The article deals with the cult of shavings, which has become widespread among the peoples of the continental and island parts of the south of the Far East. This cult is syncretic in nature and is represented by a number of variations that arose as a result of ethno-cultural contacts of the population of the Asia-Pacific zone. Studying inau from the perspective of ethnogenetic problems allows us to outline the parameters of interaction between the peoples of this region. The work is based on the analysis of archaeological and ethnographic materials.

Keywords: Far East, cult of the Inau, Ainu, ethno-cultural contacts.

Introduction

The south of the Far East remains a poorly studied area in terms of identifying the genesis of belief systems and ritual practices of local peoples. In this aspect of research, the cult of inau * is of great importance. The ritual use of wood blanks with shavings is quite well covered in the materials of specialists who have comprehensively studied the Ainu culture and concluded that their ritual complexes are ancient [Dobrotvorsky, 1875, p. 147, 458; Aston, 1901; Pilsudsky, 1915, p. 75-118; Sternberg, 1933, p. 579-630; Munro, 1963, p. 28-54; Schuster, 1968, p. 96-98; Materials of research..., 1988, p. 68-113; Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, p. 117 - 122, 192 - 231, 256 - 258; Arutyunov, Shchebenkov, 1992, pp. 97-121, 166-168]. The controversy about the origin of inau that has unfolded on the pages of scientific publications demonstrates the lack of common views of researchers on this cult, which is generally due to the unresolved problem of ethnogenesis of the peoples of the Far East. One of the key issues of discussion concerns the time, level and nature of ethno-cultural contacts in the Amur-Sakhalin region and the northern part of the Japanese Archipelago (Figure 1). In this geographical area, based on the comparison and analysis of objects of spiritual culture, the results of ethnographic and archaeological research, identical ritual complexes were identified. The cross-cultural interaction involved the Tungus-Manchu, Paleoasiatic and Ainu groups, which occupy a separate position in the system of racial and linguistic classification of the world's peoples. The elements of inau recorded in the territories of their residence are a kind of indicator of the convergence of continental and island traditions. Ethnographic, linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological studies have expanded the area of this cult, taking it beyond the Far East to the Australian-Indonesian and Oceanic regions, and made it possible to identify an archaic layer in it [Vasilevsky, 1981, pp. 110-111, 154-169; Akulov, 2007; Munro, 1911, pp. 611-652]. Comparative ana-

The work was carried out within the framework of the project supported by the grant of the President of the Russian Federation N NSh-1894.2014.6.

* A term used in the Ainu cultural environment refers to an object of worship built from willow.

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1. The Amur-Sakhalin region and the northern part of the Japanese Archipelago.

The analysis of the ethnocultural features of two regions - the lower reaches of the Amur River and the East Asian islands (in the area from the Japanese Archipelago to Kamchatka) - opens up a new perspective in studying the problem of the origin and evolution of religious complexes in the south of the Far East.

The cult of Inau in the light of the Ainu problem

The Ainu problem, which has been discussed in scientific circles for more than two centuries, is multidimensional and comprehensive, and concerns the formation of modern human races and the population of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The first European information about the Ainu appeared in the 15th century, when Portuguese and Spanish sailors entered Japan. In the 17th century, Russian explorers went out to the Pacific coast and met "bearded people". In the descriptions of researchers of the late period (XIX-XX centuries), the Ainu appear as a people with an unusual phenotype and a unique culture [Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, pp. 26, 42-60]. Before the beginning of the 20th century, their range included the northern part of the Japanese Archipelago (Hokkaido and Honshu Islands), Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the southern tip of Kamchatka (Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, part 1, pp. 336).

Among the main cultural features that distinguish the Ainu from the group of Paleoasiatic and Tungus-Manchu peoples, a special place is occupied by the cult of Inau, which gives their worldview system and ritual-ritual complex a specific character. The original ritual of making sticks topped with a sultan of shavings found a response in the cultures of the surrounding Ainu peoples, but it was less pronounced and did not take a strong place in their world order [Bereznitsky, 2003, pp. 109-110, 176-182].

According to the Ainu beliefs, the whole world consists of divine entities-kamuee, enclosed in various objects, objects of living and inanimate nature [Dobrotvorsky, 1875, p. 40, 49, 50, 225; Nevsky, 1972, p. 155; Spevakovsky, 1988, p. 59-93; Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, p. 192-231; Osipova, 2008, p. 35]. Inau played a mediating role between man and Kamui, which also includes the spiritual substance Ramat. According to N. G. Munro, wooden images were made from different types of trees (willow, lilac, dogwood, oak, bird cherry) and had a different design, depending on their functions. The height of the stick, the angle and depth of the incisions, notches, cuts on it, the type of shavings (short, long, wavy, spiral, hanging freely, tied in bunches, braided in braids) - all this was the semantic codes of inau. Critical events, some changes in human life were symbolically displayed by drawing additional incisions on a wooden rod or splitting it, cutting off its top. N. G. Munro divided all the inau into two categories - prayer (oberezhnye) and related to the cult of the ancestor. Their range is very large. Eachinau was assigned a role in the right to transmit requests and prayers [Munro, 1963, pp. 28-43]. The subordination between deities and Inau is clearly traced in the spiritual culture of the Ainu, which can be interpreted as an analog of relations in a society that was on the threshold of statehood and at the same time preserved an archaic worldview.

The specific role of inau in the worldview system and its etymology are still not fully understood. There are several versions of the origin of ritual objects, possibly indicating the ethnogenesis of the Ainu themselves. Earlier explanations of the inau phenomenon were given by M. M. Dobrotvorsky and L. Ya. Sternberg. The first suggested that inau was a relic of human sacrifice. The notches on the stick imitated a slashed stomach. As proof, M. M. Dobrotvorsky cited the following fact: the word ecorytopha means "slashed belly" and "to sacrifice inau". He even observed a scene when during a storm fishermen sacrificed an inau that looked like a decapitated man with a slashed stomach and outstretched arms [Dobrotvorsky, 1875, p. 42, 147]. L. Ya. Sternberg, agreeing with M. M. Dobrotvorsky, justified the origin of this tradition in the tropics of Polynesia and Australia, from which, perhaps, the origin of this tradition is unknown. the Ainu ancestors came out. In the original version, palm trees cut into ribbons were a substitute for sacrifices-

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new leaves. The Ainu people who migrated to the north replaced them with wood shavings (Sternberg, 1933, pp. 579-580). Shternberg proposed his own interpretation of inau as an intermediary between spirits and people: "Inau, therefore, is neither a deity nor a victim, but a living intermediary between the gods and man, a "wooden man" who has the ability to convey to the gods quickly and eloquently the needs of man" [Ibid., p. 624]. Accordingly, shavings are "languages" with the help of which the "mediator-speaker" expressed himself with the gods, and expressed people's requests in an accessible and eloquent form [Ibid., pp. 621-626]. N. A. Nevsky also believed that the etymology of the word inau reveals its sacred nature: hay (transcription " au") means "voice, dialect, speaking, listening" (St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 282. Op. 2. Eg. xp. 211*. l. 4). Etymologized inau consists of a complex: inau ("listen") - reinforced form + hay ("speaking, having a voice"). Thus, the verbal construction conveys the meaning of "listening and speaking (to the gods)" [Akulov, 2010, p. 184].

According to W. Aston, the Ainu inau, which has an anthropomorphic form, is similar to the Japanese gohei (nusa) used in Shinto rituals. But since the forms of inau are more diverse, it should be concluded that the Japanese gohei is a borrowed inau, only modified for Shinto rituals (Aston, 1901).

N. G. Munro's arguments were based on a complex of Ainu beliefs, in which the living tree played a primary role. The shavings coming out from under the curved knife of the master carver imitated the spirit dwelling in the living tree. Inau with human features represented the guardians of the Ramat (spiritual substance, power) of the ancestors. N. G. Munro also suggested that inau could replace the clay figures of dogu, belonging to the Neolithic Jomon culture and conveying realistic images of people. For a long time, the dogu sculpture evolved into a schematic, conventional image, losing its anthropomorphic features [Munro, 1963, pp. 28-29].

V. R. Kabo, after comparing cultural traditions in the Oceanic-Polynesian and Far Eastern zones, concluded that the cult of inau is associated with the practice of snake-eating, common among the Austronesians. In the Ainu language, the snake was called inoka. The image of this reptile is known in the ornamental art of the Protozemon and Dzemon archaeological cultures, possibly associated with the Proto-Jains and Ainu (Kabo, 1975, pp. 144-145). Mysterious Ikunishi ritual sticks with a snake motif in carved ornaments also pointed to the distant past of the Ainu and the place of their exodus. In the northern region, the Ainu took over the bear cult from the Nivkhs, transferring to it the characteristic features of the snake cult. It is the tradition of raising a bear cub among humans, the arrangement of "shooting ranges" where it is ritually killed, that shows similarities with the Polynesian practice of raising snakes in tree hollows in order to eat them later. Wooden sculptures with a bear's head and a serpentine torso found in old Ainu prayer sites are a confirmation of the cultural metamorphosis of the snake into a bear among the Ainu people, which indicates the primary cult of the snake and the secondary cult of the bear [Kabo, 1975, p. 149; Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, p. 193-194].

As a result, the discourse of the Ainu problem can be divided into several directions. They are related to the theories of southern migration, the development of Ainu culture in the Arctic (circumpolar) zone, and the autochthonous nature of their traditions [Trofimova, 1932, p. 99; Levin, 1971, p. 188-199; Kozintsev, 1974; Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, part 1, p. 14-15, 25; part 4, p. 3-18; Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, p. 92-113; Nivkh-Ainu family...]. These data allow us to roughly reconstruct the Ainu ethnogenesis, which reads as a "continental trace" leading to the depths of the Asian continent. During the Paleolithic period, a cultural and historical "bridge" was formed between Asia and the Pacific island chain, which played a crucial role in the settlement of Hokkaido and the entire Japanese Archipelago (Vasilevsky, 1981, pp. 166-167; Vasilevsky, Lavrov, and Chan Su Bu, 1982, p. 4). 26 - 27, 92, 93, 99, 166]. Around this time, the long-term isolation of the island aborigines began, which contributed to their self-development in isolation from the continental world. Approximately 3 thousand years BC, contacts with Austro-Nezians reinforced the characteristics typical of ancient Asian Mongoloids and proto-Polynesians (Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, ch. 4, pp. 8-11]. The Ainu culture developed in a similar way, with features typical of the peoples of Siberia and the Pacific basin. The specific cult of inau should also be considered as the result of a local evolution of sacred concepts and forms and at the same time a reinterpretation (transformation) of the original mytho-ritual "core", which is the archetype of the cultures of the Asia-Pacific region. The interpretation of the cult does not allow "squeezing" it into the concrete framework of traditional ideas. Not only the forms, but also the functions of inau are diverse. These ritual objects played the role of "speakers" establishing a connection with the gods; substitutes for sacrifice; receptacles of spirits; topographical signs; tamgs (Arutyunov, 1957). The Ainu themselves interpreted inau as an object through which they established a connection with higher deities: the gods take care that on earth there is "someone who knows how to make inau".

* Letter to L. J. Sternberg, July 4, 1927.

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then harmony and well-being are preserved in the world [Pilsudski, 1915, pp. 75-109]. This saying can be interpreted differently: inau is a means of communication with the surrounding world. In this case, the object itself has a mnemonic function. Ch. M. Taksami and V. D. Kosarev suggested that the nature of the use of inau by the Ainu can be traced from totemic drawing to pictographic writing. The notches made on the sticks and the shapes of the shavings generally serve as symbolic and pictographic signs. They encode information about the owners, the details of the message (to which deity and about what), and the permissibility or prohibition of relationships [Taksami and Kosarev, 1990, pp. 257-258]. A number of researchers believe that the initial element in the formation of the cult of inau was the tree as a symbol of the universe, characteristic of all the peoples of Eurasia. Although the concept of "ancestral, cosmic tree" is absent in the Ainu cosmogony, the living tree is interpreted in folklore material and beliefs as a "guardian" of spiritual substance [Akulov, 2010, p.172]. Analogies with other peoples of Eurasia, whose rituals used totem poles as prototypes of the tree of life, the cosmic pillar, probably go back to the early Neolithic and point to the common origins of customs that originated in the regions of East Asia (Akulov, 2010; Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, part 4).

Ritual shavings among the Lower Amur peoples

If the original Ainu culture was formed in conditions of isolation (which is typical for the island world), which determined the path of development of their traditions, then the specificity of the Lower Amur culture is determined by the vector of cross-ethnic interaction. According to archaeological and ethnographic data, migration processes in the Amur Valley affected the ethnic picture of Siberia and the Far East. The question of whether the Ainu type existed in the basin of this river remains open. G. I. Nevelskoy met Nivkhs with a Mongolian face type, brown hair, and straight eyes at the mouth of the Amur River (Polevoy, 1972). This example points to a "mosaic" picture of anthropogenesis and ethnogenesis in the south of the Russian Far East. However, no evidence of the existence of the Ainu type among the indigenous population has yet been found. There are indirect data collected in the Lower Amur region and on Sakhalin-legends telling about strange dwarfs tons, which were encountered by local residents. Moreover, Nivkhs applied this ethnonym to the Ainu people [Istoriya i kul'tura nivkhov, 2008, p. 18-19; Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, part 2, p. 12-13]. Even at a distance from the Amur riverbed, on its tributary Gorin, Nanais mentioned mysterious savages who once lived here. Migrants from the Amur River were afraid of them, because they allegedly killed people "for food".* their livers" (GTMA**, S. Condon, informant V. M. Samar, born in 1940, 23.11.1998). A. Yu. Akulov, after comparing archaeological, craniological data and legends, established that the Tonchi (or Ayn. tsorpok-kuru) are proto - jains who once lived in the area of the ancient world. dugouts and used ceramic dishes. Their descendants lost their traditional way of life and did not preserve oral traditions about the life of their ancestors, respectively, the traces of their stay were attributed to a foreign people (Akulov, 2007). A number of researchers believe that the legendary Tonchi are Proto-Tungus, although no other evidence has been found confirming the early contacts of the formed Mongoloids with Ainoids [Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 1989, part 2].

According to ethnographic data, the Tungus-Manchu peoples and the Nivkhs came into contact with the Ainu, even entered into marital relations with them. The Nivkh genealogies Argon and Ygnyn have Ainu elements; the Ulchi genealogies Kuysali and Duvan are of Ainu origin. Even in the Nanai family of Beldy, there is a division of Oitanko with Ainu roots (Smolyak, 1975, pp. 76-77).

The Ainu people are also united with the peoples of the Lower Amur region by the influence of the Austronesian culture in the historical past (III millennium BC), which supplemented their ritual complexes with elements from Southeast Asia [Smolyak, 1980, p. 182-190; Okladnikov, 2003, p. 479-495; History and Culture of the Nanai people, 2003, pp. 19-22]. According to L. Ya. Sternberg, this vast region from the lower reaches of the Amur and Sakhalin Rivers to Polynesia and Australia coincides with the inau distribution zone (Shernberg, 1933, pp. 579-630).

In the light of ethno-cultural contacts, the cult of shavings takes on an original character in each area of its range. According to A.V. Smolyak, their consecration, as well as the holding of the bear festival, are features of the indigenous Amur culture [1980, p. 190]. In the lower reaches of the Amur River, ritual shavings became an element of the cult of water, the bear festival, and shamanic rituals [Zolotarev, 1934, pp. 19-24; 1939, pp. 126-186; Smolyak, 1961]. Among the Nanai and Ulchi, representatives of the Tungus-Manchu group, sacred shavings (from willow, alder, or mountain ash) of gyasada and gisams were named after the curved knife giasu, gyaso, which was used for whittling them [Smolyak, 1991, pp. 229-235; Samar, 2003, p.58]. Details of the ritual use of stru-

* Tala is the national food of the Nanai and Ulchi people, made from finely chopped frozen raw fish or elk liver.

** Author's field materials.

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2. Ritual log house for idols-seee (ulchi). Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East, IAET SB RAS, No. 817 based on the book of receipts.

zhek is found among the Gorin Nanai people. According to the memoirs of E. D. Samar, the log house of kori, which is the home of seenoe (the receptacle of spirits), was abundantly covered with shavings of gyasad 2). Shavings symbolized the curls of a mythical creature in the form of a dragon, and they were used even in the treatment of children (Samar, 1990).

In the ritual practice of the Nanai, the gyasada was wrapped around the neck or torso of the manufactured seien to enhance the protective functions of the image. Sacred shavings attached to idols played the role of hair or threads connecting the Savens with the Upper World (PMA, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, informant E. D. Samar, born in 1934, 29.09.2003). This interpretation, which attributes gyasada to an intermediary function, reveals similarities with the Ainu Inau. In this connection, we can consider the terminology of the sacred sphere associated with the natural environment, of which the gyasada are a part. In the traditional worldview of the Nanai people, vegetation that received a sacred status had analogies with seenom, but unlike it, it was considered not made by hands, alive. Among the revered trees and shrubs were senkure (marsh rosemary), shienkure (bird cherry) and syakta (willow, vetla) [Samar, 2003, p. 96]. Three terms are united by the prefix se (xia), and the word seven can also be put in this row. The prefix se (xia) indicates the sacred nature of the designated objects. Bird cherry and willow, which were among the markers of the sacred world, also served as a material for making shavings that have their own names: from bird cherry - saori, used as a napkin and as a substitute for sacrifice; from willow-gyasada.

In the Nanai mytho-ritual complex, the use of gyasad shavings was noted in cults associated with the water space over which the water bear ruled. In comparison with the Ainu cult of Inau, a single cultural algorithm is guessed. Among the Ainu, Nivkh, and Ulchi, the elements of inau at the bear festival were used in relation to the bear as the main deity of the taiga, mountains, and crafts [Pilsudsky, 1915, p.67-118; Zolotarev, 1939, p. 104-194; Kreinovich, 1973, p. 169-241]. In the Nanai traditional universe, the bear became the equivalent of a natural element, a shamanic category (Ivanov, 1937). In this reinterpreted version, one can guess the archaic layer of ideas about the taiga deity as the patron saint of river and sea crafts, in whose possession there is a floodplain with plants that served as material for inau or gyasad. In shamanic rituals, sacred shavings became an integral part of the shaman's attire. Headdress in the form of a crown of intertwined shavings with a "tail" falling on the back was worn by Ulch and Nanai giasamsa (shamans) (Smolyak, 1991, pp. 229-235) (Fig. 3). This part of clothing imitated a mythological birdKori with an emphasized beak and tail (for comparison: the ritual log house with seenami was also called kori) (PMA, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, informant E. D. Samar, 10.06.1997). Such a "crown" of sacred shavings, used by Ainu elders and tribal leaders of the islands of Polynesia, Oceania, indicates the transformation and large geographical coverage

3. Shamanic vestments of the Gorin Nanai people. 1971 Photo by V. A. Timokhin.

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Figure 4. Amateur artists from the village of Bulava (Ulchi) with bundles of shavings in his hands. 1963 Photo by V. A. Timokhin.

Fig. 5. Location of Cape Chasi on Hokkaido Island and a view of it from space.

this tradition, as well as the antiquity of ethno-cultural contacts, an element of which was the translation of the sacred concept and image enclosed in shavings [Sternberg, 1933, p. 579-630; Smolyak, 1980, p. 189].

The traditions of the ritual use of a barred stick, a bundle of shavings or a sultan of them have been preserved by the peoples of the south of the Far East to this day. However, in the 1970s in the Russian Far East, shamanism exhausted itself as the basis of the traditional worldview system, which led to the extinction of the ritual significance of shavings, which were significant in the sacred world order and expanded the symbolic and pictographic function of cult sculpture. Instead of the cult use of objects made of shavings, their everyday use has changed, which is embodied in the props and accessories of theatrical and concert productions. Currently, many Nanai and Ulchi folklore groups act out scenes from the life of their ancestors, often using objects made of shavings, which is a kind of demonstration, at least in the framework of amateur art, of the connection with the lost heritage (Fig. 4).

The Ainu Inau of Hokkaido

The practical use of inau in the religious rite of the Ainu people on Hokkaido Island was observed by one of the authors of the article in 2005 and 2006. On the southwestern edge of the village. Utoro, located on the Siretoko Peninsula, is home to the high rocky Chasi Promontory, which protrudes significantly into the Sea of Okhotsk (Fig. 5). It has steep south-western and north-eastern slopes, and the tip of the promontory ends in the sea with an almost sheer wall (Fig. 6)*. The mountain is completely covered with forest. The most convenient ascent to it is possible only from the south-west side along a steep path, equipped with rope rails in the most dangerous places. On the flattened top of the mountain there are large deep hollows of dwellings (Fig. 7, 1), presumably Ainu (excavations were not carried out). Before the construction of the road leading to the village. Utoro, Cape Chasi was connected to the main mountain range of the Siretoko Peninsula by a saddle convenient for access to it.

On the seashore south-west of Cape Chasi in the early Middle Ages there was a village of bearers of the late Okhotsk culture. Novosibirsk archaeologists S. P. Nesterov and L. N. Mylnikova took part in its excavations in 2005 and 2006 at the invitation of Professor Kato Hirafumi of Hokkaido University.

* Fig. 6-10-photos taken by the joint venture. Nesterov in 2005, 2006.

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6. View of Cape Chasi from the south-west (1), north-east (2) and north-west (3).

7. Ainu settlement on Cape Chasi. 1-view of the housing pit; 2 - frame made of small logs at the inau complex.

During an excursion to Chasi in 2005, a ritual complex using inau was discovered.

Not far from the south-eastern corner of a rectangular frame built end-to-end from small logs with untreated ends (Fig. 7, 2), the inau group was located (Fig. 8, 1). It included two tall (approx. 1 m) talc (willow) sticks stuck in the ground, where the bark was removed about one-third at the top and in this place thin long shavings were cut, hanging down. At the right inau, the threads of curled shavings are fluffed, and the upper end of the stick is decorated with a small "shock" of short shavings-curls. At the left inau, the cut shavings are twisted into about ten bundles, so their total length is slightly less than that of the right one. Just above the end of the shavings on the stick there are two tamga-shaped signs located on top of each other (Fig. 8, 2). Both inau have the middle part of the sticks, from where the removal took place

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8. Inau complex (1) and its detail (2) at Cape Chasi.

shavings, in two places wrapped in a spiral with the bark removed from them. Below there is a small "collar" in the form of short shavings.

Roughly in line with the larger ones was a group of four smaller inau: two between them, one to the left and one to the right. They are not sanded, thinner and lower than the first half. Each stick was stripped of up to ten filaments-shavings that started from the middle and ended at the top.

The third group, consisting of two inau, was located in front of the first large ones. These sticks are two-thirds lower than inau of the second group, completely sanded. In the middle part of each was two bundles of short fluffed shavings, removed from top to bottom. Due to this, as well as the additional removal of chips at the upper end of the sticks, as in the right large inau, the impression of a little man with a curly head and arms spread out to the sides is created.

The complex was complemented by two sanded sticks standing close to each other. In terms of size, they are 2 times higher than inau of the third group and lower than inau of the second. These sticks were placed in front of the small inau line and occupied the extreme right position in the composition. Both have circular grooves cut 2-3 cm from the top. A fire was lit in a nearby wooden frame (hearth), which left a rounded spot with embers. A small can of salt sat on a log near its southeast corner.

The religious ceremony with the use of inau for Hours was held on the eve of September 20 (this is the day of the excursion to the cape), as evidenced by fresh autumn flowers with small white inflorescences stuck along the inau. It was not possible to find out who or what it was dedicated to. Professor Kato Hirofumi in an oral conversation expressed a cautious assumption that the prayer with the installation of inau and lighting a fire in an improvised hearth is associated with the Ainu rite of remembrance of deceased relatives. According to the classification of N. G. Munro, a wooden rod with flowing interlacing of shavings in the form of braids fits into the northern traditions of inau design. The figure is used as a" helper " of a woman in difficult childbirth and as a symbolic image of the ancestor-patron of the mountains (Munro, 1963, pl. III, IX).

Itopka (Ainu) or sirosi (yap.) signs applied on inau* researchers consider tamgami, which the Ainu used to mark certain categories of objects (weapons, significant household items, funerary monuments, etc.), including inau [Knorozov, Spevakovsky, and Taksami, 1984; Pilsudsky, 1995; Kondratenko and Prokofiev, 2005; Akulov, 2006].

Traces of the end of this rite were noted during the next visit to Cape Chasi a year later, on September 26, 2006. The wooden frame of the hearth was preserved. A bonfire was built in it again, leaving two charred, unburned short poles (see Figs. 7, 2). Drastic changes occurred in the inau complex. The shavings, which a year ago had the color of fresh wood, turned gray with black smouldering dots. All the inau were lying on the ground, but they were not just pulled out of it and broken, but with a special ritual. It consisted in the fact that, before breaking the inau, a stick was cut in the area of shavings in several ways-at least three of them were fixed: from two opposite sides (Fig. 9, 1,2), from four sides (Fig. 9, 3) and in a circle (Fig. 9, 4). inau's incisions broke at this point. One stick was cut obliquely and sharpened (Figure 10). The lighter color of the cut compared to shavings and sanded sticks eliminates the use of a sharp end to dig it into the ground.

* The authors thank Prof. Kato Hirofumi and V. A. Deryugin, and E. A. Solovyov for their advice on this issue.

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Fig. 9. Methods of incision of inau sticks. 1, 2 - on both sides; 3-on four sides; 4-in a circle.

Fig. 10. Cross-section of an inau stick

Fig. 11. Method of stationary mounting of inau. Photo from the Shiretoko Museum in Shari, Hokkaido.

Thus, the material traces of an unidentified rite using the inau complex examined in 2005-2006 at Cape Chasi u in the Utoro village of Hokkaido indicate the temporary nature of the latter. It was destroyed at the end of the ritual, probably in compliance with special rules for this case, which may indicate a memorial rite, which, as a rule, always had a cycle completed in time. The Ainu people of Hokkaido have permanent ritual complexes with the use of-

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12. Stationary attachment of inau at the dwelling (1) and at the bear cage (2). From the exposition of the Museum of the History of Hokkaido Development in Sapporo.

Using the inau, the latter were attached either to the crossbar of a U-shaped post, or between parallel horizontal thin poles, or to the corners of a bear cage, etc. (Figs.11, 12).

Conclusion

Traditions of the ritual use of a mound stick, a bundle of shavings or a sultan made from them can be traced throughout the south of the Far East. Based on the results of archaeological and ethnographic studies, it is possible to determine the area of the cult within the borders that coincide with the territory of the Ainu settlement. The presence in the ritual complexes of the continental and island parts of the Asia-Pacific region (on the example of the Lower Amur region and Hokkaido Island) of such an element as shavings or a mound stick indirectly indicates ethno-cultural contacts of the ancient population of East Asia, between the Amur-Sakhalin region and the island world of the Pacific Ocean. In this area, over the centuries, the ritual use of shavings has repeatedly changed its function and semantics, adapting to changing cultural realities. The study of the cult of inau in the Ainu environment and gyasad among the Tungus-Manchu peoples of the Lower Amur region (Ulchi, Nanai) shows the transformation of the purpose of the ritual element-from the "intermediary" between man and the divine essence (Kamui), as well as mnemonic means to imitate the "connection" between the heavenly and earthly spheres in the shamanic world order and the rite of veneration of the bear. The egnogenetic aspect of the study of inau as a cultural phenomenon allows us to consider it not only as an authentic complex formed by the bearers of the traditions of the island world, but also as a hypostasis of the world tree, which has analogies in the cosmogonies of many Asian peoples and has its roots in the formation of modern human races.

List of literature

Akulov A. Y. The Ainu had a written language. Sakhalin, Russia: Yearbook of the Sakhalin region local lore. the museum. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2006, No. 13, pp. 176-182.

Akulov, A. Yu., the history of the question of corpac-Kuru: the Association of culture with the culture of the Ainu, Jomon // Ethnographic review. - 2007. - N 2. - p. 150-157.

Reconstruction of traditional Ainu representations of the world (based on the analysis of folklore texts) / / Izv. Institute of Heritage of Bronislaw Pilsudski. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2010, No. 14, pp. 167-203.

Arutyunov S. A. Ob ainu komponentakh v formirovanii yap'onskoy narodnosti [On the Ainu components in the formation of the Japanese nation]. SE. - 1957. - N 2. - pp. 3-14.

Arutyunov S. A., Shchebenkov V. G. The oldest people of Japan: The Fate of the Ainu tribe, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1992, 208 p.

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Vasilievsky R. S. Po sledam drevnykh kul'tury Hokkaido [On the trail of ancient Hokkaido cultures]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1981, 176 p.

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Georgi I. I. Description of all the peoples living in the Russian state, their everyday rituals, customs, clothes, dwellings, religions and other memorabilia. - St. Petersburg: [Tip. Beitbrecht and Schibre], 1777. - Ch. 3: Samoyedic, Manchu and Eastern Siberian peoples. - 130 p.

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Dobrotvorsky M. M. Ainu-Russian dictionary. Kazan: University Press, 1875, 660 p.

Zolotarev A.M. Survivals of totemism among the peoples of Siberia. - L.: Publishing House of the Institute of Peoples of the North of the CEC of the USSR, 1934. - 51s.

Zolotarev A.M. Generic system and religion of Ulchi. Khabarovsk: Dalgiz Publ., 1939. -205 p.

Ivanov S. V. Medved v religionnom i dekorativnom iskusstve narodnostey Priamurya [The Bear in the religious and decorative art of the peoples of the Amur Region]. Pamyati V. G. Bogoraza (1865-1936), Moscow: Izd - vo AN SSSR, 1937, pp. 1-44.

History and culture of the Nanai people. Saint Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 2003, 328 p. (in Russian)

History and culture of the Nivkhs. Saint Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 2008, 270 p. (in Russian)

Kabo, V. R., North of the Pacific Ocean: ethnogenetic problems, in Correlation of ancient cultures of Siberia with cultures of adjacent territories. Novosibirsk: SPSTB SB OF the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1975, pp. 142-153.

Knorozov Yu. V., Spevakovsky A. B., Taksami Ch. M. Pictographic inscriptions of the Ainu / / Field research of the Institute of Ethnography. 1980-1981 / ed. by S. I. Vainshtein, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1984, pp. 226-233.

Kozintsev A. G. Statisticheskie dannye k probleme proiskhozhdeniya kraniologicheskogo tipa ainu [Statistical data on the problem of the origin of the Ainu craniological type]. Rasogeneticheskie protsessy v etnicheskoi istorii, Moscow: Nauka, 1974, pp. 229-242.

Kondratenko A. I., Prokofiev M. M. Problemy etnicheskoi antropologii, arkheologii i etnografii ainu [Problems of Ethnic Anthropology, Archeology and Ethnography of the Ainu]. Inst.morskoy geologii i geofiziki DVO AN SSSR; Sakhalin, otd. Vseros. fonda kul'tury; Ob-vo izucheniya Sakhalina i Kurilskikh ostrov [Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics of the Far Eastern Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences]. - Prepr. - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1989. - Ch. 1: On the place of the Ainu in the system of racial classification of the peoples of the world. - 51 s.; Part 2: Ainu, Tunguso-Manchus and Tonchi. - 25 s.; Part 4: Paleo-Pacific cultural contacts. - 50 s.

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Kreinovich E. A. Nivkhgu: mysterious inhabitants of Sakhalin and Amur, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1973, 493 p.

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Smolyak A.V. On mutual cultural influences of the peoples of Sakhalin and some problems of ethnogenesis // Ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the peoples of the North, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1975, pp. 43-77.

Smolyak A.V. Problems of ethnogenesis of Tungusic-speaking peoples of the Lower Amur and Sakhalin // Ethnogenesis of the peoples of the North, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1980, pp. 177-194.

Smolyak A.V. Shaman: personality, functions, worldview. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1991, 280 p. (in Russian)

Spevakovsky A. B. Spirits, werewolves, demons and Ainu deities, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1988, 206 p.

Taksami Ch. M., Kosarev V. D. Who are you, Ainu? Moscow: Mysl Publ., 1990, 320 p. (in Russian)

Trofimova T. A. K ainu probleme [On the Ainu problem]. Zhurnal, 1932, No. 2, pp. 88-99.

Shternberg L. Ya. Gilyaks, Orochi, Golds, Negidals, Ainu. Khabarovsk: Dalgiz Publ., 1933, 740 p.

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Munro N.G. Ainu creed and cult. - N. Y.; Г.: Columbia university press, 1963. - 182 p.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 03.04.14, in the final version-on 14.04.14.

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