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Eliade (1989:13) differentiates between two methods
of recruiting shamans: (1) hereditary transmission
of the shamanic profession; and (2) spontaneous
vocation (`call' or `election'). The same author also
cites individuals who become shamans of their own
free will or by the will of the clan. He also comes to the
same conclusion as Drury (1982) that `self-made'
shamans are considered less powerful than those who
inherited the profession or who obeyed the `call' of
the gods and spirits'.
In parts of the upper Amazon the shaman's power
may also be bought. However, most traditions
emphasize that it is the spirits themselves who choose
who is to become a shaman. In many regions the
future shaman may be approached in dreams and
visions by spirits who suggest that he or she should
take on this role (Vitebsky 1995:56).
All these examples reveal, in one way or another,
the exceptional character of the medicine man within
society. Whether he is chosen by gods or spirits to be
their mouthpiece, or is predisposed to this function by
physical defects, or has a heredity that is equivalent to
a magico-religious vocation, the medicine man stands
apart from the world of the profane precisely because
he has more direct relations with the sacred and
manipulates its manifestations more effectively. Infirmity,
nervous disorders, spontaneous vocation, or
heredity are external signs of a `choice', an `election'.
Sometimes these signs are physical (an innate or
acquired infirmity); sometimes an incident, even of the
commonest type, is involved (e.g., falling from a tree
or being bitten by a snake); ordinarily, election is
announced by an unusual incident or event Ð lightning,
apparitions, dreams (Eliade 1989:31±32). He
may find out that his selection has been underscored
by some physical or mental anomaly, like an extra digit
on his hand or foot or an extra tooth; he may be prone
to spells of possession or fainting (Ripinsky-Naxon
1993:72).
Commonly, the person falls seriously ill and comes
to understand the spirits' intentions during the course
of the illness. It may be an illness such as smallpox,
which without modern medicine is normally fatal. For
prospective shamans the disease leads to an acceptance
of their new role which allows them to be
healed and so to heal others (Vitebsky 1995:56±57).
Thus, the future shaman is cured in the end, with the
help of the same spirits that will later become his
tutelaries and helpers. Sometimes these are ancestors
who wish to pass on to him their own unemployed
helping spirits. In these cases there is a sort of
hereditary transmission; the illness is only a sign of
election, and proves to be temporary (Eliade
1989:28).
Usually sicknesses, dreams, and ecstasies in themselves
constitute an initiation, that is, they transform
the profane, pre- `choice' individual into a technician
of the sacred. Naturally, this ecstatic type of experience
is always and everywhere followed by theoretical
and practical instruction at the hands of the old
masters; but that does not make it any less determinative,
for it is the ecstatic experience that radically
changes the religious status of the `chosen' person
(Eliade 1989:33).
Amongst the mestizo shamans in my research area, I
have found that the vocation is normally initiated by
either one of the following: (1) an incurable sickness,
followed by a visit to a local vegetalista and the
ingestion of ayahuasca. `One gets a terrible sickness.
The Western doctors are not able to cure it. The
person either goes to an experienced vegetalista, or
takes ayahuasca by himself and is cured. In the
process of being cured the person acquires certain
powers and becomes a healer' (Luna 1986:43); (2) by
inheritance, with a close family member becoming his
maestro, giving him his first ayahuasca to drink; or, (3)
in a vision or dream, in most cases the result of the
ingestion of ayahuasca.
The following is an abbreviated account to illustrate
how Don Francisco, one of my informants, received
his vocation:
At the age of fifteen, I got an incurable pain in my
heart. I drank ayahuasca for the first time. In my
vision I saw that I was accidently hit by a virote (a
spirit arrow) of a brujo (witch). The brujo then cut
me open, took out my heart, healed it and put it
back with the ability to cure. After that I went to the
Campa tribe where I met Don Pasqual Yumpiri,
who became my maestro.
Initiation
As in most shamanic traditions, the apprentice
ayahuasquero must undergo an initiatory period of
training. During this time, which lasts for a minimum
of six months but may extend for several years
(depending on the degree of power he wishes to
acquire), the ayahuasquero consumes ayahuasca
frequently while adhering to a strict diet in which no
salt, sugar, fat, pork, alcoholic or cold beverages may
be consumed; sexual abstinence is also a strict
requirement. During this initiatory period the ayahuasquero
acquires the magical songs, objects and
helping spirits which he will later use in curing
ceremonies; he also learns the properties and uses of
numerous medicinal plants, often by consuming them
in the form of admixtures to ayahuasca. The assertion
is nearly universal among ayahuasqueros that this
shamanic knowledge is transmitted directly by ayahuasca
and other `plant-teachers'; it is not acquired
through instruction by an elder ayahuasquero or other
human teacher (McKennna 1995:351). According to
Luna (1986:51) the function of the senior shaman,
when present, is to protect the novice during his
52 ISSN 0256±6060±Unisa Lat. Am. Rep. 16(2) 2000