Shamanism in a Post-socialist City

Abstract

Citation: Szmyt Z. (2020) Shamanism in a Post-socialist City. Mir Rossii, vol. 29, no 3, pp. 51–65. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-3-51-65

This article focuses on shamanic placemaking and the struggles for public space in the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude. Special attention is given to the indigenization of the city, which is a result of the mass immigration of Buryats from rural areas and the decay of the Soviet urbanization model. The article investigates how contemporary shamanism is involved in the decolonization of the urban space, new temporalization, and indigenous placemaking. Instead of dealing with traditional shamanist mediation between spirits and people, the emphasis is on mediation between the idea of ethnicity and the urban space.