article
Notes on Micmac shamanism
Primitive man: quarterly bulletin of the Catholic Anthropological Conference • 16 • Published In 1943 • Pages: 53-80
By: Johnson, Frederick.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The material for this paper was gathered by the author, a well known professional anthropologist, during several field trips to the Micmac reservations in Nova Scotia for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York City. The data contained in this source were obtained primarily from native informants who had in their own lifetimes either seen or participated invarious Shamanistic performances. In addition to material on the Shaman, his powers, rituals, spirit helpers, etc., there is also information to be found in this source on sorcery, the position of the Shaman in the native social order, socio-cultural changes in the Shamanistic complex, distribution of various aspects of Shamanism among neighboring tribes, spirit possession, dreams and their relationship to Shamanistic power, sacred objects used by the Shamans, and curing ceremonies. Much of the material in this source, however, deals with the Micmac Shaman in his magico-religious relationship to the society, rather than in the curing aspects of his occupation.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Sorcery
- Traditional history
- Sociocultural trends
- General character of religion
- Linguistic identification
- Grammar
- Sacred objects and places
- Revelation and divination
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Mi'kmaq
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2010
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Woodlands
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1962: John Beierle; 2009
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1930-31
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1930-1931
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nova Scotia, Eastern Canada
- NotesAdditional notes
- Frederick Johnson
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 80)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 99111903
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Micmac Indians