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

Shamanism developed from animism. Long beforegathering-hunting cultures. Anthropologists coined the
there were shamans, there wereanimists, peopleterm shamanism for the characteristic set of beliefs
who believe that all things have spirit.and practices that they began to recognize in many
No one even knows exactly how old animism is, butgathering-hunting cultures around the world.
they do know that fully modern human beings like usUntil the late twentieth century, most people had
have existed for at least 250,000 years. Until recentlynever heard of shamans or shamanism.
the oldest evidence of any spiritual belief systemAnthropologist Michael Harner popularized the terms
that archeologists had found was about 50,000 yearswith his best-selling book, The Way of the Shaman.
old. Recently they discovered a cave in AfricaWomen Were the First Shamans
containing a 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. Itseveral Siberian tribes, including the Tungus, were
is 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 foreach of the tribes, because the words were
the Earthly Paradise, historian Geoffrey Ashe tracesborrowed or invented long after the tribes branched
many myths, legends and beliefs of Europe, Asia, andapart.
the Near and Middle East all the way back toExciting news for women resulted from the Russian
shamanic roots in Siberia.linguistic research. Among all the shamanist tribes
Ashe describes how Russian anthropologistsrelated to the Tungus, the tribe whose shamans
"discovered" shamanism when they studied thewere first studied in Siberia, the words for a female
Tungus people (whom Russians call Evenk) in theshaman are the same.
19th century. The Tungus were tribal nomadicThat is, the word for a female shaman in all those
herders in Siberia. After the anthropologists publishedtribes is derived from the same root word in the
detailed descriptions of the shamans they observed,language of their common ancestors. In the original
the term shaman came to be used bylanguage that word also means bear.
anthropologists worldwide.The research proves that originally, before the tribes
The Tungus word, shaman, was a useful term formultiplied and went their separate ways, the only
anthropologists. It described a specific role in societyshamans were female. Women were the first
that they observed time after time inshamans!