How Shamanism Began, Discovery by Anthropologists, and Women as First Shamans

Shamanism developed from animism. Long beforecultures. Anthropologists coined the term shamanism
there were shamans, there wereanimists, people whofor the characteristic set of beliefs and practices that
believe that all things have spirit.they began to recognize in many gathering-hunting
No one even knows exactly how old animism is, butcultures around the world.
they do know that fully modern human beings like usUntil the late twentieth century, most people had never
have existed for at least 250,000 years. Until recentlyheard of shamans or shamanism. Anthropologist
the oldest evidence of any spiritual belief system thatMichael Harner popularized the terms with his
archeologists had found was about 50,000 years old.best-selling book, The Way of the Shaman.
Recently they discovered a cave in Africa containing aWomen Were the First Shamans
70,000-year-old shrine to a python spirit.In Dawn Behind the Dawn, Geoffrey Ashe also
No one knows for certain when shamanism began.describes how Russian linguists discovered that
Evidence shows that it is at least 27,000 years old. It isseveral Siberian tribes, including the Tungus, were
probably many thousands of years older.descended from one ancient tribe. Researchers found
How Shamanism Was Discovered by Anthropologiststhat the words for a male shaman are different in
In his book, Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for theeach of the tribes, because the words were borrowed
Earthly Paradise, historian Geoffrey Ashe traces manyor invented long after the tribes branched apart.
myths, legends and beliefs of Europe, Asia, and theExciting news for women resulted from the Russian
Near and Middle East all the way back to shamaniclinguistic research. Among all the shamanist tribes
roots in Siberia.related to the Tungus, the tribe whose shamans were
Ashe describes how Russian anthropologistsfirst studied in Siberia, the words for a female shaman
"discovered" shamanism when they studied theare the same.
Tungus people (whom Russians call Evenk) in the 19thThat is, the word for a female shaman in all those
century. The Tungus were tribal nomadic herders intribes is derived from the same root word in the
Siberia. After the anthropologists published detailedlanguage of their common ancestors. In the original
descriptions of the shamans they observed, the termlanguage that word also means bear.
shaman came to be used by anthropologistsThe research proves that originally, before the tribes
worldwide.multiplied and went their separate ways, the only
The Tungus word, shaman, was a useful term forshamans were female. Women were the first
anthropologists. It described a specific role in societyshamans!
that they observed time after time in gathering-hunting