The When and Where of Shamanism:
Origins and Distribution
Man is the being who, however dimly and half-consciously, always understands,
and must understand, his own being historically.
—William Barrett 22
ORIGINS
Shamanism is one of humankind’s most ancient traditions, spanning perhaps tens of thousands of years. The American anthropologist Michael Brown points out that “anthropologists are fond of reminding their students that shamanism, not prostitution, is the world’s oldest profession.”36 Not only is it the oldest profession but also one of the most widespread, found today in areas as scattered as Siberia and South America.
The striking similarities among shamans raise the obvious question of how these similarities emerged. Perhaps they developed spontaneously in different locations, evoked by innate human tendencies or recurrent social needs. Another possibility is that they resulted from migration from common ancestors.
Migration alone seems unlikely. Shamanism occurs among tribes with so many different languages that diffusion from a common ancestor must have begun at least 20,000 years ago.416; 418 But would shamanic practices remain so remarkably stable in so many cultures, while language and social practices changed so drastically? Migration alone can hardly account for shamanism’s far-flung distribution.
It follows that some recurring combination of social forces and innate abilities led to the repeated discovery of shamanic practices and states of consciousness in diverse times and cultures. Certainly humans seem to have an innate tendency to enter altered states, and some of those states are very specific. For example, for 2,500 years Buddhists have accessed eight highly specific states of extreme concentration called jhanas, while yogis have accessed similar concentrative samadhis.37; 121 Clearly, the human mind tends to settle into certain specific states of consciousness if given the right conditions or practices, and this suggests an underlying neural basis.a
Similarly for shamanic states. These can be induced by diverse conditions, and most people can experience them to some degree152—all of which suggests that the mind has an inherent tendency to adopt them. Since common experiences such as isolation, fatigue, hunger, or rhythmic sound induce them, they would likely be discovered by many cultures and generations. Given that shamanic states can be meaningful and healing, the methods for inducing them would likely be transmitted across generations, supportive beliefs would develop, and shamanism would be born again.
DISTRIBUTION
Since shamanism has endured so long and spread so widely, an obvious question is why does it occur in some cultures and not in others? Cross-cultural research suggests some answers. The anthropologist Michael Winkelman compared magico-religious practices in forty-seven societies spanning almost 4,000 years from 1750 B.C. (the Babylonians) to the present.417; 418 Remarkably, prior to Western influences, all of these cultures used altered states of consciousness for religious and healing practices.
But although shamanic practices extend to most regions of the world, they occur primarily in particular types of societies: nomadic and hunting and gathering tribes. These people have little agriculture and almost no social classes or political organization. Within these tribes the shaman plays many roles: healer, ritualist, mythologist, medium, and master of spirits. With their many roles and the power vacuum offered by a classless society, shamans exert a major influence on their people.
However, as societies evolve and become more complex, the situation changes dramatically. As societies become fixed rather than nomadic, agricultural rather than foraging, and socially and politically stratified rather than classless, then shamanism, as such, dwindles. In its place appear a variety of specialists who focus on one of the shaman’s many roles. Instead of shamans we now find healers, priests, mediums, and sorcerers/witches. These specialize respectively in medical, ritual, spirit possession, and malevolent magic practices. A contemporary parallel is the waning of the medical general practitioner or G.P., together with the multiplication of medical specialists.
It is interesting to compare some of the ancient specialists with the shamanic G.P. who preceded them. Priests emerge as representatives of organized religion and are often moral and even political leaders. They lead social rituals and pray to the spiritual forces on behalf of their society. Yet unlike their shamanic ancestors, they usually have little direct experience of altered states.167
Shamans are often ambivalent figures, revered for their healing power yet sometimes also feared for their malevolent magic. Whereas priests inherit the shamans’ beneficial religious and magical roles, sorcerers and witches are viewed as the specialists in malevolent magic, and, as such, they tend to be feared and persecuted. For example, Michael Brown found that the Aguaruna people of Peru “insist that sorcerers, when discovered, must be executed for the good of society.”36
Mediums specialize in spirit possession. While they do not undertake journeys, they do enter ASCs in which they experience themselves receiving messages from the spirit world. Recall that some researchers use a broad definition of shamanism that includes anyone using altered states to serve their community. Such a definition fails to distinguish shamans and mediums, both of whom use altered states, though of quite different types. Since shamans are usually found in foraging societies and mediums in more complex ones, this provides a further reason to distinguish them.30; 417
As cultures evolve, so too do their religious practitioners. Though shamans as such largely disappear from complex societies, most of their roles and skills are retained by various specialists. However, there is one exception: journeying. None of the shaman’s successors focus on journeying.
Why this practice should largely disappear is a mystery. Michael Harner attributes it to suppression of shamanic practices by organized religion; during the nineteenth century it was a criminal offense in parts of Europe to own a drum. Another factor may have been the discovery of techniques such as yoga and meditation. However, it is unclear whether these factors alone could account for the virtual absence in complex societies of a practice that was powerful enough to spread around the world, survive for thousands of years, and form the basis for humankind’s most ancient and durable religious tradition.
Figure 1. The rock engravings of Les Trois Frères cave in France are among the most dramatic examples of early human art. Tens of thousands of years ago, unknown artists crawled deep underground to draw a tangle of hundreds of animals. These animals surround a lone bison-headed human figure, which may represent one of humankind’s earliest shamans. (Tracing by Henri Breuil of rock engravings in Les Trois Frères cave.)