fumiaki nakanishi -- possession- a form of shamanism

Possession: A Form of Shamanism?Fumiaki Nakanishi

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2006, pp.234-241 (Article)

Published by University of Pennsylvania PressDOI: 10.1353/mrw.0.0045

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PossessionA Form of Shamanism?

F U M I A K I N A K A N I S H IPh.D., University of Paris 13

POSSESSION AND SHAMANISM

It is widely known that there was a wave of affairs of possession in Europe inthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most famous one was the caseof Loudun in France (163234). Could we say that this wave of possessionphenomena was a form of shamanism?

Michel Perrin, a French specialist on shamanism, thinks that possession and sha-manism are completely different even though they have something in common.He insists on the necessity of making a comparative study of possession and sha-manism globally as a religious and therapeutic system.1 According to Perrin, bothpossession and shamanism are ways of communicating with another world. But,in shamanic communication, the shaman is voluntarily active, and it is he whocontrols the communication with the other world. On the other hand, in a stateof possession, a possessed person is essentially passive. He is at the mercy of theauthoritative power of another world and his personality disappears at the time ofthe irruption of thedivinity or spirit that possesses him.There is another difference.In traditional societies, generally, shamanism is the only way of considering an alli-ance with another world and of dealing with adversity. However, possession coex-ists with other systems like exorcism, and with officiators of cults of possession,other practitioners, and specialists in other adversities.

Perrin presents further definitions of the difference between shamanismand possession, referring to definitions of other researchers. According to Lucde Heusch (1971), in shamanism, the shaman deliberately seeks to enter intoa trance, whereas in possession, the gods come down to the person who is

1. Michel Perrin, Le chamanisme, Que saisje? no. 2968 (Paris: Presses Universi-taires de France, 1995), 89. Perrin reports the remark of I. M. Lewis that in shamanis-tic cultures like the Tungus, Eskimos, and Chukchees, there are spirits that enter thebody of shaman.

Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (Winter 2006)Copyright 2006 University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved.

235Nakanishi Possession

possessed. In other words, shamanism is an ascensual metaphysic in whichman sees himself as the equal of the gods, whereas possession is an incarna-tion. The shaman captures the soul that has been stolen whereas the divinitypossesses the body of the possessed. G. Rouget (1980), an ethnomusicologist,distinguishes between shamanism and possession by means of music. Theshaman creates music or a song differently every time, whereas the possessedalways receives the same music.2

SHAMANISM, POSSESSION, AND ECSTASY

Koukan Sasaki, Japanese specialist in shamanism, thinks that the most impor-tant characteristic of shamanism is direct contact with the supernatural. Ac-cording to Sasaki, definitions of shamanism are as numerous as researchers.His own definition is that shamanism is normally the magical and religiousform which is concentrated in the person (shaman) who establishes a directcontact or communication with the supernatural (the god, the spirits, thedead . . .), and in this process, plays the role of the prophet, oracle, diviner,and of the healer in the states of altered consciousness like a trance.3 UnlikeMichel Perrin, Sasaki thinks that possession is an aspect of shamanism. Ac-cording to him, there are two ways of having a direct contact with the super-natural during the trance. One is possession and the other is ecstasy.

Mircea Eliade thinks that ecstasy is essential and possession is secondary.He defines shamanism as a technique of ecstasy.4 According to him, posses-sion does not necessarily belong to shamanism in the strict sense. For I. M.Lewis, on the other hand, possession is essential. He includes both possessionand shamanism in the category of ecstatic religion.5 But unlike Sasaki,Lewis does not differentiate between ecstasy and possession. For Lewis, pos-session is an ecstatic religion.

Sasakis model Possession

Trance

Ecstasy

2. Ibid, 8788.3. - 1 9 8 0 (Koukan

Sasaki, Shamanism: Culture of Ecstasy and Possession, [Chuuoukouronsya, 1980]), 41.4. Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, trans. Willard R. Trask

(London: Arkana / Penguin, 1989), 4.5. I. M. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession (London:

Routledge, 1989).

236 Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft Winter 2006

SHAMANISM AND COSMOLOGY

According to Sasaki, the role of the shaman is related to the maintenance ofthe cosmology of the society. There is a correspondence between the formsof shamanism and cosmology. Making a comparative study of this correspon-dence, he says, in shamanistic ecstasy, the idea of a spirit which leaves thebody and the idea of another world where the dead and the spirits live areclear, and what is more, there is a conception of several spirits in the body ofa human being, as in the shamanism of Siberia, whereas there is only onespirit in the body of a human being in shamanistic possession. In Japan, whereshamanistic possession is dominant, there is the conception of only one spiritin the body of a human being, because the idea of one spirit is more compati-ble with possession than with ecstasy. And the cosmological system of sha-manistic possession is reduced and obscure in comparison with shamanisticecstasy. In ecstasy, it is the shaman who travels in another world, whereas inpossession, it is the human being that asks the spirit to come to the humanworld. Thus, Sasaki assumes that in ecstasy, the structure of another world isclear, but the character of spirits is obscure, whereas in possession, the struc-ture is obscure and the character of spirits is clear.

TWO SIGNS TO DECIPHER ELITE CULTURE

AND POPULAR CULTURE IN EUROPE

Carlo Ginzburg described in I Benandanti (The Night Battles) the process bywhich shamanistic ecstasy was changed into sorcery as dictated by the Catho-lic Church because of the hegemony of the Inquisition in Italy, referring tothe theory of Mircea Eliade on shamanism. And in Storia notturna (Ecstasies),a sequel to I Benandanti, he tried to make clear the historical relation betweenthe Benandanti and the Siberian shaman, by adapting the theory of structural-ism of Claude Levi-Strauss to his historical method in order to analyze anirrational phenomenon like sorcery rationally.6 Before writing Storia notturna

Sasakis model

Shamanism

Possession Ecstasy

Spirit Unique SeveralThe system of cosmology Reduced, obscure Large, certainInitiative Human being God

6. Ginzburg, I Benandanti: Ricerche sulla stregoneria e sui culti agrari tra Cinquecento e


he outlined his historical method in his famous essay Spie (Clues), insist-ing on the importance of paying attention to seemingly unimportant signsthat have a tendency to be passed over in historical documents. The fatalencounter with the historical symbols, which are the Benandanti, led him tocreate an original historical method. He called it microstoria (microhistory). Asexamples of microstoria, he mentions the research of Marc Bloch on Les RoisThaumaturges (The Royal Touch) and the research of Mikkal Bakhtine on thetexts of Francois Rabelais and even the novels of Marcel Proust, A la recherchedu temps perdu.7 Michel de Certeau has suggested a similarity between theresearch of Bakhtine on Rablais and his own research on the affair ofLoudun.8

The thought of Michel de Certeau forms a striking contrast to that ofGinzburg. Carlo Ginzburg insisted on the sign of shamanistic ecstasy in Euro-pean popular culture, whereas Michel de Certeau laid emphasis on the signof shamanistic possession in European elite culture. And unlike Ginzburg,who described the power of the hegemony of the Inquisition, which changedshamanistic ecstasy into sorcery, as dictated by the Roman church, Michel deCerteau, as a Jesuit, tried to hide the political aspect of the phenomenon ofpossession, accenting its religious aspect.9

SHAMANISM AND EUROPEAN CULTURE

Does the typology of Sasaki correspond to European culture as the researchof Ginzburg and of Certeau reveal it? The relationship between shamanismand cosmology in Sasakis model corresponds to the possessions of Loudunand Benandanti of Friuli to some extent. However, we can also find shaman-istic possession in European popular culture and shamanistic ecstasy in Euro-

Seicento (Turin: Einaudi, 1966); Ginzburg, Storia notturna: Una decifrazione del sabba(Turin: Einaudi, 1989).

7. Carlo Ginzburg, Miti, emblemi, spie: Morfologia e storia (Turin: Einaudi, 1986),19192. I think that we can also consider the ethnographic research of CliffordGeertz on the cock fights in the island of Bali as microstoria. And the best work ofmicrostoria is probably still Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou, village occitan de1294 a` 1324 (Paris: Gallimard, 1975).

8. Michel de Certeau, Lecriture de lhistoire (Paris: Gallimard, 1975), 251.9. Michel de Certeau, La possession de Loudun (Pairs: Julliard, 1970), translated into

English as The Possession at Loudun, trans. Michael B. Smith (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1996). This omission of the political character of the phenomenon ofpossession is as significant as the omission of affairs of possession in the masterpiece ofthe Catholic Jean Delumeau, Le Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire (Paris: PressesUniversitaires de France, 1971).


pean elite culture. Thus Sasakis typology is not compatible with Europeanculture if we examine these cases.

Unlike Ginzburg, Certeau did not dare to use the term shamanism todesignate the possession of Loudun. And he draws a distinction betweenpossession in Christianity and shamanism, as does Perrin. Perrin thinks thatshamanism is a kind of religion if we consider religion as a representation ofthe world which is inseparable from actions that ensue from the belief thatit establishes. For Christianity, this representation is expressed in the HolyScriptures. The actions which ensue from this representation are the sacra-ments, prayer, confession, mass, redemptive or therapeutic rituals like pil-grimages, blessings of tools, sometimes removal of spells. . . . For shamanism,the representations are given by the myths which relate the origin and thetransformation of the world and arranges the other world and its pantheon.The actions which ensue from the representations are equally redemptiverituals, therapeutic treatments, but also the leading of the souls of the dead totheir last resting place, the divination . . .10

According to Perrins definition, the possessions of Loudun are not sha-manism, whereas the case of the Benandanti of Friuli is shamanism. Andpossession is more compatible with Christianity than is ecstasy. But we canalso find phenomena of possession in regions where Christianity does notexist, like Japan. And in these regions, normally, possession coexists withecstasy and the two are sometimes mixed. What is more, we can find ecstasyin Christianity as well, that is to say, ecstasy coexists with possession in Chris-tian tradition. In addition, the distinction between possession and ecstasy isambiguous, and there is sometimes an interchangeable relationship betweenthese two. These two phenomena have always coexisted outside of Christiantradition in both elite and popular cultures in Europe. Thus we can say thatpossession and ecstasy have coexisted in European culture from time imme-morial as in other cultures. But it is difficult to say if we can define possessionas an aspect of shamanism as Sasaki defines it. It depends on which definitionof shamanism is given. However, it is evident that the idea of Perrin onpossession is inspired by Christianity, whereas that of Sasaki is inspired byAsian religion.

PHENOMENON OF POSSESSION AND ESCHATOLOGY

Stuart Clark indicates that possession was interpreted as an eschatologicalsign and exorcism (in the Catholic rite) as an enactment of the promises of

10. Perrin, Chamanisme, 2021.


Revelation.11 The wave of affairs of possession at the end of the sixteenthand the beginning of the seventeenth centuries in Europe is related to escha-tology, the end of the world.

In his analysis of affairs of possession, Clark mentions almost the same casesthat D. P. Walker analyzed in his work Unclean Spirits: affairs at Laon, Soisson,and Aix-en Provence in France (all of which came before that of Loudun).12

However, unlike Walker, he is not interested in the character of anti-Hugue-not propaganda of the Catholic Church in regard to these affairs. He thinksthat this is a presumption. What interests him is rather the character of escha-tology in the phenomena of possession. He writes, of all the phenomenaassociated with demonism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries posses-sion and exorcism seem to have had a special capacity to astonish. And, this,in turn, made them particularly popular vehicles for eschatological expecta-tions.13

Analyzing affairs of possession that followed one after another in Europe,Clark indicates that possession has the character of apocalyptic ritual. In thisritual, possessed women could become diviners by communicating with thedivinity. Sorcerers and magicians are changed into prophets and precursors ofthe Antichrist.

THE END OF HISTORY AND THE RETURN TO MYTH OF ORIGIN

According to Clark, the idea that the end of the world was imminent tookimportant dimension in the exorcisms that took place in Europe at the endof the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. Possessedwomen showed that the advent of the Antichrist was important and immi-nent for both Catholics and Protestants. Clark writes that eschatology was akind of cultural model to understand the actions of the possessed and theexorcists.

Clark concludes his analysis of possession and exorcism as follows: Posses-sion and exorcism had always symbolized the rhythms of the historical proc-ess. But on this occasion they were actually a part of the momentous eventswith which history was being brought to a close.14 This idea is perfectlycompatible with that of Eliade: to annul past time, to abolish history by a

11. Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Eu-rope (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 393.

12. D. P. Walker, Unclean Spirits: Possession and Exorcism in France and England in theLate Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries (Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress, 1981).

13. Clark, Thinking with Demons, 407.14. Ibid., 434.


continuous return in illo tempore, by the repetition of the cosmogonic act.15

According to Clark, a wave of possession is a nullification of history (profanetime) by the return to illo tempore (sacred time) by cosmogonical action in thesacred place (church). He thinks that the phenomenon of possession is closelyrelated to the center of religious cosmogony. As mentioned above, KoukanSasaki also established this relation.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO COMPARE POSSESSION

WITH GHOST-DANCE RELIGION?

In this way, the phenomena of possession in the baroque period in Europehad a link with shamanism and eschatological religion. We can find similarphenomena outside Europe. For example, the Ghost-Dance Religion, aNative American religious movement in North America about the end ofninteenth century, which Mircea Eliade presents in Shamanism: Archaic Tech-niques of Ecstasy, is similar to the wave of phenomena of possession at the endof the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries in Europe.In the nineteenth century, Christianity began to influence certain NativeAmerican medicine men. They predicted an imminent end of the worldand an approach of universal regeneration, saying that all Indians, the deadand the living alike, would be called to inhabit a regenerated earth; they wouldreach this paradisal land by flying through the air with the help of magicalfeathers.16 This messianic proclamation was easily integrated into the ideasof Native Americans who had little acquaintance with Christianity. To ensurethe popular success of the Ghost-Dance Religion, members of this religionperformed rites that remind us of those of possessed women in France. Toprepare for the coming of the savior of the race, the members of the fraternitydanced continuously for five or six days and so went into trances duringwhich they saw and conversed with the dead. The dances were ring dancesaround the fires, there was singing but no drumming.17

Mircea Eliade indicates that there are essential shamanistic elements inthese rites, like cures, metamorphoses, and trances, although they lack theinitiation, the secret and traditional instruction. He also emphasizes aspects ofeschatology, mentioning that there are mythic visions of the beginning andthe end of time in this religion: Since eschatology, at least in certain aspects,overlaps cosmology, the eschaton of the Ghost-Dance Religion reactualized

15. Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History, trans.Willard R. Trask (London: Arkana, 1989), 81.

16. Eliade, Shamanism, 321.17. Ibid., 321.


the mythical illud tempus when communications with the sky, the Great God,and the dead were accessible to every human being.18 Eliades interpretationof the Ghost-Dance Religion in North America in the nineteenth centurymeets that of Stuart Clark on possession in Europe in the sixteenth and seven-teenth centuries.

As mentioned above, Carlo Ginzburg noticed a morphological similaritybetween the Benadanti of Friuli and the shamans of Siberia, and suggested apossibility of comparison between the two in his book I Benandanti. Then inStoria notturna, he tried to make clear a historical relation between these tworeligious phenomena that were separated historically and geographically. Fi-nally, renouncing a search of the historical relation between the two, he triedto find an explanation in human nature by adapting ideas of Levi-Strauss.

Is it possible to compare the waves of possession in sixteenth- and seven-teenth-century Europe with that of the Ghost-Dance Religion in NorthAmerica at the end of ninetheenth century, as Ginzburg tried to do with thebenandanti and Siberian shamans, although these two phenomena are sepa-rated historically and geographically? It goes beyond the field of historian.However, there is a morphological similarity between the two. I think thatthe relation between the phenomenon of possession in Europe and elsewherein the world is an important subject for researchers who are not historians.

18. Ibid., 322.

fumiaki nakanishi -- possession- a form of shamanism

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