Siberian Shamanism in Soviet Imagination

Abstract

This article is a commentary on the “map of the universe” drawn by an Oroch shaman named Savelii Khutunk in 1929. Khutunk made this map for ethnographers Avrorin and Kozminskii during their fieldwork among the Oroch people, who reside on the mainland side of the Tatar Strait in the Russian Far East. The first time Avrorin and Kozminskii thought about approaching a native to draw the map of the universe was when they observed a funeral ceremony supervised by an Oroch shamaness for a deceased boy. Trying to record how and where the soul of the boy wandered in the universe, ethnographers realized they could not do it by simply rendering the shamaness’ story in words. Hence, they came to the conclusion that it would be better simply to ask the woman to put the picture of the whole route on paper. The woman agreed and drew a small map that depicted the routes of the soul of a dead person. Later, Avrorin and Kozminskii showed this map, which unfortunately, did not survive, to Khutunk, another Oroch shaman, who “leveled a severe criticism at the map, questioning the professional credibility and knowledge of our first informant.” In an attempt to correct numerous mistakes of his colleague, the shaman invested almost twenty hours in drawing another map. Not trusting his own artistic skills, Khutunk recruited two young Oroch to help him make the map “more beautiful.” Eventually, the entire male population of a village gathered around the shaman, helping him to complete the map, which became the result of a “collective creative process.” Yet it was the shaman who made all the final decisions (324).

Agapitov V.A. and I.I. Kozminskii. “Predstavlenie orochei o vselenoi, o perselenii dush i puteshesviakh shamanov, izobrazhennikh na karte [Picture of the Universe, Migrations of Souls, and Shamans’ Journeys Through the eyes of the Oroch Natives]. “Sbornik muzeiia antropologii i etnografii 11 (1949): 324-334.