SLFK 215, October 7, 2003
Shamanism as an ecstatic practice
That has to do with well-being &endash; physical and psychological
That was probably extant in the area that we are dealing with
Started presenting shamanic cure
Those elements that are like western medicine &endash; pharmacological elements
Then talked about techniques of ecstasy and what they do for the shaman and the patient
The shamanic cure is different from what we consider medicine in terms of inducing an ecstatic state
But other traits also
The shamanic cure is like a performance
There is always an audience
Imagine a medical procedure in front of an audience in the US
Is done in teaching hospitals and, normally, most people try to avoid
Only the poorest do it to save on care
And the spectators are very different &endash; they are NEUTRAL and distant observers
In a shamanic cure they are participants
They are part of the cure
Shamanic cure &endash; there is always an audience; this is routine
Part of the reason is that a shamanic cure frequently has to do with social manipulation
The problem that makes the person sick is not simply microbial
Not just an infection
Can be one, but usually something caused by social disequilibrium
Person who gets sick is in a difficult social position
Men in a society that is patriarchal and matrilocal
People who have conflict with family, neighbors
And part of cure is manipulating social relations
Turner on what a shaman does prior to performing a cure
But there is also a classic description of a shamanic cure of a woman in difficult childbirth
Okay, she may have conflict with in-laws
Point here is that a big part of the shamanic cure is his telling a story that makes sense of the illness for a patient
Musters the patient's resources and energy so that the body can fight the physical problem
Types of stories
Soul loss and soul capture
Give examples
Go through a séance
Shaman comes into village &endash; talks with people to ascertain the nature of the problem
Talks with patient
Time and place set for séance
Usually sacrifice
The séance begins
The introduction &endash; setting the scene, setting the mood
Music, chanting, dance
Can use drugs, though the good ones supposedly don't
This can be general fumigation &endash; as in burning of herbs
Or shaman drinks an elixir
Patient may also drink, perhaps other members of audience
Proof of trance &endash; scene and mood achieved
Shaman may speak in tongues
May wound self without bleeding, or touch extremely hot objects
May show proof of spirit presence
Suspension of rattle
Voices of the spirits
The cure &endash; tells a story of self going on a journey to the spirit world to rescue the soul of the patient
Either it is lost and needs to be found
Or it is being held captive by an evil spirit
Shaman needs to fight this spirit, sometimes with the help of tutelary spirits
In case of lost soul, tutelary spirits may tell him or her where the lost soul is hidden
Positive outcome &endash; in the story &endash; soul is found or rescued
Physical evidence
Produces bloody worm which was the illness
(piece of down that had been held in the mouth and then bite lip or tongue to get blood and make it bloody)
May "show" spirit captured in the drum &endash; or soul that has been brought back
Cool-down &endash; shaman collapses, patient falls into deep sleep
The woman in delivery story
Interesting elements of separation of body and spirit
Need to tie down body so that it does not follow spirit into the spirit world and get lost there
The séance as theater
Shaman acts out the story
Climbing through the levels of heaven looking for the soul
(origin of term seventh heaven)
Climbing world tree
Enacting battle
Silly on one level &endash; and very effective
As is drama
As is film, even though you know who the actors are and that they are acting, that it is not real.
Parallel of shamanism to minstrelsy in the sense that it is a story that helps people, makes sense of life for them
Other parallels
How a person becomes a shaman: Near-death experience
The person sees his or her own death
Often described as seeing the body dismembered by a deity or master shaman
Cooked so there is no flesh on the bones
Put back together in the new identity of the shaman-healer
Journey to the land of the dead
Seeing dead relatives, dead master shamans of the past
Seeing the "geography" of the spirit world, going on a kind of tour
Spirit wife/husband
Tutelary spirit or familiar
Illness, usually extreme
The type with high fever and hallucinations
May require a shamanic cure
Illness is seen as a way of the gods selecting the person for his or her vocation
Injury &endash; again extreme, near-death type
Can be quest for shamanic powers
If it is you can guess the form that it will take:
Sensory deprivation or extreme stimulation, like pain
Fear
Very much like the sun dance
Bleeding
Sitting in a dark enclosure
Sleeping on the tomb of the shaman who you want to have as your spirit guide
This is cold &endash; but for greater effect, can do it with a wet blanket
Great shaman is supposed to be able to spend the night outside with a wet blanket in sub-zero temperature
Cut self and not bleed &endash; and have no mark from the cut
More quest methods
Smearing self with honey and sitting near an ant hill
Contemplating own death &endash; usually as part of session lead by a master, with song and dance telling of own death
Turkish minstrels
Illness not that common, though some do tell
Can be love sickness
Quest is quite common &endash; sleeping on tombs of minstrels of the past
Mudami's story of beating by dad
The above are all big-time techniques
But there are various minor ones that can be useful to them
Even in a shamanic society, the big-time technique is seldom used &endash; only for big-time problems
Person who undergoes shamanic cure tends to become a shaman, and not too many of those
Sensory deprivation
Standing in a shower
Lying on the carpet in a dark room
Breathing techniques
Blood flow control
Perhaps most important is the story and illness
Taking illness/distress seriously
Putting it into context (story)
The Prozac, Zoloft example
Visualizing effect of exercise to increase effect
More parallels from their experience
What we show is the weird stuff because tends not to be noticed otherwise
But look at athletes who
1) Practice many of the techniques above
2) Pull off many of the body control tricks we talked about
Alexis on girl with dislocated shoulder
Gymnast with broken ankle
In general &endash; injury not noticed until after
Bicameral mind ideas of Julian Jaynes
Ecstatic state is a switch from left brain dominated thinking to right brain dominance
This is one of the reasons why whirling is effective in achieving this state
Switch to other half of brain to help organize a paper