Dark shamans
Dark shamans – A distinction is commonly drawn in Amazonia between âcuring shamansâ and âdark shamans.â This should not be interpreted, however, as âour shamansâ versus âenemy shamansâ because all shamans may potentially act against their family and neighbors and not only against enemies. The alignment of dark shamans with cannibal deities may be a specific form of shamanic mediation by which the extreme predation of the deities is lessened by a diminished level of violence committed by shamans. Noting that there are âthree distinct but related shamanic complexes: piya, alleluia and kanaimĂ ,â Neil Whitehead discusses kanaimĂ (a particular form of dark shamanism) at length, describing it as a form of âassault sorceryâ that âinvolves the mutilation and lingering death of its victims.â
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007