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.Once the spirits determined one individual whowould carry on the crucial relationship between the spirits and the community, the otherill persons could regain their health and return to normal status.While onset of shamanic activities is thus clearly influenced by traditional norms,the cessation of a shamanic career could also be determined by tradition.Writing ofChukchi shamans, Bogoras notes: On the other hand, it is entirely permissible toabandon shamanistic performances at a more mature age, after several years of practice;and the anger of the spirits is not incurred by it (419).While some individuals mayremain shamans for their entire lives, other traditions foresee a cessation of shamanicactivities or even a practitioner s eventual choice to retire from the profession.Suchregulations generally are framed in terms of the spirits preferences: in some traditions, 90the spirits prefer young, vigorous shamans to elderly ones, or insist that their protégéshave no physical defects.In other traditions, the age and wisdom of an elder are regardedas positive aspects that enhance the shaman s power.Even given these strong culturalnorms, however, exceptions can occur, if the spirits choose a shaman of a markedlydifferent age or background.Human TrainingAlthough relations with spirits lie at the heart of the shamanic calling, manyshamanic traditions include an important role for human trainers as well.Human trainerscan help the shaman hone skills of use in a séance, or learn esoteric knowledge of valueduring spirit journeys or healing.Understanding one s shamanic duties often entails aminute knowledge of the culture s cosmology and the mythic history by which thecosmos came to be the way it is.A formal period of training may also help the newshaman become recognized as a professional within the community, conferring the statusand notoriety that an advanced degree can provide in Western societies.The place ofsuch formal acts of community recognition will be examined in greater detail in thefollowing chapter.In Thai s tradition, most new shamans work with a human master for some time.In the initial training séance, the experienced shaman will journey alongside the student,listening to the student s descriptions and remembering points to go over with the studentlater on.Later, the trainee will perform alone while the master observes and listens.Theséance cannot be interrupted while it is taking place; the master shaman waits until it isover to critique and give advice.To do otherwise would compromise the ceremony, 91which is not acceptable.The trainee also usually has a helper, often a family member,that undergoes the training as well.They will work together in the shaman s futurecareer.Finding a compatible trainer is not always easy, however: the master shaman sspirit must get along with the novice s: if that is not the case, the novice must search for anew master.A student cannot make a spirit journey without the help of a spirit helper,regardless of personal desire or the assistance of a living shaman.In fact, to attempt sucha journey without a spirit would be dangerous.Among Daur Mongol people, the training of the yadgan is similarly formalized,but tied more explicitly to the culture s key calendrical festivals.In this tradition, asCaroline Humphrey (1996: 186) details, the master carefully observes the novice sprogress in training.When the novice has reached a suitable level of expertise incontrolling interactions with the tutelary spirit, the master instructs the novice s clanmembers to prepare the ritual garb which the shaman will wear during professionalactivities thereafter.The novice is then invited to perform a ritual during the triennialfestival known as the ominam, carefully following the lead of the master butdemonstrating in this way the capacity to operate independently as a shaman.Nonetheless, after this performance, the novice will continue to work with the masteruntil the following ominam, when at last the new yadgan will receive full recognition as aprofessional in the field.An interesting record of the human component of shamanic training is containedin narratives written by George Hunt in the 1920s.As Briggs and Bauman (1999: 488)note, Hunt was the son of a high-ranking Tlingit woman and an English father.He wasraised at the remarkably diverse trading station operated by the Hudson s Bay Company 92at Fort Rupert, Vancouver Island, where people of various different tribal backgroundscame into close and daily contact with traders of European descent.Hunt married a high-ranking Kwagul (Kwakiutl) woman, and received the name Ma_xwalagilis ( GivingPotlatches in the World ) at the time of his marriage.Over the years of his collaborationwith the anthropologist Franz Boas, Hunt related his shamanic experiences in some fourdifferent texts, varying in his portrayal of the experience as entirely real or largelyfabricated (Judith Berman, personal communication).In one of these, (vol.2: 13) Huntrelates how he received his shamanic name Qa_selid.His account became famous withinanthropology through the structuralist reading it received from Claude Lévi-Strauss(1963).Hunt details the manner in which he was invited and initiated into the ranks ofKwagul shamans.While visiting one of their villages one evening, Hunt witnessed ahealing ceremony.At the end of this healing, one of the attending shamans displayed aquartz crystal which he maintained had been extracted from the ill person.He threw it upinto the air and a second shaman stated that it had then entered Hunt:[He] came and stood still in front of the place where I was sitting.He said, Oshamans, important is what has been done by the supernatural quartz for it wentinto this our friend here, into Giving-Potlatches-in-the-World& Now this one willbe a great shaman, said he.Then all the men turned their faces looking at mewhere I was sitting.(4)After this public invitation to join the profession, Hunt eventually agreed to becometrained as a shaman
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