A priest with supernatural powers, at times fulfilling a political role, the shaman kept order through numerous rites and ceremonies held throughout the year.

The theme of shamanism thus remains an integral part of the history of the Pre-Hispanic civilisations of Ecuador. This belief system, a reflection of the thinking and philosophy of the ancestral peoples of Ecuador, served as the foundation for the construction of their social, economic and political world. Its customs, values and knowledge, part of a 1,000 year-old legacy, have been passed onto the people of Ecuador today.

All the rituals, whether for healing, fertility or initiation, aimed to re-establish the connection between the different levels of cosmic space: the external or celestial world (the stars), the internal world or infraworld (inhabited by the deceased and spirits) and, in the middle, Mother Earth or Pachamama, the earthly life of human beings and animals. The shaman’s mission, attributed to him since childhood, was to act as a social mediator between the ordinary people and the divinities, powerful animals or mythical beings.