14/05/2025 - Rufus Malim

THEORIES OF SHAMANISM AND HERITAGE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COMPARATIVE APPROACH WITH MONGOLIAN ETHNOGRAPHY

Abstact:

Through the proper application of anthropological data and ethnography we can determine if an archaeological site contains evidence of shamanic activity. Better understanding of shamanic ritual and practice, its cross-cultural themes for both tangible and intangible heritage are necessary to make this possible.

In order to achieve these aims the author used several methods including; a dialectical approach to clarify the definition of the terms shaman and shamanism, secondly cross disciplinary analysis (I.e. Anthropology, Archaeology, Ethnography, Neuroscience, Psychobiology, Rock art) to identify the worldwide spread of shamanism and its cause, and thirdly scientific modelling to create the framework to identify shamanism in archaeological sites.

Conclusions via these methodological approaches included; The term shaman is concluded to refer to a specific type of psychobiological practice derived from the psychobiology of an individual and the term shamanism is concluded to refer to a culturally informed magico-religious psychobiological practice (technique/set of techniques). The practice of Shamanism is concluded to have spread worldwide due to both innate psychobiological conditions and the migration of established practices and ideas between cultures. The Scientific models and meta model are concluded to successfully ascertain whether an archaeological artefact, assemblage, or site is of shamanic origin based on cross disciplinary data.
The author wishes to state that there are issues with comparing ethnography with archaeology due to the lack of material evidence. However, by using philosophical discourse and established evidence from anthropological and ethnographic data the author has provided models for comparative analysis.

Keywords: Shamanism, Scientific modelling, Altered states of consciousness, Ethnography