intellectual irony, African humor and boxing techniques

Shamanism is marked by a comic seriousness. That is key to the attitude, always and everywhere. Bataille's laughter was said by some to be "hollow", but that is only because people are not accustomed to seeing seriousness and humor combined. We tend to experience this as a sign of madness -- and this is true in a certain sense, which not unlike Hamlet who was mad from certainty of knowledge. A shaman however is also profoundly sane in having anticipated the negative aspects of life and developed ways to cope with these. The bumps of life don't matter as much to him or her, because they are already recognized as part of life's grain.