Archaeologica.org

It will be very difficult to find absolute proof of the palaeo shaman from an archaeological point of view

Minimalist wrote: There are lots of threads in the forum which do not generate an enormous response for one reason or another. That's cool.

Minimalist wrote:
Peace, brothers.

Ishtar wrote:As more and more palaeo artifacts are uncovered, we may find that some could have a shamanic flavour or application and in that case, this thread will give us a receptacle for those posts to go in so that we can discuss them.

Minimalist wrote:

Thanks, Loretta!

Ishtar wrote:.....One of them even asked me how much longer I'm going to put up with the Grumpy Old Mens' Club....

Manystones wrote:and waiting......

Manystones wrote:Ishtar,

it's a forum not a boxing ring... what are you frightened off - making a fool of yourself

And anyway, to remind you, you said that you wouldn't reply to me anymore (principally because you can't and have failed to respond to any of my questions or challenges) although you did make out it was because i had twisted your words where in fact all I did was put the focus on the terminology you are using.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorcerer_(cave_art)

The Sorcerer is one name for an enigmatic cave painting found in a cavern known as 'The Sanctuary' at Trois-Frères, Ariège, France. It appears to depict a man dressed as a stag (or, alternatively, a half-human, half-stag). Its date is approximately 13,000 BCE.

Whether a drawing of a god, a shaman, a priest or something else the dancing figure of the "Sorcerer" is a therianthrope, a symbolic blending of human and animal forms that can be found in many cultures. Therianthropes commonly blend the human form with animals that are directly important to local culture, for example as food. Thus, the image is commonly interpreted as a shaman performing a ritual to ensure good hunting; however, this interpretation cannot be proven, nor can the image's possible connections with the much later "Horned God" of Celtic regions.

Some believe that further animals may be discerned within the image: the hands have been described as bear-like, and the face that of a bird[citation needed]. What is agreed on is that the legs and arms are human, as are the genitalia, and there are parallels with other ancient images in which human limbs are attached to an animal, usually a bison, to create a bipedal figure.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lars/rel375.html
Taliesin had been Gwion Bach disguised as a grain of wheat (Ford, 164, 173) and Sétanta, later known as Cúchulainn, had been a vague, tiny creature in a drink, possibly the soul of the god Lug (Kinsella, 23). Both Taliesin and Cúchulainn had extraordinary abilities extending to the supernatural, and Taliesin even described himself as having previously been Gwion Bach. Friuch and Rucht changed into maggots, very small creatures, and were consumed by cows while fighting each other in a battle of magic. They became reborn as the extraordinary bulls Finnebach Ai and Donn Cuailnge. They continued to escalate their combat by involving the tribes of Ireland, suggesting at least partial survival of their personalities.

“Ability to turn into a bird is the common property of all kinds of shamanism, not only the Turko-Mongol but also the Arctic, American, Indian and Oceanian....”

The bird perched on a stick is a frequent symbol in shamanic circles. It is found, for example, on the tombs of the Yakut shamans. A Hungarian taltos [shaman] has stick or post before his hut and perched on the stick was a bird. ....The bird perched on the stick is already found in the celebrated relief at Lascaux in which Horst Kirchner has seen a representation of a shamanic trance. However this may be, it is certain that the motif “bird perched on a post” is extremely archaic.

The theory presented here is based upon empirical data concerning perception. Although deriving from a modern population sample this will still have been relevant to early modern humans because of a common perceptual-neurophysiological inheritance. Indeed, it is because perceptual correlates can be investigated from this perspective that we can rely on such investigations with greater assurance than those based upon more unreliable comparisons. For example, the shamanic explanation, although alluding to neurophysiological components, fails to explain many of the perceptual observations obtaining, such as the predominance of depleted outlines throughout the period concerned. Moreover, a shamanic account is also predicated on cultural factors (Lewis-Williams 1991, 159) that would instead predict a considerable change in emphasis, both in subject matter and style during the Upper Palaeolithic — but this does not seem to have been the case to any substantial degree. Interestingly, the depleted typical-outline animals constitutes, as a single unit, by far the commonest mode of representation throughout (Halverson 1992b, 224). Notwithstanding some changes in the way various animal parts were represented, the main variations resided in the amount of detail employed or the kind of animal represented (Clottes 1996). Pertinently, humans are, by and large, rare and poorly drawn, ‘scenes’ for the most part non-existent, and therianthropes (for which there are alternative explanations to shamanism e.g. Guthrie 1984) are exceptional. According to a shamanistic interpretation, one would expect to find each of these components in some abundance, as in the San rock paintings of southern Africa.

Conclusion

Palaeolithic artists seem to have been employing abbreviated graphic lines to prime for: a) the most efficient and rapid means of identifying animals through salient outline-features; b) perceptual closure when confronted with occluded contours on hunting forays; c) recoverable complementary contours suggestive of 3D form; d) sharper recognition skills for various fauna by a reduction of contours. These criteria will have been achieved through an extended preoccupation with both the activity of drawing and seeing depictions at regular intervals at various sites. Accordingly, through this covert training procedure Palaeolithic people would have been increasing the speed, accuracy and certainty of recognizing fauna that could not otherwise have been achieved.