Chapter 6, Power Practices Summary and Analysis

Power practices frequently involve consulting with one's power animal. The identities of power animals may be strictly hidden from others, as in the Jivaro tradition, or shared as they are in the traditions of North American Plains tribes. Harner leaves the decision of secrecy or disclosure up to the individual person and makes no judgment on the matter.

In either case, the shaman travels to consult with his animal or animals in order to access the guardian's power for help with a personal problem or a non-ordinary cause of an illness. This consultation is referred to by anthropologists as a divination. In order to retain the power from a guardian spirit, the shaman must seek out the guardian and allow it to enter the shaman at least every two weeks, according to Jivaro and other traditions. Otherwise...