Sources

Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/shamans-siberian-spirituality-and-the-western-imagination.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/shamans-siberian-spirituality-and-the-western-imagination

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-shamans-siberian-spirituality-and-the-we,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://divinity.interactivelion.com/sources/shamans-siberian-spirituality-and-the-western-imagination},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Ronald Hutton is a historian who works directly from both the primary Siberian ethnographic record and the documented history of how European and American writers received and generalized from it, treating the Western idea of the shaman as partly a genuine Siberian phenomenon and partly a later invention layered onto it, a distinction this study argues from named sources on both sides rather than asserting either reading alone. That dual, source critical method is the book's real evidentiary basis. Use it for established facts about Siberian shamanic practice as documented, and separately for how Western writers constructed and expanded the shaman concept; a claim about a non-Siberian tradition's own practice, sometimes loosely called shamanic, needs a source specific to that tradition.

Facts

Citation

Author

Ronald Hutton

Publisher

Hambledon and London

Publication Year

2001

URL

https://archive.org/details/shamanssiberians0000hutt

Source Type

Scholarly work

Assessment

Reliability Tier

Ronald Hutton's scholarly study of Siberian shamanic material and how European and later American writers received, generalized and eventually invented from it.

Notes

On the Siberian material itself and on how European and later American writers received, generalised and eventually invented from it.

Claims Backed By This Source (152 claims)

This source backs 152 claims across the atlas. As facts: 110 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 17 holds. Plus 23 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.

Disposition By Topic

Articles, 33 claims: 29 well-attested, 2 holds, 2 general references.
Historical Figures, 33 claims: 21 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 6 holds, 5 general references.
Sacred Objects & Ritual Items, 25 claims: 14 well-attested, 1 scholarly debate, 5 holds, 5 general references.
Deities, 21 claims: 16 well-attested, 1 holds, 4 general references.
Religions, 9 claims: 8 well-attested, 1 general references.
Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.
Religious Roles & Titles, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
Sacred Sites, 7 claims: 4 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
Disciplines, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
Religious Dress & Vestments, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.
Cultures, 2 claims: 2 general references.