Meaning Of Ritual Research Articles

Ruminations on the meaning and nature of ritual in the historical context of China–A theoretical attempt to understand the tribute system as a ritual in East Asia

AbstractThe mainstream studies of the East Asian tributary system have been exhibiting a stance that tends to stress the importance of Confucianism in forming and sustaining the tributary system throughout its long history. However, there are still several questions (especially those of a theoretical nature) that historians have yet to answer: How could Confucianism have contributed to the formation and sustenance of this tributary system? Why could this Confucian-based tributary system be recognized and employed in relations with non-Confucian frontier tribes? Why could this system have worked with both the nomadic tribes on the northern frontier and the South-East Asian countries that were neither Confucian nor nomadic? Drawing on the results of ritual studies in anthropology, Chinese historiography and Chinese philosophy, this author seeks a broader methodology that can be used to conceptualize the tributary ritual and its constitutive power structure, which forms the foundation of the central part of the East Asian world order. This paper is a theoretical attempt to find a non-Sinocentric way to interpret the formally Sinocentric tribute system in premodern East Asia.

THE CURRENT ISSUE OF PRACTICING TRUC LAM YEN TU BUDDHIST RITUALS

Buddhism is one of the worlds’ largest religions. It serves as the path and the truth to let people achieve enlightenment and escape the cycle of sufferings in life. Buddha is the master of enlightenment who helps people on the path towards the state of complete enlightenment (nirvana) and truths. Given that, core values of Buddhism are the practice to reach enlightenment and escape the suffering cycle. Buddhist rituals are the way to facilitate the practice and bring sentient beings closer to the religion. The meaning of Buddhist rituals is extremely broad, including behaviors, attitude, belief, culture, and chanting etiquette. It can be seen that Buddhism in general and Truc Lam Buddhism in particular always have distinctive ways of executing rituals. It is a must to search and contemplate to understand deep hidden levels of meanings

백제 地鎭具의 현황과 의미

This study analyzes the remains related to the ritual implements for the land-God identified in the Woongjin ~ Sabi period ruins of Baekje. Through this, the characteristics and changes of the types of the ritual implements for the land-God(地鎭具) were identified. In Baekje, ritual implements for the land-God are confirmed in both the building site and the tomb. The rituals of land-God were centered on the building site during the Hansung- Woongjin period. However, during the Sabi period, it is possible to see the rituals of land- God taking place by concentrating on individual building sites. The Sabi period ritual implements for the land-God is buried in a land adjacent to individual building sites, which is different from the ritual implements for the land-God held at the base or at the base of individual building sites during the Unified Silla and Joseon Dynasty. The rituals identified in the ancient tomb group are both rituals of land-God for the entire site of the ancient tomb group and individual tomb. The rituals for land-God for the entire ancient tomb group are mainly confirmed in the site formation layer for the construction of the ancient tomb group in Seokchon-dong, Hansung period, but after Woongjin period, the ritual for land-God is changed to take place around individual tombs. In other words, it can be inferred that after the tomb of King Muryeong during the Woongjin period, the rituals for land-God were changed through a special treat and contribution to the land god after burial, avoid disaster and protect the tomb by comforting the soul. It's a “Haeto(解土)” Baekje's the ritual implements for the land-God were made in the building site and ancient tombs. We can be distinguished from the scope and meaning of rituals during the Hansung- Woongjin period and Sabi period based on the excavated location of the rituals for land-God. The ritual implements for the land-God districts during the Hansung-Woongjin period were almost buried around the cemetery or the building site and have a strong meaning of contribution to the well-being and blessing of the whole. On the other hand, rituals for land-God are held by concentrating on individual building sites and tomb units, and prayed for the repelling evil spirits(辟邪) and repose of souls(鎭魂), Safety of the target structure through the ritual for land-God.

The Symbolic Meaning of Death Ritual in Baduy Society

This article examines the death rites in the Baduy indigenous people, one of the indigenous peoples in Lebak, South Banten. The Baduy indigenous people have cultural characteristics and beliefs that are unique and different from Banten society in general. The various traditional rituals and socio-religious ceremonies performed by the Baduy community must all refer to the customary norms and rules that apply in the local community; no exception in the death rites. How the Baduy indigenous people interpret death and what symbols are in the death rites of the Baduy indigenous people are two important points that will be examined in this article. In addition, how the symbolic meaning in the death rites of the Baduy indigenous people will also be discussed in this article. This article is the result of field research using ethnographic methods with an anthropological approach. The data collection technique used involved observation, in-depth interviews, documentation and literature study. The death rite is one of the sacred rites in the rite of passage for the Baduy community. They believe that the dead will return to the Mandala Hyang (the place where the souls gather after death) after a 7-day death rite. The various symbols in the Baduy death rites show the continuity and relationship that continues to exist between the living and the dead. The Baduy death rituals have symbols that imply the understanding and meaning of the Baduy people towards death and the dead. For the Baduy people, the relationship between the living and the dead continues until the spirit faces the Holy One.

The Function and Meaning of Tope’ le’leng in the Death Ritual of The Kajang Tribe, South Sulawesi

Tope’ le’leng in the Kajang language means black sarong and is a typical sarong of the Kajang tribe worn by men and women, both for daily wear and worn at various ceremonies held by this tribe. The study of tope’ le’leng has been quite a lot. Still, no one has discussed its function and meaning in the death ritual of the Kajang tribe, considering that tope’ le’leng has been recognized as one of the Kajang tribe’s identities among other tribes in Indonesia. This study examines the function and meaning of Tope’ le’leng in death rituals, starting from when the corpse was still at home, funeral preparation, funeral processions, and follow-up rituals until 100 days. This research used an ethnographic approach with descriptive analysis. Data analysis used triple pattern (Pola Tiga) theories in Paradoxical Aesthetics from Jakob Sumardjo. The data sources in this study are Tope’ le’leng, the funeral ritual itself, the shaman who led the death rituals, and the local community who followed the funeral ritual. Data collection techniques used participatory observation and interviews. The results showed that Tope’ le’leng functioned as an object of donation, a sign of grief. It is a marker of a family of mourning (not wearing clothes other than tope’ le’leng) as a ritual object to cover the bamboo coffin and Pammorangan. Tope’ le’leng, as a ritual object, shows the social strata or economic level of the grieving family in the community. The Kajang people believed that the deceased spirit could see the family and the shaman as long as they did not wear clothes other than tope’ le’leng for 100 days. As one of the ritual and sacred objects, tope’ le’leng has presented a moment of transcendence and belief in the existence of spirits in death rituals. Based on the triple pattern theory (Pola Tiga), namely the relationship between the upper, middle, and lower worlds. Tope’ le’leng has another function as a relationship connector between God, man, and nature. The simplicity of its form and composition does not detract from its function and meaning and even reinforces its sacredness as a ritual object in patuntung beliefs.

Tinggalan Tradisi Megalitik Situs Watugong, Kelurahan Tlogomas, Kecamatan Lowokwaru, Kota Malang: Kajian Bentuk, Fungsi, dan Makna

There are remnants of late prehistoric life in the Greater Malang, one of which is located in the Metro watershed, which stretches from Malang City's west to south. The area was once inhabited during the Megalithic period, as evidenced by the remains of the megalithic tradition along the Metro watershed, which was considered a holy river for its rich natural resources. Watugong Village is a human settlement area that supported the megalithic tradition because it has a cultural heritage site from the end of the Neolithic era to the arrival of the Hindu-Buddha period. This research aims to determine the form, function, and meaning of the megalithic tradition remains found at Watugong Site. Researchers used descriptive-morphological analysis, accompanied by an analysis of contextual relationships between the megalithic remains on the site and the surrounding environment and findings, then did comparative analysis to compare research object data with other similar research objects, and ethnoarchaeological analysis to find out the meaning of the continuous rituals to preserve the beliefs of their ancestors that are still carried out by the local community. The results obtained were that the archaeological remains at Watugong Site are of a megalithic pattern with a cross-time context at the same time as the Hindu-Buddhist influence began to enter the Watugong Village area, and the tradition of honoring ancestors derived from the megalithic tradition is still carried out today by the local community.

‘Our (Civil) Way of Life’: The Folkloric Civil Sphere

Does the civil sphere consist merely of conscious and reflective subjects? Do folkloric habits, customs, and traditions contribute anything to its universalism? This article proposes the term ‘folkloric civil sphere’ to describe a non-intentional dimension of social life and of the civil sphere, composed of conventional rituals – such as those of holidays – that are followed without reflection or debate and that together form a collective ‘way of life,’ but which are nevertheless civil, in that they transcend primordial loyalties and encourage universalistic discourse. As opposed to the neo-Durkheimian focus on the meanings of delineated and emotionally moving performances, the article relies on ethnological history to develop a bottom-up model for grasping the civil meanings of conventional rituals. It suggests recreating the gradual chronological process in which conventions appear, are disseminated, turn into rituals and into group icons, and only then may acquire ambiguous meanings. Hence the meanings of folkloric customs often lie in the perceived universalism of social conventions – what ‘everyone’ does – rather than in their symbolic significance or semiotic thickness. The article proposes a shift in focus in the discussions of civil solidarity: instead of institutional, legal, and discursive processes, it centers on the slow and quiet integration of minority groups – religious and ethnic groups or undocumented immigrants – into the symbolic civil sphere, by means of cultural codes that become embedded in everyday conventions and create, bottom up, a sense of belonging to the universalist civil sphere and its distinct ‘way of life.’

WINTER CALENDER RITUAL AND ITS VERBALISATION IN PHRASIOLOGICAL POLISH LANGUAGE FUND

In this article we consider a fragment of the phenomenon of the spiritual culture of Slavic people – winter cycle of the calendar ritual of Polish people and its reflection in semantics of ritual phraseology, the archaic basis of which represent mythological notions, prohibitions and beliefs of ancient Slavs. The aim of the work is to objective the symbolic meaning of ritual and festive calendar ceremonies in phraseology of the Polish language, that reflects the pagan and Christians faith of our ancestors. It is established, that despite of significant degree of evolutionary transformations, the rituals are preserved in polish culture genetically related mythological semantic and elements of archaic structures (in particular, the cycle of winter traditions combines a memorial character and transition to forming a new reality), and from the point of view of language expression they are presented by phraseological units, splices, word combinations and paremias. The research proves, that Polish national calendar is tightly connected with the Catholic one, which results in usage Christian lexis in phraseological units (trąbienie na adwent; rózga Mikołaja; obchodzić wigilię; boże drzewko; dzielić się (łamać) opłatkiem; stajenka betlejemska; Kto się zaleca w adwencie, bedzie miał żonę na święta. W wigilię Jędrzeja świętego ujrzymy oblubieńca swojego. Święty Mikołaj wilkom pyski na kłódki zamyka.). The semantics of ritual phraseology of the Polish language confirms the common archaic base in its different ways of expression, the differences we see in names of symbolic actions and ritual objects. We see the perspectives of the research in further studying of calendar rituals in phraseology of Slavic languages.

E. Durkheim’s concept of sacredness

E. Durkheim’s concept of sacredness as formulated in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life aims at explaining why and how an aggregate of people becomes ‘a single whole’ and reproduces itself. This concept is the logical foundation of Durkheim’s ‘sociological holism’ for it focuses, according to T. Parsons, on ‘the core of the social system’. The principles of this concept are opposite to the principles of ‘methodological nominalism and individualism’ of the British social anthropology as expressed in the theory of animism. Durkheim defines the sacred as an ‘impersonal force’, impersonal ‘collective being’, ‘collective soul’ created and reproduced on the religious cults. The individual principle is reduced by Durkheim to the animal and wild which can be understood only as a part of the ‘collective being’ in primitive societies. In defining the nature of religious rituals, Durkheim relied on the concept of ritual by W. Robertson-Smith, which defines the main meaning of cults as the ‘union’ of adepts with the deity and each other. By removing the deity as a transcendental principle, Durkheim reduced the meaning of religious rituals to the reproduction of social unity, solidarity. Durkheim’s theory of sacredness, like its opposite - the theory of animism, is based on the concepts of the philosophy of the Modern Time, which determined the anthropomorphization of consciousness and confusion of terms ‘person’ and ‘individuality’. The significance of Durkheim’s concept should not be identified in the positivist perspective - as an explanation of facts unexplained by alternative theories. In such an interpretation, this concept was criticized and rejected by most scholars. However, it is important as a part of ‘social engineering’ which changed the intellectual environment, including the scientific community, in a specific, ideologically leftist direction.

Creative Direction Succession in Luxury Fashion: The Illusion of Immortality at Chanel and Alexander McQueen

This article examines how luxury fashion houses Chanel and Alexander McQueen have mobilized the “spirit” of their founding designers to become part of the commercial brand’s founding myth and vocabulary. Pierre Bourdieu highlighted how within the field of fashion, the creative vision of the designer which should be irreplaceable is in fact replaceable where their products and business can live on long after their death through the succession of another designer. We present the case studies of Chanel and Alexander McQueen as examples of how luxury fashion labels strategically assimilate new designers (Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard in the case of Chanel and Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen) into the mythology of the brand. We develop the phantasmagoria succession framework to explain how founding designers of luxury labels are systematically conjured as “spirits” that inhabit the brand’s seasonal commodities. To establish a link between the past and the future, the “spirit,” “essence” or “aura” of the founding designer is transmitted through the ritual means of the fashion spectacle to a successive designer. We demonstrate here how the mythology of the original designer’s “spirit” is summoned and reproduced by the brand through: the use of mystified storytelling in the fashion press; the consecration of particular fashion products as a chest of symbols; and the ritual acts and spectacular theatricality of catwalk presentations.

Surveilled, harmonized, purified

The human body has long occupied a central role in religious praxis across the globe. Recent decades have witnessed a change in academic studies aimed at theorizing the body and its relationship with society and the cosmos. This article adds to this discourse by demonstrating the pervasiveness of the body as a root metaphor in medieval Chinese religious culture. The notion of the body as a microcosmic replica of the social, political, and metaphysical realms, and the need to synchronize it with the natural cycles of the universe, played a key role in the emerging doctrinal and liturgical schemes of Buddhism and Daoism, China’s two main organized religious traditions. Using the apocryphal medieval Buddhist scripture The Sutra of Trapusa and Bhallika as a case study, and reading it against the backdrop of earlier religious, medical, and philosophical texts, this article argues that visions of the body as an object of surveillance by the celestial authorities, and its purification and harmonization through ethical practices and ritual means, were hailed as the most significant religious activities in Buddhist and Daoist communities alike in medieval China, a feature that continues to occupy a central place in contemporary Chinese religious life.

Folk Couplets against the Background of Historical Memory

The article deals with a narrative emerging from the numerous corpus of the Lithuanian folk couplets, in order to highlight its connections with a certain background in the cultural memory, probably related to ancient mythical past, or a recent one associated to the so-called communication memory, which includes sharing recollections among people of the same or a couple of adjacent generations. The folk couplets are short rhymed folksongs, depicting comically or critically various phenomena, situations and human vices, and predominantly characterized by their acrimonious or obscene content. In their form and partly also in their content, these entertaining folksongs are rather close to the ritual folksongs performed at the weddings, or calendar festivals and other occasions. These kinds of folksongs are related in terms of the same artistic means – parody, humor, and irony, as well as of the content communicated by these means. They are also connected by their common denominations – lotinės dainos (‘barking songs’) or just lojimai (‘barking’), which associate singing with a dog’s bark. The mythical image of the dog and its bark is touched upon in the article too, tracing it back to pre-Christian beliefs. Wedding folksongs, or “barking”, have ritual meaning: namely, ensuring the new family’s fertility and thus – thriving of the entire community. The entertaining couplets have a much simpler function to perform: they are intended as merry-making at the parties and other communal gatherings, particularly among the young people, and are usually accompanied by music. Although, as proven by the folksong narrative emerging from these couplets that treat certain marginal social groups, such as beggars and the elderly, critically and even aggressively, the entertaining “barking songs” might serve as an important and publicly available instrument of “control over the social morality”. For instance, there are couplets mocking the so-called “fake beggars” that used to exist in virtually every Lithuanian parish of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. These people would pretend to be lame and poor, gather at the churches and market squares during various religious festivities and scrounge for money and food. As often as not, the folk couplets aimed their typically aggressive mockery at the aged people (for instance, hundred-year-olds) and blamed them for living too long. Such cases may allude to the mythical notion of the old age: the hundred-year-olds allegedly use the vital energy of people who died too young.
 According to folklore researchers, humorous and playful folk couplets may only at first sight seem as mere entertainment. A special historical background turns them into an expression of social critique instead. This study draws on the printed and manuscript archived sources from the end of the 19th to the first half of the 20th century.

Shifting Functions And New Meanings Of The Ritual Of Rejecting “Treatment “The Malay From Serdang Bedagai

The ritual of rejecting reinforcements is a culture of the Serdang Bedagai Malay Community. Now the ritual of rejecting reinforcements has a new function, from a traditional function, to a commercialization activity. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative descriptive method. The shift occurs due to several factors including the attitude of the people who are open and willing to accept the changing times and the flow of globalization. This makes rituals that were previously not commodity goods into commodities, changing the function and meaning of traditional rituals into processes of production, distribution and consumption. This is very impactful and gives a new meaning to Reject Bala which has an impact on socio-cultural life. This shift has had an impact on increasing the income of the Malay community of Serdang Bedagai by commercializing the tola bala culture. In addition, the strategy of inheriting the ritual of rejecting reinforcements to the Malay ethnicity in Serdang Bedagai is carried out in three forms, namely (1) empowerment, (2) documentation and (3 ) development

The Kalaripayattu Salutation: Movement Makes Meaning

Vanakkam is the ritual salutation performed at different stages during the learning and practice of kalaripayattu, the martial arts system of Kerala. All vanakkams are united by their devotional character despite using expressly martial movements such as kicks and blocks. At the same time, there are differences in style, structure, and the interpretation of symbolism and significance even among Hindu kalaris, with even further greater variation in the vanakkams used in Muslim and Christian kalaris. Moreover, each weapon of the kalaripayattu form has its particular and specific vanakkam. This article uses the conceptual terms in the Natya Shastra, natya dharmi (what is suitable for the stage) and loka dharmi (what is suitable for daily life), introducing a very early binary of categories as separate, not interchangeable, classifications of movement. It looks to Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s ‘From Movement to Dance’ as she examines ‘how meaning emerges in dance’ to decode the process of representation as it applies to the kalaripayattu vanakkam. It then goes on to analyse vanakkams through their shared choreographic structure in order to show how context affects the way movement vocabularies are read. How does a kick transcend its ordinary signification and take on ritual meaning, and how is this meaning influenced by Islam, Hinduism and Christianity?

On the importance of rituals in sport

In this short article, we took a look at the importance of rituals in sports. First we explained the concepts of religion, creed, superstitions, fallacies and rituals. Then we described superstitious thinking and religiosity in psychological terms and on this basis we referred to rituals in sport. We explained the meaning of rituals in sport based on our own professional experiences with athletes. This article is an introduction for conducting a pilot study.

Генезис и ритуальный смысл белорусских волочебных песен

The article is devoted to the problems of the origin and ritual meaning of the spring «volochobnye» rituals of the Belarusian people. Those rituals have been analyzed through the mythological and ritual meaning of the «volochobnye» songs and in the comparison with the winter «Kolyada» rituals. The purpose of the article is discovering the common genre and mythological roots of the «volochobnye» and «kolyadnye» songs with attention to the reasons for different actualization of Christian motives. Based on the historical-genetic method, the origin of Belarusian «volochobnye» songs is associated with a chronomyth common to calendar rituals. Their ritual meaning is in magical recreation of the chronomyth through actualization of certain chrono-images, chronomotives, plot chronosituations in the songs. It has been revealed that the «kolyadnye» and «volochobnye» songs, which differ in the time of performance, look like the heirs of the hymnic archegenre, which arose from the most ancient magical exclamations through the development of a meaningful text. Both cycles retain common archaic features, but the genetic connection with the Christian ideology in the «volochobnye» songs is clearly higher due to the ritual integration of different calendars – natural, labor, and Christian. «Kolyadnye» and «volochobnye» songs correlate with parallel calendar systems, which is a consequence of the former dialectic nature of the ritual culture of the ancestors of the Belarusians. It has been concluded that with a certain coincidence of the areas of «kolyadnye» and «volochobnye» songs, the core of the latter is in Polesye, which can be considered as a result of the former dialectic nature of the calendar and ritual culture of the proto-Belarusian tribes, the parallel existence of different calendar systems and thereby close the problem of the historical primogeniture of either «volochobnye» songs or «kolyadnye» songs as scientifically irrelevant.

Traditional ecological knowledge on the slope of Mount Lawu, Indonesia: all about non-rice food security

As a country with rice as the staple food, the dominant traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) on food in Indonesia is rice. However, in Tawangmangu District, Central Java Province, the TEK inherited from their ancestors is about non-rice food security. This study aimed to explore how villagers pass on and practice their knowledge and beliefs in food defense based on traditional ecological knowledge. The data were collected through FGD, interviews, and field observations of traditional ceremonial processions, agricultural activities, and natural resource management. The results showed that TEK in Tawangmangu had three themes, including (1) TEK communication and inheritance through folktales on the origin of vegetables and corn, taboo words, such as the prohibition of planting rice, and the symbolic meaning of traditional rituals and offerings; (2) the people’s philosophy is reflected in their view of God, ancestors’ spirits as folktales figures, village guards’ spirits, and other living things. The folktales protagonists’ spirits are asked to provide protection, while the antagonists' spirits are asked not to interfere; and (3) natural resources sustainability involves maintaining non-rice plant commodities, terraced agricultural land management, intercropping systems, managing water resource and crop yields, and traditional houses architecture. The locals protect the forest on Mount Lawu and Pringgodani Cave as their source of life by prohibiting cutting trees and reforestation.

Dancing for the Dead: muu Dancers in Egyptian New Kingdom Scenes

Muu dancers are one of the most common elements in the funerary processions represented in the private Theban tombs of the New Kingdom, especially in the 18th dynasty. This paper aims to analyse the main characteristics of the representation of these male individuals that appear only on private tombs located in different necropolises. It will also try to understand the ritual meaning of these dancers through the attested images, an enigmatic procedure that has been interpreted in different ways by several authors. In addition, the distribution of these scenes both inside and outside the Theban necropolis will be analysed to understand the diffusion of this type of representations during the Egyptian New Kingdom.
 Thus, firstly I will make a description of the funerary processions painted or engraved on the walls of the private tombs. Secondly, I will describe the muu dancers following Brunner-Traut’s classification and include the representations attested, comparing them to analyse the common features of these male dancers.

RAMPAK BARONG PADA PERTUNJUKAN JARANAN PAGUYUBAN TURONGGO SETYO JATI DI KABUPATEN BLITAR

Rampak Barong dance, which is in a jaranan performance of Paguyuban Turonggo Setyo Jati in Blitar is a dance that belongs to a folk dance, which is a dance that lives and develops in the local communities with the simplicity of movement, floor patterns, make-up and even costume, because all of that are the characteristics of folk dance. This study aims to reveal the form of the performance and the function of that dance. Rampak Barong dance is very popular among the local community because there are many attractive movements including forward somersaults, interesting foot movements including srimpetan and junjungan. It become more interesting not only because of all kind of movements, but also there is one of main movement called nyaplok. The theoretical basis used to answer the problem of form is Soedarsono's theory in his book entitled “Introduction to Dance Elements and Dance Problems”, and supported by Soedarsono's opinion in his book entitled “Indonesian Performing Arts in Globalization” to describe the functions. The methodology used for this research are nterview, observation, and literature study. This research used descriptive analysis method used to describe the Rampak Barong dance. The results of this researh showed that the form of the dance performance Rampak Barong Paguyuban Turonggo Setyo Jati consists of several dance offerings with several elements of the dance offerings, such as dancers, movement, make-up, music, and performance venues. The function of the Rampak Barong dance as a means of ritual, as personal entertainment and as an aesthetic presentation, namely through ticketing performances or fundraisingKeywords: Form, Function, Rampak Barong, Turonggo Setyo Jati

Handles of Early Iron Age Cauldrons from Southwestern Siberia

Handles of Early Iron Age bronze cauldrons from southwestern Siberia are described with reference to their ritual meaning. Typological features, such as knobs, arcuate, or square shape, are relevant for dating. Two chronological groups are established: the Tagar (second half of the 1st millennium BC) and Xiongnu-Xianbei (late 1st millennium BC to early 1st millennium AD). The interpretation of handles depends on the context. At settlements (Turunovka-4) and in certain hoards (First Dzhirim) of the Late Bronze Age, they can belong to foundry scrap. However, handles occur in long-term ritual sites such as Aidashenskaya Cave, suggesting a different interpretation. Indeed, at Eastern European forest-steppe sites of the Xiongnu era, handles of cauldrons had been intentionally buried, most often near water sources, where the summer camps of nomadic herders were situated. A similar situation is observed in southwestern Siberia, from the Baraba forest-steppe to the Middle Yenisei valley.