Search

Shamanism has not been restricted to northern Eurasia and the American Arctic, although it was here that it received its most remarkable forms. It is thus central to consider whether the drum is an integrative part of shamanism and should be examined against a general, and not a regional background. It is important to distinguish Arctic shamanism from other forms of shamanism. Arctic shamanism has a stronger profile than other varieties of shamanism, partly because of its intensity, accentuated to a certain extent by the harsh climate and environment, but also explained by the remarkable position of the shaman in an otherwise unstratified social structure. In the great variety of shamanic forms which exist south of the Arctic Subarctic zone, the drum, with a few exceptions, does not have such a prominent role. The position of the drum in other areas south of the Arctic obviously depends upon the position of shamanism. It is known that the drum is an ancient shamanic symbol in hunting culture, and where horticulture and agriculture supplanted old hunting cultures, shamanism gradually retreated. Priests and cult servants replaced shamans and the way for the trance was no longer necessary. In later shamanism outside the Arctic area the drum has gradually lost its significance.

As is well known large parts of native North America with the Prairies and Plains in the middle of the continent as the centre of diffusion have constituted, since the end of the last century, the scene of a nativistic Indian movement, the so-called peyote cult. The peyote cult—or, as it should have been called, the peyote religion — is named after its central cultic action, the consumption (by eating, drinking or smoking) of the spineless cactus peyote (Lophophora williamsii). This cactus that may be found growing wild along the Rio Grande and in the country south of this river contains several alkaloids, among them the morphine-like, hallucinogeneous mescaline. In pre-Columbian days peyote was used in connection with certain public ceremonies among the Indians of Mexico, for instance, at the annual thanksgiving ceremonies. In its modern form the peyote ritual constitutes a religious complex of its own, considered to promote health, happiness and welfare among its adepts. The two major questions are: what were the conditions for the diffusion of the peyote cult? What particular factors accounted for the spread of the cult to just those areas that were mentioned above, and for its obstruction in other areas? The change in the North American Indian situation at the end of the nineteenth century supplied new facilities for religious innovations and for the introduction of a foreign religious movement, the peyote cult.

Often the saiva (or saivo) spirits have been defined as the guardian and helping spirits of the shaman. In this way, Saami shamanism appears as a counterpart to shamanism in Siberia and North America where guardian-spirit beliefs have similarly played a distinctive role. These beliefs should be considered as one of the constituent elements of shamanism. However, the concept of guardian spirits is not necessarily limited to shamans. The intention of this paper is to try to prove the occurrence of a non-shamanic guardian-spirit belief among the Saamis, and to discuss its religio-historical import. Apparently not only shamans but also other Saamis formerly owned guardian spirits that were handed down in the family. Among the western Saamis these spirits were anthropomorphic (if we may believe the sources), among the eastern Skolt Saamis they were zoomorphic. There is also some information on the purchase of guardian spirits. It seems, furthermore, that some persons—not just the shamans—could achieve guardian spirits through their own efforts. The reasons why the occurrence of this non-shamanic guardian-spirit belief has been so slightly dealt with by research are in particular the following. Firstly, scholarly interest has been directed towards shamanism and the role of the guardian spirits within the shamanic complex. Secondly, the early source writers turned primarily to the shamans in order to secure information on Saami religion, and the shamans of course described saivo from their own points of interest. Seen from a comprehensive circumpolar and circumboreal perspective, the Saami saivo complex may be interpreted as a European counterpart to the North American Indian belief in guardian spirits.

Of all the North American Indian religious ceremonies no one is as spectacular and as well-known as the Sun Dance of the Plains Indians. The information collected on the subject since the turn of the century is quite extensive. However, while there is a mass of materials on the outer features of the Dance, on behavioural and ritual aspects, there is very little information on its religious aspects, in particular the meaning of the ritual.The following account is an attempt to view the religious symbolism of the Wind River Shoshoni Sun Dance lodge in a "meaningful" perspective. Attention is paid not only to the ideology of the Dance as such but also and foremost to the concrete elements of the Sun Dance structure which together throw further light on this ideology. A particular place in the analysis will be devoted to a new scholarly interpretation according to which the Shoshoni Sun Dance serves as a revitalization cult.

Religious syncretism, in the wider sense of this term, is an expression for cultural contact, and in most cases it presupposes an advanced acculturation, as it is the focus of culture, its value system which is influenced. Religious syncretism must therefore be analysed in its connections with the changes of the whole cultural system. These changes cannot be confined to the present time. Theoreticians of acculturation have, however, all too often categorically contrasted the acculturation process with a conjectured earlier, static and "original" state. The Shoshoni Indians of Wyominghave, since they were first noticed by white men, undergone a continuous process of acculturation, not least concerning religion. Since being primitive seed-collectors and hunters in the Great Basin in a remote past they have, during the last centuries, been influenced by the Plateau and Plains cultures, European-American civilisation and Pan-Indian revitalization movements, respectively, all these cultural changes are reflected in the religious history of the Shoshoni, such as this can be determined with the aid of archaeological discoveries and combinations, ethnological distribution studies and historical documents.

The Spirit Lodge is a variety of shamanism characterized by its divining functions. Herein lie its limitations: the shamanistic trance is there, and so are the helping spirits, but the curing activity so typical of shamanism is absent, or principally absent. The act of divining shows a certain affinity with the shamanistic pole-climbing performances and may originally have been related to these. The shaman does not himself make soul journeys to distant regions during the conjuring performance, except among the Arctic peoples where such journeys belong to the regular shamanistic pattern; instead, spirits are summoned and asked to make the necessary expeditions. These spirits represent different categories, but their leader, the control, is a ghost in several quarters. The spirits visit the shaman whilst the latter is in a trance; where soul journeys and, possibly, possession occur the ecstasy may be very deep, but this is not typical.