VOCATION is a divine call or election, of a revelatory character, addressed to religiously gifted or charismatic personalities. It forms the first phase of their initiation into an often unwillingly accepted intermediary function between human society and the sacred world. Unlike functionaries with a special, well-defined religious task in a given group or culture (such as priests or even heads of families and elderly men, who bring offerings and give religious instruction), vocation is often felt by persons outside or on the fringe of the established institutions, whose charismatic and often abnormal psychic character makes them appear as prophets, founders or reformers of religion, saints, or shamans. Those called, therefore, often make their appearance in periods of social turmoil or crisis. Sometimes they start a new religious movement that implies a break with the past, or else they exorcise illness, famine, or drought, which destabilize personal or social...