Vestnik NSU Series History and Philology
March 29, 2026
I. Golovnev
Cinema was used in the Soviet Union as a tool to reshape public consciousness and advance an anti-religious campaign, particularly in multi-confessional regions. Analysis of archival materials from a 1935–1937 academic expedition to study the ethnography of the peoples of the Amur River reveals the film "Road of the Dead," which focused on shamanism. Comparing the expedition program with the film script exposes the motives of scientists and filmmakers in the project. The film serves as an informative visual document of its time, enabling reconstruction of both actual events and their figurative context, opening new research perspectives.
International Journal of History and Archaeology Research Studies
March 16, 2026
S Sajeer
Between the eighth and early nineteenth centuries, Tibetan Buddhist monastic traditions encountered indigenous animist cosmologies in the hill societies of present-day Arunachal Pradesh. Monpa and Sherdukpen communities in the west selectively adopted Gelugpa and Nyingmapa Buddhist elements while retaining animal sacrifice, spirit propitiation, and shamanic healing. Eastern communities such as the Adis, Apatanis, Galos, and Nishis maintained their Donyi-Polo and related animist traditions largely unchanged. This differential reception was shaped by the political economy of Tibetan monastic expansion centered on Tawang Monastery (founded c. 1680–81), trans-Himalayan trade routes, and ecological constraints. Syncretism was an active, creative negotiation, not passive reception. The Treaty of Yandaboo (1826) severed trans-Himalayan connections, and British colonial ethnography later imposed categorical distinctions that obscured integrated local practice.
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
March 10, 2026
Ya Yambao Yang, Mandy Yang, Tiffany Wing Lam Yip et al.
Hmong shamans understand and respond to depression through cultural beliefs and spiritual practices rather than biomedical frameworks. Nine of twelve shamans interviewed struggled to name depression, while eight attributed it to soul loss or spiritual imbalance. Displacement, war trauma, and poverty were identified as contributing factors by all participants. Coping strategies included family time, gardening, and healing from other shamans. Female shamans more openly shared struggles, while male shamans concealed emotions due to their household role. Only younger shamans had sought therapy; older shamans associated depression with stigma, mistrust, and fear of medication. This suggests a generational shift toward openness to mental health services.
Journal of Education Humanities and Social Sciences
March 7, 2026
Yuheng Sun
Shamanic music, emerging from Neolithic animism, represents the earliest organized sound in Chinese civilization. It functioned as a psychological technology for inducing trance, a social mechanism for group cohesion, and a cosmological instrument for maintaining universal harmony. This paper traces its trajectory from seventh-millennium-BCE bone flutes through partial institutionalization in Shang and Zhou state sacrifice to marginalization in folk and non-Han traditions. Synthesizing archaeological data, oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions, transmitted literary sources, and comparative evidence from living Manchu, Daur, and Hezhe performances, the analysis shows that features later regarded as quintessentially Chinese—the five-tone scale and music as regulator of qi—originated in shamanic practice long before Confucian systematization.