This study interprets Siberian shaman costumes from the perspective of Siberian shamanism’s spiritual culture by combining theoretical and empirical studies. According to the natural environment and language families, the Siberian people are classified into the Altai, Tungus, Ural, and Paleo-Siberian groups. Se Yin’s research classifies the spiritual culture of Siberian shamanism as cosmic, spiritual, and nature view. Eliade’s research has divided Siberian shaman costumes into form, headdress, and ornament. According to the present study, shaman costume form and decoration reflect the Siberian three-tiered cosmic view, such that the shaman’s head, body and feet correspond to the upperworld, middleworld and underworld. In addition, animism, totemism and ancestral worship appear in the shamanism’s spiritual view. For example, the costume’s form shows the totem of each tribe, while the costume accessories reflect animal worship, plant worship and ancestral worship. Finally, shamanism’s nature view mainly manifests through three processes: personification, deification, and ethics. As an intermediary between man and the spirits, shaman use their clothing to reproduce the image of half man and half spirit. The shaman’s costumes are deified and considered to have divine power. For example, the animals represented on the costume help the shaman travel through space. Generally, good animals help a shaman enter the upperworld, while animals that help a shaman enter the underworld are considered evil. Also, the number of hanging accessories represents the shaman’s ability.

This study attempts to analyze the social and cultural meanings of the ethnic groups to which different types of shamans belong in Siberia from the appearance characteristics in terms of clothing through Roland Barthes’s semiotic theory. The research method here is to analyze three types of shaman costume classified by Holmberg, which are bird-type, deer-type, and bear-type, through theoretical research and to investigate the analysis process of Roland Barthes’s semiotics theory. Roland Barthes’s approach to semiotics presents an analysis model that can explore the sociocultural meaning of the Siberian shaman costume. The research results are as follows. In the first type, to be closer to the god of the upperworld, shamans transform themselves into birds by decorating their costumes with the characteristic elements of birds such as feathers and wings. In the second type, the shamans’ costumes are made of deerskin, and the headdress is shown in the shape of antlers to make it easier to receive messages from the upperworld and run fast in the underworld. In the third type, the shaman’s costume is made of bearskin, the head is covered with bearskin, and the body is decorated with bear pendants. Through the power of the bear, the shaman is sent to the underworld to defeat evil gods and remove diseases. Shamans can show their particularity of being a demigod and non-binary gender through clothing. They use this to reflect their authority as a medium of communication between man and god.

Goldwork embroidery is the art of embroidery using metal threads. As well as being used as a decorative element of religious clothing, flags, performing costumes, uniforms, and badges, goldwork embroidery is also used in many current designer collections. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the techniques and materials of goldwork embroidery and the formative characteristics and socio-cultural values of goldwork embroidery from its beginning to the early 20th century. For this study, various embroidery works, costumes, museum portraits, and literature were analyzed. The results are as follows. First, the transition of goldwork embroidery was divided into 4 categories: The beginning of goldwork embroidery; the golden age of goldwork embroidery; the maturity of goldwork embroidery; and various goldwork embroidery (depending on the materials used, usage, and design features). The earliest extant example is the “Maaseik fragments” in Belgium dating from the late 8th to early 9th centuries. Until the 15th century, the Church was the most important patron of goldwork embroidery; however, after the 15th century, goldwork embroidery was produced on costumes. Second, the social-cultural values of goldwork embroidery (based on transition and formative features) were classified as expression of divinity, instrument of governance, desire to be approved, and tools of self-expression. Through this study, it is evident that there have been many advances in both technique and technology over time. Furthermore, patterns of usage and social-cultural values of goldwork embroidery have changed significantly.