OCEANIAN SHAMANISM
Papua New Guinea Shamanism
On the island of Papua New Guinea, indigenous tribes believe that illness and calamity are caused by dark spirits, or masalai, which cling to a person's body and "poison" them. Shamans are summoned in order to "purge" the unwholesome spirits from a person. Shamans also perform rain-making ceremonies and can allegedly improve a hunter's ability to catch animals.
New Zealand Traditional Maori Healing
Maori perceive science and religion as the same entity and believed that illnesses were caused by supernatural sources. Maori had a good knowledge of anatomy, physiology and the use of plants for healing, however there was an undefined distinction between the mind and body. The traditional Maori healer - the tohunga, thought of as a priestly expert and a professional in a particular field of human endeavor such as art, agriculture, warfare, fishing and healing. Tohunga were essential in traditional Maori society because of the importance of religion in their everyday life. They were trained in the whare wananga (house of learning) and only the most intelligent students were chosen to become tohunga. Tohunga were perceived as the mediator between spirits so were important in healing the sick. Tohunga would use spiritual healing and herbal medicines and saw no distinction between the two methods. They believed that the use of one was not effective without the other as they were both parts of a complete treatment. Maori believed an evil spirit, which attack an individual to cause ill health as a punishment for breaking the tapu (sacred restriction) of the family that the spirit belonged to. This type of illness was called mate atua (disease of the gods) since there was no obvious physical cause. The individual would experience pain, weakness, loss of appetite, malaise, fever and occasionally delirium due to possession of the spirit.
Australia Shamanism: Clever Men/Women
In Australia various aboriginal groups refer to their "shamans" as "clever men" and "clever women" also as kadji. These Aboriginal shamans use maban or mabain, the material that is believed to give them their purported magical powers. Besides healing, contact with spiritual beings, involvement in initiation and other secret ceremonies, they are also enforcers of tribal laws, keepers of special knowledge and may "hex" to death one who breaks a social taboo by singing a song only known to the "clever men".
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