Elements of a Proto-Uralic religion can be recovered from reconstructions of the Proto-Uralic language.
According to linguist Ante Aikio, although "evidence of immaterial culture is very limited" in the Proto-Uralic language, "a couple of lexical items can be seen as pointing to a shamanistic system of beliefs and practices." The concept of soul dualism, which is widely attested among Uralic-speaking peoples, probably dates back to the Proto-Uralic period: the word *wajŋi (‘breath-soul') designated the soul bound to the living body, which only left it at the moment of death, whereas *eśi (or *iśi, *ićći) referred to the 'shadow-soul', believed to be able to leave the body during lifetime, as when dreaming, in a state of unconsciousness or in a shaman's spirit journey.[1]
The Indo-Iranian loanword *pi̮ŋka designated a 'psychedelic mushroom', perhaps the one used by the shaman to enter altered states of consciousness. The verb *kixi- meant both 'to court [of birds]' and 'to sing a shamanistic song', suggesting that it referred to states of both sexual and spiritual excitement. If the etymology remains uncertain, the word 'shaman' itself may be rendered as *nojta, and the shamanic practice as *jada-, although semantic variations in the daughter languages make the reconstruction debatable (cf. Erzya Mordvinjɑdɑ- 'to conjure, do magic, bewitch', East Khantyjɔːl- 'to tell fortunes, shamanize', Ket Selkuptjɑːrә- 'to curse; quarrel').[1]
A common creation myth shared by many Finno-Ugric peoples is the earth-diver myth in which a diver, often a waterbird, dives into the sea to pick up earth from the bottom to form the lands. In the Mordvin variant, the diver is the Devil (sometimes in the form of a goose), in the Yenisey Khanty variant a red-throated loon,[2] and in at least one Finnish version a black-throated loon[3]
Several Finno-Ugric languages have a theonym that can be derived from the Proto-Finno-Ugric word *ilma meaning sky or weather. These include Udmurt Inmar, Komi-Zyrjan Jen, Khanty Num-Ilәm and Finnish Ilmarinen. These theonyms suggest an early central Proto-Finno-Ugric sky-god.[4]
Hoppál, Mihály (2000). Studies on mythology and Uralic shamanism. Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN963-05-7741-0.
Hajdú, Péter (ed.). Uráli népek: Nyelvrokonaink kultúrája és hagyományai [Uralic peoples: Culture and traditions of our linguistic relatives]. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó. 1975. ISBN963-13-0900-2. (in Hungarian)
Jauhiainen, Marjatta. The Type and Motif Index of Finnish Belief Legends and Memorates: Revised and enlarged edition of Lauri Simonsuuri’s Typen- und Motivverzeichnis der finnischen mythischen Sagen (FFC No. 182). FF Communications 267. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1998.
Jones, Prudence; Pennick, Nigel (1995). A History of Pagan Europe. Routledge. pp. 178–183. ISBN978-1-136-14172-0.
Konakov, N. D.; Black, Lydia T. (1994). "Calendar Symbolism of Uralic Peoples of the Pre-Christian Era". Arctic Anthropology. 31 (1): 47–61. ISSN0066-6939. JSTOR40316348.
Krupp E.C. (2000). "Sky Tales and Why We Tell Them". In: Selin H., Xiaochun S. (eds). Astronomy Across Cultures. Science Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Science. Vol. 1. Springer, Dordrecht. pp. 20–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4179-6_1
Petrukhin, Vladimir. "Мифы финно-угров" [Myths of the Finno-Ugric]. Мoskva: Астрель; АСТ: Транзиткнига, 2005. Series: Мифы народов мира. ISBN5-17-019005-0
Siikala, Anna-Leena. "What Myths Tell about Past Finno-Ugric Modes of Thinking". In: Siikala, Anna-Leena (Ed.). Myths and Mentality: Studies in Folklore and Popular Thought. Studia Fennica Folkloristica 8. Helsinki: SKS, 2002. pp. 15–32.
Valk, Ülo (2000). "Ex Ovo Omnia: Where Does the Balto-Finnic Cosmogony Originate? The Etiology of an Etiology". In: Oral Tradition 15: 145–158.
Vértes, Edit (1990). Szibériai nyelvrokonaink hitvilága [The belief systems of our linguistic relatives in Siberia]. Budapest: Tankönyvkiadó. ISBN963-18-2603-1. (In Hungarian)
