Shamanistic cultures in Siberia
Encyclopedia
Northern Asia, particularly Siberia
is regarded as the locus classicus of shamanism
. It is inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups, many of whom observe shamanistic practices even in modern times. Many classical ethnographic sources of “shamanism” were recorded among Siberian peoples.
These cultures are far from being alike. The same applies for their shamanistic beliefs and practice.
'shaman' : alman, olman, wolmen (Yukagir)
'shaman' : qam (Tatar, Shor, Oyrat), xam (Tuva, Tofalar) – these are related to Japanese kami 'god' and to Nanay qömio 'helping spirit'
'shamaness' : itako
(Japanese), iduɣan (Mongol), udaɣan (Yakut), udagan (Buryat), udugan (Evenki, Lamut), odogan (Nedigal)
This holds e. g. for shamanism among Sami groups
. Although the Sami groups
live outside of Siberia, many of their shamanistic beliefs and practice shared important features with those of some Siberian cultures. The Yoik
s of the Sami were sung on shamanistic rites. Recently, yoiks are sung in two different styles, one of these are sung only by young people. But the traditional one may be the other, the “mumbling” style, resembling to magic spells. Several surprising characteristics of yoiks can be explained by comparing the music ideal
s, as observed in yoiks and contrasted to music ideals of other cultures. Some yoiks 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.
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.
The intention to mimic natural sounds is not restricted to Siberian cultures. And it is not necessarily linked to shamanistic beliefs or practices. See for example katajjaq, a game played by women, an example of music of some Inuit groups
. This applies overtone singing
, and in some cases, sounds of nature (mostly those of animals, e.g. geese) is imitated. Imitation of animal sounds can serve also such practical reasons like luring game in hunt.
are proven to form a genealogical unit, a language family. Not all Uralic peoples live in Siberia or have shamanistic features any more. The largest populations, the Hungarians and Finns, live outside Siberia. Saami people had kept living shamanistic practice for a long time. They live in Europe, they practiced shamanism till cca the 18th century. Most other Uralic peoples (e.g. Hungarian, Finnic
, Mari) have only remnant elements of shamanism. Majority of Uralic population lives outside Siberia. Some of them used to live in Siberia, have wandered 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 north of Central Ural Mountains
and on lower and middle parts of Ob River
.
shamanism was a living tradition also in modern times, especially at groups living in isolation until recent times (Nganasan
s). Enets people
, Selkups There were distinguished several types of shamans among Nenets people
, Enets people
, Selkups. (The Nganasan shaman used three different crowns, according to the situation: one for upper world, one for underneath word, one for occasion of childbirth.)
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 20th century, although folklore memories could be recorded even in the 1960s. Other Southern Samoyedic languages were spoken by some peoples living in the Sayan Mountains
, but language shift
has finished completely, making all these languages extinct.
Nenests
There were several types of shamans distinguishing ones contacting upper world, ones contacting underneath world, ones contacting the dead.
Nganasan
The isolated location of Nganasan people enabled that shamanism
was a living phenomenon among them even in the beginning of 20th century, the last notable Nganasan shaman's seances could be recorded on film in the 1970s.
One of the occasions in which the shaman partook was the clean tent rite. held after the polar night
, including sacrifice
.
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. 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, although such approaches have been refined: the problem of their origin may be more complex). 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.
A 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
Hungarian people have wandered to from the Proto-Uralic
area to the Pannonian Basin
, thus they have they left Siberia. Shamanism is no more a widespread living practice among them, but some remnants have been reserved as fragments of folklore. Comparative methods can reveal, that some motifs of folktales, some fragments of songs or rhymes of folk customs preserved fragments of the old belief system. Some records narrate us about shaman-like figures directly. Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore was researched among others by Diószegi Vilmos, based on ethnographic records of Hungarian and neighboring peoples, and comparative works with various shamanisms of some Siberian peoples. Hoppál continued his work of studying Hungarian shamanistic belief remnants, comparing shamanistic beliefs of Uralic peoples with those of several non-Uralic Siberian peoples as well.
Although folklore narratives preserved many memories of shamanism, but its practice remained only in fragments by in 1930s among Khanty people
, Mansi people. There was more types of shamans. Ugric shamanism is largely Khanty.
Traditional culture of Ket people
was researched by Matthias Castrén
, Vasiliy Ivanovich Anuchin, Kai Donner
, Hans Findeisen, Yevgeniya Alekseyevna Alekseyenko. 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. Besides that, there were several types of shamans, differing in function (sacral rites, curing), power and associated animal (deer, bear). Also among Kets (like at several other Siberian peoples, e.g. Karagas), there are examples of using skeleton symbolics, Hoppál interprets it as a symbol of shamanic rebirth, 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). The skeleton-like overlay reresented shamanic rebirth also among some other Siberian cultures.
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
. See the photos of Tuvan Shamans by Stanislav Krupar www.krupar.com
The Altai Turks may be related to neighboring Ugric, Samoyedic
, Ket
, or Mongolic peoples. 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 rite
s, and that can be compared to similar rites of Obi-Ugric peoples.
.jpg)
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 Manchu
, Evenk
, and Nanai.
Koryak shamanism is known.
Eskimo
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.
Like Eskimo 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 he candidate: calling could be felt by visions, but generally, becoming a shaman followed conscious considerations.
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
Eskimo
1,750
Udege
1,657
Ket
1,494
Chuvans
1,087
Tofalar
837
Nganasans
834
Orochs
686
Aleut
540
Oroks
346
Enets
class="sortbottom">
Total
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
is regarded as the locus classicus of shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
. It is inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups, many of whom observe shamanistic practices even in modern times. Many classical ethnographic sources of “shamanism” were recorded among Siberian peoples.
These cultures are far from being alike. The same applies for their shamanistic beliefs and practice.
Terms for 'shaman' and 'shamaness' in Siberian languages
'shaman' : saman (Nedigal, Nanay, Ulcha, Orok), sama (Manchu) – these have been compared with Sanskṛt sāman 'chant'. The variant /šaman/ (i.e., pronounced "shaman") is Evenk (whence it was borrowed into Russian) : this Evenk pronunciation may have had its origin in ṣāman 'name of Sāman (in Lāṭyāyana Śrauta Sūtra)'"'shaman' : alman, olman, wolmen (Yukagir)
'shaman' : qam (Tatar, Shor, Oyrat), xam (Tuva, Tofalar) – these are related to Japanese kami 'god' and to Nanay qömio 'helping spirit'
'shamaness' : itako
Itako
An itako is a traditional, blind, usually female shaman from northern Japan.Itako are said to have the ability to communicate with the dead, even to evil spirits due to their intense spiritual power. They also are said to have the power to remove evil spirit from one's body and mind...
(Japanese), iduɣan (Mongol), udaɣan (Yakut), udagan (Buryat), udugan (Evenki, Lamut), odogan (Nedigal)
Spirit-Journey
Siberian shamans' spirit-journeys (re-acting their dreams wherein they had rescued the soul of the client) were conducted in, e.g., Oroch, Altai, and Nganasan healing séances.Songs, music
As mentioned above, shamanistic practice shows great diversity, even if restricted to Siberia. In some cultures, the music or song related to shamanistic practice may intend to mimic natural sounds, sometimes with onomatopoiea.This holds e. g. for shamanism among Sami groups
Noaide
A noaidi is a shaman of the Sami people in the Nordic countries representing an indigenous nature religion. Most noaidi practices died out during the 17th century, most likely because they resisted the crown; their actions were referred to in courts as "magic" or "sorcery"...
. Although the Sami groups
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
live outside of Siberia, many of their shamanistic beliefs and practice shared important features with those of some Siberian cultures. The Yoik
Yoik
A joik, , luohti, vuolle, leu'dd, or juoiggus is a traditional Sami form of song.Originally, joik referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing...
s of the Sami were sung on shamanistic rites. Recently, yoiks are sung in two different styles, one of these are sung only by young people. But the traditional one may be the other, the “mumbling” style, resembling to magic spells. Several surprising characteristics of yoiks can be explained by comparing the music ideal
Ideal (ethics)
An ideal is a principle or value that one actively pursues as a goal. Ideals are particularly important in ethics, as the order in which one places them tends to determine the degree to which one reveals them as real and sincere. It is the application, in ethics, of a universal...
s, as observed in yoiks and contrasted to music ideals of other cultures. Some yoiks intend to mimic natural sounds. This can be contrasted to bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
, which intends to exploit human speech organs on the highest level to achieve an almost “superhuman” sound.
The intention to mimic natural sounds is present in some Siberian cultures as well: overtone singing
Overtone singing
Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.The partials of a sound wave made by the human voice can be...
, and also shamanic songs of some cultures can be examples.
- In a SoyotSoyotsThe Soyot people live in Russia. According to the 2002 census, there were 2769 Soyots in Russia. Their extinct language was of Turkic type and basically similar to the Tuvans, but they live in the Oka Region of Buryatia. Their language has been reconstructed and a textbook has been published...
shamanic song, sounds of bird and wolf are imitated to represent helping spirits of the shaman. - The seance of NganasanNganasan peopleThe Nganasans are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. They are the northernmost of the Samoyedic peoples, living on the Taymyr Peninsula by the Arctic Ocean. Their territory is part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. Their "capital" is the settlement of Ust-Avam...
shamans were accompanied by women imitating the sounds of the reindeer calf, (thought to provide fertility for those women). In 1931, A. Popov observed the Nganasan shaman Dyukhade Kosterkin imitating the sound of polar bear: the shaman was believed to have transformed into polar bear.
The intention to mimic natural sounds is not restricted to Siberian cultures. And it is not necessarily linked to shamanistic beliefs or practices. See for example katajjaq, a game played by women, an example of music of some Inuit groups
Inuit music
Traditional Inuit music, the music of the Inuit, has been based around drums used in dance music as far back as can be known, and a vocal style called katajjaq has become of interest in Canada and abroad....
. This applies overtone singing
Overtone singing
Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances created as air travels from the lungs, past the vocal folds, and out the lips to produce a melody.The partials of a sound wave made by the human voice can be...
, and in some cases, sounds of nature (mostly those of animals, e.g. geese) is imitated. Imitation of animal sounds can serve also such practical reasons like luring game in hunt.
Grouped by linguistic relatedness
Uralic
Uralic languagesUralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
are proven to form a genealogical unit, a language family. Not all Uralic peoples live in Siberia or have shamanistic features any more. The largest populations, the Hungarians and Finns, live outside Siberia. Saami people had kept living shamanistic practice for a long time. They live in Europe, they practiced shamanism till cca the 18th century. Most other Uralic peoples (e.g. Hungarian, Finnic
Finnic peoples
The Finnic or Fennic peoples were historic ethnic groups who spoke various languages traditionally classified as Finno-Permic...
, Mari) have only remnant elements of shamanism. Majority of Uralic population lives outside Siberia. Some of them used to live in Siberia, have wandered to their present locations since then. The original location of the Proto-Uralic
Proto-Uralic language
Proto-Uralic is the hypothetical language ancestral to the Uralic language family. The language was originally spoken in a small area in about 7000-2000 BC , and expanded to give differentiated protolanguages. The exact location of the area or Urheimat is not known, but the vicinity of the Ural...
peoples (and its extent) is debated. Combined phytogeographical
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
and linguistic considerations (distribution of various tree species and the presence of their names in various Uralic languages) suggest that this area was north of Central Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
and on lower and middle parts of Ob River
Ob River
The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...
.
Samoyedic
Among several Samoyedic peoplesSamoyedic peoples
The term Samoyedic peoples is used to describe peoples speaking Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguistic grouping, not an ethnic or cultural one. The name derives from the obsolete term Samoyed used in Russia for some indigenous peoples of Siberia...
shamanism was a living tradition also in modern times, especially at groups living in isolation until recent times (Nganasan
Nganasan people
The Nganasans are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. They are the northernmost of the Samoyedic peoples, living on the Taymyr Peninsula by the Arctic Ocean. Their territory is part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. Their "capital" is the settlement of Ust-Avam...
s). Enets people
Enets people
The Enets people , or Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei, Yenisei-Samoyed, Yenisey Samoyeds or Yeniseian people are a traditionally nomadic people who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Many live in the village of Potapovo in Krasnoyarsk Krai in western Siberia near the...
, Selkups There were distinguished several types of shamans among Nenets people
Nenets people
The Nenets are an indigenous people in Russia. According to the latest census in 2002, there are 41,302 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Nenets Autonomous Okrug...
, Enets people
Enets people
The Enets people , or Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei, Yenisei-Samoyed, Yenisey Samoyeds or Yeniseian people are a traditionally nomadic people who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Many live in the village of Potapovo in Krasnoyarsk Krai in western Siberia near the...
, Selkups. (The Nganasan shaman used three different crowns, according to the situation: one for upper world, one for underneath word, one for occasion of childbirth.)
Nenets people
Nenets people
The Nenets are an indigenous people in Russia. According to the latest census in 2002, there are 41,302 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Nenets Autonomous Okrug...
, Enets people
Enets people
The Enets people , or Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei, Yenisei-Samoyed, Yenisey Samoyeds or Yeniseian people are a traditionally nomadic people who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Many live in the village of Potapovo in Krasnoyarsk Krai in western Siberia near the...
, Nganasan people
Nganasan people
The Nganasans are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. They are the northernmost of the Samoyedic peoples, living on the Taymyr Peninsula by the Arctic Ocean. Their territory is part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. Their "capital" is the settlement of Ust-Avam...
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 20th century, although folklore memories could be recorded even in the 1960s. Other Southern Samoyedic languages were spoken by some peoples living in the Sayan Mountains
Sayan Mountains
The Sayan Mountains are a mountain range between northwestern Mongolia and southern Siberia, Russia.The Eastern Sayan extends from the Yenisei River at 92° E to the southwest end of Lake Baikal at 106° E...
, but language shift
Language shift
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
has finished completely, making all these languages extinct.
Nenests
There were several types of shamans distinguishing ones contacting upper world, ones contacting underneath world, ones contacting the dead.
Nganasan
The isolated location of Nganasan people enabled that shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
was a living phenomenon among them even in the beginning of 20th century, the last notable Nganasan shaman's seances could be recorded on film in the 1970s.
One of the occasions in which the shaman partook was the clean tent rite. held after the polar night
Polar night
The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours.-Description:...
, including sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
.
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
Kamassian language
Kamassian or Kamas is an extinct Samoyedic language, included by convention in the Southern group together with Mator, Koibal, and Selkup . The last native speaker, Klavdiya Plotnikova, died in 1989. Kamassian was spoken in Russia, east of the Ural mountains, by Kamasins.A historical name for Kamas...
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. 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, although such approaches have been refined: the problem of their origin may be more complex). 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.
A 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
- certainly, there are influences. Karagas shamanism is affected by Abakan-Turkic and BuryatBuryatsThe Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
influence. Among the various SoyotSoyotsThe Soyot people live in Russia. According to the 2002 census, there were 2769 Soyots in Russia. Their extinct language was of Turkic type and basically similar to the Tuvans, but they live in the Oka Region of Buryatia. Their language has been reconstructed and a textbook has been published...
cultures, the central Soyot groups, keeping cattle and horses, show KhalkhaKhalkhaKhalkha is the largest subgroup of Mongol people in Mongolia since 15th century. The Khalkha together with Tsahar, Ordos and Tumed, were directly ruled by the Altan Urag Khans until the 20th century; unlike the Oirat people who were ruled by the Dzungar nobles or the Khorchins who were ruled by...
-Mongolian phenomena in their shamanism, the shamanism of Western Soyots, living on the steppe, is similar to that of Altai Turkic peoples. A shaman story narrates contacts between Soyots and Abakan Turkic peoples in a mythical form. - Karagas and Eastern (reindeer-breeding, mountain-inhabiting) Soyots. have many similarities in their culture and shamanism. It was these two cultures who presented some ethnic features, phenomena lacking among neighboring Turkic peoples. E.g., the structure of their shamanic drum showed such peculiarity: it had two transoms. It was also these two cultures who showed some features, which could be possibly of Samoyedic origin: the shaman's headdress, dress and boots has the effigies symbolizing human organs, mostly bones; in the case of headdress, representation of human face. Also the dress-initiating song of the Karagas shaman Kokuyev contained the expression “my shamanic dress with seven vertebrae”. Hoppál interprets the skeleton-like overlay of the Karagas shaman-dress as symbol of shamanic rebirth, similar remark applies for the skeleton-like iron ornamentation of the (not Samoyedic, but genealogically unclassified, Paleosiberian) KetKet peopleKets are a Siberian people who speak the Ket language. In Imperial Russia they were called Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian peoples. Later they became known as Yenisey ostyaks, because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk...
shamanic dress, although it may symbolize also the bones of the loonLoonThe loons or divers are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia...
(the helper animal of the shaman). (The theory of Ket origin of the Karagas has already been mentioned above.) The skeleton-like overlay symbolized shamanic rebirth also among some other Siberian cultures.
Hungarian
Hungarian people have wandered to from the Proto-Uralic
Proto-Uralic language
Proto-Uralic is the hypothetical language ancestral to the Uralic language family. The language was originally spoken in a small area in about 7000-2000 BC , and expanded to give differentiated protolanguages. The exact location of the area or Urheimat is not known, but the vicinity of the Ural...
area to the Pannonian Basin
Pannonian Basin
The Pannonian Basin or Carpathian Basin is a large basin in East-Central Europe.The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense - meaning only the lowlands, the plain that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried...
, thus they have they left Siberia. Shamanism is no more a widespread living practice among them, but some remnants have been reserved as fragments of folklore. Comparative methods can reveal, that some motifs of folktales, some fragments of songs or rhymes of folk customs preserved fragments of the old belief system. Some records narrate us about shaman-like figures directly. Shamanistic remnants in Hungarian folklore was researched among others by Diószegi Vilmos, based on ethnographic records of Hungarian and neighboring peoples, and comparative works with various shamanisms of some Siberian peoples. Hoppál continued his work of studying Hungarian shamanistic belief remnants, comparing shamanistic beliefs of Uralic peoples with those of several non-Uralic Siberian peoples as well.
Although folklore narratives preserved many memories of shamanism, but its practice remained only in fragments by in 1930s among Khanty people
Khanty people
Khanty / Hanti are an indigenous people calling themselves Khanti, Khande, Kantek , living in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together with the Mansi. In the autonomous okrug, the Khanty and Mansi languages are given co-official status with Russian...
, Mansi people. There was more types of shamans. Ugric shamanism is largely Khanty.
Ket
Ket people
Kets are a Siberian people who speak the Ket language. In Imperial Russia they were called Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian peoples. Later they became known as Yenisey ostyaks, because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk...
was researched by Matthias Castrén
Matthias Castrén
Matthias Alexander Castrén was a Finnish ethnologist and philologist.Castrén was born at Tervola, in Northern Finland, on the 20th of November...
, Vasiliy Ivanovich Anuchin, Kai Donner
Kai Donner
Kai Reinhold Donner was a Finnish linguist, ethnographer and politician. He carried out expeditions to the Nenets people in Siberia 1911–1914 and was docent of Uralic languages at the University of Helsinki from 1924...
, Hans Findeisen, Yevgeniya Alekseyevna Alekseyenko. Shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
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
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
and Mongolic
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
peoples. Besides that, there were several types of shamans, differing in function (sacral rites, curing), power and associated animal (deer, bear). Also among Kets (like at several other Siberian peoples, e.g. Karagas), there are examples of using skeleton symbolics, Hoppál interprets it as a symbol of shamanic rebirth, although it may symbolize also the bones of the loon
Loon
The loons or divers are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia...
(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). The skeleton-like overlay reresented shamanic rebirth also among some other Siberian cultures.
Turkic
TurkicTurkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
peoples spread over large territories, and are far from alike. In some cases, shamanism has been widely amalgamated with Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, in others with Buddhism, but there are surviving traditions among the Siberian Tatars
Siberian Tatars
Siberian Tatars refers to the indigenous Siberian population of the forests and steppes of South Siberia stretching from somewhat east of the Ural Mountains to the Yenisey river...
, Tuvans
Tuvans
Tuvans or Tuvinians are Turkic peoples living in southern Siberia. They are historically known as one of the Uriankhai, from the Mongolian designation...
and Tofalar
Tofalar
Tofalars ; or the "Tof people" are a Turkic people in the Irkutsk Oblast in Russia. Their origins, Tofa language, and culture are close to those of the eastern Tuvans-Todzhins. Before the 1917 October Coup, the Tofalars used to be engaged in nomadic reindeer breeding in taiga and hunting...
. See the photos of Tuvan Shamans by Stanislav Krupar www.krupar.com
The Altai Turks may be related to neighboring Ugric, Samoyedic
Samoyedic peoples
The term Samoyedic peoples is used to describe peoples speaking Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguistic grouping, not an ethnic or cultural one. The name derives from the obsolete term Samoyed used in Russia for some indigenous peoples of Siberia...
, Ket
Ket people
Kets are a Siberian people who speak the Ket language. In Imperial Russia they were called Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian peoples. Later they became known as Yenisey ostyaks, because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk...
, or Mongolic peoples. 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 rite
Fertility rite
Fertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes: 'sexual intoxication is a typical component of the...rites of the various functional gods who control reproduction, whether of man, beast, cattle, or grains of seed'..They...
s, and that can be compared to similar rites of Obi-Ugric peoples.
Tungusic
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are the peoples who speak Tungusic languages. The word originated in Tunguska, an ill-defined region of Siberia.-Peoples:Tungusic peoples are:*Evenks*Evens*Jurchens *Manchu*Negidals...
of Siberia, shamanism is also widespread.
The Tale of the Nisan Shaman
Tale of the Nisan Shaman
The Tale of the Nisan Shaman is a Manchu folk tale about a female shaman who resurrects the son of a rich landowner.-Versions:...
, 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 Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
, Evenk
Evenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
, and Nanai.
Koryak and Chukchi
Linguistically, Koryak and Chukchi are close congeners of Eskimo.Koryak shamanism is known.
Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
groups comprise a huge area stretching from Eastern Siberia through Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and Northern Canada
Northern Canada
Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...
(including Labrador Peninsula
Labrador Peninsula
The Labrador Peninsula is a large peninsula in eastern Canada. It is bounded by the Hudson Bay to the west, the Hudson Strait to the north, the Labrador Sea to the east, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the south-east...
) to Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. Shamanistic practice and beliefs have been recorded at several parts of this vast area crosscutting continental borders.
Like Eskimo 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
Soul dualism
Soul dualism or a dualistic soul concept is a range of beliefs that a person has two kinds of souls. In many cases, one of the souls is associated with body functions and the other one can leave the body . Sometimes the plethora of soul types can be even more complex...
, 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 he candidate: calling could be felt by visions, but generally, becoming a shaman followed conscious considerations.
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"Evenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
Evens
The Evens or Eveny are a people in Siberia and the Russian Far East. They live in some of the regions of the Magadan Oblast and Kamchatka Krai and northern parts of Sakha east of the Lena River. According to the 2002 census, there were 19,071 Evens in Russia...
Chukchi people
The Chukchi, or Chukchee , ) are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukchi Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within the Russian Federation. They speak the Chukchi language...
Koryaks
Koryaks are an indigenous people of Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, who inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea to the south of the Anadyr basin and the country to the immediate north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the southernmost limit of their range being Tigilsk. They are akin to the...
Ulchs
The Ulch are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East who speak a Tungusic language, Ulch. Over 90% of Ulchis live in Ulchsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia...
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
Ket people
Kets are a Siberian people who speak the Ket language. In Imperial Russia they were called Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian peoples. Later they became known as Yenisey ostyaks, because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk...
Chuvans
Chuvans are one of the forty or so "less-numerous peoples of the North" recognized by the Russian government. Most Chuvans today live within Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the far northeast of Russia...
Tofalar
Tofalars ; or the "Tof people" are a Turkic people in the Irkutsk Oblast in Russia. Their origins, Tofa language, and culture are close to those of the eastern Tuvans-Todzhins. Before the 1917 October Coup, the Tofalars used to be engaged in nomadic reindeer breeding in taiga and hunting...
Enets people
The Enets people , or Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei, Yenisei-Samoyed, Yenisey Samoyeds or Yeniseian people are a traditionally nomadic people who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Many live in the village of Potapovo in Krasnoyarsk Krai in western Siberia near the...
External links
- Stanislav Krupar's photos of Siberian shamans Homepage |url=http://www.krupar.com/index.php?file=www/en/gallery/gallery.html&cat=5 It describes the life of Chuonnasuan, the last shaman of the Oroqen of Northeast China. Rendering in English: Ungazik settlement, KunstkameraKunstkameraThe Kunstkamera was the first museum in Russia. Established by Peter the Great and completed in 1727, the Kunstkammer Building hosts the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, with a collection of almost 2,000,000 items...
, Russian Academy of SciencesRussian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
. Old photos about former life of a Siberian YupikSiberian YupikSiberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik , a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.They were also...
settlement, including those of a shaman, performing his séance.