shamanism

shamanism [Tungus šaman, ascetic; cf. Sanskrit sramanás, ascetic]. The religious practice purporting to communicate with good and evil spirits through a professional class of priest-seers was first studied by anthropologists among the peoples of western Siberia, especially the Tungus, in the late 19th century. Subsequently shamanism was found to have counterparts in the religions of the North American Indians and elsewhere on the globe. Many commentators have found indications of shamanistic ritual among the early Celts. Poets of early Ireland, for example, sometimes practised divination while wearing cloaks of bird-feathers, much as Siberian shamans did. In Fís Adamnáin [The Vision of Adamnán] Adamnán's soul goes forth from his body on the midsummer feast of St John the Baptist (21 June, the solstice), much as shamans claim to have experience beyond the bodily. The Welsh Arthurian figure Gwrhyr Gwalstawd Ieithoedd has the shamanistic power to speak the language of animals. See Daniel F. Melia, ‘The Irish Saint as Shaman’, Pacific Coast Philology, 18 (1983), 37–42; Paul R. Lonigan, ‘Shamanism in the Old Irish Tradition’, Éire-Ireland, 20(3) (Fall 1985), 109–29. See also AWENYDDION; DÍCHETEL DO CHENNAIB; IMBAS FOROSNAI; SECOND SIGHT; SOUS; TEINM LAÍDA.