Shamanism and the Culture of Defeat

The fact that shamanism, as described by Mircea Eliade or Carlos Castaneda, is an “invention of tradition” is considered a commonplace today. But to understand its historical location we need to follow the entanglements of science, art and politics. This essay argues that the concept of shamanism reveals itself as a response to a defeat that affected not so much the scattered communities of Siberia or the Himalayas, but above all their later interpreters. It describes shamanism as a figure of thought in which the defeated of the WWII attempted to act as advocates of indigenous communities in order to overcome their own involvement in fascism and war. Looking at and with Ernesto de Martino and Joseph Beuys, it shows how Shamanism turned fragility into strength.