Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 49 (2) 2021   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.2.118-124

Annotation:  Late Pleistocene Paleoenvironments and Episodic Human Occupations in the Orkhon Valley of Central Mo Percussive-Abrasive Stone Tools from Chagyrskaya Cave: Results of Functional Analysis On the Date of the Great Shigir Idol An Early Bronze Age Hoard of Bronze Tools from Dvin, Central Armenia Vengerovo-2—a Krotovo Culture Site in the Baraba Forest-Steppe: An Archaeozoological Study The Emergence and Formation of a Proto-Urban Civilization in Azerbaijan: Certain Issues in the Trans Pottery from the Barsov Gorodok III/6 Early Iron Age Fortifi ed Settlement in the Surgut Stretch of The Study of Non-Ferrous Metal Artifacts of the Early Iron Age and Medieval Cultures in the Western Changes in Wooden Defensive Structures at Fort Umrevinsky (Based on Archaeological and Written Sourc The Festive Culture of Mining Plants in the Urals: The Dobryanka Case Happy Marriages Are Blessed in the Heavens, Unhappy Ones Cause Poverty: A View on Women in Usun-Debe Mythologizing History in Buryat Shamanic Rites The Tiger-Dog and its Semantics in the Nanai Shamanic Sculpture: Cultural and Cognitive Aspects Population Affinities of the Ancient Northern Okhotsk People: Cranial Evidence from a Collective Bur The First Settlers of Novosibirsk: The Demographic Structure of Krivoshchekovo, Western Siberia, in   

Mythologizing History in Buryat Shamanic Rites

L.S. Dampilova

Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Buryat Scientific Center, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sakhyanovoy 6, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia

This study explores the regional specificity of Buryat rites with regard to the variable manifestation of mythological and historical components, and late innovations. The first attempt is made to reconstruct the mythological component of spoken texts accompanying these rites in the historical and ethno-cultural context. On the basis of field and archival data, contamination and transformation of myth and history in ritual is demonstrated. The principal characters such as deities, shamans, tribal and clan chiefs are described, and the semantics and pragmatics of ancestor and masterspirits in the historical context are discussed. The mythological status of supernatural characters of the rite is assessed. Specific ethnic criteria of turning real personalities into mythological characters in the historic context are listed. Universal features traceable in the process of turning history into myth include a regular mixture of mythological motifs with historical facts, interchange of temporal planes, and especially the reincarnation theme. The conclusion is made that pragmatic rites are the most stable, whereas the general tendency is that rites become less and less connected with mythology and progressively less hyperbolic.

Keywords: Rite, history, myth, tradition, semantics, semiotics