Sample of embroidery with family trees

Nanais

Far East, Khabarovsk Krai

early 20th century

embroidery

Cloth (cotton); leather: natural leather (fish); threads: animal: silk

length 62.0; width 62.0

РЭМ 6876-150

Family trees are embroidered with colored floss threads on a white piece of fabric. The souls of unborn children are depicted on the branches of the family tree in the form of flowers. Childless women or those, whose children often died, asked a shaman for help, and during the ritual he made a “flight” to the family tree, choosing on its branches “the strong soul of a child" for these women.