the ket traditional culture was researched by matthias castrén, vasiliy ivanovich anuchin, kai donner, , and yevgeniya alekseyevna alekseyenko. shamanism was a living practice into the 1930s, but by the 1960s almost no authentic shamans could be found. shamanism is not a homogeneous phenomenon, nor is shamanism in siberia. as for shamanism among kets, it shared characteristics with those of turkic and mongolic peoples. additionally, there were several types of ket shamans, differing in function (sacral rites, curing), power, and associated animals (deer, bear). also, among kets (as with several other siberian peoples such as the karagas) there are examples of the use of skeleton symbolics. hoppál interprets this as a symbol of shamanic rebirth, although it may symbolize also the bones of the loon (the helper animal of the shaman, joining the air and underwater worlds, just like the story of the shaman who travelled both to the sky and the underworld). the skeleton-like overlay represented shamanic rebirth among some other siberian cultures as well.