Shamanism in Siberia

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.^[3]

Terminology in Siberian languages

• 'shaman': saman (Nedigal, Nanay, Ulcha, Orok), sama (Manchu). The variant /šaman/ (i.e., pronounced "shaman") is Evenk (whence it was borrowed into Russian).
• 'shaman': alman, olman, wolmen^[4] (Yukagir)
• 'shaman': [qam] (Tatar, Shor, Oyrat), [xam] (Tuva, Tofalar)
• The
  Proto-Turkic
  *bögü ("sage, wizard")
• 'shaman': ńajt (Khanty, Mansi), from
  Proto-Uralic *nojta (c.f. Sámi noaidi
  )
• 'shamaness':
  Etügen Eke 'Mother Earth'. Maria Czaplicka points out that Siberian languages use words for male shamans from diverse roots, but the words for female shaman are almost all from the same root. She connects this with the theory that women's practice of shamanism was established earlier than men's, that "shamans were originally female."^[6]

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

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

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.

• In a Soyot shamanic song, sounds of bird and wolf are imitated to represent helping spirits of the shaman.^[13]
• The seances of Nganasan shamans were accompanied by women imitating the sounds of the reindeer calf, (thought to provide fertility for those women).^[14] In 1931, A. Popov observed the Nganasan shaman Dyukhade Kosterkin imitating the sound of polar bear: the shaman was believed to have transformed into a polar bear.^[15]

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

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, which included sacrifices.^[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]

Whether this shamanism is borrowed entirely from neighboring Turkic peoples, or whether it has some ethnic features, maybe remnants of Samoyedic origin, is unresolved. Comparative considerations suggest, that

• Karagas shamanism is affected by Abakan-Turkic and Buryat influence.^[33] Among the various Soyot cultures, the central Soyot groups, keeping cattle and horses, show Khalkha Mongol phenomena in their shamanism,^[34] the shamanism of Western Soyots, living on the steppe, is similar to that of Altai Turkic peoples.^[35] A shaman story narrates contacts between Soyots and Abakan Turkic peoples in a mythical form.^[36]
• Karagas and Eastern (reindeer-breeding, mountain-inhabiting) Soyots. have many similarities in their culture
  Paleosiberian) Ket shamanic dress,^[44] although it may symbolize also the bones of the loon (the helper animal of the shaman).^[45] (The theory of Ket origin of the Karagas has already been mentioned above.^[31]) The skeleton-like overlay symbolized shamanic rebirth also among some other Siberian cultures.^[46]

Starting from the late 9th century onwards, 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 speakers of Uralic languages^[49] with those of several non-Uralic Siberian peoples.^[50][51]

Although

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,^[58] Tuvans, and Tofalar.

The

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

The

Koryak and Chukchi

Linguistically, Koryak and Chukchi are close congeners of Yup'il. Koryak shamanism is known.^[64]

Yupik

Main article:

Shamanism among Eskimo peoples

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.^[65][66][67]

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.

Khakas shaman woman – her exact origin cannot be ascertained from the image alone. Early 20th century.^[68]

Nivkh

Shamanism was a central part of religious and spiritual traditions of the

conduit to combat and ward off evil spirits that cause death. A shaman's services usually were compensated with goods, quarters and food.^[72] Chiyo Nakamura, a Sakhalin Nivkh shaman, was responsible for recording, preserving, and donating artifacts related to Nivkh shamanism as it declined.^[73][74]

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

• Indigenous peoples of the Russian North
• Shamanism in the Qing dynasty
• Shamanism in Russia
• Chinese shamanism
• Korean shamanism
• Manchu shamanism
• Mongolian shamanism
• Yakut shamanism
• Reindeer in Siberian Shamanism
• Ainu religion
•  Siberia portal

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 4 October 2015. 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. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005: 15
4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 January 2001. Retrieved 17 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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 7 March 2015.
7. ^ ""Siberian Shamanism"".
8. ^ Hoppál 2006: 143 Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
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. ^ ^{a b c} Hoppál 2005: 92
15. ^ Lintrop, Aarno. "The Clean Tent Rite". Studies in Siberian shamanism and religions of the Uralic peoples.
16. ^ ^{a b} Nattiez: 5
17. ^ Deschênes 2002
18. ^ Vaba, Lembit. "The Yukaghirs". The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. NGO Red Book.
19. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005:84
20. ^ Jaakko häkkinen http://www.sgr.fi/susa/92/hakkinen.pdf
21. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005:92–93
22. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005:88
23. ^ Hoppál 2005:89
24. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005:94
25. ^ Hoppál 2005:207–208
26. ^ ^{a b c} Hajdú 1975:12
27. ^ ^{a b c} Hajdú 1982:10
28. ^ Hoppál 1994:62
29. ^ The Clean Tent Rite
30. ^ Diószegi 1960:102,154,243
31. ^
    ISBN 9985-9369-2-2. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
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. ^ ^{a b} Diószegi 1960:128,188,243
41. ^ Diószegi 1960:110,113
42. ^ ^{a b} Diószegi 1960:130
43. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 1994:75
44. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 1994:65
45. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005: 198
46. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005: 199
47. ^ Diószegi 1998
48. ^ Hoppál 1998
49. ^ Hoppál 1975
50. ^ Hoppál 2005
51. ^ Hoppál 1994
52. ^ Hoppál 2005:96
53. ^ ""Ugric People"".
54. ^ Hoppál 2005: 170–171
55. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005: 172
56. ^ Alekseyenko 1978
57. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005: 171
58. ^ Seleznev, Alexander. "The Northernmost Outpost of Islamic Civilization". International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
59. ^ "The s". The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire.^{[permanent dead link]}
60. ^ ^{a b} Vajda, Edward J. "The Altai Turks". Archived from the original on 6 May 2017.
61. ^ ^{a b} Hoppál 2005:106
62. ^ Richtsfeld 1989, p. 200
63. ^ Heissig 1997, p. 200
64. ^ "Koryak worldview". Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2008.
65. ^ Kleivan & Sonne 1985
66. ^ Merkur 1985
67. ^ Gabus 1970
68. ^ Hoppál 2005:77,287
69. ISBN 0-8027-1399-8
    .
70. ISBN 0-8161-1810-8
    .
71. ISBN 0-295-97799-X
    .
72. ^ ^{a b c} Friedrich and Diamond, p.283
73. ^ Chuner Taksami (2004). Siro Sasaki (ed.). "Культурное наследие нивхов : Этнографические коллекции нивхов в музеях Японии" [Cultural heritage of the Nivkhs: Ethnographic collections of the Nivkhs in museums in Japan] (PDF). 国立民族学博物館調査報告(SER) [SENRI Ethnological Reports] (in Russian) (052). 国立民族学博物館 [National Museum of Ethnology (Japan)]: 37–38, 41, 45–46, 64. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
74. ^ "保谷民博関係人名録" [Directory of People Related to the Hoya Folk Museum] (PDF) (in Japanese). 国立民族学博物館フォーラム型情報ミュージアム [National Museum of Ethnology Forum Information Museum]. 28 July 2021. pp. 142–43. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

References

• Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam, ed. (2015) [1990]. Shamanism: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia. London/New York: Routledge.
  ISBN 9781138179295
  .
• Deschênes, Bruno (2002). "Inuit Throat-Singing". Musical Traditions. The Magazine for Traditional Music Throughout the World.
• Diószegi, Vilmos (1960). Sámánok nyomában Szibéria földjén. Egy néprajzi kutatóút története. Terebess Ázsia E-Tár (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magvető Könyvkiadó. The book has been translated to English: Diószegi, Vilmos (1968). Tracing shamans in Siberia. The story of an ethnographical research expedition. Translated from Hungarian by Anita Rajkay Babó. Oosterhout: Anthropological Publications.
• Diószegi, Vilmos (1998) [1958]. A sámánhit emlékei a magyar népi műveltségben [Remnants of shamanistic beliefs in Hungarian folklore] (in Hungarian) (1. reprint kiadás ed.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  ISBN 963-05-7542-6
  .
• Gabus, Jean (1970). A karibu eszkimók [Vie et coutumes des Esquimaux Caribous] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó.
• Hajdú, Péter (1975). "A rokonság nyelvi háttere ["Linguistical background of the relationship]". In Hajdú, Péter (ed.). Uráli népek. Nyelvrokonaink kultúrája és hagyományai [Uralic peoples. Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Corvina Kiadó. pp. 11–43.
  ISBN 963-13-0900-2
  .
• Hajdú, Péter (1982) [1968]. Chrestomathia Samoiedica (in Hungarian) (Second ed.). Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó.
  ISBN 963-17-6601-2
  .
• Heissig, Walther (1997). Zu zwei evenkisch-daghurischen Varianten des mandschu Erzählstoffes "Nisan saman-i bithe". pp. 200–230.
  ISBN 978-3-447-09025-4. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help
  )
• Hoppál, Mihály (1975). "Az uráli népek hiedelemvilága és a samanizmus [The belief system of Uralic peoples and the shamanism]". In Hajdú, Péter (ed.). Uráli népek. Nyelvrokonaink kultúrája és hagyományai [Uralic peoples / Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Corvina Kiadó. pp. 211–233.
  ISBN 963-13-0900-2
  .
• Hoppál, Mihály (1994). Sámánok, lelkek és jelképek [Shamans, souls and symbols] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Helikon Kiadó.
  ISBN 963-208-298-2
  .
• Hoppál, Mihály (2005). Sámánok Eurázsiában [Shamans in Eurasia] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  ISBN 963-05-8295-3., also in German, Estonian and Finnish. Site of publisher with short description on the book (in Hungarian) Archived 2 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  .
• Hoppál, Mihály (2006c). "Music of Shamanic Healing" (PDF). In Gerhard Kilger (ed.). Macht Musik. Musik als Glück und Nutzen für das Leben. Köln: Wienand Verlag.
  ISBN 3-87909-865-4.^{[permanent dead link}
  ]
• 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.
• Nattiez, Jean Jacques. "Inuit Games and Songs • Chants et Jeux des Inuit". Musiques & musiciens du monde • Musics & musicians of the world. Montreal: Research Group in Musical Semiotics, Faculty of Music, University of Montreal. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help). The songs are online available from the ethnopoetics website curated by Jerome Rothenberg.
• 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.
• ISBN 978-4-86110-397-1
• 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
  .
• 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
  .

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
• Lintrop, Aado. "Studies in Siberian Shamanism and Religion of the Finno-Ugrian Peoples".
• "Shamanic And Narrative Songs of Siberian Arctic" (music). Musique Du Monde.
• Czapliczka, M. A. (1914). Shamanism in Siberia: excerpts from Aboriginal Siberia.
• Vajda, Edward J. "The Altai Turks". Archived from the original on 6 May 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
• Noll, Richard; Shi, Kun (2004). "Chuonnasuan (Meng Jin Fu). The Last Shaman of the Oroqen of Northeast China" (PDF). Journal of Korean Religions (6): 135–162. It describes the life of Chuonnasuan, the last shaman of the Oroqen of Northeast China.
• The shaman – trailer. Nganasan tribe (streamed). YouTube. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021.
• Erich Kasten; Michael Duerr. "Siberian Studies Homepage".
• Поселок Унгазик (Чаплино) [Ungazik settlement] (in Russian). Музея антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого (Кунсткамера) Российской академии наук. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Rendering in English:
  Ungazik settlement, Kunstkamera, Russian Academy of Sciences. Old photos about former life of a Siberian Yupik
  settlement, including those of a shaman, performing his séance.
• Helimski, Eugene. "Nganasan shamanistic tradition: observation and hypotheses". Shamanhood: The Endangered Language of Ritual, conference at the Centre for Advanced Study, 19–23 June 1999, Oslo. Archived from the original on 19 December 2008.