A paper presented in the session, Comparative Research on Mesoamerican Healers. at the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, December 2-6, 1998, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A later version appears in, Mesoamerican Healers, edited by Brad R. Huber and Alan R. Sandstrom
by
James
W. Dow
Dept. of Soc. and Anth.
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309, US
Draft of 3/10/99
Comments
welcome
The definition of shaman is far from precise. Some people argue that there are many types of shamans. Lipp (See Chapter 6) describes some of these arguments. It is a vast subject, but, in order to identify the people that it examines, this chapter needs only to define shamans in the context of Mexican cultures. One simple way of defining shamans is by what they do. In general, shamans are healers who specialize in symbolic healing, effects of the mind on the body. The primary tool of Mexican shamans is magical ritual. However every magical healer in Mexico is not a shaman. There are magical healers, such as spiritualists or psychic surgeons, whose work is not part of a native tradition and, hence, they are not called shamans. In Mexico, shaman designates a magical healer who works within a modern Native American cultural tradition.
Yet, not all healers in the native communities are shamans. There are other non-magical healers. For example, the Cora have herbalists, bone setters, midwives, and prayer makers (Mellado et al. 1994:69). Curers in Pichátaro, a Purépechan community, are primarily herbalists whose main function is to restore a bodily equilibrium that has been upset by diet, external factors such as weather, or emotional disturbances (Garro 1986:352). The Chichimec-Jonaz have midwives, herbalists, and bone setters. The primary difference between these healers and the shamans is that they do not make use of magical ritual, although they work within a modern Native American cultural tradition.
Another common means of defining shamans in Mexico is by the way in which they receive their power to cure. Madsen (1955:48) defines a shaman as an individual who has received the power to cure directly from supernatural beings through dreams, visions, or spirit possession. This opposes them to the bone setters, herbalists, etc. who derive their power to cure from a naturalistic knowledge of curative substances and techniques. The existence of these other types of curers in the native tradition shows that naturalistic philosophies are part of native Mesoamerican thought (Cosminski 1976; Ortíz de Montellano 1975) and that shamans are just one type of healer. Yet, because they deal with an emotionally charged world beyond ordinary perception, they are often regarded as the most powerful healing specialists.
Shamans may also use non-magical treatments such as herbal medicines, but these are used within the context of an overall magical treatment. Although the patient may benefit from the biomedical effects of the herbs, he or she is led to see them as part of an overall magical solution to the problem. Shamans may be midwives too, such as among the Tepehua. Both Tepehua shamans and Tepehua midwives are called hat'aku·nu'. When they are semi-divine and highly revered, they are called lak'ainananin (Williams 1963:141). If a Tepehua woman who is a midwife is married to a shaman she is called shaman too.
Variations in the literature on shamanic belief and practice in Central and North Mexico are due either: (1) to real sub-cultural differences or (2) to different ways that anthropologists have of interpreting and describing the same thing. Typically, a cultural anthropologist concentrates on faithfully describing a culture and does not worry about the comparability of his or her description with the description of other cultures made by other anthropologist. Unfortunately, there are many ways of describing similar beliefs and rituals; thus anyone trying to compare patterns of magic and religion must work hard to separate what is truly different in each culture from what is simply an artifact of ethnographic style. Take for example the following two descriptions of the "cleaning" in a Purépecha culture first and then in a Totonac culture.
Purépecha: The "cleaning" is a common ritual in the Purépechan region. In these zones, it refers to a magico-religious practice aimed not only at preventing, curing, and diagnosing an illness in the manner of similar to other traditional medical practices in Mexico, but also at "curing the house," where the procedure has the purpose of taking out of the house the elements that have contaminated it or "bewitched" it. In other words, the concept that underlies this ritual has not been changed since in both cases the end of the cleaning is the same, whether or not the entities treated are animate or inanimate such as houses, milpas, etc. (Mellado et al. 1994:684, my translation)
Totonac: The sweeping, or cleaning properly called, consists of passing around the body of the individual, especially around the head, face, and then the back, very rapidly an animal (chicken or pullet), a plant (branches of certain ritual plants) or an object (candle), that will pick up the air. -- If it exists, the cleaning could be preventive -- The objects employed in the cleaning will be thrown in a remote place, far of the house (Ichon 1974: 251, my translation).
Comparing such ethnographies is a difficult task for which there is no easy method. One must estimate what is common and what is different from a thorough reading of the material. In making comparisons between villages and peoples one must take into account the focus of the ethnographer, who seldom uses standardized forms for observation and measurement. One ethnographer may overlook something that another is fixated on, and vice versa. One cannot make fine comparisons, because the lack of a feature in a report does not mean that is doesn't exist.
Influenced by the writings of the late Carlos Castaneda the popular image of the Mexican shaman in the US has been of a lonely, socially marginal person who believes he can transform himself into an animal and who has a marginal concern for the people of his or her community. The reality is quite different. Mexican shamans are respected people in their communities. Their dedication and spirituality are admired. They can fail to cure, they can disappoint some people, but, by and large, they are respected like medical doctors in Western culture.
Not all the native cultures of Central and North Mexico support the same type of shaman. A cursory analysis had led me to propose two types: a traditional type and a curandero type.
The myths that lie at the foundation of traditional shamanic curing are not dead literature but are ongoing beliefs that are modified daily through visions and logical pre-scientific philosophy. Shamans exert only a provisional, contested, control over their patient's understanding (Brown 1988). Each cure provides an opportunity to remake and expand the mythic basis for shamanic healing.
Traditional shamanism is found primarily among the groups that
were changed the least by the haciendas of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. These cultures are generally in the mountainous
areas to the east and west of central Mexico shown in Figure 1. The
cultures that support traditional shamans are the Nahua, Sierra Ñähñu
(Sierra Otomí), Totonac, Teenek (Huastec) Tepehua, Cora, and
Huichol. All these shamanic traditions have ancient roots in
Precolumbian cultures.
This map is in DWF vector format which allows panning and zooming. To see it you need the WHIP plugin from Autodesk.
A model of how the world is constructed lies behind shamanic healing. Shamanism is simply based on the laws of nature as Native Americans see them. This traditional worldview is fundamentally animistic. People believe that an animating force is contained within all living things and moving objects. Animating forces are the essence of life. An animating force is usually called a soul or alma in European languages, but this translation distorts its meaning by adding irrelevant Christian connotations. Anthropologists have sometimes conceptualized the idea of animating forces as a visit by the shaman to another spirit world. My interpretation of the philosophy is that the forces are part of the present world and that the average person is just insensitive to them. Thus the traditional shaman seeks greater awareness of what is in this world, not awareness of another world. As Eger Valdez notes (1996:300) the philosophy is profoundly ecological and most appropriate to cultures that depend on foraging and agriculture instead of science and industry.
Uncontaminated animistic philosophy is relatively simple. All things move and act because their animating forces give them the power to do so. In the native worldview, no distinction is made between symbolic and physical effects or between psychological and medicinal causality. All significant actions are the result of animating forces at work. The forces are exist in a hierarchy of power with the sun and moon at the top and stones on the bottom. The animating forces of humans are in between these two extremes. Humans have total power over stones, which have no animating force, but no power to change the motion of the sun or stars, which have powerful animating forces. Humans dominate animals. Beings that are more powerful dominate humans.
Traditional shamans are able to see and manipulate the animating forces. Although this concept also lies behind the work of curandero shamans, the traditional shaman seek knowledge of the forces. The traditional shaman's quest for knowledge has its own spiritual rewards beyond being simply a practical means of curing. The community is drawn into the quest and supports it as a religious calling. The traditional shaman returns this support by leading rituals for the community. The traditional shaman is also a religious leader.
Shamanic magic is consistent with Malinowski's observation that magic in general is an extension of human effort beyond the point where ordinary technology fails (1948:30). When herbalists and shamans exist in the same community, the herbalists are enlisted for routine medical problems where sorcery is not suspected and where a positive outcome is likely. When the illness proves to be more intractable, a shaman is called in to deal with the underlying animating forces. The difference between herbalists and shamans is that the herbalists confine themselves to prescribing botanical treatments and avoid dealing with the animating forces. The shaman, on the other hand, confronts the underlying animating forces.
Traditional shamans use visions and trances to see and deal with the animating forces. In the western region, shamans go on vision quests; for example, some Huichol shamans go to the forests to commune with wolves and receive wolf power (Eger Valdez 1996:273-274). In the east shamans enter trances during rituals. Hallucinogenic plats such as peyote (Furst 1972), datura, and cannabis (Emboden 1972:229) aid these visions and are regarded as spiritual beings in their own right. The most noteworthy hallucinogenic plant in the west and north is peyote (Furst 1972). The first non-Indian to investigate the vision quests of the Huichol was Fernando Benítez (1968). The peyote visions carry a divine message using the symbols of Huichol myth (Benzi 1969). In the east, the Sierra Ñähñu and the Tepehua use cannabis (Williams 1963:215-221). Cannabis has also been used in the west. Lumholtz reported it among the Tepehuan as early as 1902 (Emboden 1972:229). It was called rosa maria there. In the east it is called santa rosa . In general, cannabis, an old world plant, seems to have been substituted in some places for new-world plants such as peyote, datura, morning-glory, and hallucinogenic mushrooms because of its superior effects or because there was a lack of the original hallucinogen.
As a spiritual leader, the traditional shaman can lead pilgrimages to places of spiritual power. With such leadership the average person can become aware of the animating forces without becoming a shaman himself. Huichol shamans lead groups of devotees on pilgrimages to the place where they gather peyote plants. Through prayers and rituals, the landscape is reconstructed as a Huichol mythical place called Wirikúta (Furst 1972; Myerhoff 1974). The Cora also believe in Wirikúta, and their shamans see it while in trance (Mellado et al. 1994:80).
In the east part of central Mexico, Sierra Ñähñu go on pilgrimages to a mythic place called "México Chiquito," or "Mayonikha" (Galinier 1990:313). In fact, there are a number of cave shrines in the sacred mountains of this area that can serve as the mythic locus. The difference between a pilgrimage and a trip to a mountain shrine is simply in the length of the preparation and the length of the journey. Mayonikha refers to the place of an ancient church or a dual church (Galinier 1990:313). Since the original Tenochtitlán (México) contained the main Aztec dual temple, the idea of México Chiquito (Little México) as a place of pilgrimage recapitulates a pilgrimage to the Aztec dual temple at Tenochtitlán. The memory of ancient Mexico City as a place of pilgrimage still lingers on in the Sierra Ñähñu vocabulary. Today Mexico city is called Mändä (Middle), a shortened form of Ra Mändä Zäna (The Middle of the Moon), which recalls the ancient name of the lake in which Tenochtitlán was built, the Lake of the Moon. Another legendary place of pilgrimage for the Sierra Ñähñu is La Laguna (The Lake) where the goddess of the fresh waters, Maka Xumpø Dehe, resides.
The Sierra Ñähñu and Nahua believe that companion spirit animals (tonales) guard a person's animating force. The companion spirit animals are born at the same time as the person. They are seldom seen but aid the individual supernaturally to overcome hardships along his or her life journey. Shamans can see the companion spirit animals and are able to work with them.
The power to manipulate the animating forces implies the power to manipulate them for evil as well as good. Therefore, the belief in sorcery is widespread in Mexican sub-cultures. Even if a sub culture has many Catholic beliefs, it often retains a concept of sorcery. For example, the Purépecha magical-curers deal with the evil eye, cleanse patients of "evils" (maleficios), and get rid of "disgusting things" (cochinadas) that may have been planted in their houses by enemies (Mellado et al. 1995:), yet most Purépecha consider themselves to be Catholics.
Perhaps stimulated by the success of modern biomedicine, Mexican natives often distinguish between "good" illnesses curable by medicines and "bad" illnesses curable only by shamanic ritual. For example, the Sierra Ñähñu say that "good" illnesses are sent by God, who has also placed on earth the means, herbs and medicines, by which they can be cured (Dow 1986:9). However, when it is determined that an illness was sent by evil beings or by evil persons and not by God, shamans must intervene because such illnesses will not yield to simple treatments. The Cora believe that sorcery cannot be cured by medicine, although the symptoms may be the same as those of an ordinary illness (Mellado et al. 1994:73). Shamans treat persistent diseases that have resisted common treatments and that people have come to believe are the result of some hidden evil.
A patient's moral transgressions can lead to illness. The native cultures of Central and North Mexico have many rules for polite, civil behavior. In a number of cultures, people believe that the violation of these rules can lead to illness. The extent to which immorality is blamed for illness varies. The Teenek and the Cora are particularly concerned with illness caused by improper behavior. The Teenek believe that breaking the rules either deliberately by sorcery or accidentally by mistake eventually leads to illness (Alcorn 1988:21).
Malevolent beings exist in the native worldview and can be generally classified as:
evil godlings
airs
evil companion spirit animals
transforming witches.
The evil godlings vary from place to place. People believe that they are quite willing to offer their services to sorcerers. Among the Teenek they are referred to as "punishers" (Alcorn 1988:231). They are often able to command airs, a type of rabid immaterial being that attacks anyone. The Sierra Ñähñu cut paper figures of evil beings, such as Lord of the Jews, Queen of the Earth, Lightning, and Rainbow (Sandstrom and Sandstrom 1986:152).
The companion spirit animals of sorcerers are evil. For example, Huichol myth names the owl and the fox as minions of sorcerers. The Sierra Ñähñu also point to these two evil companion spirit animals. Other animals exist in a more hideous realm. Some people believe in nightmarish blood-sucking beings, usually animals such as vultures or owls that may or may not take human form (Nutini 1993). It is sometimes difficult to distinguish these nightmare creatures from the spirit animals of sorcerers in the folklore of a particular culture.
Airs or winds are evil beings that attack people who get too close to them. Although there is much evidence that a belief in airs is widespread, the belief is phrased in so many different ways that it is not always easy to recognize. The Sierra Ñähñu call them dähi, winds, and believe they live in canyons. They attack suddenly and painfully like rabid dogs (Dow 1986:92). The Matlazinca believe that airs live in canyons or around springs (Mellado et al. 1994:372). Airs are associated with dead persons. They could be hanging around where someone has died. They can be found where lightning has struck. The Matlazinca, distinguish between various types of airs: lightning airs, thunder airs, airs of fright (espanto), river-source airs, and airs sent by curses (Mellado et al. 1994:368). In general airs are found in dark, damp, drafty places and places where someone had died. They are like the dark cold wind that sweeps across the land just before a thunderstorm. Some Purépecha in the remote mountainous zones like Charapan still believe in a being called Miríngu or Miringua, "the trickster," an air that appears as a light wind which dries up plants (Mellado et al. 1994:667). The Totonac shamans symbolize airs with humanoid figures (Ichon 1974:271). The Sierra Ñähñu use paper figures (Dow 1986:32). Among the Sierra Ñähñu, Thunder and Lightning are evil godlings who command airs.
The Totonac like other natives believe that airs are basically evil, but they also say that some good things, such as the wooden horse used in the dance of the Santiagueros is loaded with air. For this reason dancers who have been in contact with the horse must be purified. The Totonac recognize two strengths of airs. Certain individuals such as shamans, certain animals such as the cojolite (the bird species Penelope purpuracens), and certain objects have a strong air and are particularly dangerous. Other airs are weaker. Contact with the dead and participation in religious ceremonies can also cause seizure by airs (Ichon 1974:249). This accords with the idea that airs are powerful, dangerous, and without conscience. They are evil in the sense that contact with them causes sickness not in the sense that they intend harm.
In the native worldview, airs are a category of evil being associated with storm gods. The syncretism of this concept with European humorial medical theories about air has obscured the underlying indigenous concept, which can be seen in the cultures where traditional shamans still practice. For example, Nahua beliefs in the Valley of Mexico have led to the following very concrete description of airs.
The enanitos [dwarves], also known as "los aires [the airs]," are described in Tecospa as little men and women who stand about one and one-half feet high, wear long hair, dress and live like the Indians of Tecospa, and speak the Otomí tongue. They live in caves in the hills and mountains where they store big barrels containing clouds, rain, lightning, and thunder. When the enanitos are angry with a human being, they blow their breath at him, causing him to fall ill with the common disease known as "aire de cuevas" [cave air]. This disease usually is inflicted on bad persons who offend the enanitos by trespassing in their caves, by carrying food near their caves without giving them any of it, and by pointing or calling to a rainbow. "Aire de cuevas" is rarely fatal if the sick person is treated by a curer specializing in treatment of this disease. (Madsen 1955:49-50)
Airs have been called "among the most elusive of illness concepts" (Adams and Rubel 1967:338), but there is a clear focus on water, dampness, and storms. Putting these beliefs together one is led to the conclusion that concept of airs originated in a folk belief that people who died in storms or drowned went to live with water gods and can return to molest the living.
In the west central region, the Huichol believe in "bewitchment" (tkiguo re or hechizos) that is similar to airs. They believe that their ancestors send bewitchment to plague persons who have not been living a good life. The idea of airs is not prominent in accounts of Huichol curing, but air-like ideas appear in Huichol myth. The mythic founder of sorcery Kiéri Téwiyári is also called the "Tree of Winds" and can appear as an air (Furst and Myerhoff 1972:73).
Among the native peoples of Central and Northern Mexico there is a widespread belief that physical objects implanted in the body or sorcery objects in and around ones house can cause illness. Objects believed to be inside the body are invisible to the average person. Only shamans can see and withdraw them. The nature of a hidden object is revealed when the shaman withdraws it. For example Popoloca shamans find nails, maguey spines, and stones in the bodies of their patients (Jäcklein 1974:262). Sierra Ñähñu shamans find pieces of rotten blood and flesh (Dow 1986:108). Tepehua shamans find small bones, coffee beans, corn, or money (Bower 1946:682). The objects are small, definitely foreign to the human body, and sometimes disgusting. They define and explain the pain the patient suffers. Bower (1946:682) found an ironic twist in Tepehua belief. A rich man may suffer terribly from money lodged in his body. A man grown wealthy from trade in coffee may suffer from internal coffee beans. It could be said that the Tepehua believe in the supernatural leveling of wealth. They believe that the rich pay a painful price for their wealth.
Sorcery objects on the other hand are not in the body. They cause illness by being close to their intended victim. Natives believe that sorcerers create these objects to attack their victims. The act something like radioactive land mines. The sorcery object symbolizes the insult to the victim. For example among the Sierra Ñähñu, it may be a set of mutilated paper figures.
Shamanic curing in Central and North Mexico begins with a consultation (consulta). The consultation has several important dimensions. First, the same Spanish word is used to describe a visit to a biomedical doctor; therefore, the consultation is a visit to a person with special professional knowledge. Second, by means of visions the shaman may also consult other more powerful beings. The consultation is a linking between levels in the hierarchy of living beings. It is a necessary first step in a cure that links the patient to beings that can help him or her. For this reason, the consultation practically always includes prayers and offerings. Gifts of rum, candles, incense and other ritual paraphernalia are usually brought by the patient, or his or her family, to the consultation to offer to the superhuman powers that will assist in the cure. Nahua shamans in the Sierra Norte de Puebla use corn kernel divination to discover the identities of saints who will help the patient (Huber 1990:161). The linking of the patient and shaman to higher powers is almost a reflexive act in these cultures in which the presence of the supernatural is constantly brought to mind though hundreds of small altars in houses, on the roadside, and in public transportation.
The consultation may put extra emphasis on the shaman's communication with higher beings, as with the Cora. Cora shamans will ask their clients for offerings of pinole (toasted corn flour and sugar), money, and cotton. Cotton is a significant symbol and tool for the Cora shamans. It is considered sacred because it is made of fine threads that if unwound would reach to heaven (Mellado et al. 1994:80). Cotton links the levels of the hierarchy of living beings and absorbs illness in cleaning ceremonies. In most shamanic rituals, clients provide the necessary materials, because the clients are the supplicants and because the materials are regarded as gifts.
Diagnosis depends on the knowledge of how different illnesses manifest themselves. A shaman acquires such knowledge from study, visions, and experience. Each type of disease manifests itself in a different way. Each culture has developed different diagnostic traditions. For example, the Matlazinca examine the eyes to see if an air has attacked the person. If an air has attacked, the eyes appear "sad," and the patient appears aventado, a syndrome including indigestion, nausea, anorexia, and tiredness (Mellado et al. 1994:372). The symptoms of an air among the Sierra Ñähñu are a sudden severe pain (Dow 1986:93). The Papago shaman simply looks at the patient to tell if an illness has been caused by witchcraft. How this is done has not yet been explained to ethnographers (Mellado et al. 1994:609).
Weakness and depression can be interpreted as symptoms of a loss of animating force. The loss of animating force, soul loss, is a serious illness treated by practically all shamans. In many ways, soul loss is essence of illness. If the animating force cannot be returned, the patient will die. Don Floriberto, a Popoloca shaman informant, puts it as follows:
An ill person is simply one who has lost part of his soul, which you can imagine is something like an air, and it is up to you [the shaman] to find the spirit animal that has carried it off. In order to do this the shaman runs though the mountain after the four-legged creature, bird, reptile or insect which, he feels is the soul of the patient, to capture it and return it to the patient.
A preliminary cleaning may reveal the nature of the illness. For example, during the consultation a Cora shaman passes cotton over the body of the patient and then places it in a white napkin on the altar. He blows smoke from his pipe on the patient and, waving his eagle feathers, recites the following prayer.
God who is my father, God who is my brother, God who is my mother, that, through your wisdom, we wish to know the origin of this illness. We entreat you to do us this favor and discover that tiny place from which this evil came. You are the one for certain who casts out the spirits of the earth, and we do not know if they have caused this misfortune.
The cotton is then examined to make the diagnosis. If the fiber, for example, has a dirty spot in the center, it means that the sick person is in danger of dying; if the mark is not very big, there is still hope that the sick person will recover.
Nahua shamans in Morelos use a similar technique with an egg. The egg is passed around the body without touching the body and then pressed or touched lightly to the skin in spots, particularly where the patient feels pain. The shaman shakes the egg near his ear to hear any air that may have been taken up from the body of the patient. Air will sound like water inside the egg. Then the egg is broken in a glass half full of water. It is studied, and the nature of the illness is deduced from what is seen. A foam-like appearance indicates a heart problem. Internal wounds may be seen in the yoke. The white of the egg reveals different types of airs that have attacked the patient. "Airs of the dead" appear as lighted candles, long stones, or a dead body lying in the street. "Canyon airs" appear as places in a field, a canyon, or a hillside spring. Another important conclusion that can be drawn is whether the illness is "hot" or "cold" (Alvaraez 1987:147-151).
Nahua shamans in the east feel the pulse of the patient (pulsing) to determine the illness. They state that the blood of the patient accuses the sorcerer who has caused the illness. Sierra Ñähñu, Totonac, and Huastec shamans often use crystals to diagnose illness. They say the crystals, made of quartz or colored glass, arrive magically and have the power to reveal an illness inside the body. In actuality, the crystals are found in the ground or are gifts of devoted followers. Typically, a crystal is held up to a candle near the patient. Transmitted through the crystal, the lights of the candle reveal the location and nature of the illness. Totonac crystals are kept in a napkin or in a painted gourd on the altar. Before using a crystal, the Totonac shaman passes it through the smoke of the censer, and, after he or she has finished with it, dips it in white rum to "give it a drink" (Ichon 1974:267).
The visions of the shaman are always important. There are often times in the diagnostic process when the shaman will retire to receive visions. Shamans speak of certain symbols that they look for in their dreams. For example, the following dream symbols indicate sorcery to a Rarámuri shaman: the victims hair being burned in a cross, a sick cow reviving, or the persons clothes being washed away by a river (Mellado et al. 1994:715). Airs appear to Sierra Ñähñu shamans as thin pigs, masked dancers, or black cows (Dow 1986:94). The vision symbols vary from shaman to shaman and from culture to culture.
Shamanic diagnosis and treatment go together. The shaman starts treatment as soon as the illness reveals itself. As more is learned, new treatments may be started or prescribed. Treatments are logically related to the way that an illness is conceptualized. Illnesses seldom are simple, so treatment can be complex. The patient and the patients family provide the materials for the treatment. The shaman tells them what to buy and when the rituals will be held, and shaman receives a fee for his or her work. Fees among the Sierra Ñähñu are charged according to the value of the cure to the patient (Dow 1986:41).
Throughout Central and North Mexico, as in other parts of Mesoamerica, there are innumerable outdoor shrines where native superhuman beings exert their powers. In the east, caves, mountains, and lakes are especially propitious locations for shrines. The Ñähñu and Nahua worship the sun god on mountain tops. Caves are the abodes of the rain, earth, and mountain gods. Lakes and springs can be the home of the goddess of the fresh waters. Ñähñu and Nahua shamans cooperate in their pilgrimages to sacred shrines (Sandstrom 1991:300, personal communication). Traditional shamans and their followers leave offerings at these shrines, and the shaman says prayers.
In the mountains of the west there are shrines to tutelary beings such as wolves (Eger Valdez 1996:275). A Papago shaman of the north has said:
I can not speak of this goddess because I don't have the permission of my elders. If the elders would permit it I could tell you about her. I can only say that she is a very beautiful girl dressed in blue with long bead necklaces and that she appears in the cave of La Petaca, where there was a stone found in her likeness. My prayers are songs in the O'otam language and I say them in the mountains. The desert and the hills are my altars (Mellado et al. 1994:).
Curing usually takes place in the patients house or in special part of the shamans house devoted to this work. Every place where curing is practiced should have an altar (See Figure 2).
Traditional shamans also lead rituals in oratories or special temples that serve a local kinship group, a larger neighborhood, or the entire village. They may also utilize Catholic churches for their rituals. Altars are complex. As in Christian churches, they are places where superhuman beings are addressed. Images of tutelary beings can be found on the altar of a shaman. Shamanic utensils such as wands, arrows, crystals, paper, tubes, feathers, etc. Other objects such as stones and eggs may take on a symbolic significance. Tobacco is usually present in some form during a cure. White rum (aguardiente) is often used as a purifying agent.
The ritual objects used by shamans vary from culture to culture. More ritual objects are used in the east, west, and central regions than in the north, possibly because central Mexico has always been more technologically sophisticated. In central Mexico there are east-west variations in paraphernalia. In the east, the Totonac, Tepehua, Sierra Ñähñu, Teenek, and Nahua use small humanoid figures to represent animating forces. Crystals are used in diagnosis. The Sierra Ñähñu, northern Nahua, and Tepehua use paper humanoid figures. The Totonac shamans use solid figures. The Sierra Ñähñu still manufacture the bark paper used for some of the figures. In the center region, ritual paraphernalia is not as elaborate. For example, the Purépecha use playing cards for divination.
In the mountains of the west, the Cora and Huichol shamans use votive arrows, eagle feathers, yarn paintings, and cotton in their ceremonies. The Cora make amulets from the bodies of chameleons to ward off the effects of sorcery (Mellado et al. 1994:609). The Huichol ceremonial arrow has a bundle of hawk, eagle, or turkey feathers tied to it. Power objects such as rattles from rattlesnakes or miniature deer snares may also be attached to the feathers (Myerhoff 1974:110).
There are also east-west variations in belief. In the east, there is a greater belief in companion spirit animals. These are believed to help the patient and the shaman. In the west, there is a greater emphasis on prayer to the gods. Animals, such as the wolf and the deer act as tutelary beings in the west. The Cora place great emphasis on the relationship between the patient and their gods. The most powerful Huichol curers are their moro 'o ká te (plural of mora 'oká me), shamans who have shown themselves to be closest to the gods. In the central and north regions, Catholic beliefs are very important.
Restoration of the animating force of a patient depends on how it was lost in the first place. The animating force can be lost by natural accident, or it can be stolen. It is widely believed that a sudden fright (espanto or susto) can cause animating force loss. In this case, where the desire to live is intimidated, the animating force must be restored as soon as possible. The Teenek believe that such losses are not caused by transgressions, deviations from the path of goodness, but are natural occurrences that are to be expected as an ordinary part of life. Other natural illnesses for the Teenek are wounds, measles, attacks by evil winds, and colds (Alcorn 1988:217).
If the animating force of the patient has been diminished by fright or has been lost without cause, treatment must restore it. It is widely believed that force loss can result in death if not treated. Companion spirit animals of the shaman may be sent out to look for the lost force. Restoration ceremonies comfort and reassure the patient. Cora shamans sit alone with their seriously ill patients chanting for hours in an effort to contact gods "above their heads" and below the earth in an effort to restore the animating force. The shaman enters a trance and is able to journey to Virikuta, the Cora mythic world, to bring back the animating force of the patient (Mellado et al. 1994:80).
If the animating force has been stolen, a confrontation between the thief and the curer is necessary. Stealing an animating force is a dastardly act of sorcery. Sierra Ñähñu shamans send their powerful companion spirit animals to do battle with the companion spirit animals of the sorcerer in order to recapture the animating force of the patient(Dow 1986:63).
Since the restoration of the animating force of the patient is a fundamental object of shamanic curing, a ritual to restore it is often woven into other larger ritual complexes. For example, the Totonac cure has four phases: cleaning, the reinforcement of the animating force, the washing, and the herbal refreshment (Ichon 1975:251). The Sierra Ñähñu shamans can restore the animating force within any ritual by preparing a white paper figure that represents the animating force surrounded by the patient's companion spirit animals. (See Figure 3)
Figure 3: Sierra Ñähñu paper figure representing the animating force of the patient with companion spirit animals.
A cleaning (limpia) ritual removes an intrusive disease or invisible sorcery. A sucking ritual removes a solid object. Table 1 compares the cleaning with the sucking treatment.
Table 1: Features of Cleaning and Sucking Treatments
|
Cleaning |
Sucking |
|
|
Goal |
To extract illness from the body |
To extract illness from the body |
|
Physical nature of illness extracted |
Invisible, air-like, air or wind |
Visible, solid |
|
Moral quality of illness extracted |
Evil |
Evil |
|
Animate status of extract |
Animate and more powerful than ordinary human, requires shaman to dominate |
Inanimate but buried in the body, requires magic to remove |
|
Method of arrival of the extract in patient |
Arrives under own volition or led by a more powerful being, can be sent by sorcery |
Appears accidentally or can be shot or implanted by sorcery |
The cleaning ritual is without a doubt the most common magical healing ritual in Mexico. It is often named in the native languages by words that connote cleaning up, sweeping out, or fixing up. Cleanings are aimed primarily at withdrawing airs, the most common invisible beings that invade the body. The ritual exists in a variety of forms ranging from those based on purely native belief to those based on a great deal of Christian belief. The central act of the cleaning is to pass a ritual object, an attractor, around the body of the patient to attract and absorb the animate illness within. The ritual object varies from culture to culture. In the native eastern escarpment and the Huasteca, it is usually a collection of anthropomorphic figures. In the central region and among the Nahua of the Sierra de Puebla, it is often a chicken egg. In the west, it is usually eagle feathers or votive arrows. Christian forms of the limpia found widely in the center region make use of objects blessed by a priest or votive candles that were lit before the image of a saint.
The cleaning ritual is usually part of a more elaborate curing complex that often includes the restoration of the animating force and various other sub-rituals that depend on the culture and the shamans particular sense of what is needed. Cleaning rituals can also be part of a diagnosis. The Cora method of observing the cotton used in a cleaning and the Nahua method of observing an egg used in cleaning are examples of how cleaning contributes to diagnosis. Magical treatment is never delayed and can become part of diagnosis.
In the east among the Nahua of the Huasteca, Ñähñu, and Tepehua, paper figures are used in cleanings. The figures are cut to represent the animating forces of airs and the evil godlings that control them. The Sierra Ñähñu perform two levels of cleanings, the small and the large. The small one is simpler, requires less paraphernalia, and costs less. The large one requires a full layout of figures representing the evil godlings, such as Rainbow, Thunder, the Lord of the Jews, and Santa Catarina. One should note that the figures represent the animating forces of the beings not the beings themselves and give the shaman magical power over them. In the large cleaning, a live black pullet is bundled with the papers. The pullet conveniently dies after the airs have been swept out of the patient into the bundle, lending further credence to the belief that a potentially lethal illness has been withdrawn. The Totonac also use a live chicken in their cleaning. The Totonac attractor is herbs or an altar candle.
The typical practice in the east region is to take the bundle of attractors that have swept up the airs far from the house of the patient. It can be thrown into a canyon; airs are believed to live in canyons. It can be hung in the forest on the west of a mountain so that the sun god will take the airs on his journey to the underworld. It should not be placed anywhere near where people will travel, unless the patient demands vengeance against persons who he or she believes have sent the illness. In that case after serious consultation with the shaman, the bundle may be placed near the enemy's house.
In the center region, the goal of Matlazinca cleaning is to remove airs, which are typically considered to have a cold temperature. Several types of cleanings are performed. The most common utilizes an egg together with chile ancho and/or chilaca. Another called the sweeping (barrida) makes use of herb and flower branches of perch, romero and cempoalxuchitl; or santamaría and ruda. Similar herbs are sometimes incorporated into the large cleaning of the Sierra Ñähñu (Dow 1986:102). Branches symbolize cleaning, since branches of other plants are used daily to sweep the houses and to clean the skin in a sweat bath.
In the west region, Cora therapeutic cleaning makes use of sacred hawk or eagle feathers. Extensive prayers are offered to their gods during the cleaning. The Huichol cleaning ritual is also complex. The diagnostic phase makes use of a mirror around 4 cm in diameter, a wand to which eight eagle feathers are attached, a candle, an arrow, and a Crucifix. The mirror is placed on the chest of the patient. The collection of other things is passed over the body of the patient and placed next to the mirror. The shaman then waits for a vision that will reveal the nature of the sickness. If "bewitchment" is revealed, the shaman cleans the patient with his eagle feathers and the arrow. The shaman throws the money and the candle offerings in the sea, and the patient takes the arrow to offer later to the gods who have been responsible for the cure. (Mellado et al. 1994:291)
Sucking is a shamanic treatment for object intrusion. The object is first manipulated inside the body and brought toward the surface. Then, the shaman puts his or her lips on the skin and sucks the object out. A tube of some sort may also be used for this purpose. In Totonac culture, female shamans use the lips or fist to suck; whereas male shamans use a reed. Only male shamans can use a reed because the reed is associated with the Sun god, a male deity of maximal importance (Ichon 1974:283). Slight of hand may also be used to produce a visible object, but the belief in the withdrawal of an unseen evil is often enough to produce relief from pain.
The Teenek shaman passes a crystal over the body. The the shaman peers through the crystal at the patients body, illuminated by a candle or pine-stick flame, and sucks the illness out through a reed. In the center region in the Valley of Mexico, Nahua curers combine an egg attractor with suction. The shaman fills his mouth with water and places one end of an egg on top of the patients head and sucks on the other end. This is repeated on other parts of the body such as the temples, the elbows, the palms of the hands and anywhere pain is felt. The air passes through the egg into the water in the curers mouth, which is then spit onto the floor after the sucking (Madsen 1955:53). The egg, like the chicken, a living thing, symbolizes the animate food-seeking nature of the air.
In Central and North Mexico, a belief in sorcery is practically universal. It represents a breakdown in good social relations; it focuses blame on another member of the community. Envy is a common motivation for sorcery. For example, the Rarámuri believe that envy can drive a person to put an evil object (mal puesto) in the path of their victim. They believe it will cause the victim to suffer an illness that can lead to death if not treated immediately. They say that the sorcery is like a black moth that flies into the heart of the victim; only a shaman can remove it (Mellado et al. 1994:714). The Papago believe that the desire to seduce the spouse of another person is a cause of sorcery.
In general, native Mexicans usually believe that a person who suffers and wastes away is a victim of sorcery. In spite of these widely held beliefs, one meets very few sorcerers, if any at all. So who and where are they? Most of them apparently exist only in the minds of their supposed victims and the shamans who treat the victims. Very little has been recorded in ethnographic literature about actual acts of sorcery. There are two possible reasons for this: (1) that very few real acts of sorcery actually occur and (2) that all such acts are carefully hidden to avoid retaliation. Possibly, aggrieved parties who are not recognized as shamans perform most real acts of sorcery. They may enlist the help of a shaman, but that shaman is likely to be a novice or to be from a different area where he or she is protected from retaliation. The best evidences that real acts of sorcery exist are shamans who admit that they occasionally practice it and material evidences that are found from time to time. For example one day I was walking behind a Sierra Ñähñu graveyard and came across a group of paper figures that were partially burned and mutilated (See Figure 4). The cuttings were not as well executed as those done by the shamans I knew. Although the craftsmanship seemed amateurish, the intent was clear. The airs of the dead were being called on to harm some hapless victim.
The power to heal implies the power to harm. So shamans have professional ethics as doctors do. The issue of vengeance against an attacking neighbor or other human enemy is separate from curing and marked by ethical considerations. It may be practiced if the patient insists on it, but it is not a necessary part of a cure. Most shamans discourage vengeance sorcery. It can lead to blood feuds and much community distress. The communities in which shamans work have precarious economies in which people have little material wealth. They are small, rural, and often overpopulated. People spy on each other. Face-to-face contact over generations leads to frictions and envy. People are suspicious of neighbors who are not perfectly helpful; resentments can fester. Neighbors and kinsmen may try to take small bits of land from each other. The work of the shaman is to calm peoples anger and to heal psychic distress. Thus in general, shamans are not eager to involve themselves in disputes by sending disease as well as curing it. They have to work with a widespread belief in sorcery, but only under extraordinary circumstances do they actually seem to practice it.
Don Floriberto, a Popoloca shaman in the east region, admitted to sorcery but only as a mail-order business. He would perform it for distant persons sending him the details in the mail along with a money order (Jäcklein 1974:208). In the Highland Ñähñu village of Xuchitlán in the Mezquital people belief in sorcery, but there are no practicing shamans or sorcerers anywhere near the village. To find a shaman or sorcerer the residents have to travel hours by bus to the Huasteca (Tranfo 1974:236). In Xuchitlán, there are no shamans either. Where rapid cultural change creates stresses in places like this, people become nervous about the possibility of sorcery, and, as a consequence, curers cannot practice safely for fear of being accused of sorcery. The growth of capitalist modes of production can create stresses that result in sorcery accusations. Isaac (1996) recounts a case where conflicts among Purépecha producers in a growing tourist handicraft industry resulted in accusations of sorcery.
The Sierra Ñähñu treatment for sorcery is to magically bring the sorcery deposit to the shaman where it is neutralized. The deposit is usually a set of mutilated paper figures causing damage to the animating force of the patient. The retrieval ceremony lasts all night. It may be part of a native flower ritual called the costumbre. In the middle of the night, the shaman will send his powerful companion spirit animals out to fly over the land and track down the sorcery. All participants are told to stay inside the shamans oratorio, because evil lurks outside. A knocking is heard at the door. The shaman opens it and reveals a foul smelling wad of mashed papers. This is brought inside and neutralized by blowing white rum on it.
A very common type of sorcery attack is one in which airs are sent against the victim. In that case, the treatment is a cleaning to get rid of the airs. The Papago have shamans who specialize in the treatment of sorcery. They ask the victim to wear an amulet made from the head of a chameleon and pray to the goddess Quiva (Mellado et al. 1994:609)
The traditional shaman is a specialist in manipulating the unseen living animating forces. Many troubling things in the animated world besides illness can be brought to him or her. Sierra Ñähñu and Totonac shamans use their powers to discover thieves. Some Totonac shamans specialize in theft. They attach a cord to an image of San Antonio who tracks down the thief. The thief can also be made to suffer until he returns the stolen objects. If the shaman burns oil before the image, the thief will die (Ichon 1974:283).
Much of the work of shamans as healers includes the religious counseling of families and individuals. There is a great deal of comforting and ego building in the healing ceremonies. The patient is reassured that all the forces of nature are mobilized to deal with his or her illness. Prayers may be said to the native gods for days on end.
Broken love relationships in the home may be healed by magic. The Sierra Ñähñu believe that shamans can make people love, or lust for, each other by manipulating their animating forces. Clients go to the Sierra Ñähñu shamans with the hope that a wayward spouse can be influenced to return. This is done in a ritual in which paper figures are cut to represent the animating forces of the couple. In the ceremony, the two paper figures are brought together. Love magic that does not reunite a once loving couple is handled carefully because of its potential for causing jealous rages and adultery.
In public religious ceremonies, shamans often act as religio-magical specialists. Traditional shamans in Central and North Mexico are the equivalent of native priests. In the west region the most respected Huichol shamans, the moro 'o ká te, study to achieve spiritual enlightenment and are graded in a hierarchy of spiritual attainment. About the east region, Alan Sandstrom (1991:300) writes that nearly twenty-five Nahua and Ñähñu shamans gathered together to organize a pilgrimage to the sacred lake. They cut over 25,000 paper figures in preparation for the journey. This was a major religious event in both cultures.
Shamans usually have a group of followers for whom they lead worship ceremonies. The context of these ceremonies depends on the extent of competition from Christian religions. Ceremonies led by shamans may involve an entire village or just one or two families within it. Where there is little competition, traditional shamans lead large community rituals. Practically always, other persons, not the shamans, sponsor the rituals. The entire community may sponsor the ritual, or single household may sponsor it. The ritual will bring the sponsor recognition and prestige and provide an opportunity for the conspicuous redistribution of wealth. A traditional shaman as the person with the greatest knowledge of the beings being worshiped will direct the ceremony. For example, Sierra Ñähñu shamans conduct worship ceremonies for local deities called antiguas and for their principal gods: the Goddess of the Fresh Water, Grandfather Fire, The Intercessor God, The Earth God, and the Sun Cross. The antiguas are represented by small family images. Among the Nahua of the Southern Huasteca for example, shamans lead the major midwinter festival to Tonantsij, the mother goddess, and the blessing of the seeds festival at the end of the dry season (Sandstrom 1991:279-296). The Huichol moro 'oká me officiates and teaches traditional Huichol beliefs in the tuki, the Huichol community temple (Myerhoff 1974:95).
Competing Christian religions, such as Roman Catholicism and various forms of Evangelical Protestantism, reduce the participation of shamans in public ceremonies. These imported religions have considerable political impact. Roman Catholicism is the religion of the dominant Euro-Mexican culture and enjoys much prestige because of its association with wealth and political power. There is often a native form of Catholicism that introduces Catholic images into a local fiesta system. The extent to which Christian ideas and forms have penetrated native Mexican culture varies widely even in the same cultural region. This penetration has resulted in some interesting combinations of Christian and native religious rituals. For example, in Tenango de Doria before a Sierra Ñähñu mayordomo can dress the image of his saint in the church, he must take the clothes to a mountain stream to be washed in the sacred water of the Goddess of Fresh Water. Shamans appear in public rituals whenever their knowledge of the native gods and the animating forces is needed and whenever the influence of Christian churches is weak.
The participation of women in the shamanic profession varies from culture to culture in Central Mexico. There are only a few female shamans among the Huichol. Mellado et al. (1994:279) believe it is a masculine profession there; however Myerhoff mentions the existence of a female shaman (Myerhoff 1974:96). She notes that the profession is open to women, as it is in practically all native cultures. Since the Huichol have grades of shamanic excellence, it is difficult to say who is a certified shaman and who is not. Apparently the female shamans do not have the same status as the male shamans. Since Huichol shamans have many priestly functions, their culture is consistent with Huber's (1990:170) observation, made for the Nahua, that male shamans tend to function as priests, whereas female shamans only cure and do not officiate at public ceremonies.
Female shamans predominate among the Nahua of the Sierra de Puebla (Huber 1990:160). Native people sometimes see the male shaman as a stronger warrior against evil; however, female shamans can be the majority of successful practitioners at the same time. Bower (1946:680) writes that female Tepehua midwives are assistants to a male shaman. Don Antonio, a Sierra Ñähñu shaman, expresses a masculine bias by saying that shamanism is hard and dangerous work and that women are sometimes not strong enough (have weaker blood) for the work (Dow 1986:131). Nevertheless, there are many successful female shamans among the Sierra Ñähñu. Many curers and most midwives, shamans or not, are female in Central and North Mexican native cultures.
The core of belief that supports shamanic healing is supported by myth. Each shaman has a personal myth that explains how he or she began to cure and how that power was acquired. This personal myth needs to be conceptually separated from the actual learning process that shamans go though to acquire their skills. Mendelson (1965:217) writes of Mesoamerican shamans: "In actual fact, short of believing in shamanism ourselves, we must agree that all shamans in some way or another do learn from living teachers." The personal myth usually tells of a dramatic trial in which the person almost dies and is forced into recognizing that he or she is destined to be a curer. To turn away from this path that the tutelary beings have set for one would bring their wrath down on the person and probably result in his or her death. The myth is widely told and serves to explain and enhance the shamans power to cure. For example, Don Soltero, a Nahua traditional shaman, was attacked by rain dwarves. They agreed to release him from a deadly sickness only when he agreed to become a curer (Madsen 1955:50).
The myth is developed during a period of initiation in which the novice commits himself to the profession. New Nahua shamans of the Northern Sierra de Puebla enter a quasi-liminal period during which they decide for or against becoming a curer. The tamatinime, wise powerful spirits who live in caves, frequent streams, waterfalls, forests, and the ocean, play a part in helping them to decide (Huber 1990:1959). When a Teenek person is stricken by illness, such as insanity or loss of consciousness, a curer may find that he or she must become a curer in order to have his or her spirit put back in order. A chicken is sacrificed and its stomach is examined. If thorns appear, the person is destined to become a sorcerer. If quartz crystals are found, the person is destined to be a curer (Alcorn 1984:241-243). Among the Tepehua, a sickly state and mystical dreams are indications that a person wants to be a shaman (Williams 1963:142).
The actual learning process starts with participating in curing ceremonies, often in the context of ones family. Many children of shamans become shamans themselves. Later one may become an assistant to a shaman. Alcorn (1984:239) writes of "loose apprenticeship" among the Teenek. The Cora novice shaman accepts the gift of healing from God. Then he learns from another experienced healer or begins to learn on his own (Mellado et al. 1994: 69). Finally, the novice starts to cure on ones own. If successful, his or her reputation grows and he or she is recognized in the community. Some communities have a number of failed and unrecognized shamans who are unable to garner reputations. Such persons need to get out of the business before they are accused of sorcery.
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