Transformation of Shamanistic Worldview as a Reflection of Contemporary Buryat Society and its Values

Abstract

he paper elaborates on some recent developments in the shamanistic worldview witnessed by the author during a series of field trips to the region of Buryatia in Russia’s Siberia. Unlike most the world religions, shamanism is not a rigid, dogmatic set of beliefs, as its flexible nature and the absence of any canonic books allow shamans and their clients gradually change significantly both their theory and practice as the society and its milieu develops. As such, new phenomena and new interpretations of the old beliefs can appear constantly resulting in that shamanism always stays in tune with times and epochs fulfilling its traditional mission of keeping the balance in relations between the world of humans and the world of spirits, albeit sometimes doing it in somewhat different ways as compared to previous ages. This general flexibility of shamanism and its adaptive nature are the premises of both its surprising invincibility and its recent revival. At the same time, it makes fieldwork and close observation of the currently practicing shamans especially important as any records of those constantly appearing new practices help researchers understand their nature even before they can become common.
The paper relates about one of the author’s personal encounters with an urban shaman in Buryatia during which the latter rejected a standard ‘shaman set’ he was offered for performing a ritual. As explained by the shaman himself, this was done so because it was too cheap and as such was contrary to the shaman’s view that only through sending ‘prestigious’ gifts one can secure assistance from equally ‘prestigious’, and as such, efficient spirits. Impressed by this modern interpretation of the traditional worldview, the author moves on to assume that contemporary shamans may now view the world of spirits in the same fashion as the world of humans is interpreted by the consumer society proponents. That is, a world where an individual is assigned his or her place in the social hierarchy according to his or her consumption model. The paper further argues that this surprising flexibility of shamanism is not just a challenge to the ethnology purists but rather a manifestation of shaman’s closeness to the common people and their needs and as such serving as a guarantor of its general effectiveness and invincibility.