ABSTRACT
A close look at shamanism shows a great deal of variability. Shamanism may not have been practiced everywhere, and where shamans did exist rituals differed. Some unusual burials in the Early Neolithic of China have been offered as indicating shamans. They are each distinct, which suggests cultural differences, rather than a single type of widespread ritual. Neolithic sites and artifacts relevant to shamanism in Korea and Japan are fewer in the peninsula and islands than those in China, and less attention has been focused on evidence of shamanism. In East Asian archaeology the term Neolithic does not imply plant and animal domestication, but is used in the presence of pottery. The Middle Neolithic of China brings increasing complexity in pottery types, houses, and village layouts. Many named cultures are lumped together under the general rubric of Yangshao, a term applied to sites with painted pottery along the Yellow River in north China.
