The role of non-human punishment in Buryat shamanism

Abstract

In this article, I start from the premise that the understanding of punishment is determined by the overall system of thinking, by the cosmology that underpins a given social order. In analysing the understanding of punishment in shamanism, I use a broad definition encompassing not only punishment inflicted by human individuals and communities, but also punishment by non-human entities such as guardians that reside in mountains and rivers or guardian spirits of the ancestors, that is, beings that are not included in the materialistic “Western” view of reality, but which are an important part of shamanic cosmology. The article draws on material from field research conducted in Buryatia and Mongolia, as well as an analysis of source texts dealing primarily with Buryat shamanism. The main purpose of the article is to analyse the impact of the shamanic worldview on ideas about this part of the social world which in social theory, in the concepts of sociologists and legal anthropologists is usually defined in terms of categories like social control, legal system or justice system. I seek to demonstrate that what is described as punishment from an external point of view is, in fact, an immanent part of the belief system and the ethical system contained within it. I show the concept of punishment found in the ideas of ovoo guardians, illness, as well as the shamanic vocation (including shamanic disease).