Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:48:30.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why is there shamanism? Developing the cultural evolutionary theory and addressing alternative accounts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Manvir Singh
Manvir Singh*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. [email protected]://www.manvir.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The commentators endorse the conceptual and ethnographic synthesis presented in the target article, suggest extensions and elaborations of the theory, and generalize its logic to explain apparently similar specializations. They also demand clarity about psychological mechanisms, argue against conclusions drawn about empirical phenomena, and propose alternative accounts for why shamanism develops. Here, I respond.

Type
Author's Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, K. R. & Sherratt, T. N. (2011) The evolution of superstition through optimal use of incomplete information. Animal Behaviour 82:85–92. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.04.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balikci, A. (1963) Shamanistic behavior among the Netsilik Eskimos. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 19:380–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bastian, B., Jetten, J. & Ferris, L. J. (2014) Pain as social glue: Shared pain increases cooperation. Psychological Science 25:2079–85. doi:10.1177/0956797614545886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, J. & Forstmeier, W. (2007) Superstition and belief as inevitable by-products of an adaptive learning strategy. Human Nature 18:35–46. doi:10.1007/BF02820845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, K. (2005) The trouble with charisma: Religious ecstasy in Ch'ŏndogyo. Asian Studies Review 29:3–18. doi:10.1080/10357820500139471.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentall, R. P., Corcoran, R., Howard, R., Blackwood, N. & Kinderman, P. (2001) Persecutory delusions: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review 21:1143–92. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7358(01)00106-4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Besson, L. (1997) The fifth element. Columbia Pictures.Google Scholar
Blacker, C. (1975) The catalpa bow: A study of shamanistic practices in Japan. George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Boddy, J. (1994) Spirit possession revisited: Beyond instrumentality. Annual Review of Anthropology 23:407–34. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.23.1.407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bužeková, T. (2010) The shaman's journey between emic and etic: Representations of the shaman in neo-shamanism. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 19:116–30. doi:10.3167/ajec.2010.190109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cahn, B. R. & Polich, J. (2006) Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin 132(2):180–211. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Droog, W., Murphy, K., Tagliazucchi, E., Schenberg, E. E., Nest, T., Orban, C., Leech, R., Williams, L. T., Williams, T. M., Bolstridge, M., Sessa, B., McGonigle, J., Sereno, M. I., Nichols, D., Hellyer, P. J., Hobden, P., Evans, J., Singh, K. D., Wise, R. G., Curran, H. V., Feilding, A. & Nutt, D. J. (2016) Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 113(17):4853–58. doi:10.1073/pnas.1518377113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carneiro, E. (1940) The structure of African cults in Bahia. The Journal of American Folklore 53:271–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chagnon, N. A. & Asch, T. (1973) Magical Death. Documentary Education Resources.Google Scholar
Cohen, E. (2007) The mind possessed: The cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, K. S., Yamagishi, T., Cheshire, C., Cooper, R., Matsuda, M. & Mashima, R. (2005) Trust building via risk taking: A cross-societal experiment. Social Psychology Quarterly 68:121–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, R. C. & Beaton, A. C. (1939) Bari rain cults: Fur rain cults and ceremonies. Sudan Notes and Records 22:181–203.Google Scholar
Crespi, B. & Badcock, C. (2008) Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31:241–320. doi:10.1017/S0140525X08004214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crocker, W. H. (1990) The Canela (Eastern Timbira): I. An ethnographic introduction. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 33. Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Czaplicka, M. A. (1914) Aboriginal Siberia: A study in social anthropology. Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
D'Anglure, B. S. & Philibert, J. (1993) The shaman's share, or Inuit sexual communism in the Canadian central Arctic. Anthropologica 35:59–103.Google Scholar
Del Guidice, M. & Ellis, B. J. (2016) Evolutionary foundations of developmental psychopathology. In: Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 1. Theory and method, 3rd edition, ed. Cicchetti, D., pp. 1–58. Wiley.Google Scholar
Desjarlais, R. R. (1989) Healing through images: The magical flight and healing geography of Nepali shamans. Ethos 17:289–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devereux, G. (1961b) Shamans as neurotics. American Anthropologist 63:1088–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliade, M. (1964) Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ember, M. (1997) Evolution of the human relations area files. Cross-Cultural Research 31:3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, G. T. & De Laguna, F. (1991) The Tlingit Indians Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 70. University of Washington Press and the American Museum of Natural History. Available at: http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/253.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1929) The morphology and function of magic: A comparative study of Trobriand and Zande ritual and spells. American Anthropologist 31:619–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1937) Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande. Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fisman, R. & Miguel, E. (2007) Corruption, norms, and legal enforcement: Evidence from diplomatic parking tickets. Journal of Political Economy 115:1020–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, K. R. & Kokko, H. (2009) The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276:31–37. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0981.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gallace, A. & Spence, C. (2010) The science of interpersonal touch: An overview. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 34:246–59. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.10.004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Handelman, D. (1972) Aspects of the moral compact of a Washo shaman. Anthropological Quarterly 45:84–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harner, M. (1990) The way of the shaman, third edition. Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Harner, M. J. (1968) The sound of rushing water. Natural History 77:28–33, 60–61.Google Scholar
Harner, M. J. (1972) The Jívaro: People of the sacred waterfalls. University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckler, S. L. (2007) Herbalism, home gardens, and hybridization: Wõthïhã medicine and cultural change. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 21:41–63. doi:10.1525/MAQ.2007.21.1.41.41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hitchcock, J. T. (1973) A Nepali shaman's performance as theater. Artscanada 30:74–80.Google Scholar
Hoebel, E. A. (1954) The law of primitive man: A study in comparative legal dynamics. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hove, M. J. & Risen, J. L. (2009) It's all in the timing: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition 27:949–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hultkrantz, Å. (1993) Introductory remarks on the study of shamanism. Shaman 1:5–16.Google Scholar
Humphrey, N. (2002b) Great expectations: The evolutionary psychology of faith-healing and the placebo effect. In: Psychology at the turn of the millenium: Volume 2. Social, development, and clinical perspectives, ed. von Hofsten, C. & Bäckman, L., pp. 225–46. Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Humphrey, N. & Skoyles, J. (2012) The evolutionary psychology of healing: A human success story. Current Biology 22(17):R695–98. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.018. Available at: http://www.humphrey.org.uk/papers/2012Healing.pdf.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hurd, J. P. (1983) Kin relatedness and church fissioning among the “Nebraska” Amish of Pennsylvania. Social Biology 30:59–66.Google ScholarPubMed
Katz, R. (1982) Boiling energy: Community healing among the Kalahari Kung. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kehoe, A. B. & Gileiti, D. H. (1981) Women's preponderance in possession cults: The calcium-deficiency hypothesis extended. American Anthropologist 83:549–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitt, A. (2004) Religious enthusiasm, the Spanish Inquisition, and the disenchantment of the world. Journal of the History of Ideas 65:231–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitt, A. (2005a) Inventing the sacred: Imposture, InquisitionInquisition, and the boundaries of the supernatural in Golden Age Spain. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keitt, A. (2005b) The miraculous body of evidence: Visionary experience, medical discourse, and the Inquisition in seventeenth-century Spain. The Sixteenth Century Journal 36:77–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, L. (1985) Shamans, housewives, and other restless spirits: Women in Korean ritual life. University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, K. R., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J., Jordan, F. M., Gomes-Ng, S., Bibiko, H.-J., Blasi, D. E., Botero, C. A., Bowern, C., Ember, C. R., Leehr, D., Low, B. S., McCarter, J., Divale, W. & Gavin, M. C. (2016) D-PLACE: A global database of cultural, linguistic and environmental diversity. PLoS ONE 11:e0158391. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kluckhohn, C. (1944) Navaho witchcraft. Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Kraft, S. E., Fonneland, T. & Lewis, J. R., eds. (2015) Nordic neoshamanisms. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, A. (1911) Crystal-gazing. In: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 7, ed. Chisholm, H.. Available at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Crystal-gazing.Google Scholar
Leeson, P. T. (2012) “God damn”: The law and economics of monastic malediction. The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 30:193–216. doi:10.1093/jleo/ews025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerch, P. B. (1982) An explanation for the predominance of women in the Umbanda cults of Pôrto Alegre, Brazil. Urban Anthropology 11:237–61.Google Scholar
Lewis, I. M. (2003) Ecstatic religion: A study of shamanism and spirit possession, 3rd edition. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203241080.Google Scholar
Lieban, R. W. (1967) Cebuano sorcery: Malign magic in the Philippines. University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindquist, G. (1997) Shamanic performances on the urban scene: Neo-shamanism in contemporary Sweden (Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology). Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Lindquist, G. (2004) Bringing the soul back to the self: Soul retrieval in neo-shamanism. Social Analysis 48:157–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucas, G. (1999) Star wars: Episode 1. The phantom menace. 20th Century Fox.Google Scholar
Mair, L. (1969) Witchcraft. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Marshall, J. (1969) N/um tchai: The ceremonial dance of the!Kung bushmen. Documentary Educational Resources.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. (1902/2001) A general theory of magic. Routledge.Google Scholar
McKay, R. & Efferson, C. (2010) The subtleties of error management. Evolution and Human Behavior 31:309–19. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.04.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehr, S. & Krasnow, M. M. (2017) Parent-offspring conflict and the evolution of infant-directed song. Evolution and Human Behavior 38(5):674–684. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.12.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehr, S. A., Singh, M., York, H., Glowacki, L. & Krasnow, M. (2018) Form and function in human song. Current Biology 28:356–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Molm, L. D., Collett, J. L. & Schaefer, D. R. (2007) Building solidarity through generalized exchange: A theory of reciprocity. American Journal of Sociology 113:205–42. doi:10.1086/517900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molm, L. D., Takahashi, N. & Peterson, G. (2000) Risk and trust in social exchange: An experimental test of a classical proposition. American Journal of Sociology 105:1396–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morhenn, V. B., Woo, J., Piper, E. & Zak, P. J. (2008) Monetary sacrifice among strangers is mediated by endogenous oxytocin release after physical contact. Evolution and Human Behavior 29:375–83. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.04.004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muthukumaraswamy, S. D., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Moran, R. J., Brookes, M. J., Williams, T. M., Errtizoe, D., Sessa, B., Papadopoulos, A., Bolstridge, M., Singh, K. D., Feilding, A., Friston, K. J. & Nutt, D. J. (2013) Broadband cortical desynchronization underlies the human psychedelic state. The Journal of Neuroscience 33:15171–83. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-13.2013.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nemeroff, C. & Rozin, P. (2000) The makings of the magical mind: The nature and function of sympathetical magical thinking. In: Imagining the impossible: Magical, scientific, and religious thinking in children, ed. Rosengren, K. S., Johnson, C. N. & Harris, P. L., pp. 1–34. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511571381.002.Google Scholar
O'Dea, T. F. (1961) Five dilemmas in the institutionalization of religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1:30–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ono, K. (1987) Superstitious behavior in humans. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 47:261–71. doi:10.1901/jeab.1987.47-261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orent, A. (1969) Lineage structure and the supernatural: The Kafa of Southwest Ethiopia. Boston University.Google Scholar
Oyler, D. S. (1920) The Shilluk's belief in the good medicine men. Sudan Notes and Records 3:110–16.Google Scholar
Poloma, M. M. (1997) The “Toronto Blessing”: Charisma, institutionalization, and revival. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 36:257–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, R. A., Steinberg, S., Bjornsdottir, G., Rietveld, C. A., Abdellaoui, A., Nivard, M. M., Johannesson, M., Galesloot, T. E., Hottenga, J. J., Willemsen, G., Cesarini, D., Benjamin, D. J., Magnusson, P. K. E., Ullén, F., Tiemeier, H., Hofman, A., van Rooij, F. J. A., Walters, G. B., Sigurdsson, E., Thorgeirsson, T. E., Ingason, A., Helgason, A., Kong, A., Kiemeney, L. A., Koellinger, P., Boomsma, D. I., Gudbyartsson, D., Stefansson, H. & Stefansson, K. (2015) Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder predict creativity. Nature Neuroscience 18:953–56. doi:10.1038/nn.4040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radin, P. (1937) Primitive religion: Its nature and origin. Viking Press. Available at: https://archive.org/details/primitivereligio028070mbp.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, K. (1929) Intellectual culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Gyldendalske Boghandel.Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Fischer, R. & Bulbulia, J. (2013) Let's dance together: Synchrony, shared intentionality and cooperation. PLoS ONE 8:e71182. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rouget, G. (1985) Music and trance: A theory of the relations between music and possession. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shepherd, G. & Shepherd, G. (2006) The social construction of prophecy in the family international. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 10:29–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverman, J. (1967) Shamans and acute schizophrenia. American Anthropologist 69(1):21–31. doi:10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00030.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, M., Glowacki, L. & Wrangham, R. W. (2016) Self-interested agents create, maintain, and modify group-functional culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39:e30, 40–41. doi:10.1017/S0140525X15000242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, M., Wrangham, R. W. & Glowacki, L. (2017) Self-interest and the design of rules. Human Nature 28(4):457–80. doi:10.1007/s12110-017-9298-7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skinner, B. Y. B. F. (1948) “Superstition” in the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology 38:168–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tagliazucchi, E., Roseman, L., Kaelen, M., Orban, C., Muthukumaraswamy, S. D., Murphy, K., Laufs, H., Leech, R., McGonigle, J., Crossley, N., Bullmore, E., Williams, T., Bolstridge, M., Feilding, A., Nutt, D. J. & Carhart-Harris, R. (2016) Increased global functional connectivity correlates with LSD-induced ego dissolution. Current Biology 26(8):1043–50. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.010.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E. & Dunbar, R. (2015) Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding. Biology Letters 11:20150767.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tart, C. T. (1972) States of consciousness and state-specific sciences. Science 176:1203–10. doi:10.1007/sl0551-009-0233-7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Todd, J. A. (1936) Redress of wrongs in southwest New Britain. Oceania 6:401–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uehara, E. (1990) Dual exchange theory, social networks, and informal social support. American Journal of Sociology 96:521–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaitl, D., Birbaumer, N., Gruzelier, J., Jamieson, G., Kotchoubey, B., Kübler, A., Lehmann, D., Miltner, W. H. R., Ott, U., Pütz, P., Sammer, G., Strauch, I., Strehl, U., Wackermann, J. & Weiss, T. (2005) Psychobiology of altered states of consciousness. Psychological Bulletin 131:98–127. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vyse, S. (2014) Believing in magic: The psychology of superstition. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, R. S. & Hill, K. R. (2014) Causes, consequences, and kin bias of human group fissions. Human Nature 25:465–75. doi:10.1007/s12110-014-9209-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watts, J., Sheehan, O., Greenhill, S. J., Gomes-Ng, S., Atkinson, Q. D., Bulbulia, J. & Gray, R. D. (2015) Pulotu: Database of Austronesian supernatural beliefs and practices. PLoS ONE 10:1–17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, D. & White, O. K. Jr., (1996) Charisma, structure, and contested authority: The social construction of authenticity in Mormonism. Religion and Social Order 6:93–112.Google Scholar
Whitehead, N. & Wright, R., eds. (2004) In darkness and secrecy: The anthropology of assault sorcery and witchcraft in Amazonia. Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehouse, H., Jong, J., Buhrmester, M. D., Gómez, Á., Bastian, B., Kavanagh, C. M., Newson, M., Matthews, M., Lanman, J. A., McKay, R. & Gavrilets, S. (2017) The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences. Scientific Reports 7:44292. doi:10.1038/srep44292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehouse, H. & Lanman, J. A. (2014) The ties that bind us: Ritual, fusion, and identification. Current Anthropology 55:674–95. doi:10.1086/678698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitson, J. A. & Galinsky, A. D. (2008) Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science 322:115–17. doi:10.1126/science.1159845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilbert, W. (1987b) The pneumatic theory of female Warao herbalists. Social Science and Medicine 25:1139–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winkelman, M. (2000) Shamanism: The neural ecology of consciousness and healing. Bergin and Garvey.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. J. & White, D. (1987) A cross-cultural study of magico-religious practitioners and trance states: Database (HRAF Research Series in Quantitative Cross-Cultural Data III). Human Relations Area Files. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.4381.2720.Google Scholar