Sem T. Semiotics of Ethnographic Collections of the Peoples of the Amur Region and Primorye by V. K. Arseniev at the Beginning of the 20 th Century Based on the Materials of the Russian Ethnographic Museum: Ethnocultural Features

Tatyana Sem
Russian Ethnographic Museum
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-3306-3481
E-mail: semturem@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article is devoted to the analysis of the household and ritual objects from the collection of the Russian Ethnographic Museum of V. K. Arseniev of the beginning of the 20th century of the Tungus-Manchu peoples of the Amur region and Primorye. The article aims to characterize the semiotic ethno-cultural features of the Nanai and Udege clothing items from the collection of V. K. Arseniev. The article highlights three main blocks of items: the set of clothes, the set of utensils, and the set of ritual shamanic objects. In each block, the most striking and semantically significant items are considered — ornamented robes and clothing items, ornamented handbags and birch bark boxes, shamanic figures of spirit helpers and shamanic attributes. As a result of semiotic analysis of ornaments on the items, similarities of visual images and narratives of the Nanai, Udege and other Tungus-Manchu peoples are revealed: a mythological plot about the creation of the world by water birds or snakes, a myth about the marriage of a bear and a woman, a mythologeme about a Koori bird, a plot about fertility deities, images of anthropomorphic figures that have similarities with petroglyphs of the Lower Amur, the image of a turtle that is a symbol of the earth and the feminine nature, fertility, images of two bears that symbolize mythical twins, masters of land and water, images of men dancing a round dance around the fire, that are associated with the solar dances. A special place in Arseniev’s collections is occupied by items of shamanic spirits-assistants and shamanic attributes associated with the cult of fertility, the cosmos, symbols of the earth and the shamanic tree, the shaman's personal patron. The mytho-ritual foundations of the objects of V. K. Arseniev’s collection reflect the mental features of the Tungus-Manchu peoples and characterize the archetypes and values of their traditional culture, expressed in ornaments, mythology and beliefs.

 

KEYWORDS: ethnographic collections, V. K. Arseniev, Russian Ethnographic Museum, semiotics, Tungus-Manchu peoples 

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-4(18)-187-200

 

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