'Shamanism, New and Old' by Prof. Jack Forbes

[Barnaby_McEwan]

http://nas.ucdavis.edu/Forbes/shamanism.html

Of course, before "shaman" became popular in the anthropological literature, indigenous healers and religious persons were often referred to as "witch doctors," "sorcerers" or other derogatory terms, words still used reportedly in right-wing Christian missionary propaganda. But "shaman" is not an innocent term either, because it rises out of a clear misunderstanding of, and denigration of, non-European cultures. [...] "Shamanism" is a new European game. Shouldn't they play it by themselves, without stealing the symbols of indigenous cultures?

Forbes' homepage.

[AndreasWinsnes]

The word "shaman" is an honourable title within Tengerism, and it is innocent within that traditional context. But it is misused by Western people who applies it to every indigenous doctor who master trances.

[Barnaby_McEwan]

I think the word 'shaman' is a Western one, produced by mangling a Siberian word through Russian, German and French, picking up primitivist meanings along the way. From what I can gather Siberian and Mongolian people, just like Indians, use many names including the one that became 'shaman' in English, for the people called shamans by Westerners.

[AndreasWinsnes]

I thought so too. Forbes' article was the reason I used the word "shaman" as a synonym for new age shamans in NAFPS' guestbook. But then I read the following:

http://www.tengerism.org/shamanka.html

But there are many tribes in Siberia that don't use this title, and they should not be called shamans.