What has really been learned about shamanism?

Summary

Investigations into shamans and their altered states of consciousness in anthropology have been influenced by various prescriptive issues from psychology, including debates on conscious versus unconscious processes and objectivity versus subjectivity. Despite these challenges, new knowledge about shamanism has emerged. However, a resolution to the underlying problems remains elusive due to a lack of sufficient data.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Within anthropology, investigations of shamans and their altered states of consciousness have followed some of the prescriptive problems inherited from the discipline of psychology, coloring the assumptions and perspectives of students of shamanism. These inherited problems include the following: conscious/volitional versus unconscious/involuntary mentalisms; contentual objectivism versus contentual subjectivism; environmentalism versus nativism; monopsychism versus polypsychism; mechanism versus vitalism; and quantitativism versus qualitativism. Although the polemics of anthropological studies of shamanism have reflected these prescriptive perspectives, this has not inhibited the acquisition of new knowledge about shamanism. Nonetheless, a resolution of these problems is lacking due to insufficient data.