Article

Name: Legends about shamans in the system of non-fairytale genres of Forest Yukaghirs’ folklore

Authors: P. E. Prokopieva

In the section Study of folklore

Abstract: The paper considers the place occupied by the legends about shamans in the oral folklore of Forest Yukaghirs (based on the materials of the late 19th century collected by V. I. Jokhelson). Spread in the non-fairytale folklore of the Yukaghirs are the works in which the leading role is played by a warrior, hunter and shaman. A conclusion is drawn that the semantic core of the legends about shamans is the belief in their magical abilities. Functionally the shamans’ texts asserted the importance of the shaman in the tribal society as an executor of a religious cult. In the Forest Yukaghirs’ folklore the image of the shaman, just as those of other main characters, is inseparable from the life of the tribe with its primary needs. Like other non-fairytales, the legends about shamans focus on the description of the real events of the past, the traditional spiritual values. The folk vocabulary related to the topic of shamanism reflects the Yukaghirs’ traditional conceptions of shamanism as a supernatural gift and contains sacral information.

Keywords: forest yukaghirs, non-fairytale folklore, genre, shamanism, legends about shamans

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