Aleksandr B. Ostrovskii

The article examines the composition of healing idols and amulets of the Nivkhs, one of the peoples of the Amur and Sakhalin regions. The main source is the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography. To analyze the composition and semantics of the sculptural images, the author draws on the mythology and beliefs of the Nivkhs and uses a semiotic approach. The composition of the Nivkhs healing amulets was shown to often include the characters, acting as mediators between people and other spheres of the universe, such as the mountain taiga and the water element. These may include twins, the mother of twins, and others (in their zoomorphic forms, such as bears, toads, seals, and birds). The design of the amulets often includes connections like chain links, which represent a temporal connection between the mental and the physical, specifically between a mythological character and a human body. The original feature of the composition of the Nivkhs amulets is the dual mediation: along with the mediation between the spheres of the universe, it is also mediates between the body of the mythological character and the body of the sick person.