Shamanic Narratives of Tuvans: Plot and Thematic Composition

The article is devoted to the study of shamanic narratives – one of the little-studied aspects of the traditional culture of Tuvans. On the basis of folklore and ethnographic materials, the mythological views contained in shamanic stories are summarized, the plot-thematic classification of the fund of shamanic narratives is carried out for the first time, as a result of which eight plot-thematic groups are identified, which includes thirty-three subgroups. It is revealed that the main feature of all the shamanic stories of Tuvinians is their attitude to authenticity. Despite the fantasticism and fictionality of some stories, the bearers of the tradition perceive them as authentic stories confirming the power of shamans as chosen spirits. Each selected thematic group has characteristic features and a certain composition of plot-forming motifs. Their number in the thematic group depends on the development of this topic in the folklore tradition of the Tuvinians. The genre originality of shamanic stories, their compositional structure are considered, as well as the mechanisms of existence of the oral narrative tradition are characterized, the reflection of the main postulates of shamanic mythology is revealed in the stories, the semantic and pragmatic fullness of shamanic narratives in their close connection with ethnographic reality is analyzed. The work is written on the basis of published data and field materials of the author collected in the Republic of Tyva (2020) and the Xinjiang People’s Republic of China (2010–2018).