Siberian shamans: Hungarian origin-seekers, and contemporary historical revisionism - the changing world around Vilmos Diószegi

István Sántha and László Lajtai

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2025, vol. 33, issue 2, 341-358

Abstract: This study explores the significance of origin myths in shaping ethnic and national identity, focusing on Hungarian narratives and their evolution. Hungarian origin stories range from Uralic, Turkic, and medieval Christian myths to more recent Turanic and globalist views, reflecting the influence of political factors from the Habsburg and Soviet eras to modern nationalist and globalist shifts. The work of Vilmos Diószegi (1923–1972), a Hungarian ethnologist and researcher of shamanism, reflects these changes, highlighting the intersection of cultural identity, politics, and scientific inquiry in Hungary’s origin myths. The anthropological insights are highlighted, emphasizing his focus on shamanism in his fieldwork in Siberia and Mongolia. The blend of studies that underpinned his research on Hungarian folk religion and shamanism was influenced by his fieldwork. Despite critiques from Western anthropologists regarding his narrow focus on shamanism, his work influenced both Soviet and Mongolian ethnography. Critics argue that Diószegi’s work, particularly his reluctance to study other religious practices but shamanism in his fieldworks, might reflect a Soviet-era evolutionary bias, limiting the modern understanding of shamanism. Are modern Hungarian scholars and politicians using historical revisionism to legitimize nationalist and/or Turanist ideologies, or is it an attempt to recover a lost cultural heritage?

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/25739638.2025.2489306

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