ABSTRACT
On the main islands of Japan, ritual is evident as early as 13,000 BCE. Increasingly complex objects with likely ritual uses, such as artifacts made of lacquer and pottery, are found throughout the Jomon period. Women shamans were noted as leaders by Chinese visitors during the Yayoi period and appear in the early histories. The archaeological data to study shamanism mostly is found in elite graves, and contemporary texts—those written on oracle bones and bronze—are by and for the rulers. The data are not conclusive in terms of leadership deriving from shamans–many shamans practiced in East Asia, but there is no reason to believe that shamanism drove all East Asian cultures. Shamans were typical of Yue coastal culture of the north. Chinese recorded the Yueshi as barbarians but the Yueshi nevertheless influenced the culture of the plains and may have been more ‘cultured” than the central groups.
