"Shamans and "Dark Agencies
War, Magical Parasitism, and Re-Enchanted Spirits in Siberia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3371668 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Konstantinos Zorbas (0000-0003-4542-3958, Shandong University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1150 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel15101150 |
| OpenAlex | W4402773681 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 31 |
Alleged practices of magical assault and vampirism are a recurrent feature of popular explanations of misfortune in Tuva, South Siberia. Based on a field study of healing practices in an "Association of Shamans", this article analyses rituals of redressing curse afflictions in the context of Russian political domination. A central purpose of this discussion is to foreground the centrality of kinds of parasitical worship and occult threat to structures of political power in-and beyond-the territory of Tuva. Focusing on a "cursescape", which develops from the combative practices of shamans, occult specialists, and office-holders, the article probes a repertoire of shamanic healing symbols. It is argued that healing efficacy is constructed in the process of engaging with hunting symbols and animal spirits, which appear in Indigenous Siberian cosmologies. The analysis shows that ideas of ritual risk underpin the process of symbolic resolution. Whereas shamanic practices provide refuge to spirits evicted from their natural landscapes, Tibetan Buddhism-the unifying religion of Tuva-offers an alternative path of healing the effects of the shamans' propagation of spirits. The article highlights indigenous perceptions of a "cursed" landscape as a space where the agencies of "darkness" and their political sponsors are confronted with an emancipating religious modality emerging from local Buddhist rituals. The analysis displays the unsolved drama of itinerant spirits and shamanic ancestral souls, whose agency is revealed through successive-yet inauspicious-forms of reincarnation
Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
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Deciphering the Sabbath
Shamanism, Occult Murder, and Political Assassination in Siberia and Beyond
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Reassembling Democracy
Landscape, Ritual and Identity Among the Hyolmo of Nepal
Frontier Encounters
Stalin and the Blue Elephant
Velocity and Purpose among Reindeer Herders in the Verkhoyansk Mountains
Modern Tuvan Identity
Sorcery, Premeditated Murder, and the Canalization of Aggression in Sri Lanka
The Origins and Reinvention of Shamanic Retaliation in a Siberian City
The Rebirth of a People
Social Change and the Deities
Shamans in the City
Soul Suckers
The Tenacity of Ethnicity
Siberia
Absent powers
Indigenous Intellectuals and Suppressed Russian Anthropology
Ritual Power
"The Construction of Soviet Ethnography and "The Peoples of Siberia
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |