The Origins and Reinvention of Shamanic Retaliation in a Siberian City

Focusing on a kind of crime in a peripheral territory of Russia, this paper offers an unusual perspective on a classic anthropological topic: the phenomenon of occult violence described as “sorcery” or “witchcraft.” In Tuva, a Siberian culture with ancient traditions of shamanic religion, new evidence has emerged of a cohort of revivalist shamans who provide a counteroffensive against curse afflictions attributed to their clients’ enemies. The data reveal the rise of a legally unsanctioned process of shamanic justice for complex synergies of occult violence and unlawful conduct, existing on the frontiers and limits of state justice. From within a post-Soviet epidemic of curses and social tensions in the capital city of Tuva, a retaliatory theme emerges, anchored in shamanic rebellions against the Soviet regime. The paper considers the work of Obeyesekere (and other scholars on sorcery) in evaluating the implications of shamanic retaliation as a politically marginalized practice.