Shamanism from East to West

English text revised by Paul Davies.
The shamanism of the ancient Finno-Ugric and Siberian peoples was a systematic ensemble of beliefs and ritual practices mainly connected with their ethnic identity. However, through pre-historic contacts, both direct and indirect, it left traces going back to the distant past even in Western European culture. Since the primordial period, shamanism reached present California along with those ancestors of the North American Indians who were Finno-Ugric in origin.
The echoes transmitted by shamanism over such a wide area constitute an extremely interesting phenomenon not only for the past of pre-Colombian America but also of Eurasia. It is clear that the ancient Uralic and Indoeuropean peoples were more in touch with each other than one would initially have imagined. Certain elements in the traditions, myths, legends and sagas of Western Europe, which recall the magic ritual scenario of shamanism, are the result of a long process of cultural transmission which had already started in the prehistoric era.