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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sacrosanct" data-source="post: 8451476" data-attributes="member: 15700">And how many of those definitions have shapeshifting as part of the core definition?Start there, and provide specific sources that define a core aspect of shamanism as the ability to shapeshift.  Because every definition I could find doesn't mention that at all, but focuses on the connections with spirits (often as part of a ritual or trance).Because right now you have not proved your point at all.  On one side we have a whole lot of evidence of examples of shapeshifting in numerous cultures that are completely different than any definition of shamanism I could find.  On the other, is you, making claims that because Nordic cultures lived in a far north region, and Siberia is in the far north, then shapeshifting examples in Nordic mythology must also be shamans like the Sym Evenki (despite the fact that the the original word used for those people, šamán, has nothing to do with shapeshifting. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="🤷‍♂️" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937-2642.png" title="Man shrugging    :man_shrugging:" data-shortname=":man_shrugging:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />That's kind of a reach of logic.  It's also weird how you dismiss animism as a 19th century invention, but the word shaman isn't much older either.  I'd love to see which definition of shaman you are using that has shapeshifting as a core feature, and how old that definition has been used.  I doubt it's older than animism.  I also disagree with your dismissal of the term because the etymology of shaman is pretty specific to that Siberian region.  It's a word specific to a certain culture.  To use it as a blanket term across the board for all cultures is literally cultural appropriation.  That's why we have other words that mean the same or very similar (like animism).  It would be like saying any culture that believed in an accompanying animal spirit had a fylgjur.  Or an issue that's happening now, today, with the use of "spirit guide", when that's a term specific to American indigenous cultures.  Either way that digressing, and at this point I'll settle for definitions of the word that say what you're arguing it says.  Cuz right now, none of the definitions I can find bother to mention shapeshifting, let alone having it be such a core part of shamanism that a person would argue any examples of shapechanging in mythology or lore anywhere in the world must be shamanism (which is what you've argued).</blockquote>

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