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Read Online (PDF) SHAMAN This volume of SHAMAN provides an overview—though perhaps incomplete—of current Polish research on shamanism. Guest Editor: Maria Magdalena Kośko (Poznań) We also wish to express our thanks to Agnieszka Halemba (Warsaw), Grażyna Kubica (Kraków) and Andrzej Rozwadowski (Poznań) for their invaluable assistance in editing this volume. The Editors Published in Association with the Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences by Molnar & Kelemen Oriental Publishers Budapest Front1 acover: Babulal Rock threatens paintings the atonlookers, Maya River, unable Yakutia to control (after the N. supernatural D. Arkhipov) being which has possessed him. Photo: Diana Riboli, 199?Riboli, 199? Back cover: Rock paintings at Toyon Ary, middle Lena River, Yakutia (after V. I. Pesterev) Illustrations from: “In Search of Shamanic Themes in Eastern Siberian Rock Art (Yakutia/Sakha Republic)” by Andrzej Rozwadowski Copyright © 2014 Molnar & Kelemen Oriental Publishers, Budapest Photographs © 2014 Anatoliĭ Alekseev, Maria A. Czaplicka and Kai Donner (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology & Anthropology), Marek Gawęcki, Agnieszka Halemba, E. O. Hoppe, László Kunkovács, Lech Mróz, Danuta Penkala-Gawęcka, Andrzej Rozwadowski, Stefania Skowron- Markowska and Łukasz Smyrski Map © 2014 István Sántha and István Somfai All rights resereved. No part of this publicaton may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, elec- tronic, photocopying or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publishers. 1 b Babulal threatens the onlookers, unable to control the supernatural being which has possessed him. Photo: Diana Riboli, 199?Riboli, 199? ISSN 1216-7827 Printed in Hungary SHAMAN Volume 22 Numbers 1 & 2 Spring/Autumn 2014 Contents Articles The Power and Authority of Shamans in Contemporary Altay agnieszka halemba 5 The Shaman’s Curse: Maria A. Czaplicka and her Studies of Shamanism grażyna kubica 27 The Way of the Shaman and the Revival of Spiritual Healing in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan danuta penkala-gawęcka 57 The Felicitas D. Goodman Institute: Neo-shamanism or Religious Ecstatic Trance? john j. pilch 83 In Search of Shamanic Themes in Eastern Siberian Rock Art (Yakutia/Sakha Republic) andrzej rozwadowski 97 Shamanism and Arctic Hysteria in Works of Marie A. Czaplicka stefania skowron-markowska 119 Shamans and Scholars: Constructing the Supernatural, Confronting the Enigmatic jerzy s. wasilewski 133 Field Report Black Shamans of the Turkic-Speaking Telengit in Southern Siberia dávid somfai kara and lászló kunkovács 151 Book Review diana riboli and davide torri (eds) Shamanism and Violence: Power, Repression and Suffering in Indigenous Religious Conflicts (Vilmos Voigt) 163 Plates after page 168 VOL. 22. NOS. 1-2. SHAMAN SPRING/AUTUMN 2014 The Power and Authority of Shamans in Contemporary Altay AGNIESZKA HALEMBA UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW In this article (based on field research conducted in the Republic of Altay between 1994 and 2008), I argue that the way in which the Telengit shamans are situated among other religious specialists in the Altay, makes them ambiv- alent and unlikely leaders of ritual efforts centered on communal identity and community protection. Although Telengit shamans are obviously well- integrated members of local and descent groups, their activities are mainly directed towards individual protection and healing. Community matters are a prerogative of other religious specialists, known under the generic term biler ulus (knowledgeable people). Moreover, particular characteristics of the Telengit shamans make them reluctant to practice with each other and there- fore to get involved with Western shamans visiting present-day Siberia. This situation in Altay contrasts with other parts of Siberia (e.g. Tuva, Sakha, Buryatia or Khakassia), where associations of shamans have been organized, members of which meet, sometimes practicing in the same place and at times participating in common rituals. They also travel internationally and receive Western shamans as guests in their lands. In the Altay, it was not shamans, but other religious specialists (the biler ulus), who were mostly involved in the creation of religious associations. People called kam (shaman) are rarely (if ever) openly involved in public life. They also avoid communal activities and only exceptionally agree to conduct communal rituals. It is important to stress that my argument does not concern the question of authenticity. In her 1992 review of research on shamanism, Jane Monnig Atkin- son (1992: 308–309) pointed out the basic divergence in the literature between works that provide models of what shamans and shamanism might be, and ethnographic studies that focus on the understanding of one particular cultural tradition. While studies of the first type treat shamanism as a pan-human reality, the workings of which need to be understood, the second type frequently uses the label of “shamanism” only in references and literature review sections, as their authors do 6 Agnieszka Halemba not wish to suggest any pan-human character of the phenomena under examination, instead focusing on the workings of particular traditions. In the latter studies, the word “shaman” is seen as a label applied exter- nally to a wide range of diverse specialists. While I am sympathetic to the latter approach, one has to remember that the labels “shaman” and “shamanism” have long functioned both outside academic circles and outside the context of European interest in things “exotic.” Indeed, they are used by those very people whom others have billed as “shamans” or “shamanists.” This is particularly true in the areas of bi- or multilingual communication, where the term is used by practitioners in e.g. English or Russian in addition to a variety of terms existing in local native tongues. Such is the situation in the Republic of Altay, which is part of the Russian Federation, and in other Siberian regions, where the Russian and English expression “shaman” coexists with such terms as kam, bö or oyun. It happens then, that, to use Atkin- son’s expression (1992: 309), “shamanism” as a pan-human phenomenon meets “a historically situated and culturally mediated social practice” that has, however, now adopted the term “shamanism” in self-reference. In this article I reflect on the way in which contemporary Altaian kams (shamans)1 operate, and show how this influences their participation or reluctance to participate in international shamanic networks. I argue that the way in which the Altaian shamans are situated among other religious specialists in the Altay makes them ambivalent and unlikely leaders of ritual efforts centered on communal identity and community 1 I use here the term “Altaian shamans” although most of the people who are called kam in contemporary Altay live in the districts inhabited by the Telengits, who since April 2000 have a status of a “small-numbered indigenous people”; before this date they were regarded in Russian legal documents and academic works as a subgroup of the Altaians. The relations between the Telengit and Altaian identities are complex and my own research shows that, in general, the Telengits deem themselves to be part of the larger Altaian nation. As the particulars of the Altaians’ ethnic composition go beyond the scope of this text, I just use the expression “Altaian shamans” here, although most of my material comes from the regions inhabited by the Telengits. For more information on complexities of Altaian ethnic composition, see e.g. Potapov 1969; Halemba 2006; Donahoe et al. 2008. The Power and Authority of Shamans in Contemporary Altay 7 protection.2 This is in general not surprising—in many areas of Siberia “shamans” act much more as healers and trouble-shooters than as com- munity leaders (e.g. Shirokogoroff 1935; Siikala 1987), although other researchers underline the role of shamans for and in their communities (Hoppál 2004; Hamayon 1994). Altaian shamans are obviously well- integrated members of local and descent groups, but their activities are mainly directed towards protecting and healing individuals, and not only those belonging to their own clan or territorial group. Com- munity matters are a prerogative of other religious specialists (known under generic term of biler ulus ‘knowledgeable people’). Still, there are situations today in which shamans are faced with requests for protec- tion for a community, ritual leadership or participation in international networks. My research to date suggests that Altaian kam-shamans have until now tended to reject such involvement, in contrast to shamans in some other Siberian regions. I attempt here to provide an initial understanding of this situation, taking two examples into account: the first concerning a revival of a land-worship ritual in Altay; the other concerning participation in an international shamanistic conference. In contrast to places such as Tuva and Khakassia, in the Republic of Altay not shamans (kam) but other religious specialists were involved in cre- ation of religious associations, members of which meet and sometimes practice in the same places or participate in common rituals (Halemba 2006). Those referred to as shamans (kam) are rarely openly involved in public life. They also avoid communal activities and only exceptionally agree to conduct communal rituals. It is important to stress that my argument does not concern a ques- tion of authenticity. I do not want to enter a debate on “real” and “traditional” versus “not real” and “neo-” shamanism (Johansen 2001) and I am far from suggesting that by rejecting communal leadership or refusing to meet with Western and Russian shamans, Altaian shamans are more or less “authentic” than e.g. Tuvan ones, who work in associa- tions and travel internationally. Instead, I want to observe that a term “shaman,” both as a self-reference and as an externally applied label, is a politically loaded marker, bringing with it a whole range of various 2 This article is based on field research conducted in Altay between 1994 and 2008. Most of the research took place in the district of Kosh-Agach, which is inhabited by Telengits (see Donahoe et al.
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