Conference Report

Folklore, April, 2000 by Jonathan Roper

It is an accident of history that we know much more about the native peoples of North America than those of North Asia. So :it was a privilege to hear, at our 1999 pre-AGM conference, "The Magic Life of Siberia," last March, from Estonian and Finnish veterans of expeditions to the native peoples of Siberia. For the past twenty-odd years, a small number of art students from the Estonian Academy of Arts have had as their summer practice journeys to Siberian and other Finno-Ugric peoples inside Europe. The drawings, watercolours and photographs, executed in the field in fulfilment of the requirements of these modules were, and have continued to be donated to the Estonian National Museum, and, taken together, form a substantial source of ethnographic data. Those of us present on the day of the conference were able to see some of these paintings and photographs; I hope it will be possible in the future to show a greater number of them in this country for a longer period of time.

Our first speaker, Silja Saarepuu, spoke on the depiction of animals on bronze and other artefacts found in the Permian and Komi territories of the Russian Federation. This so-called "animal style," which can be considered to have begun with the figures depicted in cave paintings, possibly as old as 3000 BC, went on to experience its heyday in the fifth to eighth centuries AD (when it also underwent some Scythian influence), before practically disappearing after the fourteenth century. Among the most popular animal motifs was that of the bear lying in a sacrificial position with its head between its forepaws (Fig. 1).

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Pendants depicting horses with heraldically-opposed heads, and with attached chains ending in goose feet, have been found in graves, placed on either side of the dead person (Fig. 2).

[Figure 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The style has not totally disappeared--Russians and the native peoples of the Perm area are still known to decorate weathervanes, wooden gutters, and wooden salt cellars with carved images of horses and birds.

The next presentation was that of Katrin Sipelgas and Tukka Uusitalo, who spoke of their experiences of expeditions among the native peoples of Siberia generally, giving us some idea of the extreme living conditions in these areas. More specifically, they spoke of the contemporaneous burial customs, of the Khanty people. The Khanty bury their dead on the third day after the death, in a forest graveyard about a kilometre out from the village, to which the body is transported by sledge (in winter) or boat (in summer)--there being no roads. We were shown photographs of the grave-houses where bodies are buried; the permafrost conditions, of course, make deep burial impossible. Because of the custom of grave-visiting, the family heave their own buckets, kettles and stools on the sloped roof of the gravehouse so that they are able to sit and drink with the dead when visiting. Unlike some of the other phenomena or objects described in the conference, these traditions are still in force today.

Finally, Kaupo Kangur spoke of the ritual masks of Siberian peoples, illustrating his talk with a series of rare slides of various masks made from a variety of materials--wood, birch bark, copper, brass, iron, tin, leather and cloth. The earliest evidence for the use of masks in Siberia is provided by figures engraved on sandstone slabs in the Abakan area, early in the second millennium BC (Fig. 3).

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Although the use of masks is still very common and there is a great deal of variety in their type, use, and users, the talk mainly concentrated on shamanic masks. Arguing that shamanism was a phenomenon encompassing both Tyler's animism and Levi-Straussian mythical thinking, Kaupo went on to describe some of these masks, and also to point out some similarities between Siberian masks and those of the native peoples of East Asia and North America. Perhaps the most unexpected type of masks are the "small masks," which were hung off clothes or objects to represent the presence of powerful beings or people. Kaupo concluded that "there are still certain features of shamanistic cultures left in Siberia, but not as intact as a researcher would wish to find them."

The conference also saw the world-launch of Kaljo Pollu's book, Twenty Finno-Ugric Expeditions. The interest sparked in the delegates was reflected in the fact that the book sold out on the day. The conference also saw the launch of Mary-Ann Constantine's The Ballad in Wales, and Elaine Bradtke's Truculent Rustics: Molly Dancing in East Anglia before 1940. Later that afternoon came the Presidential Address on the Holy Grail.

Jonathan Roper, Folklore Society