What If We Don't Know Our Clan? The City as New Ritual Form in Buriatiia

Abstract

Traditionally" Buriat shamanism is clan-based. Ritual practice embedded kinship relations within a sacred geography, linking the living and the dead through a relationship to the landscape, reaffirmed at yearly tailgan ceremonies. In Buriatiia, Soviet modernization transformed the Buriat relationship to the land, and with it, the conditions of shamanic practice. As a result, many urban Buriats either do not know their clan affiliation, or no longer hold clan ceremonies. In response, two urban shaman's organizations have begun to hold tailgans on behalf of the residents of the city. The new ritual form relieves anxiety at the loss of tradition and underscores that loss. However, by redefining the ritual community around the city instead of the clan, the ritual community becomes multiethnic.A young woman walks around the edge of a group of people gathered for the spring tailgan, instructing people how to prepare questions for the ongons (ancestor spirits). 1 "Write down your name, your birth year, your clan affiliation, and the question. In Buriat, if you can. If not, write it in Russian, and we'll help you translate it." People beg sheets of paper off me, the anthropologist-the only person who can always be counted on to bring paper and pens to a ritual."But what if I don't know my clan?" a woman asks, anxiously. Her question is echoed through the gathering crowd, most of whom do not

A Heap of Leaves or Fellow Travellers

“…In my opinion, religious discourse contributed significantly to the complexity of this issue. In particular, much has been written about the role of 'shamanism' in maintaining and redefining the kinship principle in society (Quijada 2008). The present analysis is intended to add some more detail to the study of Mongolian kinship by disclosing the role of Buddhist institutions in its discursive construction.…”

Religious practice and belief in the Republic of Buryatia: comparing across faiths and national groups

“…Previous work on the region has suggested that religious identities and institutions in Buryatia are fluid and contingent, a *Email: hollanec@miamioh.edu tHavighurst Center, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA. condition that has historical antecedents in the Russian empire, and is made more complicated by the legacies of the Soviet state (Bernstein 2011(Bernstein , 2012Humphrey 1999;Metzo 2008;Quijada 2008Quijada , 2012. The article's second section is descriptive, summarizing the basic demographic characteristics of the sample, including age, education, and socio-economic outlook.…”