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Jump to navigationJump to searchNew page: Image:lighterstill.jpgright|frame '''Shamanism''' is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world....
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'''Shamanism''' is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the [[spirit]] world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a '''shaman'''. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; following are beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism.
* [[Spirit]]s exist and they play important roles both in [[individual]] lives and in [[human]] society.
* The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
* Spirits can be [[good]] or evil.
* The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
* The shaman can employ [[trance]] inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy.
* The shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the [[supernatural]] world to search for answers.
* The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, [[omen]]s, and message-bearers. Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.[http://www.kirasalak.com/Peru.html] In contrast to organized religions like [[animism]] which are led by priests and which all members of a society practice, shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities. Shaman operate outside established religions, and, traditionally, they operate alone. Shaman can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.
==Etymology==
'''Shaman''' ˈʃɑːmən/, /ˈʃeɪmən, (|ˈshämən; ˈshā-|) originally referred to the traditional healers of [[Turkic]]-[[Mongol]] areas such as [[Northern Asia]] ([[Siberia]]) and [[Mongolia]]; ''šamán'' being the [[Turkic]] word for such a practitioner and meaning "he or she who knows." Other scholars assert that the word comes directly from the [[Manchu]] [[language]], and indeed is "the only commonly used English word that is a loan from this language". ISBN 1557865604
In contemporary English language usage, shaman has become interchangeable with the older [[English]] [[language]] pejorative term ''[[witch doctor]]''. This is anthropologically inaccurate, and has raised objections among academics and traditional healers, who assert the word comes from a specific place, people, and set of practices.
==Function==
Shaman perform a plethora of functions depending upon the society wherein they practise their art: healing;[http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/changing/journey/healing.html] or leading a [[sacrifice]] preserving the [[tradition]] by [[storytelling]] and songs; [[fortune-telling]]; acting as a ''psychopomp'' (literal meaning, “guide of souls”). In some cultures, a shaman may fulfill several functions in one person.
The [[necromancer]] in Greek mythology might be considered a shaman as the necromancer could rally spirits and raise the dead to utilize them as slaves, soldiers and tools for divination.
The functions of a shaman may include either guiding to their proper abode the souls of the dead (which may be guided either one-at-a-time or in a cumulative group, depending on culture), and/or curing (healing) of ailments. The ailments may be either purely physical afflictions -- such as disease, which may be cured by flattering, threatening, or wrestling the disease-spirit (sometimes trying all these, sequentially), and which may be completed by displaying some supposedly extracted token of the disease-spirit (displaying this, even if "fraudulent", is supposed to impress the disease-spirit that it has been, or is in the process of being, defeated, so that it will retreat and stay out of the patient's body) --, or else mental (including psychosomatic) afflictions -- such as persistent terror (on account of some frightening experience), which may be likewise cured by similar methods.
Usually in most languages a different term, other than the one translated "shaman", is applied to a religious official ("priest") leading sacrificial rites, or to a reconteur ("sage") of traditional lore; there may be more of an overlap in functions (with that of a shaman), however, in the case of an interpreter of omens or of dreams.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman]
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: Religion]]
'''Shamanism''' is a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the [[spirit]] world. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a '''shaman'''. There are many variations of shamanism throughout the world; following are beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism.
* [[Spirit]]s exist and they play important roles both in [[individual]] lives and in [[human]] society.
* The shaman can communicate with the spirit world.
* Spirits can be [[good]] or evil.
* The shaman can treat sickness caused by evil spirits.
* The shaman can employ [[trance]] inducing techniques to incite visionary ecstasy.
* The shaman's spirit can leave the body to enter the [[supernatural]] world to search for answers.
* The shaman evokes animal images as spirit guides, [[omen]]s, and message-bearers. Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits which affect the lives of the living.[http://www.kirasalak.com/Peru.html] In contrast to organized religions like [[animism]] which are led by priests and which all members of a society practice, shamanism requires individualized knowledge and special abilities. Shaman operate outside established religions, and, traditionally, they operate alone. Shaman can gather into associations, as Indian tantric practitioners have done.
==Etymology==
'''Shaman''' ˈʃɑːmən/, /ˈʃeɪmən, (|ˈshämən; ˈshā-|) originally referred to the traditional healers of [[Turkic]]-[[Mongol]] areas such as [[Northern Asia]] ([[Siberia]]) and [[Mongolia]]; ''šamán'' being the [[Turkic]] word for such a practitioner and meaning "he or she who knows." Other scholars assert that the word comes directly from the [[Manchu]] [[language]], and indeed is "the only commonly used English word that is a loan from this language". ISBN 1557865604
In contemporary English language usage, shaman has become interchangeable with the older [[English]] [[language]] pejorative term ''[[witch doctor]]''. This is anthropologically inaccurate, and has raised objections among academics and traditional healers, who assert the word comes from a specific place, people, and set of practices.
==Function==
Shaman perform a plethora of functions depending upon the society wherein they practise their art: healing;[http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/changing/journey/healing.html] or leading a [[sacrifice]] preserving the [[tradition]] by [[storytelling]] and songs; [[fortune-telling]]; acting as a ''psychopomp'' (literal meaning, “guide of souls”). In some cultures, a shaman may fulfill several functions in one person.
The [[necromancer]] in Greek mythology might be considered a shaman as the necromancer could rally spirits and raise the dead to utilize them as slaves, soldiers and tools for divination.
The functions of a shaman may include either guiding to their proper abode the souls of the dead (which may be guided either one-at-a-time or in a cumulative group, depending on culture), and/or curing (healing) of ailments. The ailments may be either purely physical afflictions -- such as disease, which may be cured by flattering, threatening, or wrestling the disease-spirit (sometimes trying all these, sequentially), and which may be completed by displaying some supposedly extracted token of the disease-spirit (displaying this, even if "fraudulent", is supposed to impress the disease-spirit that it has been, or is in the process of being, defeated, so that it will retreat and stay out of the patient's body) --, or else mental (including psychosomatic) afflictions -- such as persistent terror (on account of some frightening experience), which may be likewise cured by similar methods.
Usually in most languages a different term, other than the one translated "shaman", is applied to a religious official ("priest") leading sacrificial rites, or to a reconteur ("sage") of traditional lore; there may be more of an overlap in functions (with that of a shaman), however, in the case of an interpreter of omens or of dreams.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman]
[[Category: General Reference]]
[[Category: Religion]]
