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This article is from the Religion-Shamanism FAQ, by Dean Edwards, Stef Jones, Jilara, Jane Beckman, Ann Albers with numerous contributions by others.

24 Post-Shamanic

While shamanism may be readily identified among
many hunting and gathering peoples and in some traditional herding
societies, identifying specific groups of individuals who might be
called shamans is a difficult task in more stratified agricultural
and manufacturing based societies. A society may be said to be Post-
Shamanic when there are the presence of shamanic motifs in its
traditional folklore or spiritual practices indicate a clear pattern
of traditions of ascent into the heavens, descent into the nether-
worlds, movement between this world and a parallel Otherworld, are
present in its history. Such a society or tradition may have become
very specialized and recombined aspects of mysticism, prophecy and
shamanism into more specialized or more 'fully developed' practices
and may have assigned those to highly specialized functionaries. When
such practices and functionaries are present or have replaced the
traditional shamans found in historical or traditional shamanism the
use of Post-shamanic is appropriate. (See Shamanism-General Overview
for more information.)
Dean Edwards (deane@netcom.com) (August, 1995)

Also, there are many places where "other forms of healing, divining, and
counseling are present" and co-exist with "strict" shamanic practice, for
instance in many Native American traditions. (Rather like the way some
tribes had different types of "chiefs" for different roles in the community.)
Jilara (jane@swdc.stratus.com)

 

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