Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/820

 SHAMANISM

750

SHAMANISM

Shakespeare should think sympathetically and even tenderly of the creed in which his father and mother had been brought up, a creed to which they probably atliiered at least in their hearts. The fact in any case remains that the number of Shakespearean utterances expressive of a fundamental doubt in the Divine economy of the world seems to go beyond the require- ments of his dramatic purpose and these are const ant ty put into the mouths of characters with whom the poet is evidently in s> mpathy. A conspicuous example is the speech of Prospero in "The Tempest", probably the latest of the plays, ending with the words: — " We are such stuff

^\s dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep". \Miether the true Shakespeare speaks here no one can ever tell, but even if it were so, such moods pass and are not irreconcilable with faith in God when the soul is thrown back upon herself by the near advent of suffering or death. A well-known example is afforded by the case of Littre.

The most serious and original contribution made from a Catholic point of \'iew to the question of Shakespeare's religious opinions is by Richard Simpson in The Rarnbler (July, 1S5-1; and March, April, and May, 1S58). A volume founded on the mate- rials printed and manuscript accumulated by Simpson was after- wards published by Father H. S. Bowden, The Religion of Shake- speare (London, 1899). In the present writer's judgment, the evidence in favour of the poet's Catholicitj' is unduly pressed by both of these investigators and the difficulties too lightly dismissed, but on the other hand Simpson's thesis certainly deserves more careful examination than it has usually received, even from the few who have noticed his arguments, for example from Canon Beeching in vol. X of the Stratford Totm edition of the Works of Shakespeare (Stratford, 1907).

See also: Lilly, Studies in Religion and Literature (London. 1904), 1-30: Collins, Studies in Shakespeare (London, 1904); GiLDEA in Amer. Cath. Quart. Rev. (Philadelphia, 1900); Baum- GARTNER in Kirchenlexikon (Freiburg, 1899) ; Hager, Die Grosse Shakespeares (Freiburg, 1878); Spanier, Der "Papist" Shake- speare in Hamlet (Trier, 1890) ; Raich, Shakespeare's Stellung 7.ur hot. Kirche (Mainz, 1884) ; Carter, Shakespeare Puritanand Recus- ant (Edinburgh, 1897); Downing, God in Shakespeare (London, 1901); Holland, S/iaA-espeare's [/nbt?ie/ (Boston, 1884) ; Irwin, Shakespeare's Religious Belief in Overland Monthly (San Francisco, Aug. and Sept., lS7r») ; Pope, Shakespeare the Great Dramatic Demonstrator of Catholic Faith (Washington, 1902); Robertson, Religion of Shakespeare (London, 1877) ; Schuler, Shakespeare's Confession in Kalholische Flugschriflen (No. 1,31); Wilkes, Shakespeare from an American Point of View (New York, 1877); Countermine, The Religious Belief of Sliakespeare (New York, 1906), a booklet of no value; Rio, William Shakespeare (Paris, 1864); Mahon in Edinburgh Review (Jan., 1866); Thur.ston in Month (May, 1882; Nov., 1911); Boswin, The Religion of Shakespeare (Trichinopoly, 1899); Roffe, Real Religion of Shakespeare (London, 1872). HERBERT ThURSTON.

Shamanism (from Shaman or Saman, a word de- rived by Bantzaroflf from Manchu saman, i. e., an excited or raving man, by van Gennep and Keane from »S'a?minaTungu8 word; others say a later dialectic form of the Sanskrit sraman, i.e., a worker or toiler), a vague term used by explorers of Siberia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to designate not a specific religion but a form of savage magic or science, by which physical nature was believed to be brought under the control of man. It prevails among Tura- nian and Mongolian tribes and American Indians, and blends with their varied religious beliefs and customs. Thus the Turanians believe the shamans were a class created by the heaven-god Tengri to struggle for men's good against the evil spirits. The Buddhist Mongols call Shamanism shara-shcjuhhin, i. e., the black faith, the Chinese tjao-ten, i. e., dancing before spirits. The shamans are variously designated, e. g., by Tatars kam, by Samoyeds (aryih, by Ostjaks ta/lih, by Buriates hoe, by Yakut Turks oyun, by American Indians medicine men. In the Bhagavata Purana the .Jains are called shramans. In Persian- Hindu the term "shaman" means an idolater. In Tibet Shamanism rejjresents a Buddhism degenerated into demonology. Thus the Mongols say that sha- mans are closely allied with Odokil, or Satan, who will not injure any tribe that obeys its wizards.

(I) Shamanism rests for its basis on the animistic view of nature. Animism (q. v.) teaches that primi-

tive and savage man views the world as pervaded by spiritual forces. Fairies, goblins, ghosts, and demons hover about him waking or sleeping: they are the cause of his mishaps, losses, pains. ]\iountains, woods, forests, ri\ers, lakes are conceived to possess spirits, i. e., the iich-lchi of the Yakuts, and to be liv- ing, thinking, willing, passionful beings like himself. In respect to these, man is in a state of helplessness. The shaman by appropriate words and acts uses his power to shield man and envelops him in a kind of protective armour so that the evil spirits become in- active or inoffensive. His role is that of antagonist to the spirits and of guardian to ordinary man. The Esquimaux beheve all the affairs of life are under the control of malignant spirits who are everywhere. These minor spirits are subject to the great .«pirit Tung-Ak, yet must be propitiated. The shaman alone is supposed to be able to deal with Tung-Ak, though not superior to him. Tung-Ak is a name for Death, who ever seeks to harass the lives of people that their spirits may go to dwell with him. Ellis says that spirits far from friendly compassed the hves of the Polynesian islanders on every side. The gods of the Maori were demons thronging like mosquitos and ever watchful to inflict evil; their designs could be counter- acted only by powerful spells and charms. In Kam- chatka every corner of earth and heaven was believed to be full of spirits more dreaded than God. The Navajo, Ojibwas, and Dakotah Indians have a multiplicity of spirits, both evil and good, filling all space, which can be communicated with only after due preparation by the persons who have power to do so, i. e., 7nede or jossakeed.

(2) The main principle of Shamanism is the at- tempt to control physical nature. Hence the term embraces the various methods by which the spirits can be brought near or driven awaj'. The belief that the shaman practises this magic art is universal among savages. To this art nothing seems impossible; it intimately affects their conduct and is reflected in their myths. In some cases initiation is required. Thus with the Navajo and Ojibwas they who have successfully passed through the four degrees of the medewin are called niede, and are considered competent to foresee and prophesy, to cure disea.ses and to pro- long life, to make fetishes, and to aid others in attain- ing desires not to be realized in any other way. They who have received instruction in one or two degrees usually practise a specialty, e.g., making rain, finding game, curing diseases. For this women are eligible. Again the jossakeed, or jugglers, form a distinct class with no system of initiation, e.g., an individual an- nounces himself a jos.sakeed and performs feats of magic in substantiation of his claim. Among the Australians the birraark were supi)osed to be initi- ated by wandering ghosts. The Dakotahs believe the medicine men to be wakanized (from wakan, i. e., god- man) by mystic intercourse with supernatural beings in dreams and trances. Their bu.siness was to discern future events, lead on the war-path, rai.se the storm, calm the tempest, converse with thunder and light- ning as with familiar friends. Father Le Jeune writes that the medicine men of the Iroquois enjoyed all the at t ribut es of Zeus. Tiele says that the magical l)0wer is i)ss('ssc(i l)y tlic shaman in common with the higher spirits and does not diff(T from theirs; in reli- gious observances the magician priests entirely super- sede the gods and as.sume their forms (Science of Religion, II, 108).

Most commonly the shaman is a man. Among the Yakuts, the Carib tribes, and in Northern California there are female as well as male shamans; and in some cases, e. g., the Yakuts, male shamans have to assume women's dress. Every Maori warrior is a shaman. In Samoa there is no regular caste, but in other Polynesian groups the shaman is the exclusiv(^ privilege of an hereditary class of nobles. With the Yakuts the