Chastity is not considered a necessary quality for an ideal bride. Indeed, in the Chukchi language there is no word to express this concept. There isn't even a word for "girl". There is only one word - ŋəusqət ("woman"), in combination with other words also - ŋəw ŋaw, ŋe ŋa. The name anra-ŋaw - “special (living) woman” - is used for every girl who does not have a given time husband: for a girl, widow or divorce. To express the concept of “chastity” you can only use the descriptive form: jep ajaakə̄len (“not yet in use”). The Chukchi in general - both men and women - are very sensual. “This is the best thing in the world” (ъnan-tam-vaрgn), - everyone told me with confidence about sex life.
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The position of illegitimate children is no different from the position of “legitimate” children. The Chukchi say: “If a child is already born, we are glad to see him.” In the area of the Sukhoi Anyuya River, I saw one family consisting of an old father, a middle-aged daughter and four adult sons. The sister was much older than the brothers. Since her mother died, about fifteen years ago, she has been running the entire household. As a child, her father made her the "primary heir" of the herd. At the time of my meeting with this family, two brothers were already married, and each had a child. The girl had a fifteen-year-old son. This boy was declared the "primary heir" of the herd. He was to inherit the oldest reindeer brand, which marked the bulk of the herd.
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Group marriage
The Chukchi have a custom of group marriage. A marriage group sometimes includes up to ten married couples. Men belonging to such a marriage are called “wife mates” - ŋew tumgüt. Each of the “wives’ comrades” has the right to the wives of all the other “wives’ comrades,” but uses this right relatively rarely, only when he comes to such a comrade’s camp. Then the owner gives him his place in the sleeping canopy. He tries to leave the house that night, for example, he goes to the herd. After such a visit, the owner usually begins to look for reasons to go to the “wife’s mate” camp, in order to, in turn, exercise his right.
Such a marriage union is mostly concluded by well-known people cū-tumgьt - “looking at each other (comrades)”, neighbors and relatives. Cousins and second cousins most often they are connected by group marriages. Siblings, on the contrary, never enter into such an alliance. In the old days, this form of marriage apparently served as a bond between members of a kinship group. Over time, other people began to enter into such an alliance, connected not by kinship but only by friendship. The ritual that accompanies the conclusion of a group marriage is, as it were, intended to give the union the character of a connection between relatives. People in a group marriage perform blood anointing and sacrifice first in one tent, then in another. After this, they are considered to belong to the same fire, which makes them relatives in male line.
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Wedding ceremony
The most important part of the wedding ceremony among the Reindeer Chukchee is the anointing of the bride and groom with the blood of a sacrificed deer. This ceremony is performed in the groom's tent or, if he becomes an adopted son-in-law, in the bride's tent. The ritual is relatively simple: the groom goes to his father-in-law and takes the bride to his place. The bride, accompanied by her immediate family, rides on her own reindeer. The procession arrives at the groom's tent. The reindeer are being unharnessed. The small sleigh on which the tent poles are transported is placed behind the tent in the place where sacrifices are usually made. The bride and groom's sledges are placed on both sides, at some distance. Then a sacrificial deer is killed for anointing. They make sacrifices at sunset and dawn and perform other bloody and bloodless sacrifices. Wooden flints and bundles of guards are placed on the sleds. Then they produce va and bundles of guards. Then the bride and groom are anointed with the blood of the killed deer. The anointing is also done by one or two members of the groom's family so that the bride does not feel lonely. In this case, the bride and groom apply to their faces family signs groom Thus, the bride renounces her family, her hearth and kinship and moves on to another hearth and kinship. Next, the bride smears the reindeer blood on the sleigh and “feeds” homemade sacred objects with bone marrow. She approaches the hearth, sprinkles it with sacrificial blood, takes a handful of ash from it and rubs it between her palms. She says, turning to the hearth: “Nьmelew qatvarkьn! (Live well with me”).
A few days later, sometimes two or three weeks later, the second part of the wedding ceremony takes place - alarantourgün ("trip due to boredom"). The newlyweds, accompanied by several relatives, go to their father-in-law's camp. “We think,” the Chukchi told me, “that the young wife may miss the old things. Let her go and look at him again.” For this trip, they do not take the deer on which the bride came to the groom. She now rides on her husband's reindeer and brings with her many reindeer as a gift to her parents. This gift is called rinkur. The Chukchi insist that this is a gift and not a ransom, since it is given at the end of the wedding ceremony. The number of deer has not been established. If the groom's family is poor, then she gives only one team, that is, two deer. Usually it is supposed to give two or three teams. The number of deer intended for a gift may include calves, but they must be broken, fit for a team, in a word - what the Chukchee call gitli-qəjuut (“greedy calves”), that is, calves greedy for human urine. As is known, the domestication of deer among the Chukchee is based on the deer's addiction to human urine. In addition to deer, the newlyweds take with them koloboks made from crushed meat - a favorite delicacy of the Chukchi. The number of these koloboks corresponds to the number of deer, although sometimes the number of koloboks is two and three times greater. According to the Chukchi family and family-group way of life, his closest relatives help the young husband select deer for a gift. But this help is voluntary. Usually one or two relatives along the male line (kрŋe-tumgьt – “relatives along the line of the sire”) or relatives by property (takalgьt – “brothers-in-law”) give one or two deer each. You are not supposed to accept help from more than two people. The rest of the deer are given by the groom himself. Along with the reindeer, relatives send the corresponding number of koloboks, and sometimes even two or three times more. These koloboks have symbolic meaning. If, for example, one of the relatives would like to send two or three reindeer, but is not able to do so at the time, he sends only koloboks. By doing this, he takes upon himself the obligation to deliver the deer to the bride’s father. In addition to koloboks, they also bring other Chukchi delicacies, such as frozen brain from leg bones, up to ten pounds in total, brains, also frozen, tongues, pieces of fatty meat. Arriving at the wife’s camp, the newlyweds again perform anointing, applying the wife’s family signs on their faces. The wife makes a sacrifice on the hearth of her tent. Then the feast begins, during which all the provisions brought are eaten. The next day, the newlyweds return home. Here they again repeat the ritual of anointing and smear the husband's family marks on their faces. Having thus left her native hearth and the family signs of anointing, the wife finally binds herself to the new hearth and finally becomes a member of the new family.
The manuscript by K. G. Merck, dedicated to the Chukchi, was acquired by the Imperial Public Library in 1887 and is still kept in its manuscript department. These notes about the campaign through the Chukotka Peninsula (from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the Nizhe-Kolyma fort) represent a description of the region and the ethnography of the peoples inhabiting it.
The manuscript by K. G. Merck, dedicated to the Chukchi, was acquired by the Imperial Public Library in 1887 and is still kept in its manuscript department. These notes about the campaign through the Chukotka Peninsula (from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the Nizhe-Kolyma fort) represent a description of the region and the ethnography of the peoples inhabiting it.
We bring to your attention only selected excerpts from the researcher’s manuscript.
The Chukchi are divided into reindeer and sedentary. Reindeer live all summer until autumn in several families together, near the sedentary camps, and drive their herds to pastures closer to the seashore, several days' journey from their temporary settlements. […] Those of the reindeer Chukchi who settle near the sedentary ones feed all summer only on the meat of sea animals, thereby preserving their herds. The Chukchi store for the winter meat and fat (blub) of sea animals, as well as their skins, whalebone and other things they need. […] Although the reindeer Chukchi give the sedentary people, for the supplies they receive from them, the meat of deer, which they slaughter especially for them, this, in fact, is not an exchange, but rather a kind of compensation at their discretion. […]
The sedentary Chukchi also differ in language from the reindeer Chukchi. The language of the latter is close to Koryak and only slightly differs from it. The settled Chukchi, although they understand the Koryak language, have their own, divided into four dialects and completely different from the Koryak. […]
As for God, they believe that a deity who used to be on earth lives in the sky; they make sacrifices to the latter so that it will keep earthly devils from harming people. But they, in addition, make sacrifices for the same purpose to the devils themselves. However, their religious concepts are very incoherent. You can be more misled by asking the Chukchi about this than by observing their life with your own eyes. However, it can be argued that they fear devils more than they trust any higher being. […]
As for sacrifices, the reindeer Chukchi sacrifice deer, and the sedentary Chukchi sacrifice dogs. When stabbing, they take a handful of blood from the wound and throw it towards the sun. I have often seen such sacrificial dogs on the seashore, lying with their heads towards the water, with the skin left only on the head and legs. This is the gift of the sedentary Chukchi to the sea for the sake of its pacification and a happy voyage. […]
Their shamans perform shamanism by nightfall, sitting in their reindeer yurts in the dark and without much clothing. These activities should be considered as a winter pastime during leisure hours, which, by the way, some women also indulge in. However, not everyone knows how to shamanize, but only some of the reindeer Chukchi and a few more of the settled ones. In this art, they are distinguished by the fact that during their actions they know how to answer or force others to answer in an altered or someone else's dull voice, by which they deceive those present, pretending that the devils answered their questions with their own lips. In case of illness or other circumstances, when they are contacted, shamans can direct the imaginary predictions of the spirits in such a way that the latter always demand a sacrifice of one of the best deer of the herd, which becomes their property with skin and meat. The head of such a deer is put on display. It happens that some of the shamans run around in a circle in a trance, hitting a tambourine, and then, to show their skill, they cut their tongue or allow themselves to be stabbed in the body, not sparing their blood. […] Among the sedentary Chukchi I came across the fact, according to them not so rare, that a male shaman, completely dressed in women’s clothing, lived with a man as a good housewife.
Their dwellings are called yarangas. When the Chukchi stay longer in one place in summer and winter, the yarangas have a larger volume and correspond to the number of canopies that fit in them, which depends on the number of relatives living together. During migrations, the Chukchi divide the yaranga into several smaller parts to make it easier to install. […] For their warm canopies, the Chukchi use six or eight, and the wealthy use up to 15 reindeer skins. The canopies are an uneven quadrangle. To enter, lift the front part and crawl into the canopy. Inside you can kneel or bend over, why only sit or lie in it. […] It cannot be denied that even in simple canopies, in the coldest weather, you can sit naked, warming yourself from the warmth of the lamp and from the fumes of people. […]
In contrast to the yarangas of the reindeer Chukchi, the yarangas of the sedentary Chukchi are covered with walrus skins. The warm canopies of the sedentary Chukchi are bad, and there are always insects in them, since the Chukchi cannot often renew the canopies, and sometimes they are forced to use already abandoned ones.
Chukchi men wear short hair. They moisten them with urine and cut them with a knife, both in order to get rid of lice and so that the hair does not interfere with the fight.
As for men's clothing, it fits snugly to the body and is warm. The Chukchi renew it mostly by winter. […] The Chukchi usually wear trousers made of seal skins, less often of processed deerskin, with underpants, mostly from the skins of young deer. They also wear pants made from pieces of skin from wolf paws, which even have claws left on them. Chukchi short stockings are made of seal skins and the Chukchi wear them with the wool inside until it is cold. In winter, they wear stockings made of long-haired camus. In the summer they wear short boots made of seal skins with the hair facing inward, and against dampness - made of deer skins. In winter, they mostly wear short boots made of camus. […] As insoles in boots, the Chukchi use dry soft grass, as well as shavings from whalebone; Without such insoles, boots do not provide any warmth. The Chukchi wear two fur coats; the lower one remains with them throughout the winter. […] The Chukchi head is often left uncovered all summer, autumn and spring, if the weather permits. If they want to cover their heads, they wear a bandage that goes down to the forehead with a rim of wolf fur. The Chukchi also protect their heads with malakhai. […] over the malakhai they put on, especially in winter, a hood that lies rounded over the shoulders. However, they are worn by younger and wealthier men in order to give themselves a more beautiful view. […] Some Chukchi also wear on their heads, instead of malakhai, the skin torn from the head of a wolf with a muzzle, ears and eye sockets.
In rainy weather and damp fog, which they experience most of the summer, the Chukchi wear raincoats with hoods over their clothes. These raincoats are rectangular pieces of thin skin from the intestines of whales sewn crosswise and look like a folded bag. […] In winter, the Chukchi are forced to beat out their clothes every evening with a mallet cut from horns before entering the yurt in order to clear it of snow. They carry the mallet with them on the sledge. In their tight-fitting clothes that cover all parts of the body well, the Chukchi are not afraid of any cold, although due to their severe frosts, especially with the wind, they freeze their faces. […]
The occupations of men among the reindeer Chukchi are very limited: watch their herd, guard the animals night and day, drive the herd after the train during migrations, separate the sled reindeer, catch the last ones from the circle, harness the reindeer, drive the reindeer into the corral, smoke tobacco, build a weak fire , choose comfortable spot for migrations. […]
One-year-old reindeer, which the Chukchi destined for harness, are castrated in various rather primitive ways. When sucklings are slaughtered in the fall, the females still have some milk for three to four days. The Chukchi milk was brought to us in a tied intestine. They milk the females by sucking, since they do not know any other way of milking, and this method reduces the taste of the milk. […]
The Chukchi also accustom their riding reindeer to urine, just like the Koryaks. Deer love this drink very much, they allow themselves to be lured by it and thereby learn to recognize their owner by his voice. They say that if you feed reindeer moderately with urine, they become more resilient during migrations and get less tired, which is why the Chukchi carry with them a large basin made of leather to urinate in. In the summer, deer are not given urine, as they have no desire for it. In winter, deer want to drink urine so badly that they must be restrained from drinking it in large quantities at a time when women pour out or expose vessels of urine early in the morning from their yarangas. I saw two deer that had drunk too much urine and were so intoxicated that one of them looked like a dead one... and the second, who was very swollen and could not stand on his feet, was first dragged by the Chukchi to the fire so that the smoke would open his nostrils, then they tied him up with belts, buried him up to his head in the snow, scratched his nose until it bled, but since all this did not help at all, they stabbed him to death.
The Chukchi's reindeer herds are not as numerous as those of the Koryaks. […] The Koryaks are also better at hunting wild deer and elk. As for arrows and bows, the Chukchi always have them with them, but they do not have the dexterity of hitting, since they almost never practice this, but are content with how it comes out. […]
The occupations of the sedentary Chukchi consist mainly of hunting sea animals. At the end of September, the Chukchi go hunting for walruses. They kill so many of them that even polar bears are not able to devour them all over the winter. […] The Chukchi go together to walruses in groups of several people, run at them screaming, throw a harpoon using a throw, while others pull on a five-fathom-long belt attached to the harpoon. If a wounded animal manages to go under water, the Chukchi overtake it and finish it off in the chest with iron spears. […] If the Chukchi slaughter an animal on the water or if a wounded animal rushes into the water and dies there, then they take only its meat, and the skeleton remains mostly with fangs and is immersed in the water. Meanwhile, it would be possible to pull out a skeleton with fangs and exchange it for tobacco, if the Chukchi did not spare the labor for this. […]
They hunt bears with spears and claim that polar bears, which are hunted on the water, are easier to kill than brown bears, which are much more agile. […]
About their military campaigns. The Chukchi direct their raids mainly against the Koryaks, with whom they still cannot forget their enmity, and in former times they opposed the Yukaghirs, who with their help were almost destroyed. Their goal is to rob deer. Attacks on enemy yarangas always begin at dawn. Some throw lassoes at the yarangas and try to destroy them, pulling out the posts, others at this time pierce the canopy of the yaranga with spears, and still others, quickly driving up to the herd on their light sledges, divide it into parts and drive away. […] For the same purpose, that is, robbery, sedentary Chukchi move on their canoes to America, attack camps, kill men and take women and children as prisoners; As a result of the attack on the Americans, they partially receive furs, which they exchange with the Russians. Thanks to the sale American women Reindeer Chukchi and other trade transactions, sedentary Chukchi turn into reindeer Chukchi and can sometimes roam with the reindeer, although they are never respected by the latter.
Among the Chukchi, Koryaks and isolated Yukaghirs are also found as workers. The Chukchi marry them to their poor women; and the settled ones also often take captive American women as wives. […]
The woman's hair is braided on the sides into two braids, which they mostly tie at the ends at the back. As for their tattoos, women tattoo with iron, some with triangular needles. Elongated pieces of iron are pierced over the lamp and shaped into a needle, dipping the point into boiled moss from lamps mixed with fat, then into graphite rubbed with urine. The graphite with which the Chukchi rub the threads from the veins when tattooing is found in abundance in pieces on the river near their Puukhta camp. They tattoo with a needle with dyed thread, which leaves blackness under the skin. The slightly swollen area is smeared with fat.
Even before the age of ten, they tattoo girls first in two lines - along the forehead and along the nose, then a tattoo follows on the chin, then on the cheeks, and when the girls get married (or around 17 years old), they tattoo the outside of the forearm to the neck with various linear figures. Less often they indicate a tattoo on women’s shoulder blades or pubic area. […]
Women's clothing fits the body, falls below the knees, where it is tied, forming, as it were, pants. They put it on over the head. Her sleeves do not taper, but remain loose. They, like the neckline, are trimmed with dog fur. This clothing is worn double. […] over the mentioned clothes the Chukchi wear a wide fur shirt with a hood, reaching to the knees. They wear it on holidays, when traveling to visit, and also during migrations. They put it on with the wool on the inside, and the more prosperous also wear a second one - with the wool on the outside. […]
Women's occupations: caring for food supplies, processing hides, sewing clothes.
Their food comes from deer, which they slaughter in late autumn, while these animals are still fat. The Chukchi save reindeer meat in pieces as a reserve. While they live in one place, they smoke meat over smoke in their yarangas, eat the meat with ice cream, breaking it into small pieces on a stone with a stone hammer. […] They consider bone marrow, fresh and frozen, fat and tongue the most delicious. The Chukchi also use the contents of a deer’s stomach and its blood. […] For vegetation, the Chukchi use willows, of which there are two types. […] In willows of both species they rip off the bark of the roots, and less often the bark of the trunks. They eat bark with blood, whale oil and the meat of wild animals. Boiled willow leaves are stored in seal bags and eaten with lard in winter. […] For digging different roots Women use a hoe made of walrus tusk or a piece of deer antlers. The Chukchi also collect boiled seaweed, which they eat with sour lard, blood and stomach contents of reindeer.
Marriage among the Chukchi. If the matchmaker has received the consent of the parents, then he sleeps with his daughter in the same canopy; if he manages to take possession of her, then the marriage is concluded. If the girl does not have a disposition towards him, then she invites several of her girlfriends to her place that night, who fight the guest with female weapons - arms and legs.
A Koryak woman sometimes makes her boyfriend suffer for a long time. For several years the groom tries in vain to achieve his goal, although he remains in the yaranga, carries firewood, guards the herd and does not refuse any work, and others, in order to test the groom, tease him, even beat him, which he patiently endures until the moment female weakness does not reward him.
Sometimes the Chukchi allow sexual relations between children who grow up with parents or relatives for later marriage.
The Chukchi do not seem to take more than four wives, more often two or three, while the less wealthy are satisfied with one. If a wife dies, the husband takes her sister. Younger brothers marry the widows of their elders, but it is contrary to their customs for the elder to marry the widow of the younger. A barren Chukchi wife is soon kicked out without any complaints from her relatives, and you often meet young women who are thus given to their fourth husband. […]
Chukotka women do not have any help during childbirth, and, they say, often die in the process. During menstruation, women are considered unclean; men refrain from communicating with them, believing that this results in back pain.
Wife Exchange. If husbands conspire to seal their friendship in this way, they ask the consent of their wives, who do not refuse their request. When both parties have agreed in this way, the men sleep without asking, interspersed with other people’s wives, if they live close to each other, or when they come to visit each other. The Chukchi exchange their wives for the most part with one or two, but there are examples when they receive such a relationship with ten at the same time, since their wives, apparently, do not consider such an exchange undesirable. But women, especially among the Reindeer Chukchi, are less likely to be prone to betrayal. They usually do not tolerate other people's jokes on this matter, they take everything seriously and spit in the face or give free rein to their hands.
The Koryaks do not know such an exchange of wives; They are jealous and betrayal of their husband was once punished by death, now only by exile.
In this custom, Chukchi children obey other people's fathers. As for mutual drinking of urine during the exchange of wives, this is a fiction, the reason for which could be washing the face and hands with urine. During the scanty autumn migrations, such a guest often came to our hostess, and her husband then went to the latter’s wife or slept in another canopy. Both of them showed little ceremony, and if they wanted to satisfy their passions, they would send us out of the canopy.
Sedentary Chukchi also exchange wives among themselves, but reindeer do not exchange wives with sedentary ones, and reindeer do not marry the daughters of sedentary people, considering them unworthy of themselves. The wives of the reindeer would never agree to an exchange with the settled ones. However, this does not prevent the Reindeer Chukchi from sleeping with the wives of the settled ones, which their own wives do not look askance at, but the Reindeer Chukchi do not allow the settled ones to do the same. The settled Chukchi also provide their wives to foreigners, but this is not proof of their friendship for them and not out of a desire to receive offspring from foreigners. This is done out of self-interest: the husband receives a pack of tobacco, the wife receives a string of beads for her neck, several strings of beads for her hand, and if they want to be luxurious, then also earrings, and then the deal is concluded. […]
If Chukchi men feel the approach of death, they often order themselves to be stabbed - the duty of a friend; both brothers and sons are not upset by his death, but rather rejoice that he found enough courage not to expect a woman’s death, as they put it, but managed to escape the torment of the devils.
The Chukchi corpse is dressed in clothes made of white or spotted deer fur. The corpse remains in the yaranga for 24 hours, and before it is taken out, they try the head several times, lifting it until they find it light; and while their head is heavy, it seems to them that the deceased has forgotten something on the ground and does not want to leave it, which is why they put some food, needles and the like in front of the deceased. They carry out the corpse not through the door, but next to it, lifting the edge of the yaranga. When carrying out the deceased, one goes and pours the remaining fat from the lamp that burned for 24 hours near the corpse, as well as paint from alder bark, onto the road.
For burning, the corpse is taken several miles from the yaranga to a hill, and before burning it is opened in such a way that the entrails fall out. This is done to make burning easier.
In memory of the deceased, they cover the place where the corpse was burned in an oval shape with stones, which should resemble the figure of a person; larger stones are placed at the head and at the feet, of which the top one lies to the south and should represent the head. […] The deer on which the deceased was transported are slaughtered on the spot, their meat is eaten, the head stone is coated underneath with bone marrow or fat, and the antlers are left in the same heap. Every year the Chukchi remember their dead; if the Chukchi are nearby at this time, then they slaughter deer at this place, and if far away, from five to ten sledges of relatives and friends go to this place every year, make a fire, throw bone marrow into the fire, and say: “Eat this.” , help themselves, smoke tobacco and place cleaned antlers on a pile.
The Chukchi mourn their dead children. In our yaranga, shortly before our arrival, a girl died; her mother mourned her every morning in front of the yaranga, and the singing was replaced by howling. […]
To add something more about these natives, let us say that the Chukchi are more often than average in height, but it is not so rare to find Chukchi who reach six feet in height; they are slender, strong, resilient and live to a ripe old age. Sedentary animals are not much inferior to reindeer animals in this regard. The harsh climate, the severe frosts to which they are constantly exposed, their food is partly raw, partly slightly cooked, which they almost always have in abundance, and physical exercise, from which they avoid almost no evening, so long as the weather permits, their few occupations giving them the advantage of strength, health and endurance. Among them you will not find a fat belly, like the Yakuts. […]
These men are brave when confronted by the masses, less afraid of death than of cowardice. […] In general, the Chukchi are free, they engage in exchanges without thinking about politeness; if they don’t like something or what is offered in exchange seems too insignificant, then they easily spit on it. They achieved great dexterity in theft, especially the sedentary ones. To be forced to live among them is a real lesson in patience. […]
The Chukchi seem kind and helpful and demand in return everything they see and want; they do not know what is called swinishness; they relieve their need in their curtains, and what is most unpleasant about this is that they force strangers, often even with a push, to pour urine into a cup; they crush lice with their teeth in a race with their wives - men from their pants, and women from their hair.
A little more about Chukotka beauties. Women of the Reindeer Chukchi are chaste by habit; Sedentary women are the complete opposite of them in this, but nature has provided the latter with more beautiful features. Both of them are not very bashful, although they do not understand it. In conclusion, another addition about the Koryaks. These natives are unsightly, small, and even their secret machinations are reflected on their faces; They forget every gift immediately upon receipt - they insult with death, like the Chukchi, and in general this seems more characteristic of Asia. We must always be in accordance with their mood, so as not to make them enemies; you won’t get anything from them with orders and cruelty; if they are sometimes punished by beatings, then you will not hear any screams or requests from them. Reindeer Koryaks count the blow worse than death; For them, taking their own life is the same as going to sleep. […] These natives are cowardly; They not only left the Cossacks of the local forts to the mercy of fate, who were in trouble when the latter were more than once forced to act against the Chukchi because of the Koryaks, but even in those cases when the Cossacks had to flee with them, the Koryaks cut off their fingers, so that the Cossacks could not hold on to the sledges. According to written evidence, in general, the Koryaks killed many more Cossacks while sleeping than the Chukchi during the day with their arrows and spears.
However, is not the reason for their behavior that the Cossacks of these remote regions consider them more as slaves created for them than as subjects standing under the scepter of the greatest monarchy, and treat them accordingly. Thoughtful bosses would have to discourage this if they did not think it would be easier to satisfy their own interests.
Their women apparently never comb their hair. The soiling of their clothes should seem to serve as a guarantee of their chastity for jealous husbands, although their face, which can rarely claim even a shadow of charm, never smiles when looking at a stranger.
K. G. Merck translation from German by Z. Titova
Every nation living far from civilization has traditions and customs that seem at least strange to the uninitiated. Now, in the era of globalization, the originality of small nations is rapidly eroding, but some centuries-old foundations are still preserved. For example, the Chukchi have a very extravagant system of marriage and family relations.
The Chukchi - the indigenous people of the Far North - live according to the laws of the levirate. This is a marriage custom that does not allow families that have lost their breadwinner to be left without support and livelihood. The brother or other close relative of the deceased man has the responsibility to marry the widow and adopt her children. 
Obviously, the effect of levirate explains the popularity of the tradition of group marriage. Married men agree to unite families in order to provide each other with labor and material support. Of course, the poor Chukchi strive to enter into such an alliance with rich friends and neighbors. 
Ethnographer Vladimir Bogoraz wrote: “When entering into a group marriage, men sleep, without asking, mixed with other people’s wives. The Chukchi wife exchange is usually limited to only one or two friends; however, examples are not uncommon when such close relationships are maintained with many.” 
Children born into families in group marriage relationships are considered siblings. And all members look after them big family. So group marriage is a real salvation for childless couples: a friend will always help an infertile man to have children. And the birth of a baby for the Chukchi is always a very joyful event, regardless of who his biological father is.
The Chukchi consider themselves a special people, which is emphasized in their self-name. From their folklore you can learn that the world was created by a raven. He taught people how to survive in harsh northern conditions. At the same time, the Luoratvelan people were recognized as superior. It is worth noting that they put Russians on the same level as themselves. According to researchers, in this way the Chukchi decided to justify the fact that their lands were part of Russian Empire.
The Chukchi consider themselves the highest race and only put Russians on the same level as themselves // Photo: russian7.ru
According to one of the Chukchi myths, God the Father appointed his youngest son Russian to dominate over his older brothers Yakut and Even. And another legend says that even though the Russians can be called equal to the Chukchi, they were originally created in order to invent and trade with them wine, tobacco, iron, sugar and other benefits of civilization.
By the way, the Russians could not win the war with the Chukchi. The colonial war, which lasted from 1730 to 1750, ended in victory northern people. The Chukchi were conquered under Catherine the Great not by military force, but by “fire water”, iron, sugar, tobacco and the like.
Life, customs and raising children
Because of the jokes about the Chukchi that appeared in the USSR, most people think that representatives of the northern people are incredibly naive, straightforward and even stupid. In fact, this is not true at all.The Chukchi are forced to lead a nomadic lifestyle. This is due to the fact that the basis of their economy is deer. As soon as the deer eat all the food, the Chukchi are forced to change their camp site. The Chukchi live in polygonal tents covered with reindeer skins. To prevent the tent from being blown away by the wind, it is lined with stones around its perimeter. A special structure is erected at the back wall of the tent, where the Chukchi eat, sleep and rest.
Representatives of the northern people, young and old, are dressed in reindeer skins and fur. Newborn babies are also placed in a special deerskin bag with slits for the legs and arms. It is noteworthy that researchers attribute the invention of the baby diaper to the Chukchi. Since it was quite difficult for mothers to keep their children clean in low temperatures, they began to pour wood shavings into diapers, as well as reindeer moss, which has antibacterial properties.
the basis of the Chukchi economy are reindeer // Photo: asiarussia.ru
As for the children, they are brought up in more than harsh conditions. Boys are taught to be brave warriors. Because of this, from the age of six they are forced to sleep standing up. In addition, fathers sneak up on a sleeping child with a red-hot iron in their hands, which they are ready to use if the boy does not wake up. This is how children are taught to react with lightning speed to any rustle. The initiation rite among the Chukchi is as follows: a teenage boy is given a building. Usually kill some animal while hunting. His father follows him. After waiting for the right moment, the parent shoots his son. If the boy noticed the surveillance and managed to dodge, he remains alive.
Illustrious Warriors
Throughout their history, the Chukchi have shown themselves to be brave warriors. They raided neighboring tribes of Eskimos, Karyaks, Yukaghirs and others. The favorite weapon of the northern people is the bow. They fought in armor decorated with wings. When the arrows ran out, the Chukchi warriors threw off their armor, and sometimes heavy fur clothing, so that nothing would hinder their movements.
The Chukchi enjoy the glory of brave and strong warriors // Photo: cyrillitsa.ru
The Chukchi are not afraid of death. They are sure that each of them has several souls and will definitely be reborn. For representatives of the northern people, dying by natural means is a real luxury. It is noteworthy that paradise is possible for the Chukchi only if he falls in battle or dies at the hands of a comrade. When a Chukchi friend turns to him with a request to kill him, he does not hesitate, and completely calmly fulfills it.
Chukotka women are no less severe than men. If the enemy wins, they kill their children, parents, and then commit suicide.
Certainly, modern Chukchi are no longer as severe as in ancient times. According to residents of the northern regions, the Chukotka people are distinguished by their extraordinary hard work, and also, as before, suffer greatly because of the “fire water”. The thing is that the body of northern peoples is unable to produce the enzyme that breaks down ethyl alcohol. This is why the Chukchi become avid alcoholics literally after the first hundred grams of vodka or other strong alcoholic drinks.
The Chukchi are one of the peoples who most value a sense of humor in a person. It is almost impossible to meet a sad Chukchi. Even in ancient times, it was believed that if a person is sad, it means that an evil spirit has taken possession of him. For this reason, representatives of the northern people could only enjoy life no matter what.
The Chukchi - today their number is just over 15 thousand people - inhabit the extreme northeast of Russia, Chukotka. The name of this distant Arctic region means “land of the Chukchi.” Russian word“Chukchi” comes from the Chukchi “chauchu” - “rich in deer.” Among the Chukchi thousand-year history. Their distant ancestors came to the Arctic from the central regions of Siberia, when in place of the Bering Strait there was a vast isthmus connecting Asia and America. This is how some of the inhabitants of Northeast Asia crossed the “Beringian Bridge” to Alaska. IN traditional culture, customs and holidays of the Chukchi there are features that bring them closer to the Indian peoples North America, and, of course, http://zateyniki-spb.ru/novogodnie-prazdniki/ded-moroz-i-snegurochka-na-dom.html few people want there.
Kaydara holiday
According to the ancient ideas of the Chukchi, everything that surrounds a person has a soul. The sea has a soul, and so does the canoe, a boat covered with walrus skin, on which even today arctic sea hunters fearlessly go out into the ocean. Until recently, every spring, in order for the sea to accept the canoe, hunters organized a special holiday. It began with the boat being solemnly removed from the pillars made of the jaw bones of the bowhead whale, on which it had been stored during the long Chukchi winter. Then they made a sacrifice to the sea: pieces of boiled meat were thrown into the water. The baidara was brought to the yaranga - the traditional dwelling of the Chukchi - and all participants in the holiday walked around the yaranga. The oldest woman in the family went first, then the owner of the canoe, the helmsman, the rowers, and the rest of the participants in the holiday. The next day, the boat was carried to the shore, a sacrifice was made to the sea again, and only after that the canoe was launched into the water.
Whale Festival
At the end of the fishing season, late autumn or early winter, the coastal Chukchi held a whale festival. It was based on a ritual of reconciliation between hunters and killed animals. People dressed in festive clothes, including special waterproof raincoats made of walrus intestines, asked for forgiveness from whales, seals, and walruses. “It wasn’t the hunters who killed you! The stones rolled down the mountain and killed you!” - the Chukchan women sang, addressing the whales. The men staged wrestling matches, performed dances that reproduced full mortal danger scenes of hunting sea animals.
At the whale festival, sacrifices were certainly made to Keretkun, the owner of all sea animals. After all, the residents of Chukotka believed that success in hunting depended on him. In the yaranga where the holiday took place, a Keretkun net woven from deer tendons was hung, and figurines of animals and birds carved from bone and wood were installed. One of wooden sculptures depicted the owner of sea animals himself. The culmination of the holiday was the lowering of whale bones into the sea. IN sea water, the Chukchi believed, the bones would turn into new animals, and the next year whales would appear off the coast of Chukotka again.
Festival of the Young Deer (Kilvey)
Just as solemnly as the coastal inhabitants celebrated the whale festival, Kilvey, the festival of the young deer, was celebrated on the continental tundra. It was held in the spring, during calving. The holiday began with the shepherds driving the flock to the yarangas, and the women laying out a sacred fire. Fire for such a fire was produced only by friction, as people did many hundreds of years ago. Deer were greeted with loud cries and gunshots to scare away evil spirits. Tambourines-yarars, which were played alternately by men and women, also served this purpose. Residents of coastal villages often took part in the festival together with reindeer herders. They were invited to Kilway in advance, and the more prosperous the family was, the more guests came to the holiday. In exchange for their gifts, residents of coastal villages received deer skins and venison, which was considered a delicacy among them. At the festival of the young deer, they not only had fun on the occasion of the birth of the fawns, but also performed important work: they separated the important ones with their calves from the main part of the herd in order to graze them on the most abundant pastures. During the holiday, some of the adult deer were slaughtered. This was done in order to prepare meat for future use for women, old people and children. The fact is that after Kilvey, the inhabitants of the camp were divided into two groups. Elderly people, women, and children remained in winter camps, where they fished and picked berries in the summer. And the men set off with the reindeer herds on long journeys to summer camps. Summer pastures were located north of winter nomads, not far from the coasts of the polar seas. A long journey with a herd was difficult, often dangerous. So the holiday of the young deer is also a farewell before a long separation.