Shamanhood and Mythology

Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy and Current

Techniques of Research

In Honour of Mihály Hoppál, celebrating his 75th Birthday

 Shamanhood and Mythology
Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy and Current
Techniques of Research
In Honour of Mihály Hoppál, celebrating his 75th Birthday

Edited by Attila Mátéffy and György Szabados

With the assistance of Tamás Csernyei

Hungarian Association for the Academic Study of Religions

Budapest 2017
Hungarian Association for the Academic Study of Religions

Edited by Attila Mátéffy and György Szabados

With the assistance of Tamás Csernyei

© The Authors and Editors, 2017

ISBN 978-963-87696-8-8

Cover made by Mónika Kaszta

Technical redaction made by Krisztina Fancsek

All rights reserved

Printed by Robinco (Budapest) Hungary

Director: Péter Kecskeméthy

Printed in Hungary
 Content

Foreword 9
Tabula Gratulatoria 11
Arukask, Madis: Notes on Finnic Folk Culture from the Perspective of
Shamanism 15
Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam: Broken and Unbroken Drums:
The Resonance of Shamanic Regalia, Identity, and the Sacred
in Siberia and Beyond 27
Çoruhlu, Yaşar: Double Dragon Motifs or Portraits on Turkish Carpets
and Rugs According to Double-Headed Dragon
or Double Dragon Iconography 41
Dobzhanskaya, Oksana: Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic
Interpretations 63
Du, Yaxiong: Book and Tea: An Approach to the Question of Hungarians’
Origin Through Two Chinese Loanwords 77
Frog: Language and Mythology: Semantic Correlation and Disambiguation
of Gods as Iconic Signs 85
Geertz, Armin W. : Spiders and Insects in Hopi Indian
Mythology and Religion: A Preliminary Study 135
González Torrres, Yolotl: Shamanism in Mexiko 155
Gürcan Yardımcı, Kevser: The Language of Siberian Shamanism: Sacred
Shaman Costumes 171
Hasanov Zaur: Traces of Shamanism and the Scythian Mythology
in the Koroglu Epic 185
Horváth, Izabella: A Reevaluation of the Origins and Function
of the Garabonciás Diák 203
Kazakevich, Olga: A Vision of a Selkup Shaman of the Past Days 217
Kendall, Laurel: The Old Shaman 223
Kezich, Giovanni: A Child is born
Miraculous Births in Old World Myth, Religion and Folklore:
Narratizing Shamanhood 231
Kõiva, Mare: Cosmopolitan Medicine: Courses Uniting Naturopathy
and folk Medicine 243
Krippner, Stanley: A Ten-Facet Model of Dreaming Applied
too Shamanhood 255
Lee-Niinioja, Hee Sook: Shamanic-Mystic-Syncretic Islam and Shadow
Puppet Shamans in Javanese Traditions and Beliefs 269
Lezsák, Gabriella M.: The Grave of Attila and its River-bed Burial Motif 281
Liu, Pi-chen: Illness, Other and Subjectivity in the Shamanic Healing
of the Kavalan (Taiwan) 295
Lyon, William S.: The Reality of Shamanism 305
Magyar, Zoltán: The Archive of the Hungarian Historical Legends
The Objective Conditions of a Database of a Scientific Synthesis 315
Maskarinec Gregory G.: Power, Violence, and Death in Nepalese
Shaman Practice 323
Mátéffy, Attila: The Wonderful Deer (ATU 401):
A Pre-Buddhist Inner Asian Cultural Substratum Element
in Tibetan Cosmology 335
Mulk, Inga-Maria: Máttaráhkka: conceptions and representations
of Mother Earth in Sami myths, rituals, rock art and material culture 349
Neumann Fridman, Eva Jane: From Russia to Mongolia:
Shamanism Across Borders of Time and Place 371
Oppitz, Michael: On the Ambiguity of the Image 385
Sem, Tat’yana Yur’evna: The Symbolism and Semantics
of the Tungus’ Shamanic Ritual Kamlanie 391
Somfai Kara, Dávid: The Tree of Life according to an
Altay-kizhi (Telengit) Epic Song 405
Szabados, György: On the origin-myth of Álmos Great
Prince of Hungary 413
Szulovszky, János: “Divine and demonic possession”?
Farewell to a failed concept 429
Walker, Marilyn: “Oh! You mean you have no balance!”
Symmetry, science and shamanism 447
Wilhelmi, Barbara: What to do With the Heavenly Journey of Paul?
Some Exegetical Remarks on the Second Corinthian Letter.
Another Discovery of Shamanic Traces in the Pauline
Tradition in Biblical Texts 463
Yamada, Hitoshi: Bow Playing in Japanese and Neighboring
Shamanistic Traditions 471
Zhigunova, Marina: Islam and Orthodoxy in Siberia and Kazakhstan
at the Beginning of the 21st Century 481
Zsidai, Zsuzsanna: “Barbarians” on horseback – Turkic peoples
and horse training 491
List of contributors 503
Mihály Hoppál: A Bibliography of His Works 507
Oksana Dobzhanskaya

Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

Because of the complicated nature of shamanism, its study requires application a mul-
tidisciplinary approach from a researcher. In particular, the study of shamanic drums
can be fruitful if it is done by interdisciplinary methods: using ethnomusicology,
ethnography, linguistics, religious studies and other related sciences. It is possible
to understand the role of the shamanic drum as one of the most important my-
thoritual images of the Arctic indigenous cultures. In this article we will try to
study symbolic interpretations of shamanic drums from the Samoyedic peoples
(Nganasans, Nenets, Enets, Selkups). A drum will be considered mostly as a ritual
attribute in the shamanic rite but at the same time taking into account its sound-
creating functions.

The history of research of Samoyedic drums

Since the 17th–18th centuries the first European and Russian travelers, who had the
chance to meet Siberian shamans (and Samoyedic shamans in particular), noticed
that each shaman had his own inalienable ritual attribute – a drum (Georgi 1799;
Mikhailovsky 1892; Pallas 1788). In the 20th–21st centuries the shamanic drum as
an object of study has attracted great interest of both ethnographers and ethnomu-
sicologists (Prokof ’eva 1961; Nazarenko 1988; Sheikin 2002) but research prospects
concerning the drum is still far from exhausted.
In the Samoyedic languages the drum is called: penzer/pensar (tundra Nenets),
pen’shal/pen’gshal (forest Nenets), pedd’y (tundra Enets), fendir/fenzir (forest Enets),
khendir (Nganasans), pynkyr/nunga (Selkups), etc. More complete information on
national terms is given in a dedicated article (Dobzhanskaya 2008–2009). It should
be noticed that there is a common absolute root – pen-khen-pyng, inherent in all
these words. Y. I. Sheikin believes that all the Samoyedic names of the drum were
derived from the Nenets word peng which means ‘buzzing’, it is also related to the
Selkup stem pyng, i.e. ‘sound of buzzing’. Therefore, Samoyedic names of the drum
are derived from a descriptive root evoking some kind of a buzzing (humming)
tone of the instrument (Sheikin 2002: 422–423).
According to the Classification of Musical Instruments by E. von Hornbos-
tel and C. Sachs, a drum pertains to the instruments of membranophone type (a
membranophone is an instrument in which sound appears through vibrations of
the membrane). In the Hornbostel-Sachs Classification a drum is indexed 211.311,
that is: “one-sided frame drum without handle” (Montagu 2011). To describe the
Siberian drums, that have the handle inside the frame, Yuri Sheikin introduced

63
Oksana Dobzhanskaya

the secondary index 211.331 into the classification (described as “one-sided frame
drum with a handle inside the frame”) (Dobzhanskaya 2002: 58–59).
To study the structure of Samoyedic drums we will refer to the comparative
study of the Siberian drums carried out by Yyri Sheikin, as a result of which 9 types
of the Siberian drums were identified (Sheikin 2002: 69–85). The researcher deter-
mined that Samoyedic shamans in the region of the Yenisei basin and the Taimyr
Peninsula used the Central-Siberian type of the drum. The characteristic features of
this special type of shamanic drums (the Central-Siberian Drum) are the following:
the oval form of the drum, the height from 1000 to 500 mm, the width from 800 to
300 mm. The frame of the drum is flat, 70 to 160 mm wide. Several high resonator
tabs (numbering 4 to 12) are attached to the outer side of the frame with threads
made of reindeer tendons. On the frame of the drum a few slits are made for best
sound resonation. On the inner side of the frame some additional brackets are at-
tached with rattles in the form of rings, plates, rods and conical tubes. The mem-
brane of the drum is relatively thick and it is attached to the frame with threads of
tendon (seldom with glue). The cross-shaped handle of wood or iron is fixed to the
frame with straps. A lot of metal rattles, symbolizing shamanic spirits, are hung
on the crosspiece of the handle. The shaman strikes the membrane with a short
and broad stick covered with fur from reindeer legs (kamus) (Sheikin 2002: 79).
The Central-Siberian type of the drum is used by Nganasans and Enets. Selkups
shamans have the drum of the Yenisei type (described below), Nenets shamans use
drums of the Central-Siberian and the Yugor types.
The identified types of shamanic drum structure used by the Northern Samoyed
are very important. They will be taken into account in the subsequent reasoning as
a basis for understanding many individual drums of Samoyedic shamans, because
each shaman drum demonstrates its constructive variety, its own “history” and in-
dividual interpretation.
Yuri Sheikin identifies two local types of the Central-Siberian drum depending
on its comprehension by people of different localities.

“The Eastern type of drum undergoes the ritual of »reviving«, it is associated with the ritual
animal (a deer or a horse) – the assistant of the shaman. Such drums are identified among
Evenks and Sakha… Drawings cover the surface of the membrane of the Western type of
drum, recognized as a symbol of the Universe. It is known among the western and southern
groups of Evenks, Dolgans, but it is more typical for the Samoyedic ethnic groups: Nganas-
ans, Nenets and Enets” (Sheikin 2002: 79).

Sheikin’s interpretations of the drum are the most important but they do not
exhaust many symbolic meanings of the Central-Siberian shaman’s drum that will
be outlined further.

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 Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

A Drum-Reindeer

In the article, the image of a drum-reindeer is considered mainly based on the ex-
amples of Nganasans drums and is supplemented with materials of other Samoyedic
peoples.
Information about the Nganasan shamanic drum, its structure, design and
manufacturing technology became known thanks to the works of ethnographers
and musicologists. In particular, the ethnographer A. A. Popov who worked in
1930s among the Nganasans and made detailed descriptions and drawings of the
three drums of the shaman Dukhade from the Ngamtusuo family (Popov 1984:
137–143). In 1970s G. N. Gracheva observed and published descriptions of the
drum belonging to Tubiaku Kosterkin, who was the son of Dukhade Ngamtusuo
(Gracheva 1981: 86–88). In 1990 in the Novosibirsk description of the drum of
Dulcymiaku Kosterkin, who was the youngest of the shamans of the Ngamtusuo
family, was made by musicologists Y. I. Sheikin, T. Ojamaa and the author of this
article; the description was later published (Dobzhanskaya 2002: 54–59; Ojamaa
1990: 4–14).
Without lingering on the description of the structure of the Nganasan shamanic
drum, which generally fits into the Central-Siberian type, let us focus on the figu-
rative interpretations of the drum as an animal (a reindeer) and select those con-
struction elements that clearly make the “reindeer” image. As the basis of presenta-
tion, we take the description of the shamanic drum of Dulsymiaku Kosterkin, who
made the drum for himself (FM 1990).
The membrane of the drum is made of the skin of a male reindeer (‘sely kuhu’
in the Nganasan language). The skin is first soaked in water and cleared from hair
and fat with a special scraper, made of a reindeer bone, and then sewn with rein-
deer sinews to the frame of the drum. Dulsymiaku stressed that the skin of a female
reindeer cannot be used for the drum, explaining it by the difference in physiology
of the male and female: “Actually a female reindeer skin is never pulled on a drum.
Why? Female reindeer is where I came out (was born). If I do a drum of my mother’s
skin, I’ll go back where I came from… And there I’ll die.” (FM 1990). Besides, S’elu
bakhi (Ngan. ‘a wild male reindeer’) is a spirit-helper of the shaman (the one who
goes ahead before the shaman’s spirits). Dulsymiaku especially emphasized this
fact, explaining the necessity of using the skin of a male reindeer.
Inside the frame of the drum 4 additional brackets are placed, which are thread-
ed with metal rings and jingling pendants. Dulsymiaku interprets them as crunchy
“shoulders” (joints in the body of a human or an animal to which limbs are at-
tached): “When you go – you have the shoulders, 4 shoulders. Are your shoulders ring-
ing? Is there something, when you walk? Do we have ringing in the shoulders? Well,
crunching. It’s like human shoulders.” (FM 1990). We should recall here Gracheva’s
description of the same parts in Tubiaku Kosterkin’s drum. She noticed four forged
brackets fastened to the frame of the drum with copper and iron rings strung to

65
Oksana Dobzhanskaya

them. These brackets are interpreted as the legs of a reindeer (nüa ‘thighs’). There-
fore, at the same time the drum symbolizes a reindeer (Gracheva 1981: 87).
G. N. Gracheva mentions other zoomorphic details of the drum: “drum’s head”
(“head” metaphorically is referred to the upper part of the drum, which is narrower,
if the drum has an ovoid shape); “the teeth of the drum” (large beads of dark blue,
white, black and blue colors, stitched around the edge of the skin-membrane, which
is pulled on the sinew thread on the inner side of the drum) (Gracheva 1981: 87).
A drum beater (Nganasan heta’a) has a handle which is manufactured in the
form of the head of the shamanic idol (Ngan. koika), and the percussion part of the
beater is covered with the skin taken from a wild reindeer’s forehead (Ngan. bakhi
tuodia). The beater is interpreted by Dulsymiaku as “the drum tongue”: “This is the
language of the day, a day language. The man’s face, neck, shoulders, the breastplate,
there are not only legs. It is the tongue. Why legs for the tongue? … The tongues of
a reindeer or a cow are of the same form. The tongue is like legs. It goes wherever
it wants and has a talk there…” (FM 1990). This interpretation is consistent with
the understanding of the beater by Tubiaku Kosterkin: “It seems as the tongue and
throat of the drum at the same time” (Gracheva 1981: 88).

Figure 1. The drum beater made by Leonid Kosterkin, Tubiaku’s son. 2006, Dudinka, Taimyr.
Photo by Oksana Dobzhanskaya.

The identification of the shamanic drum with a reindeer is typical for the Selk-
up’s worldview (drum’s reindeer), it is shown in the drawings on the drum:

“Characteristic patterns on Selkup drums were of two lateral arcs with apophyses grouped
in three or four lines. Apophyses are ribs of a drum-reindeer. Lateral arcs are not only the
backbone of a reindeer, but at the same time they are the boundaries of the Universe. In the
center of the drum Selkups drew a spirit-helper of a shaman, given to him by the ancestors.
A lizard or a deer were marked as the spirit-helpers” (Napolskikh ed. 2004: 218).

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 Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

The shamanic drum is usually identified with a reindeer (or a boat as an option)
because the drum is the shaman’s transport (his vehicle) to the other worlds. To
understand the significance of the drum-reindeer and the drum-boat, you need to
pay attention not only to images but also to the metaphorical names of the drum:
“a deer with 7 ears” or “a boat with 7 oars”. The drum received these names due to
the presence of the 7 resonator tabs, made of different wood species, on the frame
(Prokof ’eva 1981: 52). The drum is not just a symbol of a reindeer, but it is its full
embodiment. This is confirmed by the ethnographic facts – the ceremony of revival
of the drum and the ability to replace the sacrifice of a live reindeer offering a drum
instead (Prokof ’ev 1930; Prokof ’eva 1981).
In the culture of Enets a drum has been understood as a reindeer (a riding or
drawing animal – a helper of the shaman). Enets held the ritual of “a drum reviv-
ing” after its making and before the beginning of its use in the shamanic rituals.

A Drum-Universe

A drum as the cosmological model of the Universe is most typical for Selkup sha-
manism. These huge Selkup drums (the largest drums in Siberia) belong to the
Yenisei type of drums. Yuri Sheikin wrote:

“The Yenisei drum has a circular shape, a flat wide frame with high resonator tabs and a
vertical grip. It has the structural features of the Central-Siberian, Ugra and Altai-Sayan
(the Southern Siberian) shamanic drums... The Selkups shamanic drum is perceived in the
context of ideas concerning the Universe. This philosophical interpretation is reflected in the
images on the frame, the membrane and other details of the drum…” (Sheikin 2002: 81).

The Yenisei type of drum is typical for Kets, Jugs, Sym’s Evenks, Vasyugan’s Khanty,
Vach’s Khanty.
The size of the Selkup drum reaches 90х70 cm, it has a broad frame tangku
(12 cm) with tabs-resonators yungylsat and pendants-rattles (shchaki or shchay),
which are attached to the drum from the back side onto the frame, cross circles and
the handle. The frame of the drum is made of the wood grown in the swamp, the
“drum tree” nungal po with seven straight branches at the top on the sunny side.
The vertical drum’s grip is made from birch or cedar, and is a symbol of the World
Tree (Prokof ’eva 1981: 47, 53). On the transverse iron rods, attached between the
drum’s grip and frame, there are numerous sounding pendants hung (open and
closed bells, tubes, carved from metal images of shaman’s helper-spirits, etc.). This
powerful drum was definitely the center of Selkups shamanic mythology. However,
there are reports of another type of drum, close to the Central-Siberian drum (in
particular, Evenks drum), which was found near the southern Selkups on the river
Tym. This drum (Selkup. Nuva) was egg-shaped with a cross-shaped handle and
with drawings of intersecting lines on the membrane (Napolskikh ed. 2004: 214).

67
Oksana Dobzhanskaya

The size of the shamanic drum depended on the strength of the shaman:

“Selkup shamans for their whole life period might have no more than seven drums. Each of
the following drums was made larger than the previous one. The seventh drum was the larg-
est and it testified to reaching the highest power by shaman. Then the shaman’s power began
decreasing and he consequently used drums of smaller and smaller size.” (Napolskikh ed.
2004: 83).

Drawings on the Selkup drum had cosmological significance and they made the
drum similar to a map of the Universe.

“Usually Selkup drums portrayed Upper, Middle and Lower worlds, the Sun, the Moon,
etc. Worlds and subworlds of the Universe were associated with a certain color: the Lower
world – usually with a dark color, the Upper world – with a light one, the Middle world had
both dark and light shades” (Napolskikh ed. 2004: 83).

E. D. Prokof ’eva wrote that the paint was applied on the inner part of the drum.
It was painted half in black-blue and half in red colors symbolizing Lower and Up-
per worlds; the drawings on the outer side were painted only in red (Napolskikh
ed. 2004: 218).
A very interesting interpretation of the drum as a symbol of the Universe was
marked by Natalia Tuchkova:

“Seven resonator tabs on the frame of the drum mean ‘seven circles’ of the Universe – three
underground circles, one middle and three circles of the upper world (or four upper and
three underground circles). In the open part of a metal ring on the drum handle was a
passage to the Lower world. On the membrane were depicted the Sun on the right and the
Moon on the left; on the frame a few reindeers were drawn with red paint at the top right,
and bears with black paint at lower left. The right side of the drum was light, related to the
heaven, the left side was dark, related to underworld” (Napolskikh ed. 2004: 219).

It is possible to interpret drawings on Nganasan drums as “a model of the Uni-

verse”, too. In this sense, let us concentrate on paintings on three of Dukhade’s sha-
manic drums, which were sketched and described by A. A. Popov. The first drum
for a shaman’s journey to the Lower world was painted with stripes of black and red
brick colors on the inner side of the frame which is called nguo ngüo (Ngan. ‘side of
the heaven’) and the picture of the underworld on the inside surface of the mem-
brane (Popov 1984: 137–139). There are pictures of winter pastures of reindeers
and the holes representing the constellation of the Pleiades dünüzangku (Ngan.
‘pegs of the heaven’) on the drum for ritual to the Upper world spirits (the second
one) (Popov 1984: 139–140). The third drum is “the one for helping women” which
is used in childbirth. It has a through hole in the membrane, depicting the North
star chekho khotadie (Ngan. ‘the nail-star’) (Popov 1984: 143).

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 Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

Tubiaku Dukhodovich Kosterkin had similar drawings on his drum. The in-
ner side of the frame is decorated with vertical black and red stripes signifying the
Northern lights (Gracheva 1981: 87).
The drum pendants could also have cosmological significance. It is described
particularly by T. Lehtisalo taking a Nenets drum as example.

“The drum can also have little bells and small plates or rings strung on a wire on the inner
edge. The last ones have, possibly, the same function as pieces of beaver fat, which could be
bind to a drum with ritual cleansing purposes, or they are symbols of the navel of the world”
(Lehtisalo 1998: 118).

Moreover, the structure of the Nenets drum itself could implement “a model
of the Universe” through the symbol of the World tree shown in the handle. “On
the inner side of the drum is a handle made of birch wood, at the middle of which
the side stick is tied. There were engraved seven or fourteen »faces of Siadai« or,
instead of faces, »the eyes of Siadai« (in the form of diagonal crosses) engraved on
the handle and the side stick. Thus, the handle of a drum is obviously a symbol of
the World pillar…” (Lehtisalo 1998: 117).

A Drum-Cloud

A unique interpretation of the Nganasan shamanic drums of Dukhade was recorded

in the 1930s by Andrei Popov: the shaman believed his drums to be “clouds”. Then
the editor of the publication Galina Gracheva noted this symbol as an “individual
interpretation of Dukhade” (Popov 1984: 137). Anthropologists have not again
recorded such an interpretation of the drum among Nganasans, although similar
beliefs exist among Nenets. The Nenets idea of a cloud as the means of transporta-
tion for the shaman’s journey and, simultaneously, as the repository for his helper-
spirits is known from Lehtisalo’s works. Toivo Lehtisalo recorded a story about a
shaman from Obdorsk: “He hit the drum and it was like going there (travelling on
a cloud)” (Lehtisalo 1998: 126). Enumerating the helper-spirits of the shaman, the
Finnish scholar notes that “clouds are also included” (Lehtisalo 1998: 127).
The idea of a drum-cloud also exists among Enets people. They determine three
categories of shamans and accordingly three varieties of drums. The first variety is
savode-peddi/savode-fendir for shamans of the savode category, who have connec-
tions with the spirits of the Underworld. This drum has a round shape without the
resonator bars on the sides, the wooden cross-shaped handle fastened to the frame
with leather straps. Initially the savode shaman doesn’t have sounding pendants on
his drum. They appear gradually as the shaman increases his shamanic power. The
second variety is “the earth-drum” diano-peddi/diano-fendir which is used by diano
shamans related to the spirits of the earth. This drum has a round-shaped frame
with eight resonator bars on it and metal cross-shaped handle which is movably
attached to the frame. Pendants on this drum were originally made of bone and

69
Oksana Dobzhanskaya

then gradually replaced with metal ones. The third nano-peddi/nano-fendir (“the
heavenly drum”) is associated with budote shamans and the spirits of the sky. “The
heavenly drum” has an oval-shaped frame with resonator bars made of bear’s teeth.
There are plenty of pendants-rattles of various shapes on it. The third drum nano-
peddi for rituals to the spirits of the Upper world is conceived as a drum-cloud like
the Nganasan bondupte-khendir (Sheikin 2002: 80).

A drum – symbol of time (a Drum-Year, a Drum-Week)

This symbolic concept is discussed on the basis of Nganasans materials. The eth-
nographer Galina Gracheva provides a detailed commentary on the ethnographic
details and explains the symbols of Tubiaku Kosterkin’s shamanic drum: “Its frame
(khua hendir, Ngan. ‘a drum tree’) is made of larch wood. Along its outer edge
twelve ‘cones’ (diaru) are attached according to twelve months of the year. Among
other things the drum on the whole symbolizes a year” (Gracheva 1981: 87).
Unfortunately, we do not have photos and a detailed description of Demnime’s
shamanic drum. Galina Gracheva mentions that on the frame of his drum there
were seven diaru tabs-resonators symbolizing the seven days of the week (Grache-
va 1981: 87). Dulsymiaku (the son of Demnime) made his own drum using the
metal cross-shaped handle komisia, which was inherited from his father Demnime
and grandfather Dukhade. He individually supplemented the drum shape with 7
tabs-horns. The drum’s frame, hensire düjhua (Ngan. ‘a drum circle’) has an oval
shape (53х43 cm). It is made of larch wood and has 7 tabs-horns, hensire diare
which are also carved from larch wood and fixed to the frame. These tabs are not
only resonators (after the tension on the drum membrane next to the tabs empty
spaces are formed, which greatly improve the acoustic properties of the drum), but
they also have symbolic meaning: they represent the individual way of becoming
a shaman. During his “shamanic disease” (shamanic dreams) Dulsymiaku had to
visit the seven spirit’s habitations and get the support of the seven spirits that gave
him the shamanic power (FM 1990).
In this regard, we may recall the symbolic reproduction of the process of be-
coming a shaman on Dukhade’s drum of the Lower world: 9 bony tabs-cones sym-
bolized the breastbones, sinse of the mother-spirit, which brought up the shaman
(Popov 1984: 138).

Protective functions of drawings and figures on the drum

Drawings and figures on Nganasan shamanic drums often have protective value.
Here is a description of the drum of Tubiaku Kosterkin:

“There are three lines painted on the skin along the outer part of the frame: two black
and one red (medium) which pass through the ledges. They represent summer and winter
roads. On the inner side of the drum’s membrane stylized drawings of people and rein-

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 Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

deer are painted with black and red paints. They are located in four segments formed by
the intersecting red and black lines. There are seven black and seven red reindeer oriented
towards the head of the drum, they are depicted mixed in the two upper quarters of the
membrane’s circle. In each of the two lower quarters seven men are depicted. Such arrange-
ment of drawings is explained by the fact that people are always guarding the reindeer, they
go behind them. The drawings made on the inner side of the drum mean that the shaman,
his drum, his reindeer, the »teeth« of the drum etc. protect people and deer throughout the
year” (Gracheva 1981: 87–88).

Dulsymiaku talks about his drum:

“In this drum… the family people, peo-
ple of other households, of our nation are
all saved. Here it is. If a man dies, hence
it hurts” (FM 1990). As metal parts of
his drum were inherited by Dulsymi-
aku from his grandfather Dukhade
(through the father of the shaman), it
is possible to compare the interpreta-
tions of metal images of different gen-
erations of shamans and at the same
time to observe the reinterpretation of
the images.
Inside Dulsymiaku’s drum there are
drawings of 3 metal boats, which sym-
bolize the protection of the life of his
three sons (these boats were previously
the symbols of the three sons of his fa-
ther Demnime). Dulsymiaku says: “to
avoid drowning, to avoid being pulled to
the Underworld by bad spirit, not to dis-
Figure 2. The drum of Nganasans shaman Tubiaku appear in the water… When there are
Kosterkin. 1989, Ust-Avam village, Taimyr. waves on the water – to protect the boat
Photo by Hendrik Relve. from being capsized, the person – from
drowning” (FM 1990). His grandfather
Dukhade used the images of two copper boats inside the drum of the Upper world.
One boat was empty (it was the boat of the shade syzangka ngendui) and another
boat – with a man inside (the boat of the spirit nguo ngendui). The drum served
sacred purposes in rituals to the spirit of the water (Popov 1984: 139–140).
A miniature copy of a hunting bow inside Dulsymiaku’s drum serves the pro-
tection of people from diseases. The shaman says: “Diseases – a cough, a flu, a
headache – all of them are like people. Bad spirits climb to the human to transfer
the disease. The shaman is not afraid of them. When he notices that the disease is
approaching, he shoots an arrow at the target” (FM 1990). Similar small iron and

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Oksana Dobzhanskaya

copper bows of the spirits (nguo dinte) and arrows (bitize) were marked on two of
Dukhade’s drums (the Upper-world drum and the Underworld drum); they served
the protection of people from diseases (Popov 1984: 138–140).
The metal image of a baby’s cradle (nguo
lapsa ‘a deity cradle’) was on Dukhade’s drum
used to ease childbirth. It was also used for
requesting the child’s name from the Deity
of the Upper world Bondupte nguo (Popov
1984: 142–143). The set of images inside
Tubiaku’s drum (metal bow with twisted ar-
row fixed on the top of it and “a little cradle
of metal sheet with an image of a child in it”)
protected children from malevolent beings
(Gracheva 1981: 87).
Modern drawings on Dulsymiaku’s
drum symbolize the continuation of life
through the uniting of male and female.
The drum’s membrane is divided into four
segments with two painted intersecting
lines. There are 4 pairs of figures depicted
on the outer part of the membrane: a pair
of flying birds, a pair of running reindeer, a
Figure 3. Dulsymiaku Kosterkin with the man and a woman, a pair of moving bears.
drum. 1990, Novosibirsk. These figures express an additional value of
Photo by A. Levkovich. the drum, the guarding of the family and
kinship (Ojamaa 1990: 9–11).
We can summarize that the shamanic drum used in the ceremony is first and
foremost a ritual utensil with definite magical or ritual functions, and only sec-
ondly it is a sounding tool.
The main ritual functions of the drum:
1) the drum contains the shaman spirits and embodies their voices;
2) this signal instrument supervises the shaman spirits by its sounds: awakening
them from sleep, calling, speaking to them;
3) the constant sounding of the drum creates the required ritual atmosphere for
the shaman’s traveling (ecstatic flight).

The ceremonial importance of the sounding of the drum

We need not think that the sounding role of a drum recedes to the second place in
comparison with its symbolic role. On the basis of the national names of a drum we
can get an idea of the most important characteristics of its sound. When a shaman
or his relative plays the drum, he tries to achieve the “buzzing” tone and continuity

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 Samoyedic Shamanic Drums: Some Symbolic Interpretations

of this significant “roaring” tone of the drum, but not the beating (i.e. not a rhythmic
pattern). The existence of techniques for the improvement of the acoustic proper-
ties of the instrument in the traditions of Samoyedic peoples (heating the drum
over a fire before and during the ritual), the particular design features of the drum
(hollow resonators for improving the sounding, rattles, metal pendants) as well as
the metaphorical names of the drum indicating the tone, prove the importance of
timbre coloring of the sound of a drum.
Described by E. T. Pushkareva, the drum of the Nenets shaman Gennady Lap-
cui is called syi’iv li khengorota penzer (Nenets ‘seven-horns drum sounding like
thunder’) (Pushkareva 1999: 55). The researcher explains in details the etymology
of the name, related, on the one hand, with the design of the drum, on the other
hand, with the religious understanding of the instrument. The Nenets word hengor
‘horn, cone’ refers to the drum’s resonators: from 24 cones on G. Lapcui’s drum
7 are made of bone (that is why metaphorically this drum is called “the seven-
horns”), the other 17 cones are made of wood. The second meaning of the word
hengor is “thunder-like”, “rumbling”, so the researcher interprets the second part of
the symbolic name as “sounding like thunder”.
The sound of the drum is entirely due to the ritual value of this attribute and is
consistent with the ideological properties of ritual music (Dobzhanskaya 2016). In
particular, sounding is an attribute of the living things (only a living being has its
own voice and can manifest his/her existence with sound). From this point of view
a drum as a sound source, of course, is “alive” (it has a throat, it is the drum-rein-
deer that has a tongue). The sound as the attribute of movement, as an integral part
of the ecstatic flight of the shaman during the ritual is inextricably linked with the
idea of polyphonic songs and sound of the drum. These sounds “raise” the shaman
and help him fly. Numerous audio and video field recordings of shamanic rituals
have shown that singing and playing the drum accompany the shaman’s journey,
the shaman’s flight. When the shaman stops in his path the singing and the sound
of the drum fall silent.
Thanks to the sound of the drum – uniform beats at the membrane – a special
ritual atmosphere is created which is needed for the rite: shamanic helper-spirits
wake up and start singing, and a wonderful drum-reindeer rushes the shaman into
sacred shamanic worlds.
The polysemantic nature of Samoyedic drums can be generalized in the follow-
ing principles:
• the shaman drum is conceived as a deer – a riding animal of the shaman. It
is endowed by zoomorphic features, which emphasize the resemblance to a
deer: a head, thighs, teeth (it should be noted that the name of the shaman
drumstick completes the image of the deer, it is figuratively called “a leg of the
drum” or “the drum’s tongue”);
• the drum is the embodiment of the shamanic supernatural world and sha-
manic ways. It is the symbol of the individual way of becoming a shaman,

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Oksana Dobzhanskaya

it includes the toolkit of spirits-helpers (bows and arrows), the symbols of

protected creatures (cradles, boats, pictures of people and deer etc.), the sym-
bolic barriers to block evil spirits;
• the drum represents the model of the Universe with celestial bodies, divided
into the Upper world and Under world (in Selkup culture);
• the drum is comprehended as the representation of the time cycle (a year,
a week);
• individual interpretations of the drum (drum-cloud) reflect the shamanistic
individual character.

A drum as one of the main symbols of the shamanic ritual demonstrates an

enviable resistance of traditional culture to modern changes. In the absence real
shamanism for almost 20 years on the Taimyr peninsula, the drum as the image of
shamanism and characteristic sound tool is preserved in the modern cultural con-
stellation. It is, on the one hand, a symbol of the preservation of shamanic beliefs
and mythology, on the other hand, it is in a way a generalized expression of ethnic
identity among the indigenous peoples.

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