Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty
Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine Khanty spatial ritual behaviour in the context of the simultaneous application of different ideas about sacred landscape. I aim to demonstrate the functional pattern behind handling seemingly ambivalent characteristics of cosmological models in the...
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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
2017
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/jef/11/1/article-p19.xml https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 |
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crdegruyter:10.1515/jef-2017-0003 2024-05-19T07:43:24+00:00 Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty Leete, Art 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/jef/11/1/article-p19.xml https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 en eng Walter de Gruyter GmbH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics volume 11, issue 1, page 19-38 ISSN 2228-0987 journal-article 2017 crdegruyter https://doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 2024-05-02T06:51:35Z Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine Khanty spatial ritual behaviour in the context of the simultaneous application of different ideas about sacred landscape. I aim to demonstrate the functional pattern behind handling seemingly ambivalent characteristics of cosmological models in the tangible ritual performance of the Khanty, an indigenous people inhabiting the taiga and forest taiga zone of Western Siberia. I explore three cases in which the concept of sacred topography is applied among the Khanty by exploring two public ceremonies of reindeer sacrifice and one episode of a post-funeral rite. It appeared that the spatial conceptualisation is different in different rituals. During sacrificial ceremonies, the Khanty position the Upper World in the southern direction, while in the case of death rituals, the Upper World is projected towards upstream of a river, even if it remains in the north. Studying different spatial orientations during rituals provides a methodological key for approaching other concepts of vernacular belief among Siberian indigenous communities. Article in Journal/Newspaper khanty taiga Siberia De Gruyter Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 11 1 19 38 |
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English |
description |
Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine Khanty spatial ritual behaviour in the context of the simultaneous application of different ideas about sacred landscape. I aim to demonstrate the functional pattern behind handling seemingly ambivalent characteristics of cosmological models in the tangible ritual performance of the Khanty, an indigenous people inhabiting the taiga and forest taiga zone of Western Siberia. I explore three cases in which the concept of sacred topography is applied among the Khanty by exploring two public ceremonies of reindeer sacrifice and one episode of a post-funeral rite. It appeared that the spatial conceptualisation is different in different rituals. During sacrificial ceremonies, the Khanty position the Upper World in the southern direction, while in the case of death rituals, the Upper World is projected towards upstream of a river, even if it remains in the north. Studying different spatial orientations during rituals provides a methodological key for approaching other concepts of vernacular belief among Siberian indigenous communities. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leete, Art |
spellingShingle |
Leete, Art Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
author_facet |
Leete, Art |
author_sort |
Leete, Art |
title |
Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
title_short |
Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
title_full |
Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
title_fullStr |
Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landscape and Gods Among the Khanty |
title_sort |
landscape and gods among the khanty |
publisher |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/jef/11/1/article-p19.xml https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 |
genre |
khanty taiga Siberia |
genre_facet |
khanty taiga Siberia |
op_source |
Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics volume 11, issue 1, page 19-38 ISSN 2228-0987 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0003 |
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Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics |
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11 |
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1 |
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19 |
op_container_end_page |
38 |
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1799483124918255616 |