This is an attractive, well-produced book which documents the authorās travels across Khakassiia and Tuva in search of shamans and storytellers over a decade from 1993 to 2002. The book is unique in that it mixes various genres. At its core are sets of Khakass and Tuvian stories, songs and poems which are set off from the narrative with small icons and indented text. Each substantive text is also set-off separately in the table of contents. In between the stories, the author contributes an engaging narrative about her own relationships to the stories and often to the people who recited them. Throughout the book there are parenthetical comments on the history of shamanic practice in the region and how it relates to other forms of ritual knowledge across Siberia (and sometimes North America). The text shows a great warmth for the people and the region, and a very deep faith in the institution of the shaman.
Although the book reads well and gives a good impression of the setting, it is difficult to evaluate. The author provides her own commentary and relationship to particular stories, but there are few details about any one particular story. Some of the stories were recited directly to the author in one or another language and were presumably recorded and transcribed. Other stories are clearly taken from classic Russian ethnographic sources (mainly Radloff, Obraztsy narodnoi literatury tiruskskikh plemian and an unpublished doctoral dissertation by Mongush Kenin-Lopsan). A couple of the stories have no clear providence. The stories seem to have been selected in order to demonstrate a wide variety of themes in the folklore of the region, such as the relationship of people to land, memories of repression, how individuals receive a shamanās call. However, any particular story is presented as an event or happenstance within the authorās journey across the region. Due to the authorās sympathetic eye, the collection works. She does successfully indicate the flavour of the place (and in my own experience, stories do tend to pop up as she indicates!). However given her keen interest in the region, I found myself wanting more examples on a particular theme (such as the apprenticeship of shaman recruits in the Soviet period) rather than single examples.
It is also difficult to pinpoint the authorās general interpretation of shamanic practices. She was first exposed to these stories as a translator for various First Nations story-telling meetings across Canada in the days when circumpolar links were recreated after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The tone of the book is that the meaning of rituals is overt within their texts. However, through her parenthetical comments she is aware of the fact that shamanic practice differs today from what it was before. Also, through using terms like Khakass and Tuvan shamans she seems to accept the folklorisation of tradition within relatively new national groupings. Nonetheless, there is a current running through the book that argues that the traditions have very deep roots.
To my reading, the book provides an honest eye-witness account of what it is like being hosted as an open-minded sympathetic foreigner in a part of Inner Asia that is undergoing profound social changes. The types of rituals which she witnesses would not or could not be shown to any kacha or sagai insider. Her travel account also rings very true from similar accounts that I have heard from travelers in the region. The book is thus a very unique record of a traveler in the region at a special time in history. It would definitely interest beginning students in the region as to those with a general interest in world cultures. For those wanting a deeper analysis, van Deusen provides a good bibliography for further reading and information.