(ALL THIS AND A BAG OF CHIPS)

Shaman (pronounced shah-MAN) is a word from the language of the Tungus people of Siberia. In the early 1900's anthropologists and ethnographers only used it to describe spiritual specialists from this region. By the 1960's people were inappropriately using the word 'shaman' to describe all manner of individuals throughout the world who were involved in some sort of spiritual practice. It has been used interchangeably with medicine man, medicine-woman, sorcerer, magician and witch doctor. This has led to profound misunderstanding and confusion. This confusion is further compounded due to the encompassing nature of shamanism. A shaman may be a medicine-woman or a herbalist or a potter, but being a medicine-woman does not make one automatically a shaman.

Shamanic beliefs and methodologies are remarkably similar in cultures throughout the world, including Asia, aboriginal Australia, Europe, native North and South America, Siberia, and South Africa. Shamanism appears across diverse regional, historical and political settings, including nomadic groups, hunter-gatherers, agriculturists, and city-states. Archaeological evidence suggests that shamanic practice is at least twenty thousand years old. Based on anthropological and historical research gathered from remaining tribal cultures, the form and objectives of the profession have been fairly consistent throughout this time.

Shamanism has proved difficult to define since it is applied to a variety of cultural and social structures. Mircea Eliade (1964), in his seminal cross-cultural study of shamanism, concluded that it is the undertaking of the 'ecstatic journey' which marks a shaman. Ecstasy is defined as an altered state of consciousness, one in which the shaman enters and leaves at will. During this trance the shaman's soul leaves his body and ascends to the sky or the underworld. The journey is undertaken to restore power or souls.

Furst (1972) stated, "Wherever shamanism is still encountered today, … the shaman functions fundamentally in much the same way and with similar techniques - as guardian of the psychic and ecological equilibrium of his group and its members, as intermediary between the seen and unseen worlds, as master of spirits, as supernatural curer, etc." The shaman is able " to transcend the human condition and pass freely back and forth through the different cosmological planes…". Harner (1980), has coined the terms 'Ordinary State of Consciousness (OSC)' for ordinary reality, and 'Shamanic State of Consciousness (SSC)' for non ordinary reality in describing these cosmological planes.

Hultkrantz (1987) concluded that shamanism is a "…complex of beliefs, rites and traditions clustered around the shaman and his activities. They are so profiled and domineering that outsiders have mistaken shamanism for a religion." He observed that shamanism is really a belief system, incorporating a set of rules guiding everyday behavior.

The Russian scholar Hoppal (1987), wrote that shamanism is a "…complex system of beliefs which includes the knowledge of and belief in the names of helping spirits in the shamanic pantheon, the memory of certain texts (songs, legends, myths), rules for activities (rituals, sacrifices, techniques of ecstasy), objects, tools and paraphernalia used by shamans (drum, stick, mirror, costumes)." These sets of elements differ in every culture. Shamanism speaks of beliefs, attitudes, convictions or ideological practices. It does not constitute a religion which is a systematized set of beliefs. It involves the acceptance of certain social roles including healer, poet/story teller and ideologue.

Shamanism presents an integrated worldview encompassing physical healing, psychological problem solving and the conscious exploration of spiritual or sacred realms. The definition of shamanism can be more easily understood when we look at the role of the shaman within the shamanic complex.