{"title":"The Personal Rituals of the Finnic Peoples with Forest Trees","authors":"Madis Arukask","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1352307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352307","url":null,"abstract":"The article examines communication with trees in Votian and Vepsian folk culture. Two cases are discussed when a person gathering mushrooms and berries in the forest has made sacrificial gifts in the form of produce to a tree to request a good mushroom and berry harvest or for good health. In the Votian case, persons who have gone missing in the forest are memorialized. Trees are regarded as not only a conversation partner or a mediator, but in a broader religious (cosmogonic) and ritual context as well. These incidents are significant for how they reflect the animistic worldview of the Finnic peoples. A discussion of Finnic ontology is invited, suggesting that the cultural type centered on the folk healer [the-one-who-knows] came to replace the shamanic cultural type latest in the Iron Age.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"167 - 185"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352307","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45387476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research on Human and Reindeer Relations in Southern Yakutia [Sakha Republic]","authors":"V. Davydov","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1352313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352313","url":null,"abstract":"The article presents materials derived from field research among the reindeer-herding Evenki of Tiania nasleg, Olëkmo raion, of the Sakha Republic [Yakutia] in April–May 2013. The aim of the journey was to study local strategies of interaction between humans and domesticated reindeer, as well as the knowledge of local inhabitants about wild and domesticated reindeer. Particular attention was devoted to the architecture of domestication—various structures built to restrict or guide the movement of reindeer.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"31 - 6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352313","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46052151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Audience of the Nanai Shamanic Séance","authors":"Tatiana D. Bulgakova","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1360675","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1360675","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"122 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1360675","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46992768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Role of the Horse Among the Turkmen","authors":"A. Kim, O. Nazarova","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1382288","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1382288","url":null,"abstract":"For the Turkmen, as for many other nomadic peoples, the horse played an important role in the life of the individual, the family, and society. The Turkmen highly valued their horses, calling them akhaltekin, as much as they valued their own life. Values and other more concrete circumstances determined their attitude toward this animal. The aim of the article is to examine and analyze the place of the Akhal-Teke horse among the Turkmen, with an emphasis on ethnographic data. The article’s historiographic foundation is based on Russian language scholarly publications, ethnographic documentaries, and oral history of the Turkmen people collected by the authors.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"79 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1382288","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47869747","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Question of Traditional Dog Breeding Among Indigenous Peoples of the Far East","authors":"A. Samar, A. Kim","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1352337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352337","url":null,"abstract":"The Oroks (Ul’ta) are one of the numerically smallest peoples of Russia’s Far East. Their lifestyle and occupations have been relatively little studied not only abroad, but in the Russian Federation. The authors discuss dog breeding among this people and analyze specific features of its development. Analogies are made to the economics of other indigenous peoples of the Far East. The article is based on publications in the Russian language, archival material, and oral history sources. Its aim is to examine specifics of dog breeding among the Oroks and its connections with other peoples.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"32 - 51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352337","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45621575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contemporary Livestock Husbandry in Kyrgyzstan","authors":"Amantour J. Japarov","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1360676","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1360676","url":null,"abstract":"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, changes occurred in Kyrgyzstan as in other former republics of the USSR. They affected the agrarian sector, where nearly all activity had been within the framework of collective and state farms. In the 1990s, the state changed its policies in relation to villages and introduced measures enabling privatization of land allotments, community livestock, and property. The functioning of private and other forms of ownership became a reality. The article discusses the transformation of contemporary livestock husbandry in Kyrgyzstan in the post-Soviet period in an historical and social context.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"52 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1360676","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49497825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Snakes in the Ritual Systems of Various Peoples","authors":"Nikolai P. Gordeev","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2017.1352330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352330","url":null,"abstract":"The article deals with the place of ophiolatry (the cult of snakes) in zoolatry and early human (primordial) worldviews, as well as in myths and rituals. Themes include the relation between the snake as a symbolic caretaker of water sources and a symbol of fertility, the images and sacral character of snake-wrestlers, and the role of ophiolatry in rites of passage. Connections of the cult of snakes with the cult of ancestors are discussed. The social position of snake-wrestlers is assessed; their names, with traces of totemism and ancient linguistic substrates, are analyzed. The serpent as a domestic cult, an individual totem, and as a snake spirit are used to illustrate the transition from totemism to animism. On the basis of broad linguistic and anthropological comparisons, the author reconstructs the common origin of snake mythology in the East, Southeastern Europe, and the Caucasus.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"56 1","pages":"121 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2017.1352330","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43647241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Method for Determining the Practice of Shamanism in Archeological Cultures","authors":"Z. Hasanov","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2016.1317554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2016.1317554","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers have frequently noted traces of shamanism in cultures of the ancient world, although the methodology for determining it is underdeveloped. Such a method is proposed here, to identify where shamanism was practiced. It is based on comparative research of written sources, archeological materials, ethnography, linguistics, and the natural sciences. Acceptable results require that the data corroborate one another, illustrating common worldview. The proposed method is tested on examples of Cimmerian and Scythian cultures, and their precursors. Ethnographic analogies should originate from the same region as the archeological culture being researched or an acknowledged site of migrational origin. Relevant here is the region ranging from southern Siberia to the Urals. Results indicate Cimmerians and Scythians had shamanistic worldviews, techniques and rituals identical to those of Siberian shamans. Archeological materials and written sources enable identification of some aspects that are already dying out in Siberian shamanism, although the cases covered do not exhaust all available information about rituals and objects that have analogies in ethnographic materials about the shamanism of peoples of Siberia. The aim of the article is to demonstrate the proposed research method in action.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":"55 1","pages":"188 - 231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10611959.2016.1317554","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59599399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}