Category: Shamanism

South and East Asia – Piers Vitebsky illustrates the wide variety of practices that might be called “shamanism” in this religiously, geographically, ethnically, and politically…

South America – Many of the most significant developments in the study of shamanism in recent decades have come from those interested in Amazonia. Similarly,…

Soul Retrieval – In a number of shamanic traditions, illness is understood to have supernatural causes, including soul loss, the stealing of a soul by…

Soul Projection Ioan Lewis formulated this term, equivalent to “journeying,” to describe an aspect of the work of shamans in combating possession by powerful other-than-human…

Soul Loss – Among people who understand that human and otherthanhuman persons may have one or more souls, there is a common understanding that all…

Soul – Many cultures posit the existence of various parts that make up a person (human or other-than-human). In addition to possessing arms and noses,…

Sorcery – term used to refer to the harmful (combat or assault) activities associated with some shamans, especially when turned against their own kin or…

Sora – An indigenous people of the jungle of Orissa, India. Piers Vitebsky’s fieldwork-based book, Dialogues with the Dead (1993), concerns the mediatory role of…

Somé, Malidoma (1956– ) – West African diviner and “medicine man” from Burkina Faso, now living in the United States, whose biographical and how-to books…

Silva, Ramón Medina (193?–1971) – Huichol (Wixáritari) shaman (mara’akame) and artist whose narrative yarn paintings depicting peyote visions were made famous by anthropologist Peter Furst.…