- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Iron model of a bird (a diver), from a shaman's coat.
- Geographical reference
- Person
- Field collector Maria Antonina Czaplicka
- PRM source Maria Antonina Czaplicka
- PRM source Committee for Anthropology, University of Oxford
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1914
- Date collected
- 1914
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1915
- Materials and processes
- Material Iron Metal, Process Bent, Process Beaten
- Dimensions
- Length: max 145 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1915.50.131
- Research and responses
Research notes from Alexander Nikolaevich Varlamov, expert in Evenki culture and consultant for the project 'Wandering in Other Worlds', (translated by Anya Gleizer): The symbol of the shaman's assistant Uken, Ukeӈ is a loon [ERS 2004: 668], an image characteristic to the cosmologies and languages of most Tunguso-Manchzhurian peoples [SSTMYA 1977: 257].
In the Evenki cosmology, the loon is a totemic creature, one of the main assistants of Creator or Great Spirit, Seveki, who created man, the earth, and all its inhabitants. Here is a short summary of the most popular Evenki myth about the loon: "At first there was only the Upper World - a tiered sky and the boundless sea of Lam-Buldyar; the earth did not exist yet. Seveki, the creator, decided to create something that would add variety to this picture. At his request, his assistants (all the waterfowl) began to try to get a bit of earth from the bottom of the sea. Of all the birds, only the diver loon succeeded; the loon was able to get a small piece of clay (silt) from which the earth began to grow... Ever since, the Evenki have worshipped loons, considering them the helpers of the Creator. The Evenki believe the loon is a sacred shamanic bird because without it, Dulin Buga would not exist. To kill a loon is taboo, considered a great sin - "Odyo" (sin/taboo) [Kaptuke 1991: 9]. In some Evenki groups, the loon helps to create the world in a more dualistic story about two brothers – the creator and destructive spirits [Vasilevich 1969: 214]. The Evenki have a whole cycle of narratives about the creation of land, in which the image of the loon is given considerable attention [Diakonova].
The loon (as a helper of the creator), is pictured and embodied in various ethnographic traditions of the Evenki. For example, in many Evenki breast plate/apron ornaments, the image of the loon is the central symbol of the composition of the ornament. The symbol of the loon is present in shamans costumes in many different Evenki clans, and depending on its ritual functions, the bird is represented both floating and flying [Mazin 1984: 121, 168]. (It is also featured on the Evenki flag).
The loon symbol is one of the most important in the pantheon of Evenki shamanism (Anisimov 1951: 112). In the structure of the Evenki shamanistic rites, the loon is assigned the function of accompanying a shaman into the water element. Besides this, the loon is a peculiar link between the different clans of spirit-birds - small ducks and sandpipers, on the one hand, and swans, on the other hand [Mazin 1984: 57-58].
Note: Evenki shamanic symbols of the loon made from metal and wood are described in the collections collected by E.I. Titov in the late XIX - first half of the XX century. Exhibits of the collections are stored in the Irkutsk Regional Ethnographic Museum [Sirina 2006]. Samples of shamanic artifacts featuring images of the loon are also found in the collections of these regional museums in Russia: The M.B. Shatilov Tomsk Regional Ethnographic Museum [M.B. Shatilov, 2006]. Shatilov Tomsk Regional Museum [TOKM 9957], The Yem. Yaroslavsky Yakutsk State United Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of the North named after [YaGOM KP-42487/98] and others.
Search terms: Figure, Religion, Bird Figure, Religious Object, Amulet