East of the Kama River, beyond the borders of the Udmurt Republic, the Eastern Udmurts have preserved a distinctive animist ritual tradition in geographical Europe. This second volume offers an accessible and richly detailed account of that living religious world, from collective sacrificial ceremonies for rain, health, and a good harvest to family rites that bind together households, ancestors, and place.
Drawing on long-term collaborative fifieldwork in Bashkortostan, the chapters show how rituals are prepared, carried out, and remembered today. They follow the seasonal cycle of village and multi-village ceremonies, examine sacred sites and the organisation of ritual groups, and trace the disruptions of the Soviet period alongside the revitalisation that has gathered pace since the 1990s.
Special attention is given to ritual specialists and to words in performance, including prayers and incantations as ritual speech addressed to non-human beings. The volume shows how ritual authority is built, transmitted, and contested, and how a living tradition persists through both disruption and revitalisation.

Autorid: Toulouze, Eva; Vallikivi, Laur; Niglas, Liivo
Keeled: Udmurdi; Inglise