Evenk People Of Russia Shamanism

Though globalization, secularization and the process of modernization are speeding up, in recent years, people's interests and demands on traditional religions are constantly growing as well. Shamanism, as a primitive religion with its deep rooted foundation both in China and Russia, has been desperately spreading, developing, varying, struggling, fighting against subsequent world religions and maximizing all opportunities to survive till this day. Through long-term national interactions, Shamanism and other witchcrafts have mergedinto flows and formed spiritual powers thatare difficult to estimate. It would be premature to estimate that Shamanism is dead or is dying, because the influence of Shamanic cultural vitality is deep-rooted and itis difficult to understand its past and future with modern thinking. Therefore, its death and developmentwill not be transferred by anyone's wills.This thesis mainly discusses the traditional and modern Shamanism of the Russian Zeya Evenks, combs the developing process of Evenk's and Ewenki's Shamanism, analyzes the reasons of change in Evenk's Shamanism and interprets the similarities and differences between Chinese and Russian Shamanism.This paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses the reasons and significance of this research topic, combs the related researches conducted by previous scholars, primarily Chinese and Russian scholars'researches. Research theories and methodologies are listed. Two field sites are introduced in this thesis.The second chapter mainly introducesEvenk people'sgeneral overview, geographical distribution and theirnational origins. Based on Russian scholars'study, the Evenk's origins are summaries roughly into three doctrines: the Manchuria origin, the Yangtze River origin and the Baikal Lake origin. The author thinks that Baikal Lake origin's doctrine has more scientific natures. Finally, the author discusses the Evenk people's ethnic origin and theircross-border ethnic formation process.TheTreaty of Nerchinsk signed by Russian and China in1689, separated Evenk into two groups, forming the Sino-Russian nationalities. With the signing of Treaty of Beijing in1860, the cross-border Evenk nationality was thoroughly formed.The third chapter briefly combs the developing process of Evenk's and Ewenki's Shamanism. In this chapter, four periods are analyzed with criticalcomparisons:the middle of Qing Dynasty and the Tsardom of Russia; the Republic of China and the October revolution; the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union after the war;the Chinese reform and opening up, the collapse of the Soviet Union.The fourth chapter describes Evenk people's traditional Shamanism. By introducing Shamanism, Shamanic rites. Shamanic traditions and taboos, this chapter analyzes the deep-rooted influences of traditional Shamanism to Evenk's spiritual world, folk customs and other aspects.The fifth chapter makes detailed analysis of Russian Evenk's and Chinese Ewenki's contemporary Shamanism. Detailed descriptions of Evenk's contemporary Shamanism are made, as well as the cause of its change. Finally, Russian and Chinese modern Shamanism developments and their positionsin those two social structures are made with comparative analysis. In this period, EvenkandEwenki become cross-bordernationalities belonging to Russiaand China respectively, with some differences in Shamanism. Because of different political and cultural environment, each development process and the changes are taking different paths.The conclusion part summarizesthe above issues, and the author puts forward her research findings: Survival needs adaptation. Adaptation is not only a process of change, but also is the result of the change. Change is inevitable for national survival anddevelopment.Thc crucial part of all lies in how a society, a group, an individualwould adaptto the change so as to better face the change, to better survive and develop.