Endlessly fascinating, often moving, and a must read for anyone interested in the cultures of Siberia. Adele Barker, Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies, University of Arizona The history and contemporary transformation of south Siberia is illuminated through this exploration of the shamanic revival in the Turkic Republics of Tuva and Khakassia. Based on extensive field-work and including folktales, legends, and shamanic poems that elucidate spiritual traditions as well as descriptions of local rituals, Singing Story, Healing Drum is at once travel narrative, autobiography, history, and ethnology. Kira Van Deusen weaves together traditional scholarship and a personal account of her travels through Siberia and contacts with scholars, shamans, and storytellers active in reviving traditional culture. Highlighting the importance of oral literature and music, Singing Story, Healing Drum guides the reader through the often confusing phenomena of the shamanic revival, both in Russia and abroad.
The Udege, a small Indigenous group in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai regions of Russia, have a rich oral storytelling tradition. They speak the Udege language, and their religious beliefs include animism and shamanism. Over two decades, Kira Van Deusen travelled across Russia interviewing Udege storytellers in order to record their folktales. Tigers and the Internet recounts individual storytellers’ lives and the stories that they related to Van Deusen. Combining the translated stories with detailed commentary, background information on the storytellers, and historical context to the themes they explore, Van Deusen provides a rich and moving text that allows the reader to travel with her through time and space. She respectfully shares the stories with a wider audience and preserves them in English for future generations. Readers will learn about the folktales of the Udege, but also about their contemporary lives and connections with other Indigenous groups. The Udege are not widely known outside of Russia. Tigers and the Internet provides a valuable collection of first-hand stories that shows this fascinating culture to those interested in folklore, Indigenous histories, and cultural studies.
After decades exploring Siberian cultures, Kira Van Deusen turned to the Canadian north to ask many such questions, looking at them through the versions of one of their most respected legends - that of hero/shaman Kiviuq, an Inuit counterpart to Homer's Odysseus - told by forty Inuit elders. The elders' voices engage us directly, inviting us to look at the unique qualities of arctic heroism and its application to present-day concerns. Rich details from each of the elders' families help explain interpersonal challenges to survival in the north and offer both practical and spiritual lessons. Van Deusen also points out intriguing cultural connections across the Bering Strait, past and present.
Outsiders to the culture have long focused on the physical artifacts of shamanism - like the costume and drum - and on ritual healing practices, but far less is known about the images shamans and storytellers use to entertain, heal, and educate. Van Deusen describes the lives of the people of the Amur during a period of dramatic transition, as they attempt to find some way to relate ancient traditions to an uncertain future. She emphasizes the contributions of women - often overlooked in the literature on shamanism - in traditional and contemporary society, and their concerns with ecology and the education of children. Their magnificent embroidery, illustrated by the author's photographs, echoes these women's stories. The Flying Tiger will appeal to anyone interested in shamanism, storytelling and folklore, Russia, indigenous people, women's studies, and spirituality.
Faraj" is a Farsi word meaning an opening, a blessing, a space of possibility. Ābtin journeys for a whole year, across deserts and mountains to the sea. The young Zoroastrian hopes to come to terms with his harsh father and his own ambivalence about the art of carpet weaving. He dreams of Mitrā, a Muslim girl who waits for him back home, gathering medicinal plants in the barren lands, struggling with her family's pressure to marry and a stranger's accusations of sorcery. Once reunited, Ābtin and Mitrā realize that both of their religions will forbid their marriage. Gossip is rampant and persecution of Zoroastrians is on the rise. Faraj: A Space of Possibility is set amidst the mud-brick houses, wind towers, and tiled mosques of 17th century Yazd-a crossroads on the Silk Road. We follow Ābtin and Mitrā as they work to reconcile their communities, often at risk to themselves. Together they experience mysticism, danger, and the ups and downs of young love. Gaining confidence in their callings as carpet weaver and healer, Ābtin and Mitrā search for a way to be together. They yearn for a space of possibility - faraj....
Storytelling bridges culture, history, and spirituality. In The Flying Tiger Kira Van Deusen takes us into the world of the female shamans of the Amur, presenting over fifty traditional stories she recorded in the 1990s from the people of the taiga forest in the Russian Far East. More than a collection of tales, the reader learns about the lives of the story-tellers and their history, their spiritual traditions, adaptation to the environment, relationships with animals, and sense of humour.
How do shape-shifting shamans, a giant cannibalistic bumblebee, and human marriage with animals speak to Canadian Inuit and Siberian indigenous peoples today? How can artists present ancient legend in live performance and film with sensitivity to the source? Why are long multi-layered stories essential for adults and children in an age of commercial television?
Canadian storyteller and folklorist Van Deusen presents 25 Chukchi and Yupik tales and legends she has collected from those peoples, who live in the easternmost part of Siberia. The stories have traditionally been used to pass values, beliefs, history, and worldview down the generations. Native culture there is now experiencing a resurgence in the wake of Soviet assimilation forces.
Faraj" is a Farsi word meaning an opening, a blessing, a space of possibility. Ābtin journeys for a whole year, across deserts and mountains to the sea. The young Zoroastrian hopes to come to terms with his harsh father and his own ambivalence about the art of carpet weaving. He dreams of Mitrā, a Muslim girl who waits for him back home, gathering medicinal plants in the barren lands, struggling with her family's pressure to marry and a stranger's accusations of sorcery. Once reunited, Ābtin and Mitrā realize that both of their religions will forbid their marriage. Gossip is rampant and persecution of Zoroastrians is on the rise. Faraj: A Space of Possibility is set amidst the mud-brick houses, wind towers, and tiled mosques of 17th century Yazd-a crossroads on the Silk Road. We follow Ābtin and Mitrā as they work to reconcile their communities, often at risk to themselves. Together they experience mysticism, danger, and the ups and downs of young love. Gaining confidence in their callings as carpet weaver and healer, Ābtin and Mitrā search for a way to be together. They yearn for a space of possibility - faraj....
Based on extensive field-work and including folktales, legends, and shamanic poems that elucidate spiritual traditions as well as descriptions of local rituals, this book guides readers through the often confusing phenomena of the shamanic revival, both in Russia and abroad. It is a travel narrative, history, and an ethnology.
The Udege, a small Indigenous group in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai regions of Russia, have a rich oral storytelling tradition. They speak the Udege language, and their religious beliefs include animism and shamanism. Over two decades, Kira Van Deusen travelled across Russia interviewing Udege storytellers in order to record their folktales. Tigers and the Internet recounts individual storytellers’ lives and the stories that they related to Van Deusen. Combining the translated stories with detailed commentary, background information on the storytellers, and historical context to the themes they explore, Van Deusen provides a rich and moving text that allows the reader to travel with her through time and space. She respectfully shares the stories with a wider audience and preserves them in English for future generations. Readers will learn about the folktales of the Udege, but also about their contemporary lives and connections with other Indigenous groups. The Udege are not widely known outside of Russia. Tigers and the Internet provides a valuable collection of first-hand stories that shows this fascinating culture to those interested in folklore, Indigenous histories, and cultural studies.
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