The evolution of black faith (shamanism) in the Yakuts. Troshchansky V.F.

The attention of readers is proposed to the book of the famous domestic ethnographer V.F. Troshchansky (1843–1898), which examines the development of shamanism, or “black faith” in detail, among the Yakut people. The work describes the features of primitive religion and ancient beliefs of the Yakuts, highlight the evolution of religious representations of the Yakut people. The concepts of the Yakuts about life and the soul, about death, ideas about the afterlife, their main rites, the cult of ancestors and sacrifices are considered. The process of learning and initiation of the shaman, types of shamans (black and white), as well as tools used by shamans, are described. The development of religious ideas among the Yakuts is compared with the features of the shamanistic beliefs of other peoples.

the book written more than a hundred years ago (the first edition was published in 1902) will be interesting to ethnologists, historians, religious scholars, culturalists, as well as themselves A wide circle of readers.