야쿠트의 종교혼합 현상에 대한 고찰: '아르치 지에테'(Archie Jiete)의 건립을 중심으로

Religious Syncretism in Yakutia: A Case of the Building 'Archie Jiete'

In the Sakha(Yakutia) Republic, culture and politics continue to be interwined. Shamanism recently has come out of hiding after Soviet repression, and into fashion. Images of the shaman are changing in villages, where traditional healers have maintained their practices in difficult conditions, and in cities, where a resurgence of spirit belief and healing has led to the revitalization of their nationalism. Shamans and folk healers manipulate their own images, and in turn are changed by the upheavals of politicized cultural revitalization. In this complex and interactive context, folklore about traditional shamans has become especially rich and accessible. I argue here that religion has become an idiom through which competing definitions of homeland and national pride are being shaped. Until September 2002, Yakutsk had never had a 'temple' devoted to the practice of traditional shamanic beliefs. Indeed the whole concept that a building 'Archie Jiete' could contain or represent the beliefs, values and rituals of the Sakha people was new, and highly controversial.