SHAMAN

Volume 29 Numbers 1 & 2 Spring/Autumn 2021

Articles

JOANA BAHIA:

Multiple Space-Times of Transnational Mediumship: Case Studies in Afro-Brazilian Religions

Subjective processes of change, dreams, dance, theater representations, translations, and memories of local and global heritage—all of these things are a kind of grammar of a particular form of mediumship practiced in Germany in candomblé. I have observed these practices in my fieldwork since 2009. New forms of sacred agency in bodily practices, the different bodies moving in dance, music, and theater, and even the processes of transnationalization themselves are crucial in enabling us to think about how, through improvisation and creativity, these religious practices are recreated in many guises and across borders.

FROG:

Medieval Christians’ Knowledge of Shamanism in the North: An Oral Tradition in the Historia Norwegie and the Russian Primary Chronicle

This paper examines a previously unrecognized parallel between the descriptions of deep-trance shamanic rituals in the twelfth-century Historia Norwegie and the Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, commonly called the Primary Chronicle. The shared narrative pattern is argued to reflect oral circulating discourse, approached as a legend tradition. The example is considered in relation to later legend traditions with shared features and argued to have circulated as constitutive of Christians’ knowledge of deep-trance shamanic practices. The study shows how legend traditions are anchors for cultural memory. It also raises source-critical concerns, illustrating that the same legend may be told about different ethnic groups.

DMITRIY FUNK:

The Materials of Andreĭ Anokhin on the Evil Spirits in Teleut Shamanic Beliefs

In the article, based on previously unknown archival materials of the outstanding Siberian scholar Andreĭ Anokhin of the early twentieth century and the author’s own field materials gathered in the late twentieth century, for the first time, the most detailed picture of shamanic ideas about the spirits of evil among the Teleuts, one of the small Turkic groups in southwestern Siberia, is presented. The article is accompanied by unique archival drawings, including those based on information received directly from shamans and their assistants.

MICHAEL KNÜPPEL:

A Survey on Hans Findeisen’s Researches on Siberian Shamanism with Special Reference to its Mediumistic Aspects

The most important scholar in the field of studies on Siberian shamanism in twentieth-century Germany was arguably the ethnologist and social anthropologist Hans Findeisen (1903–1968), who is still known for his numerous works on various aspects of northern shamanism. Findeisen undertook a number of fieldwork trips during his time working at the Berlin State Museum for Ethnology (Berliner Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde), as well as visits to circumpolar regions. From May 1927 to June 1928 he visited the Ket at the Eniseĭ in the area of Turukhansk and collected materials related to their material and spiritual culture, on which he later also based his studies on Siberian shamanism. One aspect of shamanism touched in some of his works is the mediumistic one. Findeisen called it “the ‘spiritualistic-mediumistic base’ of Northern Asiatic shamanhood” (“Spiritistisch-mediumistische Grundlage” des nordasiatischen Schamanentums). In this survey the author deals with Findeisen’s interests in western spiritualism that formed the background of his interpretation of Siberian shamanism. While few materials dealing with this can be found among the documents of his estate (now owned by his family), Findeisen in fact handed over a number of manuscripts either to his collaborator Heino Gehrts (1913–1998) or directly to the archives of the “Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health” (Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e. V.” (IGPP) Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), established by Hans Bender (1907–1991). In this article the author gives an overview of Findeisen’s research on this aspect of Siberian shamanism and the largely unknown materials kept in the archive of the IGPP.

MICHAEL OPPITZ:

The Jumping Grain Chant: Parallel Verse and Simultaneous Action in Magar Rituals

This article deals with a particular ritual chant of the Northern Magar, who live in the foothills of the Dhaulagiri Massif in the northwestern part of central Nepal. The song is called lawa kheti or Jumping Grain Chant and constitutes one in a multitude of different oral texts, as sung by the local healers or shamans (ramma) in the course of their séances. The repertoire of the shamanic oral tradition in the region is quite extensive—consisting of more than 10,000 regularly performed verses—and may be divided roughly into three categories of chants: narrative genesis myths to be performed in healing séances; auxiliary chants explaining the origins of the right implements to be used in the rituals; and chants, both narrative and auxiliary, reserved for shamanic initiation rites. Occasions notwithstanding (healing or initiation), these three categories may be reduced to two: narrative genesis stories and plotless auxiliaries.

ILDIKÓ GYÖNGYVÉR SÁRKÖZI:

Shamanism—Religion, Culture, Both or Neither: A Case Study of a Pensioner Song and Dance Group among the Chinese Sibe

The story this study is based on begins in 2012, in the Seventh Village of Qapqal Sibe Autonomous County in today’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. The protagonists are the members of a Sibe shaman song and dance group, mainly comprised of elderly farmers. The formation of the group was encouraged by Sibe intellectuals in the village, who drew their motivation from China’s intangible cultural heritage program. In today’s China, this program has an impact on all levels of social life, determining how Chinese people are supposed look upon their cultural heritage. The process, however, is accompanied by numerous conflicts, raising a great many questions regarding the conversion of religious traditions, once considered to be “superstitions,” into “heritage,” as clearly shown by the story of the shaman song and dance group made up of pensioners. Formulating and answering these questions require an examination of how heritage construction is intertwined with both secularization and desecularization processes. This study focuses on this complex phenomenon.

Book Reviews

KARL JETTMAR. The Religions of the Hindukush (Davide Torri)

DENNIS MCKENNA with SIR GHILLEAN PRANCE, BENJAMIN DE LOENEN and WADE DAVIS (eds) Ethnopharmacologic Search For Psychoactive Drugs: 50 Years of Research (Davide Torri)

MICHAEL OPPITZ. Shamans of the Blind Country: A Picture Book from the Himalaya (Gregory G. Maskarinec)

CLIVE TOLLEY. “Hard it is to Stir My Tongue” (Karl Reichl)