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KennethLymer
importanthallucinogenicdrinksoma(haoma,Avestan),mentionedinVedicand
Avestantexts,areecstatic(Bongard-LevinandGrantovskii1974:87-88;cf.Flat-
teryandSchwartz1989).Somaisoftenidentifiedwiththeeaglewhobringsit
tothegodIndra(RigVedaIV
,18)andIndra,inturn,thenridesaneagleinor-
dertofetchsomafromheaven(RigVedaIV
,26-27).Notably,theseraptorsare
oftenknowntobethespiritguidesofSiberianshamans(e.g.,Balzer1996)and
theyassistedtheminshamanicsoulflights.Furthermore,Bongard-Levinand
Grantovskii(1974:93)suggest,astheearlyIndo-IraniansspreadacrossCentral
Asiatheymostlikelyencounteredand,perhaps,evenabsorbednon-Indo-Irani-
anpeopleswithshamanistictraditions.
WithregardstothecaseofthepetroglyphcomplexofTamgaly,AndrzejRo-
zwadowski(1999,2001,2003)hasdemonstratedthecombinationofIndo-Irani-
anandshamanisticapproachescanbothprovidevitalcluestowardstheunder-
standingofrockartimageryduringtheBronzeAge.Hebeganhisenquiriesby
employingasemiotic-culturalperspectivethatmapsthesyntaxandsymbolism
oftherockartthroughmodelsofIndo-Iranianmythology.Someaspectsofthe
petroglyphs,however,werealsofoundtohavecorrespondencestoshamanism.
Inparticular,theanthropomorphicfiguresfamousforhavingenlargedheads
radiatinglinesandnimbushaloswerevisionaryandmayhavehadconnections
tosomaexperiences(Rozwadowski2001:78).Additionally,therearealsothe
individualscenesofahorseandhumanfigurewithanimbusheadthatwere
deliberatelyplacedinaspecificmannerovercracksintherockwhereoneside
waspeckedinastyledifferenttotheotherhalfontheoppositesideofthefis-
sure.Moreover,thistransformationacrosstheboundariesofthecracksalsoled
RozwadowskitosupportthepossibilityoftheTamgalypetroglyphsreflecting
anearlyshamanistictraditioninCentralAsia,whichfollowsonfromthediscus-
sionsinitiatedbyBongard-LevinandGrantovskii,asmentionedabove.
Weneedtobe,however,circumspectoftheuseoftheterm‘shaman’asafixed
typologicallabelforsolelytheidentificationofstrangepersonagesinrockart
imagery.ThisstemsfromthepopularWesternstereotypeoftheshamanwhich
hasbecomeasyntheticdescriptionofawidespreadoftraditionsacrossthe
world.Thisideaofasingular,archetypalshamanisproblematicandoneway
tomoveforwardistoconsidershamansasindividualswhoutilizeacombina-
tionofabilitiesandqualitieswhicharenegotiatedanddrawnuponindifferent
waysinspecificsocio-politicalmilieus.Thus,Ifollowrecenttheorizationswhich
explorethediversityofthenegotiationofshamanicrolesandabilitiesfromin-
dividualtoindividualandsocietytosociety(e.g.,Humphrey1994;Thomasand
Humphrey1994;BlainandWallis2000).Fromthisperspectivethe‘shaman’is
ausefulanalyticaltermwhichfacilitatesdiscussionsaboutcomplexaspectsof
socio-religiousprocessesandrequiresanengagementwiththedatathatconsid-
