Traditional Shamanism

The Maka are an ethnic group belonging to the Mataguayo linguistic family that is native to Northern Chaco (Paraguay). Until the mid-20th century, the group lived in the heart of the Chaco, and were traditionally hunter-gatherer-fishers. However, they have since moved to the outskirts of Asunción, the country’s capital, where they now live. From 1974 onwards, but for irregular periods, ethnobiological investigations have been conducted, carefully documenting the group’s previous way of life. Their knowledge concerning plants and animals has been of particular interest. This paper discusses the presence and the role in their cultural tradition of the birds that are masters of the rain and storms. It highlights the importance the Maka attached to these birds, in a region which experiences long periods of drought. The subject is set in a context of multiple interrelationships involving various different fields, and therefore it includes a summary providing details of the cosmology, shamanism, mythology on the origin of the birds of the rains, the role of the shamans of the rains, as well as the history and the current situation of the Maka. Lastly, emphasis is placed on the need to undertake such investigations in minority societies that are in danger of disappearing. Keywords.- Ethno-ornithology, Gran Chaco Indians, shamanism, cosmology, mythology.

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The Stele commemorated Idiquts of Qocho, dating to 1334 and found in 1933 in Gansu, bears Chinese and Uyghur inscriptions including a legend on the origin of the Uyghur ruling dynasty. According to the text, its founder was Udan Boquq Qan born from a tumour on a tree. It seems that in Inner Asia such legends are testified only by the sources of the late 13th and 14th centuries, the manuscript Z of “The Travels of Marco Polo”, “Yuan wen lei” and “Yuan shi” among them, and always referring to Turpan. So, the “origin of a powerful man from a tumour on a tree” motif looks like an innovative and unique dialect trait of the Turpan tradition. But when one expands geography of comparative data, it becomes clear that it is not the case. The crucial parallel is found in East Siberian folklore. A record made in 1925 among the Yakuts tells about a miraculous tree with tumours from which shamans and other persons acquainted with magic are born. The fact of the parallel agrees with data on the origins of the Yakuts and data of comparative mythology. The ancestors of this Turkic-speaking group inhabited an area between the Ordos and the Sayan Mountains before 200 CE, and the vicinities of the Baikal (ca. 800–1200 CE) before their migration in northern parts of Eastern Siberia. That is why there is the set of specific Southern (probably, of Inner Asian origin) motifs in Yakut folklore tradition. In Eurasia the “origin of a powerful man from a tumour on a tree” motif is found rarely and its presence in Inner and North Asia only in such Turkic-speaking groups as the Uyghurs and the Yakuts has most likely a historical explanation. The Yakut parallel indirectly testifies to the idea that the motif was known to some ethnic groups of South Siberia by the 12th–13th century.

The Cartesian view of the world influenced anthropological studies of ritual and spirituality. Spirit possession studies in particular suffer from this Western idiosyncrasy, because many anthropologists who write about possession argue that possession cults and rituals are " just " traditional performances for treating psychosomatic illness brought about by disharmonies in the social order. A spiritual reality, as perceived by the participants of religious rituals and shamans is in principle excluded. This reduction of the psycho-social aspects of spirit possession ignores a "transcendent reality," where physical and spiritual experiences can be an expression of individual and culturally specific reality. In this article, I analyse the various anthropological perspectives on spirit possession and compare the epistemological approaches on " ritual reality " with the indigenous terminology for states of possession of Korean Hwanghaedo-shamans from Seoul. The Hwanghaedo tradition of Korean shaman is particularly ecstatic and moments of spirit possession exist in many variations. For this reason, the analysis is focused on this tradition.

Programa da 19.ª edição da Formação de Psicoterapeutas Clássicos de Xamanismo Transcultural (Estudos Antropológicos Teórico-Práticos) que se realizará através de teleaulas e de telepráticas (por videoconferência, portanto, ao vivo, mas online) entre os dias 14 de junho e 16 de novembro de 2025.

Neste curso os formandos colaboram (facultativamente) num estudo científico (quase-experimental) sobre a efetividade psicoterapêutica de um compósito de práticas xamânicas transculturais, praticando-as (entre os formandos e com voluntários) com supervisão.

Trata-se de um curso pioneiro, onde, pela primeira vez se aplicam métodos mistos de investigação científica, no sentido de aferir: as práticas xamânicas funcionam mesmo?

O nosso estudo preliminar deu uma resposta afirmativa. Mas, será que com a ampliação da amostra (de formandos e de voluntários), se mantêm os resultados sobre a efetividade do xamanismo?

Conforme Krippner (2002) os investigadores têm dissertado (em estudos sobre o xamanismo) com um teor predominantemente pejorativo (talvez até projetivo). Com o nosso estudo, sugerimos um novo olhar sobre o xamanismo: uma psicoterapia clássica, que pode ser estruturada e testada cientificamente conforme ocorre com outras psicoterapias.

Assim, mais do que teórico, este é um curso prático onde se aprende, fazendo. Mas, fazendo de uma forma cientificamente estruturada, ajustando as práticas xamânicas milenares às demandas e às realidades contemporâneas das sociedades ditas «modernas».

Este é um curso para pessoas com uma mentalidade integrativa, não-sectária e com interesse ontológico. Porque o «ser humano» é mais que apenas o «humano». O «ser» faz parte do «ser humano». E é no estudo do «ser» que (da nossa perspetiva) se encontra o «ouro» que complementa e torna inteiro o estudo sobre o Ser Humano.

The interpretation of depictions in petroglyphs belonging to the Bronze Age in South Siberia as shamanic ones is debatable. Obviously, cultic attributes belonging to men were not removed from barrows 2 and 5 in Pazyryk. Their series can be compared with complexes (known to ethnologists) belonging to shamans of Iranian peoples. Such elements of practicing sequential shamanic rituals as divination, use of musical instruments, entering into a trance state, summoning patron spirits and their “feeding”, exorcism of evil spirits can be reconstructed. 

Keywords: Indo-Iranian shamanism, Pazyryk culture shamans, shamans images, South Siberia, material culture

The Sacred Hoop Magazine Guide to Shamanism

A collection of 27 articles from previous issues of Sacred Hoop magazine focusing on some of the basics of shamanism - practice and ethics

Articles from :
• Jonathan Horwitz
• Sandra Ingerman
• Bhola Nath Banstola
• Faith Nolton
• Michael Harner
• Susan Mokelke
• Nicholas Breeze Wood
• Eliot Cowan
• Maria Czaplicka
• Bonnie Horrigan
• Mary Mueller Shutan
• Crow Swimsaway­
• Zara Waldeback­
• Amalia Rubin
• David Kowalewski
• Sun Bear
• Karen kelly­
• Jim Price­

The focus of this paper is to examine the legacy of San pygmy spiritual journeys through a three-tiered cosmos of sky, earth, and underworld as they are consciously danced and reinforced by rock paintings, which seem to be the oldest and purest forms of known spiritual connection.

These are material gateways to spirit dimensions entered into through altered states. Images gleaned from past shamanic visions are vivified with countless overlays of fresh revelations, further enhancing this interface. Under the laws of quantum physics, a particle can act on another across time as well as space. This may explain how templates retrieved from timeless dimensions are brought into vivid manifestation through the trance dances and supportive rock images of the San.

Facets of this energetically potent storehouse are expressed on varying levels as dancing shamans, graphic images, mineral components, and spiritual realms. This vast undertaking spans at least 35,000 continuous years, still enacted in ritual trance dances by small groups of pygmy in southern Africa. The San pygmy honors small but significant 'first things of life'. They merge with Source through circular absorption or revelation to achieve understanding, rather than utilizing linear thinking, our commonly accepted learning filter. In this distinction lies the San quest for meaning, to be found in the deeper, unseen layers of living experience. Their awareness of unending change and inevitable renewal challenges our current world paradigm and deserves complete attention if we are to evolve.

Giriş Məni Şamanizm haqqında araşdırma aparmağa sövq edən əsas cəhətlər mövzunun Azərbaycanlı tədqiqatçıların əsərlərində və azərbaycan dilli mənbələrdə araşdırılma səviyyəsi ilə bağlıdır. Azərbaycan dilli mənbələrdə şamanizm Cavad Heyət, Füzulu Bayat, Allahmanlı Mahmud-un əsərlərində araşdırılmışdır. Müəlliflərdən Füzuli Bayat "Şamandan səmazənə, oyun və oyunçu" adlı əsərində daha çox şamanizmi "oyun" anlayışı üzərindən dəyərləndirmiş, şamanizmin tarixi haqqında ətraflı məlumat verməmiş, şaman oyununun dini xarakter daşımasını, şamanizmi "heyvan dünyasının təqlidi" formasında nəzərdən keçirmişdir.[21, səh 202] Allahmanlı Mahmud isə öz "Şaman, ozan və aşıq" adlı əsərində, Füzuli Bayata nisbətən daha geniş formada şamanizm haqqında məlumat vermiş, şamanizmin tarixi ilə bağlı C.Heyət, A.İnan, İ.Kafesoğlu, L.Qumilyov kimi müəlliflərin əsərlərinə istinadlar vermişdir. A.Mahmud şamanizmi Füzuli Bayatın əsərində də qeyd olunduğu kimi, "şaman" anlayışını türklərin dini ruhaniləri adlandırmaq üçün istifadə etdiyi "kam" anlayışı ilə eyniləşdirir və "kamlıq" mövqeyindən yanaşma sərgiləyir. O, eyni zamanda şamanizmlə bağlı olan məsələləri tam olaraq nəzərdən keçirmir, özünün də qeyd etdiyi kimi, ancaq

Nushagak, Alaska, 19th century: Wallaunuk as a Shaman’s Free Soul

[I] The discovery in 2007 and the in-depth study of a Yup’ik seal mask identified the ritual practice of using halved paired masks, designed by the shaman as simultaneous counterparts featuring one sole entity, needed for celebrating and illustrating the Beginning of Times, at Nushagak, Bristol Bay, Alaska in the 19th century (Jean-Loup Rousselot, 2011).

[II] Although largely documented, the family of twelve masks from Nushagak gathered from 1875 on, until 2019, was until now given as built in asymmetrical pairs – symmetry yet appearing in several, the meaning of such family not being yet studied as a whole.

[III] Following to these observations, this essay distinguishes, within this group of masks, paired masks according to gender (“couple”), their generation or family filiation (“mother and cub”), their halving or repetition of one sole protagonist demonstrating the ubiquity of a single character (“simultaneous homologues”); far from being opposite or limited, such identities may overlap and complete each other (“polysemy”);
as well, the addition of “main” external elements grafted to a core-mask, allowing evolution of this central person within the shaman’s narration scheme to a so-called extended use (“interleaving”); as such its transformation into a seal-bird mask, or hunter’s mask – would be here a version of the seal mask decorated by grafted appendages (“interweaving”) – These additions were simply expletive or “decorative” clues to the interpretation and ramifications of the stage drama, leaving their bearer mask unchanged as the stem or central character (Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020). As to the works by the Nushagak Master, a bird head (Metropolitan museum, NYC), a mammal head (MQB), legs, mouths or ears.

[IV] The reconstituted group as a family of masks (Sean Mooney, 2018) is here studied under the scope of Yup’ik cosmology and Pan-inuit myths (in particular, as given by Brigitt Sonne, 2017), making it possible to approach its symbolic value and might trace the various mythological characters attached to each of the masks.

[V] The Bearded Seal-Spirit hence appears both (i) as a remembrance of a Seal cult and the personification as such of People in the village of origin Agalik, discovered at Nunalleq, Alaska (in Knecht, Mossolova and alii, 2019-2020) and (ii) as the central figure of the Nushagak rite. This cult ceased in the early twentieth century (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018).

[VI] Specifically, with this twinned split mask to be reported at birth (J.L. Rousselot, 2010), the Seal Spirit on both twinned masks would thus feature his main and initial incarnation - namely the transformation of the primordial Spirit lying in the abyss into a breathing being, representing the initial moment of its birth from the Other World at the bottom of the oceans  – a  central Spirit in Yup’ik mythology and cosmology, personified or multiplied in several named characters.

[VII] The Nushagak masks – attributed to a named family of practitioners (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018) would prove such Spirit of the Seals, Wallaunuk, Master of Bubbles, representing the global cosmic Spirit Sila and intercessor with the marine world, to have been the Free Soul Spirit attached to these two Nushagak Masters as the legacy following the spiritual gift and the sculpted visions bequeathed by the Shaman Dyeutciaq to his son Agyatciaq (the latter being named after a Star, the Family indeed in direct connection with the Cosmos – in Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018).

As accompanied, indeed, by a walrus mask and a bear mask (Resp. Chuna McIntyre – Sean Mooney, 2018), his two star-guardians appearing by his side in the ceremony, the primordial Bearded Seal mask would incarnate the Yup’ik mythical Star, Anautalik, the ultimate cosmic person (B. Sonne, 2017) as here for the ritual ceremonies at Nushagak.

Key Words: Arctic – Alaska - Branly (Musée) – Clark, J - Cosmology – Jacobsen A. - Initiation – Levi-strauss C. – Mask - Metropolitan Museum – Mythology – Nushagak – Paalen W. - Pinart, A. - Rockefeller, N.A. - (Bearded) Seal – Sedna – Shaman – Shamanism - Sila – Spirit - Surrealism – Thwaites, J.E. -  Wallaunuk – Yup’ik

How do we take indigenous animism seriously in the sense proposed by Viveiros de Castro? In this article, I pose this challenge to all the major theories of animism, stretching from Tylor and Durkheim, over Lévi-Strauss to Ingold. I then go on to draw a comparison between Žižek's depiction of the cynical milieu of advanced capitalism in which ideology as " false consciousness " has lost force and the Siberian Yukaghirs for whom ridiculing the spirits is integral to their game of hunting. Both know that, in their activity, they are following an illusion, but still they go along with it; both are ironically self-conscious about not taking the ruling ethos at face value. is makes me suggest an alternative: perhaps it is time for anthropology not to take indigenous animism too seriously.

This is an article in two parts. The first part discusses current research in psychoactive preparations of ergot in various religious systems with a particular emphasis on Persian, Greek, Jewish and Islamic sources. Certain poems, hadith, and scriptural writings suggest an entheogenic heritage to various ancient sects that exerted and received philosophical and ritual influences over large distances and over time. Particularly, some esoteric Shia and Sufi writings are highly suggestive of a "celestial botany" that employed psychoactive plants for initiatory and ritual purposes. The second part will address current research methods that render ergot alkaloids nontoxic and entheogenic, a most crucial part of the discussion in the absence of a modern bioassay. This is essential, as without a chemical reality to support that such a preparation of entheogenic ergot is possible, all ergot theories concerning mystery traditions would remain largely speculative.

This article was supposed to be a simple review of the book by Baldini La strada dai molti canti. Filosofia e sciamanesimo greco (The road of many chants. Philosophy and Greek shamanism), but after reading it, it developed into something different and more extensive, I would say an ‘extended’ review. When I bought it, I thought I would read a book that combined philosophy and anthropology, but after a few pages it was clear to me that it did not speak about neither of them, and that I  was  confronted  with  a  book  of  a  religious  nature,  impregnated  with  profound  mysticism.  Baldini  inscribes  his  research  into  that  religious  movement  known  as  Neo-Paganism,  which  also  includes  Neo-Shamanism,  the  Movement  of  the  Goddess,  Wicca,  etc.,  but  which  has  its  roots  in  the  European  mystical,  esoteric  and  traditionalist  intellectual  currents,  American  trascendentalism, joined by forms of oriental mysticism, Hindu universalism, as well as Native American  and  Central  Asian/Siberian  neo-shamanism.  In  the  1960s-1970s  these  currents  formed the New Age, that is what Bloom calls Californian orphism, a minority but important current of the post-Christian West, which has influenced both part of the feminist movement and a number of counter-cultural intellectuals and grass roots as well. Keywords: matriarcato, femminismo, Grande Dea, Grande Madre, Movimento della Dea, sciamanesimo siberiano, nativi americani, neo-sciamanesimo, New Age, Eliade, sciamanesimo greco, Parmenide, Filosofia Perenne.

This article undertakes a reexamination of shamanism in early China, an issue that centers on a religious title (wu) that is consistently mentioned in virtually every major text from the period. For roughly the last fifty years, sinologists have vigorously argued the appropriateness of identifying these wu as shamans. In an effort to bring a deeper degree of clarity to this issue, Parts 1 and 2 of the article explore certain findings from the field of modern shaman studies that can open up new ways of thinking about the wu. Part 3 examines the ways in which sinologists have approached the wu and attempts to show how modern shaman theory can allow us to better situate our thinking on this issue. Part 4 offers a brief case study of one early Chinese text and considers how modern shaman theory can shed new light on our interpretation of the wu.

Huichol religion and cultural standards are explored, with an analysis of the role and importance of the shaman within the community.  A full explanation of the Peyote Hunt is provided, along with a full bibliography for further research and study of this profound culture.

Preface
Throughout all of Europe we find examples of folk-belief assigning special qualities to the seventh-born son or daughter of a family. At times these attributes were positive, at times negative. However, they always had a magical aura about them (Bloch [1924] 1983). For the most part, these beliefs have been written off as superstitious residue from times past and as a result little attention has been paid to documenting the concrete social practices associated with them. An exception to this tendency is the work of Marc Bloch, who in 1924, called attention to the supernatural powers attributed to the seventh son and at times, to the seventh daughter, born after an uninterrupted series of the same sex, remarking that seventh-born children were credited with a “particular supernatural power” (Bloch [1924] 1983: 293, 296). Writing in 1924, Bloch observed that “La croyance sous cette forme a été et est sans doute encore très largement répandue dans l’Europe occidentale et centrale: on l’a signalée en Allemagne, en Biscaye, en Catalogne, dans presque toute la France, dans les Pays-Bas, en Angleterre, en Escosse, en Irlande […]”  (Bloch [1924] 1983: 294-295).

Specifically, Bloch noted that from at least the 16th century onwards, children born into a seventh position in their family supposedly had the power to heal by touch. Such extraordinary people, often deemed sorcerers, even devils, were also referred to by a variety of expressions such as mahr (German) or murawa (Polish) and consequently they had the ambivalent privilege of tapping into powers that were inaccessible to normal humans. Specifically, they were viewed as having healing and divinatory powers, which could entail shape-shifting (Vaz da Silva 2003). That is, those individuals were endowed with the ability to take the form of an animal. From the point of view of modern Western thought this belief causes the dividing line between humans and animals to become blurred. Nonetheless, that blurring or fusion of two natures would be in accordance with the cosmology of native peoples in other parts of the world, especially contemporary hunter-gatherers, where such animistic beliefs also prevail (Bird-David 1999; Brightman 2002; Ingold 2000; Willerslev 2007).

It is quite clear that the qualities assigned to the seventh-son or daughter harken back to an earlier animistic mindset, notions of nonhuman personhood and social practices that in turn connect back to shamanic modes of healing. At the same time, as noted in the earlier chapters of this study, the fused nature of the Bear Son, the half-human, half-bear being known as Hamalau “Fourteen” in Basque, reflects a similar blurring of the Western human-animal divide and related cultural conceptualizations.

And as Bertolotti has demonstrated in his detailed and extraordinarily well researched study Carnevale di Massa 1950 (1992), European versions of the Bear Son folktales, e.g., Giovanni l’Orso, may well reproduce much earlier beliefs, more in consonance with the cosmovision of hunter-gatherers who inhabited these zones in times past. More concretely, the fact that the figure of Hamalau is grounded in the belief that humans descended from bears allows us to consider the significance and symbolism of this character’s own genesis: he is born of a human female, but his father is a bear. In this sense, he is a double-natured intermediary occupying the ontological ground between humans and bears.

Contents (chapters and authors):

The shamanic-ecstatic hypothesis for the Alpine rock art of Valcomonica, Umberto Sansoni.

Sensuous visions: Encountering the shamanistic rock art of the Bayan Jurek Mountains, Kazakhstan, Kenneth Lymer.

Depictions in Sami rock art of the Mother Earth figure, Inga-Maria Mulk.

Argimpasa - Scythia goddess, patroness of shamans, Zaur Hasanov.

The bear and the plough: Shamanism in the Neolithic, Giovanni Kezich.

From shamanic rituals to theatre and cultural industry: The state, shamanism and gender among the Kavalan (Taiwan), Pi-Chen Liu.

Mongolian shamanism envisaged, embodied, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman.

Women shamans and their portrayal in the Olonkho Sakha epic poems, Lia Zola.

The poetics of healing: Shamanic rituals in Central Nepal, Dagmar Eigner.

Inadvertent art. Icons, music and dance in Chepang (Nepal) and Semang-Negrito (Peninsular Malaysia) shamanism, Diana Riboli.

Artistic expressions of the visual language on Sami ritual drums, Hee Sook Lee-Niinioja.

The ritual art and paraphernalia of the Nepalese jhankris and Tamang bombo, Vesa Matteo Piludu.

Artists as shamans: Historical review and recent theoretical model, Denita Benyshek.

Perspectives on the arts of Parbati, Barbara Wilhelmi.

Shamanic artistry in a French Absurdist play, Daniel A. Kister.

The shamanic works of Minsalim Timergazeev and other artists of the First International Woodcarving Festival of Uvat, Carla Corradi Musi.

Norval Morrisseau - Shaman-Artist, Jurgen Werner Kremer.

The hand on the wall of the cave. Exploring connections between shamanism and the visual arts, Susan Michaelson.

Artist as shaman, Gilah Yelin Hirsch.


Edited by Elvira Eevr Djaltchinova-Malec. Published by Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary, Polish Institute of World Art Studies, Warsaw, and Tako Publishing House, Toruń, Poland.

This book can be ordered by mail:
Polish Institute of World Art Studies: biuro@world-art.pl
Tako Publishing House: tako@tako.biz.pl

This article presents an analysis of certain erotic strategies employed by shamans of the early Chinese state of Chu that were intended to attract and seduce an array of spirits thought to inhabit the world of nature. These strategies are analyzed from a collection of songs gathered together under the title of the Jiu ge from the Chuci anthology, and they provide some of the clearest evidences for a tradition of early Chinese southern Chu shamanism. After setting forth certain elements of the religious, historical, and theoretical background of this shamanism, this article approaches and analyzes it in terms of the eroticized gender relations between humans and spirits upon which this shamanism is centrally based. Because the present author understands shamanism in terms of face to face communication between human beings and bodiless beings in a séance event, and because these communications are represented as taking place by way of either the shaman journeying to the spirit or the spirit coming to take possession of the shaman, the final sections of this article analyze each type of séance event separately.

EDITOR'S NOTE
The articles offered here the readers, resulted from papers presented in the frame of an International scientific and practical conference, dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Nikolaevich Basilov (1937–1998), a renowned scholar of shamanism and Central Asian cultures and religions, doctor of historical sciences.
The conference was organized in summer 2012, and was held
in two countries – Russia and Kyrgyzstan – which had formerly
been part of the USSR. The conference was initiated by the Center for the Study of Shamanism and Other Traditional Beliefs and Practices at IEA RAS, and prepared and led by the Mikloukho-Maklay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with a number of Kyrgyzstan’s organizations: Culture and Research Center “Aygine”, the Institute for the Study of Central Asia of the American University of Central Asia, and the Institute
of History and Cultural Heritage of the National Academy of
Sciences of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. Members of the International Society for the Study of Shamanism (Budapest, Hungary) were among the participants at the conference.
The event has been planned according to the academic interests of the late Basilov, and therefore embraced two relatively independent symposia, that consisted of some sessions: Symposium 1 (Moscow)
– “Traditional Religious Practices in the Present Day World
(Russia and Central Asia)”: 1) Central Asian Islam: new field, new
issues; 2) Traditional shamanism and the figure of (neo)shaman in the present day world: traditions, transformations, innovations; Symposium 2 (Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan) – “Spiritual Heritage of the Turkic World of Central Eurasia”: 1) “Manas” and epic heritage of the peoples of the world; 2) Living epics and contemporary epic reciters; 3) Shamanic practices and folk healing in the present day world; 4) Cult of saints and religious life of the peoples of Central Eurasia.
There were many scholars from Russia and Middle Asia who
participated in the conference, as well as our colleagues from the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Ukraine, Australia, India, China; in the scientific and practical part 276 of the conference there were presented, among others, some specialists from Bolivia, Guatemala, and Japan.
The conference dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Nikolaevich Basilov has been held on a very high level. Its rganizers were striving for inclusion into the circle of participants of different – in terms of their age and academic status – scholars. And this unavoidably, though not significantly, reflected in the general level of the published works (even though we were trying to strictly select those texts).
Numerous papers, presented at the sessions, were later developed into scientific articles (all in all more than 200 articles have been sent to the organizing committee). From articles recommended to the publication we composed three academic volumes in a series “Ethnological Studies of Shamanism and Other Indigenous Spiritual Beliefs and Practices” (Vol. 15 in two parts and Vol. 16). Every volume consists of materials of one or two sessions. Speeches presented at the commemoration meeting on June 23, as well as some papers devoted to the analysis of the Basilov’s academic heritage, are being
published separately (Vol. 17).
The second part of the 15th volume in the series “Ethnological
Studies of Shamanism and Other Indigenous Spiritual Beliefs and Practices” includes papers thematically related to thesessions 1 «“Manas” and epic heritage of the peoples of the world» and 3 «Shamanic practices and folk healing in the present day world» (Symposium 2 – “Spiritual Heritage of the Turkic World of Central Eurasia”; Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan).
The organizers of the conference hope that this event as well as
the books, where we publish the papers of its participants and of those who did not participated in the conference but were well acquainted with Basilov and wanted to join in the anniversary edition (January 18, 2012 marked the 75th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Nikolaevich Basilov), would be a good memory of our early and tragically deceased colleague – a gifted scholar, an excellent Teacher, and a wonderful man…
                              Valentina Kharitonova

Ce qui, à l'origine, a motivé mon projet de thèse -comme, auparavant et, plus généralement, mon intérêt pour l'anthropologie -était, pour reprendre les mots de Jean Pouillon, « une attitude somme toute normale pour un ethnologue et qu'en tout cas il ne peut guère éviter, celle qui consiste à s'intéresser, chez ceux qu'il s'efforce de comprendre, à ce dont il ne croit pas un mot : religions, idéologies, mythologies » (1993 : 9). Mon intérêt pour la religion prend ses racines dans les valeurs de mon éducation : le rationalisme m'empêcha d'y voir un quelconque fondement, le respect de l'autre me poussait à refuser de penser qu'elle ne fut qu'une simple illusion ou erreur, et l'ouverture sur l'autre m'amena à m'y intéresser. Il s'agissait, en somme, de comprendre comment l'on pouvait penser différemment de moi. Cette différence, dans la manière de concevoir les choses qui suscite l'interrogation, n'est jamais autant présente que dans le discours qui repose, presque en permanence, sur l'intervention d' "êtres" dont le point commun est, pour nous qui n'y "croyons" pas, d'être toujours invisibles. Or ces êtres, dont la prolifération et la bizarrerie, apparemment gratuites, sont si déroutantes (Taylor 1993), semblent bien être, aux yeux de nos interlocuteurs, les véritables tenants du monde. C'est au fait de concevoir de tels êtres -que je nommerai dorénavant "esprits" 1 -que j'ai choisi de m'intéresser dans ce travail de thèse.

This article traced the construction of the Mongolian term and concept böö mörgöl, which denotes ‘shamanism’, later developed to böögiin shashin meaning ‘shamanic religion’. Although the term bö’e (alternatively böge or böö), referring to spiritual practitioners such as shamans, appears early in the literature from the thirteenth century onward, the combination böö mörgöl and khara shajin meaning ‘black religion’ is fairly recent and first appeared in sources from the nineteenth century. Its latest
version, böögiin shashin, has an even shorter history dating as recently to 1980s, and has spread rapidly over the last two decades. I argue that ‘shamanism’ in Mongolia has been constructed in scholarly works mostly by public involvement and shamans themselves. More precisely, academic discourses have played a key role in institutionalising individual spiritual practitioners in two fields, first by creating a history for
‘Mongolian shamanism’ and second by creating archetypes for miscellaneous spiritual practices and practitioners. The concept böö mörgöl have been used in translating and importing the Western construction of ‘shamanism’ while in the next step of development, böögiin shashin was important in institutionalizing a national religion of shamanism versus world religions. As a result, Mongols have an original religion which has been the main building block in constructing Mongolian ‘nomadic civilization’.

Keywords: Mongolia; shamanism; shamanic religion; institutionalization; academic knowledge production

Аннотация. Иконография кетов никогда не становилась предметом сравнительно-исторического исследования, подразумевающего анализ ареальной дистрибуции ее элементов, и данная статья представляет собой первый опыт такого рода. На основании массовой обработки фольклорно-этнографических и изобразительных материалов показано, что мотивы и образы, встречающиеся на росписях кетских бубнов из Кунсткамеры и Этнографического музея Казанского университета, имеют гетерогенное происхождение. Одна их часть распространена преимущественно или исключительно в северных районах Азии, другая, более многочисленная, зафиксирована в том числе в Южной Сибири, что согласуется с лингвистическими, антропологическими и генетическими данными о ранних этапах истории енисейцев.

During the summer of 2010, while traveling from California to the Yucatan on an epic road trip to do anthropological fieldwork, I happened by chance to meet two shamans-wise men, healers, diviners, explorers of sacred realms. Later, working in rural Haiti, I met and grew to intimately know several other religious figures that I came to view as practicing a form of shamanism. In scholarly literature and the public imagination, these mysterious and mystical religious figures found across the world are often considered remnants or exemplars of archaic religious culture (Eliade 1964). Extensively exploring shamanic beliefs and practices, anthropologists have noted the existence of such religious practitioners in many cultures in Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Americas. Meeting these figures changed my perspective on the phenomenon of shamanism. I had initially learned from anthropological debates and texts that shamanism was a problematic, overused concept that often generalized and romanticized the archaic human past. However, after meeting shamans, getting to know them, and participating in shamanic ritual events, I found an amazing array of continuities and parallel beliefs and practices in cultures that had been separated by oceans and thousands of years of human history.

The aim of this paper is to outline the current situation of shamanism in Mongolia. It examines the relationship between shamanism and ethnicity, the phenomenon of urban shamanism and the emergence of shaman associations and shamanic enterprises in Ulaanbaatar. The study is based on a year-long fieldwork in Mongolia 2004-05, during which the author came into contact with the two most influential shamanic associations, the 'Golomt Center' and the 'Heaven's Dagger' association and had interviews with the members, and attended a number of shamanic rituals that they conducted. The field study was conducted at a time when these associations and enterprises had already 'grown up', i.e. they had recruited a vast number of members and attracted enough clients to operate, but still had not reached the stage of economic prosperity. This was also the time when the partly conscious attempt of forging a standardized Mongolian shamanism mainly from Darkhat and Buryat sources and the recreation of Khalkha shamanism began to take place.

The specific Hmong Ntoo Xeeb ceremony described in this text was conducted by the elders of Ban Mae Sa Mai (Mae Sa Mai village), located in Tambol Pong Yareng, Mae Rim District, Thailand, approximately 30 kilometers north of Chiang Mai.  The Ntoo Xeeb ceremony is a principal New Year’s ritual in which all responsible male heads of households in the village are expected to participate, as a way to show respect to all four benevolent spirits of the locality, with the Ntoo Xeeb spirit as the titular head, to thank them for safeguarding the villagers over the past year.  It constitutes one of the most sacred communal rituals undertaken by the villagers of Mae Sa Mai.  This detailed description of the Ntoo Xeeb ceremony focuses on a particular ritual practice of the Hmong, and aims to encourage future scholarly inquiry about specifics of Hmong animist beliefs as manifested in ceremonial rituals.  The article addresses lacunae in scholarly accounts of Hmong ceremonial ritual practices, which have led to confusion about particular aspects of Hmong shamanism.

Keywords:
Hmong
Hmong Shamanism
Hmong New Year ritual cermony
Miao
Meo
Hmong traditional culture
Hmong religion
Hmong animism

In 1992, the experts of the World Health Organization decided to introduce a new diagnostic category. Possession Trance became recognized as a psychiatric disorder. The introduction of this new category prompted the clarification of its diagnostic criteria. In an unprecedented way, the authors of the 10th edition of the International Classification of Disorders (ICD-10) made the diagnosis of possession trance dependent on the cultural context of its occurrence making the diagnostician-clinician responsible for determining the relations between the possession trance and its cultural environment.

The Siberian Northeast shows striking parallels between the cosmologies of hunters and reindeer
herders. What may this tell us about the transformation from hunting to pastoralism? This article
argues for a structural identity between hunting and sacrifice, and for the domestication of the
reindeer as the result of hunters’ efforts to use sacrifice to control the accidental variables of the
hunt. Hunters can practise their ethos of ‘trust’ with prey only through highly controlled ritual
enactments. We describe two: the famous bear festival of the Amur Gulf region and the consecrated
reindeer of the Eveny. Both express the same overall logic by which sacrifice functions as an ideal
hunt. The animal is involved in a relation not of domination but of trust, while also undergoing a
process of taming. We therefore suggest that the reindeer’s domestication may be based not only
on ecological or economic adaptations, but also on cosmology.

This course examines Shamanism in the history of religions with attention to recent interdisciplinary approaches to the topic. The course initially examines the classification of " shamanism " as a category within the study of religion. The course then investigates selected anthropological, social, and psychological elements including descriptive accounts of rituals, myths, and ecstatic experience associated with Shamanism. The course concludes with a retrospective analysis of anthropological approaches to the study of Shamanism and its relation to the history of religions.

The history of shamanism in pre-contact South and Mesoamerica follows a diverse, ranging pathway, much like the Amazon and Orinoco snake their way through the physical landscape of those regions.  Indeed, even determining the boundaries of who is a shaman and what activities connote shamanism is a difficult scholarly task.  It has been noted that the term shaman "has come to mean many things to many people."  Many scholars "are using shamanism to provide predictable, easy, and ultimately inadequate answers to what are often very complex questions about the relationship of ... religion, medicine, and politics in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica."  Shamans bring to light the spirits of the past; they use their skills to open the doorway between worlds, obtaining assistance from more powerful forces.  Calling forth the sacred, by use of festivals or at ritual locations, shamans "render primordial beings present again but in less absolute guise.

--Abstract--

        The Syncretism of Shamanism and Islam Gave Birth to Alevism which is 
                                                            “Anatolian Sufizm.”     
This paper examines the similarities between Shamanism and Alevism. For example, shamans from the Turkic speaking people of southern Siberia honor the supreme god Bay Ülgen. They believe he dwells in the highest heaven above the sun, the moon and the stars. When the shaman journeys to Bay Ülgen he whirls around in a tent to the accompaniment of the “sacred instrument” or “kopuz." He then lies on the floor while his soul travels on the back of an animal or a bird to Bay Ülgen. There are several birds who help the shaman, including the crane. On his journey the shaman imitates the bird’s voice and its flying movements. The crane is also a significant bird the for Alevis. When Alevis worship god they gather for the “Cem” ceremony and do a spiritual dance called the “Semah.”  During the “Semah of the Crane” the Alevis also imitate the crane’s flying movements. Men and women turn around to the accompaniment of the “sacred instrument" or saz and hear the words: “Hudey, Hudey." In some of the songs that accompany the Semah the word "Hudey" is repeated along with Allah: “Allah, Allah, Hudey Hudey.” The shamans of the Altay Turks call the Sky-God “Kuday” which sounds very similar to “Hudey.” Alevi people are assumed to be a branch of the Altay Turks who were practicing shamanism when they converted to Islam.  Because of this and other similarities I argue that Alevism evinces the syncretism of shamanism and Islam which I call “Anatolian Sufizm.”
      Key words: Shamanism, Alevism, Dede Korkut, Kopuz, Saz, Cem, Semah

This paper introduces the work of a legendary contemporary Indian Doctor, the Mandan (Crow) and Shawnee shaman, visionary and healer to an international conference of traditional wisdom-keepers, spiritual leaders, clinical psychologists, therapists, and scholars. The paper consists of the prepared remarks for the principal author/investigator, Ronald L. Boyer, and those of his co-presenters, Dr. Stanley Krippner and Carly Jean Turner. For the interested reader, a URL prompt for a rare 12 minute video clip of Boyer's ethnographic study with Journeyhawk can be found on p. 9 of the manuscript.

The presentation was entitled "A Tribute to Fawn Journeyhawk, Legendary Mandan/Shawnee Indian Doctor, Healer, and Visionary." The paper was presented at the International Society for the Study of Shamanism’s
33rd International Conference on Indigenous and Ancestral Wisdom, Healing and Transformation, Protecting Earth, Water, Air, & Light, Honoring the Wisdom of our Ancestors for Future Generations,
Santa Sabina Center, Dominican University, San Rafael, CA.

Al empezar a hablar de la vida religiosa de Euskal Herria y concretamente del papel de las mujeres llamadas sororas o seroras en ella, nos incumbe tener en cuenta los estrechos vínculos del presente trabajo con intentos de identificar, recuperar y actualizar costumbres, algunas de las cuales bastante perdidas o olvidadas, que, sin embargo, no hace mucho formaban parte de la vida diaria de los habitantes de Euskal Herria. Por eso el propósito del presente estudio no es meramente el de reunir una serie de textos, algunos bastante conocidos y otros menos, y ofrecer comentarios sobre ese aspecto de la vida religiosa como si tratara de algo meramente anecdótico o marginal; mas bien se trata de documentar en lo posible las costumbres correspondientes y a la vez llamar la atención del lector o lectora hacia el papel tan controvertido de esta institución a lo largo de muchos siglos. Al mismo tiempo, el análisis detenido de las funciones de las mujeres nos dejará identificar actitudes arraigadas cuya defensa causaría conflictos fuertes con las autoridades eclesiásticas a partir de los siglos XVI y XVII. Mientras los vascos defendían lo que ellos consideraban las costumbres y tradiciones vinculadas a las seroras, elementos inviolables de su cultura, al parecer los de fuera no compartían la misma opinión y por lo 28 Echegaray, 5. 29 Ibid., 110-118. 30 Barandiarán,[484][485]

Erstmalige Zusammenfassung der bekannt gewordenen linearbandkeramischen Plastiken aus Niederösterreich und Überblick über die diesbezüglichen Nachweise der Lengyelkultur des Waldviertels.

Die zweite - durch Neufunde ergänzte - Auflage erschien im Jahre 1998:

Hermann Maurer, Archäologische Zeugnisse religiöser Vorstellungen und Praktiken der frühen und mittleren Jungsteinzeit in Niederösterreich. Katalog IDOLE, Kunst und Kult im Waldviertel vor 7000 Jahren. Horn 1998, S. 23 - 137. Diese Veröffentlichung ist auch hier bei Academia eingestellt.

Darstellung des Forschungsstandes in Niederösterreich für den Zeitraum vom Paläolithikum bis zum späten Neolithikum. Geringfügig (betreffend einer Lengyelgefäßform) ergänzter Zweitdruck eines Vortragstextes, der im Jahre 1982 veröffentlicht wurde.
xxx
Kritische Bemerkungen zur  Interpretation dieser Objektgruppen.  Zitat (Seite 8):
"Wir wissen kaum etwas über den Ablauf solcher Kulthandlungen und ebensowenig über die Vielschichtigkeit und Vielfalt. Die auf uns gekommenen Quellen werden möglicherweise, auch wenn sie sich sehr ähneln, also zu einem Typus gehören, ganz konträren Praktiken gedient haben. Ein einziges Kultgerät kann sicherlich verschiedene Bedeutungsinhalte umschließen."
Zitat (Seite 34): "Die alteingeführte Bezeichnung "Idol" hat hinsichtlich ihrer Kürze sicherlich eine gewisse Berechtigung. Es muß nur von vorneherein klargestellt sein, daß damit keine spezielle Interpretation verbunden ist (Anmerkung 30)."

The article follows the travels and investigations of the late Sheikh Oruc Guvenc--a music anthropologist teacher of contemplative music and dance-- tracing the ancient roots of music in Turkic-Asian countries from Turkey to China, beginning with the healing music of the shamans, and the use of various magams or modes for amelioration of various ailments, later embraced in Sufi music throughout Asia and in classical Asian music forms as well.

Written by Sufi and Shamanic dance master and collaborator Azize Guvenc, and Joe Martin under the pen-name Yousef Daoud*
__________
*A pen name employed in Martin's work on religion and wisdom traditions.

Faerie Stones explores the Faerielore and Folklore associated with different stones and various crystal formations, from the ancient Neolithic arrows known as Elfshot to magical Faerie dusted geodes known as Fairy Cavern Quartz. It deals with the metaphysical aspects of the stones, their traditional uses and healing qualities, and discusses which types of Faerie and which Deities/Faerie Monarchs are associated with each stone. It also offers practical tips and two meditations for working with Faeries and stones for spiritual development. Aimed at all those who love Faeries and Crystals, it is ideal for the beginner or the more experienced practitioner

کاہن یا شامن پورے دردستان بلکہ وسطی ایشیاء و سائبریا تک پائے جاتے تھے، کچھ اثرات ابھی بھی مل جاتے ہیں۔ کالاش دستور میں کاہن یا شامان جس کو وہ دیہار کہتے ہیں بہت اہمیت کا حامل ہے، کالاش روایات میں دیہار سے بہت سارے واقعات منسوب ہیں، دیہار کالاش قبیلے کا روحانی رہنما ہے۔ جب تک کالاش دیش (رمبور، بریر اور بمبوریت کی وادیاں)  میں اسلام کا دخول نہیں ہوا تھا دیہار کا اثر رسوخ بہت زیادہ تھا، قیامِ پاکستان کے بعد بھی دیہار ہوتے رہیں ہیں اب اگرچہ دیہار کا ادارہ زوال پذیر ہے، خصوصاً جب سے کالاش دیش کو سڑک کے وسیلہ سے چترال ساتھ جوڑا گیا۔ کالاش دیہار کو چترال کی کھوار زبان میں بیٹان کہا جاتا ہے۔

The past year has witnessed the passing of many friends, including two of the iconic pioneers of humanistic and transpersonal psychology, Michael Harner and Stanley Keleman. Both men were highly original and innovative thinkers, major contributors to the field, and widely acknowledged co-creators of the Human Potential Movement whom I've had the distinct pleasure of knowing as mentors, colleagues, and personal friends for many decades.

Se propone aquí leer la deconstrucción de la soberanía en el seminario de Jacques Derrida, "La bestia y el soberano", a la luz del pensamiento amazónico, el cual sugiere que lo que vincula a la soberanía con la animalidad no es necesariamente una común exterioridad con respecto a la ley, sino capacidades compartidas por humanos y no-humanos que no son exteriores ni al lenguaje ni a la política. En los textos chamánicos suramericanos emerge la relación isonómica entre el jaguar y el chamán como expresión de una cosmopolítica en la cual se implican y se contienen mutuamente la soberanía y la libertad, lo humano y lo no-humano, la vida y la no-vida, la ley y su exterioridad.

Notes on a conversation with Zorigtbaatar Banzar, Shaman from Mongolia, in attendance at the 21st International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternative Modes of Healing.  Zorigtbaatar Banzar and his wife, Bayarmaa Osor, conversed with William C. Gough, Cynthia Larson, Richard Hiersch, and Bett Martinez in September 2004, thanks to translation assistance by Jamba Luvsan.