Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 49 (2) 2021   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.2.125-133

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   

The Tiger-Dog and its Semantics in the Nanai Shamanic Sculpture:
Cultural and Cognitive Aspects

O.V. Maltseva

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

This article describes the Nanai shamanic set, combining two images—a dog and a tiger. The Nanai shamanic sculpture is viewed as a phenomenon reflecting both the subjective and the objective reality constructed by traditional cultural practices. Parallels with Siberian and Pacific cultures reveal the significance of the domestic animal and the wild predator for the people of the Lower Amur. Using folkloric and lexical data, findings of field studies, and ethnographic evidence, folk images of the dog and the tiger are reconstructed. Viewing the problem in the context of collective knowledge about the world reveals the archetypical and modified layers in the image’s construction. The idea of the dog, typical of all the peoples of Siberia and the Russian Far East, is that of a draft animal, assistant, sacrifice, and guide to the afterworld. Its image in the Nanai shamanic sculpture was meant to enhance the power of the spirit. It was often combined with the image of the tiger, personifying shaman’s power and the progenitors. The analysis of the terminology relating to the tiger attests to the Southeast Asian roots of its cult. The tiger semantics in the Nanai culture resulted from a blend of Tungus, Paleoasiatic, and Manchu (Chinese) elements. These images were used by shamans not only as assistants in “capturing" spirits and holding them in “detention", but also as a means of communicating with the world of spirits.

Keywords: Ritual sculpture, Nanai people, dog, tiger, semantic field, shaman