Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 44 (3) 2016   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.3.111-120

Annotation:  The Middle Paleolithic of the Levant Faunal Remains from the Early Complexes of the Sagan-Zaba II Multilayered Habitation Site (9120–7880 Wooden Saddle-Trees from Yaloman II in the Altai: An Interdisciplinary Analysis A Scythian Age Sword from the Forest-Steppe Altai Above-Ground Frame Buildings in Western Siberia: Archaeological and Ethnographic Parallels New Evidence on the Early Saka Horse Harness from Eastern Kazakhstan “Caster’s Cache” from Tartas-1, Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) Culture, Baraba Forest-Steppe Modeling the Deformation of Bone Points: Archaeological and Experimental Data Woven, Knitted, and Wattled 17th–18th Century Textiles from Tara Fortress, Western Siberia Ceramics from Novoilyinka III, a Chalcolithic Site in Kulunda, Western Siberia Shatra and Jurt: The “Return Address” in the Altaian Ritual The Distribution of Bashkir Tribes Before and During their Integration into the Russian State Mythological Characters of the Domestic Space in Russian Folk Beliefs: Lexicographic and Ethnographi Dental Anthropology of the Mesolithic and Neolithic Populations of the Eastern European Forest-Stepp An Upper Paleolithic Human Mandible and a First Cervical Vertebra from Afontova Gora II   

Shatra аnd Jurt: The “Return Address” in the Altaian Ritual

D.V. Arzyutov

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Nab. 3, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia

University of Aberdeen, Edward Wright Building, Aberdeen, AB24 4QY, United Kingdom

This article examines the shatra—ritual votive fi gurines made by Altaian hunters and pastoralists, and their relevance to the history of chess. Based on fi eld studies in an Altaian village, where the author has been conducting research since 2005, and on the museum and archival data collected in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Gorno-Altaysk, social relations mirrored by the shatra are examined through the lens of Altaian ethnohistory. Proceeding from Edmund Leach’s interpretation of ritual, the study reveals the communicative function of the shatra and its relationship to the land and identity claims of the people participating in the ritual. The concept of “return address” is introduced and applied to Altaian ritual. This concept makes it possible to determine the actors in the ritual and the social actions tied with them. The actors’ lives are intertwined through strong ties between themselves and the outer world, and are united through the creation of a fi gurative composition. These ties and their changeability are described using the concept of agency, as an action free of coercion. It is concluded that the shatra may be metaphorically interpreted as a knot of humans, animals, spirits, landscape, things, and materials.

Keywords: Altaians, game, ritual, ritual objects, communication, agency, religious movement.

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