Eurasian Shamanism - Songs, Music

Songs, Music

See also: Imitation of natural sounds related to various shamanistic beliefs or practice and Shamanic music

As mentioned above, shamanistic practice shows great diversity, even if restricted to Siberia. In some cultures, the music or song related to shamanistic practice may intend to mimic natural sounds, sometimes with onomatopoiea.

This holds e. g. for shamanism among Sami groups. Although the Sami groups live outside of Siberia, many of their shamanistic beliefs and practice shared important features with those of some Siberian cultures. The Yoiks of the Sami were sung on shamanistic rites. Recently, yoiks are sung in two different styles, one of these are sung only by young people. But the traditional one may be the other, the “mumbling” style, resembling to magic spells. Several surprising characteristics of yoiks can be explained by comparing the music ideals, as observed in yoiks and contrasted to music ideals of other cultures. Some yoiks intend to mimic natural sounds. This can be contrasted to bel canto, which intends to exploit human speech organs on the highest level to achieve an almost “superhuman” sound.

The intention to mimic natural sounds is present in some Siberian cultures as well: overtone singing, and also shamanic songs of some cultures can be examples.

• In a Soyot shamanic song, sounds of bird and wolf are imitated to represent helping spirits of the shaman.
• The seance of Nganasan shamans were accompanied by women imitating the sounds of the reindeer calf, (thought to provide fertility for those women). In 1931, A. Popov observed the Nganasan shaman Dyukhade Kosterkin imitating the sound of polar bear: the shaman was believed to have transformed into polar bear.

The intention to mimic natural sounds is not restricted to Siberian cultures. And it is not necessarily linked to shamanistic beliefs or practices. See for example katajjaq, a game played by women, an example of music of some Inuit groups. This applies overtone singing, and in some cases, sounds of nature (mostly those of animals, e.g. geese) is imitated. Imitation of animal sounds can serve also such practical reasons like luring game in hunt.