Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/821

 SHAMANISM

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SHAMMAI

gift of shamanism is not hereditary, but the protect- ing spirit of a shaman who dies is reincarnated in some member of the same family. To them the pro- tecting spirit is an indispensable attribute of the shaman. They believe that the shaman has an dmagat, i. e., a spirit-protector, and an ie-kyla, i. e., image of an animal protector, e .g., totemism. Hence the shamans are graded in power according to the ie-kyla, e. g., the weakest have the ie-kyla of a dog, the most powerful that of a bull or an eagle. The dmagat is a being completely different, and generally is the soul of a dead shaman. Every person has a spirit- protector, but that of the shaman is of a kind apart. With the American Indians the guardian spirit, from whom the novice derives aid, is more generally se- cured from the hosts of animal spirits; it can also be obtained from the local spirits or spirits of natural phenomena, from the ghosts of the dead or from the greater deities.

In the practice of his art the Shaman is regarded as: (a) A healer, hence the term "medicine man", and the secret medicine societies of the Seneca, and of other American tribes; the Alaskan Tungaks are principally healers, (b) An educator, i. e., the keeper of myth and tradition, of the arts of writing and divination; he is the repo.sitory of the tribal wisdom, (c) A civil magistrate; as seers possessing secret knowledge with power at times of assuming other shapes and of empk)ying the souls of the dead, they are credited with ability to detect and punish crimes, e. g., the Angaput wizards among the Esquimaux. In Siberia every tribe has its chief shaman who ar- ranges the rites and takes charge of the idols; under him are local and family wizards who regulate all that concerns birth, marriage, and death, and consecrate dwellings and food, (d) A war-chief; thus with the Dakotahs and Cheyennes the head war-chief must be a medicine man. Hence the shaman possesses great in- fluence and in many cases is the real ruler of the tribe.

The means which the shaman uses are: (a) Sym- bolic magic, on the principle that as.sociation in thought must involve similar connexion in reality, e. g., the war and himting dances of the Red Indians, placing magical fruit-shaped stones in the garden to in.sure a good crop, to bring about the death of a person by making an image of him and then destroying it or rubbing red paint on the heart of the figure and thrusting a sharp instrument into it. (b) Fasting with solitude and very generally bodily cleanness and incantations usually in some ancient or unmeaning language and with the Yakuts very obscene. Thus the song that salved wounds was known to the Greeks, e. g., the Odyssey, and to the Finns, e. g., the epic poem Kalewala. Among the Indo-Europeans the incantations are known as mantras, and are usually texts from the Vedas chanted over the sick. With the New Zealanders they are called karakias. In ancient Egypt, according to Maspero, the gods had to obey when called by their own name. At Eleusis not the name but the intonation of the voice of the magician produced the mysterious results. In calling on the spirits the .shaman imitates the various sounds of objects in nature wherein the spirits are supposed to reside, e. g., the whispering breeze, the whistling and howling storm, the growling bear, the screeching owl. (c) Dances and contortions with use of rattle and drum and a distinctive dress decked with snakes, stripes of fur, little bells. Among the Ojibwas at the sound of the sacred drum every one rises and becomes inspired because the Great Spirit is then present in the lodge. The frenzy and contortions lead to an ecstatic state which is considered of the greatest im- portance. In South America drugs are used to induce stupor. The spiritual flight in search of information is characteristic of the Siberian shaman; it is rare in America. Vambery cites a whole series of shaman- istic ceremonies, e. g., tambourines and fire-dances,

practised by the ancient sak-uyzur. Shaman incanta- tions are found in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Medes at Suze. Sacrifices, gifts of beads and tobacco, and a few drops of the novice's blood form part of these rites with the American Indians, (d) Posses- sion; thus in Korea the pan-su is supposed to have power over the spirits, because he is possessed by a more powerful demon whose strength he is able to wield. This is also the behef of the Yakuts.

(3) Shamanism is closely akin to Fetishism, and at times it is difficult to tell whether the practices in vogue among certain peoples should be referred to the one or to the other. Both spring from Animism ; both are systems of savage magic or science and have cer- tain rites in common. Yet the differences consist in the behef that in Fetishism the magic power resides in the instrument or in particular substances and passes into or acts upon the object, whereas in Shamanism the will-effort of the magician is the efficient factor in compelling souls or spirits or gods to do his will or in preventing them from doing their own. Hence in Fetishism the emphasis is laid on the thing, altlioujili fasting and incantations may be em- ployed in making the fetish; in Shamanism the prime factor is the will or personality of the magician, al- though he may employ the like means. Therefore we cannot admit the statement of Peschel who refers to Shamanism everything connected with magic and ritual.

Criticism. — (a) The reasons which prove Anim- ism to be false destroy the basis on which Shamanism rests, (b) Shamanism takes for granted the theory that fear is the origin of religion. De La Saussaye holds that the concept of God cannot arise exclusively from fear producied by certain biological phenomena. Rob- ertson Smith teaches that from the earliest times, religion, distinct from magic and secrecy, addresses itself to kindred and friendly beings, and that it is not with a vague fear of unknown powers but with a loving reverence for known Gods that religion in the true sense of the word began (Rehgion of the Semites, 2nd ed., p. 54). Tiele says "worship even in its most primitive form always contains an element of venera- tion" and calls sorcery "a disease of religion" (Science of Religion, II, 136, 141). (c) Shamanism is not a rehgion. The religious priest beseeches the favour of the gods; the shaman is believed to be able to com- pel and command them to do his will. Hence de La Saussaye regards Shamanism not as a name for a principal form of rehgion but for important phe- nomena and tendencies of Animism.

D'Harlez, La religion nationale des Tartares orientaux in Academie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Bel- gique, XL (1887); Ache lis, Abrissder vergleichenden Religionswis- senschaft (Leipzig, 1904) ; Tylor, Primitive Culture (3rd Amer. ed., New York, 1889); Frazer, Golden Bough (London, 1900); Jesuit Relations, ed. Thwaites (Cleveland, 1896-1901); Muller, Contributions to the Science of Mythology (London, 1897) ; Lang, Myth Ritual and Religion (London, 1887) ; Abercromby, Pre- and Proto-historic Finns (London, 1898); Keane, The World's Peoples (New York, 1908); Furlong, The Faiths of Man (Lon- don, 1900) ; SiEROSZEWSKi in Revue de I'hist. des religions, XLVI; VAN Gennep in Revue de I'hist. des religions, XLVII; Stadling in Contemporary Review (Jan. 1901); Dixon in Journal of American Folklore (Jan., 1908); American Anthropologist, I, IV.

John T. Driscoll.

Shammai (cedled ha-Zekan, "the Elder "), a famous Jewish scribe who together with Hillel made up the last of "the pairs" (z-Hgoth), or, as they are sometimes erroneously named, "presidents and vice-presidents" of the Sanhedrim. The schools of Shammai and Hillel held rival sway, according to Talmudic tradi- tion (Shabbath 15a), from about a hundred years before the destruction of Jerusalem (a. d. 70). Com- paratively little is known about either of the great S(ribes. The Mischna, the only trustworthy au- thority in this matter, mentions Shammai in only eight passages (Maaser sheni, II, 4, 9; Orla, II, 5; Eduyoth I, 1-4, 10, II; Aboth, I, 12, 15, V, 17; Kelim, XXII, 4j Nidda, I, 1). He was the very op-