Remnants of pre-islamic beliefs and rituals among the khorezm uzbeks [Part II]

Soviet Anthropology and Archeology

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 1971, Pages 329-352

  Snesarev, G P ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84909044521     PISSN: 0038528X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2753/AAE1061-19590904329     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. O. A. Sukhareva, Perezhitki animizma u ravninnykh tadzhikov, manuscript of dissertation for the Candidate's degree (1940), pp. 52, 56, 57
2. Exorcisms adduced by Shishov are quite suggestive in this regard. Hawkers of ispand grass (rue), smoking on a brazier, said, as they drove out evil spirits: "Depart, come out, cast yourself into a hill, cast yourself into a tree, into water, depart into the fields" (A. Shishov, "Tadzhiki. Etnograficheskoe i antropologicheskoe issledovanie," Part I, in the ethnographic journal Sredniaia Aziia, Tashkent, 1910, No. 11, p. 264)
3. With respect to the "burial" of the murza-sib disease, personified in a rag doll, as performed by the mountain Tadjiks, see M. S. Andreev, Tadzhiki doliny Khuf, 1953, Issue 1, Stalinabad, p. 75. With respect to the rag dolls specially made for shamanistic treatment of the ill, Malov writes that after they have been touched to the body of a sick person, they are burned in a fire (S. E. Malov, "Shamanstvo u sartov Vostoch-nogo Turkestana," Sbornik Muzeia antropologii i etnografii Akademii nauk, Petrograd, 1918, Vol. V, No. 1, pp. 6, 9)
4. A. A. Semenov, Etnograficheskie ocherki Zeravshanskikh gor Karategina i Darvaza, Moscow, 1903, pp. 73, 74
5. Devy also divide into Moslems and unbelievers. Thus, Ufrid-dev is not of the faithful, while Khamza is a Moslem. The name of the dev Ufrid is undoubtedly of Islamic origin. The Koran refers to a jinn named Ifrit (Koran, translated by I. Iu. Krachkovskii, Sura 27, Moscow, 1963, p. 302)
6. S. P. Tolstov, Drevnii Khorezm, Moscow, 1948, pp. 71, 72
7. J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, Russian edition, Vol. I, Moscow, 1928, p. 172
8. M. S. Andreev, "Kratkie svedeniia ob etnograficheskoi ekspeditsii, predpriniatoi letom 1924 g. k gornym tadzhikam," Izv. Turkestanskogo otdela Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva, Tashkent, 1924, XVII, p. 218
9. This costume is quite significant, and bore signs of some highly archaic tradition. In this connection it is useful to recall the horned headdresses represented in ancient Khorezmian iconography (S. P. Tolstov, Drevnii Khorezm, p. 201)
10. Abureikhan Biruni, Izbrannye proizvedeniia, Vol. I: Pamiatniki minuvshikh pokolenii, Tashkent, 1957, p. 109
11. Avesta, Yasht XIX, 27–29
12. "The hero, capturing Ahriman in battle, leaped upon him and drove him like a horse, and thereafter more than once, saddling the shaitan, traveled country upon country" (Abulkasim Firdousi, Shakh-Name, Vol. I, Moscow, 1960, p. 32)
13. L. Ia. Shternberg, Pervobytnaia religiia v svete etnografii, Leningrad, 1936, p. 293
14. S. A. Tokarev, Rannie formy religii i ikh razvitie, Moscow, 1964
15. For details, see our paper "Pachiz (ob odnom etnograf-icheskom pamiatnike drevnikh indo-khorezmiiskikh sviazei)," SE 1962, No. 5, pp. 82–93 (c)
16. K. A. Inostrantsev, Sasanidskie etiudy, St. Petersburg, 1909, p. 97
17. In this connection, much interest attaches to an archeo-logical find in the Balalyk-tepe excavations: the figure of a camel made of pink salt. In the opinion of Al'baum, who published it, it was of religious significance, both in terms of the image (the camel is a symbol of fertility) and of the material of which it was made (L. I. Al'baum, Nekotorye kul'tovye pred-mety iz raskopok Balalyk-tepe, KSIE AN SSSR, 1958, No. XXX, pp. 79, 80
18. J. G. Frazer, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 69
19. In other parts of Uzbekistan as well, it is not uncommon to find children's kaftans on the backs of which a snake or dragon is embroidered to repel evil spirits. Here we encountered an analogous explanation: the spirits are not frightened by the image but regard the possessor of the garment as a brother, judging by the snake or dragon, and pass by. Another interpretation of this type of charm exists. Thus, Tokarev holds that among the Babylonians, "one's own picture, presented in such repulsive form that a spirit seeing it would have to flee in terror, was employed as apotrope against an evil spirit" (S. A. Tokarev, Religiia v istorii narodov mira, Moscow, 1964, p. 312)
20. For detail on the role of the momo in Central Asian rituals, see O. A. Sukhareva, op. cit., pp. 23, 24
21. Iu. V. Knorozov, "Mazar Shamun-Nabi," SE, 1949, No. 2, p. 96
22. This is also the view held by Sukhareva with respect to the shamanism of the plains Tadjiks. On this matter, after analysis of the very rich material she collected, Sukhareva writes: "We shall leave for the future the final decision of the question of the origin of shamanism among the Tadjiks, but we hold nevertheless that while elements of syncretism undoubtedly exist, particularly borrowings from the shamanism of the Turkic peoples, there are no adequate grounds for regarding as indubitably Turkic the origin of the system of beliefs, rituals, and the hierarchy of servitors of that cult which we have observed among the Tadjiks of the districts studied and classified as shamanism" (O. A. Sukhareva, op. cit., p. 138)