Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 48 (2) 2020   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.2.106-113

Annotation:  A Multidisciplinary Study of Finds from Suchu Island (1973 Season, Excavation II, Dwelling 1) A Zoomorphic Antler Staff from an Early Neolithic Burial at Pushkinsky, the Orenburg Region Cultural Attribution of Early Bronze Age Tombs Under Kurgans in Azerbaijan Two Rare Finds from the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya Sites in the Black Sea Region The Marfa Kurgan in the Stavropol Territory: An Example of an Ancient Architectural Structure On the Earliest Use of Plate-Formed Cheekpieces and the Emergence of Horse Riding (Based on Finds fr Wooden Constructions in Bronze and Iron Age Burials in Japan and Korea The Southeastern Sindica Frontier: The Raevskoye Fortifi ed Settlement Polychrome Style in Mangystau, Kazakhstan Metal Artifacts from a Newly Discovered Cemetery in the Severnaya Sosva Basin, Northwestern Siberia The Ethnoarchaeology of Russians in the Syro-Palestinian Region (18th–19th Centuries) Traditional Buryat Beliefs About Birds Bridal Symbols in the Don Cossack Wedding Celebration of Nowruz in Bukhara and Samarkand in Ritual Practice and Social Discourses (the Second Architectural and Archaeological Studies in the Tobolsk Kremlin During the 1950s (Based on Photograp Trepanations in Sauromato-Sarmatian Crania from the Lower Volga A Case of Surgical Extraction of the Lower Third Molars in a Cranial Series from the Pucara de Tilca   

Traditional Buryat Beliefs About Birds

A.A. Badmaev

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

This study, based on ethnographic, linguistic, and folk materials, describes and interprets Buryat ideas of birds. The analysis of lexical data reveals the principal groups of birds according to the Buryat folk classification. The bat’s status is indistinct, since bats are not subordinate to the kings of the animal world. Diagnostic criteria underlying the classification of birds are outlined. The main criterion was whether a bird was beneficial or harmful. Ornithomorphic images in Buryat mythology, folklore, and ritual are described. Cult birds and bird totems are listed, and relics of local bird cults (those relating to swan, goose, duck, pigeon, and eagle) are revealed. Birds with positive connotations are the swan, crane, swallow, pigeon, eagle, and eagle-owl. Those with negative connotation are the kite, raven, crow, quail, cuckoo, and hoopoe). The attitude toward ducks, hawks, magpies, and jackdaws is ambivalent. Certain birds (ducks and ravens) were related to cosmogonic ideas; others (swan, goose, eagle, etc.) were endowed with a werewolf capability. The raven, the cuckoo, and the hoopoe symbolized natural cycles, whereas the magpie and the quail were associated with the soul. The role of bird images in the mytho-ritual practices is discussed. The Buryat mythological ideas reflected not only specific ethnic views of certain birds, but also universal ones.

Keywords: Buryats, worldview, shamanism, birds, folklore, ritual