ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that the emphasis concerned with the shaman is on the shaman as a person. In the absence of survey data, it is fair to assume, based on questioning of shamans at Taungbyon, that there are few if any villages in Burma without shamans. Having described the shamanistic role and recruitment to it, it remains to provide an explanation for the incumbents of the role and the motivational bases for their recruitment. The problem of incest arises in connection with the male shamans only, and stems from the fact that some nats may possess them as "mothers" and even as sisters. If being loved by a nat brings esteem, at least in his own eyes, to the shaman, then this must have important effects on his sense of identity. Differential drive strength and differential cognitive conviction are, then, two of the factors which help to explain differential recruitment to the status of shaman.
