celtic Shamanism”: Pagan Celtic Spirituality......Page 503
Classical World Shamanism (Ancient Greece and Rome)......Page 512
Fairies and Shamanism......Page 518
Finno-Ugric Shamanism......Page 520
Neo-Shamanism in Germany......Page 530
Nordic Shamanism......Page 534
Paganism in Europe......Page 538
Russian Folklore and Shamanism......Page 543
Russian Shamanism Today......Page 547
Witchcraft in Russia......Page 550
Witchcraft in the Modern West......Page 553
Overview - EURASIA......Page 557
Ancient Iranian Religions and Shamanism......Page 563
Ancient North Asian Shamanism......Page 566
“Black” Shamans, “White” Shamans......Page 570
Buryat Shamanism (Mongolia)......Page 573
Darkhad Shamanism (Mongolia)......Page 579
Deer Imagery and Shamanism (Siberia)......Page 581
Evenki Shamanism (Siberia and Manchuria)......Page 585
Funeral Rites in Eurasian Shamanism......Page 591
Kalmyk Shamanic Healing Practices......Page 598
Kazak Shamanism......Page 603
Khakass Shamanism......Page 607
Kirghiz Shamanism (West Central Asia)......Page 613
Manchu Shamanism......Page 616
Mongolian Shamanic Texts......Page 620
Mongolian Shamanic Tradition and Literature......Page 627
Oroqen Shamanism (Northeast China)......Page 631
Priestesses of Eurasia......Page 635
Sakha (Yakut) Shamanism (Northeast Asia)......Page 642
Sibe Shamanism (Manchuria)......Page 649
Siberian Shamanism......Page 652
Spirits and Ghosts in Mongolia......Page 661
Tajik Shamanism (Central Asia)......Page 663
Teleutian Shamanism (Siberia)......Page 666
Tuvan Shamanism......Page 671
Uyghur Healers (China)......Page 676
Uzbek Shamanism......Page 680
Yellow Shamans (Mongolia)......Page 683
Overview - KOREA AND JAPAN......Page 687
Ainu Shamanism (Japan)......Page 691
Cheju-do Island Shamanism (Korea)......Page 700
Japanese Shamanic Music......Page 704
Japanese Shamanism......Page 708
Korean Shamanism......Page 715
Mountain Priests—Shugendo (Japan)......Page 723
Okinawan Shamans and Priestesses......Page 727
Tsugaru Shamanism (Japan)......Page 734
Overview - CHINA AND SINO-ASIA......Page 739
Chinese Shamanism, Classical......Page 743
Chinese Shamanism, Contemporary......Page 747
Nong Shamanism (South China)......Page 756
Qiang Ritual Practices......Page 759
Spirit Writing in Hong Kong......Page 763
Spirit Mediumship (Singapore)......Page 766
Taiwanese Shamanic Performance and Dance......Page 770
Overview - SOUTH ASIA, THE HIMALAYAS, AND TIBET......Page 775
Ancient South Indian Shamanism......Page 779
Chepang Shamanism (Nepal)......Page 781
Hinduism and Ecstatic Indian Religions......Page 784
Ladakhi Shamans and Oracles (Himalayas)......Page 790
Manipur Meitei Shamanism (Northeast India)......Page 797
Nepalese Shamans......Page 800
Priestesses (Mediums) of Sri Lanka......Page 807
Rai Shamanism (Nepal)......Page 809
South Asian Shamanism......Page 812
Spirit Possession in Rajasthan (India)......Page 818
Tibetan Shamanism......Page 824
Overview - SOUTHEAST ASIA......Page 833
Burmese Spirit Lords and Their Mediums......Page 837
Hmong Shamanism (Thailand, Laos)......Page 840
Indonesian Shamanism......Page 844
Javanese Shamanism (Indonesia)......Page 849
Malay Shamans and Healers......Page 852
Murut Shamanism (Borneo)......Page 858
Semai Shamanism (Borneo)......Page 861
Shadow Puppetry and Shamanism (Java)......Page 866
Southeast Asian Shamanism......Page 868
Taman Shamanism (Borneo)......Page 876
Thai Spirit World and Spirit Mediums......Page 881
Overview - AUSTRALASIA AND OCEANIA......Page 885
Atayal Shamanism (Taiwan)......Page 891
Australian Aboriginal Shamanism......Page 894
Dreams and Shamanism (Papua New Guinea)......Page 899
Maori Religion......Page 903
Oceania: Rituals and Practitioners......Page 908
Puyuma Shamanism (Taiwan)......Page 914
Overview - AFRICA......Page 919
!Kung Healing, Ritual, and Possession......Page 925
African Traditional Medicine......Page 929
Ancestor Worship in Africa......Page 933
Ancient Egyptian Shamanism......Page 940
Asante Shamanism (Ghana)......Page 944
Cape Nguni Shamanism (South Africa)......Page 948
Hausa Shamanistic Practices (Nigeria and
Niger)......Page 954
Igbo Shamanism (Nigeria)......Page 959
Mami Wata Religion (West Africa)......Page 962
Marabouts and Magic (West Africa)......Page 964
Ndembu Shamanism (Zambia)......Page 968
Swahili Healers and Spirit Cult (East Africa)......Page 972
Twin Cult of the Akan (Ghana)......Page 976
Witchcraft in Africa......Page 980
Yaka Shamanistic Divination (Southwestern Congo)......Page 985
Zarma Spirit Mediums (Niger)......Page 988
Zulu Shamanism (South Africa)......Page 991
Bibliography......Page 997
Advisory Board......Page 1061
Contributors......Page 1063
Index......Page 1069
About the Editors......Page 1089