- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Iron sun symbol attached to skin of bear’s head, from the ceremonial coat of a shaman.
- Long description
- Iron sun symbol attached to skin of bear’s head, from the ceremonial coat of a shaman. The iron disc is incised with lines and notched around the edges. The disc is perforated and tied with a leather thong through a hole in the skin. [MJD 02/10/2013]
- 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, Material Bear Skin Animal, Material Animal Leather Skin, Process Incised, Process Tied
- Dimensions
- Width: max 215 mm, Length: max 455 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1915.50.134
- 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 commonly used shamanic attribute among the Evenki - a headdress made from a bear’s skin with a cosmogonic symbol of the sun. The name of the attribute Samahik/Samasik Dylacha literally means "Sun on the clothes for shaman ceremony (камлание)", formed from the words saman - "shaman", saman-mi - "to shamanize". It comes from the words saman 'shaman', shaman-mi 'to shaman' [ERS 2004: 490] + -hik/sik (suffix denoting the name, the purpose of clothes) [ERS 1958: 788, 795]; dylacha 'the sun' - 'the sun' [ERS 2004: 179]. [ERS 2004: 179]. The attribute combines two ancient Tungus cults - the cult of the bear and the cult of the sun.
The bear is one of the most ancient cult symbols of the Tungus-Manchurian peoples and the first 'male-gendered' image that combines features of both the ancestor of the peoples and the demiurge. The bear is a historical symbol of the formation of the patriarchal traditions of the Evenki [Vasilevich 1957; Vasilevich 1969: 238, 260; Varlamov 2009; Varlamov 2020].
A huge stratum of the cosmological traditions of the Evenki and other closely related tribal peoples organically connect with the bear image, which is ubiquitous in traditions/rituals. In Evenki mythology, the bear Amaka appears as the creator of the universe. In many Evenki myths it is the bear that perfects the appearance and shapes the habits of animals - makes the chipmunk's skin striped, the crucian carp flat, the nutcracker insatiable. From the wool of the bear appear domestic deer and many others. [The most widespread Evenki name of a bear is amaka 'grandfather', 'grandfather' formed from ama 'father', occurring in all the Tungus-Manchurian languages [MESTF 1975: 34-35]. The Evenki say: "Amikan - bee kaltakan, the Bear is half man" (this can also be interpreted as “Half of man is Bear”. [Varlamova 2002: 27]. For many Tunguso-Manchurian peoples (not just the Evenki) the bear is considered an ancestor, a human brother, an uncle, or a grandfather. One of the most widespread stories about the bear tells that Man and Bear were born brothers. When they grew up, they decided to wrestle with each other and, as a result, Man kills Bear by accident. But Bear left man with a last testament and will; the unique right to hunt the bear and the rules that dictate the special relationship between man and bear. Evenki myths in which man reincarnates as a bear and vice versa are widespread. [OTPE: 431, 432].
The bear occupies an important place in the shamanic pantheon of Evenki gods/spirits, acting as a totem symbol, a patron spirit. The image of the patron-bear is one of the most common animal-spirit images employed by shamans of many groups of Evenki. Bear also plays a key role in most important calendar ceremonies. The symbolism of the protector-bear is present in the attributes and the shamanic clothes of the majority of the Evenki shamans [Mazin 1984: 25, 30, 44, 45, 46, 72, 96, 115, 121, 143, 158, 166, 193]. Archaeological and interdisciplinary research suggests that the bear cult originated with the ancestors of modern Tungus-Manchurian peoples in the Neolithic (Okladnikov 1950: 216, 238, 283-284; Vasilevich 1969: 235, 260). One of the first Tungus cults connected with the bear is the cult of ochre - the natural dye ochra-devek as a symbol of the blood that was bequeathed to Evenki by the original Bear [METF: 38-40, 45-51; Okladnikov 1950: 407, 408, 409; Varlamov 2009: 181-182]. (Note from Anya: Amikan Ilkan! is also the cry of the old woman who begins the Bear-hunt ceremonial preparations that we are incorporating into the reconciliation performance at the Pitt Rivers Museum. It means Bear, awaken!)
The sun is the most one of the most important (if not the most important) cosmogonic symbol of the Evenki, presented in a central role in Evenki cosmology, oral tradition, calendar-events and cosmic cycles. In Evenki mythology, the sun is the central image in cosmogonic plots. The origins of the Milky Way and the constellation the Big Dipper are associated by the Evenki with images of sun and moose (Mazin 1984: 9-10). Another popular story explains the origin of day and night: once the Sun and the Moon were husband and wife. One day, during a migration from one campsite to another, Moon (the wife) forgot the cauldron hook for their chum and returned to the former campsite to retrieve it. Since then, she cannot catch up with Sun (husband) and spends her time chasing his travelling camp [Vasilevich 1969: 210, 211; Varlamova 2002: 28].
In the mythology and epic stories of the Evenki, the upper world is located in the east, where the sun rises. It is in the east, therefore, that the head and skeleton of the bear which was hunted for/in the burial of Chuka, is located [FEYA, P. 307, 313].
Many epic picturings of the upper world illustrate its links with the sun symbol [NEB, p. 166, 190; FEY, p. 208; MESTF, p. 274, 275 and many others]. The Evenki tradition of exogamous marriage (marriage outside on ones tribe/clan into another) was started (and is explained in the myth) with the sun and his daughter: the first wife of the first Evenki man was the daughter of the sun [METF: 379; Varlamova 2002: 30].
This particular artefact, presented in the Pitt Rivers collection, namely the ring-shaped symbol of the sun, has a complicated explanation and cosmological symbolism which are difficult to explain to contemporary western folk, because it is not just a ‘symbol,’ but a physical embodiment of Evenki cosmologies: it is not meant to represent them but is actually them. This object, as a shaman attribute embodies cosmogonic Evenki representations, based on systematic astronomical knowledge translated through the prism of Evenki ethnic worldview.
This attribute can practically serve as a means of calculating the cosmic cycles within the solar system, presented as a combination of large and small symbolic signs (notches, lines), which together are a kind of multidimensional and multi-year calendar. This system of calculations of cosmic and calendar cycles is called by the Evenks dukuvun/dokun - "writing" or “letter”. [SSTMYA 1975: 221]. These ancient traditions of calculating time cycles represent a system of diachronic writing that originated in ancient times, which passed from generation to generation and has been preserved to our days.
This object also serves as a good example of how the Evenki used signs/symbols engraved on everyday objects, household items, art and cult objects which simultaneously communicate information but also created a kind of magic aimed at the well-being of the family that owned it or the practitioner that used it [Mazin, Mazin 2013]. It therefore holds both represented and practical/used knowledge and agency.
At the same time, the attribute performs a protective function, as it is made of bear skin. The use of this object in the headdress is an embodiment of the Evenki shamanistic notion that the main image of the Bear that symbolises its patronage of the shaman and the Evenki, is the picturing of its head [Mazin 1984: 72].
Search terms: Ornament, Religion, Religious Object