Living the dream: Nanai shamanic experiments and porous engagements in the Siberian Far East
Mally Stelmaszyk, Leonid Sungorkin
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples September 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1177/11771801241261718 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that a Nanai shaman's practice in Far East Siberia brings together shamanic dreams, storytelling, Christian prayers, and game playing to materialize fragile moments of "ontological porosity" between different systems of knowing-being-doing, and reflects on protest and resistance in areas of enforced silence and neglect. |
Abstract
This article is about the ways in which shamanic practice is engaged in navigating and responding to the current climatic and geopolitical crisis in Far East Siberia, Russia, through proposing experimental multiversal projects. It traces the manner in which a Nanai (Indigenous peoples of Siberia, Russia; literally, people of the Earth) sama (shaman), hereafter, shaman, brings together diverse techniques, such as shamanic dreams, storytelling, Christian prayers and game playing to materialise fragile moments of what this article names ontological porosity between different systems of knowing-being-doing. Focusing further on the tensions that this process implies, the article offers reflections on the notions of protest movements and resistance in areas of enforced silence and neglect.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |
Citations in the library
Cites 6
- Dealing with uncertainty: Shamans, marginal capitalism, and the remaking of history in postsocialist Mongolia American Ethnologist February 1, 2007
- Slippage: An Anthropology of Shamanism Annual Review of Anthropology October 21, 2021
- Beyond Belief? Social, Political, and Shamanic Power in Siberia Social Analysis 2008
- Siberia, protest, and politics Focaal June 9, 2022
- Shamanism, sanity and remoteness in Russia Anthropology Today April 1, 2020
and 1 more in the library