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SHAMANISM

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 798 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SHAMANISM , the name commonly given to the See also:

religion of the Ural-Altaic peoples. Properly speaking, however, there is nothing to distinguish Shamanism from the religions of other peoples in a similar See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage of culture. On the other See also:

hand, the shaman or See also:

PRIEST (Ger. Priester, Fr. pretre)

priest (Tungus saman, Altain Turk See also:

KAMA, or KAMADEVA

kama, cf. See also:

RUSSIAN

Russian kamlanie) performs duties which differ in some respects from those of the See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary magician; one of his See also:

main functions is to protect individuals from hostile supernatural See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence. He deals both with See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good and See also:

BAD, BCD

bad See also:

SPIRITS

spirits; he also performs sacrifices and procures oracles. The See also:

DRUM (early forms drome or dromme, a word common to many Teut. languages, cf. Dan. tromme, Ger. Trommel: the word is ultimately the same as " trumpet," and is probably onomatopoeic in origin; it appears late in Eng. about the middle of the 16th century)

drum (tungur) is an important See also:

INSTRUMENT (Lat. instrumentum, from insincere, to build up, furnish, arrange, prepare)

instrument in his ceremonies; it may be assumed that in many cases the effect of the preliminary performances is to induce autohypnotic phenomena. The shaman's See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office is held to be hereditary and his See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief assistants are ancestral spirits. See Radloff, Aus Sibirien, ii. ; C. de Harlez, Religion nationale See also:

des Tatares orientaux; Hiekisch, " See also:

Die Tungusen," Mitt. der anthropologischen Gesellschaft, Wien, xviii. 165-182; Revue de l'histoire des religions, xl. 321, See also:

IDYL, or IDYLL (Gr. ei5i XXeov, a descriptive piece, from ethos, a shape or style; Lat. idyllium)

idyl 51.

End of Article: SHAMANISM

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