История изучения нганасанского шаманства = The history of research on nganasan shamanism

Статья посвящена описанию процесса исследования нганасанского шаманства начиная с XVIII в. и до наших дней. Рассматриваются посвященные шаманству труды отечественных и зарубежных этнографов, языковедов, музыковедов. The paper discusses the history of research on Nganasan shamanism of the period from the 18th century till present. The works on shamanism written by Russian and foreign ethnographers, linguists, musiclogists are studied. Dating back to the 18th century, the works of researchers and travellers mentioned shamanism in Samoyedic cultures. The detailed description of data on shamanism is found in the works of A. F. Middendorf, A. A. Mordvinov, P. I. Tretjakov written in the 19th century. The consistent ethnographic study of Nganasan shamanism dates back to the end of 1920s and was performed by Soviet researchers. Andrey Alexandrovich Popov described the rituals of the “Clean Chum”, documented the stages and procedures of the rituals, discussed the shaman rituals in the cultural context, and provided illustrations of the shaman's clothes and artefacts. In 1978 during the fieldtrip Yurij Borisovich Simchenko collected and later published photo, video and text data of the Nganasan shaman rituals which are of great value. The research work of Galina Nikolaevna Gracheva focuses on shamanism in the context of old Nganasan beliefs about mothers of nature. In the 1990–2000s Nikolaj Pluzhnikov and Jean-Luc Lambert studied shamanism in the perspective of folklore texts (stories about shamans). The published catalogues of the museum collections of Taimyr Local Lore Museum, Museum of Ethnography on Lama Lake are a valuable source of ethnographic data. The linguist E. A. Helimski and the folklore researcher N. T. Kosterkina first published the texts on shaman rituals in Nganasan. Ethnomusicological research on shaman rituals of the Nganasans was performed by O. E. Dobzhanskaya. Unfortunately, at present the decline in shaman practices of the Nganasans is observed. The immediate heirs of shamans, who preserved the immitation forms of the shamanic activities, passed away in 2011–2012. In conclusion it should be noted that the Nganasan shamanism as a cultural phenomenon attracts interest of young researchers who participate in the conferences in Norilsk and Dudinka. The research topic is still strong and relevant which gives hope that there will be works focusing on the new forms of shamanic beliefs and rituals persisting in the modern life of the Nganasans.