ABSTRACT
Shamanism is a traditional, religious phenomenon tied closely to nature and the surrounding world, in which a practitioner endowed with the special ability to enter a state of trance-possession can communicate with supernatural beings. The varieties of shamanism found in Siberia tend to be used as a touchstone for shamanism because of the emphasis in Eliades Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. The character for wu is found on oracle bones of the Shang dynasty, about 1500 BCE, and the character was engraved on the hat of a figurine from Shandong. Archaeological discoveries suggest that shamanism was an important force in early East Asia, perhaps as early as the Paleolithic, but certainly no later than Neolithic times. The persistence of shamanism beyond the formation of the states in the Korean peninsula and the Japanese islands is particularly relevant. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
