Agents of Evil: Curse Accusations and Shamanic Retaliation in Post-Soviet Tuva (Siberia)
Apollo (University of Cambridge) 2007 DOI: 10.17863/cam.71073 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shamans and clients in the Republic of Tuva, south Siberia (Russia) |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | The dissertation argues that curse accusations in contemporary Tuva are a repercussion of socio-economic pressures from the post-socialist transition, occurring within networks of relatives and white-collar workers rather than between tribes. It shows that a shaman's symbolic repertoire originates not only in encounters with spirits but also in ordinary events of Soviet repression and post-Soviet despair, and that the shaman regulates clients' suspicions and accusations, ultimately reducing their tension through ritual retaliation. |
Abstract
This dissertation examines suspicions and accusations of affliction with curses in the Republic of Tuva, south Siberia (Russia). Based on a sample of consultations between shamans and clients regarding curse-inflicted misfortunes, as well as on sociological and statistical sources about post-Soviet Tuva, this thesis identifies a significant incidence of curse accusations in contemporary Tuva. I argue that this tendency is a repercussion of socio-economic pressures principally related to the post-socialist transition, in particular to new patterns of relatedness which emerged after the privatisation of property and the market in the early 90s. My data show that curse accusations occur especially in the context of tense or ambiguous personal relations associated with private economic ambitions, or of conflicts over private property and competition for jobs. If pre-Soviet curse accusations occurred between “tribes” or similar groups, in today’s bureaucratic segment of Tuvan society they occur within networks of relatives and white-collar workers. It would seem that even cursing has been privatised. The ethnographic body of the thesis consists of three consultations with one shaman. I focus on the interaction between shaman and client, and identify pervasive patterns of analogy between the misfortunes of each party. Contrary to classic accounts of shamanic initiation in the pre-Soviet age, I show that the shaman’s symbolic repertoire originates not only in encounters with spirits and dead shaman-ancestors, but also in ordinary events of Soviet repression and post-Soviet despair which are experienced equally by laymen. The analysis of this shaman’s psychobiography reveals how ordinary events can now offer the triggers for stages of initiation and symbolic transformation in a cumulative way. The shaman’s manipulation of the analogy between the client and himself is crucial for the resolution of the consultation and for the shaman’s own personal fulfilment. I, therefore, argue that in contemporary Tuva the repertoire of shamanic transformation has encompassed historical traumas of Soviet persecution and the post-socialist transition. Furthermore, analogous shared narratives of psychic conflict and soul loss show how both parties also adapt pre-Soviet idioms of suffering to their present circumstances. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the factors contributing to an ethos of “curse paranoia”, arguing that the formation of this ethos results from the repression of aggression under social pressures related both to Soviet and post-Soviet patterns of relatedness. Central to this operation of suspicions and accusations is the shaman as a regulator of “paranoia”: the shaman’s performance contributes to this ethos by cultivating anxiety and expanding the client’s horizon of suspiciousness in a process of regulating the client’s suspicions and accusations of curse affliction; ultimately, the healing process and the ritual retaliation, achieved through the return of the curses to the enemy, lead to the reduction of the client’s tension and suspicions.
Comparable studies
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|---|---|---|---|
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| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |