Even in ancient times, the Russians, Yakuts and Evens called the reindeer herders Chukchi. The name itself speaks for itself: “chauchu” - rich in deer. Deer people call themselves that. And dog breeders are called ankalyns.
This nationality was formed as a result of a mixture of Asian and American types. This even confirms that the Chukchi dog breeders and the Chukchi reindeer herders have different attitudes to life and culture; various legends and myths speak about this.
The linguistic affiliation of the Chukchi language has not yet been precisely determined; there are hypotheses that it has roots in the language of the Koryaks and Itelmens, and ancient Asian languages.
Culture and life of the Chukchi people
The Chukchi are accustomed to living in camps, which are removed and renewed as soon as the reindeer food runs out. In summer they go down closer to the sea. The constant need for resettlement does not prevent them from building fairly large dwellings. The Chukchi erect a large polygonal tent, which is covered with reindeer skins. In order for this structure to withstand strong gusts wind, people prop up the entire hut with stones. At the back wall of this tent there is a small structure in which people eat, rest and sleep. In order not to get too steamy in their room, they undress almost naked before going to bed.
National Chukchi clothing is a comfortable and warm robe. Men wear a double fur shirt, double fur trousers, also fur stockings and boots made of identical material. A man's hat is somewhat reminiscent of a woman's bonnet. Women's clothing also consists of two layers, only pants and upper part sewn together. And in the summer, the Chukchi dress in lighter clothes - robes made of deer suede and other bright fabrics. These dresses often feature beautiful ritual embroidery. Small children and newborns are dressed in a bag made of deer skin, which has slits for arms and legs.
The main and daily food of the Chukchi is meat, both cooked and raw. Brains, kidneys, liver, eyes and tendons can be consumed raw. Quite often you can find families where they happily eat roots, stems and leaves. It is worth noting the special love of the Chukotka people for alcohol and tobacco.
Traditions and customs of the Chukchi people
The Chukchi are a people who keep the traditions of their ancestors. And it doesn’t matter at all what group they belong to - reindeer herders or dog breeders.
One of the national Chukotka holidays is the Baydara holiday. The kayak has long been a means of obtaining meat. And in order for the waters to accept the Chukchi canoe on another year, the Chukchi performed some kind of ceremony. The boats were removed from the jaws of the whale, on which she lay all winter. Then they went to the sea and brought it a sacrifice in the form of boiled meat. After which the canoe was placed near the home and the whole family walked around it. The next day the procedure was repeated and only after that the boat was launched into the water.
Another Chukchi holiday is the whale holiday. This holiday was held in order to apologize to the killed sea animals and make amends to Keretkun - the owner sea creatures. People dressed in smart clothes, waterproof clothes made from walrus guts and apologized to the walruses, whales and seals. They sang songs about how it was not the hunters who killed them, but the stones that fell from the cliffs. After this, the Chukchi made a sacrifice to the owner of the seas, lowering the skeleton of a whale into the depths of the sea. People believed that in this way they would resurrect all the animals they had killed.
Of course, one cannot fail to mention the festival of the deer, which was called Kilvey. It took place in the spring. It all started with the fact that the deer were driven to human dwellings, yarangas, and at this time the women lit a fire. Moreover, fire had to be produced, as many centuries ago - by friction. The Chukchi greeted the deer with enthusiastic cries, songs and shots in order to drive away evil spirits from them. And during the celebration, men slaughtered several adult deer to replenish food supplies intended for children, women and the elderly.
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 settled 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 head, then they wear a bandage that goes down to the forehead with a trim 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 convenient place 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 throws itself 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 above-mentioned clothing 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 feminine 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 swapping. 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 shy, 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
What may surprise you in the Chukchi traditions June 19th, 2018
We have already discussed history, traditions and. You can read a lot of interesting things about this people, popular in jokes. But domestic and foreign ethnographers and simply travelers, who encountered the life and customs of the Chukchi for the first time, were often shocked by some manifestations of their originality.
Many features of the Chukotka way of life are characteristic only of this people.
The first "swingers"
This is one of the strangest customs among the Chukchi, noticed back in the 18th century by a Russian scientist with German roots, Karl Heinrich Merck. Merck explored the northeastern shores of Russia, studied the customs and way of life of many northern peoples and left memories about this, published only in the 19th century.
Gender relations, according to Merk’s memoirs, among the Chukchi were very peculiar - in order to consolidate comradely (business, partnership) contacts, it was not forbidden to exchange wives. This ritual was called “ngevtumgyn” (which translated means “wife friendship”), and the narrow-eyed “swinger” was called “ngevtumgyt”. A jealous Chukchi is like a Jewish reindeer herder: for representatives of this people, not giving their wife to a “corefan” was more offensive than not paying off their debts. This exchange most often arose from purely practical considerations that simplified the life of these people in the difficult conditions of the Far North.
As a modern ethnographer and researcher of the Far North, Professor Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Aleksandrovich Arutyunov says, this practice existed before civilization touched the Chukchi, today such “free love” does not occur.
Karl Merk was also amazed by the custom of dressing up a Chukchi shaman in women's clothing and his subsequent cohabitation (in everyday life) with the owner of the yaranga in the role of his second spouse - this is what the spirits allegedly ordered. The Chukchi also practiced levirate - the younger brother of a deceased older brother was obliged to marry his widow and raise all the children of the deceased as his own.
Didn't save drowning people
This rule, strictly observed by the Chukchi, actually took place, even in the twentieth century, confirms S. A. Arutyunov. Sergei Alexandrovich says that among these people the reservoir was considered the border between the earthly and other worlds– if a person is taken away by water spirits, it is unacceptable to interfere with this. When the Chukchi boats capsized and their comrades found themselves in the water in their rather heavy clothes, none of the tribesmen rushed to help.
But the Eskimos, adds Arutyunov, did not have such a cruel custom - it happened that they saved the drowning Chukchi, despite the fact that these peoples, to put it mildly, were not friends with each other.
Only they had such “diapers”
Karl Merck spoke in his notes about in an unusual way swaddling of newborns among the Chukchi, which in its essence is a primitive prototype of a modern diaper: moss and deer hair served as absorbent material. The baby was dressed in a kind of overalls with such a “lining”, which was changed several times during the day.
It is noteworthy that this is not the only Chukchi invention from the list of those that were subsequently modernized. For example, the role of a sun visor (like in a baseball cap) among the Chukchi was played by a piece of whalebone attached to a hat - it protected from the bright and angry northern sun and blinding snow. Russian ethnographers have noticed that the Chukchi use a kind of “sunglasses” - eye patches made of tanned deer skin with narrow slits for vision. “Cocktail straws” also appeared among the Chukchi long before the advent of mixed drinks - these people drank liquids through the hollow bones of animals: as you know, in the cold, if you touch a metal surface with your lips, you can “stick.”
sources
Part 5. Chukchi Arctic
The ancient Arctic Chukchi live on the Chukotka Peninsula. Unlike other indigenous peoples of Siberia, they were never conquered Russian troops. Their environment and traditional culture suffered greatly during the years of Soviet rule due to industrial pollution and continuous testing of new weapons.
“How you treat your dog in this life determines your place in heaven.”
Due to the harsh climate and difficulties of life in the tundra, hospitality and generosity are highly valued among the Chukchi. They think that everything natural phenomena spiritualized and personified. The Chukchi still maintain a traditional way of life, which is nevertheless subject to the influence of modern civilization.
Arctic tundra, Vankarem, Chukotka
Ancient legends and archaeological data suggest that the Chukchi settled Chukotka in a far from peaceful manner.
Unlike other native inhabitants of Siberia, they were fiercely warlike and were never conquered by Russian troops. Under Soviet rule, the population of Chukotka experienced massive purges and the destruction of their traditional culture.
People from the Second Brigade
The Chukchi are an ancient Arctic people living mainly on the Chukotka Peninsula. They are distinguished from other peoples of the North by the presence of two different cultures: the nomadic reindeer herders Chauchu, who live in the interior of the peninsula, and the sedentary coastal sea hunters Ankalyn, who live along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Chukchi and Bering seas.
Vladilen Kavri
The by-products consumed by the inhabitants of the peninsula are supplied by reindeer herders: boiled venison, deer brains and bone marrow, and deer blood soup.
One traditional dish, rilkeil, is made from semi-digested moss from the stomach of a dead deer, mixed with blood, fat and pieces of boiled deer intestine. The diet of the coastal Chukchi includes boiled walrus meat, seal, whale meat/blubber, and seaweed. Both groups eat frozen fish and edible leaves and roots.
Traditional cuisine is now complemented by canned vegetables and other food products purchased in stores.
Folk art
Sculpture and carving of bone and walrus tusk are the most developed forms folk art among the Chukchi. Traditional themes are landscapes and scenes from everyday life: hunting trips, reindeer husbandry and indigenous animals of Chukotka. In accordance with tradition, only Chukchi men can engage in this activity. Chukotka women are masters of sewing and embroidery.
Second brigade of reindeer herders
Although both sexes share responsibility for running household, the tasks they face are different.
Chukchi men ride reindeer in search of vegetation, and also visit the edge of the taiga to hunt marine mammals and collect firewood and fish.
Women's work includes cleaning and repairing the yaranga, cooking, sewing and repairing clothes, and preparing reindeer or walrus skins.
Chukotka
The coastal Chukchi, like their Eskimo neighbors, love to throw each other into the air on blankets of walrus skins. Chukchi of all ages traditionally love to sing, dance, listen to folk tales and say tongue twisters.
Chukotka traditions
The traditional dress of Chukchi women is the “kerker” - a knee-length jumpsuit made from deer or seal skins and embroidered with fox, wolverine, wolf or dog fur. On holidays and on special occasions, women wear robes made of fawn skins, decorated with beads, embroidery and fur trim.
Men during important times traditional events wear loose shirts and trousers made of the same material.
Vyacheslav and Olesya
Pollution, military testing, mining, overuse of industrial equipment and vehicles caused great harm to the nature of Chukotka. The traditional way of life and activity of the Chukchi is under threat of extinction.
Yaranga - second brigade
For several hundred years, the cone-shaped yaranga remained the traditional dwelling of the Chukchi reindeer herders. It takes about 80 reindeer skins to make a yaranga. Currently, fewer and fewer Chukchi live in yarangas. The coastal Chukchi traditionally use dog sleds and leather boats for transportation, while inland the Chukchi travel on reindeer-drawn sleighs. These traditional methods of transportation are widespread, but are increasingly being supplemented by air transport, motor boats and snowmobiles.
Second Brigade, Chukotka
The Chukchi, who call themselves Lygoravetlat – “ true people- currently number just over 15 thousand. Their territory is mostly treeless tundra. The climate is harsh, winter temperatures sometimes drop to -54°C. Summer in Chukotka is cool: temperatures fluctuate around + 10°C.
Chukchi
Traditional Chukchi sports are reindeer and dog sled racing, wrestling and running. Sports competitions are often accompanied by deer sacrifices in the mainland regions of Chukotka and offerings to the sea spirit among the Chukchi coastal region.
Mystery
Chukchi beliefs and practices are a type of shamanism. Animals, plants, celestial bodies, rivers, forests and other natural phenomena are endowed with their own spirits. During their rituals, Chukchi shamans fall into a trance (sometimes with the help
hallucinogenic mushrooms) and communicate with spirits, allowing the spirits to speak through them, predict the future and cast various spells.
The most important traditional holidays The Chukchi have festivals during which sacrifices are made to the spirits responsible for the well-being and survival of the people.
Chukotka traditions
Due to the harsh climate and difficulties of life in the tundra, hospitality and generosity are highly valued among the Chukchi. You cannot deny shelter and food to anyone, even a stranger.
The community is obliged to provide for orphans, widows and the poor.
Stinginess is considered the worst human flaw.
Oral folk art.
Chukchi folklore includes myths about the creation of the Earth, Moon, Sun and stars, tales about animals, anecdotes and jokes about fools, stories about evil spirits responsible for illness and other misfortunes, and stories about shamans with supernatural powers.
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. Thus, some residents of Northeast Asia crossed the Bering 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 figures 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.