On the origin of the word shaman E-Book

Michael Knüppel

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 178

Beschreibung

The book deals with the problem of the origins of the terminus shaman, discussed since the word has find its way into the "western" language in the 17th / 18th centuries.

Leseprobe

Table of contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Main section

2.1 General – early mentions of shamānism

2.2 Early speculations about the origin of shamānism and the term “shamān

”

2.2.1 Speculations on the Indian origins of shamānism and the word “shamān

”

2.2.2 The derivations of Skr.

śrama

ṇ

a

- and Chin.

shā-mén

(

沙門

)

2.3 Old Turkic findings

2.4 The “Laufer-Mironov-Controversy

”

2.5 The Tibetan and Ket alternatives

2.6 The idea of a Persian mediation to Europe

2.7 M. Eliade’s concept of “incentivisation

”

2.8 The Nivkhi alternative

2.9 The derivation from Proto-Tungus *

sā

- “to know, to count

”

2.10 The connection with Turkic

qam

2.11 A new “Indian etymologisation attempt

”

2.12 Further interpretations in modern surveys

2.13 Speculations in the margin: Tung. etc.

šamān

~ Sogd.

šmn

2.14 The Tungus “variant

”

2.15 Resumé

3. Appendix: Excerpt from Dor

ǰ

i Banzarov’s “Chernai

͡

a vera ili shamanstvo u mongolov i drugii

͡

a stat’i

”

4. Abbreviations

4.1 Abbreviations of languages

4.2 Abbreviations of series and periodical titles

5. Bibliography

6. Index

Preface

For decades now, the author of this small overview has been confronted with the various assumptions concerning the origins of the term “shamān”, which, since the 17th century, in the course of the Russian expansion into Asia that began in the previous century, has also reached the Western European linguistic world. Assumptions have been made over the past three centuries in ethnography of the North Eurasian region (and beyond), in comparative religious history, and in Tungusology and Altaistics. Because of the difficulties that these seemingly endless discussions and the hardly manageable references in the not always accessible literature present for students as well as for representatives of the various disciplines who cannot and do not necessarily want to deal with the history of etymology(s), the decision was taken to produce this paper which is intended as a type of “working aid”. The immediate reason for the compilation of this overview, however, was the work on a contribution by the author which was requested for a handbook on the cultural history of falconry (Knüppel [2020a]).

A compilation such as the present one, which of course does not claim to be complete, seemed overdue due to the fact that nowadays almost every account of shamānism also contains some explanation of the origin of the term, if not of the entire phenomenon of the history of religion. This becomes particularly clear in some publications of the past decades, in which, time and again, “non-specialists” or the authors of popular science contributions have attempted to interpret the term which may not always have contributed to enlightenment. Of course, some readers will miss some of the descriptions or treatments of etymology in publications that were not consulted in this small volume. However, it is hardly possible to include all publications in which the question has been treated or even merely mentioned in any way. On the one hand, there are mostly repetitions of the same assumptions, on the other hand, often only the statements of others are quoted (with or without indication of the sources). Thus, what is stated in Flaherty (1988), p. 525 is also found in Flaherty (1992), p. 6, the information given in v. Schlözer (1771), pp. 408-410 (esp. note 53) is taken from Fischer (1768), pp. 55 ff. and the statements in Peters / Price-Williams (1980), p. 408 are copied almost verbatim from Blacker (1975), pp. 321-322 (albeit incorrectly!). The compilation could be continued, but this is superfluous here. Additions of possibly overlooked, significant information (whatever the reader wants to understand by this) and corrections are, of course, welcome.

Thanks are due to Ms. Maike Mewes (Museum am Rothenbaum. Kulturen und Künste der Welt, Hamburg) and Ms. Assal Behnam (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Seminar für Orientalistik) for help in obtaining literature, to Dr. Siglinde Dietz (Göttingen) and Prof. Dr. Marek Stachowski (Kraków) for valuable advice, and to Dr. José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente (Kraków) for reviewing the manuscript.

Liáochéng University (LCU)

Arctic Studies Center (ASC)

In autumn 2023

Michael Knüppel

1. Introduction

The observer of our day may be surprised, indeed it may seem almost unbelievable to him, that – despite a veritable flood of publications on shamānism (and the likewise not insignificant number of contributions on the etymology of the term “shamān”) – no comprehensive recent account of the term “shamān” ~ “shamānism” and the research-historical treatment of the question of the origin of this term, which is central for circumpolar Eurasia (but also beyond) in the perspective of the history of religion, is available. The best overview of the research to date was literally provided in the margins: by the great Russian ethnologist Sergeǐ Mikhaǐlovich Shirokogorov (1887-1937) – in passing in a footnote to his groundbreaking study “Psychomental complex of the Tungus”.1 Of course, the author had less of a research-historical outline in mind here than an (already evaluative) overview to support his point of view regarding the origin of the term. More recently, the historian of religion and shamānism expert V. Voigt once remarked on the lack of research-historical overviews, almost succinctly but completely accurately: “There is no modern summary article on this problem”2 and somewhat more generally (but also completely correctly) on the same occasion: “Unfortunately, there is no history of the study of Siberian shamanism”.3

Although Voigt wrote this more than three decades ago, the situation has not changed in spite of the mass of works on shamānism that appear every year – and so the present study will at least attempt to reconstruct the discussion about the origin of the term and trace the main stages of these controversies, which have preoccupied historians of religion and Siberians since the first news about North Eurasian shamānism in the 17th century. It goes without saying that only an approximation is possible at this point – after all, in view of the extent of the existing literature on shamānism (which may conceal numerous speculations) –, an exhaustive treatment is out of the question.

This article is therefore primarily intended to be an attempt at a history of the “etymologisation” of the term “shamān” (or the attempts to do so). At this point, it is not possible to describe the characterisation of North Eurasian shamānism, to discuss its characteristics or to attempt to distinguish it from all other folk religious beliefs and their practices, which sometimes come under the term “shamānism” – not every activity of a healer, not every form of manticism and not every form of belief in spirits etc. has an correlations with shamānism. Nor can the early research or the treatment of shamānism by European travellers of the 17th-19th centuries in general be dealt with here – at least not beyond the assumptions and speculations expressed by the discoverers and explorers regarding the term itself. In this regard, reference should also be made to overviews (sometimes bibliographical) based on research history, such as Popov’s (on Russian works)4 or the sketch in Menges “Zum sibirischen Šamanismus”.5

1 Shirokogoroff (1935a), p. 270, note ****.

2 Voigt (1984), p. 17.

3 Ibd.

2. Main section

2.1 General early mentions of shamānism

If we look at the term “shamān”, it can nowadays be found in almost all western languages, and even early derivations of it were formed. For example, we find a verb “schamanen” in the sense of “to prophesy” already in the Siberian traveller and founder of Siberian archaeology and historiography Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685-1735)6 or also the physician and natural scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746).7 Today, corresponding terms – one need only think of the German schamanisieren, English to shamanize, etc.8 – can be found in numerous languages. Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705-1783), for example, already differentiated between male and female shamāns and named the latter “shamanka”.9

When the Russian conquerors, advancing eastwards from the 16th century onwards, or before that the clerics or other scribes in the neighbourhood of the Russian principalities, first noticed or even mentioned varieties of shamānism widespread in northern Eurasia or those practising it, is lost in the darkness of history and can hardly be determined. The first mentions of shamānism which found their way to the West are generally considered to be the descriptions in the travel reports of Adam Brand (†1746) and Eberhard Isbrand Ides (16571712/3), who accompanied a Russian legation of Peter I the Great to China in 1692-1695 (the report was finally published in Amsterdam in 1698: “Driejaarige Reize naar China”). The former noted in his description of the journey about the shamāns of the Tungus:

“Wo fünf oder sechs Tungusen bey einander wohnen (sintemahl zu wissen/ daß bald hier bald da einer wohnet) halten sie einen Schaman, welcher auf ihre Art einen Pfaffen oder Zauberer bedeutet; So oft sie nun bey selbigem zusammen kommen/ ziehet er ein Kleid an/ auf welchen mehr denn fünff Pude, (ist 200. Pfund) Eisenwerck hanget/ mit allerhand Teuffels=Larven/ Bären/ Löwen/ Schlangen/ Drachen und anderen mehr ausgeschmückt. Diese Kleid haben wir mit grosser Verwunderung beschauet und betastet; Wenn sich nun selbiger Schaman in solcher Kleidung ausstaffiret siehet/ nimmt er eine lange Trommel zur Hand/ und schläget Schlag auf Schlag darauf/ daß gar kein angenehmer Thon erklinget/ bey solchen Trommelschläger schreyen und Heulen sie/ als die Hunde erbärmlich/ ob dieses aber aus Gewonheit oder anderen Ursachen geschiehet/ solches haben wir nicht erfahren können/ doch ist gewiß/ daß die grausamen Gestalten der Gespenster/ Raben und anderer seltzsamen Vögel/ welche sie bey diesem Spectacul præsentiren/ nicht wenig zu solchem ungewöhnlichen Heulen beytragen; Indessen fällt der Pfaffe ohne Verstand danieder/ welcher denn alsbald von ihnen als ein Heiliger geehret und gelobet wird.”10

At another point (in E. Isbrand Ides, who was far less understanding of religious customs than Brand) the Tungus shamāns are referred to as “teuffels=beschwerer” (= devil conjurers) or “schwartzkünstler” (= black magicians):11

“Einige meilen von hier auffwarts wohnen viele Tunguzen/ worunter auch ihr berühmter Schaman oder teuffels=beschwerer und schwartzkünstler. Das gerüchte von diesem betrüger machte mich begierig/ denselben zu sehen. Meiner neugierigkeit ein genügen zu thun/ fuhr ich dahin/ umb ihn in seiner wohnung zu besuchen. Es war ein alter langer mann/ hatte 12 weiber/ und war wegen seiner kunst sehr unverschämt. Er ließ mich sein zauber=kleid sehen/ benebst seinen andern werckzeugen/ die er dabey gebrauchte. Zuerst besahe ich seinen rock/ der von lauter eisen=werck zusammen hieng/ und an einander gefügt war/ bestehend in allerley bildnüssen der vögel/ fischen/ raben/ eulen und dergleichen/ wie dann auch von vielerley thier= und vogel=klauen/ deßgleichen beile/ äxten/ sägen/ hammern/ messern/ säbeln/ auch einige figuren der thiere und dergleichen; so daß diß teuffels=kleid glied=weise an einander gehefftet und also überall beweglich war. Uber seine schuenbeine hatte er etwas als strümpffe/ auch von eisen gemacht/ gleichwie der rock/ und dergleichen überall über seine füsse/ wie dann auch zwey grosse eiserne bären=klauen über seine hände. Auf seinem kopff hatte viele dergleichen eiserne bilder/ und vornen auff dem haupt zwey eiserne reh=hörner. Wanner nun zaubern wolte/ nahm er eine nach ihrer art gemachte drommel in seine lincke hand/ und ein mit bergmäusen=fell überzogenes glattes stecken in seine rechte hand/ und also sprang er mit einem fuß über den andern in die höhe/ so daß er zugleich den leib schüttelte/ welcher dann wegen des anhabenden einsenwercks ein grosses geraß= und geprassel machte; Er schlug auch zugleich auf seiner drommel/ mit auffwarts=sehenden/ verkehrten augen/ und machte mit starck brüllender bären=stimme ein greuliches getöse. Diß waren die vorspiele. Seine zauberey aber selbst verrichtete er auf folgende weise: Wann den Tunguzen etwas gestohlen worden/ oder sonsten etwas zu wissen verlangen/ so müssen sie ihn vor allen dingen bezahlen/ und ihm seinen lohn voraus geben: alsdann thut er was oben erzehlt worden/ springt und rufft so lange/ biß daß sich auf seine hütte (welche zu ausziehung des rauchs oben offen ist) ein schwartzer vogel setzet. So bald als er diesen ansichtig wird/ so fällt er auf die erde in schwindel und entzückung/ und den augenblick verschwindet der vogel wieder. Wanner nun also als todt und ohne verstand etwa eine viertel=stunde gelegen/ so kommt er wieder zu sich selbst/ und sagt alsdann dem der ihn raths gefragt/ wer ihn bestohlen/ und was er sonsten zu wissen begehrt; [...]”

In fact, these were not the first descriptions from the hands of Siberian travellers to become known in the West. The first description and at the same time the first known pictorial representation of a shamān can be found in the travelogue of Nicolaes Cornelis Witsen (16411717).12 The illustration given there (as well as the Tungus shamān described by Isbrand Ides) is a sketch of a so-called “cervid type”.13 The first edition of Witsen’s work was published before the reports by Isbrand Ides and Brand14 – 1692. The illustration mentioned was admittedly not included in all copies of the first edition, which had only a very small circulation and was bound and handed out by the author on order.15 The copies of the second edition also show a certain inconsistency with regard to the illustrations contained in it.16 The pictorial representation reproduced by Witsen, however, should be treated with some caution. R. N. Hamayon was certainly correct in her assessment that this is an “imaginary” representation.17 It was probably Witsen’s intention to convey an impression to the local audience – and so all possible features (antlers, bear claws, drum, drumsticks) have come together in this illustration.

In fact, these mentions were not the earliest reports but merely the earliest that found their way to the West. Already in the autobiography of the priest of the Russian Old Believers Avvakum Petrovich (1620-1682),18 written in three versions between 1672 and 1675, the verb “to shamanise” (šamanit’ “fortune telling”19) is mentioned and (according to V. Voigt), the term šaman is associated with a place name in Siberia.20

In the following centuries, the descriptions of shamāns and shamānism were part of almost every travel account written by the explorers who carried out the so-called “scientific conquest of Siberia” in the 18th and 19th centuries.21 In addition, translations and various editions of the series by Adam Brand and Eberhard Isbrand Ides as well as the work by N. C. Witsen were published during this period.22 In addition, of course, there was also shamānism as a kind of curiosity, which – mediated by the travel literature – attracted a certain amount of attention as “exoticism” at court. As is well known, the 18th century saw the beginnings of the “modern” enthusiasm for all kinds of esoteric and occult phenomena, which reached its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The courtly society and the salons in St. Petersburg were not spared from this. Ultimately, it was this mixture of fascination for the misunderstood foreign and exotic as well as every kind of “secret knowledge” (“Geheimwissen”) that also led Catherine II the Great to write her play “Shaman Sibirskiǐ” (“The Siberian shaman”) – one of three plays written by the empress23 in the spirit of the late Enlightenment against “charlatanry”, “superstition”, occultism, etc.24 – which was published in the same year.

What the countless accounts of the 18th and 19th centuries had in common, however, was that they sometimes reflected the view of the authors – regardless of how detailed the descriptions were or how much one or the other author actually strove for something like an “objective perspective” – rather than dealing with shamānism independently of the “spirit of the times” (“Zeitgeist”) or religious reservations.

2.2 Early speculations about the origin of shamānism and the term “shamān”

In the period of the late Enlightenment and the above-mentioned “scientific conquest of Siberia”, interpretations of the origin of the word “shamān” were also found in travel literature and historical works of the 18th century, whereby it is noticeable that its origins were sought outside the northern Eurasian region at this time. Initially, Indian elements and Buddhist reminiscences were found in the beliefs of the peoples of northern Eurasia (including the Tungus), and since the 19th century also in the linguistic world of Siberia, so it was hardly surprising that the origins of shamānism were soon assumed to be entirely in India, and thus the name “shamān” had to be traced back to Indian proto-types. One thought here of Skr. śramaṇa-25 ~ Pāli samaṇa.

Such considerations were initially embedded in the enthusiasm for India of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and later in the colonial views of the so-called “primitive peoples” [“Naturvölker”] influenced by evolutionism – which of course also included the North Eurasians. Just as in sub-Saharan Africa some “high culture impulses” [“Hochkulturimpulse”] were to be found and spasmodic attempts were made to attribute the construction of the cult facilities of the Meso-American region or South America to various “master builders” [“Baumeister”] from the “Old World”, so too in North Eurasian shamānism – almost logically – an influence from the Chinese or Indian cultural area was assumed.

2.2.1 Speculations on the Indian origins of shamānism and the word “shamān”

Already August Ludwig v. Schlözer (1735-1809), long before the spreading fascination in Europe for India (but especially for Sanskrit), wanted to assume that India’s earliest religion existed in some unspecified shamānism in the distant past and apparently saw North Asian shamānism as a relic of this religion, which had developed into Hinduism and Buddhism in South Asia26 – assumptions which were of course also based on the fact that knowledge of the religions being compared was also quite limited at that time.

v. Schlözer was not the first to claim an Indian origin of the term. Maturin Veyssière de La Croze (1661-1739) had already expressed himself in the same sense before him. Later, the Augustinian priest Antonio Agostino Giorgi (1711-1797)27 relied on the latter’s explanations. In addition to the descriptions by Isbrand Ides and Brand he also relied on those by Cornelis de Bruijn (~ de Bruyn; 1652-1727), who described the shamāns (Sjaman) among the Samoyeds, who were treated by him, in more detail.28 Giorgi had correctly recognised the followers of Buddha’s teachings in the Samanaei mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus.29 De La Croze had also based his connection of the Samanaei with the shamāns or shamānism on this connection:

„Ce dernier sentiment paroîtroit le plus probable si on étoit sûr de la vérité de ce que disent les Malabares, qui assurent que leur Religion est infiniment plus ancienne que celle des Sammanéens, qu’ils appellent en leur langue Schammanes (a) [dies =] Les Prêtres des Samojedes s’appellent Schamans [...] Ceux des Tungusiens & d’autres Nations de Tartarie portent le même nom. [...] où il dit que le nom de Schaman, est un nom de Religion d’un Peuple Tartare, voisin des frontiéres de la Chine“.30

However, in the 18th century, as the example of A. L. v. Schlözer has shown, the entire complex of Siberian shamānism, and not just the word shamān, was traced back to Indian origins. Johann Gottlieb Georgi (1729-1802), for example, declares “the shamanic religion” to be the “mother of the Lamian, Brahminical and other pagan sects” [“Mutter der lamischen, brahminischen und anderer heidnischen Secten”].31 According to the author, this had merely degenerated into “blind superstition” [“blinden Aberglauben ausgeartet”] due to adverse external circumstances.32 Gerhard Friedrich Müller (1705-1783), the “founding father of Siberian historiography”, had already expressed himself in a very similar sense.

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich v. Schlegel’s (1772-1829) speculations on the origin of the beliefs of the North Eurasians, such as those previously put forward by G. F. Müller, J. G. Georgi and M. V. de La Croze, had a much more far-reaching effect. v. Schlegel, like v. Schlözer, claimed not only an Indian origin of the term, but also of shamānism itself. These ideas were first expressed by v. Schlegel during his lectures in Vienna in 181233 - not, however, in his work “Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier”,34 as B. Laufer occasionally speculated:35

“Zwey philosophische oder religiöse Partheyen fanden die Griechen in Indien herrschend: die der Brachmanen und der Samanäer, und noch unterscheiden sich leicht und deutlich in den Quellen und Werken des indischen Alterthums zwey Systeme indischer Denkart; [...] Dagegen hat sie in Thibet, China und im ganzen mittleren und nördlichen Asien sich desto weiter ausgebreitet. Selbst das Wort Samanäer, mit welcher Benennung die Griechen die eine jener beyden Secten, welche sie in Indien vorfanden, bezeichnen, ist rein indisch, [...] Der unter den tatarischen Völkern und in ganz Mittel- und Nord-Asien weit verbreitete Nahme der Schamanen, womit in jenen Gegen