рус eng
«IZVESTIYA IRKUTSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA». SERIYA «POLITOLOGIYA. RELIGIOVEDENIE»
«THE BULLETIN OF IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY». SERIES «POLITICAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION STUDIES»
ISSN 2073-3380 (Print)

List of issues > Series «Political Science and Religion Studies». 2023. Vol 44

Soviet Researchers about Shamanic Initiatory Sickness and “Shamanic Madness”

Author(s)
D. O. Furtsev
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to review various opinions of Soviet scientists about mental health of shamans. The task of this paper is to analyse a wide range of Soviet sources on shamanism, identify their attitude to “shamanic madness” and possible reasons for its formation, and compare positions of different authors on the subject. The following methods were used: comparative, causal analysis, historicism, and typological methods. In modern Russia, there is a preconceived opinion about the sharply negative attitude to religion in the Soviet era. In the USSR, there was indeed active antireligious propaganda, but it is an exaggeration to say that it represents the entire complex layer of relations between representatives of different faiths and Soviet institutions. Soviet science was based on the aspiration for objective knowledge of the world. This also applied to the primitive beliefs that existed at that time in the Northern and Eastern regions of the country, in particular shamanism. This article deals with the issue of shamanic initiatory sickness and shamanic activities based on communication with spirits. On this issue, there was a lively debate – whether these diseases are the result of psychological abnormalities or have a different origin. The article provides a wide range of sources about shamanism and the personality of the shaman, from the works of exiled revolutionaries to professional researchers done in the 80s. The main theories about the reasons for the shaman's ritual behaviour are briefly presented. The dependence of scientists' representation of the shamans during the development of Soviet state and science is shown.
About the Authors
Furtsev Dmitry Olegovich, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Assistant, Department of Philosophy in Natural Sciences, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation, e-mail: D.Furtsev@rambler.ru
For citation
Furtsev D.O. Soviet Researchers about Shamanic Initiatory Sickness and “Shamanic Madness” . The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2023, vol. 44, pp. 90–101. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073- 3380.2023.44.90 (in Russian)
Keywords
primitive religions, psychology, shamanism, initiation, initiation sickness of the shaman, history of religious studies, comparative analysis.
UDC
291.62
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2023.44.90
References
  1. Anokhin A.V. Dusha i ee svoistva po predstavleniiu teleutov [Soul and its properties according to the Teleuts]. Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii[Proceedings of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography]. Ed. by E.F. Karskii. Leningrad, Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1929, vol. 8, pp. 253-269. (in Russian)
  2. Basilov V.N. Izbranniki dukhov [Chosen Spirits]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1984, 208 p. (in Russian)
  3. Bogoraz V.G. Chukchi. II. Religiia [Chukchi. II. Religion]. Leningrad, Glavsevmorputi Publ., 1939, 214 p. (in Russian)
  4. Bogoraz V.G. K psikhologii shamanstva u narodov Severo-vostochnoi Azii [To the psychology of shamanism among the peoples of Northeast Asia]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie [Ethnographic Review], 1910, no. 1-2, pp. 1-36. (in Russian)
  5. Gondatti N.L. Sledy iazycheskikh verovanii u manzov [Traces of pagan beliefs among the Manzes]. Izvestiia Obshchestva liubitelei estestvoznaniia, antropologii i etnografii. [Proceedings of the Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography], 1880, vol. 48, iss. 2, pp. 49-73. (in Russian)
  6. Damte D.S. Psikhologiia religii V.I. Mamleeva [The psychology of religion V.I. Mamleeva]. Vestnik PSTGU [St. Tikhon's University Review], 2018, iss. 80, pp. 83-96. (in Russian)
  7. Dyrenkov N.P. Poluchenie shamanskogo dara po vozzreniiam turetskikh plemen [Receiving a shamanic gift according to the views of Turkish tribes]. Sbornik MAE [Proceedings of Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography], 1930, vol. 9 pp. 267-291. (in Russian)
  8. Zhukovskaia N.L. Shamanizm: religiia? Mirovozzrenie? Praktika? [Shamanism: Religion? Worldview? Practice?]. Nauka i zhizn [Science and Life], 1998, no. 8, pp. 144-151. (in Russian)
  9. Zelenin D.K. Ideologiia sibirskogo shamanstva [Ideology of Siberian shamanism]. Izvestiya AN SSSR [Herald of the USSR Academy of Sciences]. Moscow, Leningrad, 1935. no. 8, pp. 709-743. (in Russian)
  10. Kon F.Ia. V zemle uriankhov-soiot [In the land of the Uryankhs-Soyot]. Molodaia Gvardiia [Young Guard], 1929, no. 5-6, pp. 68-78. (in Russian)
  11. Kosokov I.N. K voprosu o shamanstve v Severnoi Azii [On the question of shamanism in North Asia]. Moscow, Bezbozhnik Publ., 1930, 80 p. (in Russian)
  12. Ksenofontov G.V. Kult sumasshestviia v uralo-altaiskom shamanizme. (K voprosu ob “umiraiushchem i voskreshaiushchem boge”) [The cult of madness in the Ural-Altai shamanism. (On the question of the “dying-and-rising god”)]. Shamanizm. Izbrannye trudy (Publikatsii 1926-1929 gg.) [Shamanism. Selected Works (Publications 1926-1929)], Yakutsk, 1992, pp. 249-265. (in Russian)
  13. Lopatin I.A. Goldy amurskie, ussuriiskie i sungariiskie [Golds Amur, Ussuri and Sungari]. Zapiski Obshchestva izucheniia Amuskogo kraia Vladivostokskogo otdeleniia Priamurskogo otdela Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva [Notes of the Society for the Study of the Amu Territory of the Vladivostok Branch of the Amur Department of the Russian Geographical Society]. Vladivostok, Department of Internal Affairs Publ., 1922, 370 p. (in Russian)
  14. Mikhailov T.M. Buriatskii shamanizm: istoriia, struktura i sotsialnye funktsii [Buryat shamanism: history, structure and social functions]. Novosibirsk, Science Publ., 1987, 288 p. (in Russian)
  15. Mikhailovskii V.M. Shamanstvo: Sravnitelno-etnograficheskie ocherki. Vyp. 1. [Shamanism: Comparative Ethnographic Essays. Iss. 1]. Moscow, 1892, 115 p. (in Russian)
  16. Mitskevich S.I. Menerik i emeriachenie, formy isterii v Kolymskom krae [Manerik and emeriachenye, forms of hysteria in the Kolyma region]. Leningrad, 1929, 63 p. (in Russian)
  17. Pallas P. Puteshestvie po raznym mestam Rossiiskogo gosudarstva po poveleniiu Sankt-Peterburgskoi Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk: v 3 ch. [Travel to different places of the Russian state at the behest of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences]. St. Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Sciences Publ., 1788, Ch. 3, first half, 624 p. (in Russian)
  18. Revunenkova E.V. O lichnosti shaman [On the personality of the shaman]. Sovetskaia etnografiia [Soviet ethnography]. Moscow, Science Publ., 1974, no. 3, pp. 104-111. (in Russian)
  19. Suslov I.M. Shamanstvo i borba s nim [Shamanism and the fight against it]. Sovetskii sever [Soviet North]. 1931, no. 3-4, pp. 89-152. (in Russian)
  20. Tokarev S.A. Istoriia russkoi etnografii: (dooktiabrskii period) [History of Russian ethnography: (pre-October period)]. Moscow, Science Publ., 1966, 453 p. (in Russian)
  21. Tokarev S.A. Rannie formy religii [Early forms of religion.]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1990, 622 p. (in Russian)
  22. Shastina T.P. Shaman v literaturnom obraze sovetskoi natsionalnoi okrainy. Oirotiia, 1920-1930-e gg [Shaman in the literary image of the Soviet national outskirts. Oirotia, 1920-1930s]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Tomsk State University Journal]. 2015, no. 392, p. 43-53. (in Russian)
  23. Shakhnovich M.I. V.G. Bogoraz – istorik religii [V.G. Bogoraz – historian of religion]. Iz arkhiva. Izbrannye trudy V.G.Bogoraza po shamanstvu (1934-1936 gg.) [From the archive. Selected works of V.G. Bogoraz on shamanism (1934-1936)]. Ed. by M.M.Shakhnovich, E.A.Teriukovoi. St Petersburg, S.-Peterb. Univ. Publ., 2018, pp. 12-56. (in Russian)
  24. Shirokogorov S.M. Opyt issledovaniia osnov shamanstva u tungusov [Experience in researching the foundations of shamanism among the Tungus]. Uchenye zapiski istoriko-filologicheskogo fakulteta v g. Vladivostoke [Scientific notes of the Faculty of History and Philology in Vladivostok]. Vladivostok, 1919, iss. 1, pp. 47-108. (in Russian)
  25. Shternberg L.Ia. Giliaki, orochi, goldy, negidaltsy, ainy: Stati i materialy [Gilyaks, Orochi, Golds, Negidals, Ainu: Articles and proceedings]. Ed. by Ia.P. Alkor (Koshkina). Khabarovsk, Dalgiz Publ., 1933, 740 p. (in Russian)
  26. Shternberg L.Ia. Pervobytnaia religiia v svete etnografii [Primeval religion in the light of ethnography]. Leningrad, Institute of the Peoples of the North Publ., 1936, 572 p. (in Russian)
  27. Eliade M. Shamanizm: Arkhaicheskie tekhniki ekstaza [Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy]. Moscow, Akademicheskii Proekt Publ., 2014, 399 p.
  28. Shirokogoroff S.M. Psychomental complex of the Tungus. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1935. 469 p.
  29. Znamenski A. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and the Western Imagination. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007, 464 p.

Full text (russian)