‘Shamanism’, as a concept, is of course a Western invention, and from the earliest cross-cultural encounters it was defined in opposition to Western norms as demonic, primitive or irrational. The first published account, from the Dutch explorer Nicolaas Witsen’s trip to Siberia in the 1660s, included a woodcut of a shaman in animal furs and antlers, dancing and beating a drum, titled ‘Tungus Shaman, or Priest of the Devil’.
