Abstract
The case study in this paper is on the Daur (as well as the Evenki, Buriat, and Bargu Mongols) in Hulun Buir, Northeast China. The aim of this research is to examine how shamanic rituals function as a conduit to actualize communications between the clan members and their shaman ancestors. Through examinations and observations of Daur and other Indigenous shamanic rituals in Northeast China, this paper argues that the human construction of the shamanic landscape brings humans, other-than-humans, and things together into social relations in shamanic ontologies. Inter-human metamorphosis is crucial to Indigenous self-conceptualization and identity. Through rituals, ancestor spirits are active actors involved in almost every aspect of modern human social life among these Indigenous peoples.
Highlights
Ontological approaches in anthropology have revealed that the realm of sociality in many Indigenous societies in the world is not confined to the human domain but is extended beyond humanity to encompass animals, plants, spirits, and other entities.In the past several decades, great efforts have been made on studies of relational interactions between humans and animals in the Arctic, Amazonia, and North Asian regions
The evidence suggests that dead shamans actively participate in human social life, and these interactional relations between living humans and ancestral spirits play a key role in maintaining cosmic harmony, protecting tribal members from illness and misfortune, and ensuring success in every aspect of community activities (Ding and Saiyintana 2011; Humphrey and Onon 1996; Kara et al 2009; Sa 2019a, 2019b)
If humans and noncorporeal beings inhabit different worlds, is there a social border between them and where is this border? My ethnographic analysis of contemporary Daur shamanism in this paper suggests that, whether ancestral beings, nonhuman beings such as animals and land spirits, or living human persons, they all are equal members in the same realm of the social
Summary
Ontological approaches in anthropology have revealed that the realm of sociality in many Indigenous societies in the world is not confined to the human domain but is extended beyond humanity to encompass animals, plants, spirits, and other entities. The relation between living humans and deceased ancestors has largely been neglected Both Humphrey and Onon (1996) and Pedersen (2001) have noted that human engagement with ancestral spirits plays a central role in shamanic practices and cosmologies among Indigenous peoples in Southern North. The evidence suggests that dead shamans actively participate in human social life, and these interactional relations between living humans and ancestral spirits play a key role in maintaining cosmic harmony, protecting tribal members from illness and misfortune, and ensuring success in every aspect of community activities (Ding and Saiyintana 2011; Humphrey and Onon 1996; Kara et al 2009; Sa 2019a, 2019b). My ethnographic analysis of contemporary Daur shamanism in this paper suggests that, whether ancestral beings, nonhuman beings such as animals and land spirits, or living human persons, they all are equal members in the same realm of the social. The ritual and the shaman-constructed landscape of the ritual locales intra-act upon the social border in which all social members are able to celebrate, communicate, share food and drink, listen to each other’s stories, and receive blessings or praise
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