Reflection of Arctic geocultures in the sounding attributes of the shaman costumes of Sakha, Evenks and Nganasans

Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, 677000, 4 Ordzhonikidze str., Yakutsk (Sakha Republic), Russian Federation

^* Corresponding author: ve.dyakonova@agiki.ru

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the sounding pendants on the shamanic costume of the Evenks, Sakha and Nganasans in the unity of the shamanic ritual complex and ritual musical traditions. Shamanic pendants are interpreted as a special text of culture, a reflection of the geocultural ideas of the peoples of the Arctic. The paper is based on the materials of field research carried out by the authors in Taimyr in 1989-1990, in the Olenek Evenk national region of Yakutia in 2014 and scientific publications. The sound world of shamanic ritual is a complex phonic picture, which is formed when using vocal, verbal, vocal-speech, signal, instrumental types of intonation. The movements of shaman are accompanied by the sound of colliding pendants on the costume of shamans and its components (headband, shoes, mittens). The sounding pendants were described by ethnographers and musicologists, but they were not considered in connection with geocultural studies. Metal pendants on a shaman costume mark sacred spatial models of the Universe (images of heavenly bodies - the sun, the moon, stars), mythological spaces of the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds inhabited by the shaman's helper spirits - birds, animals, anthropomorphic creatures, they symbolize parts of the human body, etc. The prospects for the study of shaman costume pendants as a symbolic embodiment of the landscape are contained in a more complete description and generalization of all known materials, including the analysis of shaman costumes from ethnographic museum collections.