Abstract: In the late XIX – early XX centuries, the Buryat people were struggling to survive due to numerous social problems that had accumulated over time. The absence of basic sanitation, low cultural level and moral standards, widespread alcoholism led to mass infectious diseases and issues in reproductive health. The established menacing situation is described by the researchers, medical personnel, and representatives of the European academic science, who worked in the Baikal Region at that time. The goal of this article consists in giving an outlook on the situation from the perspective of Buryat society. The research employs the analysis of previously unpublished materials stored in the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia and State Archive of the Irkutsk Region. This article is first to publish the notes of the little-known Buryat researcher Mangutkhan Malasagaev. He lived his entire life in the Baikal Region, was engaged in the traditional peasant activities, and thus can be considered a true representative of the Buryat people. His elementary education and lively analytical mind allowed him keeping records of his own observations, and thus leaving a range of manuscripts that describe and analyze various aspects of life of the Buryat people. The article presents his observations on social problems of the Buryat society.

Abstract: The object of this research is the Buryat shamanism – a complex system of religious views, norms, rituals and traditions of Buryat people. The scientific records demonstrate that the features of animalism, zoolatry and totemism are characteristic to the traditional religion of Buryats. The subject of this research is the animalistic elements in the costumes of Buryat shamans. The volume of accumulated knowledge is extensive and diverse, mainly contains the descriptions, classification by the grounds of origin, symbolism, use in rituals; but at the same time, the origin of the subject of research as a whole has been poorly studied. Using the analysis of genesis of animalistic elements in shaman costumes, the article makes an attempt to determine the background of animalism and zoolatry in the religious views of Buryats, leaning on retrospective of evolution of the Buryat ethnos, origin of the traditional beliefs of Buryats, and the processes on cross-cultural diffusion with other ethnic groups that influenced the formation of Buryat shamanism.

Abstract: Shamanism is the traditional religion of Buryats; it is the foundation of cultural space of the Buryat people. One of the peculiarities of Buryat shamanism is its dualistic character, existence of the two parallel confessions – “white” and “black”. For the majority of world religions is not common the emergence, development, and existence of two traditions in form of the two different branches, thus the study of genesis of such phenomenon in the Buryat shamanism represents great interest. The article makes an attempt to determine the factors that affected the division of main religion of the Buryats into the indicated coexisting branches. The religious theories originate and integrate into the cultural space in the course of the socio-historical evolution of the ethnos; therefore, these processes should be considered in retrospective of the history of particular nation. The method of this research is defined by the analysis of the historical path of development of the diverse ethnic groups that are a part of the Buryat people, as well as determination of discrepancies and similarities in their religious views. The author formulates a hypothesis of genesis of the dualistic nature of shamanism of the Buryats as a reflection of the cultural-historical evolution of the polyethnic Buryat nation. A suggestion is put forward that the identification of the two types of shamanism could reflect the views Bulagad ethnos that characterized their variant of religion as “white” in contrast to the views of Ekhired and Khori ethnic groups marked as “black” shamanism. Subsequently the aforementioned point of view was recognized as generally accepted.