Issue 1 (58)

“TRANSPARENT” FLESH: INTERPRETING ANTHROPOMORPHIC FIGURES ON THE SHIGIR IDOL
Year 2018 Number 1(58)
Pages 20-28 Type scientific article
UDC 903.26 (470.5)“633” BBK 63.442.12(235.55)
Authors Devlet Ekaterina G.
Topic SHIGIR IDOL: DATES, CONTEXTS, INTERPRETATIONS
Summary Seven anthropomorphic figures, with articulated ribs, and zigzags on the Shigir Idol are examined in their correlation to other images in the X-ray style. They are depicted as if their flesh were transparent, showing their skeletons. X-ray style figures, common for prehistoric art are interpreted in the context of the plot of obtaining shamanic gift, shamanic initiation, known by ethnographical materials, when spirits check the skeleton of a would-be shaman in order to find a particular bone corresponding to his high shamanic vocation. Overcoming the opposition of life and death is in the core of the semantics of X-ray figures. The seven vertically aligned anthropomorphic figures on the Shigir Idol conceptually conform with the notion of shaman clans, inherited shamanic gift and shamans-ancestors who give their successor special powers. Structural and semantic unity of shamanic initiation and initiation of the ordinary members of the community of adepts was noted by various researchers. Death and revival experience runs through early religious beliefs and world religions, while symbolic meaning of the skeleton transforms from shamanic into later systems of view of the worked. The mythological motive of “splitting” of the body transforms and passes to epic and folk tales. Zoomorphic images in X-ray style are more numerous than anthropomorphic ones. They can be semantically collated with the notion that the soul of an animal is bound with some part of its skeleton and that animals’ resurrection begins with bones. The study presents methods of modern documentation of petroglyphs and other materials useful for demonstrating hardly visible details.
Keywords X-ray style, Shigir Idol, rock art, semantics, shamans
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