Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:01:37.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Shamanism and Christianity on the Russian Siberian Borderland Altaian Responses to Russian Orthodox Missionaries (1830–1917)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Andrei A. Znamenski
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For those historians and anthropologists who study shamanism, Altai represents the ‘motherland’ of this institution. For their inspirations scholars who want to explore ‘classical’ cases of shamanism usually turn to this area, located in south-western Siberia, at the intersection of Russian, Mongolian and Chinese borders. At the same time, many of these scholars, who are concerned with a quest for ‘ideal’ and ‘traditionalist’ shamanism, ignore almost one-hundred years of contacts between native Altaians and the Russian Orthodox mission that considerably affected indigenous culture and ideology. For instance, some Russian anthropologists have stressed that despite Christian activities, natives still clung to their traditional beliefs at the turn of the twentieth century. N.A. Alekseev emphasised the superficial character of native Christianization and stressed the persistence of indigenous religion. In his recent work, Potapov, another prominent Altaian scholar, similarly concluded:

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 107 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Alekseev, N.A., ‘Shamanism among the Turkic Peoples of Siberia’ in: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam ed., Shamanism: Soviet Studies of Traditional Religion in Siberia and Central Asia (Armonk and London 1990) 85, 92Google Scholar.

2 Potapov, P., Altaiskii Shamanizm (Leningrad 1991) 91Google Scholar.

3 Katsuba, D.V., ‘Blagotvoritelnaia Rol Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii’ in: Shcheglova, T.K ed., Etnografiia Altaia (Barnaul 1996) 72–76Google Scholar;Eroshov, V.V. and Kimeev, Valerii, Tropoiu Missionerov: Altaiskaia Dukhovnaia Missiia v Kuznetskom Krae (Kemerovo 1995)Google Scholar.

4 James, Wendy and Johnson, Douglas H. eds, Vernacular Christianity: Essays in the Social Anthropology of Religion (New York 1988)Google Scholar;Lamin, Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (Maryknoll 1989)Google Scholar;Rafael, Vicente L., Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule (Ithaca 1988)Google Scholar;Larson, Pier M., ‘“Capacities and Modes of Thinking”: Intellectual Engagements and Subaltern Hegemony in the Early History of Malagasy Christianity’, American Historical Review 102/4 (1997) 969–1002CrossRefGoogle Scholar;Kan, Sergei, ‘Russian Orthodox Missionaries and the Tlingit Indians of Alaska, 1880-1900’ in: Gpugh, Barry and Christie, Laird eds, New Dimensions in Ethnohistory (Hull 1991) 129–160Google Scholar;Fienup-Riordan, Ann, The Real People and the Children of Thunder: The Yup 'ik Eskimo Encounter with Moravian Missionaries John and Edith Kilbuck (Norman 1991)Google Scholar.

5 Sagalaev, Andrei M., Altai v Zerkale Mifa (Novosibirsk 1992) 143Google Scholar.

6 Satlaev, Feofan, Kumandintsy: Istoriko Etnograficheskii Ocherk XIX - Pervoi Chetverti XX Veka (Gorno-Altaisk 1974) 5Google Scholar.

7 Potapov, L.P., ‘The Shors’ in: Levin, M.G. and Potapov, L.P. eds, The Peoples of Siberia (Chicago 1964) 447Google Scholar.

8 Potapov, , ‘The Shors’, 459Google Scholar;Moskovskie Tserkovnie Viedomosti 52 (1886) 791Google Scholar.

9 Moskovskie Tserkovnie Viedomosti 52 (1886) 791Google Scholar.

10 Radlov, Vladimir, Iz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika (Moskva 1989) 191Google Scholar.

11 Missionerstvo na Altae i v Kirgizskoi Stepi v 1885 (Tomsk 1886) 45Google Scholar;Missiia, Altaiskaiia Dukhovnaiia, Inorodcheskii Vopros na Altae (Tomsk 1885) 13Google Scholar.

12 Potapov, L.P., Ocherkipo fstorii Shorii (Moskva 1936) 203Google Scholar.

13 ladrintsev, Nikolai M., Sibirskie Inorodtsy, likh Byt i Sovremennoe Polozhenie (St Petersburg 1891) 100Google Scholar.

14 Potapov, , ‘The Shors’, 446–447Google Scholar.

15 Potapov, , Otcherki po Istorii Altaitsev, 230, 233Google Scholar.

16 Verbitskii, Vasilii, Altaitsy (Tomsk 1870) 24–25Google Scholar.

17 Potapov, , Otcherki po Istorii Altaitsev, 240-242, 319Google Scholar.

18 Khrapova, N.Y., ‘ZakhvatiZemel Gornogo Altaia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missiieiv Poreforner-ninni Period’ in: Borodavkin, A.P. ed., Voprosi Sotsialno-Ekonomicheskogo Razvitia Sibiri v Period Kapitalizma (Barnaul 1984) 213–214Google Scholar.

19 Radlov, , lz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika, 185Google Scholar.

20 Satlaev, , Kumandintsy, 147–164Google Scholar;Potapov, Leonid, Altaiskii Shamanizm, 245–260Google Scholar;Verbitskii, V.I., Altaiskie Inorodtsy: Sbomik Etnograficheskih Statei I Izsliedovanii Altaiskago Missionera (Moskva 1893) 43–44Google Scholar;Diakonova, V.P., ‘Religioznie Predstavleniia Altaitsev i Tuvintsev o Prirode i Cheloveke’ in: Vdovin, Innokentii S. ed., Priroda i Chelovek v Religioznikh Predstavleniakh Narodov Sibiri i Severa (Leningrad 1976) 268Google Scholar.

21 Verbitskii, Vasilii, ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missiiza 1866 God’, Pravoslavnoe Obozrienie 22/2 (1867) 167Google Scholar.

22 Holler, Clyde, Black Elk's Religion: The Sun Dance and Lakota Catholicism (Syracuse 1995) 213Google Scholar.

23 Hultkrantz, Ake, ‘Ecological and Phenomenological Aspects of Shamanism’ in: Dioszegi, V. and Hoppal, M. eds, Shamanism in Siberia (Budapest 1978) 35Google Scholar.

24 Fogelson, Raymond D. and Adams, Richard N. eds, The Anthropology of Power: Ethnographic Studies from Asia, Oceania, and the New World (New York 1977)Google Scholar.

25 Sagalaev, , Altai v Zerkale Mifa, 125Google Scholar.

26 Balzer, M.M., ‘Introduction’ in: Balzer, , Shamanism, VIII–IXGoogle Scholar.

27 Humphrey, Caroline, ‘Shamanic Practice and the State in Northern Asia: Views from the Centre and Periphery’ in: Thomas, Nicholas and Humphrey, Caroline eds, Shamanism, History and the State (Ann Arbor 1994) 191-193, 224Google Scholar;Hamayon, Roberte N., ‘Shamanism: A Religion of Nature?’ in: Irimoto, Takashi and Yamada, Takako eds, Circumpolar Religion and Ecology. Anthropology of the North (Tokyo 1994) 121Google Scholar;Hultkrantz, , ‘Ecological and Phenomenological Aspects of Shamanism’, 51–52Google Scholar;Gilberg, R., ‘How to Recognize a Shaman among Other Religious Specialists?’ in: Hoppal, M. ed., Shamanism in Eurasia (Gottingen 1984) 26Google Scholar;Sagalaev, , Altai v Zerkale Mifa, 122Google Scholar.

28 Kelemen, A., ‘Medicine Man Personality and Shamanic Worldview’ in: Hoppal, ed., Sha manism in Eurasia, 185Google Scholar.

29 Basilov, Vladimir, a Russian student of Shamanism drew attention to this involuntary character of Shamanic vocation in a title of his book: Vladimir Basilov, ‘Chosen by Spirits’ in: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam ed., Shamanic Worlds: Rituals and Lore of Siberia and Central Asia (Armonk, NY and London 1997) 3–48Google Scholar.

30 Verbitskii, , Atlaiskie Inorodtsy, 44Google Scholar.

31 Idem: ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1862 God”, Pravoslavnoe Obozrienie 10/2 (1863) 152.

32 Shirokogoroff, S.M., Psychomental Complex of the Tungus (New York 1980) 272Google Scholar.

33 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1865 God’, Pravosvanoe Obozrienie 19/1 (1866) 72Google Scholar.

34 Potapov, , Otcherki po Istorii Altaitsev, 248Google Scholar;Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 7Google Scholar; see about biography and life of Glukharev as a head of the mission: Kharlampovich, K.V., Arkhimandrit Makarii Glukharev (St Petersburg 1905)Google Scholar.

35 Missiia, Altaiskaiia Dukhovnaiia, ‘Otchet ob Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1875 God’, Missioner 18 (1877) 143Google Scholar; For more about material help provided by the Altaian mission to natives see: Verbitskii, Vasilii, ‘Ocherk Dietelnosti Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii po Sluchaiu Piatidesiatiletiiae iea Yubileia (1830-1880)’ in: Pamiatnaia Knizhka Tomskoi Gubernii (Tomsk 1885) 216–217Google Scholar.

36 Sinkovskii, , Zapiski Altaiskago Missionera (Moskva 1883) 138Google Scholar.

37 Katsuba, D.V., ‘Blagotvoritelnaia Rol Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii’, Etnografiia Altaia (Barnaul 1996) 73Google Scholar.

38 ‘Otchet ob Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1875 God’, 144.

39 Missiia, Altaiskaiia Dukhovnaiia, Missionerstvo na Altae i v Kirgizskoi Stepi v 1885, 41Google Scholar; Missiia, Altaiskaiia Dukhovnaiia, Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missiiakh 1888 (Tomsk 1889) 30Google Scholar; Pravoslavnoe.

40 Obshchestvo, Missionerskoe, Sbomik Sviedenii o Pravoslavnikh Missiakh i Deitelnosti Pravoslavnago Missionerskago Obshchestva II (Moskva 1872) 268, 431Google Scholar.

41 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 12Google Scholar. Sagalaev, Andrei M., ‘Khristianizatsia Altaitsev v Kontse XIX-Nachale XX Veka (Metodi i Resultati)’ in: Gemuev, I.N. and Khudiakov, I.S. eds, Etnografiia Narodov Sibiri (Novosibirsk 1984) 121, 124Google Scholar; Collins, David N., ‘Colonialism and Siberian Development: A Case Study of the Orthodox Mission in the Altai, 1830-1913’ in: Wood, A. and French, R.A., The Development of Siberia, Peoples and Resources (London 1989) 56, 65Google Scholar; Iadrintsev, , Sibirskie Inorodtsy, 228Google Scholar; Sbornik Sviedenii o Pravoslavnikh Missiakh i Deitelnosti Pravoslavnago Missionerskago Obshchestva II, 279.

42 ‘Otchet ob Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1875 God”, Missioner 10 (1877) 77Google Scholar; Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missii v 1888, 10.

43 Tomskiia Eparkhialniia Viedomosti 7/1 (1909) 287Google Scholar.

44 Ibid. 5 (1886) 3.

45 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 39Google Scholar;Radlov, , Iz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika, 81Google Scholar;Tomskiie Eparkhialnie Viedomosti 5 (1886) 2Google Scholar.

46 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1864 God’, 261–262Google Scholar.

47 Radlov, , Iz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika, 224Google Scholar.

48 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1864 God”, 266Google Scholar.

49 Missionerstvo na Altae i v Kirgizskoi Stepi 1885, 22.

50 Moskovskie Tserkovnie Viedomosti 52 (1886) 791Google Scholar.

51 Tomskiia Eparkhialnie Viedomosti 4 (1891) 3–4Google Scholar.

52 Sinkovskii, Filaret, ‘Iz Altaiskoi Missii’, Missioner 14 (1877) 115–116Google Scholar.

53 Moskovskie Tserkovnie Viedomosti 52 (1886) 792Google Scholar.

54 lastrebov, Iliya I., Protsess Usvoenia Khristianstva AUaiaskimi Inorodtsami (Kazan 1899) 4Google Scholar.

55 Potapov, , Otcherki po Istorii Altaitsev, 317Google Scholar;Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 12–13.Google ScholarPotapov, , Altaiaskii Shamanism, 225Google Scholar.

56 Konstantin Sokolov, ‘Iz Zapisok Missionera Ursulskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Missii za 1887 God”, Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missiiakh za 1888, 22.

57 See similar accounts about a rational choice: Ivanosvki, Sergei, ‘Zapiski Missionera Bachatskago Otdeleniia Za 1894 God’, Pravoslavnii Blagoviestnik 1-12 (1895) 170Google Scholar; idem: ‘Zapiski Missionera Bachatskago Otdeleniia Za 1894 God’, Pravoslavnii Blagoviestnik 15-16 (1896) 323; A 1898 Altai mission report stressed that tribal chiefs in the northern Altai became more active in accepting baptism. Otchet Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii v 1898 (Tomsk 1898) 16Google Scholar.

58 Missiia, Altaiskaiia Dukhovnaiia, Inorodcheskii Vopros na Altae, 11Google Scholar.

59 Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missii v 1888, 26, 53.

60 Otchet Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1914 God (Tomsk) 27Google Scholar.

61 Chevalkov, Mikhail, Pamiatnoe Zavieshchanie: Avtobiografiia Missionera Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii Sviashchennika M.V. Chevalkova (Moskva 1894) 81Google Scholar.

62 Ibid., 5.

63 Ibid., 8, 20-21, 24-25, 28.

64 Ibid., 28, 65-66, 69.

65 Ibid., 57.

66 Ibid., 64-66.

67 Ibid., 60-61.

68 Radlov, , Iz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika, 210Google Scholar.

69 Altaiskaia i Kirgizskaia Missii Tomskoi Eparkhii v 1892 Godu (Biisk 1893) 15Google Scholar.

70 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 110–111Google Scholar.

71 Ibid., 94.

72 Funk, Dimitri A., ‘Bachatskie Teleuti v XIX-Nachale XX Veka’ (Dissertation Leningrad 1991) 17Google Scholar.

73 Sokolov, Konstantin ed., Zamechatelnie Sluchai Proiavleniia Promisla Bozhiia na Altae (Tomsk 1912) 44Google Scholar.

74 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 113Google Scholar.

75 Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missii 1888, 24.

76 Verbitskii, , ‘Vipiska iz Zhurnala Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii, Sviashchennika Vasilia Verbitskago’, Khristianskoe Chtenie 1 (1862) 550Google Scholar.

77 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhvnoi Missii za 1865 God’, 92Google Scholar.

78 Sinkovskii, , Zapiski Altaiskago Missionera, 87Google Scholar.

79 Verbitskii, , ‘Vipiska iz Zhurnala Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii Sviashchennika Vasilia Verbitskago’, 547Google Scholar.

80 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1864 God”, 151–152Google Scholar.

81 Innokentii, Episkop, Alataiska Missiia v 1907 (St Petersburg 1907) 31Google Scholar.

82 Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missii 1888, 23.

83 Potapov, , Ocherki po Istorii Shorii, 230Google Scholar.

84 Verbitskii, , ‘Vipiska iz Zhurnala Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii, Sviashchennika Vasilia Verbitskago’, 551Google Scholar.

85 Idem: ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1864 God”, 273.

86 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 101, 113Google Scholar.

87 M. P-v [Putintsev], ‘Sviatini Altaia’, Dushepoleznoe Chtenie 25/2 (Moscow 1884) 217Google Scholar.

88 Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 29–30Google Scholar.

89 Radlov, , lz Sibiri: Stranitsy Dnevnika, 204Google Scholar.

90 Chevalkov, , Pamiatnoe Zavieshchanie, 25–26Google Scholar.

91 Verbitskii, , ‘Vipiska iz Zhurnala Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii, Sviashchennika Vasilia Verbitskago’, 549Google Scholar.

92 Zamechatelnie Sluchai Proiavleniia Promisla Bozhiia na Altae, 45–46.

93 Verbitskii, , ‘Zapiski Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii za 1864 God’, 262–264Google Scholar.

94 Verbitskii, , ‘Vipiska iz Zhurnala Missionera Kuznetskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Dukhovnoi Missii, Sviashchennika Vasilia Verbitskago’, 549–550Google Scholar.

95 Zamechatelnie Sluchai Proiavleniia Promisla Bozhiia na Altae.

96 Ibid., 49–50.

97 P-v, ‘Sviatini Altaia”, 223–224Google Scholar.

98 Ibid., 222; Eroshov, and Kimeev, , Tropoiu Missionerov, 94Google Scholar.

99 lastrebov, Iliya I., Protsess Usvoenia Khristianstua Altaiskimi Inorodtsami, 4Google Scholar.

100 Postnikov, Vasilii, ‘Zapiski Missionera Miutinskago Stana Altaiskoi Missii za 1876’, Missioner 52 (1877) 427Google Scholar; Missionerstvo na Altae i v Kirgizskoi Stepi 1885, 20.

101 Benediktov, Peter, ‘Iz Zapisok Missionera Chemalskago Otdelenia Altaiskoi Missii, Sviashchennika Petra Benediktova za 1892 God’, Altaiskaia i Kirgizskaia Missii Tomskoi Eparkhii v 1892 Godu, Appendix II, 8Google Scholar.

102 Zamechatelnie Sluchai Proiavleniia Promisla Bozhiia na Altae, 9.

103 Sergei Ivanovski, ‘Iz Zapisok Misisonera Kabezenskago Otdelenia, Altaiskoi Missii, Sviashchennika Sergeia Ivanovskago za 1892 God’, Altaiskaia i Kirgizskaia Missii Tomskoi Eparkhii v 1892 Godu, Appendix III, 17.

104 Zamechatelnie Sluchai Proiavleniia Promisla Bozhiia na Altae, 47-48.

105 Missionerstvo na Altae i v Kirgizskoi Stepi 1885 (1886) 30Google Scholar.

106 Kanshin, A., ‘Iz Zapisok Uchitelia Ilinskoi Missionerskoi Shkoli Cherno-Anuiskago Otdelenia A. Kanshina”, Otchet ob Altaiskoi i Kirgizskoi Missii v 1888, 51Google Scholar.