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Shamanism is still practiced today in many parts of the world, under many different names. For example, sangoma is the term used by some southern African peoples.

Many shaman traditions in Asia originated in Siberia. These include Tibetan, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese, as well as those of Native Americans, from the Inuit in the far north all the way to native groups in South America. European folklore preserves remnants of early shamanic traditions that also came from Siberia. These may have been embodied in medieval witchcraft, but we know virtually nothing about its practice. The surviving accounts come from church authorities who called witchcraft the work of the devil and worked pretty effectively to destroy it. Their lurid accounts detailing Black Masses and devil worship probably consisted mostly of fantasy. They do suggest, however, that witchcraft adopted some Christian rituals.

This tendency to adopt practices from other traditions is known as religious syncretism. It has been commonaround the world. For example, a number of religions developed in the Americas among African slaves that were based on animistic (and shamanistic) African traditions but incorporated Christian and other elements. Haitian voodoo (vodou), Cuban Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé are examples of these religions, which combine divination and healing practices. Although the Christian church frowns on these traditions, they remain a vital part of religion in the Americas.

In other cases shamanism was later absorbed by the later major religious tradition of the region. Tibetan Buddhism provides a good example. The practitioner that our sick Ladakhi might visit would be a Buddhist. This person would also likely be a woman. In Ladakh shamans may be men (lhapos), but most are women (lhamos). In some regions—Korea, for example—they are exclusively women.

And what does the Ladakhi lhamo do to cure, say, a stomach ache? After going into a trance, she sucks the source of the illness out of her patient, using a straw or little pipe placed against the stomach. She will then spit out a black substance, either liquid or small hard pellets, into a cup to show the patient. For this she receives a very small fee.

And many Ladakhis feel that her services help, whatever that black stuff may be. Maybe this is simply because many problems go away with time. Or perhaps, this is an example of the connection between mind and body in healing. If a patient believes that something will make them better, then sometimes they do indeed feel better. Ths effect has been demonstrated scientifically, and has been dubbed the placebo effect. This is how most empirical researchers explain the effectiveness of some remedies that have no known basis in science. Whatever the explanation for the success of the shaman, many people around the world continue to visit shamans when they get sick.

At some point, healers began to develop remedies based on plants, minerals, or other physical treatments. These form the basis of what is called traditional medicine. When did traditional medicine develop?