19.

“The Shaman Practices on the Verge of Insanity”

MARIE ANTOINETTE CZAPLICKA

 

(1914)

 

 

Polish-born anthropologist Marie Antoinette Czaplicka wrote a thesis at Oxford University in which she used the literature on Siberian shamans and summarized the medicalized view that shamans are mentally unstable.

 

 

Although hysteria (called by some writers “Arctic hysteria”) lies at the bottom of the shaman’s vocation, yet at the same time the shaman differs from an ordinary patient suffering from this illness in possessing an extremely great power of mastering himself in the periods between the actual fits, which occur during the ceremonies. [As Sieroshevski wrote:] “A good shaman ought to possess many unusual qualities, but the chief is the power, acquired by tact and knowledge, to influence the people round him.” His reserved attitude has undoubtedly a great influence on the people among whom he lives. He must know how and when to have his fit of inspiration, which sometimes rises to frenzy, and also how to preserve his high “tabooed” attitude in his daily life. . . .

Whether his calling be hereditary or not, a shaman must be a capable—nay, an inspired person. Of course, this is practically the same thing as saying that he is nervous and excitable, often to the verge of insanity. So long as he practices his vocation, however, the shaman never passes this verge. It often happens that before entering the calling persons have had serious nervous affections. Thus a Chukchee female shaman, Telpina, according to her own statement, had been violently insane for three years, during which time her household had taken precautions that she should do no harm to the people or to herself.

[As Jochelson wrote:] “I was told that people about to become shamans have fits of wild paroxysms alternating with a condition of complete exhaustion. They will lie motionless for two or three days without partaking of food or drink. Finally they retire to the wilderness, where they spend their time enduring hunger and cold in order to prepare themselves for their calling.”

To be called to become a shaman is generally equivalent to being afflicted with hysteria; then the accepting of the call means recovery. [Bogoraz wrote:] “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 up shamanistic practice and by this means overcome the disease.”