Title: Whose Steeple is Higher? Religious Competition in Siberia1
Abstract: Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes I am indebted to Georgetown University, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), Yakutsk University, the Academy of Sciences Institute of Languages, Literature and History in Yakutsk (AN IYaLI, Akademiya Nauk, Institut Yazyki, Literatury i Istorii , now the Humanities Studies Institute, Institut Gumanitarnykh Issledovanii), the Sakha Republic Ministry of Culture, and the Kennan Institute of the Smithsonian's Wilson Center for support for fieldwork and/or research. Fieldwork relevant to this paper was begun in 1986 and 1987, continuing periodically from 1991 – 2003. I am deeply thankful to my Sakha language teacher, Klara Belkin, with whom I began studying in 1983, and to many Sakha friends and colleagues, especially Zinaida Ivanova and the late Vladimir Ivanov for sharing their home, and Anatoli I. Gogolev for bravely hosting me in 1986 and 2003, and guiding me in Vilyuisk in 2002. My fieldwork includes formal and informal ritual participation as well as interviews with rural and urban Sakha, and with Russians of the republic. Friends, colleagues and innocent bystanders of both genders and diverse occupations have generously enabled me to have hundreds of productive conversations since 1986. For more on my approaches, see Balzer, 1996 Balzer, MM. 1996. Flights of the sacred, symbolism and theory in Siberian shamanism. American Anthropologist, 98, 2: pp. 305 – 18 [Google Scholar], 2001 Balzer, MM. 2001. Healing failed faith? Contemporary Siberian shamanism. Anthropology and Humanism, 26, 2: pp. 134 – 49 [Google Scholar]. Demographic data from the 2002 census indicate that the Sakha constitute a plurality of about 40 per cent of the population of the republic, with Russians the second-largest group. Unfortunately, accurate data on religious affiliation were not collected in this census. See Nikolayev (Ukhkhan), 2001, which includes a letter written by Archbishop German to Mayor Mikhail'chuk (and published without permission). See Gogolev, 1983 Gogolev AI 1983 Istoricheskaya etnografiya Yakutov: Narodnoye znaniye i obychnoye pravo (Yakutsk, Yakutsky Gosudarstvenny Universitet) [Google Scholar], 1993 Gogolev AI 1993 Yakuty: Problemy etnogenez i formirovaniya kul'tury (Yakutsk, Ministerstvo Kul'tury, Yakutsky Gosudarstvenny Universitet) [Google Scholar], 2000 Gogolev AI 2000 Predisloviye in Svyashchennyye i pamyatnyye mesta Khangalas, (Yakutsk, Akademiya Nauk) [Google Scholar]; Gogolev et al., 1992 Gogolev AI Reshetnikova AP Romanova YeN Sleptsov PA (eds) 1992 Shamanizm kak religiya: Genezis, rekonstruktsiya, traditsii (Yakutsk, Yakutsky Gosudarstvenny Universitet) [Google Scholar]; Alekseyev, 1984 Alekseyev NA 1984 Shamanizm tyurkoyazychnykh narodov Sibiri (Novosibirsk, Nauka) [Google Scholar]; Afanas'yev (Téris), 1993 Afanas'yev LA (Téris) 1993 Aiyy yoreghe (Teachings of the spirit) (Yakutsk, Ministry of Culture) [Google Scholar]; and Saiyyna, 2000 Saiyyna (Maksimova, K. 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For a classic Russian Orthodox view of shamanism, see Troshchansky, 1903 Troshchansky VF 1903 Evolyutsiya chernoi very(shamanstvo) u Yakutov (Kazan', Uchenyye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta) [Google Scholar]; cf. Znamenski, 1999 Znamenski A 1999 Shamanism and Christianity: Native Encounters with Russian Orthodox Missionaries in Siberia and Alaska, 1820 – 1917 (Westport, CT, Greenwood Press) [Google Scholar]. The optimistically named Sakha parliament, Il Tumen, glosses as 'meeting for agreement'. See also Vinokurova, 1994 Vinokurova UA 1994 Skaz o Narode Sakha (Yakutsk, Bichik) [Google Scholar]. 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In Russian, these centres are Tsentr traditsionnoi meditsiny and Tsentr profilakticheskoi meditsiny i meditsiny sporta, respectively. The Sakha centre director presiding over this change was a medical doctor, Yuri Prokop'yev, who I interviewed just prior to the change, in 2000. At least two relevant Russian Federation laws superseded legislation passed in the Sakha Republic (Il Tumen): the 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations (Federal'ny zakon o svobode sovesti i o religioznykh ob"yedineniyakh), which privileges four 'traditional' religions of Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism; and a subsequent law on medical practices, which outlaws folk healing without medical education and certification (Aleksandra Konstantinovna Chirkova, personal communication, 2002). See also Chirkova, 2002 Chirkova AK 2002 Shaman, zhizn' i bessmertiye (Yakutsk, Sakhapoligrafizdat) [Google Scholar]. 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Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 16
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