Shamanism - Selection | Britannica

Basic tasks

It is the obligation of the shaman to know all matters that human beings need to know in everyday life but are unable to learn through their own capacities. A shaman foresees events distant in time and space, discovers the place of a lost animal, forecasts prospects for fishing and hunting, and assists in increasing the gain. He is also a healer and a psychopomp, one who accompanies the dead to their otherworldly domain. He fulfills all these obligations by communicating directly with the spirits whenever he pleases.

The shaman’s assistance is necessary at the three great life passages: birth, marriage, and death. If a woman has not borne a child, for instance, then, according to the belief of the Nanai (Golds), in the Amur region of northeastern Asia, the shaman ascends to heaven and sends her an embryo soul (omija) from the tree of embryos (omija muoni). Among the Buryat, the shaman performs libations after birth to keep the infant from crying and to help it develop more quickly. Among the Nanai, when death occurs the shaman is necessary to catch the soul of the deceased floating in the universe and to escort it to the Yonder World.

Illness is believed to be caused by the spirits, who must be appeased for a cure to be effected. Among the Khanty of northern Siberia, the shaman decides how many reindeer should be sacrificed to appease the spirit who causes an illness. Among the Altai Kizhi, he states which körmös (soul of the dead) caused the disaster and what to do to conciliate it. Alternatively, illness might be caused by soul loss, in which the soul leaves the patient’s body and falls into the hands of spirits who are angry with it and therefore torment it; the shaman liberates the strayed soul. Illness also may be caused by spirits entering into a person’s body; the shaman cures the patient by driving the spirits out.