Patients – Since shamans may often be the primary doctors in their communities, healing people attacked by other combative shamans, other-than-human people, or sorcerers and witches, it is evident that many of their clients are patients. However, in parts of Amazonia, shamans may gain recognition as senior shamans by the number of their “bonded patients,” that is, those who have been successfully healed but cannot afford to compensate the shaman for their dangerous exertions.
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007