added to the circumcision rituals their own practice of using
masks. Naturally, in each case the model is transformed from
one region to another, but this transformation always takes
place within the logic of symbolic thought already at work
in southern Africa.
SEE ALSO Swazi Religion.
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New Sources
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LUC DE HEUSCH (1987)
Translated from French by Noal Mellott
Revised BibliographySOUTHERN SIBERIAN RELIGIONS. South-
ern Siberia is a region covered by a large wooded band, called
taiga, that stretches from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean and is bordered by two treeless zones, the tundra to
the north and the steppe to the south. The taiga evokes an
entire procession of images: It is here where images of impen-
etrable immensity and absolute refuge mix with the intimacy
of nature alone. The dense mass of huge dark trees is pene-
trated only by the great rivers (Ob, Yenisei, Lena, and tribu-
taries) that roll their vast waters toward the Arctic Ocean,
flooding their valleys in the summer and offering their frozen
surfaces as bridges in the winter.
Throughout history the natural environment has pro-
hibited any concentration of population; people continue to
live in small scattered groups and to devote themselves to var-
ious kinds of hunting, fishing, and harvesting, which causes
population shifts, varying in number and distance, through-
out the year. These forest groups (from small isloated ethnic
groups like the Ket—1,100 in 1979—to much larger
groups) belong to one or the other of two great families of
the Siberian peoples: Uralic to the west of the Yenisei River
and Altaic to the east. Moreover, the majority of both groups
live in the zones bordering the forest; these areas serve as pas-
toral land, while the forest is a hunting ground. Hence, one
finds ethnic groups divided between taiga and tundra or be-
tween taiga and steppe. It must be noted, however, that for-
est peoples of different families are more similar to each other
than to steppe or tundra peoples of their own family; there
are specific religious features associated with hunting life in
the forest.
This distribution between taiga and tundra or taiga and
steppe encourages a comparative approach, deliberately fo-
cusing on the specific religious implications of the forest, as
opposed to the steppe and the tundra. However, in order to
avoid the pitfall of ecological determinism, the form of soci-
etal organization and mode of thought must be considered8668 SOUTHERN SIBERIAN RELIGIONS