| Summary: | The article attempts to answer the question "Who is a shaman?" on the basis of the available literature and the author's observations made during his 1971 trip to the land of the Chukchi. The article opens with an overview of materials published on the topic. Shamanism is one of the most intriguing and popular religious phenomena, mostly practised by indigenous peoples in North Siberia and North America. The shamans control spirits that reside in themselves and may distance themselves from the existing reality in order to travel or fly to other worlds. A shaman, who is conventionally a man, may consume hallucinogenic substances to perform rituals or alter the state of consciousness. The article concludes with a description of a healing session, carried out by Ejgeli, the shaman of the reindeer herding group, who successfully cured the injured foot of a teenage boy.
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