M. Hoppal is the author of a significant number of publications on comparative mythology, shamanism, folklore, ethnosemiotics, etc. His work has been translated into many languages, becoming available to a huge number of readers. In addition, M. Hoppal is the author or co-author of a number of films about shamanism, founded and containing field materials of his expeditions to the indigenous peoples of Siberia, Korea, China, etc. The texts in the collection are not presented in chronological order and are not divided into thematic blocks, which would be quite difficult to do. The structure is the order of texts in accordance with their gravitation to the two main areas of the author's scientific interests - shamanism and ethnosemiotics.