Shamanism and Animism

Shamanism and animism are two widely discussed cross-cultural categories: shamanism for ritual specialists who mediate with spirits through altered states, and animism for the attribution of life or personhood to a wide range of beings.

Definition

The study of shamanic ritual specialism and animist conceptions of personhood as cross-cultural categories in the history of religions.

Scope

This topic examines the history and contested status of both terms, from Tylor's evolutionary definition of animism and Eliade's influential model of shamanic ecstasy to the 'new animism' that reframes it as a relational ontology. It surveys the phenomena and the scholarly debates over whether these are valid universal categories, without claiming that spirits or shamanic journeys are real.

Core questions

• What does the category 'shaman' usefully pick out, and where does it mislead?
• Is animism a stage in religious evolution or a coherent way of relating to the world?
• How have these terms been shaped by Western theorizing?
• What is meant by the 'new animism' in recent scholarship?

Key theories

Shamanism as techniques of ecstasy

Eliade's influential characterization of shamanism as a complex centred on the specialist's ecstatic 'journey' of the soul to other worlds to heal, divine, or guide the dead, presented as an archaic religious phenomenon.

Animism, old and new

Tylor's original definition of animism as belief in souls or spirits, contrasted with the 'new animism' developed by Harvey and others that treats it as a relational ontology recognizing many kinds of persons.

History

Tylor introduced 'animism' as a minimal definition of religion in 1871; Eliade's 1951 study made 'shamanism' a central comparative category in the mid-twentieth century; from the late twentieth century both terms were criticized as Western abstractions, and animism was reconceived relationally in the 'new animism'.

Debates

Validity of 'shamanism' as a universal category

Scholars dispute whether the Siberian-derived term 'shaman' can be responsibly generalized to ritual specialists worldwide, or whether doing so flattens very different practices.

Key figures

• Mircea Eliade
• Edward Burnett Tylor
• Graham Harvey

Seminal works

• eliade1951
• tylor1871
• harvey2005

Frequently asked questions

Where does the word 'shaman' come from?

It derives from a term among the Evenki and other Tungusic peoples of Siberia and was extended by scholars to describe comparable ritual specialists elsewhere, a generalization some now question.

Is animism the same as believing in ghosts?

Not exactly; in its newer sense animism describes a worldview that treats many beings—animals, plants, places—as persons in relationship, rather than simply belief in disembodied spirits.