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illuminatrix says,

Actually, that strikes me as an oversimplification. Shamanism can be seen as the original source of all religious/spiritual thought (before the mystery is removed and replaced with symbolic ritual in any one particular context). Shamanism remains a science, just one using different models, metaphors (determined through the same experimentalism), and exemplifying one of those things that works (to many ends) regardless of its perpendicularity to reductionist, materialistic science (like acupuncture, as another example). The current state of scientific knowledge is not equivalent to the scientific approach (nor is the scientific method equivalent to the current state of modernity, which is merely another snapshot of spacetime). The scientific method simply involves doing (experimenting), and reporting information as objectively as that information allows. If shamanism didn't retain function, it wouldn't persist. Similar to modern monotheistic religions, they persist because they serve some purpose (even if merely subjective), regardless of their being counter to scientific thinking. In the same way as quantum physics can't be reconciled with general/special relativity but both remain efficacious and 'true' (enough, for now, until more effective and all-encompassing models can be found and described, as is the true purpose of science). The science of shamanism revolves largely on plant wisdom (pharmacology) and ritual practice (refined over thousands of years, far longer than any other single discrete modern religion). And primitive though they may appear, traditional societies have always achieved far better states of equilibrium with their ecosystems (and, one could argue, their spirits) than the so-called sophisticated modern world. Reverence for nature (and the desire to understand that which exists) is the core motivation for both science and shamanism.