The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the problem of distinguishing between religion and esotericism. It uses the example of the differentiation of magic and the concepts proposed by J.D. Frazer and B.K. Malinowski (1925) as criteria for distinguishing these two phenomena. Despite obvious points of intersection, such as appeal to the transcendental and search for meaning, the...
The activity and creativity of Svetlana Zarasyevna Hodger, a Nanai craftswoman and storyteller, help her relatives solve various life problems. This article investigates the influence of her lucid dreams on the process of creating works of art and crafts, which have long been of interest to ethnographers, art historians, and local historians in Russia. Her works have been presented in...
The article outlines the main ideas of the archaeologist David Lewis-Williams and his contribution to the study of shamanism and the analysis of rock paintings. Author examines the depicted scenes, the process of the painting, as well as artifacts and ethnographic evidences of the alleged rituals. The reconstruction of rituals is accompanied by the Lewis-Williams’s conception of the spectrum of...