The signs of the sacred: Identifying shamans using archaeological evidence

VanPool, Christine S.

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2009.02.003

Cited by 77 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Schultes and Hofmann 1979). Other activities of the shaman include finding or calling game animals, managing weather and precipitation and divination (VanPool 2009;Vitebsky 2001). These services are often provided in exchange for payment from the beneficiaries.…”

Section: Analogy In Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A 4,000-year-old shaman’s stone cache at Casita de Piedra, western Panama

Dickau

Redwood

Cooke

2012

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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During new excavations at the preceramic rockshelter of Casita de Piedra in western Panama, a cache of 12 unusual stones was recovered near the back wall, dating to between 4800 and 4000 cal BP. The stones include quartz, pyrite, a chalcedony vein nodule, a bladed quartz and jarosite aggregate and a humanmodified dacite cylinder. Based on the unusual lithic types and the context of the cache, we suggest that these stones once belonged to a ritual specialist, such as a healer or shaman. Special stones are frequently mentioned as being an important component of a shaman's ritual paraphernalia in ethnographic records of various historic Native American groups throughout Central and South America, including the Bribri and Cabécar of southeastern Costa Rica and western Panama (formerly known as the 'Talamanca'). The cache of stones recovered at Casita de Piedra may represent the earliest material evidence in Central America of shamanistic practice.

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Section: Analogy In Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The identification of shamanic practice in archaeological contexts is challenging (Price 2001;VanPool 2009) and usually relies on analogies, both general comparative and direct historical approaches. The accuracy and appropriateness of the use of analogies in archaeology varies on a case-by-case basis.…”

Section: Analogy In Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A 4,000-year-old shaman’s stone cache at Casita de Piedra, western Panama

Dickau

Redwood

Cooke

2012

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…153-182;Langdon and Baer, 1992;LewisWilliams and Pearce, 2005;Pearson, 2002, pp. 164-154;Rakita, 2009;Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1971Romain, 2009;Thomas and Humphrey, 1994;VanPool, 2009;Velásquez, 1987;Vitebsky, 2001;Winkelman, 1992Winkelman, , 2000Winkelman, , 2002Winkelman, , 2004Winzeler, 1993 Fig. 11.…”

Section: Dualistic Village Organization: Symbolizing the Landscape Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuity and change in the evolution of religion and political organization on pre-Columbian Puerto Rico

Siegel

2010

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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“…I argue that a study of religious practitioners must take a holistic micro-scale approach, documenting not only the places where ritual paraphernalia (sacra) were stored, but places where priests and their assistants lived and practiced intimate and communal rituals. For some time, archaeologists have discussed the material correlates of ritual, including ritual objects used by specific cults or ritual practitioners and ceremonial features, such as altars (Blenkinsopp, 1995;Dozier, 1965;Flannery, 1976;Mills, 2004;VanPool, 2009). While heads of priesthoods or cults often owned masks, paraphernalia, ceremonial costumes, and other specialized objects (Knight, 1986;Mills, 2004), examining the context of where such objects are stored gives us little idea of the role of ritual specialists (Blenkinsopp, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying residences of ritual practitioners in the archaeological record as a proxy for social complexity

Kahn

2015

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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a b s t r a c tDedicated ritual specialists often had indispensable roles in ancient religions and significant impacts on political histories. Few studies have developed methodologies for recovering direct evidence for ritual practitioners in the archaeological record. I argue that the study of religious practitioners must take a holistic micro-scale approach, documenting not only the places where ritual paraphernalia (sacra) were stored, but places where priests and their assistants lived and practiced intimate and communal rituals. I begin with a discussion of ethnohistoric and ethnographic data to model what priests did in ancient societies, and what the material correlates of their dwellings and activities might look like. I then present archaeological data from two late prehistoric house sites identified as priest dwellings from East Polynesian. Utilizing multiple lines of evidence, including portable artifacts, botanical specimens, site architecture, and site distribution patterns, I argue that there is close complementarity between the eth nohistoric-ethnographic model and the archaeological remains. That priests' houses houses are often situated within corporate ritual centers speaks to the import of such sites and their associated ceremonial activities in the strategic use ideology to institutionalize social hierarchies and political status, a pattern seen in many other ranked societies in Polynesia and other case studies world-wide.

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The signs of the sacred: Identifying shamans using archaeological evidence

Cited by 77 publications

References 33 publications

A 4,000-year-old shaman’s stone cache at Casita de Piedra, western Panama

A 4,000-year-old shaman’s stone cache at Casita de Piedra, western Panama

Continuity and change in the evolution of religion and political organization on pre-Columbian Puerto Rico

Identifying residences of ritual practitioners in the archaeological record as a proxy for social complexity

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