Originally published at the Conservatory of Folk Studies in Bologna,
Italy in 1931.
Translated and excepted at the Siberian Studies Department of South
Ohio State.
A PROPAGATION OF ETHNO-SLANDER
How Suslov Sullied the Evenki People's Proud Heritage
In recent academic writings on the matter of shamanism in the Tunguska
region, noted ethnographer Innokentiy Suslov has made some thoroughly
harrowing claims. He has depicted the tribal feuds between the Shanyagir
and Tungus clans as an almost medieval battle, complete with occult
imagery and epic carnage. He recounts oral histories of shamans taking
revenge on villagers by wiping out their food supply, devouring hundreds of
reindeer at a rime and leaving nothing but pestilence in their wake.
The most disturbing part: these stories date back a mere twenty-three years
to the Tunguska Event of 1908
Among the many issues we take with these wildly irresponsible tales, we
most vehemently refute Suslov's insistence that shamans in the area took
on demonic forms after the mysterious incident occurred there. In one
essay, Suslov writes:
- "The one known as Magankan was told to have grown eight feet in height
- and developed a voracious appetite for human flesh. His many eyes
- shone yellow in the night and his dentistry developed into a multi-tier
- configuration of razor-sharp teeth. Impervious to knives and even
- bullets, Magankan disappeared into the tundra last winter, never to be
- seen again."
The fact that Suslov could give any credence to such nonsense in insulting.
Obviously, he fell victim to a hoax, or perhaps some poorly translated
materials that, when taken out of context, illustrate a much different
folklore than is widely accepted by the academic community. Stereotyping
the simple people of the Evenki ethnicity is abhorrent and wrong, Suslov
should have known better and shown some restraint before publishing his
spurious findings.
