15.
“Doomed to Inspiration”
In the late nineteenth century, Waldemar Bogoras was exiled to northeastern Siberia for his revolutionary activities. He decided to study the area’s indigenous inhabitants. In 1900, the American Museum of Natural History mounted an expedition to the North Pacific and hired him to study the Chukchee people. In 1901, Bogoras fled Russia and settled in New York City, where he wrote The Chukchee. This book has since become an ethnographic classic because it is clear and detailed. Here Bogoras discusses the difficulties of becoming a Chukchee shaman.
The shamanic call manifests itself in various ways. Sometimes it is an inner voice, which bids the person enter into intercourse with the “spirits.” If the person is dilatory in obeying, the calling “spirit” soon appears in some outward, visible shape, and communicates the call in a more explicit way. . . .
Young people, as a rule, are exceedingly reluctant to obey the call, especially if it involves the adoption of some characteristic device in clothing or in the mode of life. They refuse to take the drum and to call the “spirits,” leave the amulets in the field, from very fear, etc.
The parents of young persons “doomed to inspiration” act differently, according to temperament and family conditions. Sometimes they protest against the call coming to their child, and try to induce it to reject the “spirits” and to keep to the ordinary life. This happens mostly in the case of only children, because of the danger pertaining to the shamanistic call, especially in the beginning. The protest of the parents is, however, of no avail, because the rejection of the “spirits” is much more dangerous even than the acceptance of their call. A young man thwarted in his call to inspiration will either sicken and shortly die, or else the “spirits” will induce him to renounce his home and go far away, where he may follow his vocation without hindrance.
On the other hand, it is entirely permissible to abandon shamanistic performances at a more mature age, after several years of practice; and the anger of the “spirits” is not incurred by it. I met several persons who asserted that formerly they had been great shamans, but that now they had given up most of their exercises. As reason for this, they gave illness, age or simply a decrease of their shamanistic power, which in the course of time manifested itself. One said that because of illness he felt as if his arms and legs were frozen, and that thereafter they did not thaw, so that he was unable to “shake himself” well upon the drum. Another said that he and his “spirits” became tired of each other. Most of the cases, probably, were simply the result of recovery from the nervous condition which had made the persons in question fit subjects for the inspiration. While the shaman is in possession of the inspiration, he must practise, and cannot hide his power. Otherwise it will manifest itself in the form of bloody sweat or in a fit of violent madness similar to epilepsy.
There are parents who wish their child to answer the call. This happens especially in families rich in children, with large herds, and with several tents of their own. Such a family is not inclined to feel anxious about a possible loss of one of its members. On the contrary, they are desirous of having a shaman of their own—made to order, so to speak—a special solicitor before the “spirits,” and a caretaker in all extraordinary casualties of life.
A shaman by the name of Tei’ñet, in the country near the Wolverene River, told me that, when the call came to him and he did not want to obey, his father gave him the drum and induced him to begin the exercise. After that he continued to feel “bashful” for several years. On days of ceremonials he even fled from the camp and hid himself, lest his relatives should find him out and bring him back to camp, to show to the assembled people his newly acquired and growing skill.
For men, the preparatory stage of shamanistic inspiration is in most cases very painful, and extends over a long time. The call comes in an abrupt and obscure manner, leaving the young novice in much uncertainty regarding it. He feels “bashful” and frightened; he doubts his own disposition and strength, as has been the case with all seers, from Moses down. Half unconsciously and half against his own will, his whole soul undergoes a strange and painful transformation. This period may last months, and sometimes even years. The young novice, the “newly inspired,” loses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life. He ceases to work, eats but little and without relishing the food, ceases to talk to people, and does not even answer their questions. The greater part of his time he spends in sleep.
Some keep to the inner room and go out but rarely. Others wander about in the wilderness, under the pretext of hunting or of keeping watch over the herd, but often without taking along any arms of the lasso or the herdsman. A wanderer like this, however, must be closely watched, otherwise he might lie down on the open tundra and sleep for three or four days, incurring the danger, in winter, of being buried in drifting snow. . . .
The preparatory period is compared by the Chukchee to a long, severe illness; and the acquirement of inspiration, to a recovery. There are cases of young persons who, having suffered for years from lingering illness (usually of a nervous character), at last feel a call to take to shamanistic practice, and by this means overcome the disease. Of course it is difficult to draw the line of demarcation, and all these cases finally come under one and the same class. The preparatory period of inspiration is designated by the Chukchee by a special term, meaning “he gathers shamanistic power.” With weaker shamans and with women, the preparatory period is less painful, and the call to inspiration comes mainly in dreams.
To people of more mature age the shamanistic call may come during some great misfortune, dangerous and protracted illness, sudden loss of family or property, etc. Then the person, having no other resource, turns to the “spirits,” and claims their assistance. It is generally considered that in such cases a favorable issue is possible only with the aid of the “spirits:” therefore a man who has withstood some extraordinary trial of his life is considered as having within himself the possibilities of a shaman, and he often feels bound to enter into closer relations with the “spirits,” lest he incur their displeasure at his negligence and lack of gratitude. . . .
The single means used by the Chukchee shamans, novice or experienced, for communication with “spirits,” is the beating of the drum and singing. . . .
The beating of the drum, notwithstanding its seeming simplicity, requires some skill, and the novice must spend considerable time before he can acquire the desired degree of perfection. This has reference especially to the power of endurance of the performer. The same may be said of the singing. The manifestations continue for several hours, during all which time the shaman exercises the most violent activity without scarcely a pause. After the performance he must not show any signs of fatigue, because he is supposed to be sustained by the “spirits;” and, moreover, the greater part of the exercise is asserted to be the work of the “spirits” themselves, either while entering his body, or while outside his body. The degree of endurance required for all this, and the ability to pass quickly from the highest excitement to a state of normal quietude, can, of course, be acquired only by long practice. Indeed, all the shamans I conversed with said that they had to spend a year, or even two years, before sufficient strength of hand, and freedom of voice, were given to them by the “spirits.” Some asserted that during all this preparatory time they kept closely to the inner room, taking up the drum several times a day, and beating it as long as their strength would allow.
The only other means of training for inspiration, of which I am aware, is abstention from all fat and rich foods, as well as great moderation in eating. The same strictness is observed ever afterwards in the preparation for each individual performance, in which the shaman tries to abstain wholly from food.
Various tricks performed by the Chukchee shamans, including ventriloquism, have to be learned in the preparatory stage. However, I could obtain no detailed information on this point, since the shamans, of course, asserted that the tricks were done by “spirits,” and denied having any hand whatever in proceedings of such a character. . . .
Most of the shamans I knew claimed to have had no teachers, but to have acquired their art by their own individual efforts. I am not aware of a single instance of the transfer of shamanistic power in the whole domain of Chukchee folklore.