California Indian Shamanism (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers ; No. 39)

Rating:
Summary: good anthropology
Review: "When the doctor sings it's like he's snake charming. The pain gets hypnotized by the songs and starts rising in the body to see what it is and when it's close enough to the surface the doctor can take it out by sucking, or with his hands." a Yurok shaman, p. 139

This is a seminal work edited by LJ Bean, today perhaps the foremost authority on CAlifornia Indians. It compiles, in one place, field data from the Northern tribes (Yurok, Karuk, Wintu, HUpa), Central California (Miwok) and the South (Cahuilla, Luiseno etc). In addition, there are chapters on rock art, toloache (the Datura-based religions of the Cahuillas, the Luiseno and even the Miwoks), the Kuksu (among Pomo and Maidu) religion and the Revival religions such as the Ghost dance.

A central concern of this book is that of the Native relationship with power: personal power, acquired by one's ability to perceive sacred beings and power sources (ritual paraphernalia, quartz crystals, human and animal bones, feathers, and plants such as angelica) and community power, derived from the shaman's status as a leader, healer and witch-doctor (In California as opposed to the Plains, priests and shamans usually came from chiefly families and were trained in high caste secret societies. Power was, according to the Indians, differentially distributed in both time and space and came from the sacred "Dreamtime" when the universe was created. The authors provide many anecdotes from transcribed sessions with their informants; what I especially liked was that, in general, the emphasis was on description and not on analysis. This makes for exciting reading.

Shamans were political leaders, and they supervised the regular yearly burning process under oaks, pines and mesquite to maintain good harvests, control plant diseases, parasites (mistletoe), bugs and poison oak as well as to improve the quality of seed and straightness of basket grasses and arrow reed. They were also healers, prophets and poisoners enaging in "doctor wars".

I found the discussions on the use of datura, Rattlesnake shamans, Deer- or Antelope shamans, Bear shamans, Acorn shamans, "Poison doctors" , soul loss and Singing doctors very informative. The poison doctors, for example, often obtained their powers hereditarily and were taught by a parent the use of quartz crystals and the eating of roots of poisonous plants, and they were encouraged to practice hitting a feather stuck in the ground as a target with porcupine quills so that they could successfully hit people with their darts. Many of these practices seem to me to be very similar to Australian aboriginal ones.

The book concludes with a couple of excellent chapter written by native Californian Indians themselves, and with an analysis of the worrisome encroachment of non-native traditions (such as the sweat lodge, as it is practiced by the Plains tribes) into native (Californian) practices which are consequently facing the danger of disappearing, as the young strut the sexier Lakota style. Also we see the tenuous and often antagonistic interactions between the the New Age "neo-shamanism" and indigenous tribes, who resent the encroachment of the white man and his perceived usurpation of their religion. This book doesn't take sides; it does however provide a valuable contribution that will be of interest to anthropologists and laypeople alike.