Chapitre III. Histoires de chamanes

Autobiographical narratives recounted by shamans allow us to understand how a shaman is led to marry a sun daughter. Each of these life stories is constructed around a specific dream. By analyzing them we see that the shamans are supposed to be born of spirits. Thus the male smallpox spirit is the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibétaines
Main Author: Lambert, Jean-Luc
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:French
Published: Centre d'Etudes Mongoles & Sibériennes / École Pratique des Hautes Études 2009
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Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/emscat/1373
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Summary:Autobiographical narratives recounted by shamans allow us to understand how a shaman is led to marry a sun daughter. Each of these life stories is constructed around a specific dream. By analyzing them we see that the shamans are supposed to be born of spirits. Thus the male smallpox spirit is the symbolic father of Djuhadie, the most famous shaman of the 1930’s. To move around among the spirits a neophyte shaman needs a new body, represented by his ritual costume, to which are associated the facial sensory organs (eyes, nose, mouth, ears). As for the shamanic drum, it is considered to be a spirit-reindeer which the shaman should be hunting during the complex ritual executed for obtaining his drum. Only after showing himself capable of killing the spirit-reindeer may a shaman marry a spirit-woman. Des récits autobiographiques racontés par des chamanes vont permettre de comprendre comment un chamane est amené à épouser une fille solaire. Chacune de ces histoires de vie s’articule autour d’un rêve particulier. Leur examen montre que les chamanes sont supposés naître de parents-esprits : ainsi, l’esprit masculin de la variole est le père symbolique de Djuhadie, le chamane le plus réputé des années 1930. Pour évoluer parmi les esprits, le chamane néophyte aura besoin d’un nouveau corps, représenté par son costume rituel, auquel sont associés les quatre organes sensoriels du visage (yeux, nez, bouche, oreilles). Quant au tambour chamanique, il est considéré comme un renne-esprit que le chamane doit chasser durant le rituel complexe effectué pour l’obtention de son tambour. Ce n’est qu’après s’être montré capable d’abattre le renne-esprit que le chamane pourra épouser une femme-esprit.