ALTAY IN VOLODYMYR HZHYTSKYI’S TRAVELOGUE: RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEWS AND SHAMANIC PRACTICES

Authors

Keywords:

Volodymyr Hzhytskyi, Altai, shamanism, cosmology, religious worldview, travelogue, contact zone, anthropology of religion, postcolonial discourse

Abstract

This article explores Volodymyr Hzhytskyi’s 1928 travelogue “Altai” as both a literary text and a valuable ethnographic source for the study of indigenous religious worldviews in Central Asia. The author examines how the narrative conveys cosmological representations of the Altai peoples, including the figures of Ulgen and Erlik, the cult of household spirits, the sacralized space of the yurt, and ritual practices such as shamanic ritual. Attention is drawn to the author’s position as a Ukrainian intellectual writing within the Soviet colonial discourse of the 1920s, while simultaneously demonstrating an empathetic engagement with non-European religious traditions rather than reducing them to ethnographic “exoticism”. The article applies the concepts of Mary Louise Pratt’s “contact zone” and James Clifford’s “witness-observer” to show how Volodymyr Hzhytskyi’s narrative becomes a space of intercultural encounter and translation, where literary form functions as a medium of anthropological knowledge. The stylistic and rhetorical strategies of Volodymyr Hzhytskyi are analyzed as instruments for representing the dynamics of shamanic rituals and cosmological imagination. In conclusion, the article argues that “Altai” should be considered not only as a work of Ukrainian travel writing but also as an important document in the history of the anthropology of religion. It provides rare evidence of shamanic practices recorded in Ukrainian literature of the interwar period and demonstrates the potential of literary genres to contribute to the representation and interpretation of indigenous cosmologies.

References

Анохин, А. (1924). Материалы по шаманству у алтайцев, собранные во время путешествий по Алтаю в 1910–1912 гг. по поручению Русского Комитета для изучения Средней и Восточной Азии. Сборник Музея антропологии и этнографии, 4 (2). Ленинград.

Бикова, О. (2024). «Казковий край»: Алтай у художньому репортажі В. Гжицького. Образ, 1 (44), 92–99. https://doi.org/10.21272/Obraz.2024.1(44)-92-99

Васьків, М. (2004). Алтай в українському мандрівному нарисі 1930-х років. Літературний процес: методологія, імена, тенденції. Філологічні науки, (3), 89–94.

Гжицький, В. (1928). Алтай. Плуг, (9), 44–59.

Гжицький, В. (2011). Спогади про минуле. У Спадщина: Літературне джерелознавство, текстологія (Т. IV). Laurus, Інститут літератури ім. Т. Г. Шевченка НАН України, Київ, 502 с.

Курц, Б. (2014). Східна Європа та Азія: історія торгівлі в XVI – першій половині XX ст. Інститут сходознавства ім. А. Ю. Кримського НАН України, Київ.

Цимбал, Я. (2011). «Спогади про минуле» Володимира Гжицького: пригадування і конструювання. Спадщина, 6, 240–257. Laurus, Київ.

Pegg, Carole, & Yamaeva, Elizaveta. (2012). Sensing Place: Performance, Oral Tradition, and Improvisation in the Hidden Temples of Mountain Altai. Oral Tradition, 27 (2), 291–318. https://doi.org/10.1353/ort.2012.0018

Clifford, J. (1991). Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press.

Eliade, M. (2020). Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Hirsch, F. (2005). Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press,

Hoppál, M. (1985). Shamanism: An Archaic and/or Recent System of Beliefs. Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, 57, 21–140.

Hoppál, M. (1997). Nature Worship in Shamanism. Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, 4, 9–26. Institute of Estonian Language, Tartu. https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF1997.04.hoppal

Pratt, M. (1992). Imperial Eyes: Studies in Travel Writing and Transculturation. Routledge, London.

Pupurs, I. (2022). The Soviet East through a Ukrainian Lens: The Travelogues of the Ukrainian Expedition to Kyrgyzstan in 1929. Euxeinos, 12 (34), 144–166. https://doi.org/10.55337/ALYW8915

Skutsch, C. (Ed.). (2005). Encyclopedia of the World’s Minorities. New York: Routledge, 81–83.

Znamenski, A. (2020). The “White Faith” Movement in the Mountain Altai: Tibetan Buddhism, Mongolia, and the Oirot Prophecy, 1880s – 1920s. State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide, 38 (1), 123–151. https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2020-38-1-123-151

Published

2025-12-26

How to Cite

Shchepanskyi В. В. (2025). ALTAY IN VOLODYMYR HZHYTSKYI’S TRAVELOGUE: RELIGIOUS WORLDVIEWS AND SHAMANIC PRACTICES. Культурологічний альманах, (4), 78–86. Retrieved from http://almanac.npu.kiev.ua/index.php/almanac/article/view/730

Issue

Section

RELIGIOUS STUDIES