Buryat Shamanism: Home and Hearth — A Territorialism of the Spirit

In the revival of shamanism in Buryatia, kinship and locale are central. Shamans, representing their clans and kinship lines, mediate between people and sacred spirits, especially those of specific places tied historically to a clan and its buried ancestors. The clan shaman appeals to these ancestral and place spirits for blessings and protection. The historical relationship of Buryat tribes to their land and their pre-Soviet kinship structure parallels traditional spiritual territorial cults. Buryat social organization into hierarchical, patrilineal kinship units corresponds to conceptions of protective deities linked to territorial groupings matching tribes, clans, villages, and families. Cases of renewing home and hearth through clan shamans' appeals to ancestral and local spirits are presented.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In the regeneration of shamanism in Buryatia, kinship and locale play a significant and, indeed, determining role. Shamans, as representatives of their clans and kinship lines, are the intermediaries between people and the sacred, between people and the spirits in nature, in particular spirits of a specific locale which is linked historically to a clan and to the ancestors who have been buried there. It is to these ancestral spirits as well as to the spirits of place that the clan shaman makes entreaties and asks for blessings and protection from ill fortune.The historical relationship of the Buryat tribes to the present land of Buryatia and Ust‐Orda region and the kinship structure of these tribes as existent prior to the Soviet period is shown to have parallels with traditional spiritual territorial cults of Buryats. There is a clear‐cut link between Buryat social organization into hierarchical units of kinship structures along patrilineal descent lines and their conceptions of deities according to locality, that is, they traditionally conceived of protective deities as associated with wider or narrower territorial groupings which corresponded to the social groups of tribes, clans, villages, and families.Several cases of renewal of home and hearth through appeal to ancestral and local spirits by the clan shaman are presented.