Shamanic Culture, Ethnic Identity and Power among the Finno-Ugric and Siberian Peoples

none1noThe special characteristics of the shamanic vision of the world of the Finno-Ugrians, which are connected with the mythical scenario of the remote past and their corresponding magic beliefs often totemic in origin, are the expression of the well-defined ethnical identities. In shamanic rites the use of national idioms has always been maintained so as to preserve the original form of expression of a cultural identity which dates back to the archaic period. Finno-Ugric and Siberian shamanism is particularly characterized by the concept of the duality (or plurality) of the soul which finds its greatest expression in the doubling of the shaman in trance, and the parallel knowledge of the existence of two realities which complement each other, one which is visible, the other invisible. The ideologies of the shamanic system of beliefs show an extraordinary adaptability to the rigid requirements of the great religions and various other streams of thought. Even outside its original habitat the influence exercised by shamanism from very early times is due to its continuing flexibility. The preserving force of shamanism springs from its capacity to adapt, and this is once more witnessed by its “renaissance” in Siberia. This system of rites and beliefs has survived intact both under the persistent attempts of Christianization and the censure exercized by political ideologies which are of an exclusively materialistic nature. In the light of these considerations it can be understood how a study of the phenomenological kind of shamanism now reveals its limits. The necessity for a study of the semiotic type of this system of beliefs must now be recognized.noneCorradi C.Corradi C