Siberian Federal University

Issue

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2025 18 (7)

Authors

Bereznitsky, Sergey V.

Contact information

Bereznitsky, Sergey V.: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation;

Keywords

Siberia; the North; the Far East; natural and anthropogenic disasters; shamanism

Abstract

The article, based on the use of historical-comparative, structural-functional, semiotic and other methods, investigates and shows the relationship of traditional and modern shamanism of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of Russia with natural and anthropogenic disasters. The analysis of ethnographic literature of the 18th-21st centuries, field ethnographic and folklore materials allowed us to conclude that in the traditional culture of Siberian and Far Eastern aborigines there was a certain number of strong shamans who could influence the natural elements: to cause or stop the wind, rain, snow. Depending on ethno-cultural traditions, shamans’ appeals to spirits could be individual and collective. The natural environment and culture of indigenous and migrant peoples could be influenced by the spirits of the shaman’s assistants and patrons, and the spirits of deceased shamans when their burials were disturbed. The analysis of modern collective shamanic rituals allows us to conclude that several causal discourses underlie rituals: the desire to protect the native ethnos and the ecological environment of its habitat; to resist global disasters (fires and floods); to give modern shamanism and neo-shamanism the status of an ethnic religion; to increase the authority of both the individual shaman and the entire local shamanic organization; to control financial flows from regional tourist activities. In their activities for the preservation of native nature, sacred natural and anthropogenic landscapes from the aggressive impact of companies extracting energy resources, shamans attract colleagues from other countries, thus significantly increasing their status in the modern shamanic world

Pages

1364–1372

EDN

SNKATY

Paper at repository of SibFU

https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/156652

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).