Meanings may be manifested in objects such as amulets. If the shaman knows the culture of their community well,Pentikäinen 1995: 270 and acts accordingly, their audience will know the used symbols and meanings and therefore trust the shamanic worker.Hoppál 2004: 14 There are also semiotic, theoretical approaches to shamanism,Hoppál 2006a: 11 and examples of "mutually opposing symbols" in academic studies of Siberian lore, distinguishing a "white" shaman who contacts sky spirits for good aims by day, from a "black" shaman who contacts evil spirits for bad aims by night. (Series of such opposing symbols referred to a world-view behind them. Analogously to the way grammar arranges words to express meanings and convey a world, also this formed a cognitive map).Hoppál, Mihály: Nature worship in Siberian shamanism Shaman's lore is rooted in the folklore of the community, which provides a "mythological mental map".Hoppál 2007c: 25 Juha Pentikäinen uses the concept "grammar of mind".Pentikäinen 1995: 270–71 Armin Geertz coined and introduced the hermeneutics, or "ethnohermeneutics", interpretation. Hoppál extended the term to include not only the interpretation of oral and written texts, but that of "visual texts as well (including motions, gestures and more complex rituals, and ceremonies performed, for instance, by shamans)". Revealing the animistic views in shamanism, but also their relevance to the contemporary world, where ecological problems have validated paradigms of balance and protection. Decline and revitalization and tradition-preserving movements Traditional, Indigenous shamanism is believed to be declining around the world. Whalers who frequently interacted with Inuit groups are one source of this decline in that region. In many areas, former shamans ceased to fulfill the functions in the community they used to, as they felt mocked by their own community, or regarded their own past as deprecated and were unwilling to talk about it to ethnographers. Besides personal communications of former shamans, folklore texts may narrate directly about a deterioration process. For example, a Buryat epic text details the wonderful deeds of the ancient "first shaman" Kara-Gürgän: he could even compete with God, create life, steal back the soul of the sick from God without his consent. A subsequent text laments that shamans of older times were stronger, possessing capabilities like omnividence, fortune-telling even for decades in the future, moving as fast as a bullet. In most affected areas, shamanic practices ceased to exist, with authentic shamans dying and their personal experiences dying with them. The loss of memories