The Yanomami People
The Yanomami are an Indigenous group of South America who speak a Xirianá language and inhabit the remote forests of the Orinoco River basin in southern Venezuela and the northern Amazon basin in Brazil. As of the early 21st century, their population was estimated at around 32,000 individuals across this territory.
The Yanomami slash burn agriculture and live in small, scattered, semipermanent villages. Their diet consists of cultivated crops such as plantains, cassava, tubers, maize, and various vegetables, which they supplement by gathering wild fruits, nuts, seeds, grubs, and honey. Hunting is an essential part of their subsistence, targeting animals like monkeys, deer, tapirs, birds, and armadillos. They also grow tobacco—widely used by people of all ages—and cotton, which is vital for trade and domestic use, especially for crafting hammocks, nets, bags, and clothing. Dogs are kept for hunting and protection.
Yanomami homes are vine-and-leaf-thatched structures arranged in palisaded villages, each surrounded by garden plots. Villages are relocated periodically, either due to soil exhaustion or increasing vulnerability to attack from rival groups.
Traditional Yanomami culture, particularly in the more isolated areas of Venezuela, places significant value on displays of aggression. Inter-village conflict is common, and much of their social structure revolves around forging alliances through trade and shared feasts while maintaining hostility toward rival communities. The practice of frequent, nonterritorial warfare has been a focus of anthropological study since the mid-20th century.
In recent decades, the Yanomami have faced existential threats from encroachments on their land—most notably from Brazilian gold miners. In response, the Brazilian government in 1991 designated a protected area of about 36,000 square miles (93,240 square kilometers) in Roraima state, covering roughly 30 percent of the Yanomami’s traditional territory. However, enforcement of these protections has remained inconsistent in the 21st century.
The Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is a vast tropical forest spanning the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America. Covering about 2.3 million square miles (6 million square kilometers), it includes roughly 40 percent of Brazil’s land area. The forest is bounded by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountains to the west, the Brazilian Plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
Stretching from the Atlantic coast to the foothills of the Andes, the Amazon is the world’s largest river basin and most extensive rainforest. It begins as a narrow band along the coast but expands to a swath over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) wide deeper inland. Its vast size and uninterrupted forest cover are sustained by year-round high rainfall, humidity, and warm temperatures.
The Amazon is the world’s richest biological reservoir, home to millions of species of plants, insects, birds, and animals—many still undocumented. Tree species include myrtle, laurel, palm, acacia, rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree, while valuable timber comes from mahogany and Amazonian cedar. Its fauna features jaguars, manatees, tapirs, capybaras, red deer, numerous rodent species, and a wide array of monkeys.
Since the 20th century, population growth and agricultural expansion in Brazil have caused significant deforestation. Forest cover shrank from 1.58 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers) in 1970 to about 1.28 million square miles (3.32 million square kilometers) by 2016—a reduction to about 81 percent of its original size. Although deforestation slowed to 0.1–0.2 percent per year after 2008, compared to 0.4 percent in previous decades, damage remains substantial. In 2019, over 75,000 fires were recorded in the Brazilian Amazon, an 85 percent increase from 2018, linked in part to pro-development policies promoted by President Jair Bolsonaro.
In a notable conservation effort, Ecuador launched a proposal in 2007 to preserve parts of the Yasuní National Park—one of the planet’s most biodiverse regions—by forgoing oil extraction in exchange for international financial contributions. The plan sought $3.6 billion (half the estimated oil value), but only $6.5 million had been raised by 2012. By 2016, Ecuador had abandoned the plan, and oil extraction began.
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the systematic study of how social groups understand and use local plants for food, medicine, clothing, and rituals. Many traditional plant-based remedies have proven effective in treating physical and psychological ailments.
The ethnobotany of ancient cultures is reconstructed through analysis of texts, art, pottery, and botanical remains found at archaeological sites. Such findings offer insights into past agricultural practices and cultural development. Ethnobotanists often immerse themselves in the communities they study to observe religious practices, language, mythology, and daily life, documenting how specific plants are prepared and used.
Historical documents, including explorers’ journals and early botanical field notes, are also valuable sources for understanding traditional agricultural and medicinal practices.
Cultural Survivals in Anthropology
In anthropology, “survivals” refer to cultural traits that persist even after the original conditions that gave rise to them have disappeared. The term was introduced by British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor in Primitive Culture (1871), where he described practices such as superstitions as remnants of formerly rational customs.
Tylor distinguished between two kinds of survivals: those that retained their original function and meaning, and those that had lost their utility and became detached from the broader culture. He extended the idea to material culture, citing the tailcoat—once a practical riding coat—as an example of outdated yet preserved fashion.
Scottish evolutionist John Fergusson McLennan saw survivals as symbolic echoes of earlier practices, like mock battles in wedding rituals reflecting ancient bride capture. Other scholars, such as Bronisław Malinowski, emphasized functional continuity—arguing that even if a cultural element changes in meaning, it continues to serve a purpose within its society and is not merely a vestige.
Today, the concept of survivals remains useful in discussions of cultural continuity, transformation, and historical reconstruction.
Shamanism: An Overview
Definition and Origins
Shamanism is a religious practice centered around a figure known as the shaman, a person believed to access spiritual realms through trance or ecstatic states. Shamans are commonly associated with healing, divination, communication with the spirit world, and guiding the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Though their specific roles and rituals vary across cultures, these central functions remain widespread.
Cultural and Geographic Scope
In its strictest sense, shamanism refers to the spiritual systems of northern Asian and Ural-Altaic peoples such as the Khanty, Mansi, Samoyeds, Tungus, Yukaghir, Chukchi, and Koryak. However, the term has broadened to describe similar practices among various indigenous peoples worldwide—especially in the Arctic, the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa (e.g., the San). In these societies, the shaman combines roles of healer, spiritual guide, and counselor.
Shamanism is believed to have arisen within hunter-gatherer cultures and has persisted in some herding and agricultural societies. It is commonly associated with animism—a worldview in which natural objects and forces are inhabited by spirits, both benevolent and malevolent.
Essence and Practice
Not all systems with spirit mediums or healers qualify as shamanistic. True shamanism involves specific trance-based techniques, rituals, and paraphernalia. Unlike magicians or priests who often rely on formal study and ritual, shamans achieve spiritual insight through ecstatic states, often induced by drumming, dancing, chanting, or entheogens. These states allow them to transcend ordinary consciousness and interact directly with the spirit realm.
Classic Northern Asian Shamanism
The “classical” form of shamanism, particularly that of 19th-century northern Asia, includes several distinctive features:
Community Role: Shamans are recognized specialists in spiritual matters. Their ability to heal and communicate with spirits makes them vital to the well-being of their communities.
Personal Traits: Shamans often exhibit heightened sensitivity, eccentric behavior, or unusual physical characteristics—such as additional fingers or teeth—which are interpreted as signs of their spiritual calling.
Spirit Allies: Shamans are believed to work with helper spirits—active beings who aid in their work, and passive guardians who may appear as animals or figures of the opposite sex, sometimes even as sexual partners.
Calling and Initiation: Shamans are said to be chosen by spirits, often during adolescence. Resistance to the calling typically results in illness or suffering, which only ends when the person accepts the vocation. The initiation may involve visions of dismemberment and reassembly by spirits, followed by symbolic rituals such as climbing the “World Tree”—a metaphor for ascending into the spirit realm.
Trance and Transformation: The shaman enters altered states to communicate with spirits. This may involve the soul leaving the body or being possessed by a spirit. Shamans also engage in ritual combat, often taking animal forms.
Ritual Tools: Instruments such as drums, rattles, headgear, robes, and mirrors are crucial. These not only aid in trance induction but also signify the shaman’s spiritual identity.
Myth and Music: Oral traditions and songs—often improvised but based on established formulas—play a central role in shamanic performance.
While some elements of shamanism appear in other traditions (e.g., medicine men, sorcerers), those figures may not engage in trance-based spirit journeys and are often trained through formal instruction, setting them apart from true shamans.
Worldview
Shamanic cosmology among northern Asian peoples features a multi-layered universe:
The Central (Middle) World: A flat disk resting on a giant creature—often a turtle, fish, bull, or mammoth—whose movements cause earthquakes.
The Lower World: Accessed through a symbolic umbilicus; home to darker spirits and deities like Erlen khan or Erlik khan, rulers of the Underworld.
The Upper World: Reached by climbing the World Pillar or Cosmic Tree; inhabited by celestial gods such as Ülgen and Tengri, often surrounded by good or bad offspring depending on cardinal direction.
Humans are believed to possess multiple souls, such as a mirror soul (seen in reflections) and a shadow soul (seen in sunlight). Fire, earth, and other natural forces are personified and venerated through idols.
Social Role of the Shaman
Shamans hold a prestigious yet ambivalent place in society. They are revered for their spiritual power and feared for their potential to harm. Even a benevolent shaman may cause unintentional misfortune.
Given their sacred role, shamans are exempt from regular labor like hunting or fishing and rely on community support. They often receive offerings, such as food, furs, or livestock. In some societies, shamans wield significant political influence—leading clans, directing resistance against colonizers, or functioning as both spiritual and secular leaders.
Becoming a Shaman
The path to becoming a shaman varies:
Inheritance: In some traditions, a shamanic spirit or condition is passed down from a deceased relative.
Calling: More commonly, spirits “choose” the individual—often during puberty—causing visionary illness or hysteria. This “shamanic illness” continues until the person accepts their role.
Initiation: The chosen individual often undergoes a vision of dismemberment by spirits who examine their bones. If found suitable, they reassemble the shaman-to-be, who awakens with new powers.
Training is typically informal, with future shamans learning by observing others. The idea that shamanism arises from mental illness—a popular mid-20th-century theory—has largely been discredited in favor of cultural and historical explanations.
Ranks and Proficiency
Shamans are ranked by both spiritual allegiance and power:
White Shamans: Align with benevolent spirits.
Black Shamans: Work with darker forces.
In cultures like the Yakut (Sakha), shamans are also divided by their level of power—lesser, intermediate, or great—symbolized by how high their soul is nurtured on the cosmic tree.
Functions and Responsibilities
Shamans serve as intermediaries between humans and the spirit world. Their key functions include:
Divination: Locating lost animals, foretelling weather, or identifying spiritual causes of misfortune.
Healing: Determining and addressing the cause of illness—be it spirit intrusion, soul loss, or curse—often through ritual negotiation or spiritual combat.
Life Rituals: Assisting with childbirth, marriage, and death. For example, they may retrieve an embryo soul or guide a departed soul to the afterlife.
Forms of Trance and Revelation
Shamans enter trance in two primary ways:
Possession Trance: The shaman becomes inhabited by a spirit and speaks or acts on its behalf. These sessions may involve shaking, shouting, or feigned unconsciousness.
Soul Journey (Wandering Trance): The shaman’s soul departs from the body to travel the spirit realms. On return, they recount what they experienced.
In some instances, these two forms combine: the spirit first enters the shaman and then leads their soul on a journey.
Dress and Equipment
Shamans traditionally wear elaborate regalia, often featuring elements that imitate animals—most commonly deer, birds, or bears. Headdresses may be adorned with antlers or bands pierced with bird feathers. Footwear is also symbolic, designed to resemble iron deer hooves, bird claws, or bear paws. Among the Tofalar (Karagasy), Soyet, and Darhat peoples, shamanic garments are decorated with depictions of human bones such as ribs, arms, and fingers. Shamans of the Goldi-Ude tribe conduct ceremonies wearing a distinctive shirt and dual apron (front and back) marked with images of snakes, lizards, frogs, and other animals.
A central instrument of the shaman is the drum, always featuring a single membrane. Its shape is usually oval, though it can also be round. The membrane—often both front and back—is decorated with symbolic imagery; for example, the Abakan Tatars inscribe depictions of the Upper and Lower Worlds. The drum’s handle typically forms a cross shape, though simpler forms exist. The drumstick is made from wood or horn, with a fur-covered striking surface. Some drumsticks are adorned with figures of humans and animals, and often have hanging rings that rattle when played.
During ritual trance, the drum’s sound facilitates spiritual connection. Spirits may enter the shaman or the drum itself, or the shaman’s soul may journey into the spirit world. In such cases, the drum is imagined as a mount—an animal on which the shaman rides—while the drumstick serves as a whip. Alternatively, the drum becomes a boat navigating a river, with the drumstick as an oar. These visionary journeys are expressed through the shaman’s song. In Buryat tradition, shamans may also carry staffs ending in carved horse heads, while Tungus shamans use reindeer-headed sticks. Some shamans wear a metal disc called a shaman-mirror, symbolizing spiritual power.
Drama and Dance
Shamanic rituals are rich in symbolic drama and dance. Dressed in full regalia, the shaman sings to the spirits, weaving improvised songs that contain essential images, dialogues, and refrains. These performances always occur in the evening, within a conical tent or yurt. The sacred space is the area around the fire, where spirits are invoked. Audience members—usually fellow clan members—sit in reverence, awaiting spiritual presence. A shaman’s assistant tends the fire, casting shifting shadows that amplify the ritual’s visionary nature.
The shaman acts as performer, dancer, singer, and musician all at once. Cloaked in fluttering garments, their figure moves in the firelight, regalia ribbons flowing and mirrors reflecting flames. Their instruments jingle and their drum pulses with rhythm, stirring both the shaman and the gathered audience. This dramatic interplay is not mere spectacle—it depends on the belief of those present. Their faith empowers the shaman to achieve tangible outcomes, such as healing illnesses of body or mind.
In some traditions—like those of the Altai Kizhi—a tall tree is placed in the smoke vent of the tent, symbolizing the World Tree. The shaman’s ascent of this tree, spiritually reaching the Upper World, is narrated through their ritual song.
The Persistence of Shamanism
Traces of shamanic traditions persist even among groups that later adopted major world religions. Finno-Ugric peoples who converted to Christianity, Turkic peoples who became Muslim, and Mongolic peoples who adopted Buddhism often retained shamanic elements in their folklore and beliefs. Among the Finns, the tietäjä—a shaman-like figure—was believed to be born with an extra tooth. In Anatolia, echoes of shamanism remain in the folklore of the Osmanlı Turks, particularly in stories recalling horned headwear. In Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist contexts, remnants of shamanistic practices can often be unearthed through folk customs and oral tradition—such as the recognition of shamanism in early Hungarian culture.
In contrast, some groups actively suppressed or altered shamanic traditions. Among the Khalkha Mongols and eastern Buryats, who embraced Buddhism, and the Kazakh and Kyrgyz, who became Muslim, shamanism either disappeared or evolved into atypical forms. Among the Manchurians, it became a distinct hybrid.
Across northern Asia, shamanism takes various forms. In the far north—among the Chukchi, Koryak, and Itelmen—there are no professional shamans; the role is filled by a family member, often an elderly woman. In other regions, shamans may be transgender, adopting clothing and roles of the opposite gender. Among the Yukaghir of Arctic Siberia, shamanism is integrated into the clan cult. This also holds true for certain Ob-Ugrian communities and the three major Altaic peoples—Turkic, Mongolic, and Manchu-Tungus—all of whom maintain professional shamanic traditions.
Scholars have debated the boundaries of shamanism. Some, like Mircea Eliade, have studied ecstatic practices across diverse regions—North and South America, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Tibet, and China—suggesting a global spread, perhaps via early migrations from Asia to the Americas. Similar connections have been proposed between shamanic features in Japan’s Shintō religion and ancient nomadic peoples from the Korean borderlands.
However, critics caution against overly broad definitions. They argue that superficial similarities in ritual or structure across distant cultures do not necessarily imply a shared origin. Instead, they advocate for a more precise understanding of shamanism—one grounded in specific cultural systems like those of northern Eurasia, where shamanism forms an integrated and coherent religious framework.