Shamans and “Dark Agencies”: War, Magical Parasitism, and Re-Enchanted Spirits in Siberia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article presents important ethnography on what the author calls “an auction of souls” among shamans and their clients in the Tuvan Republic of Siberia. Immersing the reader in a “curse-scape” that emanates from the healing practices of a local “Association of Shamans,” the author shows in rich ethnographic detail how shamans condense their “dark powers” with the “soul parts” of their clients in order to prey on the energy of both the dead and the living. While the author’s ethnography dates to 2003, it is still highly relevant to the exchanges of curses found in Siberia and neighbouring regions today. The article therefore offers important and exciting materials – and it would make for an excellent contribution to Religions after the author undertakes some revisions that would bring the analysis further into focus.

 

In its current form, the article is pitched at the level of advancing “the theory of shamanism” (p. 1). This is too general of a claim to make for an article-length piece, especially given the voluminous literature (in anthropology and cognate fields) on the multiple shamanism(s) found worldwide today. However, it would be easy for the author to take a different theme from this rich article and treat it as the central analytic of the paper.

 

One option would be to introduce the notion of “an auction of souls” as a new analytic and to explain what makes it conceptually useful to anthropologists, scholars of religion, specialists of shamanism, Siberia, etc. To make this work, the author would want to show that the “auction of souls” is in fact a Tuvan / Russian concept – rather than a term that the author has coined – and the author would want to provide the equivalent term in one (or both) of those languages.

 

Another option would be for the author to build the analysis on the Tuvan concept of “dark powers” (karaŋ kiushter). The analysis here would focus on the condensation of dark powers in curse accusations, remedies, and places such as graveyards. The author describes how some shamans harness dark powers to consume not necessarily the whole souls of persons, but what the author calls their “soul parts” (it would be important to get the Tuvan / Russian equivalents of these terms, if they’re used in the author’s field site). The consumption of soul parts is especially interesting because it helps to show how shamans may cause people to decline gradually – by gradually sapping them of their soul parts – just as a person may gradually decline after being hit by a “stream of curses” (p.8, in the caption for Scheme 1)… There are also interesting parallels here to the phenomenon of “vampirism” among shamans in Siberia and Mongolia, which is a theme that the author could engage with further (see, for example, Swancutt’s 2008 article “The Undead Genealogy” in the JRAI).

 

If the author updates the analysis as recommended, then the article’s title / abstract should also be updated to reflect this.

 

The author’s revised argument should be introduced right from the very start of the paper, where it should be paired with some description of its key supporting evidence (i.e. the ethnography). This will mean devoting much more space at the beginning of the article to discussing the analytical contributions that the author sets out to make. The author should also work to “ration” the discussion of other scholars’ works a bit more, by shortening the expositions of them and ensuring that they are only used where they clearly support and add to the author’s own analysis.

 

Details

Page 1, Abstract. Tell us from the start what kind(s) of Buddhism you’re discussing.

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1. Remove the word “inaccessible,” which doesn’t seem right. The author made it to this location, so it must be accessible to outsiders somehow!

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1. Tell us here right at the start the year – 2003 – in which the fieldwork took place.

 

Page 1, Paragraph 2. Do you want to write “indigenous” with a capital “I”? If the people of study consider themselves to be part of the global Indigenous movement / community, and if Russia does not oppose this, then it may well be worth doing so.

 

Page 1, Penultimate Line. You mention “the theory of shamanism.” But aren’t there multiple shamanisms in the world? Consider reformulating the sentence to read something like “On this basis, I challenge notions of...”

 

Page 2, Paragraph 2. Consider removing the word “vapid”

 

Page 2, Paragraph 3. The term “ethnic units” sounds strangely depersonalised. Do you want this effect? Consider other alternatives, such as “ethnic groups”, “ethnic populations,” etc.

 

Page 3, Paragraph 1, Line 5. Do you need to add “ibid.” to the reference?

 

Page 3, Paragraph 2. Are you really advancing a theory of shamanism here? If not, consider reformulating as something like “Crucially for the purposes of this study on activities of ritual parasitism / dark powers / the auction of souls...”

 

Page 3, Paragraph 3. Tell us what kind(s) of Buddhism you’re discussing here.

 

Page 4, Paragraph 2. It might be worth engaging here with Laurel Kendall and Ni Wayan Pasek Ariati’s 2020 article ‘Scary Mask/Local Protector: The Curious History of Jero Amerika” in Anthropology and Humanism.

 

Page 5, Paragraph 1, Sentence 3. It’s unclear whether the author was advised to contact the Tuvan Parliamentary member or not. Rephrase for clarity.

 

Page 6, Paragraph 1, Final Sentence. On pyramid schemes, protection rackets, harvesting souls from living people, and alienating dead people from the scattered remains of their souls. Is this how Tuvans envision and explain this form of sorcery? Tell us explicitly. If this is the Tuvan way of envisioning the sorcery, then this is super-interesting and more could be said about how sorcery is imagined here in the first place.

 

Page 6, Paragraph 3, Sentence 1. This reminds me more of Evans-Pritchard’s classic study of witchcraft – rather than his study of sorcery – where the body parts of the deceased may be eaten. Not that you need to follow E-P’s (Azande-inspired) definitions of witchcraft or sorcery. But since these are well-known in anthropology, you might consider adding a brief sentence in the article that says the Tuvans draw the lines between witchcraft and sorcery differently to how E-P did.

 

Page 6, Penultimate Sentence on the Page. We are finally told what kind of Buddhism you are discussing here. This should appear where you first discuss Buddhism in the article.

 

Page 12, Paragraph 2. The discussion of Victoria Soyan Peemot’s work should be trimmed down or possibly removed. It detracts from the author’s own contributions. 

 

References. Double-check all the books published by Berghahn. The place of publication is usually “New York and Oxford,” but you have written “London” for many of them.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The quality of the English is really very good, although sentences could be simplified more for ease of reading.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see the attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Your article "An Auction of Souls: War, Magical Parasitism, and Re-Enchanted Spirits in Siberia" presents a fascinating exploration of the intersection between shamanic practices and political power in the Tuva Republic. However, there are several areas where improvements can be made to enhance the clarity, depth, and academic rigour of the study. To provide a stronger theoretical foundation, consider integrating more extensive references to key anthropological works on shamanism and political power. Recommended readings include Charles Stépanoff's "Devouring Perspectives: On Cannibal Shamans in Siberia," which explores the symbolic and ritualistic aspects of cannibalism in Siberian shamanism; Manduhai Buyandelger's "Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Gender, and Memory in Contemporary Mongolia," which investigates the intersection of shamanism, gender, and memory in post-socialist Mongolia; Morten Axel Pedersen's "Not Quite Shamans: Spirit Worlds and Political Lives in Northern Mongolia," which examines the political and social roles of shamans in Mongolia; and Katherine Swancutt's "Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination," which provides insights into the temporal dynamics of divination practices. The methodology section needs to be more comprehensive. Providing a detailed account of the research methods, including the duration of fieldwork, sampling strategies, and data analysis techniques, will enhance the transparency and reliability of your study. Additionally, discussing potential biases and ethical considerations will further strengthen this section. Review the text to eliminate redundancy and simplify overly complex language. Aim for clarity and conciseness to ensure that your main arguments are easily comprehensible and engaging for the reader. Incorporate insights from recent studies to fill gaps in your current analysis and offer a more nuanced understanding of shamanic practices and their socio-political implications. This will provide a more balanced and well-rounded perspective. Provide clearer definitions and explanations of the theoretical concepts used in your article, such as "magical parasitism." Elaborate on how these concepts connect to existing theories in anthropology to enhance the academic soundness of your arguments. While the English used in the article is generally proficient, some sections are overly complex. Simplifying the language without compromising academic rigour will improve readability and ensure that your main arguments are clearly conveyed. By addressing these suggestions, your article can be significantly improved, making it a valuable contribution to the field of political anthropology and the study of shamanism.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The paper is written in correct English, however, it is worth considering making the text clearer. The text frequently uses complex and lengthy sentences that could be simplified for better readability. There are also instances of ambiguous phrasing that could be made clearer with more direct language.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article brings together the themes of shaman power, social uneasiness, and politics through an in-depth field research and observations of the author among the shamans in the Tyva Republic. The paper engages well with previous scholarship on shamanism, curses, and politics in the region. This study is theoretically engaging while leaning on the case-studies which the author documented during fieldwork. I appreciate the author’s efforts to take the native language as responsibly as English. The native terminology is mostly correct. The concepts’ have coherent explanations in English. 

The article’s approach to inter-plays between regional politics and shaman beliefs is novel and interesting. The theme has not been studied previously in such a depth. In future, I hope the author will investigate further the shamans’ political activities during Russia’s war against Ukraine.

This work is a valuable contribution to the studies in Inner/North Asian shamanism. It engages with the current-day political situation and allows to see the background information behind the cases with the shamans participating in the war propaganda. The media coverage of these cases usually doesn’t extend beyond exoticizing the kham-shamans. This article represents the anthropological approach which is well-grounded both theoretically and methodologically. 

I recommend this article for publication in the journal “Religions” with minor corrections or accept it in the correct form with a condition to fix the below-included revisions at the stage of proofreading. 

Recommended revisions: 

1. lines 21 - 22, it would be great to replace ““a Siberian territory” with another definition, e.g.,  “Inner Asia”, “Tuva Republic”;
2. give an original native terminology when using “spirit, spiritual” or suggest a better replacement for “spirit”; it is unclear what exactly the author means in each case when referring to “a spirit”; for instance, only after reading the line # 29 about reincarnation, the reader can assume that the “spirits” in the line # 28 could be the deceased persons; “spirits” in the line # 83 are defined in Tyvan as “eeler” - cher eeleri translates as “masters or owners of the land” and the expression is used to refer to the nonhuman nonanimal beings-masters of the landscapes, water sources, etc; these beings can be both harmful or benevolent towards humans, though the author makes this clear in the lines 514 - 515;
3. line 193, translation of “advise” has an error, it is “sovet” (it has -i- in the text: “soviet); 
4. line 252, unclear transliteration: ‘kiushter”, it is better as “küshter”;
5. lines 265 to 270; it is better to avoid citing a book by Russian journalist S. Markus (2006) because this book presents unacademic approach to the Tyvan history and culture and it has incorrect data which is often unsupported by academic research; the reliable sources on Buddhism, Lamaism and multi-confessional situation in Tyva are, for instance, the following scholarly works:  

Khomushku, Olga M. (2010). ‘Ассимиляция Автохтонных религиозных культов народов Саяно-Алтая с буддийскими культами’ [Assimilation of the autochthonous religious cults of the peoples of the Sayan-Altai with the Buddhist cults]. The Tyvan State University’s Newsletter, Social Sciences and Humanities, no. 1: 22-29. Kyzyl: Tyv. State University.

Kisel, Vladimir (2009). Поездка за красной солью. Погребальные обряды Тувы XVII—начало XX в [Trip for the Red Salt. Funeral rites of Tuva XVIII—beginning of XX c.]. St Petersburg: Nauka.

Mongush, Marina. (1992). Ламаизм в Туве. Историко-этнографическое исследование [Lamaism in Tyva. Historical-Ethnographic Research]. Kyzyl: Tyvan Publishing House.

Mongush, Marina (2001). История буддизма в Туве (вторая половина XVIII - конец ХХ в) [History of Buddhism in Tyva (the second part of the 18^th - the end of the 20^th century]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.

Mongush, Marina (2006). “Modern Tuvan Identity.” Inner Asia 8: 275–96; 

 

6. line 270, “monastery” in Tyvan is “khüree” (and it doesn’t have -u- as in the text, khuree); 

7. line 271; misspelled as “burkhan” - it is “burgan”;

8. lines 475 and 476, a place name “Ak-Erik Khem” has to be changed to “Tes-Khem);

line 603, a place name Ak-Dovurak is written with a hyphen;

9. line 582 (and in the following lines), the woman’s name Arzhaana is written with double -aa- in the middle;

10. line 661, the place name has to be with -ö- as Khöndergei.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf