Chapter 6



Religious specialists have special abilities to
communicate with the spirit world
Can be full-time or part-time, focus on
individual or the community
Less complex, developing communities
 Tend to be part-time (times of need)

More complex, technological communities
 Tend to be full-time

We use Wallace’s 4 forms:
 Individualistic
 Shamanistic
 Communal
 Ecclesiastical




Individuals intentionally seek out spirits or
supernatural powers to protect them
Direct interaction
Vision quest: Great Plains Indians; spirit
comes in a vision; helps person on endeavors
No entire religion is individualistic






Shaman or medicine man is a person with
culturally defined special relationship to
supernatural powers
May heal sick
May have spirit helpers
May take hallucinogens
May become mediums
Many Hunter/Gatherer and horticultural
tribes

Acquire status in 3 ways
 Period of special training as apprentice
 Endure difficult deprivations
 Experience unusual event

Ex: Jivaro of Ecuador
 Sickness is caused by enemies
 Bewitching shamans and curing shamans




Like shamanistic, these practices don’t have
full-time specialists
Have leaders who manipulate symbolic objects
Two types:
Ancestral
 Rituals performed to worship kinship group’s
ancestors

Totemistic
 Rituals focus on totem, or natural object. Clans are
associated with different totems
Totemism
Ancestor Worship




State-sponsored practices are ecclesiatical
practices
Highly organized
Held in large churches or temples
May have belief that ruler is “God-King”
 Aztecs
▪ Human sacrifice
 Egyptian Pharaoh
▪ pyramids
 Henry VIII



Let’s talk more in depth about shamans and
priests
Usually there are said to be two main types of
religious specialists
However, these should be viewed as ends of a
continuum
 Priests
 Shamans


There are a lot of different definitions
Features include:
 Direct communication with supernatural
 Use spirit helpers
 Use culturally appropriate paraphernalia



They are usually chosen by spirits
Can be called by dreams, trances, visions, or
abnormal behavior
Also after surviving an illness or having
certain illnesses
 Book: Lia’s seizures

Can decide whether or not to pursue it





Contact and maintain relationship with spirits
Focus is on ability to contact (not on
knowledge)
Use ASC
Fight or appease spirits, heal and cure disease
Can be private or public


Use drumming, singing, chanting, dancing,
costumes
Axis Mundi: view that there are three zones
of the world
 Supernatural, natural, and underworld


Shaman can travel through these
Also commonly linked to gender transitions





Western societies traditionally have twogender model
Deviance from this is “unnatural” and “sinful”
Gender crossing is the adoption of social roles
and behaviors normally appropriate for
opposite sex
In many cultures, gender crossing is
institutionalized, or expected by at least some
Gender crossing and sexual orientation are not
the same thing!

Berdache is term for males who take on
alternative gender
 Are seen as religious healers


Anglo observers of crossed-genders
overemphasized sexual orientation
They were also judgmental and condemnatory

Bugis in Indonesia have:
 Calalai: woman-man
 Calabai: man-woman
 Bissu: neither male nor female



Bissu is also part deity and part mortal
Role is the intermediary between supernatural
world and the people
Also bestow blessings on harvests, travels, and
protect from natural disasters

Read the “Berdache” article

Provide your own definition for a berdache
How is this tied to gender?
How do they end up a berdache?





These are full-time specialists in formal
religious institutions
Usually in complex, industrialized societies
Seen as representative of community
 Supposed to be moral authority
 How does society react when they act
inappropriately?

Perform prescribed rituals
 Periodic (calendrical)
 And in times of need
 Rites of passage (weddings, funerals, baptism,
bris)

Also generalized
 Reinforce community beliefs and behaviors




Focus is on knowledge and memorization
(not on contacting spirits)
High degree of specialization
Usually formally trained
Rite of Passage (ordained)


Priests can have strict hierarchy
Example:
 Deacons assist priests
 Priests lead churches
 Bishops lead regions
 In Roman Catholicism, can go to cardinals, pope…

How do priests and shamans differ?
PRIEST






Hierarchy of priesthood
Under formal government
(state)
Special training
High in social ladder; may
live better than others
Calendrical
People have spiritual
dependence on priest
SHAMAN
Work alone
 No formal government
(band, tribe, chiefdom)
 May not have special
training
 Equal status as others
 Crisis
 No spiritual dependence




These fall in the spectrum and may overlap
with priests or shamans
Herbalists
Diviners


Use plants for curing
Many plants do have medicinal properties

Practices a set of techniques that obtains
unknowable information
Usually of the future or things dealing with
the supernatural
Often use ASC
Answer practical questions

Diviner gives diagnosis and healer gives cure







Are the mouthpiece for gods
They communicate the gods/gods’ words to
the people
Can also be shamans
Roles include:
 Healing
 Predicting future
 Control nature



Judaism: Moses
Christianity: Jesus (may also be considered
deity)
Islam: Mohammed


Read Box 6.2 (African Healers Meet Western
Medicine)
Discuss in groups how this applies to the
book