Spiritual culture (mythological worldview, traditional beliefs, holidays and rituals)

According to Ivan Gapanovich, the Negidals accepted Christianity only as an external ritual. The Negidal shamans were both men and women. A special costume was used for the shamanic ritual. The beginner shaman’s costume included a belt, a tambourine, a robe, or an apron. The more experienced ones had skirts, shoes, hats, and other paraphernalia. The professional shamans had two costumes: one consisted of a cloth wrap robe, decorated with hanging strips made of animal skins, a special leather cap and other attributes: the rattling belt, mirrors, plastron (bib), and mittens.  The other was similar in appearance to the one worn by Evenki shamans.  It was richly decorated with fringe on the hem, sleeves, collar, and lap. A tail (a thick rope made of leather and fur) was hung from the back of the shaman's caftan. The rank of the shaman determined his/her attributes: the toli brass mirrors, the yamkha rattling belt that looked like a regular belt with a rectangular piece of leather attached to it, etc.

The shamanic regalia were created only by the clan members who turned to the shaman for help. The cone-shaped belt pendants were made by local blacksmiths. A necessary part of the shaman's attire were mittens made of fish skin and cotton; they were painted with images of snakes, lizards, and frogs in black and red.

The shamans used helmet-shaped khoya , upsi, and ufsi headdresses. For the experienced shamans, the top of the headdress ended with small metal horns. A female shaman, in addition to the clothes typical for men, would also wear a special women's plastron (bib) called uisa : a rectangular piece of light cotton fabric with a wide black stripe around the sides. The female shaman also had the dorokhsya backpiece and a head scarf with various magical images.

The Negidal shaman's ungtuvun tambourine belongs to the Far Eastern type and has an oval shape, about 30-60 cm in diameter, with a narrow rim and a ringed handle attached with four straps. The gesavun beater was slightly curved. It was made of birch with the hitting part covered with the fur of taiga deer.  The back side, to endow the hand with magical dexterity, had the shaman’s assistants (lizards and snakes) painted or carved on it.

In order to treat diseases, the Negidal shamans used a variety of sculptures: zoomorphic, ornithomorphic, polymorphic, etc. The most powerful healing sculpture images were the ayami that were used to treat various diseases.

The shamans used special buildings for rituals. The shamanic compound nannanndyak consisted of three parts: the dulu chum, the darpe gallery (stationary wooden sculptures associated with the upper world and life) and the onannkan gallery (associated with the lower world, the river of the dead and the death itself).

The chum area symbolized the middle world. In the center of the chum, the shamanic turuu tree was installed, a tall young larch, the top of which went into the smoke hole.

According to the views of the Negidals, the universe consisted of three parts: the lower, the middle, and the upper worlds. The middle world was considered central. The master of the sky, Boa / Bua / Buga , held the highest power. The same word was used to refer to the sky, a specific area, or weather. The god of thunder Agda was one of the main assistants of Boa. He controlled rain, thunder and lightning. Podya (or Pudya ) was the master of fire and a highly respected deity among the Negidals. One of the main evil spirits was Amban . A special place in the belief system was occupied by the images of taiga creatures: dwarfs and giants.

The Negidals had totemic beliefs and performed special rituals associated with them. Their ancestor-related views held a close connection with the bear and the tiger. The Negidal people had a whole set of taboos in relation to a person who had been injured by a bear. They called such a person galigda , “the marked one, bringer of misfortune.” A special attitude toward bears was manifested in the Nazca Bear Festival. At the Festival, a specially raised bear was ritually sacrificed. The skull and bones of the animal were kept in a sacred place.

At the Festival, a musical log was used, made from a larch trunk. Elderly women would drum on it with two sticks each, keeping a special rhythm.

The Negidals also used a special dog as a sacrificial animal. It played a part in funeral rites and sacrificial shamanic rituals. During the healing rituals, the shaman would bestow upon the dog the status of the sick person, for it to be taken by the spirit that had stolen the sick person’s soul. That dog was called sekse ninakin , a “bloody dog.” The sacrificial dog had to have unusual properties, for example, different eye colors, unusual shade pattern, etc.

The Negidals thought that a black dog with light eyebrows also had magical properties. It was believed that it could see evil spirits and communicate with them, as it was endowed with two pairs of eyes, the magical pair being the dog’s light eyebrows. The dog was sacrificed at the Bear Festival to honor the soul of the bear.

Among the Verkhovsky Negidals, the main sacrificial animal in the shamanic ritual was male deer. It was sacrificed to the heavenly old woman next to the special shamanic place consisting of three larches.

MAE No. 1838-268.

Altar in the forest. Negidals

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, the River Amur basin. Beginning of the 20th century

Photo by Lev Sternberg

Dimensions: 13.4 cm x 8.0 cm

The Negidals used to bury their dead in the oldoso coffin, which was placed on two stumps or on the tyvlan high platform. Under the influence of the Orthodox tradition, the funeral rites of the Negidals changed significantly. Back at the end of the 19th century, the in-ground burial in wooden coffins became widespread. As per the Christian custom, crosses were placed on the graves. Currently, the funerals rites of the Negidals and the Russians are almost identical. After the burial, funeral services (wakes) are held on the 9th and 40th day. The Negidals place damaged dishes and belongings of the deceased on the graves.

The Negidal people performed various magic hunting rituals based on the belief in the possibility of transferring certain physical and mental characteristics from humans to animals and vice versa. The Negidals observed various taboos that were associated not only with ethics, but also with the territorial concepts and the “kill right.” It was forbidden not only to take, but also to touch the other people's kill. Various amulets were used for a successful hunt.

The Negidals had a complex and meticulously thought out set of rules for the behavior of pregnant women. Pregnancy was regulated by strict taboos, the observance of which was aimed at preserving the health of the mother and her newborn child.

The funeral and memorial rituals of the Negidals are based on the beliefs in the afterlife, death omens, various taboos and include certain regulated actions in relation to the deceased person. According to the Negidals, after death the soul went to Buni , the otherworld. Buni was believed to consist of two tiers, the upper and the lower. The human soul could not reach the afterlife by itself and had to be accompanied by the helping spirits summoned by the shaman. The deceased was provided with everything necessary for traveling in the afterlife. The hunting equipment, rings, coins and other things were placed in the coffin along with the clothes to make it easier for the shaman to find the soul of the deceased and guide it to Buni. Broken sledges, a dugout boat with a breached bottom, and damaged hunting tools were always placed on the grave.

In addition to platform burials, there were also air burials. Funeral and memorial rites were always performed by old people.