Abstract This paper presents an analysis of how neo-shamanic communicative practices have evolved in Siberia and the Russian Far East over the last four decades. We identify three social cultural factors that have facilitated the spread of neo-shamanism: the ideological vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet system; foreign missionaries and their work; and ethnic revival. We discern three...
In the late imperial era, the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) in St. Petersburg produced a series of guidebooks for visitors that provided an account of the changes in the gallery spaces and collections within the museum. Among the changes was a reorganization of the collection that brought about the removal of a gallery dedicated to Russian ethnography, which had...
This article discusses the sociological hierarchies among Nanay shamans. The shamans evaluate one another and the community also evaluates them, ranking them in myriad informal ways in terms of effectiveness with spirits and healing power. These rankings come about through discursive activities associated with recounting shamanic healing and other ritual practices. While shamans try to maintain...
T he three articles in this issue of Sibirica focus on the ways in which sacred landscapes have been (re)integrated into the ritual life of indigenous Buriats, as well as how they can become contested terrains.Once considered the opiate of the masses by Soviet leaders, religion is no longer "dangerous" in Russia.Decades of institutionalized atheism have taken their toll, however, as sacred...