A survey of five hundred years of writings on the world's great shamans-the tricksters, sorcerers, conjurers, and healers who have fascinated observers for centuries. This collection of essays traces Western civilization's struggle to interpret and understand the ancient knowledge of cultures that revere magic men and women-individuals with the power to summon spirits. These writings by priests, explorers, adventurers, natural historians, and anthropologists express the wonder of strangers in new worlds. Who were these extraordinary people, men who imitated the sounds of animals in the night, or drank tobacco juice through funnels, or wore collars filled with stinging ants? Shamans Through Time is a rare chronicle of changing attitudes toward that which is strange and unfamiliar. With essays by such acclaimed thinkers as Claude L vi-Strauss, Black Elk, Carlos Castaneda, and Franz Boas, it provides an awesome glimpse into the incredible shamanic practices of cultures around the world.

Chapter One

"Devil Worship:

Consuming Tobacco to Receive

Messages from Nature"

GONZALO FERNÁNDEZ DE OVIEDO

(1535)

In the early sixteenth century, Spanish navigator and natural historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo described old men using tobacco to communicate with spirits among the indigenous inhabitants of Hispaniola (the island currently comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Oviedo, who wrote in Spanish, did not use the word shaman, which would come from Russia later. By the time Oviedo published his book in 1535, the island's indigenous inhabitants had mostly been exterminated. This explains why Oviedo referred to them in the past tense.

Among other vices, the Indians of this island had a very evil one which consists of taking a smoke they call tabaco , in order to get out of their minds.... They consume it in the following way: the caciques and chiefs had little hollow canes ... of the thickness of the little finger, and these canes had two tubes joined into one.... And they put the two tubes into the nostrils and the other one into the smoke and herbs that were burning and smouldering ... and they took the emanation and smoke, one, two, three, or more times, as often as they could stand it, until they were out of their minds, lying on the ground drunk or overpowered by a deep and heavy sleep....

    The Indians consider this herb very precious and cultivate it for the above-mentioned effect in their gardens and fields; the taking of this herb and smoke was to them not only a healthy practice but a very sacred thing. And this is how the cacique or chief falls to the earth, and his wives (who are numerous) take him, and carry him to his hammock....

    It is not astonishing that the Indians are stuck in the errors I have mentioned, and that they make other errors such as they do not know Almighty God and they worship the Devil in diverse forms and images, as is the custom among these peoples in the Indies; because, as I have said, they paint, engrave, or carve a demon they call cemí in many objects and places, in wood or clay, and also in other materials, as ugly and frightful as the Catholics represent him at the feet of Saint Michael or Saint Bartholomew, but not bound in chains, but revered: sometimes as if sitting in judgment, sometimes standing, in different ways. These infernal images they had in their houses in specially assigned and dark places and spots that were reserved for their worship; and there they entered to pray and to ask for whatever they desired, be it rain for their fields and farms, or bountiful harvests, or victory over their enemies; and there, finally, they prayed to him and had recourse to him in all their needs, to find a remedy for them. And inside there was an old Indian who answered them according to their expectations or in accordance with a consultation addressed to him whose evil image was standing there; and it is to be thought that the Devil entered into him and spoke through him as through his minister; and as he is an old astrologer, he told them the day on which it would rain, and other messages from Nature. The Indians greatly revered these old men and held them in high esteem as their priests and prelates; and they were the ones who most commonly consumed tobacco and the smoke mentioned above, and when they woke up they advised if war should be declared or postponed; and they did not undertake or carry out anything that might be of importance without considering the Devil's opinion in this way.

Copyright © 2001 Jeremy Narby and Francis Huxley. All rights reserved.