 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2024) |
| |
Ket mythology is the mythology of the Kets, which includes legends, fairy tales, data related to shamanic rituals and other religious ideas. The Ket religious and mythological system is a hierarchy in which six levels are distinguished. The connection between the levels is carried out with the help of plots in which characters of different levels participate.
The first (highest) level of Ket mythology includes only one mythological character – the upper god Eś (Eş, which is translated into English as 'sky' and 'god' or 'deified sky'). [1] In his image, the Kets personified the sky and the natural phenomena associated with it – thunder (Eş deşij, "Eś screams" – a phrase pronounced during thunder), lightning, clouds and even the northern lights – "the fire of the sky-Eś" (Eş (dә) bok). The sky itself is called "Eś's skin" (Eşt holәt) in Ket language. Many folklore stories indicate that Eś lives in the sky, above the seventh circle of the upper world. Some Kets familiar with the Orthodox religion and Christian rituals tend to identify Eś with the Christian god.
The characters of the second level include the personification of the evil principle, the mistress of the underworld Hosedem, [2] who has several parallel names in Ket: Хоşеdæm, Хоşijdæm, Hosejdam, etc. and is translated as "mother of Hosij". Khosedem sends bad weather, troubles and damage, pestilence, as well as death and illness of people, devouring their souls - uļwej. According to some legends, Khosedem lives in the ground, according to others - on a rock on the northern island at the mouth of the Yenisey. There are several versions of her relationship with Eś - according to one, Khosedem was Eś's wife and lived with him in his transparent palace. But one day she betrayed Eś and went to the Moon, for which she was overthrown to the earth by her ex-husband. According to another version, Khosedem herself decided to leave heaven. Tomam (Tomam, Tomæm, "mother of heat") [3] also belongs to this level, and is associated with the south, heat, and the sun. While Khosedem is associated with the north and winter, Tomam is associated with the south and spring.
The third level includes the characters-heroes of the epic. Doh [4] and Albe [5] are the first cultural heroes of the Kets, who confront Khosedem. Albe acts as the first person or even a participant in the act of creation of the world, while Doh lived later, as evidenced by the story of his death, separated from the time of the narrator by a gap of 300 years. The three brothers Balne, Belegene and Torete, whose acts of bravery are best attested in the Ket tales, also belong to this level. In addition to these five heroes, other heroes also belong to the third level, in particular, the great shamans of the past: Purtos, whose words are referenced in shamanic songs, and the shaman Vasily Lesovkin, who is at the intersection of historical time and the time of the narrator. He appears in the tragic situation of the clash between the Kets and the non-Kets, leading to the death of the shaman and the end of the tradition of great shamans.
The fourth level includes spirits – embodiments of earthly nature. This includes earth and water spirits Dotethem, Lyutys, Kai-gus, Ul-gus and others. All these creatures live in forests and rivers and are capable of causing harm to humans, although they do not always actively strive to do so. Another class of this level includes objects that make up the system of human protection and the well-being of his home. Such objects include Alel – a person's assistant in the fight against troubles, illnesses and evil spirits, represented as a wooden figurine of a small man dressed in animal skins. A separate class of this level includes natural objects – animals: first of all, the bear, as well as the loon as a bird of the lower world, the eagle as a bird of the upper world, the swan, the deer, the beaver, the burbot. A special class is represented by celestial objects: the moon, the sun, some stars and constellations. In this case, the Big Dipper and Orion are depicted as animals (like an elk and a deer) and are adjacent to the previous class. Another class within this level is the hostile to the Kets “non-Kets”: Evenks, Yuraks, Russians. The last class of this level consists of characters who may have previously belonged to higher levels, but in the texts of the 20th century appear in fairy-tale time and are sometimes opposed to each other as good and evil beginnings: Hun — the daughter of the sun or the sun itself and Kalbesem. [6]
The fifth level of Ket mythology is represented by shamans. Shamanism in Ket mythology is associated with the reincarnation of a shaman, explained by the inhabitation of spirits. These spirits themselves can be considered as objects of the fourth level. Shamans can differ in the strength of their shamanic abilities (the difference between great shamans and lesser shamans).
The main character of the sixth level is the person himself. However, just as a shaman becomes a shaman only after the spirits enter him, a person becomes an object of this level only after the main (seventh) soul enters him – uļwej, which accompanies the person throughout his life.
Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, parts of Siberia, and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some Alaska Native religions. Traditional Inuit religious practices include animism and shamanism, in which spiritual healers mediate with spirits. Today many Inuit follow Christianity ; however, traditional Inuit spirituality continues as part of a living, oral tradition and part of contemporary Inuit society. Inuit who balance indigenous and Christian theology practice religious syncretism.
Chinese mythology is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural traditions. Populated with engaging narratives featuring extraordinary individuals and beings endowed with magical powers, these stories often unfold in fantastical mythological realms or historical epochs. Similar to numerous other mythologies, Chinese mythology has historically been regarded, at least partially, as a factual record of the past.
Kets are a Yeniseian-speaking people in Siberia. During the Russian Empire, they were known as Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian people. Later, they became known as Yenisei Ostyaks because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk Krai district of Russia. The modern Kets lived along the eastern middle stretch of the river before being assimilated politically into Russia between the 17th and 19th centuries. According to the 2010 census, there were 1,220 Kets in Russia. According to the 2021 census, this number had declined to 1,088.
Iranian mythology, or Persian mythology in western term, is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples and a genre of ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Persians' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of not only Iran but of the Persosphere, which includes regions of West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Transcaucasia where the culture of Iran has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of various Iranian empires, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them, or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roughly corresponds to the Iranian Plateau and its bordering plains.
Baltic Finnic paganism, or BalticFinnic polytheism was the indigenous religion of the various of the Baltic Finnic peoples, specifically the Finns, Estonians, Võros, Setos, Karelians, Veps, Izhorians, Votes and Livonians, prior to Christianisation. It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities. The chief deity was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other important deities included Jumala, Ahti, and Tapio. Jumala was a sky god; today, the word "Jumala" refers to a monotheistic God. Ahti was a god of the sea, waters and fish. Tapio was the god of the forest and hunting.
Georgian mythology refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia.
Philippine mythology is rooted in the many indigenous Philippine folk religions. Philippine mythology exhibits influence from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian traditions.
Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Korean Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity.
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories.
Indigenous Philippine folk religions are the distinct native religions of various ethnic groups in the Philippines, where most follow belief systems in line with animism. Generally, these Indigenous folk religions are referred to as Anito or Anitism or the more modern and less ethnocentric Dayawism, where a set of local worship traditions are devoted to the anito or diwata, terms which translate to Gods, spirits, and ancestors. Many of the narratives within the indigenous folk religions are orally transmitted to the next generation, but many have traditionally been written down as well. The Spanish colonizers have claimed that the natives did not have religious writings, but records show otherwise. Accounts, both from Chinese and Spanish sources have explicitly noted the existence of indigenous religious writings. There are also Spanish records of indigenous religious books and scrolls, along with indigenous statues of gods, being burned by colonizers. In some sources, the Spanish claim that no such religious writings exist, while within the same chronicle, they record such books being burned on their own order. The writings were written on native reeds and leaves using iron points and other local pens, similar to how things are written on a papyrus, and fashioned either as scrolls or books. Some were written on bamboos. 0.23% of the population of the Philippines are affiliated with the Indigenous Philippine folk religions according to the 2020 national census, an increase from the previous 0.19% from the 2010 census.
Hungarian mythology includes the myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales and gods of the Hungarians.
Mapuche religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Mapuche people. It is practiced primarily in south-central Chile and southwest Argentina. The tradition has no formal leadership or organizational structure and displays much internal variation.
Soul dualism, also called dualistic pluralism or multiple souls, is a range of beliefs that a person has two or more kinds of souls. In many cases, one of the souls is associated with body functions and the other one can leave the body. Sometimes the plethora of soul types can be even more complex. Sometimes, a shaman's "free soul" may be held to be able to undertake a spirit journey.
The Vainakh peoples of the North Caucasus were Islamised comparatively late, during the early modern period, and Amjad Jaimoukha (2005) proposes to reconstruct some of the elements of their pre-Islamic religion and mythology, including traces of ancestor worship and funerary cults. The Nakh peoples, like many other peoples of the North Caucasus such as Circassians, practised tree worship, and believed that trees were the abodes of spirits. Vainakh peoples developed many rituals to serve particular kinds of trees. The pear tree held a special place in the faith of Vainakhs.
Komi mythology is the traditional mythology of the Komi peoples of northern Russia.
Black shamanism is a kind of shamanism practiced in Mongolia and Siberia. It is specifically opposed to yellow shamanism, which incorporates rituals and traditions from Buddhism. Black Shamans are usually perceived as working with evil spirits, while white Shamans with spirits of the upper world.
Yao folk religion is the ethnic religion of the Yao people, a non-Sinitic ethnic group who reside in the Guangxi, Hunan and surrounding provinces of China. Their religion has been profoundly intermingled with Taoism since the 13th century, so much that it is frequently defined as Yao Taoism. In the 1980s it was found that the Yao clearly identified with the Chinese-language Taoist theological literature, seen as a prestigious statute of culture.
Solar myth — mythologization of the Sun and its impact on earthly life; usually closely associated with lunar myths.