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USRNC
3.4 (2009)
458-489]
JSRNC (print) ISSN 1363-7320
doi:
10.1558/jsrnc.v3i4.458 JSRNC (online) ISSN 1743-1689
Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality
and Ritual Healing"
Michael Winkelman
michaeljwinkelman@gmail.com
Abstract
The concept of the shaman
has
cross-cultural validity, reflecting common
patterns of behavior associated with spiritual healing practices found in
foraging societies worldwide.
The
empirical characteristics associated with
these practices
are
examined from evolutionary perspectives and
in
terms
of an evolutionary psychology that identifies their underlying biological
bases.
The
physiological foundations of shamanism
are
revealed
by
exam-
ining the biological and evolutionary roots for community ritual and the
physiological aspects of altered states of consciousness (ASC). Shamanic
rituals
expanded
primate
community bonding
rituals
involving emotional
vocalizations and drumming as social signaling and communication
processes. The
ASC
involve the ritual induction of
an
integrative mode of
consciousness
that
enhanced self-awareness and social identity formation
in the
concepts of
souls
and spirits and produced
a
variety of physical and
psychological healing processes. Shamanic practices are part of human
nature and involve a variety of evolved capacities that have assisted in
human adaptation and survival.
Introduction
The concepts associated with the term shaman are quite varied. The
referent for this concept has shifted over time from an exoticized foreign
'other' to a wide range of contemporary spiritual healing practices.
Shamanism
is
now viewed as being involved
across
time and cultures in
such diverse areas as art, dance, healing, hunting, music, politics, spiri-
tuality, and many other phenomena in the ancient and contemporary
* Material in various parts of this paper has been adapted from Winkelman
(2002b, 2004a, forthcoming) and Winkelman and Baker (2008).
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010,1 Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, London SW3 5SR.
Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 459
world. The term shaman has been applied to religious leaders, healers,
mystics, prophets, political leaders, and performance artists. Can the
term have much usefulness with such a variety of uses and referents?
This article addresses this question, both suggesting the need for a
more delimited use of the concept of shaman that makes it more useful,
while also pointing to broader phenomena of shamanistic healing that
reflect the diversification of this ancient human spiritual healing practice.
This perspective contends that there are biological bases for a universal
manifestation of a more delimited hunter-gatherer shamanism, as well as
a universal manifestation of 'shamanistic healers' as a consequence of
sociocultural evolution (Winkelman 1990,1992). Both of these perspec-
tives are linked to biological origins of a capacity for the ritual alteration
of consciousness, and the sociocultural factors that affect the manifesta-
tion of these human potentials. These approaches place the origins of
this commonality of 'shamanisms' across time and space of spiritual
healing practices in both biological and social evolutionary contexts that
emphasize a primordial form of shamanism associated with hunter-
gatherer societies, as well as a transformation of that potential into other
forms of shamanistic healers—shaman/healers, healers, and mediums—
as a consequence of social factors. Both an aboriginal shamanism and the
many shamanisms today are based in factors derived from the ancient
phylogenetic roots of ritual as a mechanism for communication and
social coordination.
Although the usefulness of the term shaman has been undermined by
its use to refer to a diverse range of phenomena, it nonetheless reflects
something
real.
Cross-cultural research illustrates that the concept of the
shaman reflects the existence of similar religious practitioners which have
been found in pre-modern foraging and simple horticultural and pas-
toral societies around the world (Winkelman 1992,2000). While the idea
of the shaman has great antiquity in Western culture, having been part
of the intellectual discourse of eighteenth-century Europe (Flaherty 1992),
it was the renowned scholar of comparative religion, Mircea Eliade
(1964;
originally published in French in
1951)
who influentially proposed
a cross-cultural concept of the shaman. He argued that the concept of the
shaman was far broader than the Siberian origins of the term. His cha-
racterizations of the shaman, however, were in part responsible for sub-
sequent confusion regarding the exact nature of shamans. He offered a
general characterization of the shaman as someone who entered ecstasy
to interact with the spirits on behalf of the community, but also empha-
sized many other additional specific concepts of the shaman that some
subsequent researchers neglected in their generalizations of this term.
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
460 Journal for
the
Study of Religion, Nature
and
Culture
Eliade's Concept
of
the Shaman
In proposing a cross-culturally valid conceptualization of the shaman,
Eliade pointed to phenomena found in small-scale societies around the
world. In these societies, there was a central religious figure whose
activities were of unparalleled importance in the lives of the members of
the community, constituting the most important collective event. In what
was typically
a
nocturnal activity, the shaman united the community in
a
ritual that typically lasted throughout the night. Dancing amidst the
group while drumming, rattling, and chanting, the shaman exhorted the
spirits to come to the assistance of the members of the community.
Recounting myths and using
a
language understood by few, the shaman
sang, conversed with animals, and used chants to engage the spirits.
Shamanic rituals would exhort the spirits to cease their afflictions or ask
them for assistance is locating game, healing the ill, or making plans for
the group.
A key aspect of the shaman's professional activities was the ability to
enter what Eliade called ecstasy, or an altered state of consciousness
(ASC).
The term ecstasy reflects a special perspective on self during the
ASC,
embedded in its etymology from the Greek ehtasis, meaning 'to
stand outside of
oneself.
This shamanic ASC is produced by many
dif-
ferent techniques, but key to the induction are the physiological effects
of drumming, singing, chanting, and dancing. Other procedures for
inducing
ASC
included fasting, austerities such as extreme exertion and
pain,
dream incubation, and the ingestion of psychoactive substances.
These preparations, combined with hours of dancing, drumming, and
chanting, induce a profound ASC in the shaman and some members of
the community. These ASC experiences are believed to enable the
shaman to enter into contact with what
is
experienced as the spirit world,
acquire supernatural powers, and provide a variety of services for the
community. The ASC enabled the shaman to diagnose the causes of
disease, to heal, to locate friends, enemies, and animals, and to prophe-
size about events of importance to the group.
A central feature of the shaman's ASC—often referred to by terms
such as 'soul journey' or 'magical flight'—involved experiences
in
which
the shaman was thought to travel into the spirit world. This key aspect
of shamanic ASC is similar to contemporary out-of-body experiences,
astral projection, and other experiences of traveling to a spirit world (see
Winkelman 1992, 2000). While there has been a long history of debate
regarding the nature of the
ASC
of shamanism, my earlier cross-cultural
research illustrates two persistent features: while
ASC are
not part of all
shamanic activity, the group of practitioners identified through this
empirical research—which
I
have labeled as shamans—all experience an
Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 461
ASC involving a sense of some aspect of the self separating from the
body; and these ASC experiences of shamans do not involve 'possession'
by the spirits in the sense of being taken over and controlled by them.
Rather, the shamanic ASC is a conscious state of entry into another expe-
riential domain in which the shaman is a self-controlled actor (Winkel-
man 1992).
The soul flight typically occurred after dancing and drumming for
hours,
when the shaman collapses or lays down and appears to be
unconscious; however, during this period of quiescence, there is an
experience of a departure of the personal soul or spirit from the body,
which travels to the spirit
realms.
This ability to travel to the spirit world
was part of the shamanic initiation and development process, generally
involving a 'vision quest' during which illness, spontaneous alterations
of consciousness, or a variety of deliberate activities produced a spirit
world encounter with a spirit
ally.
This spirit being, generally manifested
in an animal form, was the basis of the shaman's powers. These powers
often presented themselves as powerful carnivores that attacked and
killed the initiate. These initiatory experiences of personal death were
subsequently followed by a re-membering of the initiate, as the animal
spirits reassemble the shaman, who was reborn as a stronger and more
powerful person. These experiences gave the shaman the ability to domi-
nate and control the spirit powers, using them for a variety of profes-
sional
tasks.
The shaman used these spirits to heal, recover the lost souls
of patients, or guide the souls of the deceased into the after-life. Animal
and plant spirits were alter-egos or identities that shamans could assume,
providing them with numerous powers and supernatural abilities.
Shamanic concepts of illness included a concern with the loss of souls
or some personal essence, which can occur for a variety of reasons,
including fright, a transgression, or theft by a spirit or sorcerer. Other
illness concepts included the consequences of a foreign object that has
intruded into the body, such as a magical dart sent by another shaman.
Shamans also engaged in a variety of concepts of healing based on phys-
ical processes—massage, plant medicines, diet, and other physical effects
of rituals.
Shamanism in
Cross-Cultural Perspective
Earlier research
I
conducted based upon world-wide samples and formal
quantitative analysis that confirmed the characterizations of shamanism
provided by Eliade are cross-culturally valid (Winkelman 1990,1992).
These empirical findings establish that the central spiritual practices
found in diverse gatherer-hunter and simple pastoral and horticultural
societies worldwide reflect a specific complex of characteristics. The
©
Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
462 Journal for
the
Study of Religion, Nature
and
Culture
characteristics of these pre-modern classic shamans generally include all
of the following:
• A charismatic group leader who is generally a male, with
females restricted to non-reproductive periods;
• communal ritual activities involving chanting, music, drum-
ming, and dancing;
• professional training involving a vision quest interaction with
the spirit world;
• induction of an altered state of consciousness during both
training and practice;
• specific shamanic
ASC
experience known as the soul journey or
soul flight;
• an initiatory death-and-rebirth experience;
• a primary source of power involving control of animal spirits;
• an ability to transform into animals;
• activities involving assistance in hunting;
• professional abilities of healing, diagnosis, and divination;
• theories of illness involving soul loss, magical intrusion of
objects, and attacks by spirits and sorcerers; and
• an ability to do harm through sorcery.
These cross-cultural generalities regarding the shaman
are
largely based
on the societies described in the early ethnographic literature, but also
include societies found in the contemporary world. For instance, the
practices of the !Kung Bushmen described in the 1950s through 1980s
constitute
a
paradigmatic example of shamanism. Their medicine dance
and the healing processes involved constitute a clear example of the
primordial aspects of shamanism surviving until the twentieth century
(Winkelman 1992).
Why are these specific characteristics found worldwide in hunter-
gatherer societies?
I
believe the answer to this question is to be found in
the
biological and evolutionary foundations of these universal aspects of
shamanism and its ritual practices.
In
other words, the strikingly similar
ritual practices of hunter-gatherer societies around the world reflect
biogenetic foundations. These biological foundations provide the frame-
work for a shamanic paradigm that illustrates the foundation of
humanity's original spiritual practices (Winkelman 2000,2002a, 2002b;
Winkelman and Baker 2008). The biological bases of the universal
features of shamanism derived from the ancient phylogenetic roots of
ritual as a mechanism for communication and social coordination. The
deeper evolutionary origins of the shamanic paradigm
are
derived from
ancient hominid ritual capacities, illustrated in the homologies of
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 463
shamanic ritual with what Lawick-Goodall (1968) calls the maximal dis-
plays of chimpanzees, their most complex ritualized behaviors. Some of
the homologies between chimpanzee displays and shamanic practices
include community rituals focused on alpha-male displays involving
drumming, emotional vocalizations, and bipedal (upright) charges that
provide community integration, protective functions, and emotional
release.
The similarities in chimpanzee ritualizations and shamanic practices
worldwide reflect biological bases:
1.
community bonding rituals that involve emotional vocalizations
and drumming as social signaling and communication processes;
2.
ASC that involve the elicitation of an integrative mode of con-
sciousness; and
3.
healing capacities based on the above processes, including ritual
effects in eliciting opioid responses and the ASC that provide
physiological relaxation and integration (Winkelman 2000,2002b;
Winkelman and Baker 2008).
The physiological foundations of shamanic ritual are revealed by
examining the biological and evolutionary roots for community ritual
and the physiological aspects of ASC. The conservative aspects of bio-
logical evolution are found in the preservation in shamanism of the
functions of previous adaptive structures found in ritual activities of
other animals. These implicate ancient areas of the brain, referred to by
McLean as the 'R-complex' and the paleomammalian brain, which are
involved in community bonding and attachment processes. Uniquely
human foundations of shamanism are also found in the brain system,
particularly innate modules for representation of animals, others, and
self.
Shamanism is based on exaptations (the selection of features of prior
adaptations for new adaptive functions) of these innate systems, involv-
ing new selective pressures on previously established features for new
adaptive functions. Shamanic practices expanded the capacities of ritual
for community integration and used them to produce ASC that enhanced
awareness and capacities for representation. ASC integrated prior repre-
sentational capacities to produce metaphoric thought that enabled new
forms of cognition and symbolic healing
processes.
These are manifested
in the roles of animal spirit concepts in the formation of personal and
social identities and the information processing and integration provided
in the visionary images of shamanic ASC. These provided mechanisms
for personal individuation, social integration, and cognitive and emo-
tional integration by combining the outputs of different innate cognitive
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
464 Journal for
the
Study of Religion,
Nature and
Culture
modules
or
processors. These integrative outputs
are
exemplified
in
shamans' visionary experiences, complex models combining
the
nor-
mally unconscious integrative information capacities
of
dream cognition
with
the
egoic capacities
and the self.
These integrative potentials
are
also manifested
in
shamanic perception
of
animal allies. Specialized
innate modules for processing information relevant to
self,
social others
and the animal world were integrated
in
shamanic practices to produce
metaphoric thought represented
in
shamanic universals
of
soul flight,
animal allies, spirits,
and
death-and-rebirth experiences (Winkelman
2000,2002a, 2002b).
Biogenetic Structural Foundations
of
Shamanism
in Animal
Ritual
The ancient biological bases
of
shamanic rituals and their adaptive func-
tions are illustrated
by
understanding
the
functional nature
of
animal
ritual,
as
argued
in The
Spectrum
of
Ritual (d'Aquili, Laughlin,
and
McManus
1979) and
Supernatural
as
Natural (Winkelman
and
Baker
2008).
Such evolutionary biological approaches
to
ritual illustrate that
shamanic rituals have ancient roots built
out of
prior adaptations,
revealed in the homologous behaviors humans share with other species.
Ritual
is
integral
to
vertebrate social life, providing mechanisms
for
communication that
are
basic to social coordination (d'Aquili, Laughlin,
and McManus 1979). Such animal rituals
use
behaviors, manifested
in
actions, which signal a disposition for social
behaviors.
Animals' rituals
have communication
and
social signaling functions, using genetically
based behaviors
to
provide information that facilitates interactions
among members
of
a
species, coordinating their behaviors in ways that
contribute
to
cooperation.
By
making internal dispositions publicly
available, animal rituals contribute
to
cooperative behaviors by provid-
ing information that helps produce socially coordinated responses.
Drumming
as
a
Signaling Mechanism
Drumming
is a
universal aspect
of
shamanism that
has
deep evolutio-
nary roots as
an
intraspecies and interspecies signaling mechanism mani-
festing vigilance, fitness,
and a
readiness
to
act. Many animals 'drum',
using their body to produce seismic vibrations that communicate many
messages
to
their
own
species
and
others:
'Drumming also functions
in
interspecies communication when prey animals drum
to
communicate to
predators that they are too alert for a successful ambush' (Randall
2001:
1).
Drumming conveys information about predators
to
nearby kin, dis-
playing fitness
in
a
way
that both prepares
for
and reduces the need
for
action. Rodent footdrumming
is
a ritualization
of
intention movements
Equinox Publishing
Ltd
2010.
Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 465
(running), displaying a readiness to act, a signaling mechanism that
indicates to predators one's fitness and the readiness to flee (Randall
2001).
Chimpanzees protect their territory against other groups though group
shouting, pant hooting (a loud call produced by forceful expulsion of
air),
and aggressive displays with fast and loud 'drumming' produced
by jumping up and down on tree buttresses, typically by males (De Waal
1997).
Drumming provides a system of long-distance communication
often performed during travel, allowing dispersed members of groups to
remain in contact with one another and provide support in confronta-
tions with chimpanzees from other communities (Arcadi, Robert, and
Boesch 1998). Arcadi et al found that interbeat intervals of chimpanzee
drumming have modal beats at about 0.2/second and average 0.3
seconds, producing approximately 3 to 5 beats per second, a frequency
that is within the range of typical shamanic drum beating and the theta
brain waves characteristic of ASC (see below).
Group
Chorusing as
Ritual Communication
Ritualized synchronous group vocalizations, or chorusing, as found in
chimpanzee and other primates, provides an emotional communication
system that promotes social well-being (Hauser 2000; Marler 2000;
Merker 2000). These have parallels in universal aspects of shamanic
ritual that involve chanting, which engages an ancient audio-vocal
communication system that pre-dated speech (Oubré 1997), and serves
as an expressive system for communicating emotional
states,
motivating
other members of the species, and managing social contact, interpersonal
spacing, and mate attraction (Geissmann
2000).
While chanting reflects a
uniquely human capacity associated with music, such vocalization
capacities have their origins in primate call and vocalization systems
(Molino
2000;
Wallin, Merker, and Brown
2000).
These vocal expressive
modalities provide communication mechanisms that enhance group
cohesion and cooperation (Brown
2000;
Freeman 2000; Merker 2000).
Reynolds and Reynolds (1965) characterized outbursts of calling and
drumming to be normal chimpanzee behaviors, generally lasting for
several minutes, but sometimes occurring several times during the night,
and occasionally lasting all night on moonlit nights; however, only two
of the six extreme manifestations occurred at night. They further noted
that Occasionally, about eight times during nine months' observations
but not at regular intervals, the chimpanzees in an area vocalized and
drummed for several hours continuously... Sometimes whole valleys
along a stretch as much as a mile would resound and vibrate with the
noise' (Reynolds and Reynolds 1965:407). These carnivals form part of
©
Equinox Publishing Ltd
2010.
466 Journal for
the
Study of Religion, Nature
and
Culture
the 'mythology' of chimpanzees from the earliest reports. They sum-
marize descriptions of these 'carnivals' from the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, noting that the drumming, vocalizations, and wild
jumping for hours produced wonderment and trembling in human
observers. Reynolds and Reynolds noted that these less extreme but
similar 'choruses' occurred under
a
variety of circumstances, including:
nesting and awakening, meeting or splitting up of a group, before and
during moving
to
new feeding
areas,
when on the move, in responses to
hearing other's calls and drumming, when large numbers congregated in
a limited area, and when encountering human observers. Goodall noted
that particularly spectacular displays might be made around waterfalls,
in response to the presence of other similar-size groups, who would
elicit drumming, throwing, hooting, and vigorous displays (1986:491).
'Pant-hoots are given in many different situations...especially in the
evening during nesting. Pant-hoot chorus may break out during the
night' (Goodall 1986:134).
The organized call and diximming patterns characteristic of individu-
als and communities serve important roles in maintaining territorial
boundaries. Reynolds noted that when chimpanzee patrols approached
the boundary area and heard calls and drumming from a neighboring
community, they moved away from the boundary. However, once they
moved further within their own territory, when they heard calls and
drumming from the neighboring community, they responded aggres-
sively with loud calls and drumming (Reynolds 2005:103).
The human expressive capability of music has deep evolutionary roots
in similar behaviors that provided important adaptations in communi-
cating personal information to members of the group. Human music
capacities, however, are the outcome of hominan evolution that pro-
duced unique human skills with origins that go back to the foundation
of the
Homo
lineage. Musical capacities have a central role in enhancing
human functioning at a number of levels, particularly social, and in
providing healing mechanisms. The effects of tone and sound on emo-
tions enable music to have effects on health. Crowe (2004) notes that
throughout history, music has been understood to promote health and
wellness and enhance emotional balance and harmony. Music exerts a
number of influences that produce synchronization, including physical
vibratory effects on the body and increased coherence in brain-wave
discharges, leading to a coordination of emotions and cognition, and a
sense of unity and connectedness. A general health effect of music
involves this entrainment in the brain, and is discussed below in the
general model of ASC and the integrative mode of consciousness.
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010
Winkelman
Shamanism and the Origins
of Spirituality 467
Music has direct impacts on the brain, inducing a variety of patterns
and responses. Crowe reviews a number of other mechanisms through
which music may also induce physiological effects that result in relaxa-
tion and reduce stress. Physiological reactions produced by music
include its impact on the autonomic nervous system and the emotional
processing
centers.
Music has
an ability
to
heal through
the
elicitation
of
emotions and by providing supportive cathartic expression that relieves
troubled emotions. Crowe characterizes music's effects on emotions as
the consequence of biologically determined neural responses, its direct
impact on nonverbal communication processes, and its ability to both
communicate and elicit experiences in
others.
Crowe reviews
a
range
of
research that indicates emotional expression induced by music
is
based
in the elicitation of innate biologically determined emotional states.
Music has
a
capacity for healing through eliciting these emotional states
and providing a mechanism for venting and constructive expression
of
repressed emotions, generating insight into our own feelings. These
properties of music to function as a form of communication go beyond
the nonverbal expression of basic emotions to express more developed
affective
forms.
While there
are
a variety of personal and cultural factors
that shape
the
way in which
music is
perceived and affects the body and
consciousness, it remains a primordial form of emotional communica-
tion whose cross-cultural power
is
perhaps more evident in
the
modern
world than ever before.
Charging and
'Dancing'
as Ritual Communication
Precursors of shamanic ritual are manifested in behaviors of both wild
and captive
chimpanzees.
Köhler (1927:314-15) observed captive chimps
in 'primitive dancing', which included foot stomping and revolving
around in a circle like a 'spinning top' and group rhythmic marches
around
a
post.
Lawick-Goodall (1971:52-54) pointed to a 'rain dance' in
the behavior of wild chimpanzees in response to an approaching thun-
derstorm. Following a loud thunder burst, the alpha male began to
stagger rhythmically and produce pant-hoots. Then the alpha male,
followed by other males, ran up and down a hill, breaking branches
from the trees, as the females and young watched the display. These
unusual displays involve a typical pattern of aggressive display per-
formed by dominant individuals. A mild threat is conveyed when an
individual slightly raises its head or arm, or gestures as if preparing to
throw something, often with the hair bristling and erect. This may
escalate to bipedal posture that makes the animal appear larger, and
may be expanded by swaying from foot to foot or running towards an
opponent on
two legs
(often while waving
the
arms).
Chimps
also
shake
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
468 Journal for
the
Study of Religion, Nature
and
Culture
the branches of nearby trees, throw rocks and other objects, and flail
with sticks or branches. Extended features of the display, such
as
leaping,
hurling rocks and branches, and beating on the ground, can escalate to
more intimidating charging displays—stamping the feet, slapping hands
against the ground, throwing rocks and sticks, combined with upright
running. The most dramatic type of aggressive, dominant behavior is the
charging display, during which a chimp (usually a male), may shake,
drag, or
flail
branches, throw objects, slap the ground with
its
hands and
stomp with its feet, leap and swing through trees, vocalize, and even
drum on tree trunks
or
buttresses of trees with the feet. This display may
be quadrupedal, but in its maximal form involves a vigorous bipedal
charge that enables them to beat with their arms, grasp branches and
wave them from side to side and beat them on the ground.
The Evolutionary
Origins
ofShamanic Ritual
The homologies of shamanic ritual with the chimpanzee chanting, 'rain
dances', drumming behaviors, and maximal aggressive displays indicate
that they
are
genetically based behaviors of
the
hominoid
lineages,
beha-
viors that had important social functions before the split between chim-
panzee and human lines. In essence, the chimpanzee model suggests
that humans have a genetic disposition to collective ritual behaviors, in
which males (in particular) engage in collective dancing and charging
displays against an unknown other. The universality of drumming in
shamanism reflects
a
widespread mammalian signaling mechanism that
was further developed in hominoids. Drumming has adaptive effects in
warding off animal threats, producing fear in many
animals.
Drumming
is a signaling device that produces loud sensations analogous to large
powerful beasts. This communication of an alert and vigilant state may
generalize to communicate a threat, an ability to act with striking as in
the case with chimpanzees beating branches,
a
basic defensive mechan-
ism seen in their rituals and responses to predatory cats. Chimpanzees'
aggressive displays are taken as evidence of their fitness, health, and
vigor, and they involve behaviors that were expanded in human evolu-
tion.
The chimpanzees charging of the thunderstorm involves taking an
aggressive stance towards an ominous threatening but unknown agent
that has a homology with the shamans' dramatic ritual attacks against
the unseen spirits. Ritual aggression also produces a unified social
response to outside threats and predators, engaging
both
intraorganismic
and interorganismic coordination necessary for concerted group action.
Shamanic ritual (group activities, vocalizations such as singing and
chanting, ritual dancing, imitation of desired goals) has biological
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.
Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 469
origins in the same structures and functions underlying animal rituals,
which function as systems of group coordination and communication.
These enactment and communicative functions involve the 'reptilian'
brain (R-complex) and paleomammalian brain (limbic system), which
provide enactive and vocal emotive expressive systems (MacLean 1990).
Human rituals elaborated on these communicative and integrative func-
tions,
first using mimesis as a system to expand expression of intentions.
Mimesis as Ritual Communication
Shamanism exploited this group orientation with an expansion of ritual
communication through mimesis—deliberate communication through
imitation. Core to shamanic activity is mime and dancing, ritual enact-
ments of struggles with the spirits combined with chanting, singing, and
imitative vocalization. These imitative enactments, characteristic of sha-
manic practices, engage what are considered to be underlying mimetic
modules, innate capacities to produce a uniquely human capacity to
symbolize with actions (Molino 2000; Donald 1991). Human imitation
differs from the innate releasing patters underlying imitation in other
animals in that human mimesis involves a conscious behavioral produc-
tion of metaphor through mime, an intentional imitation, and gesture.
Mimesis involves a deliberate and conscious enactment that maps actions
onto perceptions of events. The mimetic capacities also provide the
ability to entrain the body to external rhythms, providing a uniquely
human communicative capacity that emerged as a pre-language expres-
sive system in early hominids (Donald 1991). These bodily movements,
gestures, and facial expressions are an early form of symbolic communi-
cation and exemplified in expressive modalities found in rhythm, affec-
tive semantics, and melody that are typical of shamanic rituals (Donald
1991).
Rhythmic modules of the brain underlie this expressive system
that coevolved to enhance social bonding and communication of internal
states,
an affective semantics. These 'rhythmo-affective semantics'
express fundamental emotions (Molino 2000) and emerged early in
hominid evolution for producing group coordination.
Donald contends that group ritual dances and vocal imitation of ani-
mals were among the first human mimetic activities (Donald
2001).
This
mimetic capacity produced a basis for culture that exceeded the commu-
nicative capacity of hominids by enabling activities that provided a basis
for shared information in enactive symbolism. This enactive behavior
expressed emotions and a mythic ethos in a behavioral expressive
system which provided mechanisms for collective expression and group
integration. Mimesis has a whole-body expressive and mapping capacity
that illustrates its domain-general properties that link many different
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systems. Donald further proposes that this mimetic capability emerged
from
the
capacity to focus attention on one's own body movements, pro-
ducing
a
form of body-based awareness. This increased awareness of the
self-in-environment enhanced imitative cultural expression in customs,
rituals, gestures, and skilled behaviors. These mimetic traditions provide
a collective expressive system that produced a shared group conscious-
ness and culture, engaged and distributed cognitive processes, and
provided a basis for metaphoric thinking.
Sociophysiological
Dynamics of
Ritual:
Social Bonding
and
Opioid Mediated
Attachment
A central aspect of shamanism involves the community. This community
engagement by shamanic ritual has important social, psychological and
psychophysiological effects. Community rituals reflect adaptations to
primates' biological needs for group coordination. These needs, in turn,
were derived from an expansion of the attachment bonds that evolved to
maintain proximity between infants and care givers and foster a secure
basis for the self by providing feelings of protection by
a
powerful figure
(Kirkpatrick
2005).
Human evolutionary ancestry produced
a
neuropsy-
chology for a social world,
a
need for emotional life that is wired into the
human nervous system. These mammalian capacities were enhanced in
humans and extended
to
broader
groups.
Social identity and personhood
became
a
necessity, a reflection of social interdependency that produces
a canalization and coordination of individual neurological, emotional,
and psychological development in relations to social others.
Shamanic practices met humans' attachment
needs,
using group ritual
to provide comfort, a sense of belonging, and healing. Rituals also pro-
duce physiological reactions that enable shamanic practices to have
biological consequences, a function of ritual that has deep phylogenetic
roots.
Frecska and Kulcsar (1989:71,76) illustrate how communal rituals
elicit attachment bonds and related physiological mechanisms that
release endogenous opiates (opioids), producing psychobiological syn-
chrony and community cohesion within the
group.
Opioid release stimu-
lates the immune system, producing a sense of euphoria, certainty, and
belongingness, enhancing coping skills and maintenance of bodily
homeostasis, and enhancing stress tolerance and environmental adapta-
tion (see Valle and Prince 1989; Frecska and Kulcsar 1989).
Ritual is
a
form of socialization that links emotionally charged cultural
symbols with physiological responses, producing
a
cross-conditioning
of
the endocrine and immune systems with the mythological, somatic, and
psychological spheres (Frecska and Kulcsar 1989). Shamanistic rituals
manipulate the symbols associated with social bonding processes to
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Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 471
activate the opioid system. Shamanic rituals also stimulate release of
opioids through a variety of physical and behavioral mechanisms,
including repetitive physical activity such as drumming, dancing, and
clapping activities; temperature extremes (e.g. sweat lodges or cold
streams); stressors such as fasting, flagellation, and self-inflicted
wounds; emotional manipulations (e.g. fear and positive expectations);
and nighttime activities when endogenous opioids are naturally highest
(Winkelman 1997; and Winkelman 2000 for original sources).
Hayden (2003) considers the evolution of shamanism to be a function
of innate emotional foundations and adaptations to ecological circums-
tances. He suggests that linkages among resource stress, community
relations, and intercommunity alliances enabled shamanism and its ASC
to contribute to human survival. Severe droughts several million years
ago exerted important selective influences on hominid populations that
gave rise to modern shamanism. Among the changes were abilities to
forge close emotional bonds with other groups, which provided
resources to cope with crises and promote survival in inhospitable envi-
ronments through assurance of physical protection and assistance pro-
curing food. The adaptiveness of ritual lies in the creation of a sense of a
common group identity that overcame the natural tendency toward
ethnocentrism and xenophobia and instead helped to secure alliances.
Shamanic rituals associated with ASC experiences thus helped forge a
common identity among what had been unrelated groups.
Ecstasy:
The
Integrative Mode of Consciousness
Eliade (1964) noted that what he called 'ecstasy', an ASC, was a central
feature of shamanic practices. The near-universality of institutionalized
ASC (Winkelman 1992) reflects their inherent basis in human biology
and the fundamental similarity of the brain responses produced by a
variety of conditions, activities, and agents (Mandell 1980; Winkelman
1997,2000). ASC are induced by a wide variety of agents and procedures,
including stress, starvation, hyperventilation, shock, drugs, and ritual
procedures, and reflect a general biological response. Shamanic ASC
generally begin with dietary and sexual restrictions, and then the all-
night ceremony involving enactment, drumming, chanting, and dancing
until collapse (or deliberate repose). The overall physiological effects of
these activities activate the sympathetic division of the autonomic nerv-
ous system until exhaustion leads to collapse and a parasympathetic
dominant phase, the relaxation response that may also be entered
directly through relaxation, withdrawal, and an internal focus of
attention.
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The ASC of shamans and other shamanistic healers reflect a natural
human response,
a
biologically based mode of consciousness that
I
have
(Winkelman 2000) referred to as the integrative mode of consciousness.
The natural basis of this condition is reflected in the wide variety of
natural agents and
ritual
procedures (e.g. trauma, long-distance running,
near starvation, drumming, chanting, music, dancing, sensory depriva-
tion,
nutritional imbalances, extreme fatigue, and natural plants sub-
stances such as hallucinogens) that elicit a common pattern of brain
response. ASC involve systematic brain discharge patterns that propa-
gate across the neuraxis of the brain, producing brain-wave synchro-
nization in the alpha and theta wave range (Mandell 1980; also see
Vollenweider 1998). The underlying basis of these responses to many
different stimuli is created by the serotonergic connections between the
limbic system and brain-stem regions that produce synchronous
discharges that propagate across the neuraxis into the frontal cortex
(Mandell 1980). The synchronous patterns originating in the hippo-
campal-septal-reticular raphe circuits are manifested in high-voltage,
slow-wave
EEG
activity (especially theta, 3-6 cycles per second waves).
These discharges reflect linkages of the attentional mechanisms in the
behavioral brain regions (reticular formation) and the emotional brain
(limbic brain, particularly the hippocampal-septal area), producing
ascending discharge patterns that synchronize these levels of the brain
with projecting discharges into the two frontal lobes.
This paradigm of integrative brain states as a generic feature under-
lying altered consciousness is illustrated in the research of Vollenweider
(1998) on the mechanisms of action of psychedelics. His findings emphas-
ize their selective effects on the brain's CSTC (cortico-striato-thalamo-
cortical) feedback loops. These loops are the principal organizational
networks of the brain that link the information-gating systems of lower
levels of the brain with the frontal cortex of the brain. These loops are
regulated at lower levels of the brain in the thalamus, which limits the
ascending information. Vollenweider describes the disinhibition of these
systems by psychedelics as resulting in the flooding of
the
frontal cortex
with information, leading to breakdown of the integrative capacity of the
ego.
The limbic loop originates in the hippocampal area and the tem-
poral lobe and projects to ventral striatum, nucleus accumbens, and
caudate nucleus, with feedback to the orbitofrontal cortex. These areas
exert an inhibitory influence on the thalamus, functioning as 'gate-
keepers' or filters for the level of the frontal cortex, the basic filtering
node for information from the environment and body. Psychedelics
disable this disinhibition process, which increases access to the informa-
tion capacities, increasing the flow of information that is ordinarily
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Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 473
inhibited, and permitting an overload of information that can over-
whelm the frontal cortex.
ASC produce a focus on information from evolutionarily earlier struc-
tures of the brain, 'animal-like' cognitive processes that facilitate envi-
ronmental adaptation, hunting, and food procurement and protection
(see MacLean's [1990] discussion of paleomentation processes). Shamanic
ASC produce psychophysiological and psychosocial integration by
enhancing interactions between conscious and unconscious processes,
linking the pre-verbal structures of consciousness (R-complex and
paleomammalian brain) with the functions of the frontal brain through
the ascending impulses manifested in vision and feelings.
A key aspect of shamanic ASC involves their interaction with dream
processes. The overnight activities of shamanic ritual necessarily engage
the dream processes, an outcome enhanced by practices of dream incu-
bation. Dreaming is found throughout mammalian species, constituting
an adaptation for learning by producing memory associations during
sleep (Winson
1985).
The universality of dreaming in primates indicates
that it is a pre-adaptation for human consciousness (Brereton
2000).
Sha-
manic visionary experiences engage the self-representation capacity
based in the same systems that underlie dream experiences (Hunt 1995).
Brereton (2000) analyzed adaptive aspects of dreaming involved in
shamanism as involving a representation of
self,
a process of scenario
construction that provides processes for risk-free construction and
examination of options. Research on dreams suggests that their content
involves a 'replaying' of emotionally marked memories that have not
been effectively resolved and incorporated into new adaptive behavior
patterns. The nonverbal bodily based aspects of dreaming indicate its
ability to connect the body-self at a pre-egoic and prelinguistic level,
engaging levels of symbolization that preceded egoic consciousness. The
shamanic ASC also produces forms of self-awareness that transcend the
embeddedness of biologically based body consciousness.
The
Shamanic
ASC: Soul
Journey
The signature shamanic ASC, referred to by terms such as 'magical
flight' and 'soul journey', is not unique to shamanic
practice,
but appears
rarely in the experiences of other kinds of magico-religious practitioners
(Winkelman 1992). The near-universality and continued spontaneous
manifestations of this separation of self from body in near-death expe-
riences, contemporary spiritual practices, and psychological crises known
as 'spiritual emergencies' suggests that shamanic soul flight reflects the
manifestation of innate psychophysiological structures. These innate
structures of the soul journey reflect an engagement of representations
of
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self and other manifested in a visual symbolic capacity that Hunt (1995)
refers to as presentational symbolism.
This
nonverbal symbolic capacity
for self-reference is the same system underlying dreaming (Hunt 1995).
This visionary aspect of the shaman's ASC is based in a complex synes-
thesia,
a
blending of corporeal, visual, and auditory sensory modalities.
This synthesis provides a special form of self awareness experienced as
apart from the body.
Soul flight has implications embodied in the etymological roots of the
word 'ecstasy'—standing outside of
oneself.
This reveals the ability of
perspective-taking that is derived from the capacity to take the role of
the 'other' towards one's self (Hunt 1995). It is also a capacity derived
from mimesis, the ability to represent with the body. The body is a
neurological basis for human experience and knowing (Newton 1996)
and is a principal aspect of metaphors used in analogic thinking
(Friedrich
1991).
Body image combines memory, perception, affect, and
cognition in presentational symbolism, utilizing the capacity for cross-
modal translation that is at the foundation of symbolic thought (Hunt
1995).
This cognitive feature of shamanism reflects extensions of human
cognitive potentials. This presentational symbolic system based in pre-
linguistic structures provided mechanisms for representation and new
forms of self-awareness that produced transcendence of ordinary body-
based awareness and identity. Out-of-body experiences emphasize a
sense of reference no longer tied to the physical body, which is the
original form of knowledge. Body-based representational systems pro-
vide a symbolic system for all levels of organization from metabolic
levels through self-representation and advanced conceptual functions.
The
body-image dynamics of soul flight reflect
a
natural symbol system,
a biologically based model that organizes both internal and external
experiences, as well as a reference system that extends awareness
beyond that body-based reference (Laughlin 1997).
The shaman's visionary experiences engage the use of
a
presentational
symbolism (Hunt 1995). Symbolic imagery and visions of shamans'
visionary experiences engage the same brain structures associated with
processing perceptual information (Baars 1997) and dreaming (Hunt
1995).
Images are a pre-verbal symbol system that have the capacity to
recruit and coordinate muscle systems to achieve goals, arousing auto-
nomic responses and engaging unconscious muscle control centers
(Baars 1997). Images engage psychobiological communication processes
that
mediate across different levels of information processing, integrating
unconscious, non-volitional, affective, and psychophysiological informa-
tion at cognitive levels. This visual information system links domains of
experience, integrating somatic, psychological, and cognitive levels
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Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 475
through visual images and analogical processes (Noll
1985;
Winkelman
2000).
These visual symbol systems provide advantages in engaging an
analogic system of analysis, synthesis, and planning based in visual
images, exemplified in the information received in shamanic soul flight.
These special forms of perception and information integration provide
adaptations derived from the survival benefits associated with enhanced
information availability and expanded understandings of self and envi-
ronment. The ASC reflects an adaptive response involving enhanced
integration of information from operators of the unconscious mind, inte-
grating the body-level awareness of the pre-linguistic and pre-conscious
mind into consciousness. These principles of integration are the underly-
ing basis for universal aspects of shamanism associated with the spirit
world.
The Spirit
World:
Psychological Projection
of Self-Processes
Humans have innate mental hardware for detecting agency (animacy),
which tends to be Overactive', detecting agents when they are not actu-
ally present. Atran (2006) has argued that all animals need to respond
without hesitation to the possibility of predators, leading to evolutionary
adaptations for an 'overactive' detection system. Whether we are prey or
hunter, being over-sensitive to the possibility of an active agent
is
adap-
tive for survival. Our ancient ancestors extended this mental hardware
for 'animacy detection' to respond to all sorts of other phenomena, pro-
viding the underlying properties of supernatural
beings.
A result of our
normal cognitive processes for detecting animate agents is attributing
causality to unseen intentional agents, particularly for complex pheno-
mena of unknown
origin.
Assumptions about unseen human-like actors
are even more adaptive, making the mind-like characteristics of humans,
as well as their psychological dispositions and emotions, the qualities
that are attributed to spirits (see also Guthrie
1993,
and Sands's Introduc-
tion to this issue).
The inference of spirits (animism) has been postulated to derive from
experiences in dreams, spontaneous out-of-body experiences, and other
anomalous psychological phenomena
(e.g.
Tylor
1924;
McClenon
2002).
Perception requires that humans be situated in their world and environ-
ment, producing what Bird-David (1999) calls a relational epistemology.
Animism
is
also a consequence of innate processing modules involved in
self and other representation (Winkelman 2004a). Developmental psy-
chology, attributional theory, and consciousness studies illustrate how
the projection of human qualities is an inevitable consequence of our
psychological and social development, making belief in spirits the result
of a natural epistemology (Winkelman
2004b).
Animism is exemplified
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in anthropomorphism, attributing human-like characteristics to spirits
and nonhuman entities, imposing order on the unknown through the
projection of human models of
the
self that
are
inseparably embedded in
humans' representational capacities. This involves projection of cogni-
tive similarity, involving the inevitable use of the self as a model for
understanding the unknown (Hunt
1995),
producing
an
interpénétration
of the qualities of the personal with the natural in the creation of the
supernatural.
Shamanic cognition emphasizes the expansion of special attributes of
human consciousness to new domains. Hubbard (2002) characterizes
shamanic cognition as based on the extension of intentionality to the
natural world and attributing human capacities to nonhuman entities.
Humans have an innate tendency to attribute the cause of an object's
actions to its internal dispositional factors, assuming that unknown
things operate as rational agents and have mental states, beliefs, and
desires. This understanding of the unknown in terms of the dynamics of
the qualities of humans is an adaptive attribution process given that
humans are the most complex and dangerous agents in the environment.
Attributing
humans'
self-
and social qualities is also adaptive because it
reflects the normative social context that produces the behavior of
others, providing an interpretive framework that reflects the realities
humans encounter. The cross-cultural presence of supernatural beliefs
results from
this
adaptive tendency, which provided externalized models
for personal development and social integration. The assumption of
spirits is a normal and natural tendency and a cultural universal in the
pre-modern world, appearing to be an inevitable consequence of
humans' needs to make sense of others' behavior in terms of our own
mental and self-qualities.
The
Supernatural Self and
Society
These projective processes underlying animism involve the use of spiri-
tual concepts as 'super persons' that are used as models in the develop-
ment of personal identity and qualities. Spirit assumptions are reinforced
by
an
innate capacity for social intelligence, the ability of humans to infer
the mental states of other members of the species and to predict their
behavior through an intuitive 'theory of mind'. This 'theory of mind'
combines mental structures that detect animate agents, determines what
they are looking at, inferring their intentions (goals), and ascertaining
their belief systems (Boyer 2001: 123). More than any other species,
humans need information about the surrounding environment and
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Winkelman Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality 477
cooperation with others to adapt to their local ecological
niche.
The need
for cooperation with other humans makes essential some knowledge of
their mental states (2001:120,122).
Pascal Boyer discusses how the social mind inference system is
extended through spirit concepts. Actual people are limited in their
access to social information about others, whereas spirits are presumed
to have, or potentially to have, full access to strategic information about
other's motivations and actions. Assumptions about spirits' knowledge
are an important adaptation, one that has an empirical basis in the
implicit and unconscious cognitive processes that humans engage
through divinatory practices (Winkelman and Peek
2004).
Supernatural
agents expand human scenario building, helping them to engage in
mental thought processes without actual circumstances. Imaging scena-
rios and possible consequences is an example of decoupled cognition, a
mental ability also manifested in play and concepts of spirits that violate
intuitive assumptions. The ability of the mental hardware programs
(inference systems) to operate decoupled from environmental input
allows them to operate independently of actual experience, functioning
in a counterfactual mode that explores alternative scenarios through
imaginary characters that engage the process of inferring mental states
of
others.
Spirits are also useful strategic concepts in personal identity and social
integration. Spirits have social psychological functions as fundamental
representations of the structure of human psychology, a language of
intrapsychic dynamics of the self and psychosocial relations with others.
Spirit beliefs also reflect the cultural dynamics of social and interpersonal
relations. Spirits are used in shamanism to manipulate self-dynamics
and personal identity. Beliefs about the particular qualities of spirits are
learned, providing symbolic systems that reflect 'complexes', integrated
perceptual, behavioral, and personality dynamics that operate indepen-
dently of ego control. Manipulation of these complexes through ritual
practices can heal by re-structuring and integrating the unconscious
personality dynamics with social models, paralleling standard psychia-
tric procedures of healing through uniting the unconscious and
conscious mind.
Spirit
Relations
and
Self:
The
Guardian
Spirit Complex
Shamanic practices of soul recovery, and beliefs in animal allies and
guardian spirits, reflect aspects of self-representation involving sacred
others who are formed in the intersection of spiritual beliefs and the
social and cultural worlds, where cultural processes induce spiritual
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referents into personal identity. Shamanistic relations with spirits engage
the human capacity to 'take the perspective of others', incorporating
others' perceptions into our own identity. Spirit relations also engage
self-development by using representations provided by the natural
history module, exemplified in animal spirits and
allies.
Animal powers
engage a specialized innate capacity for organizing knowledge about
animals and recognizing 'species essence'. Animal species provide a
universal analogical system for the creation of meaning, particularly
representations of
self-
and social identification (see the totemism
section, below, and Lévi-Strauss 1962).
Animal powers as aspects of the self are exemplified in the guardian
spirit complex (Swanson
1973),
where self-development involves incor-
poration of animal properties within identity and personal powers.
Animal relationships provide
a
representational system used
as a
model
for self-development and self-differentiation, allowing for depictions
that both engage the characterizations derived from the universal fea-
tures of a biologically based 'natural history module' (Mithen
1996),
as
well as the introduction of culturally specific and local meanings of
animal species. Swanson characterizes these allies and guardians as
empowering people in adult role development by guiding personal and
social
choices.
Spirits' characteristics provide ideals that structure indi-
vidual psychodynamics and model social behavior in exemplifying
norms for
self-
and psychosocial relations. Spirit
allies
provide alternate
forms of self-representation that facilitate
social
and personal differentia-
tion and provide psychosocial and cognitive mechanisms for problem-
solving and mediation of personal and social conflict. Spirits provide
diverse self-representations that can serve as variable command-control
agents for mediating conflict between the different
selves
and instinctive
agents (see Winkelman 2000 for sources and discussion). This enables
the operation of the social organism with respect
to a
hierarchy of
goals,
using spirit concepts to facilitate orientation of problem-solving modules
to non-routine
tasks
and mediate hierarchies of personal and
social
goals.
The use of spirits to model the self provides processes for social-psy-
chological transformation and therapeutic change. Shamans engage
spirits to provide cathartic transformations of personal and social
psychodynamics. Personal spirits provide protection from stress and
anxiety by helping with the management of emotions and attachments
(see Pandian 1997). Shamanism thus developed a variety of selves for
psychological and
social
integration.
Animism, totemism, and guardian
spirits, as well as soul flight and death-and-rebirth experiences, are
natural symbolic systems for personal and social self-representations.
© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2010.