Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T07:13:02.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identifying the nature of shamanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Michael James Winkelman
Michael James Winkelman*
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281. michaeljwinkelman@gmail.commichaelwinkelman.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Singh conflates diverse religious statuses into a single category that includes practitioners with roles that differ significantly from empirical characteristics of shamans. The rejection of biological models of trance and conspicuous display models misses the evolutionary roots of shamanism involving the social functions of ritual in producing psychological and social integration and ritual healing.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e90
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cardeña, E. (1996) Just floating on the sky: A comparison of shamanic and hypnotic phenomenology. In: 6th Jahrbuch für Transkulturelle Medizin und Psychotherapie [6th Yearbook of cross-cultural medicine and psychotherapy], ed. Quekelbherge, R. & Eigner, D., pp. 85–98. Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung.Google Scholar
Rossano, M. (2009) Ritual behavior and the origins of modern cognition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19(2):243–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossano, M. (2015) The evolutionary emergence of costly rituals. PaleoAnthropology 201578–100.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (1992) Shamans, priests and witches: A cross-cultural study of magico-religious practitioners. Anthropological Research Papers No. 44, Arizona State University.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2009) Shamanism and the origins of spirituality and ritual healing. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 3(4):458–89.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2010a) Shamanism: A biopsychosocial paradigm of consciousness and healing. ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2010b) The shamanic paradigm: Evidence from ethnology, neuropsychology and ethology. Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture 3(2):159–82.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2011a) A paradigm for understanding altered consciousness: The integrative mode of consciousness. In: Altering consciousness: Multidisciplinary perspectives, vol. 1, pp. 23–44. Preager.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2011b) Shamanism and the alteration of consciousness. In: Altering consciousness: Multidisciplinary perspectives, vol. 1, ed. Cardeña, E. and Winkelman, M., pp. 159–80. Praeger.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (2015) Shamanism as a biogenetic structural paradigm for humans' evolved social psychology. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 7(4):267–77.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. J. (1990) Shaman and other “magico-religious” healers: A cross-cultural study of their origins, nature and social transformations. Ethos 18(3):308–52.Google Scholar