J Psychoactive Drugs. 1989 Jan-Mar;21(1):47-50. doi: 10.1080/02791072.1989.10472142.

What has really been learned about shamanism?.

Journal of psychoactive drugs

R Noll

PMID: 2656952 DOI: 10.1080/02791072.1989.10472142

Abstract

Within anthropology, investigations of shamans and their altered states of consciousness have followed some of the prescriptive problems inherited from the discipline of psychology, coloring the assumptions and perspectives of students of shamanism. These inherited problems include the following: conscious/volitional versus unconscious/involuntary mentalisms; contentual objectivism versus contentual subjectivism; environmentalism versus nativism; monopsychism versus polypsychism; mechanism versus vitalism; and quantitativism versus qualitativism. Although the polemics of anthropological studies of shamanism have reflected these prescriptive perspectives, this has not inhibited the acquisition of new knowledge about shamanism. Nonetheless, a resolution of these problems is lacking due to insufficient data.

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MeSH terms

• Culture
• Humans
• Religion and Psychology*

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Review

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