20 Dec Siberian Shaman Amulet

This 5.9cm object is reputedly a charm used by a Siberian shaman. A shaman is a healer and diviner. The etymology of “shaman” is the Tungus root sā-, meaning “to know.”

At first blush it looks like a maskette with a smiling or angry human face, spanning the gamut of human emotions. The empty or negative space within the outline of the face is greater than the lines that form the facial features. That suggests that what’s behind the face, the mind, is empty. With our mind empty, we are cured from much of what ails us and are free to see beyond ourselves, the future.

Alternatively it looks like a woman’s body without a head; just a pair of breasts, vagina and protruding legs. For some men that would be the ideal woman as it would cure them of much of their woes.