Author: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam

Source: Social Analysis, Volume 52, Number 1, Spring 2008 , pp. 95-110(16)

Abstract:

An analysis of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation reveals a variety of village and urban reactions to crises of faith and power. The significance for group identity and instances of synergistic group belief are discussed. The transition that has seen amorphous underground shamanic practice lead to the institutionalization of shamanic cosmology is reflected in the recent opening of a temple in the Republic's capital, Yakutsk, and in the various groups that adhere to charismatic healers and seers. Debates about faith, as well as fragmented faith epistemologies, are described. The data derive from over 25 years of intermittent fieldwork in the Republic and with the Sakha diaspora. My approach is situated at the crossroads of medical-psychological anthropology, political anthropology, and new religious movement analysis.

Keywords: CRISIS; IDENTITY; RELIGION; SAKHA; SHAMANS; SIBERIA; SPIRITUALITY

DOI: 10.3167/sa.2008.520106

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