The Audience of the Nanai Shamanic Séance

Abstract

Drawing on field materials gathered among the Nanai1, the author explores the reasons why Nanai shamans need an audience to observe their séances. Even though it was not always required that an audience should perform any particular actions during the ritual, the very presence of the audience was required for the ritual to be held. By observing the shamans’ actions, the audience was testing them and affirming their status. This in turn could be a deciding factor in their initiation and in upgrading their social status. In certain cases, shamans’ apparent dominance over the audience could be inverted or subverted; for example, an audience might be able to prevent the shamans’ attempts to avoid their ritual duties. Such a substantial role for the audience stems from the values and worldviews of shamanists. Authority belongs not only, and not so much, to shamans as to the spirits standing behind them. Spirits seemingly object to the cancellation of commissioned séances and prefer a large number of persons to be involved in them. The author argues that the importance and power of the audience had to do with the worldview of shamanic cultures, with its complex balance of spiritual authorities.