Through Dialogue with Contemporary Yakut Shamans: How They Revive Their Worldview

• Published in: Anthropology of Consciousness
• Main Author: Yamada, Takako
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1996
• Subjects: Anthropology; Sakha; Republic of Sakha; Yakutia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ac.1996.7.3.1; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1525%2Fac.1996.7.3.1; https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ac.1996.7.3.1

In this article I indicate the revitalization of Yakut worldview based on dialogues with contemporary shamans in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in 1994. Dualistic views of the world are emerging: the real and the spiritual worlds, and the separate concepts of good and evil spiritual beings. Also, the relation between man and spiritual beings has become idealized as a symbiotic relation between man and nature. This new animistic idea has resulted in suggesting the spiritual equality between human beings and nature and cyclic movements between the two.