27 Magico-Religious Functions

Gulsan Khatoon

Contents

Introduction

1. Types of practitioners

1.1. Shaman

1.2. Witch doctor

1.3. Sorcerer or witch

1.4. Medium

1.5. Priest

2.Succession of religious office

3. The role of women Summary

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module:

You shall be able to understand about the different magico-religious functionaries.
You will learn the role and function of different magico-religious functionaries.
You will learn about the role of women in religious activity.
You will be able to understand the succession of religious office among the religious practitioners.
To give a basic understanding to the students about the different magico-religious functionaries.
It also attempts to provide an informative background about the different types of religious practices carried out with the help of these practitioners and

INTRODUCTION

All human societies include individuals who guide and supplement the religious practices of others. Such individuals are seen to be highly skilled at contacting and influencing supernatural beings and manipulating supernatural forces. Often their qualification for this is that they have undergone special training. In addition, they may display certain distinctive personality traits that make them particularly well suited to perform these tasks.

Many scholars have held that the first form of specialization of labor known to man was the performance of super naturalistic rites, and this idea seems well supported by the hundreds of primitive societies in which no other kind of specialization has more than one meaning. At least a rudimentary development of specialist may be only the individual who knows and remembers religious ideas and procedures, who shows an interest in them, and who has had apparent success in this field so that he is sought out. Part time practitioners, persons whose acknowledged skill is called upon at times of need or upon occasions fixed by convention, are common among even the simpler societies.

Among horticulturalist and stock – raising societies with economic bases providing adequate surplus to allow specialization outside the quest for food, full time experts of various kind are found. Many Negro societies of Africa distinguish two or more kinds of religious practitioners, as do a large number of additional primitive societies of comparable or more elaborate cultural development. The societies of Polynesia commonly recognized a variety of forms of religious specialization although all were not full time activities. The Maori of New Zealand distinguished ten classes, ranging in hierarchical order from high priests, whose duties concerned the whole of the social group, through acolytes, seers, magicians of various sorts, and on to experts in astronomy at the lowest stratum. Specialization of labor was well developed among the Inca and Aztec, and this complex division of tasks extended into the realm of religious, where many individual devoted themselves wholly to religious duties.

Various attempts have been made to classify systematically the kinds of religious specialists found in human societies, but, as a system, none of these has found general acceptance. Names in use are plentiful, and we have already employed a number of them. Wach has distinguished the founder, reformer, prophet, seer, and magician, diviner, saint, and priest. Additional terms commonly applied to the primitive world are shaman, witch, witch doctor, sorcerer, and medicine man. Usages of these terms are not uniform; and, often, no single term of the whole roster is wholly suitable in application to the religious specialist of the simpler primitive society, where many religious roles are filled by one individual.

TYPES OF PRACTITIONERS

Various types of practitioners are found in primitive society who contacts the supernatural directly. These practitioners may be part time or full timers, a religious practitioner or a magical performer. The nature of the practitioners varies with the degree of cultural complexity. The more complex the society, the more diverse type of practitioners is obtained. The cross- cultural research of Micheal James Winkeman (1986) suggested that there are four types of religious practitioners in non-literate societies. They are Shaman, Sorcerer or Witch, Medium and Priest.

1.1. SHAMAN

Societies with subsistence economics show the presence of Shaman. Such societies tend to form with nomadic or semi- nomadic food collectors. The word shaman has been derived from the native Siberian tongue, as Siberian is an ancient center of Shamanism. A shaman is usually a part time male specialist, proficient in magical rites. He holds a fairly high status in his community. People often call him to cure the diseases. Shamans know sacred songs, pantomime and other specialized formulae to serve the society. Although westerners sometimes call Shaman as Witch doctor, but actually he is more potent and important figure than a Witch- doctor.

The preparatory stage of shamanistic inspiration is painful and lengthy. They not only undergo hard trainings by the older shamans; they remain far apart from care and distractions of ordinary life. At this time they experience the supernatural beings and the other world. The spirits talk with them and instruct many magical formulae. Thus, they acquire great power to summon a storm, to banish a game or to cure a patient. Two kinds of shamans are found – the Emotional Shaman and the Steady shaman. The Emotional shamans are usually unstable and even epileptic. During the performance of a rite, their physical features get distorted. Muscles are convulsed and eyes are strained. A shaman at this stage may role on the ground and brings foams at the mouth. A Siberian man sakes his limbs, sucks up the disease- causing agents and finally gets exhausted. An Ona Shaman behaves wildly. His whole body trembles violently until he falls down on the ground. A Polynesian shaman, during his performance acquires extra- ordinary physical strength; He eats the food of four adults at a time. An Eskimo Shaman is able to rock and jump a drum on his forehead. A Siberian Shaman at this time gathers so much power that he breaks up a metal chain easily with which he is kept tied. The Steady Shamans, on the other hand, are not prone to emotional or epileptic fits. For guidance, they depend on the guardian spirits that come to them in dreams. A Steady Shaman in California talks to an eagle, a snake, a bear or even to a personified mountain in dreams, for boon. Such a shaman can make himself invisible or can build a bullet proof body. However both kinds of shamans with the special skills serve the people in primitive society.

Shamans are often prevalent among hunter gatherer societies. A shaman must typically endure intense training which may take over a decade and involve the use of psychotropic drugs to attain an altered state of consciousness. Shamanic activity is said to take place while the shaman is in a trance. Typical methods for inducing a trance involve:

-fasting

-the use of psychedelic mushrooms, peyote, cannabis, ayahuasca, salvia

-tobacco

-dancing, singing or drumming to a hypnotic rhythm

-deadly nightshade

-sweat lodges

-vision quests

The earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman, produced by the Dutch explorer Nicolaes Witsen, who authored an account of his travels among Samoyedic- and Tungusic-speaking people in 1692. Witsen labelled the illustration as a “Priest of the Devil” and gave this figure clawed feet to highlight what Witsen perceived as demonic qualities.

1.2. WITCH DOCTOR

The term Witch doctor is sometime used as a synonym of Shaman and specially refers to the Negroid shamans of Africa and Melanesia. But actually Witch doctor is a divine personality who exposes the witch .A man either inherits the skill from his parents or learns it from someone else. When somebody suddenly falls ill, it is thought that the person has been bewitched. Therefore his friends and relatives try to cure him with care, protection and herbal medicines. But when all the efforts go in vain and the symptoms become alarming, there is no way other than to call a Witch doctor who knows the remedy of the illness. A Witch doctor generally looks awesome as he paints his face and body brightly with clay of different colour. He burns mysterious perfumes around the patient, utter strange words; twists own body and ultimately cure the patient with his secret power. He knows the medicines for the counter –witchcraft. In some societies like American Indians, the Witch doctors are known as medicine man.

1.3. SORCERER OR WITCH

Sorcerer and Witch both are the malevolent practitioners. So they enjoy a very low socio- economic status in all societies. A Sorcerer and a Witch may be of any sex and usually they are the part-timers. Both of them are dreaded, as they know the way to invoke the supernatural power for causing illness, injury and death. Sorcerers often use different materials for their magic, so when evidences of their malpractice is found, they are killed by the communal vengeance. But in case of the witchcraft, for the absence of evidences, genuine witches are not always marked out. It is believed that the witches possess certain evil substances within their body by which they harm other people. A magical performance is perhaps responsible for the recognizable changes in the internal organs of the body, which can only be revealed by post- mortem examination. In almost all primitive societies there are either witch doctors or medicine men or Shamans to act against the evils created by the Sorcerers and Witches.

1.4. MEDIUM

Mediums are the part time religious practitioners and mostly females. They are asked to heal the people while in trance. A medium falls into a hypnotic condition and during the period she is controlled by some spiritual force, external to herself. Different spirits are supposed to communicate with people through the medium.

The process is often referred to as divination, which may be a channel of connections with supernatural to get his guidance. Divination often informs a man the source of his misfortunes. The medium usually obtains the guidance through oracle. Primitives believe that most of the misfortunes arise from the practice of Witchcraft.

1.5. PRIEST

Priesthood is the manifestation of developed religion. But it can also be found in the relatively ordered primitive societies where cultures are rich and complex. Priests are usually the full time male specialists who officiate at public events. They enjoy a very high status in the community; people respect them as they possess the power to reach the Gods and goddesses. The priests are also found to organize and maintain some permanent cults. A priest may have mana, but this power lies with the office which he holds and not with him directly as that of a Shaman. Succession of the office is hereditary. The priests have to work in a rigorous structured hierarchy, fixed in a firm set of tradition. Agricultural or pastoral communities that exhibit political integration beyond the community include either Sorcerer or witch doctor or Medium along with Priest and shaman.

SUCCESSION OF RELIGIOUS OFFICE

Unusual traits or experiences have been the most common but not the sole avenue leading to primitive religious specialization. Many other established routes which lack the flavor of the extra-ordinary have also been followed. Succession of religious office may be simply hereditary, especially in the more elaborate primitive societies. Among the large and socially stratified societies such as the Inca,Aztec, Polynesians, and many African Negro kingdoms, religious specialization also follows lines of social class. Here and there the established shaman might sell, give away, or bequeath his supernatural power to a petitioner. In some societies children became destined for later religious duties as the result of vows of their parents made in return for beneficences received from the gods, and children might be urged by their parents to take up the religious calling because of the advantages which will accrue to the kin group in having a practitioner in the family. Likely candidates among the youths might also be selected by established specialists to follow in their footsteps, and individual might consciously choose the profession without divine portent directing them to do so.

Accounts of the training of the shaman and the medicine men often document periods of several to many years in which the candidate experiences much physical suffering in order to befit himself spiritually for office. Common requirements are long periods of solitude for communion with supernatural beings accompanied by a program of rigid physical discipline including intermittent fasts, the avoidance of sexual relations, and the observance of many other taboos. Accounts of ecstatic shamanism among Siberian and Californian Indian groups tell us that individuals who have experienced the symptoms of the call are often extremely reluctant to become shamans because of the intense psychological stress which inspiration imposes. The Chukchee speak of the individual evincing the symptoms of the shamanistic calling as “doomed to inspiration” and when the command of the spirits demands a change of sex, the youthful novices are reported usually to express themselves as preferring death. Where trance is a part of the specialist’s rituals, he must achieve mystery over it so that it may be induced when needed and so that he is not carried away. The aspirant who has not learned to control ecstasy is useless as a shaman. Among the Tungus- and Manchu- speaking tribes of aboriginal Siberia, the individual who experienced uncontrolled seizures was merely possessed and in the need of the shaman’s aid; the full-fledged shaman controlled his seizures and was thought to control the spirits within him during trance.

Above and beyond the psychological turmoil and adjustment which the inspirational practitioner might experience are a variety of mechanical routines which he must master with a high degree of skill. Even such apparently simple accomplishments as drum beating and chanting might require much rehearsal, as do the various feats of legerdemain with which many primitive religious specialists impress their clients and audiences.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN

If we look primitive society, we find that the role of women as both lay participants and as professionals is generally subordinate to that of men.

In 1924, reviewing the writing of the time on the place of women in primitive religion, Lowie noted their lesser role and stated, “In various regions women are not only ineligible for office but seem to be shut out from all religious activity.” It is very doubtful that women have in any society been totally excluded from religious participation, and Lowie seems later to accept this view. Among some tribes of Australia, death was the penalty for women who witnessed rites initiating males to adulthood. Similar prohibitions involving death or severe punishment have been described for various societies of New Guinea, Melanesia, and America. Among these tribes women were not only barred from participation but were sometimes also deliberately deceived and intimidated, as the adolescent boys undergoing the rites had formerly been, by male explanations of the activities which they might sometimes hear but never see. Noises produced during ritual by the bull- roarer, a piece of wood or other thin, flat object tied to a cord and whirled in the air, were said to be the voices of the gods. In even these extreme cases, women had rites which were exclusively female if tribally less important.

The barring of women from the puberty rites of boys does not necessarily reflect the low social status of women or indicate rigid exclusion of females from religious matters. It may instead have important symbolic value. At this time boys leave the world of mothered childhood and enter the world of men. Exclusion of women from the rites may then be seen as a dramatization of the changed status and associations of the boys. Women have, however, often been barred from religious affairs which, unlike boys’ rites of circumcision, were in no sense exclusively male but were instead of direct importance to the women themselves and the whole society.

Here and there, with something of a concentration in aboriginal Northern California, women have outnumbered men as specialists or the profession has been limited to females; but religious specialization in both primitive and civilized society has nevertheless been preponderantly male. Where the office is open to both sexes, ordinarily only the exceptional women has stood out as a practitioner of high prestige. In societies where the religious personnel are stratified, only positions of low prestige tend to be allotted to women. To summarize, the severity of restrictions upon females varies a great deal, but the general rule is partial exclusion.

Various explanations have been offered to the question of why this apparent discrimination against women should occur. Lowie has emphasized the belief that menstrual blood is dangerous and polluting and that women are therefore viewed as inherently unclean and unfit for religious office. Examples may be cited of the admission of women after menopause to religious rites from which they had formerly been excluded. It seems probable, however, that multiple influencing factors are involved, and the attitude that women are unfit because of their physiological functions operates in conjunction with these other factors or serves as their rationalization. The religious freedom which may be accorded to aged women seems, for example, not always merely or only the result of the cessation of menstruation. Women are at this time of course freed from child-bearing and the responsibilities of caring for infants. In old Japan religious participation was correlated with a traditional scheme of the division of labor by age. The performance of the many household and community rites which fell outside the province of the priest was the particular duty of the aged of both sexes, whose physical condition suited them to these light tasks.

The partial exclusion of women from the sphere of religion has also been viewed as representing “in part an extension of the social seclusion of women which characterizes most cultures.” The religious and the social are of course not mutually exclusive. Where the social status of women is high, prohibitions on religious participation by females tend to diminish, but this does not necessarily imply that women in these societies are strongly represented in the religious profession.

Summary

Unusual traits or experiences have been the most common but not the sole avenue leading to primitive religious specialization. Many other established routes which lack the flavor of the extra-ordinary have also been followed. Succession of religious office may be simply hereditary, especially in the more elaborate primitive societies. Among the large and socially stratified societies such as the Inca, Aztec, Polynesians, and many African Negro kingdoms, religious specialization also follows lines of social class. Here and there the established shaman might sell, give away, or bequeath his supernatural power to a petitioner. In some societies children became destined for later religious duties as the result of vows of their parents made in return for beneficences received from the gods, and children might be urged by their parents to take up the religious calling because of the advantages which will accrue to the kin group in having a practitioner in the family. Likely candidates among the youths might also be selected by established specialists to follow in their footsteps, and individual might consciously choose the profession without divine portent directing them to do so.

If we look primitive society, we find that the role of women as both lay participants and as professionals is generally subordinate to that of men.

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