Drumming, Imitating and Rattling; The «Old Ways» of a Sakha «shaman» of Siberia in Costume and Drum

Abstract

This essay explores the ‘old ways’ in which the costume and drum were used by a Siberian Sakha ojun (Sakha shaman), as described by the algus (ritual leader), and draws on the method of visual imagery with photo images. However, in post-Soviet lives, the ‘old ways’ of shamanism have been consigned to ethnogra¬phy museums comprised of ethnographic materials of drums, costumes and photographs. If ‘shamanizing’ was known, few elders knew of the ojun ways, and if so, it was known with disconnected fragments of mem¬ories. Thus, it is not surprising an existence of ojun could not be proven or demonstrated to be genuine and true. In post-Soviet or post-socialism, people of the Far North are still finding their way through the changes and paradoxes in a newer political terrain of a post-shamanistic world.