The museum of Regional Studies in Myski.
Yesterday the members of the two groups “Journalists” and “ The museum
worker” visited the local museum of Regional Studies in Myski. We had a good
chance to know some interesting information closely connected with the main
topics of the project we’re working on « The town we are proud of». We’re
studying the history of our town and it’s local people. That’s why it has been
decided to visit the museum and become acquainted with the Ethnography section of the
museum which portrays the lifestyle and culture of shortsi people. Many old exhibits
and original things are displayed here. The museum guide started the excursion
with showing the examples of ancient armours that were found in the upper of the Mrassu river. The Shortsi were excellent blacksmiths.
The Land of Kuznetskay can be translated literally as The Land of Blacksmiths.
Also The Shortsi were very skillful hunters. They went hunting all the
year round. For that purpose lots of hunting equipment was used .Some special
skis, for example. Fishing was also popular activity among shortsi people. They
made fishing nets so as to catch graylings or carp fish.
Going on with food related topic we studied various cooking utensils:
pans, spoons, pots, some of them made of bark, the tough outer covering of tree
trunks.
Shortsi people have indigenous
religion which is called shamanism. Shaman is known to be a person who can
interact with the world of spirits. Shortsi people respected their shaman and
trusted him absolutely. He could give the community the answers to some
problems as well as he could heal different ailments and alleviate the pain.
Shaman’s buben or a tambourine played a great role in shaman’s rituals. It was
regarded as a powerful instrument that allows shaman to travel to the world of
benevolent or malevolent spirits. It was interesting to know that shaman could be the owner of only 9
tambourines during his life. The
tambourine and shaman’s life was closely connected to each other. Shaman was
buried together with his tambourine so as to help him to travel to afterworld.
The local museum of Regional Studies in our town contain many exhibits
that belong to shortsi peoples’ culture. Visit it your own ! You won’t waste
your time being here.
It’s an old
shaman’s buben or a tambourine. It belongs to the nation of shortsi. You can
see it in the the Ethnography section of the local museum of Regional Studies
in Myski. Shaman’s buben is the most significant musical instrument that plays
a great role in shamans’ life. Usually it has the oval shape and consists of
the wooden rim, covered with a leather. The vertical gripe and some horizontal
rods with various metal pendants are placed on the internal part of the shaman’
buben. On the external part of the cover the pictures or some ornaments are
placed. These ornaments reflect the shaman’s idea of the world.
All
important rituals were certainly spent with this kind of instrument till these
days no shaman can perform his rituals without using it. Shaman’s buben helped
his owner to travel to the heavenly world where kind spirits lived. This travel
was possible only because shortsi people believed that shaman’s buben embodied
just the killed animal which skin was used for its covering, a horse or a deer.
When shaman was going to underground or underwater worlds where evil spirits
lived the buben transformed into the boat. Shaman’s buben has also much power
to protect the owner during his
dangerous travel to the underground world. And the main thing that should be
said here is that the Shaman’s buben helps to fall into a trance. A trance
state of mind allows shamans to predict future or to get important information.
Falling into a trance makes it possible to communicate with spirits which know
the answers.Shaman’s
rituals usually began with warming up of the buben on fire. That was the
process of the buben purifying.
Shaman is on the picture.
The word « Shaman» originates
from the Evenk language word ( saman) of North Asia and was introduced to the
west after Russian forces conquered the Khanate of Kazan in 1552. The word
Shaman was adopted by the Russians interacting with the indigenous peoples of
Siberia. The Evenk word «Shaman» would be more accurately translated as « a
priest». Shaman is known to be a person who has access to the world of
benevolent or malevolent spirits and who enters a trance state during some
rituals. Shaman also has a powerful skill of divination and healing. He’s an
intermediary between the human world and the spirits world. Shaman’s buben or a
tambourine allows him to travel to the heavenly world or to the underground
world of spirits to get the essential information and to solve problems of the
tribe. So the Shortsi always have had a sincere respect for their shamans.
Customs and traditions of the Shortsi.
The Charter of Boris Godunov bearing the date 20 January 1604 is the
first reliable historical record of the traditional occupations of the Kuznetsk
Tatars that inhabited the upstream of the Tom river. Besides the description of
the Tomsk prison it contained the fact that nearly 200 people of blacksmiths lived
in the Tomsk Upper Lands and forged armors, iron goods and pots. According to
other historical documents there lived more approximately 3000 people. The
folklore of the Shortsi also proves the fact that blacksmithing appeared long
time ago.
The Epic of the North Shortsi tells about the hero (according to other
sources the malevolent spirit of Erlik) that forged the heating iron with his
hands. His fingers replaced the forging tongs and his fist replaced the hammer.
The Sibirian chroniclers named the people which inhabited the Upper Tom,
the Mrassu river and the Kondoma like «blacksmiths». The Kuznetsk prison,
Kuznetsk city and Kuznetsk land are all the names that have connection with the
word «blacksmithing»,
the old occupation of the local people.Kuznets in Russian can be translated in
English as a blacksmith. There was built the Tomsk ironworks in 1771 year on
the territory where shortsi blacksmiths mined iron ore long since. Now this
territory is called as the village Tomskoe, Prokopevsk district. The primitive
iron production of shortsi blacksmiths disappeared to the end of 18 th century .
The main reason of it is the development of iron industry that made iron goods
cheaper and of higher quality.
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
In the 18th
century the Shortsi- hunters didn’t cultivate the land yet. The research
scientist of Sybiria P.P.Pallas claims that except hunting and angling the
Shortsi picked the weeds and plants’ roots. He wrote that shortsi people had no
possibility of arable cultivation and they kept little amount of livestock.
That’s why all their food consisted of the stocks of meat of killed animals and
plants’ roots.
Cultivating the land was
very archaic. The land on the sunny mountain hiils cleaned from taiga was cultivated
with the mattocks.
The Shortsi called them
abyly.The wheat, barley and cannabis plants were grown. Ripe corns were cut off or
pulled up.Then sheaves were roasted over a fire. Roasted sheaves were hit with
sticks to get grain. The grain was ground into flour with the help of stone
handmill.
This kind of cultivating the land techniques is described in Russian
documentary sources of 1622.
However cultivation the land with simple mattocks was inherent of the
south Shortsi tribes that lived in the
place with some specific natural
conditions.
In the north part of Shoria there was a real possibility to cultivate
wider arable land of extensive river valleys.The Shortsi cultivated the soil
with borrowed from the Russian wooden plow that had an iron tip-saldy.
Wooden harrows and sickles were also used by shortsi people.
Sickle
.png)
Harrow
In the beginning of the 20th century rich shortsi had iron
plough and simple horse cutting bar. Since that time the period of using
water-mills for grinding grain started.
Picking weeds and roots played a major role in shortsi people’s diet.
Nowadays we eat cheremsha or kolba with great pleasure. From a time so long ago
cheremsha plant was the main source of vitamins. Some other weeds were also
present in the diet of the Shortsi. They are slizun
(a kind of wild onion), field
horsetails,
rhubarb
and roots of such plants as lilies called saranka
and kandyk,
Peonies
various berries, pine nuts.
Picking weeds and roots were typical for women, male shortsi had to be hunters.
The hunter’s reputation among the
members of the tribe and his family
wellbeing was totally dependent on his luck in hunting
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий