AN952795LOG2

This files reveals a hidden knowledge behind oral history and legends among the indigenous Siberian people that concerns that the Chimera had been on Earth in prehistoric times.

Content
Originally published at the Conservatory of Folk Studies in Bologna, Italy in 1931. Translated and excepted at the Siberian Studies Department of South Ohio State.

A PROPAGATION OF ETHNO-SLANDER

How Suslov Sullied the Evenki People's Proud Heritage

In recent academic writings on the matter of shamanism in the Tunguska region, noted ethnographer Innokentiy Suslov has made some thoroughly harrowing claims. He has depicted the tribal feuds between the Shanyagir and Tungus clans as an almost medieval battle, complete with occult imagery and epic carnage. He recounts oral histories of shamans taking revenge on villagers by wiping out their food supply, devouring hundreds of reindeer at a rime and leaving nothing but pestilence in their wake.

The most disturbing part: these stories date back a mere twenty-three years to the Tunguska Event of 1908.

Among the many issues we take with these wildly irresponsible tales, we most vehemently refute Suslov's insistence that shamans in the area took on demonic forms after the mysterious incident occurred there. In one essay, Suslov writes:


 * "The one known as Magankan was told to have grown eight feet in height and developed a voracious appetite for human flesh. His many eyes shone yellow in the night and his dentistry developed into a multi-tier configuration of razor-sharp teeth. Impervious to knives and even bullets, Magankan disappeared into the tundra last winter, never to be seen again."

The fact that Suslov could give any credence to such nonsense in insulting. Obviously, he fell victim to a hoax, or perhaps some poorly translated materials that, when taken out of context, illustrate a much different folklore than is widely accepted by the academic community. Stereotyping the simple people of the Evenki ethnicity is abhorrent and wrong, Suslov should have known better and shown some restraint before publishing his spurious findings.