There are tremendous controversies regarding Shamanism in modern neo-paganism. There is an argument that Shamanism is the root of religious or spiritual practice globally, but this is heavily questioned primarily based on the lack of concrete evidence. It is further suggested that all indigenous spiritual practice is broadly shamanic but again this is heavily questioned on t...he grounds that this fundamentally misunderstands shamanism, which itself is a controversial assumption, and that the beliefs of indigenous peoples are being interpreted by anthropologists who may, or may not be interpreting them correctly. Beyond these issues there is an additional question over the use of hallucinogenic drugs, both natural and man made as part of shamanic practice.
The origins of shamanic practice are thought to stem from a root source in the Indus Valley region of India and to have spread with the migration of early man through the Middle East and into Europe after the last ice age 15000 years ago. It would make sense that at the time of the advent of agriculture and the domestication of animals, as small communities were developing, there would be a need for someone to assume responsibility within the group for finding healing plants, organizing work parties, taking decisions for the group and providing advice and guidance. This is not necessarily synonymous with the role of a community leader who, in times of competition would be more likely to have to take a warrior role, a different skill set to that exhibited by the shaman. So, we can argue that there is a perceived need for a healing/spiritual role within early communities, and this is backed up to an extent by archaeological evidence of bone setting and long term care for the sick and injured.
There is evidence from around this time for changes in funerary practices as well with a move towards inhumations with grave goods as well as cremation burials suggestive of a change in attitude towards death and the possibility that death is not the end. This would again fit well with the transition to an agrarian society with its focus on the cycles of nature, birth, life, death and rebirth. So we have the possibility of early spiritual and societal practices that could be associated with some sort of belief system, but is there any evidence to suggest that this would take the form of shamanic practice as we would consider it today? That will almost certainly depend on how we perceive shamanism from a modern context.
In broad terms shamanism appears to consist of a combination of an understanding of medicinal herbs and “natural” healing, an understanding of weather patterns and how they can affect communities, and an understanding of the physical world as being only a part of a greater spiritual whole, and having the ability to communicate with that spiritual world through trance states and altered states of consciousness. This is perhaps as close as we can come to a modern definition, but how does this fit with a potential archetype shamanic practice? There is evidence to suggest that certain sites were considered to be “special” particularly sources of clean water such as springs, as well as areas that would potentially have good hunting nearby such as groves of trees and cliff edges, suggestive of an understanding of landscape and the importance of location which could be interpreted as the foundation of spiritual belief building up around such places. When this is combined with the evidence of what are perceived as fetish idols such as the Willendorf Venus we can begin to imagine that there was a belief system being built around the natural World and around people and their interaction with it. It should be noted however that this can be questioned in terms of the cave paints and geoglyphs of hunting scenes that are found across most of the world and may or may not be linked to beliefs beyond the mundane world. It appears in many cases that the early geoglyphs served the purpose of passing on messages but that these changed to become more stylized and potentially more esoteric in form, particularly when considering some of the more priapic imagery used in art from around the period that we are talking about.
This would suggest at least some surface correlation between what we understand today as shamanic practice and what our ancestors may have been practicing but it doesn’t address the question of the belief that shamanic practice is global. It could be argued that if some form of shamanic practice started early enough in human pre-history that it could have spread with the migration waves but given that there is good evidence for the settling of Australia and South America somewhere around 60000 years ago it is unlikely that we are going to find hard evidence from the archaeology of this period so it seems unlikely. What could be a better suggestion is based on linguistics. There have been numerous studies into the parallel development of language and the commonality of certain sound combinations particularly around onomatopoeic words, and I believe that this could be extrapolated to extend to finding solutions to similar problems such as how to cure a headache or set a bone, in the same way that it has been extended to suggest that one of the reasons for the development of pyramids around the world is in response to having to address the same engineering problems.
This seems a more likely situation to a global or “golden age” religion, and it would allow for the possibility that the various practices that come under the banner of shamanism, be that Native American, South American, Australiasian, Siberian, Northern European or whatever else could have a kind of shared heritage in the sense of similar people addressing similar problems with similar resources. This also dovetails quite nicely for me with my understanding of modern shamanic practice, but it does leave the thorny issue of the use of psychedelics. From archaeological and anthropological studies particularly of the various bog bodies found in Northern Europe and Siberia we have evidence of the consumption of a variety of fungi which have psychoactive ingredients. From South America we have the use of toad secretions and coca leaf, from Mexico the use of peyote as a medicinal herb, from Africa the use of THC the psychoactive component in cannabinoids as a psychoactive painkiller, and from Australasia we have anecdotal evidence of the use of tree sap for similar purposes. Research into brain function in recent years has shown that the effects of psychoactive substances can be similar to the effects of deep meditation seen in many of the more mainstream religions. The research has shown similar patterns in Buddhist monks during meditation, Catholic nuns during prayer and chanting liturgy, Sufi dervishes during dances and Sikh and Hindu tabla players during drumming.
It seems that the question is in part about whether the psychoactive substances used by shamans are just creating an altered mind state or if they are doing something more that we have yet to discover? If the former, then there could be an argument that the use of these substances can be replaced by, for example, meditation, but if the later then there would be an argument for the use of these substances. This, of course, leads to a separate issue of legality since in many countries the use of psychoactives is proscribed in law, even those used for “cultural” purposes. I think more research is needed in order to establish the function and long term impact of psychoactive use, but this research is not currently being carried out in sufficient quantity or quality because of the negative image of psychoactives in mainstream life.
In the UK the issue is moot anyway given the current legislation regarding the use of psychoactives, but it is considered by many to be at the core of Shamanic practice and is something that it would be wrong to ignore.
The origins of shamanic practice are thought to stem from a root source in the Indus Valley region of India and to have spread with the migration of early man through the Middle East and into Europe after the last ice age 15000 years ago. It would make sense that at the time of the advent of agriculture and the domestication of animals, as small communities were developing, there would be a need for someone to assume responsibility within the group for finding healing plants, organizing work parties, taking decisions for the group and providing advice and guidance. This is not necessarily synonymous with the role of a community leader who, in times of competition would be more likely to have to take a warrior role, a different skill set to that exhibited by the shaman. So, we can argue that there is a perceived need for a healing/spiritual role within early communities, and this is backed up to an extent by archaeological evidence of bone setting and long term care for the sick and injured.
There is evidence from around this time for changes in funerary practices as well with a move towards inhumations with grave goods as well as cremation burials suggestive of a change in attitude towards death and the possibility that death is not the end. This would again fit well with the transition to an agrarian society with its focus on the cycles of nature, birth, life, death and rebirth. So we have the possibility of early spiritual and societal practices that could be associated with some sort of belief system, but is there any evidence to suggest that this would take the form of shamanic practice as we would consider it today? That will almost certainly depend on how we perceive shamanism from a modern context.
In broad terms shamanism appears to consist of a combination of an understanding of medicinal herbs and “natural” healing, an understanding of weather patterns and how they can affect communities, and an understanding of the physical world as being only a part of a greater spiritual whole, and having the ability to communicate with that spiritual world through trance states and altered states of consciousness. This is perhaps as close as we can come to a modern definition, but how does this fit with a potential archetype shamanic practice? There is evidence to suggest that certain sites were considered to be “special” particularly sources of clean water such as springs, as well as areas that would potentially have good hunting nearby such as groves of trees and cliff edges, suggestive of an understanding of landscape and the importance of location which could be interpreted as the foundation of spiritual belief building up around such places. When this is combined with the evidence of what are perceived as fetish idols such as the Willendorf Venus we can begin to imagine that there was a belief system being built around the natural World and around people and their interaction with it. It should be noted however that this can be questioned in terms of the cave paints and geoglyphs of hunting scenes that are found across most of the world and may or may not be linked to beliefs beyond the mundane world. It appears in many cases that the early geoglyphs served the purpose of passing on messages but that these changed to become more stylized and potentially more esoteric in form, particularly when considering some of the more priapic imagery used in art from around the period that we are talking about.
This would suggest at least some surface correlation between what we understand today as shamanic practice and what our ancestors may have been practicing but it doesn’t address the question of the belief that shamanic practice is global. It could be argued that if some form of shamanic practice started early enough in human pre-history that it could have spread with the migration waves but given that there is good evidence for the settling of Australia and South America somewhere around 60000 years ago it is unlikely that we are going to find hard evidence from the archaeology of this period so it seems unlikely. What could be a better suggestion is based on linguistics. There have been numerous studies into the parallel development of language and the commonality of certain sound combinations particularly around onomatopoeic words, and I believe that this could be extrapolated to extend to finding solutions to similar problems such as how to cure a headache or set a bone, in the same way that it has been extended to suggest that one of the reasons for the development of pyramids around the world is in response to having to address the same engineering problems.
This seems a more likely situation to a global or “golden age” religion, and it would allow for the possibility that the various practices that come under the banner of shamanism, be that Native American, South American, Australiasian, Siberian, Northern European or whatever else could have a kind of shared heritage in the sense of similar people addressing similar problems with similar resources. This also dovetails quite nicely for me with my understanding of modern shamanic practice, but it does leave the thorny issue of the use of psychedelics. From archaeological and anthropological studies particularly of the various bog bodies found in Northern Europe and Siberia we have evidence of the consumption of a variety of fungi which have psychoactive ingredients. From South America we have the use of toad secretions and coca leaf, from Mexico the use of peyote as a medicinal herb, from Africa the use of THC the psychoactive component in cannabinoids as a psychoactive painkiller, and from Australasia we have anecdotal evidence of the use of tree sap for similar purposes. Research into brain function in recent years has shown that the effects of psychoactive substances can be similar to the effects of deep meditation seen in many of the more mainstream religions. The research has shown similar patterns in Buddhist monks during meditation, Catholic nuns during prayer and chanting liturgy, Sufi dervishes during dances and Sikh and Hindu tabla players during drumming.
It seems that the question is in part about whether the psychoactive substances used by shamans are just creating an altered mind state or if they are doing something more that we have yet to discover? If the former, then there could be an argument that the use of these substances can be replaced by, for example, meditation, but if the later then there would be an argument for the use of these substances. This, of course, leads to a separate issue of legality since in many countries the use of psychoactives is proscribed in law, even those used for “cultural” purposes. I think more research is needed in order to establish the function and long term impact of psychoactive use, but this research is not currently being carried out in sufficient quantity or quality because of the negative image of psychoactives in mainstream life.
In the UK the issue is moot anyway given the current legislation regarding the use of psychoactives, but it is considered by many to be at the core of Shamanic practice and is something that it would be wrong to ignore.
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