极地岩画背后的萨满教——加拿大、阿拉斯加和西伯利亚人面岩画与萨满用具的关系

Circumpolar rock art: the hidden face of shamanism?A comparative study of human——like faces in Canadian,Alaskan and Siberian rock art,and their relationships with shamanistic paraphernalia

萨满教与岩画之间的关联并不是一件很容易说清楚的事情,在史前的北欧地区,曾经大范围流行萨满教,因此我们更加确信当地的岩画是产生于萨满文化语境之下的一种视觉文化形式。在距今1000年左右,萨满教在加拿大的北极地区变得更加重要。因此,这里的许多岩画以及一些便携式的艺术品也就相应地表现出这种萨满文化的特性。然而,在这一地区只发现了没有任何身体特征的类人面像岩画,同时还有许多看上去像是面具或者人面雕刻的多赛特艺术作品。这种以人面为特征的形式在整个岩画点随处可见,特别是集中在萨满教非常活跃的几个世纪之间。虽然这些不同载体上的人面像在雕刻方法上略有不同,然而它们始终将具有相似性的正面面部形象强调出来。本文运用岩画艺术比较研究的方法,尝试对这些充满张力并呈现多样化的萨满文化工具提出一些新的思考角度。

The link between shamanism and rock art is not always an easy matter to demonstrate, as recent papers have pointed out. Since shamanism has been largely practiced in the nordic regions during prehistory, we can be more confident to look at rock art located there as a form of visual expression produced in a shamanistic context. At the end of the first millenium AD, shamanism became more important in the Canadian Arctic. As a result, many portable artworks as well as a few rock engraving sites might have been produced within such a shamanistic context. However, these sites only depict human -like faces devoid of any other body features, thus looking like masks and maskettes which were also made by Dorset artists. Such a physiognomy also occurs elsewhere on rock art sites, but in particular where shamanism has been practiced for centuries or even millenia. Indeed the way those faces have been depicted differs from one area to another, but there is still striking similarities in the emphasis on the physiognomy. Using a comparative approach to rock art, this paper intends to shed some new lights on those old faces as they appear to be associated with the power and diversity of the visual theatre proper to the shaman.