Why Shamans Stand Apart

As Aka Manai emphasized to me, people understand shamans to be different kinds of entities, made “other” by their ordeals. Convinced that shamans diverge from normal people, communities accept that they have superhuman abilities. Like shamans and money managers, they decorate themselves with badges of credibility—an association with the White House, for example, or a familiarity with ancient Tibetan medicine—that persuade customers of their special abilities.

Source: www.sapiens.org