Related article

All early societies attributed sickness to spiritual causes. These might include the ill will of another person, an evil spirit, witchcraft, or divine intervention for good or bad. When someone got sick, they turned to the shaman to be healed. The shaman was—and is—a priest, a healer, a magician, a diviner. An intermediary between the natural and spiritual world, he functioned by going into a trancelike state, understood as possession by a spirit. He used spells and incantations, amulets and fetishes to drive away or placate the gods or spirits thought to be responsible for people’s illnesses.

As soon as people organized themselves as groups, assigning different roles to different people, the shaman emerged as one of the most important specialists in a society. Cave paintings from 17,000 years ago show men in animal masks apparently performing ritual dances. These may well be ancient shamans.

Besides their role as spiritual healers, shamans also developed practical skills such as setting broken bones and using herbal remedies. We know this from the ancient texts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, where the early medical practitioners were essentially shamans.

The ancient Egyptians documented their medical practices. We look there first to examine shamanism’s role in healing.