Abstract
This article criticizes arguments for a supposed shamanistic substratum in European vernacular culture during the early modern period, especially those set forth by Ginzburg, Pócs, and Wilby. Although their work brings to light important historical material, the data do not support such a wide-ranging theory. Rather it seems to depend on a reified notion of both ‘shamanism’ and Christianity. Certainly, there are phenomenological similarities between the cases they discuss, but these can also be extended to Christianity and other cultures. On the premisses used by the three scholars, Christianity qualifies as a form of ‘shamanism’, and shamanism as a form of ‘religion’—a conclusion which alerts us to the challenges pertaining to the generic use of the term ‘shamanism’ outside the sphere of its cultural origin.
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