Souvenirizing Shamanism: Crafts, Artifacts and Mimesis in Eastern Siberia

Souvenirs usually refer to objects that tourists buy when travelling on vacation: purchasing these items forms an integral part of the experience of travellers all over the world. However the souvenir market in Sakha Yakutia, an area with 958,528 inhabitants, mostly of Sakha origins and around 756.000 turists visiting the Republic in the past five years (inlculing the last two, particularly affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemics), cannot rely totally on tourism. These items are in fact purchased above all by Sakha people who keep them for themselves or give them as a gift to friends or... to shamans. So, what would a shaman do with a shaman-doll souvenir in his house? The connection between souvenirs, authenticity, consumption, reciprocity has been adequately explored in Western ethnographic literature (Littrell et al 1993, Hitchcock and Teague 2000, Mars and Mars 2000), however the issue of souvenirs purchased not only by tourists has not been properly dealt with. My paper wishes to assess the ways in which the display of shamanic motifs and imagery in “shamanic souvenirs” acts in the Sakha Republic, bringing to light issues such as native self-awareness and mimetic processes through the resurgence of shamanism.