Shamanism in Siberia

A Buryat boy in a shaman ritual
Buryat shaman Tash Ool Buuevich Kunga consecrating an ovoo.

A large minority of people in North Asia, particularly in Siberia, follow the religio-cultural practices of shamanism. Some researchers regard Siberia as the heartland of shamanism.[1][2]

The people of Siberia comprise a variety of ethnic groups, many of whom continue to observe shamanistic practices in modern times. Many classical ethnographers recorded the sources of the idea of "shamanism" among Siberian peoples. The region supports a wide variety of cultures, practices and beliefs which fall within a classification of shamanism.[3]

Terms for 'shaman' and 'shamaness' in Siberian languages

Spirit-journey

Siberian shamans' spirit-journeys[7] (reenacting their dreams wherein they had rescued the soul of the client) were conducted in, e.g., Oroch, Altai, and Nganasan healing séances.

Songs, music

Buryat shaman performing a libation.

As mentioned above, shamanistic practice shows great diversity,[3] even if restricted to Siberia. In some cultures, the music or song related to shamanistic practice may mimic natural sounds, sometimes with onomatopoeia.[8]

This holds true for the practices of the noaidi among Sami groups. Although the Sami people live outside of Siberia, many of their shamanistic beliefs and practice shared important features with those of some Siberian cultures.[9] The joiks of the Sami were sung on shamanistic rites.[10] Recently, joiks are sung in two different styles: one of these is sung only by young people; the traditional one may be the other, the “mumbling” style, which resembles magic spells.[11] Several surprising characteristics of joiks can be explained by comparing the music ideals, as observed in joiks and contrasted to music ideals of other cultures. Some joiks intend to mimic natural sounds. This can be contrasted to bel canto, which intends to exploit human speech organs on the highest level to achieve an almost “superhuman” sound.[12]

The intention to mimic natural sounds is present in some Siberian cultures as well: overtone singing, and also shamanic songs of some cultures can be examples.

Sound mimesis is not restricted to Siberian cultures and is not necessarily linked to shamanistic beliefs or practices. See, for example, Inuit throat singing, a game played by women, an example of Inuit music that employs overtone singing, and, in some cases, the imitation of natural sounds (mostly those of animals, e.g. geese).[16][17] The imitation of animal sounds can also serve such practical reasons as luring game in hunt.[16]

Grouped by linguistic relatedness

Uralic languages. The language isolate Yukaghir is conjectured by some to be related to Uralic[18]
Turkic languages, including also North Siberian Yakuts (but Dolgans are omitted), South Siberian areas, and also Central Asia
Eskimo language branch of the Eskimo–Aleut language family

Uralic

Uralic languages are proven to form a genealogical unit, a language family. Not all Uralic peoples live in Siberia or have shamanistic religions. The largest populations, the Hungarians and Finns, live outside Siberia and are mostly Christian. Saami people had kept shamanic practices alive for a long time. They live in Europe, but practiced shamanism until the 18th century.[19] Most other Uralic peoples (e.g. Hungarian, Finnic, Mari) have only remnant elements of shamanism.[19] The majority of the Uralic population lives outside Siberia. Some of them used to live in Siberia, but have migrated to their present locations since then. The original location of the Proto-Uralic peoples (and its extent) is debated. Combined phytogeographical and linguistic considerations (distribution of various tree species and the presence of their names in various Uralic languages) suggest that this area was somewhere between the Kama and Vyatka rivers on the western side of the ural mountains. [20]

Samoyedic

Among several Samoyedic peoples shamanism was a living tradition also in modern times, especially at groups living in isolation until recent times (Nganasans).[21] Enets people, Selkups There were distinguished several types of shamans among Nenets people,[22] Enets people,[23] Selkups.[24] (The Nganasan shaman used three different crowns, according to the situation: one for upper world, one for underneath word, one for occasion of childbirth.)[25]

Nenets people, Enets people, Nganasan people speak Northern Samoyedic languages. They live in North Siberia (Nenets live also in European parts), they provide classical examples. Selkups are the only ones who speak Southern Samoyedic languages nowadays. They live more to the south, shamanism was in decline also at the beginning of the 20th century, although folklore memories could be recorded even in the 1960s.[24] Other Southern Samoyedic languages were spoken by some peoples living in the Sayan Mountains, but language shift has taken place, making all these languages extinct.[26][27]

Nenets

There were several types of shamans distinguishing ones contacting upper world, ones contacting underneath world, ones contacting the dead.[22]

Nganasan

The isolated location of Nganasan people enabled that shamanism was a living phenomenon among them even in the beginning of the 20th century,[14] the last notable Nganasan shaman's seances could be recorded on film in the 1970s.[14][28]

One of the occasions in which the shaman partook was the clean tent rite. held after the polar night, including sacrifice.[21][29]

Sayan Samoyedic

Some peoples of the Sayan Mountains spoke once Southern Samoyedic languages. Most of them underwent a language shift in the beginning and middle of the 19th century, borrowing the language of neighboring Turkic peoples. The Kamassian language survived longer: 14 old people spoke it yet in 1914. In the late 20th century, some old people had passive or uncertain knowledge of the language, but collecting reliable scientific data was no longer possible.[26][27] Today Kamassian is regarded as extinct.

The shamanism of Samoyedic peoples in the Sayan Mountains survived longer (if we regard Karagas as a Samoyedic people,[26][27][30] although such approaches have been refined: the problem of their origin may be more complex[31]). Diószegi Vilmos could record not only folklore memories in the late 1950s, but he managed also to talk personally to (no longer practicing) shamans, record their personal memories, songs, some of their paraphernalia.[32]

An interesting question here: is this shamanism borrowed entirely from neighboring Turkic peoples, or does it have some ethnic features, maybe remnant of Samoyedic origin? Comparative considerations suggest, that

Hungarian

During the 4th millennium BC the ancestors of the Hungarian people migrated from their Proto-Uralic homeland in Siberia to the Pannonian Basin, an area that includes present-day Hungary. Today, shamanism is no longer widely practiced by Hungarians, but elements of shamanism have been preserved in their folklore. Comparative methods reveal that some motifs used in folktales, fragments of songs and folk rhymes retain aspects of the ancient belief system. In an effort to prove that shamanistic remnants existed within Hungarian folklore ethnographer, Diószegi Vilmos, compared ethnographic records of Hungarian and neighboring peoples, and works about various shamanic traditions of some Siberian peoples.[47] Mihály Hoppál continued Diószegi Vilmos's work[48] comparing shamanic beliefs of Uralic peoples[49] with those of several non-Uralic Siberian peoples.[50][51]

Although Ugric (which includes Hungarian) folklore preserves many traces of shamanism, shamanism itself was a dying practice among the Khanty and Mansi people by the 1930s. Shamanism is still practiced by many indigenous peoples,[52] but, among the Ugric people, shamanism is largely practiced by the Khanty.[53]

Ket

Ket shaman, 1914.

Traditional culture of Ket people was researched by Matthias Castrén, Vasiliy Ivanovich Anuchin, Kai Donner, Hans Findeisen, Yevgeniya Alekseyevna Alekseyenko.[54] Shamanism was a living practice in the 1930s yet, but by the 1960s almost no authentic shaman could be found. Ket shamanism shared features with those of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.[55] Besides that, there were several types of shamans,[56][57] differing in function (sacral rites, curing), power and associated animal (deer, bear).[57] Also among Kets (like at several other Siberian peoples, e.g. Karagas[40][42][43]), there are examples of using skeleton symbolics,[55] Hoppál interprets it as a symbol of shamanic rebirth,[44] although it may symbolize also the bones of the loon (the helper animal of the shaman, joining air and underwater world, just like the shaman who travelled both to the sky and the underworld as well).[45] The skeleton-like overlay represented shamanic rebirth also among some other Siberian cultures.[46]

Turkic

Turkic peoples spread over large territories, and are far from alike. In some cases, shamanism has been widely amalgamated with Islam, in others with Buddhism, but there are surviving traditions among the Siberian Tatars, Tuvans and Tofalar.

The Altai Turks may be related to neighboring Ugric, Samoyedic, Ket, or Mongols.[58][59][60] There may be also ethnographic traces of such past of these nowadays Turkic-speaking peoples of the Altai. For example, some of them have phallic-erotic fertility rites, and that can be compared to similar rites of Obi-Ugric peoples.[59][60]

Tungusic

This is a photo of Chuonnasuan (1927–2000), the last shaman of the Oroqen people, taken by Richard Noll in July 1994 in Manchuria near the Amur River border between the People's Republic of China and Russia (Siberia). Oroqen shamanism is now extinct.

Among the Tungusic peoples of Siberia, shamanism is also widespread.

The Tale of the Nisan Shaman, a famous piece of folklore which describes the resurrection of a rich landowner's son by a female shaman, is known among various Tungusic peoples including the Manchus, Evenks, and Nanai people.[61][62]

Koryak and Chukchi

Linguistically, Koryak and Chukchi are close congeners of Yup'il. Koryak shamanism is known.[63]

Yupik

Yup'ik shaman exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy, Nushagak, Alaska, 1890s

Yup'ik groups comprise a huge area stretching from Eastern Siberia through Alaska and Northern Canada (including Labrador Peninsula) to Greenland. Shamanistic practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders.[64][65][66]

Like Yup'ik cultures themselves, shamanistic practices reveal diversity. Some mosaic-like examples from various cultures: the soul concepts of the various cultures were diverse as well, some groups believed that the young child had to be taken for by guardian names inherited from a recently deceased relative. Among some groups, this belief amounted to a kind of reincarnation. Also shamanism might include beliefs in soul dualism, where the free-soul of the shaman could fly to celestial or underneath realms, contacting mythological beings, negotiating with them in order to cease calamities or achieve success in hunt. If their wrath was believed to be caused by taboo breaches, the shaman asked for confessions by members of the community.

In most cultures, shamanism could be refused by the candidate: calling could be felt by visions, but generally, becoming a shaman followed conscious considerations.

An Altai Kizhi or Khakas shaman woman – her exact origin cannot be ascertained from the image alone. Early 20th century.[67]
Shaman holding a séance by fire. Settlement Kyzyl, region Tuva, Russia

Demographics

The 2002 census of the Russian Federation reports 123,423 (0.23% of the population) people of ethnic groups which dominantly adhere to "traditional beliefs"

Traditional beliefs in Russia, based on 2002 Russian Census and Ethnic Group predominant religion
Ethnic Group Population (2002)
Evenks 35,527
Nanais 12,160
Evens 19,071
Chukchi 15,767
Mansi 11,432
Koryaks 8,743
Nivkhs 5,162
Itelmeni 3,180
Ulchs 2,913
Yup'ik 1,750
Udege 1,657
Ket 1,494
Chuvans 1,087
Tofalar 837
Nganasans 834
Orochs 686
Aleut 540
Oroks 346
Enets 237
Total 123,423

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hoppál 2005:13
  2. ↑ Compare: Winkelman, Michael (2010). Shamanism: A Biopsychosocial Paradigm of Consciousness and Healing. ABC-CLIO. p. 60. ISBN 9780313381812. Retrieved 2015-10-04. Part of Bahn's and others' arguments are based in an arbitrary approach to conceptualizing shamanism. For instance, Bahn characterizes Siberia as 'the heartland of true shamanism' (59), resorting to the idea that the word must be restricted to the cultural region of its origin.
  3. 1 2 Hoppál 2005: 15
  4. ↑ http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9811b&L=aztlan&D=1&P=5218&F=P
  5. ↑ Lessing, Ferdinand D., ed. (1960). Mongolian-English Dictionary. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 123.
  6. ↑ Czaplicka, Maria (1914). "XII. Shamanism and Sex". Aboriginal Siberia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  7. ↑ http://texts.00.gs/Siberian_Shamanism,_2-D&C.htm
  8. ↑ Hoppál 2006: 143
  9. ↑ Voigt 1966: 296
  10. ↑ Szomjas-Schiffert 1996: 56, 76
  11. ↑ Szomjas-Schiffert 1996: 64
  12. ↑ Szomjas-Schiffert 1996: 74
  13. ↑ Diószegi 1960: 203
  14. 1 2 3 Hoppál 2005: 92
  15. ↑ Lintrop, Aarno. "The Clean Tent Rite". Studies in Siberian shamanism and religions of the Uralic peoples.
  16. 1 2 Nattiez: 5
  17. ↑ Deschênes 2002
  18. ↑ Vaba, Lembit. "The Yukaghirs". The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. NGO Red Book.
  19. 1 2 Hoppál 2005:84
  20. ↑ Jaakko häkkinen
  21. 1 2 Hoppál 2005:92–93
  22. 1 2 Hoppál 2005:88
  23. ↑ Hoppál 2005:89
  24. 1 2 Hoppál 2005:94
  25. ↑ Hoppál 2005:207–208
  26. 1 2 3 Hajdú 1975:12
  27. 1 2 3 Hajdú 1982:10
  28. ↑ Hoppál 1994:62
  29. ↑ The Clean Tent Rite
  30. ↑ Diószegi 1960:102,154,243
  31. 1 2 Viikberg, Jüri. The Tofalars. The Peoples of the Red Book of the Imperial Russia. NGO Red Book. ISBN 9985-9369-2-2.
  32. ↑ Diószegi 1960
  33. ↑ Diószegi 1960:243
  34. ↑ Diószegi 1960:226
  35. ↑ Diószegi 1960:238
  36. ↑ Diószegi 1960:62–63
  37. ↑ Diószegi 1960:242
  38. ↑ Diószegi 1960:164
  39. ↑ Diószegi 1960:198,243
  40. 1 2 Diószegi 1960:128,188,243
  41. ↑ Diószegi 1960:110,113
  42. 1 2 Diószegi 1960:130
  43. 1 2 Hoppál 1994:75
  44. 1 2 Hoppál 1994:65
  45. 1 2 Hoppál 2005: 198
  46. 1 2 Hoppál 2005: 199
  47. ↑ Diószegi 1998
  48. ↑ Hoppál 1998
  49. ↑ Hoppál 1975
  50. ↑ Hoppál 2005
  51. ↑ Hoppál 1994
  52. ↑ Hoppál 2005:96
  53. ↑ http://texts.00.gs/Shamanism_and_Northern_Ecology,_III.htm
  54. ↑ Hoppál 2005: 170–171
  55. 1 2 Hoppál 2005: 172
  56. ↑ Alekseyenko 1978
  57. 1 2 Hoppál 2005: 171
  58. ↑ "The s". The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire.
  59. 1 2 Vajda, Edward J. "The Altai Turks".
  60. 1 2 Hoppál 2005:106
  61. ↑ Richtsfeld 1989, p. 200
  62. ↑ Heissig 1997, p. 200
  63. ↑ http://texts.00.gs/Koryak_worldview.htm
  64. ↑ Kleivan & Sonne 1985
  65. ↑ Merkur 1985
  66. ↑ Gabus 1970
  67. ↑ Hoppál 2005:77,287

References

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  • Kleivan, I.; B. Sonne (1985). Eskimos: Greenland and Canada. Iconography of religions, section VIII, "Arctic Peoples", fascicle 2. Leiden, The Netherlands: Institute of Religious Iconography • State University Groningen. E.J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-07160-1. 
  • Merkur, Daniel (1985). Becoming Half Hidden: Shamanism and Initiation among the Inuit. : Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis / Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 
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  • Richtsfeld, Bruno (1989). "Die Mandschu-Erzählung "Nisan saman-i bithe" bei den Hezhe". Münchner Beiträge zur Völkerkunde. 2: 117–155. 
  • Rubcova, E. S. (1954). Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes (Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect) (in Russian). Moscow • Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR.  Original data: Рубцова, Е. С. (1954). Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Москва • Ленинград: Академия Наук СССР. 
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  • Szomjas-Schiffert, György (1996). Lapp sámánok énekes hagyománya • Singing tradition of Lapp shamans (in Hungarian and English). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963-05-6940-X. 
  • Vitebsky, Piers (2001). The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul – Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon. Duncan Baird. ISBN 1-903296-18-8. 
  • Vitebsky, Piers (1996). A sámán (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Könyvklub • Helikon Kiadó.  Translation of the original: Vitebsky, Piers (1995). The Shaman (Living Wisdom). Duncan Baird. 
  • Voigt, Vilmos (1966). A varázsdob és a látó asszonyok. Lapp népmesék [The magic drum and the clairvoyant women. Sami folktales]. Népek meséi [Tales of folks] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó. 
  • Andrei Znamenski, ed. (2003c). Shamanism in Siberia: Russian Records of Indigenous Spirituality. Germany: Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-1-4020-1740-7. 

  1. ↑ Shimamura, Ippei (2014). The Roots Seekers: Shamanism and Ethnicity among the Mongol Buryats. Kanagawa, Japan: Shumpusha Publishing. ISBN 978-4-86110-397-1.
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