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Shamanism and efficacious exceptionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Aaron D. Blackwell  and
Benjamin Grant Purzycki
Aaron D. Blackwell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106. [email protected]/faculty/blackwell Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. [email protected]://bgpurzycki.wordpress.com/
Benjamin Grant Purzycki
Affiliation:
Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. [email protected]://bgpurzycki.wordpress.com/
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Abstract

Shamans can have efficacy at healing through botanical remedies and in observational and advisory functions through cognitive strengths, while shamanic acts of strangeness are likely honest signals of these qualities. Given this potential for shamanic practices to have true efficacy and the capacity for honest signaling, we expect efficacy will influence the spread, persistence, and loss of shamanic practices.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e69
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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