Shamanic and Mythic Cultures of Ethnic Peoples in Northern China

"Based on first-hand materials gathered through decades of field research and fleshed out with the author's insightful religious, cultural, and historical observations extending back to Qing Dynasty times, ancient archaeological discoveries and the legacy of Siberian peoples, this two-volume ethnological study investigates shamanic rituals, myths and lore in northern China and explores the common ideology underlying the origins of the region's cultures. Drawing from numerous oral myths, ancient documents and archaeological findings, this first volume discusses the spiritual world of northern Shamanism and investigates the various rituals, including ancestor worship, fertility, nature deities, blood sacrifice and rites, the worshiping of nature and shrines. The book illuminates how these rituals and worships, animism and ideas of the soul are imbedded in and interweave with the indigenous environment, culture and history of the clans and people of northern China. The book will be of great value for scholars of religion and anthropologists and ethnologists in the fields of Shamanism studies, Northeast Asian folklore and Manchu studies"--