Ritual Practices Among Tungus in Contemporary China
After a decline during the Cultural Revolutionary period in the 1960s and 1970s, the shamanistic tradition has been strongly revived in the last four decades among Tungus peoples in North China. Sacrificial cults, ancestor worshipping, and ritual ceremonies are frequently performed by Tungus shamans today. This research attempts to answer such questions: what are the ontological natures of Tungus shamanism? How Tungus shamans adapted to the politic-economic circumstances in contemporary China regime? How do their shamanistic practices mirror social changes in the historical contexts? And how are human-environment interactions engaged with shamanic eco-cosmologies in North China?