Christianity and Shamanism

Research Results

The purpose of this report is to attempt to provide a general view about the attitudes of the population of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) with regard to religion, and particularly with regard to shamanism. We interviewed five-hundred-and-twenty (520) respondents of various ages, social status, education and nationality (ethnicity). Among those interviewed, 32.7% were Christianized people, while the overall percentage of believers was much higher, 62.8%. Of all of the respondents, 58.9% had some higher education, either having completed courses of higher education or having embarked on such courses without completing them. 58.9% of all respondents were Sakha (Yakut) by nationality; while 30.7% were Russian, and 10.4% derived from other nationalities.

It is worth noting that 79.3% of the respondents, including those who are Christians, Moslems or Buddhists, abide by some heathen rituals; for example, they make small sacrifices to the fire during celebrations, and they smear a child's forehead with soot from the family's fire when a child is brought into the house for the first time; etc. This paradox represents a religious picture not only of Yakutia but also of Russia as a whole

Today, the people of Russia are practically without cultural and moral purpose. Without an all-consuming national idea, our country finds herself today on the threshold between centuries, and facing the problem of the birth or re-birth of spiritual culture. The following questions are therefore pertinent: Are the concepts about spirituality and religion indissoluble, so linked together that they cannot be separated? Is the revival of national identity possible without traditional beliefs?

34.6% of the respondents feel that spirituality always depends on religion. The older the respondent, the greater is the propensity for the person to respond positively in this way. In contrast, 20.7% of the respondents feel that spirituality does not always depend on religiosity. The greatest number among those who responded negatively are people between forty-one and fifty years of age.

Regarding the question about whether the revival of national culture is possible without spiritual beliefs, only 14.2% answer positively. The largest number who have replied to this question negatively, denying the possibility that national culture could be revived without spiritual beliefs, are young people aged twenty years old. In contrast, the generation between forty-one and fifty years of age respond positively with numerous votes about the possibility of national culture without traditional beliefs.

Among traditional beliefs, a special place belongs to shamanism. There are various definitions of shamanism. The author of this report proceeds from the perception that shamanism is a wide concept and that it plays an important part in the making of cultures and the Weltanschauung [worldview] of the people, which is not limited to the boundaries of religious definitions. It is interesting that a wide spectrum of responses is given when the respondents are asked to define the term shaman. The responses vary from a servant of the devil and a charlatan to a person possessed of something more than a super-force.

We shall present a definition given by one of the respondents, which was the most complete with regard to various components included: A shaman is a healer, someone with extrasensory abilities, a hypnotist, a person aware of the past and future, chosen to build harmony between the world of nature and the person.

Regarding the question as to whether the respondent saw more positive or negative aspects in shamanism, 50.5% said that they saw more positive aspects than negative aspects. The overall results indicate that the more benevolent attitudes towards shamanism derive from the older persons: the greater number of affirmative responses was collected from people of more senior age, while the least from youth of twenty years old.

Thus, we approach the question: Is the revival of shamanism possible in Yakutia? The majority of respondents answer positively, 69.2%. The older the generation of the respondents, the greater is the relative percentage of the positive replies to this question. However, a significant factor within this percentage of positive replies is that only 37.5% claim any interest in the history of shamanism (that is about half of the number who have replied positively to the question about the revival of shamanism); and of those, 18.1% could not identify the name of any shaman known to them (and not from any taboo against the repetition of a name). Furthermore, a rather large percentage, 36.9%, respond negatively about the activities of shamans along with the activities of individuals who claim to have extrasensory abilities and who pretend to be shamans. The most pessimistic in this regard are respondents aged between thirty-one and fifty years old. The senior generation, older than sixty-five years old, are the most optimistic in this regard. Thus, some contradictions are evident, which indicate the superficiality of judgment about the essence of shamanism among those interviewed.

People aged between thirty-one and fifty years old, which is the most capable age group, demonstrate a more skeptical approach to a question about beliefs in the other world (see above, for responses to the question about the division of national culture from traditional beliefs, and about the dependence of spirituality on religion). Nevertheless, it appears that people's belief in God and in the other world grows with age; the older the people, the more they observe the heathen traditions with greater care; and the older the people, the more inclined they are to bind spirituality with religion.

In conclusion, the greatest number of respondents holds spirituality to be indissoluble from religion. At the same time, they expect the loss of national culture to result from the demise of traditional beliefs. In spite of the fact that the respondents' knowledge about shamanism was superficial, they were (on the whole) favorable to the idea of a revival of shamanism in the Republic. A foundation for this purpose can be observed in process, as the majority of the population believes in the other world and accepts the syncretism of major religions with shamanism. Here it is pertinent to consider the words of the Yakut philosopher A.G. Novikov:

It is impossible to not believe in the supernatural, and it is necessary to remember that all moral values common to all mankind were generated in deep antiquity in the boundaries of the religious-mythological Weltanschauung [worldview]. The practice of customs of ancestors is a service to Goodness.

It is said that an ordinary clergyman, carrying out his daily duties, may not know Christianity as a philosophical concept; so we may say that an ordinary shaman might not have known the true meaning of the rituals that he carried out, the essence of which could have been much deeper than he imagined. In reality, shamanism is not merely a superstition. It is one of the ancient attempts of a person to reach complete harmony with nature, caused by the necessity for survival. These attempts were probably fulfilled by recourse to occultism, more often than not. Today, we should look ahead, get rid of the regressive elements, while not overlooking the positive elements from the past, increasing these positive elements indeed; for the example that is given in the major religions has already been proven by scientists to be the result of centuries of human sufferings and human thought.

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