Pearson, James L. Shamanism and the Ancient Mind: a Cognitive Approach to Archaeology.
Wilson, Joseph Andrew Park
Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2002. x + 195 pp. Cloth, $69.00; paper,
$24.95.
Shamanism and the Ancient Mind is an interesting synthetic overview
of cognitive archaeology, targeted to a broad audience. Pearson is a
believer in scientific post-processualism, and a convert to archaeology
after a career as a business executive. He employs a neuroscientific
approach to altered states of consciousness (ASC) associated with the
shamanic worldview. Postulating an ancient origin of shamanism, on the
basis of entoptic phenomena observed in rock-art, and supported by
ethnographic accounts, this study places earlier work, such as that of
J.D. Lewis-Williams and T.A. Dowson, into a larger scholarly framework.
(1)
Unexpectedly, Pearson begins with a discussion of the
archaeological analogy used by astronomers. As ancient stratigraphic
layers are deeply buried, so are ancient astronomical events observed in
the distant reaches of space. The purpose for this tangential
introduction is not clear until the middle of the text, when a converse
astronomical analogy is proposed in support of cognitive archaeology. As
astronomy is observational and interpretive, not experimental, and yet
quintessentially scientific, so Pearson argues, is archaeology.
Analogical inference and neuroscience are seen as the keys to the
interpretation of Paleolithic rock-art, whereby one may empathize with
the ancient artists. Contextualizing the cognitive approach, the first
half of the text provides a concise history of related archaeological
methodologies, and their differing approaches to anthropology. This
should be very useful for the novice seeking a grasp of the processual
versus post-processual debate, in the context of anthropological
archaeology.
In the second half, Pearson outlines the history of rock-art
research internationally and in the Americas with the goal of debunking
earlier theoretical interpretations (art for art's sake, totemism,
hunting magic, and structuralism) before setting up a shamanistic
interpretation based on neuropsychology and ethnography. Connecting the
shaman's trance with hallucinogen-derived ASC, Pearson credits
Lewis-Williams and company with the first broad and flexible application
of this idea to Paleolithic art, while allowing that Mircea Eliade and
others were first to interpret Upper Paleolithic art as the result of
shamanism. (2) Most crucially, it is suggested that Old World and New
World scholars have independently arrived at their shamanistic
interpretations of rock-art.
Chapter 7, "Shamanism," introduces the reader to
archaeological and ethnographic evidence for shamanism worldwide,
emphasizing the use of medicine and ASC. Before he begins the difficult
task of defining shamanism, Pearson implies that it is a panhuman and
archaic phenomenon. Based on a discussion of its Tungus origins, he
states that the term shaman describes, "by definition, one who
attains an ecstatic state" (p. 74), identical to an ASC or trance,
whether drug-induced or otherwise, but drug-induced more often than not.
Following Eliade, Pearson connects the ecstatic trance with the flight
of the soul, and the shamanic initiation with symbolic death and
resurrection. He also stresses the preponderance of a vertically tiered
shamanic cosmos, with upper, lower, and middle realms.
Pearson then prepares the way for the application of cognitive
archaeology to rock-art. In presenting a history of the dating
techniques applied to rock-art in America and Europe, Pearson
demonstrates the applicability of ethnographic data to the
interpretation of Numic (Uto-Aztecan) rock-art of the Coso Range of the
western Great Basin of North America. Because this art is interpreted to
be the result of shamanism, the ASC is considered the primary condition
of shamanism. In Chapter 9, the non-archaeological case for shamanism is
made. More precisely, it is a non-archaeological case for a
neuropsychological approach to shamanism, relying upon the ethnography
of drug use, hallucinogen-induced trance states, and psychopathology.
The archaeological case for shamanism follows. Pearson makes an
excellent case for a relationship between rock-art and ASC-related
shamanism in southwestern North America and Africa. This reviewer is
particularly intrigued by the cross-cultural comparison between images
blending human and animal forms, and accounts of similar transformations
as drug-induced hallucinations (pp. 12-31). Pearson also makes a good
case that the Middle Paleolithic "flower-burial" site in
Shanidar Cave, Iraq, shows evidence of curative ritual activities, but
it remains unclear whether this necessarily proves the universality of
shamanism. There is abundant archaeological evidence of drug use and
shamanism, both as preserved botanical remains, and in ceramic and
textile representations.
The conclusion is a defense of the cognitive approach against the
critics, who often support non-shamanist interpretations of rock-art,
which Pearson rejects. Still, to his credit, he allows that shamanist
and neuroscientific interpretations need not entirely exclude other
interpretations, such as hunting magic and archaeoastronomy. He
skillfully employs a post-modern philosophy of science to defend
ethnoarchaeology, analogy, and the cognitive approach to archaeology.
The application of these ideas to major archaeological themes is
fascinating, especially with regard to trade and the origins of
agriculture. The value of drugs was surely great, and the occurrence of
hallucinogenic cereal ergots may well have been a motivating factor in
the domestication of grains (p. 63). This observation is one of
Pearson's more important insights.
Although he argues for the panhuman view of shamanism, in
opposition to the Siberia-only view, there are gray areas between the
inclusive and exclusive extremes. Pearson might have mentioned the
problems presented for his thesis by the Australian case, where entoptic
imagery abounds in rock-art, but trance and ASC-related shamanism is
rarely observed in the ethnographic record. (3) He also could have been
more explicit in stating that all Siberian shamans have not necessarily
engaged in soul-flight and/or the use of intoxicants. (4) Considering
the depth of the historical background provided for the archaeology of
the mind, he could have presented, in similar depth, the historical
background for the anthropology of shamanism. He never mentioned the
possibility that major elements of Siberian shamanism may have been
influenced by Buddhism, which was being practiced in nearby China,
Korea, and Central Asia for more than a millennium prior to European
contact. (5)
These shortcomings aside, this work is an informative look at
cognitive archaeological methodology and rock-art. As one interested in
anthropology of shamanism, this reviewer wanted more. Shamanism is
central to the conclusions, but not a main theme throughout; it is
barely mentioned until the middle of the text. Those interested
primarily in the synopsis and current direction of the cognitive
approach to archaeology should find more to appreciate.
(1) J .D. Lewis-Williams and T. A. Dowson, "The Signs of All
Times: Entoptic Phenomena and Upper Paleolithic Art," Current
Anthropology 29 (1988):201-45.
(2) Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
(London: Arkana, 1964).
(3) Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural
Perspectives (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1984),
28.
(4) For examples of Siberian shamans who do not experience soul
flight, see Caroline Humphrey, "Shamans in the City,"
Anthropology Today 15:3 (1999):310. On the recent introduction of
intoxicants to North Siberia, see Eliade, Shamanism, 477.
(5) N. D. Mironov and S. K. Shirokogoroff, "Sramana-Shaman:
Etymology of the Word 'Shaman,'" Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society (North China Branch) 55 (1924): 105-30. See also Eliade,
Shamanism, 441, 495-507.
Joseph Andrew Park Wilson
Graduate Assistant for Teaching--Archaeology
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, Michigan
