tial constituents conceived of, respectively, as giver of game
and giver of fish.
CATTLE BREEDING AND THE VERTICAL CONCEPTION OF
THE WORLD. The notion of superposed worlds—and correl-
atively of a vertical liaison between them—develops from the
opposition of upstream/downstream, which is reinterpreted
in terms of up/down and then divided into the oppositions
of sky/earth and earth/lower (or subterranean) world. This
is due to the combined influence of two factors: the adoption
of animal breeding and incorporation into a state organiza-
tion, the Russian empire.
In that the adoption of animal breeding (or, with a sub-
tle difference, agriculture) creates a patrimony to be handed
down (herds, fields), ties of descent filiation develop and the
systems of relationships tend to become vertical. Thus the
alliance increasingly attempts to postpone reciprocity and be-
gins to follow the model of a “generalized exchange” (accord-
ing to which the clan from which one takes a wife is not the
same as the clan to which one gives a sister). Instead of be-
coming segmented, the clans organize their lineages into a
hierarchy. In the economic system, alimentary compensation
is given to a “consecrated” or “tabooed” reindeer (or other
domestic animal), fed along with its own herd but never uti-
lized. Whereas the ritual treatment of the bones of the game
animal aimed at its reincarnation on earth, the sacrifice of
the domestic animal (always slaughtered in a manner differ-
ent than the hunted wild animal) is intended to increase the
herds of spirits. The animal gradually becomes less a being
and more a product; the proportion of zoomorphic represen-
tations decreases. This ideological change, only initiated with
the animal breeding in the forest, expresses itself through the
obviously production-oriented breeding found in the steppe
(and, to a lesser degree, in the tundra). Associated with the
hierarchical centralization, it lays the groundwork for the
emergence of transcendental entities and is receptive to
the adoption of a world religion with dogma and clergy, such
as Russian Orthodoxy or Buddhism.
It is significant that the animal breeders living in the for-
est consider their own shamans as decadent and the shamans
of their neighbors, who remained, for the most part, depen-
dent on hunting, as powerful. Such is the case with the Nen-
tsy toward the Entsy, the Entsy toward the Selkup and the
Ket, and with all of them toward the Tunguz. This is because
in the cattle breeders’ ideology the giver is now conceived of
in terms of the irreversible mode of filiation and therefore
acquires the status of absolute superiority. He is no longer
a partner with whom one negotiates, but a master on whom
one is dependent. The shaman’s capacity to act is therefore
necessarily reduced in principle (since he is more dependent
and has fewer opportunities to negotiate). As for the spirits,
the pastoral ideology organizes them into a hierarchy, multi-
plies and localizes them (which leads to the notion of spirit-
master of separate places), and also develops supporting
myths and figures of the founders and creators over the
ancestors.
The Russian empire instituted Peter the Great’s idea of
“only one God, only one Tsar.” At the same time, the Ortho-
dox church searched for (or created) indigenous equivalents
compatible with its own concepts and refused all compro-
mise with other beliefs. The traditional spirits were lowered
to the rank of “devils and demons” and confined to the un-
derworld. The promotion of heavenly bodies (sky, sun) to
the rank of supreme being owes as much to the Christian at-
tempt to support the idea of God as to the native effort to
set up a rival against it and make more powerful their tradi-
tional view of the world (since a God is conceived of as
“higher” than mere ancestors).
The case of the sun (Num, Nom) among the Uralic peo-
ples is an example of this process. Its artificially constructed
image as a supreme being is vague, fluctuating, and without
ritual importance. In the myths of creation attributed to it
the only constant element is its opposition to Nga, its (or his)
son or brother-in-law, depending upon the case, an opposi-
tion that, rather than illustrating the Christian notion of a
relationship between God and the devil, is indicative of a
fundamental problem of kinship among the Uralic peoples
concerning the opposition between older and younger peo-
ple that is the framework of the creation myths. The same
is true with the Tunguz concerning the bugha (“sky,” derived
from an earlier meaning, “moose”). Relationships with the
spirits are reinterpreted. That which was nothing but a reac-
tion by the spirits (beneficial or baleful) to the treatment re-
ceived from humans is radicalized into a moral opposition
of good and evil. The shaman’s “voyages” to the forest and
aquatic worlds are replaced by an ascension into the sky or
descent to the underworld. Nevertheless, the traditional
pragmatic sense remains: The icons of the saints, interpreted
as the souls of the dead, are “fed” in the same way as tradi-
tional representations in order to ensure the proper continua-
tion of domestic life.
SEE ALSO Bears; Birds; Khanty and Mansi Religion; Num;
Ongon; Samoyed Religion; Shamanism; Tunguz Religion;
Yakut Religion.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Delaby, Laurence. Chamanes toungouses. Études mongoles et
sibérienes, no. 7. Paris, 1976. Analytical bibliography of
Tunguz shamanism with a carefully documented general
presentation.
Delaby, Laurence, et al. L’ours, l’autre de l’homme. Études mon-
goles et sibériennes, no. 11. Paris, 1980. Collection of docu-
ments and analyses on the symbolism of the bear, which
serves to conceptualize “the other”: the allied or the deceased.
The mechanism of the alliance seen through the Evenk Feast
of the Bear is analyzed by A. de Sales.
Diószegi, Vilmos, ed. Popular Beliefs and Folklore Tradition in Si-
beria. Uralic and Altaic Series, no. 57. Budapest, 1968. Col-
lection of articles, primarily by Soviet and Hungarian
authors.
Diószegi, Vilmos, and Mihály Hoppál, eds. Shamanism in Siberia.
Translated by S. Simon. Budapest, 1978. Collection of arti-
cles on various subjects.8672 SOUTHERN SIBERIAN RELIGIONS