The northernmost region of the Far East is the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its territory is home to several indigenous peoples who came there thousands of years ago. Most of all in Chukotka there are Chukchi themselves - about 15 thousand. For a long time, they roamed throughout the peninsula, herding deer, hunting whales and living in yarangas.
Now many reindeer herders and hunters have turned into housing and communal services workers, and yarangas and kayaks have been replaced by ordinary houses with heating. Residents of different regions of Chukotka told DV special correspondent Ivan Chesnokov how their people live now.
Cucumbers for 600 rubles per kilogram and a dozen eggs for 200 are modern consumer realities in remote areas of Chukotka. Fur production is closed, as it does not fit into capitalism, and the production of venison, although still going on, is subsidized by the state - deer meat cannot compete even with expensive beef, which is brought from the “mainland”.
A similar story is with the renovation of housing stock: it is unprofitable for construction companies to take on repair contracts, since the lion's share of the estimate is the cost of transporting materials and workers off-road. Young people leaving the villages, and serious problems with healthcare - the Soviet system collapsed, and a new one has not really been created.
At the same time, the social programs of the Canadian mining company, the revival of interest in national culture and the favorable consequences of the governorship of Arkady Abramovich - the billionaire created new jobs and renovated houses, and could easily give the whalers a couple of motor boats. The life of the Chukchi today is made up of such a motley mosaic.
Ancestors of the people
The ancestors of the Chukchi appeared in the tundra before our era. Presumably, they came from the territory of Kamchatka and the present Magadan region, then moved through the Chukchi Peninsula towards the Bering Strait and stopped there.
Faced with the Eskimos, the Chukchi adopted their sea hunting trade, subsequently displacing them from the Chukotka Peninsula. At the turn of the millennium, the Chukchi learned reindeer husbandry from the nomads of the Tungus group - the Evens and Yukaghirs.
Our first interlocutor is documentary director, experienced livestock specialist and expert on Chukotka Vladimir Puya. In the winter of 2014, he went to work on the eastern shore of the Gulf of the Cross, part of the Anadyr Gulf of the Bering Sea off the southern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula.
There, near the national village of Konergino, he made a film about modern Chukotka reindeer herders - in the past the richest, and now almost forgotten, but who have preserved the traditions and culture of their ancestors, residents of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
“It is no easier now to get into the reindeer herders’ camps of Chukotka than in the time of Tan Bogoraz (the famous Russian ethnographer who described the life of the Chukchi at the beginning of the 20th century - DV). You can fly to Anadyr and then to national villages by plane. But then it is very difficult to get from the village to a specific reindeer herding team at the right time,” explains Puya.
Reindeer herders' camps are constantly moving, and over long distances. There are no roads to get to their camp sites: they have to travel on tracked all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles, sometimes on reindeer and dog sleds. In addition, reindeer herders strictly observe the timing of migrations, the time of their rituals and holidays.
Hereditary reindeer herder Puya insists that reindeer husbandry is the “calling card” of the region and the indigenous people. But now the Chukchi generally live differently from how they used to: crafts and traditions fade into the background, and they are replaced by the typical life of remote regions of Russia.
“Our culture suffered greatly in the 70s, when the authorities decided that it was expensive to maintain high schools with a full complement of teachers in every village,” says Puya. — Boarding schools were built in regional centers. They were classified not as urban institutions, but as rural ones - in rural schools, salaries were twice as high. I myself studied at such a school, the quality of education was very high. But the children were torn away from life in the tundra and the seaside: we returned home only for the summer holidays. And therefore we lost the complex, cultural development. There was no national education in boarding schools; even the Chukchi language was not always taught. Apparently, the authorities decided that the Chukchi soviet people, and we have no need to know our culture.”
Life of reindeer herders
The geography of the Chukchi's residence initially depended on the movement of wild reindeer. People spent the winter in the south of Chukotka, and in the summer they escaped the heat and midges to the north, to the shores Arctic Ocean. The people of reindeer herders lived in a tribal system. They settled along lakes and rivers. The Chukchi lived in yarangas. The winter yaranga, which was made from reindeer skins, was stretched over a wooden frame. The snow from under it was cleared to the ground. The floor was covered with branches, on which skins were laid in two layers. An iron stove with a pipe was installed in the corner. They slept in yarangas in dolls made of animal skins.
But the Soviet government, which came to Chukotka in the 30s of the last century, was dissatisfied with the “uncontrolled” movement of people. The indigenous residents were told where to build new - semi-permanent - housing. This was done for the convenience of transporting goods by sea. They did exactly the same with the camps. At the same time, new jobs arose for indigenous residents, and hospitals, schools, and cultural centers appeared in the settlements. The Chukchi were taught writing. And the reindeer herders themselves lived almost better than all other Chukchi - until the 80s of the 20th century.
The name of the national village of Konergino, where Puya lives, is translated from Chukchi as “curved valley”, or “single crossing”: sea hunters in kayaks crossed the Gulf of the Cross in this place in one crossing. At the beginning of the 20th century in Konergino there were only a few yarangas - traditional portable dwellings Chukchi - and dugouts. In 1939, the board of the collective farm, the village council, and the trading post were moved here from the village of Nutepelmen. A little later, several houses and a warehouse-shop were built on the seashore, and in the middle of the century a hospital, a boarding school, kindergarten. A school was opened in the 80s.
Now residents of Konergino send letters at the post office, shop in two stores (Nord and Katyusha), call “the mainland” from the only landline telephone in the entire village, sometimes go to the local cultural club, and use the medical outpatient clinic. However, the residential buildings in the village are in disrepair and are not subject to major repairs.
“Firstly, they don’t give us much money, and secondly, due to the complex transport scheme, it is difficult to deliver materials to the village,” said the head of the settlement, Alexander Mylnikov, several years ago. According to him, if previously the housing stock in Konergino was repaired by utility workers, now they have neither building materials nor labor. “It is expensive to deliver construction materials to the village; the contractor spends about half of the allocated funds on transportation costs. The builders refuse, it is not profitable for them to work with us,” he complained.
The government of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug did not answer the editor’s question whether residential buildings in Konergino are really in disrepair. However, the first deputy governor of the district, Anastasia Zhukova, said that state programs have been developed on the territory of Chukotka for resettlement from emergency housing stock, development of the district’s infrastructure and development of housing and communal services and the water management complex.
About 330 people live in Konergino. Of these, there are about 70 children: most go to school. Fifty local residents work in housing and communal services, and the school, together with the kindergarten, employs 20 educators, teachers, nannies and cleaners. Young people don’t stay in Konergino: school graduates They travel to study and work in other places. The depressive state of the village is illustrated by the situation with the traditional crafts for which the Konergins were famous.
“We no longer have marine hunting. According to capitalist rules, it is not profitable,” says Puya. — The fur farms closed, and the fur trade was quickly forgotten. In the 90s, fur production in Konergino collapsed.” All that remains is reindeer husbandry: in Soviet times and until the mid-2000s, while Roman Abramovich remained as governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, it was successful here.
There are 51 reindeer herders working in Konergino, 34 of whom work in brigades in the tundra. According to Pui, reindeer herders' incomes are extremely low. “This is an unprofitable industry, there is not enough money for salaries. The state covers the lack of funds so that the salary is higher than the subsistence level, which in our case is 13 thousand. The reindeer farm that employs the workers pays them approximately 12.5 thousand. The state pays up to 20 thousand extra so that the reindeer herders don’t die of hunger,” the director complains.
When asked why it is impossible to pay more, Puya replies that the cost of producing venison on different farms varies from 500 to 700 rubles per kilogram. And wholesale prices for beef and pork, which are imported “from the mainland,” start at 200 rubles. The Chukchi cannot sell meat for 800-900 rubles and are forced to set the price at 300 rubles - at a loss. “There is no point in capitalist development of this industry,” says Puya. “But this is the last thing left in the national villages.”
The government of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug did not answer the editor’s question whether there really is no marine hunting industry in the village of Konergino, and whether fur farms and complexes responsible for fur hunting are closed.
At the same time, according to the first deputy governor, about 800 people work at 14 agricultural enterprises in the district. As of June 1 of this year, 148,000 reindeer were grazed in reindeer herding brigades, and from May 1 in Chukotka, the wages of reindeer herders were increased - to an average of 30%. In addition, the deputy governor noted that the district budget will allocate 65 million rubles to increase wages.
Evgeny Kaipanau, a 36-year-old Chukchi, was born in Lorino into the family of the most respected whaler. “Lorino” (in Chukchi – “L’auren”) is translated from Chukchi as “found camp”. The settlement stands on the shore of Mechigmenskaya Bay of the Bering Sea. Several hundred kilometers away are the American islands of Krusenstern and St. Lawrence; Alaska is also very close. But planes fly to Anadyr once every two weeks - and only if the weather is good. Lorino is covered from the north by hills, so there are more windless days here than in neighboring villages. True, despite relatively good weather conditions, in the 90s almost all Russian residents left Lorino, and since then only Chukchi have lived there - about 1,500 people.
The houses in Lorino are rickety wooden buildings with peeling walls and faded paint. In the center of the village there are several cottages built by Turkish workers - insulated buildings with cold water, which in Lorino is considered a privilege (if you run cold water through ordinary pipes, it will freeze in winter). There is hot water throughout the settlement, because the local boiler house operates all year round. But there is no hospital or clinic here - for several years now people have been sent for medical care by air ambulance or on all-terrain vehicles.
Lorino is famous for its marine mammal hunting. No wonder they filmed here in 2008 documentary“Whaler”, which received the TEFI prize. Hunting sea animals is still an important activity for local residents. Whalers not only feed their families or earn money by selling meat to the local trapping community, they also honor the traditions of their ancestors.
Since childhood, Kaipanau knew how to properly slaughter walruses, catch fish and whales, and walk in the tundra. But after school he went to Anadyr to study first as an artist and then as a choreographer. Until 2005, while living in Lorino, he often went on tour to Anadyr or Moscow to perform with national ensembles. Due to constant travel, climate change and flights, Kaipanau decided to finally move to Moscow. There he got married, his daughter was nine months old.
“I try to instill my creativity and culture in my wife,” says Evgeniy. “Although many things seemed wild to her before, especially when she found out the conditions in which my people live.” I instill traditions and customs in my daughter, for example, showing national clothes. I want her to know that she is a hereditary Chukchi.”
Evgeny now rarely appears in Chukotka: he tours and represents the Chukchi culture around the world together with his ensemble “Nomad”. In the ethnopark “Nomad” of the same name near Moscow, where Kaipanau works, he conducts thematic excursions and shows documentaries about Chukotka, including Vladimir Pui.
But living far from his homeland does not prevent him from knowing about many things happening in Lorino: his mother remains there, she works in the city administration. Thus, he is sure that young people are drawn to those traditions that are being lost in other regions of the country. “Culture, language, hunting skill. Young people in Chukotka, including young people from our village, are learning to catch whales. Our people live with this all the time,” says Kaipanau.
Hunting
IN summer season The Chukchi hunted whales and walruses, and in winter, seals. They hunted with harpoons, knives and spears. Whales and walruses were hunted together, but seals were hunted separately. The Chukchi caught fish with nets made of whale and deer tendons or leather belts, nets and bits. In winter - in an ice hole, in summer - from the shore or from kayaks. In addition, until the beginning of the 19th century, bears and wolves, rams and moose, wolverines, foxes and arctic foxes were hunted with bows, spears and traps. Waterfowl were killed with a throwing weapon (bola) and darts with a throwing plank. From the second half of the 19th century, guns began to be used, and then whaling firearms.
Products that are imported from the mainland cost a lot of money in the village. “They bring “golden” eggs for 200 rubles. I’m generally silent about grapes,” adds Kaipanau. Prices reflect the sad socio-economic situation in Lorino. There are few places in the settlement where one can show professionalism and university skills.
“But the situation of the people is, in principle, normal,” the interlocutor immediately clarifies. “After Abramovich came (the billionaire was governor of Chukotka from 2001 to 2008 - DV), things got much better: more jobs appeared, houses were rebuilt, and medical and obstetric centers were established.”
Kaipanau recalls how whalers he knew “came, took the governor’s motor boats for free and left.” “Now they live and enjoy,” he says. The federal authorities, according to him, also help the Chukchi, but not very actively.
Kaipanau has a dream. He wants to create educational ethnic centers in Chukotka, where indigenous peoples could relearn their culture: build kayaks and yarangas, embroider, sing, dance.
“In the ethnopark, many visitors consider the Chukchi to be an uneducated and backward people; They think that they don’t wash and constantly say “however.” Sometimes they even tell me that I am not real Chukchi. But we are real people.”
Life under Abramovich
Having become the governor of Chukotka, for whom more than 90% of voters voted, Abramovich built several cinemas, clubs, schools, and hospitals at his own expense. He provided veterans with pensions and arranged holidays for Chukotka children in southern resorts. The governor’s companies spent approximately $1.3 billion on developing the economy and infrastructure of Chukotka.
The average monthly salary in the Autonomous Okrug under Abramovich increased from 5.7 thousand rubles in 2000 to 19.5 thousand in 2004. For January-July 2005, according to Rosstat, Chukotka, with an average monthly salary of 20,336 rubles, was in fourth place in Russia.
Abramovich's companies took part in all sectors of the Chukotka economy - from the food industry to construction and retail. Gold deposits were developed jointly with Canadian and English gold miners.
The Far Eastern plenipotentiary of that time, Pulikovsky, spoke about Abramovich: “Our experts calculated that if he leaves, the budget will be reduced from 14 billion to 3 billion, and this is catastrophic for the region. Abramovich’s team must stay, they have a plan according to which the Chukotka economy will be able to operate independently in 2009.”
Every morning, 45-year-old resident of the village of Sireniki Natalya (she asked not to use her last name) wakes up at 8 am to go to work at the local school. She is a watchman and technical worker.
Sireniki, where Natalya has lived for 28 years, is located in the Providensky urban district of Chukotka, on the shores of the Bering Sea. The first Eskimo settlement appeared here about three thousand years ago, and in the vicinity of the village remains of the dwellings of ancient people are still found. In the 60s of the last century, the Chukchi joined the indigenous people. Therefore, the village has two names: from Ekimo it is translated as “Valley of the Sun”, and from Chukchi as “Rocky Terrain”.
Sireniki is surrounded by hills, and it is difficult to get here, especially in winter - only by snowmobile or helicopter. From spring to autumn, sea vessels come here. From above, the village looks like a box of colorful candies: green, blue and red cottages, an administration building, a post office, a kindergarten and an outpatient clinic. Previously, there were many dilapidated wooden houses in Sireniki, but a lot has changed, says Natalya, with the arrival of Abramovich.
“My husband and I used to live in a house with stove heating; we had to wash dishes outside. Then Valera fell ill with tuberculosis, and his attending physician helped us get a new cottage due to his illness. Now we have a European-quality renovation.”
Clothing and food
Chukchi men wore kukhlyankas made of double reindeer skin and the same trousers. They pulled a boot made of camus with soles made of seal skin over siskins - stockings made of dog skin. The double fawn hat was bordered at the front with long-haired wolverine fur, which does not freeze from human breath in any frost, and fur mittens were worn on rawhide straps that were pulled into the sleeves.
The shepherd was as if in a spacesuit. The clothes the women wore were tight-fitting to the body and tied below the knees, forming something like pants. They put it on over the head. Over the top, women wore a wide fur shirt with a hood, which they wore on special occasions such as holidays or migrations.
The shepherd always had to protect the number of deer, so livestock breeders and families ate vegetarian food in the summer, and if they ate deer, then it was completely, right down to the antlers and hooves. They preferred boiled meat, but often ate it raw: the shepherds in the herd simply did not have time to cook. The sedentary Chukchi ate the meat of walruses, which were previously killed in huge quantities.
About 500 people live in Sireniki, including border guards and military personnel. Many people are engaged in traditional marine hunting: they go hunting for walruses, whales, and fish. “My husband is a hereditary marine game hunter. He, along with his eldest son and other colleagues, is part of the Neighborhood Community. The community conducts fishing for the residents,” says Natalya. — Meat is often given to non-working pensioners for free. Although our meat is not as expensive as that imported from stores. It’s also a traditional food, we can’t live without it.”
How do they live in Sireniki? According to our interlocutor, it’s normal. There are currently about 30 unemployed people in the village. In the summer they pick mushrooms and berries, and in the winter they catch fish, which they sell or exchange for other products. Natalya’s husband receives a pension of 15,700 rubles, while the cost of living here is 15,000. “I myself work without part-time jobs, this month I will receive about 30,000. We, undoubtedly, live an average life, but somehow I don’t feel that salaries are increasing,” - the woman complains, remembering the cucumbers brought to Sireniki for 600 rubles per kilogram.
Natalya’s sister, like half of the village’s residents, works on a rotational basis at Kupol. This gold deposit, one of the largest in the Far East, is located 450 km from Anadyr. Since 2011, 100% of Kupol shares have been owned by the Canadian company Kinross Gold. “My sister used to work there as a maid, and now she gives masks to miners who go down into the mines. They have a gym and a billiard room there! They pay in rubles (the average salary at Kupol is 50,000 rubles - DV), transferred to a bank card,” says Natalya.
The woman knows little about production, salaries and investments in the region, but often repeats: “The dome helps us.” The fact is that the Canadian company that owns the deposit created a Social Development Fund back in 2009; it allocates money for socially significant projects. At least a third of the budget goes to support the indigenous peoples of the Autonomous Okrug. For example, Kupol helped publish a dictionary of the Chukchi language, opened courses in indigenous languages, and built a school for 65 children and a kindergarten for 32 in Sireniki.
“My Valera also received a grant,” says Natalya. — Two years ago, Kupol allocated him 1.5 million rubles for a huge 20-ton freezer. After all, the whalers will get the animal, there is a lot of meat - it will spoil. And now this camera is a lifesaver. With the remaining money, my husband and his colleagues bought tools to build kayaks.”
Natalya, a Chukchi and hereditary reindeer herder, believes that the national culture is now being revived. He says that every Tuesday and Friday the local village club holds rehearsals for the Northern Lights ensemble; courses of Chukchi and other languages are opening (albeit in the regional center - Anadyr); competitions like the Governor's Cup or the Barents Sea regatta are held.
“And this year our ensemble is invited to a grand event - international festival! Five people will fly to the dance program. It will all be in Alaska, she will pay for the flight and accommodation,” says the woman. She admits that the Russian state also supports national culture, but she mentions the Dome much more often. Natalya does not know of a domestic fund that would finance the peoples of Chukotka.
“It cannot be said that the socio-economic situation of the Chukchi today is favorable,” says Nina Veisalova, first vice-president of the Association of Small Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East (AMKNSS and Far East of the Russian Federation). According to her, an important problem is the closure of ethnic villages or their merger, which is being done to optimize government spending. Infrastructure and jobs are being reduced, which is why local residents are forced to move to regional centers and cities: “The usual lifestyle, it is difficult for displaced people to adapt to a new place, find work and housing.”
The government of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug denied the fact of the reduction of ethnic villages to a DV correspondent: “This was not discussed either at the district or regional levels.”
Another key issue is healthcare. In Chukotka, as in other northern regions, says a representative of the Association, respiratory diseases are very common. But, according to Veisalova’s information, tuberculosis dispensaries are being closed in ethnic villages.
“There are a lot of cancer patients. The previously existing health care system ensured the identification, observation and treatment of sick people from among small peoples, which was enshrined in law. Unfortunately, such a scheme does not work today,” she clarifies. Zhukova, in turn, did not answer the question about the closure of tuberculosis dispensaries, but only said that in every district and settlement of Chukotka hospitals, medical outpatient clinics and medical and obstetric centers have been preserved.
There is a stereotype in Russian society: the Chukchi people drank themselves to death after they came to the territory of Chukotka " a white man“—that is, since the beginning of the last century. The Chukchi never drank alcohol, their body does not produce an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, and because of this, the effect of alcohol on their health is more detrimental than that of other peoples. But according to Evgeniy Kaipanau, the level of the problem is greatly overestimated. “With alcohol [among the Chukchi], everything is the same as everywhere else. But they drink less than anywhere else,” he says.
At the same time, says Kaipanau, the Chukchi actually did not have an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the past. “Now, although the enzyme has been developed, people still do not drink as the legends say,” sums up the Chukchi.
Kaipanau’s opinion is supported by Doctor of Medical Sciences GNICP Irina Samorodskaya, one of the authors of the report “Mortality and the share of deaths in economically active age from causes related to alcohol (drugs), MI and IHD from all deaths aged 15-72 years” for 2013. According to Rosstat, the document says, the highest mortality rate from alcohol-related causes is indeed in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - 268 people per 100 thousand. But these data, Samorodskaya emphasizes, apply to the entire population of the district.
“Yes, the indigenous population of those territories are the Chukchi, but they are not the only ones who live there,” she explains. In addition, according to Samorodskaya, Chukotka is higher in all mortality indicators than other regions - and this is not only alcohol mortality, but also other external causes.
“It is now impossible to say that it was the Chukchi who died from alcohol, this is how the system works. First, if people do not want an alcohol-related cause of death on their deceased relative's death certificate, it will not be listed. Secondly, the vast majority of deaths occur at home. And there, death certificates are often filled out by a local doctor or even a paramedic, which is why other reasons may be indicated in the documents - it’s easier to write that way,” explains the professor.
Finally, another serious problem in the region, according to Veisalova, is the relationship between industrial companies and the indigenous local population. “People come like conquerors, disturbing the peace and quiet of the local residents. I think there should be regulations on the interaction between companies and peoples,” she says.
In turn, Vice-Governor Zhukova says that companies, on the contrary, care about the indigenous population and jointly finance the Kupol Fund under the trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation between the Government, RAIPON and mining companies.
Language and religion
The Chukchi, living in the tundra, called themselves “chavchu” (deer). Those who lived on the shore were “ankalyn” (Pomor). There is a common self-name of the people - “luoravetlan” ( real man), but it didn’t catch on. 50 years ago, approximately 11 thousand people spoke the Chukchi language. Now their number is decreasing every year. The reason is simple: in Soviet times, writing and schools appeared, but at the same time a policy was pursued of the destruction of everything national. Separation from their parents and life in boarding schools forced Chukchi children to know their native language less and less.
The Chukchi have long believed that the world is divided into upper, middle and lower. At the same time, the upper world (“cloud land”) is inhabited by the “upper people” (in Chukchi - gyrgorramkyn), or the “people of the dawn” (tnargy-ramkyn), and the supreme deity among the Chukchi does not play a serious role. The Chukchi believed that their soul was immortal, they believed in reincarnation, and shamanism was widespread among them. Both men and women could be shamans, but among the Chukchi shamans of the “transformed sex” were considered especially powerful - men who acted as housewives, and women who adopted the clothes, activities and habits of men.
Natalya, who lives in Sireniki, greatly misses her son, who completed nine grades at the Sireninsky school, and then graduated from the paramedic department in Anadyr and left for St. Petersburg. “I fell in love with this city and stayed. More, of course, are those who leave,” Natalya sighs. Why did her son leave? It was boring. “I can only fly here on vacation,” said the young man. And it’s difficult for Natalya to see him: her elderly father lives in Anadyr, and she has to go to see him. Because of the expensive tickets, she won’t be able to afford the second flight – this time to St. Petersburg.
“I thought that while my father was alive, I would go to him. It is important. And in St. Petersburg... Yes, my son also misses me and is offended. But I’m a tundra man - I need to go fishing, pick berries, go to nature... To my homeland.”
800 reindeer herders
counted the authorities of Chukotka in the region from 2011 to 2015. Today their average monthly salary is 24.5 thousand rubles. For comparison: last year, reindeer herders received a thousand less, and in 2011 their salary was 17 thousand rubles. Over the past five years, the state has allocated about 2.5 billion rubles to support reindeer herding activities.
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 of 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 the pants and the top are 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 the 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 for the next year, the Chukchi organized a certain ritual. 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 them into depths of the sea whale skeleton. 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.
You, of course, have heard jokes about the Chukchi. This is not a question - it is a statement. And you've probably told similar jokes to others. The Chukchi themselves, having listened to you, might have laughed: they loved to make fun of themselves. But most likely you would have been killed. At the same time, most modern weapons would hardly help if you were against such a dangerous enemy.
In fact, it is difficult to find a more warlike and at the same time ineradicable people than the Chukchi. It is a great injustice that we do not know about this today, although Spartan education or Indian traditions are in many ways much softer and more “humane” than the approaches to educating future Chukchi warriors.
"Real People"
Luoravetlans are “real people,” as the Chukchi call themselves. Yes, they are chauvinists who consider others second-class. They joke about themselves, calling themselves "sweaty people" and the like (but only among themselves). At the same time, the Chukchi’s sense of smell is not particularly inferior to that of dogs, and genetically they are oh so different from us.
The Chukchi are a corruption of “Chauchi” – reindeer herders. It was the Chauchs that the Cossacks met in the tundra, before reaching their direct and recognized relatives - the Ankalyns, the coastal Luovertlans.
Childhood
Like the Indians, the Chukchi began the harsh upbringing of boys at the age of 5-6. From this time on, except for rare exceptions, sleeping was allowed only while standing, leaning on the canopy of the yaranga. At the same time, the young Chukchi warrior slept lightly: for this, adults sneaked up on him and burned him either with hot metal or with the smoldering end of a stick. The little warriors (somehow it’s hard to call them boys), as a result, began to react with lightning speed to any rustle...
They had to run behind reindeer sleds, rather than ride on sleighs, and jump with stones tied to their feet. The bow was an invariable attribute: the Chukchi generally have vision - unlike ours, the rangefinder is almost flawless. That is why the Chukchi were so willingly hired as snipers from World War II. The Chukchi also had their own game with a ball (made of reindeer hair), which was very reminiscent of modern football (only the Luoravetlans played this game long before the “foundation” of football by the British). They also loved to fight here. The fight was specific: on slippery walrus skin, additionally lubricated with fat, it was necessary not only to defeat the opponent, but to throw him onto sharp bones placed along the edges. It was dangerous, to put it mildly. However, it is precisely through this confrontation that grown-up boys will sort things out with their enemies, when in almost every case the loser faces death from much longer bones.
Path to adult life lay for the future warrior through trials. Because Dexterity was especially valued by these people, so during the “exam” they relied on it, and on attentiveness. The father sent his son on some mission, but it was not the main one. The father quietly tracked his son, and as soon as he sat down, lost his vigilance, or simply turned into a “convenient target,” an arrow was immediately shot at him. The Chukchi shot, as mentioned above, phenomenally. So it was not an easy task to react and get away from the “gift”. There was only one way to pass the exam - to survive after it.
Death? Why be afraid of her?
There are eyewitness accounts that describe shocking precedents from the life of the Chukchi even at the beginning of the last century. For example, one of them began to have severe stomach pain. By morning the pain only intensified, and the warrior asked his comrades to kill him. They immediately complied with the request, without even giving special significance what happened.
The Chukchi believed that each of them had 5-6 souls. And for each soul there can be its own place in heaven - the “Universe of the Ancestors.” But for this, certain conditions had to be met: to die with dignity in battle, to be killed at the hands of a friend or relative, or to die a natural death. The latter is too great a luxury for a harsh life, where you should not rely on the care of others. Voluntary death is a common thing for the Chukchi; you just need to ask your relatives about such “killing yourself.” The same was done for a number of serious illnesses.
The Chukchi who lost the battle could kill each other, but they didn’t think much about captivity: “If I became a deer for you, then why are you delaying?” - they said to the victorious enemy, expecting a finishing blow and not even thinking about asking for mercy.
War is an honor
The Chukchi are born saboteurs. Small in number and ferocious, they were a terror to all who lived within range. A well-known fact is that a detachment of Koryaks, neighbors of the Chukchi, who joined the Russian Empire, numbering fifty people, scattered if there were at least two dozen Chukchi. And don’t dare accuse the Koryaks of cowardice: their women always had a knife with them so that when attacked by the Chukchi, they could kill their children and themselves, just to avoid slavery.
“Real people” fought with the Koryaks in the same way: first there were auctions, where every incorrect and simply careless gesture could be understood as a signal for massacre. If the Chukchi died, then their comrades declared war on the offenders: they called them to a meeting at a designated place, laid out a walrus skin, greased it with fat... And, of course, drove in a lot of sharp bones around the edges. Everything is like in childhood.
If the Chukchi went on predatory raids, they simply slaughtered the men and captured the women. The prisoners were treated with dignity, but pride did not allow the Koryaks to surrender alive. The men also did not want to fall into the hands of the Chukchi alive: they took men captive only when it was necessary to extort information.
Torture
There were two types of torture: if information was required, then the enemy’s hands were tied behind his back and his hand was pressed over his nose and mouth until the person lost consciousness. After this, the prisoner was brought to his senses and the procedure was repeated. The demoralization was complete, even the “seasoned wolves” were splitting up.
But more often the Chukchi simply realized their hatred of the victim through torture. In such cases, the enemy was tied to a spit and methodically roasted over a fire.
Chukchi and the Russian Empire
Russian Cossacks in 1729 were sincerely asked “not to commit violence against the non-peace-loving peoples of the north.” Their neighbors, who joined the Russians, knew the hard way that it was better not to anger the Chukchi. However, the Cossacks, apparently, were filled with pride and envy at such glory of the “unbaptized savages,” so the Yakut Cossack leader Afanasy Shestakov and the captain of the Tobolsk Dragoon Regiment Dmitry Pavlutsky went to the lands of the “real people,” destroying everything they encountered on their way.
Several times Chukchi leaders and elders were invited to a meeting, where they were simply vilely killed. For the Cossacks, everything seemed simple... Until the Chukchi realized that they were not playing by the rules of honor to which they themselves were accustomed. A year later, Shestakov and Pavlutsky gave the Chukchi an open battle, where last chances there were not so many: arrows and spears are not the best weapons against gunpowder weapons. True, Shestakov himself died. The Luoravetlans began a real guerrilla war, in response to which the Senate in 1742 ordered the complete destruction of the Chukchi. The latter numbered less than 10,000 people with children, women and old people, the task seemed so simple.
Until the middle of the 18th century, the war was tough, but now Pavlutsky was killed and his troops were defeated. When Russian officials figured out what losses they were suffering, they were horrified. In addition, the Cossacks’ agility decreased: as soon as they defeated the Chukchi with an unexpected raid, the surviving children and women killed each other, avoiding captivity. The Chukchi themselves were not afraid of death, they did not give mercy and could torture extremely cruelly. There was nothing to scare them.
A decree was urgently issued prohibiting angering the Chukchi in general and interfering with them “with malicious intent”: it was decided to introduce liability for this. The Chukchi soon also began to calm down: to capture the Russian Empire for several thousand soldiers would be too burdensome a task, the meaning of which the Luoravetlans themselves did not see. This was the only nation that intimidated Russia militarily, despite its insignificant numbers.
A couple of decades later, the empire returned to the lands of warlike reindeer herders, fearing that the French and British would “make a dangerous peace” with them. The Chukchi were taken by bribery, persuasion and appeasement. The Chukchi paid tribute “in the amount they themselves chose,” that is, they did not pay it at all, and they brought “help to the sovereign” so actively that it was easy to understand who was actually paying tribute to whom. With the beginning of cooperation in the Chukchi vocabulary appeared new term- “Chuvan disease”, i.e. “Russian disease”: with civilization, syphilis came to “real people”.
The French and British were feared in vain...
The trends of Europe were like a stop sign for the Chukchi. They traded with many people, but they showed the greatest mutual respect in trade... with the Japanese. It was from the Japanese that the Chukchi purchased their metal armor, which was exactly like that of the samurai. And the samurai were delighted with the courage and dexterity of the Chukchi: the latter are the only warriors who, according to numerous testimonies of contemporaries and eyewitnesses, were able not only to dodge arrows, but also to catch them with their hands on the fly, managing to throw them (with their hands!) back at their enemies.
The Chukchi respected the Americans for fair trade, but they also liked to give the latter a little push in their pirate raids. This also happened to Canadians: there is a well-known story when the Chukchi captured black slaves on the Canadian coast. Having realized that these were still women, and not evil spirits, the Chukchi took them as concubines. Chukotka women do not know what jealousy is and therefore took such a trophy from their husbands normally. Well, black women were forbidden to give birth, because... they were “defective people”, kept as concubines until old age. According to eyewitnesses, the slaves were happy with their new fate, and only regretted that they had not been kidnapped earlier.
Jokes
The Soviet government, having decided to carry the fire of communist ideology and civilization to the distant Chukotka yarangas, did not receive a warm welcome. The attempt to put pressure on the Chukchi turned out to be not an easy task: at first, all the “Reds” from nearby territories flatly refused to fight the Chukchi, and then the brave souls who arrived here from afar began to disappear in detachments, groups, and camps. For the most part, the missing were not found. In rare cases, it was possible to find the remains of slaughtered failed colonists. As a result, the “Reds” decided to follow the well-worn path of bribery under the Tsar. And so that the Chukchi did not become a symbol of independence, they were simply turned into folklore. This is what they did with Chapaev, relying on jokes about “Vasily Ivanovich and Petka,” remaking the image of an educated and worthy person into a funny and amusing one. Fear and admiration for the Chukchi were replaced by the image of a kind of idiot savage.
They are the same today...
What has changed today? By and large - nothing. Christianity seriously undermined the Chukchi foundations, but not so much that this people became different. Chukchi are Warriors.
And let some laugh at yet another joke about the Chukchi, while others admire their prowess - a true Warrior is always infinitely higher than both of them. A warrior walks through time, ignoring death and not deviating from his path. Through centuries and difficulties, they move on - the Great Warriors of the North, about whom we know so little.
Place of residence- Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Chukotka and Koryak Autonomous Okrugs.
Language, dialects. The language is the Chukchi-Kamchatka family of languages. The Chukchi language is divided into Eastern, or Uelensky (which formed the basis literary language), Western (Pevek), Enmylen, Nunlingran and Khatyr dialects.
Origin, settlement. The Chukchi are the oldest inhabitants of the continental regions of the extreme northeast of Siberia, bearers of the inland culture of wild deer hunters and fishermen. Neolithic finds on the Ekytikyveem and Enmyveem rivers and Lake Elgytg date back to the second millennium BC. e.
By the first millennium AD. e., having tamed deer and partially switching to a sedentary lifestyle on the sea coast, the Chukchi established contacts with the Eskimos. The transition to sedentary life occurred most intensively in the 14th–16th centuries after the Yukaghirs penetrated into the valleys of Kolyma and Anadyr, seizing the seasonal hunting grounds for . The Eskimo population of the coasts of the Pacific and Arctic oceans was partially pushed out by continental Chukchi hunters to other coastal areas and partially assimilated. In the 14th–15th centuries, as a result of the penetration of the Yukaghirs into the Anadyr valley, the territorial separation of the Chukchi from the Chukchi, associated with the latter by a common origin, occurred.
By occupation, the Chukchi were divided into reindeer (nomadic, but still hunting), sedentary (sedentary, having a small number of tamed deer, hunters of wild deer and sea animals) and foot (sedentary hunters of sea animals and wild deer, not having deer).
TO 19th century main territorial groups were formed. Among the deer (tundra) are the Indigirka-Alazeya, West Kolyma and others; among the sea (coastal) - groups of the Pacific, Bering Sea coasts and the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
Self-name. The name of the people, adopted in administrative documents of the 19th–20th centuries, comes from the self-name of the tundra Chukchi chauchu, chavchavyt- “rich in deer.” The coastal Chukchi called themselves ank'alit- "sea people" or ram'aglyt- "coastal residents". To distinguish themselves from other tribes, they use a self-name Lyo'Ravetlyan- "real people". (In the late 1920s, the name “Luoravetlana” was used as the official name.)
Writing since 1931 it has existed on a Latin, and since 1936 on a Russian graphic basis.
Crafts, crafts and labor tools, means of transportation. There have long been two types of economy. The basis of one was reindeer husbandry, the other - sea hunting. Fishing, hunting and gathering were of an auxiliary nature.
Large herd reindeer herding developed only towards the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century, the herd numbered, as a rule, from 3–5 to 10–12 thousand heads. Reindeer husbandry of the tundra group consisted mainly of meat and transport direction. Reindeer were grazed without a shepherd dog, in the summer - on the ocean coast or in the mountains, and with the onset of autumn they moved inland to the borders of the forest to winter pastures, where, as necessary, they migrated 5-10 kilometers.
In the second half of the 19th century, the economy of the absolute majority of the Chukchi remained largely subsistence in nature. By the end of the 19th century, the demand for reindeer products increased, especially among the sedentary Chukchi and Asian Eskimos. The expansion of trade with Russians and foreigners from the second half of the 19th century gradually destroyed the subsistence reindeer herding economy. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, property stratification was observed in Chukotka reindeer herding: impoverished reindeer herders became farm laborers, while rich owners had more livestock; The wealthy part of the sedentary Chukchi and Eskimos also acquired reindeer.
Coastal (sedentary) people were traditionally engaged in sea hunting, which reached a high level of development by the middle of the 18th century. Hunting for seals, seals, bearded seals, walruses and whales provided basic food products, durable material for making canoes, hunting tools, some types of clothing and shoes, household items, fat for lighting and heating the home. Walruses and whales were hunted mainly in the summer-autumn period, and seals - in the winter-spring period. Whales and walruses were caught collectively, from kayaks, and seals - individually.
Hunting tools consisted of harpoons, spears, knives, etc., of different sizes and purposes.
Since the end of the 19th century, demand for the skins of marine animals grew rapidly on the foreign market, which at the beginning of the 20th century led to the predatory extermination of whales and walruses and significantly undermined the economy of the settled population of Chukotka.
Both the reindeer and coastal Chukchi caught fish with nets woven from whale and deer tendons or from leather belts, as well as nets and bits, in the summer - from the shore or from canoes, in the winter - in an ice hole.
Mountain sheep, moose, polar and brown bears, wolverines, wolves, foxes and arctic foxes were hunted with bows and arrows, spears and traps until the beginning of the 19th century; waterfowl - using a throwing weapon ( bola) and darts with a throwing board; eiders were beaten with sticks; Noose traps were set for hares and partridges.
In the 18th century, stone axes, spear and arrowheads, and bone knives were almost completely replaced by metal ones. From the second half of the 19th century, guns, traps and mouths were bought or exchanged. By the beginning of the 20th century, whaling firearms and harpoons with bombs began to be widely used in marine hunting.
Women and children collected and prepared edible plants, berries and roots, as well as seeds from mouse holes. To dig up roots, they used a special tool with a tip made of deer antler, which was later replaced with an iron one.
The nomadic and sedentary Chukchi developed handicrafts. Women tanned fur, sewed clothes and shoes, wove bags from fibers of fireweed and wild rye, made mosaics from fur and sealskin, embroidered with deer hair and beads. The men processed and artistically cut bone and walrus tusk. In the 19th century, bone-carving associations emerged that sold their products.
Deer bones, walrus meat, fish, and whale oil were crushed with a stone hammer on a stone slab. The leather was processed using stone scrapers; Edible roots were dug up with bone shovels and hoes.
An indispensable accessory of each family was a projectile for making fire in the form of a board of a rough anthropomorphic shape with recesses in which a bow drill (flint board) rotated. Fire produced in this way was considered sacred and could only be passed on to relatives through the male line. Currently, bow drills are kept as a cult item of the family.
The household utensils of the nomadic and sedentary Chukchi are modest and contain only the most necessary items: various types homemade cups for broth, large wooden dishes with low sides for boiled meat, sugar, cookies, etc. They ate in a canopy, sitting around a table on low legs or directly around the dish. They used a washcloth made from thin wood shavings to wipe their hands after eating and sweep away any remaining food from the dish. The dishes were stored in a drawer.
The main means of transportation along the sled route were reindeer harnessed to sledges of several types: for transporting cargo, dishes, children (wagon), and poles of the yaranga frame. We walked on snow and ice on racket skis; by sea - on single and multi-seat kayaks and whaleboats. Rowing with short single-blade oars. Reindeer, if necessary, built rafts or went to sea in the kayaks of hunters, and they used their riding reindeer.
The Chukchi borrowed the method of traveling on dog sleds drawn by a “fan” from the Eskimos, and in a train from the Russians. A “fan” usually harnessed 5–6 dogs, a train – 8–12. Dogs were also harnessed to reindeer sledges.
Dwellings. The nomadic Chukchi camps numbered up to 10 yarangas and were extended from west to east. The first from the west was the yaranga of the head of the camp.
Yaranga - a tent in the form of a truncated cone with a height in the center from 3.5 to 4.7 meters and a diameter from 5.7 to 7–8 meters, similar to. The wooden frame was covered with deer skins, usually sewn into two panels. The edges of the skins were placed one on top of the other and secured with straps sewn to them. The free ends of the belts in the lower part were tied to sledges or heavy stones, which ensured the immobility of the covering. The yaranga was entered between the two halves of the cover, folding them to the sides. For winter they sewed coverings from new skins, for summer they used last year's skins.
The hearth was in the center of the yaranga, under the smoke hole.
Opposite the entrance, at the back wall of the yaranga, a sleeping area (canopy) made of skins in the form of a parallelepiped was installed.
The shape of the canopy was maintained by poles passed through many loops sewn to the skins. The ends of the poles rested on racks with forks, and the back pole was attached to the yaranga frame. The average canopy size is 1.5 meters high, 2.5 meters wide and about 4 meters long. The floor was covered with mats, with thick skins on top of them. The bed head - two oblong bags filled with scraps of skins - was located at the exit.
In winter, during periods of frequent migrations, the canopy was made from the thickest skins with the fur inside. They covered themselves with a blanket made from several deer skins. To make a canopy, 12–15 were required, for beds - about 10 large deer skins.
Each canopy belonged to one family. Sometimes the yaranga had two canopies. Every morning, the women removed the canopy, laid it out on the snow and beat it out of the deer's antler with mallets.
From the inside, the canopy was illuminated and heated by a grease pit. To illuminate their homes, the coastal Chukchi used whale and seal oil, while the tundra Chukchi used fat rendered from crushed deer bones, which burned odorless and soot-free in stone oil lamps.
Behind the curtain, at the back wall of the tent, things were stored; at the sides, on both sides of the hearth, there are products. Between the entrance to the yaranga and the hearth there was a free cold place for various needs.
The coastal Chukchi in the 18th–19th centuries had two types of dwellings: yaranga and half-dugout. Yarangas retained the structural basis of the reindeer dwellings, but the frame was constructed from both wood and whale bones. This made the home resistant to the onslaught of storm winds. They covered the yaranga with walrus skins; it had no smoke hole. The canopy was made of large walrus skin up to 9–10 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1.8 meters high; for ventilation there were holes in its wall that were covered with fur plugs. On both sides of the canopy, winter clothes and supplies of skins were stored in large bags made of seal skins, and inside, along the walls, belts were stretched on which clothes and shoes were dried. At the end of the 19th century, the coastal Chukchi covered yarangas with canvas and other durable materials in the summer.
They lived in half-dugouts mainly in winter. Their type and design were borrowed from the Eskimos. The frame of the dwelling was constructed from whale jaws and ribs; The top was covered with turf. The quadrangular inlet was located on the side.
Cloth. The clothing and footwear of the tundra and coastal Chukchi did not differ significantly and were almost identical to those of the Eskimos.
Winter clothes were made from two layers of reindeer skins with fur on the inside and outside. The coastal people also used durable, elastic, practically waterproof seal skin for sewing pants and spring-summer shoes; Cloaks and kamleikas were made from walrus intestines. The reindeer sewed trousers and shoes from old yaranga coverings that did not deform under the influence of moisture.
The constant mutual exchange of farm products allowed the tundra people to receive shoes, leather soles, belts, lassos made from the skins of marine mammals, and the coastal people to receive reindeer skins for winter clothing. In summer they wore worn out winter clothes.
Chukotka closed clothing is divided into everyday household and festive-ceremonial: children's, youth, men's, women's, old people's, ritual and funeral.
The traditional set of a Chukchi men's suit consists of a kukhlyanka belted with a belt with a knife and a pouch, a calico kamleika worn over the kukhlyanka, a raincoat made of walrus intestines, trousers and various headdresses: a regular Chukotka winter hat, a malakhai, a hood, and a light summer hat.
The basis of a woman's costume is a fur jumpsuit with wide sleeves and short, knee-length pants.
Typical shoes are short, knee-length, torbas of several types, sewn from seal skins with the hair facing outward with a piston sole made of bearded seal skin, made of camus with fur stockings and grass insoles (winter tobos); from seal skin or from old, smoke-soaked coverings of yaranga (summer torbas).
Food, its preparation. The traditional food of tundra people is venison, while that of coastal people is the meat and fat of sea animals. Deer meat was eaten frozen (finely chopped) or lightly boiled. During the mass slaughter of deer, the contents of reindeer stomachs were prepared by boiling them with blood and fat. They also consumed fresh and frozen deer blood. We prepared soups with vegetables and cereals.
The Primorye Chukchi considered walrus meat especially satisfying. Prepared in the traditional way, it is well preserved. Squares of meat along with lard and skin are cut out of the dorsal and side parts of the carcass. The liver and other cleaned entrails are placed in the tenderloin. The edges are sewn together with the skin facing out - it turns out to be a roll ( k'opalgyn-kymgyt). Closer to cold weather, its edges are tightened even more to prevent excessive souring of the contents. K'opalgyn eaten fresh, sour and frozen. Fresh walrus meat is boiled. The meat of beluga whales and gray whales, as well as their skin with a layer of fat, is eaten raw and boiled.
In the northern and southern regions of Chukotka, grayling, navaga, sockeye salmon, and flounder occupy a large place in the diet. Yukola is prepared from large salmon. Many Chukchi reindeer herders dry, salt, smoke fish, and salt caviar.
The meat of sea animals is very fatty, so it requires herbal supplements. The Reindeer and Primorye Chukchi traditionally ate a lot of wild herbs, roots, berries, and seaweed. Dwarf willow leaves, sorrel, and edible roots were frozen, fermented, and mixed with fat and blood. Koloboks were made from the roots, crushed with meat and walrus fat. For a long time, porridge was cooked from imported flour, and cakes were fried in seal fat.
Social life, power, marriage, family. By the 17th–18th centuries, the main socio-economic unit was the patriarchal family community, consisting of several families that had a single household and a common home. The community included up to 10 or more adult men, connected by ties kinship.
Among the coastal Chukchi, industrial and social ties developed around the canoe, the size of which depended on the number of community members. At the head of the patriarchal community was a foreman - the “boat chief”.
Among the tundra, the patriarchal community was united around a common herd; it was also headed by a foreman - a “strongman”. By the end of the 18th century, due to the increase in the number of deer in the herds, it became necessary to split the latter for more convenient grazing, which led to a weakening of intra-community ties.
Sedentary Chukchi lived in villages. Several related communities settled on common areas, each of which was located in a separate half-dugout. The nomadic Chukchi lived in a camp also consisting of several patriarchal communities. Each community included two to four families and occupied a separate yaranga. 15–20 camps formed a circle of mutual aid. The Reindeer also had patrilineal kinship groups connected by blood feud, the transfer of ritual fire, sacrificial rites, and the initial form of patriarchal slavery, which disappeared with the cessation of wars against neighboring peoples.
In the 19th century, the traditions of communal life, group marriage and levirate continued to coexist, despite the emergence of private property and wealth inequality. By the end of the 19th century, the large patriarchal family disintegrated and was replaced by a small family.
Religion. The basis of religious beliefs and cult is animism, a trade cult.
The structure of the world among the Chukchi included three spheres: the earth's firmament with everything that exists on it; heaven, where ancestors live who died a dignified death during a battle or who chose voluntary death at the hands of a relative (among the Chukchi, old people who were unable to earn a living asked their closest relatives to take their lives); underworld- the abode of the bearers of evil - Kale, where people who died from the disease ended up.
According to legend, mystical host creatures were in charge of fishing grounds and individual habitats of people, and sacrifices were made to them. A special category of beneficent creatures were household patrons; ritual figurines and objects were kept in each yaranga.
The system of religious ideas gave rise to corresponding cults among the tundra people associated with reindeer husbandry; near the coast - with the sea. There were also common cults: Nargynen(Nature, Universe), Dawn, Polar Star, Zenith, constellation Pegittin, cult of ancestors, etc. Sacrifices were communal, family and individual in nature.
The fight against diseases, protracted failures in fishing and reindeer husbandry was the lot of shamans. In Chukotka they were not classified as a professional caste; they participated as equals in the fishing activities of the family and community. What distinguished the shaman from other members of the community was his ability to communicate with patron spirits, talk with ancestors, imitate their voices, and fall into a state of trance. The main function of the shaman was healing. He did not have a special costume; his main ritual attribute was a tambourine. Shamanic functions could be performed by the head of the family (family shamanism).
Holidays. The main holidays were associated with economic cycles. For reindeer - with the autumn and winter slaughter of reindeer, calving, migration of the herd to summer pastures and return. The holidays of the coastal Chukchi are close to the Eskimos: in the spring - the holiday of baidara on the occasion of the first trip to sea; in summer there is a festival of goals to mark the end of the seal hunt; in autumn it is the holiday of the owner of sea animals. All holidays were accompanied by competitions in running, wrestling, shooting, jumping on a walrus skin (a prototype of a trampoline), and racing with deer and dogs; dancing, playing tambourines, pantomime.
In addition to production there were family holidays, associated with the birth of a child, expression of gratitude by a novice hunter on the occasion of a successful hunt, etc.
During holidays, sacrifices are obligatory: deer, meat, figurines made of reindeer fat, snow, wood (among the reindeer Chukchi), dogs (among the sea).
Christianization almost did not affect the Chukchi.
Folklore, musical instruments. The main genres of folklore are myths, fairy tales, historical legends, tales and everyday stories. Main character myths and fairy tales - Raven ( Kurkyl), demiurge and culture hero ( mythical character, who gives people various cultural objects, produces fire, like Prometheus among the ancient Greeks, teaches hunting, crafts, introduces various instructions and rules of behavior, rituals, is the first ancestor of people and the creator of the world). There are also widespread myths about the marriage of a person and an animal: a whale, a polar bear, a walrus, a seal.
Chukotka fairy tales ( lymn'yl) are divided into mythological, everyday and animal tales.
Historical legends tell of wars between the Chukchi and the Eskimos and Russians. Mythological and everyday legends are also known.
Music is genetically related to the music of the Eskimos and Yukaghirs. Each person had at least three “personal” melodies, composed by him in childhood, in mature age and in old age (more often, however, they received a children's melody as a gift from their parents). New melodies also appeared related to events in life (recovery, farewell to a friend or lover, etc.). When singing lullabies, they made a special “murmuring” sound, reminiscent of the voice of a crane or an important woman.
The shamans had their own “personal chants”. They were performed on behalf of the patron spirits - “spirit songs” and reflected the emotional state of the singer.
Tambourine ( yarar) - round, with a handle on the shell (for coastal ones) or with a cross-shaped handle on the back side (for tundra ones). There are male, female and children's varieties of the tambourine. Shamans play the tambourine with a thick soft stick, and singers at festivals use a thin whalebone stick. The tambourine was a family shrine; its sound symbolized the “voice of the hearth.”
Another traditional musical instrument is the plate harp ( bathrooms) - a “mouth tambourine” made of birch, bamboo (floater), bone or metal plate. Later, an arc double-tongued harp appeared.
String instruments are represented by lutes: bowed tubular, hollowed out from a single piece of wood, and box-shaped. The bow was made from whalebone, bamboo or willow splinters; strings (1–4) - made of vein threads or guts (later made of metal). The lutes were mainly used to play song melodies.
Modern cultural life. In the national villages of Chukotka, the Chukchi language is studied until the eighth grade, but in general there is no national education system.
The supplement “Murgin Nuthenut” to the district newspaper “Far North” is published in the Chukchi language, the State Television and Radio Company prepares programs, holds the festival “Hey No” ( throat singing, sayings, etc.), the Ener television association makes films in the Chukchi language.
The problems of the revival of traditional culture are dealt with by the Chukotka intelligentsia, the Association of Indigenous Minorities of Chukotka, the ethnocultural public association "Chychetkin Vetgav" ("Native Word"), the Union of Chukotka Mushers, the Union of Sea Hunters, etc.
The number is 15,184 people. The language is the Chukchi-Kamchatka family of languages. Settlement - Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Chukotka and Koryak Autonomous Okrugs.
The name of the people adopted in administrative documents XIX - XX centuries, comes from the self-name of the tundra Chukchi nauchu, Chavcha-vyt - “rich in deer.” The coastal Chukchi called themselves ank"alyt - "sea people" or ram"aglyt - "coastal inhabitants".
Distinguishing themselves from other tribes, they use the self-name Lyo Ravetlan - “real people.” (In the late 1920s, the name Luoravetlan was used as the official name.) The Chukchi language is divided into Eastern, or Uelen (which formed the basis of the literary language), Western (Pevek), Enmylen, Nunlingran and Khatyr dialects. Writing has existed on a Latin basis since 1931, and on a Russian graphic basis since 1936. The Chukchi are the oldest inhabitants of the continental regions of the extreme north-east of Siberia, bearers of the inland culture of wild hunters. deer and fishermen. Neolithic finds on the Ekytikiveem and Enmyveem rivers and Lake Elgytg date back to the second millennium BC. By the first millennium AD, having domesticated deer and partially switching to a sedentary lifestyle on the sea coast, the Chukchi established contacts. with the Eskimos.
The transition to sedentarism occurred most intensively in XIV - XVI centuries after the Yukaghirs penetrated into the valleys of Kolyma and Anadyr, seizing the seasonal hunting grounds for wild deer. The Eskimo population of the coasts of the Pacific and Arctic oceans was partially pushed out by continental Chukchi hunters to other coastal areas and partially assimilated. IN XIV - XV centuries As a result of the penetration of the Yukaghirs into the Anadyr valley, the territorial separation of the Chukchi from the Koryaks, associated with the latter by a common origin, occurred. By occupation, the Chukchi were divided into “reindeer” (nomadic, but continuing to hunt), “sedentary” (sedentary, having a small number of tamed deer, hunters of wild deer and sea animals) and “foot” (sedentary hunters of sea animals and wild deer , without deer). TO XIX V. main territorial groups were formed. Among the deer (tundra) are Indigirka-Alazeya, West Kolyma, etc.; among the sea (coastal) - groups of the Pacific, Bering Sea coasts and the coast of the Arctic Ocean. There have long been two types of economy. The basis of one was reindeer husbandry, the other - sea hunting. Fishing, hunting and gathering were of an auxiliary nature. Large-scale herding of reindeer herding developed only towards the end XVIII century In the XIX V. the herd numbered, as a rule, from 3 - 5 to 10 - 12 thousand heads. Reindeer husbandry of the tundra group was mainly focused on meat and transport. The deer were grazed without a shepherd dog, in the summer - on the ocean coast or in the mountains, and with the onset of autumn they moved inland to the borders of the forest to winter pastures, where, as necessary, they migrated 5 - 10 km.
Encampment
In the second half XIX V. The economy of the absolute majority of the Chukchi remained largely subsistence in nature. By the end XIX V. The demand for reindeer products increased, especially among the sedentary Chukchi and Asian Eskimos. Expansion of trade with Russians and foreigners from the second half XIX V. gradually destroyed the natural reindeer herding economy. From the end XIX - early XX V. In Chukotka reindeer husbandry, there is a stratification of property: impoverished reindeer herders become farm laborers, rich owners have a growing herd, and the wealthy part of the settled Chukchi and Eskimos acquire reindeer. Coastal (sedentary) people were traditionally engaged in marine hunting, which reached XVIII V. high level of development. Hunting for seals, seals, bearded seals, walruses and whales provided basic food products, durable material for making canoes, hunting tools, some types of clothing and shoes, household items, fat for lighting and heating the home.
Those wishing to download a free album of works of Chukchi and Eskimo art:
This album represents a collection of works of Chukchi and Eskimo art from the 1930s to the 1970s from the Zagorsk State Historical and Art Museum-Reserve. Its core consists of materials collected in Chukotka in the 1930s. The museum's collection widely reflects the Chukchi and Eskimo art of bone carving and engraving, the work of embroiderers, and the drawings of master bone carvers.(PDF format)
Walruses and whales were hunted mainly in the summer-autumn period, and seals - in the winter-spring period. Hunting tools consisted of harpoons, spears, knives, etc. of different sizes and purposes. Whales and walruses were hunted collectively, from canoes, and seals were hunted individually. From the end XIX V. In the foreign market, the demand for skins of marine animals is rapidly growing, which at the beginning XX V. leads to the predatory extermination of whales and walruses and significantly undermines the economy of the settled population of Chukotka. Both the reindeer and coastal Chukchi caught fish with nets woven from whale and deer tendons or from leather belts, as well as nets and bits, in the summer - from the shore or from canoes, in the winter - in an ice hole. Mountain sheep, moose, polar and brown bears, wolverines, wolves, foxes and arctic foxes right up to the beginning XIX V. mined with bows and arrows, spears and traps; waterfowl - using a throwing weapon (ball) and darts with a throwing board; eiders were beaten with sticks; Noose traps were set for hares and partridges.
Chukchi weapons
In the XVIII V. stone axes, spear and arrowheads, and bone knives were almost completely replaced with metal ones. From the second half XIX V. they bought or exchanged guns, traps and mouths. In marine hunting to the beginning XX V. They began to widely use firearms, whaling weapons and harpoons with bombs. Women and children collected and prepared edible plants, berries and roots, as well as seeds from mouse holes. To dig up roots, they used a special tool with a tip made of deer antler, which was later replaced with an iron one. The nomadic and sedentary Chukchi developed handicrafts.
Women tanned fur, sewed clothes and shoes, wove bags from fibers of fireweed and wild rye, made mosaics from fur and sealskin, embroidered with deer hair and beads. Men processed and artistically carved bone and walrus tusk V. Bone-carving associations arose that sold their products. The main means of transportation along the sled route were reindeer harnessed to sledges of several types: for transporting cargo, dishes, children (wagon), and poles of the yaranga frame. We walked on snow and ice on racket skis; by sea - on single and multi-seat kayaks and whaleboats. Rowing with short single-blade oars. Reindeer, if necessary, built rafts or went to sea in the kayaks of hunters, and they used their riding reindeer. The Chukchi borrowed the method of traveling on dog sleds drawn by a “fan” from the Eskimos, and in a train from the Russians. The fan was usually harnessed 5 - 6 dogs, in a train - 8 - 12. The dogs were also harnessed to reindeer sledges. The nomadic Chukchi camps numbered up to 10 yarangas and were extended from west to east. The first from the west was the yaranga of the head of the camp. Yaranga - a tent in the form of a truncated cone with a height in the center from 3.5 to 4.7 m and a diameter from 5.7 to 7 - 8 m, similar to the Koryak one. The wooden frame was covered with deer skins, usually sewn into two panels. The edges of the skins were placed one on top of the other and secured with straps sewn to them. The free ends of the belts in the lower part were tied to sledges or heavy stones, which ensured the immobility of the covering. The yaranga was entered between the two halves of the covering, folding them to the sides. For winter they sewed coverings from new skins, for summer they used last year's skins. The hearth was in the center of the yaranga, under the smoke hole.
Opposite the entrance, at the back wall of the yaranga, a sleeping area (canopy) made of skins in the form of a parallelepiped was installed. The shape of the canopy was maintained by poles passed through many loops sewn to the skins. The ends of the poles rested on racks with forks, and the back pole was attached to the yaranga frame. The average canopy size is 1.5 m high, 2.5 m wide and about 4 m long. The floor was covered with mats, with thick skins on top of them. The bed head - two oblong bags filled with scraps of skins - was located at the exit. In winter, during periods of frequent migrations, the canopy was made from the thickest skins with the fur inside. They covered themselves with a blanket made from several deer skins. To make a canopy, 12 - 15 were required, for beds - about 10 large deer skins.
Each canopy belonged to one family. Sometimes the yaranga had two canopies. Every morning the women took it off, laid it out on the snow and beat it out of a deer antler with mallets. From the inside, the canopy was illuminated and heated by a grease pit. Behind the curtain, at the back wall of the tent, things were stored; at the sides, on both sides of the hearth, there are products. Between the entrance to the yaranga and the hearth there was a free cold place for various needs. To illuminate their homes, the coastal Chukchi used whale and seal oil, while the tundra Chukchi used fat rendered from crushed deer bones, which burned odorless and soot-free in stone oil lamps. Among the coastal Chukchi in XVIII - XIX centuries There were two types of dwellings: yaranga and half-dugout. Yarangas retained the structural basis of the reindeer dwellings, but the frame was constructed from both wood and whale bones. This made the home resistant to the onslaught of storm winds. They covered the yaranga with walrus skins; it had no smoke hole. The canopy was made of large walrus skin up to 9-10 m in length, 3 m in width and 1.8 m in height; for ventilation there were holes in its wall, which were closed with fur plugs. On both sides of the canopy, winter clothes and supplies of skins were stored in large bags made of seal skins, and inside, along the walls, belts were stretched on which clothes and shoes were dried. At the end XIX V. In the summer, the coastal Chukchi covered yarangas with canvas and other durable materials. They lived in half-dugouts mainly in winter. Their type and design were borrowed from the Eskimos. The frame of the dwelling was constructed from whale jaws and ribs; The top was covered with turf. The quadrangular inlet was located on the side.
The household utensils of the nomadic and sedentary Chukchi are modest and contain only the most necessary items: various types of home-made cups for broth, large wooden dishes with low sides for boiled meat, sugar, cookies, etc. They ate in the canopy, sitting around a table on low legs or directly around the dish. They used a washcloth made from thin wood shavings to wipe their hands after eating and sweep away any remaining food from the dish. The dishes were stored in a drawer. Deer bones, walrus meat, fish, and whale oil were crushed with a stone hammer on a stone slab. The leather was processed using stone scrapers;
Currently, bow drills are kept as a cult item of the family. The clothing and footwear of the tundra and coastal Chukchi did not differ significantly and were almost identical to those of the Eskimos.
Winter clothes were made from two layers of reindeer skins with fur on the inside and outside. The coastal people also used durable, elastic, practically waterproof seal skin for sewing pants and spring-summer shoes; Cloaks and kamleikas were made from walrus intestines. The reindeer sewed trousers and shoes from old yaranga coverings that did not deform under the influence of moisture. The constant mutual exchange of farm products allowed the tundra people to receive shoes, leather soles, belts, lassos made from the skins of marine mammals, and the coastal people to receive reindeer skins for winter clothing. In summer they wore worn out winter clothes. Chukotka closed clothing is divided into everyday clothing and festive and ritual clothing: children's, youth, men's, women's, old people's, ritual and funeral. The traditional set of a Chukchi men's suit consists of a kukhlyanka belted with a belt with a knife and a pouch, a calico kamleika worn over the kukhlyanka, a raincoat made of walrus intestines, trousers and various headdresses: a regular Chukotka winter hat, a malakhai, a hood, and a light summer hat. The basis of a woman's costume is a fur jumpsuit with wide sleeves and short, knee-length pants. Typical shoes are short, knee-length, torbas of several types, sewn from seal skins with the hair facing outward with a piston sole made of bearded seal skin, made of camus with fur stockings and grass insoles (winter tobos); from seal skin or from old, smoke-soaked coverings of yaranga (summer torbas).
The traditional food of tundra people is venison, while that of coastal people is the meat and fat of sea animals. Deer meat was eaten frozen (finely chopped) or lightly boiled. During the mass slaughter of deer, the contents of reindeer stomachs were prepared by boiling them with blood and fat. They also consumed fresh and frozen deer blood. We prepared soups with vegetables and cereals. The Primorye Chukchi considered walrus meat especially satisfying. Prepared in the traditional way, it is well preserved. Squares of meat along with lard and skin are cut out of the dorsal and side parts of the carcass. The liver and other cleaned entrails are placed in the tenderloin. The edges are sewn together with the skin facing outward - a roll is obtained (k"opalgyn-kymgyt). Closer to cold weather, its edges are pulled together even more to prevent excessive souring of the contents. K"opal-gyn is eaten fresh, sour and frozen. Fresh walrus meat is boiled. The meat of beluga whales and gray whales, as well as their skin with a layer of fat, is eaten raw and boiled. In the northern and southern regions of Chukotka, chum salmon, grayling, navaga, sockeye salmon, and flounder occupy a large place in the diet. Yukola is prepared from large salmon. Many Chukchi reindeer herders dry, salt, smoke fish, and salt caviar. The meat of sea animals is very fatty, so it requires herbal supplements. The Reindeer and Primorye Chukchi traditionally ate a lot of wild herbs, roots, berries, and seaweed. Dwarf willow leaves, sorrel, and edible roots were frozen, fermented, and mixed with fat and blood. Koloboks were made from the roots, crushed with meat and walrus fat. For a long time, porridge was cooked from imported flour, and cakes were fried in seal fat.
Rock painting
K XVII - XVIII centuries The main socio-economic unit was the patriarchal family community, consisting of several families that had a single household and a common home. The community included up to 10 or more adult men related by kinship. Among the coastal Chukchi, industrial and social ties developed around the canoe, the size of which depended on the number of community members. At the head of the patriarchal community was a foreman - the “boat chief”. Among the tundra, the patriarchal community was united around a common herd; it was also headed by a foreman - a “strong man”. By the end XVIII V. Due to the increase in the number of deer in the herds, it became necessary to split the latter for more convenient grazing, which led to a weakening of intra-community ties. Sedentary Chukchi lived in villages. Several related communities settled on common areas, each of which was located in a separate half-dugout. The nomadic Chukchi lived in a camp also consisting of several patriarchal communities. Each community included two to four families and occupied a separate yaranga. 15-20 camps formed a circle of mutual assistance. The Reindeer also had patrilineal kinship groups connected by blood feud, the transfer of ritual fire, sacrificial rites, and the initial form of patriarchal slavery, which disappeared with the cessation of wars against neighboring peoples. XIX IN
V. traditions of communal life, group marriage and levirate continued to coexist, despite the emergence of private property and wealth inequality.
By the end of the 19th century. the large patriarchal family disintegrated and was replaced by a small family. The basis of religious beliefs and cult is animism, a trade cult.
The structure of the world among the Chukchi included three spheres: the earth's firmament with everything that exists on it; heaven, where ancestors live who died a dignified death during a battle or who chose voluntary death at the hands of a relative (among the Chukchi, old people who were unable to earn a living asked their closest relatives to take their lives); the underworld is the abode of the bearers of evil - kele, where people who died of illness ended up. According to legend, mystical host creatures were in charge of fishing grounds and individual habitats of people, and sacrifices were made to them. A special category of beneficent creatures were household patrons; ritual figurines and objects were kept in each yaranga. The system of religious ideas gave rise to corresponding cults among the tundra people associated with reindeer husbandry; near the coast - with the sea. There were also common cults: Nargynen (Nature, Universe), Dawn, Polar Star, Zenith, the constellation Pegittin, cult of ancestors, etc.
Shamanic functions could be performed by the head of the family (family shamanism). The main holidays were associated with economic cycles. For reindeer - with the autumn and winter slaughter of reindeer, calving, migration of the herd to summer pastures and return. The holidays of the coastal Chukchi are close to the Eskimos: in the spring - the holiday of baidara on the occasion of the first trip to sea; in summer there is a festival of goals to mark the end of the seal hunt; in autumn it is the holiday of the owner of sea animals. All holidays were accompanied by competitions in running, wrestling, shooting, bouncing on a walrus skin (a prototype of a trampoline), deer and dog racing, dancing, playing tambourines, and pantomime. In addition to production ones, there were family holidays associated with the birth of a child, expressions of gratitude on the occasion of a successful hunt by a novice hunter, etc. During holidays, sacrifices are obligatory: deer, meat, figurines made of reindeer fat, snow, wood (among the reindeer Chukchi), dogs (among the sea). Christianization almost did not affect the Chukchi. The main genres of folklore are myths, fairy tales, historical legends, tales and everyday stories. The main character of myths and fairy tales is Raven Kurkyl, a demiurge and cultural hero (a mythical character who gives people various cultural objects, produces fire like Prometheus among the ancient Greeks, teaches hunting, crafts, introduces various instructions and rules of behavior, rituals, is the first ancestor of people and creator of the world).
There are also widespread myths about the marriage of a person and an animal: a whale, a polar bear, a walrus, a seal. Chukchi fairy tales (lymn "yl) are divided into mythological, everyday and tales about animals. Historical legends tell about the wars of the Chukchi with the Eskimos, Koryaks, and Russians. Mythological and everyday legends are also known. Music is genetically related to the music of the Koryaks, Eskimos and Yukaghirs. Every person had at least three “personal” melodies, composed by him in childhood, in adulthood and in old age (more often, however, he received a children’s melody as a gift from his parents. New melodies also appeared, associated with events in life (recovery, recovery). saying goodbye to a friend or lover, etc.) When singing lullabies, they made a special “crowing” sound, reminiscent of the voice of a crane or a woman. The shamans had their own “personal melodies” - “songs of spirits”. and reflected the emotional state of the singer. The tambourine (yarar) is round, with a handle on the side (for coastal ones) or a cross-shaped holder on the back side (for tundra ones). There are male, female and children's varieties of the tambourine. Shamans play the tambourine with a thick soft stick, and singers at festivals use a thin whalebone stick. Yarar was a family shrine; its sound symbolized the “voice of the hearth.” Another traditional musical instrument is the plate harp of the bath yarar - a “mouth tambourine” made of birch, bamboo (float), bone or metal plate. Later, an arc double-tongued harp appeared. String instruments are represented by lutes: bowed tubular, hollowed out from a single piece of wood, and box-shaped. The bow was made from whalebone, bamboo or willow splinters; strings (1 - 4) - made of vein threads or guts (later made of metal). The lutes were mainly used to play song melodies.
Modern Chukchi
Max Singer describes his journey from Chaunskaya Bay to Yakutsk in his book “112 Days on Dogs and Reindeer.” Publishing house Moscow, 1950
Those wishing to download the book for free
Chukchi letter
The Chukchi letter was invented by the Chukchi reindeer herder (state farm shepherd) Teneville (Tenville), who lived near the settlement of Ust-Belaya (c. 1890-1943?) around 1930. To this day it is not clear whether Teneville’s letter was ideographic or verbal-syllabic. The Chukchi letter was discovered in 1930 by a Soviet expedition and described by the famous traveler, writer and polar explorer V.G. Bogoraz-Tanom (1865-1936). The Chukchi letter was not widespread. In addition to Teneville himself, this letter was owned by his son, with whom the former exchanged messages while grazing deer. Teneville put his marks on boards, bones, walrus tusks and candy wrappers. He used an ink pencil or a metal cutter. The direction of the letter is unsettled. There are no phonetic graphemes, which indicates the extreme primitivism of the system. But at the same time, it is extremely strange that Teneville, through pictograms, conveyed such complex abstract concepts as “bad”, “good”, “fear”, “become”...
This suggests that the Chukchi already had some kind of written tradition, perhaps similar to the Yukaghir. Chukotka writing is a unique phenomenon and is of certain interest when considering the problems of the emergence of written traditions among peoples at the pre-state stages of their development. The Chukchi script is the most northern script ever developed by an indigenous people with minimal outside influence. The question of the sources and prototypes of Teneville’s letter has not been resolved. Taking into account the isolation of Chukotka from the main regional civilizations, this letter can be considered a local phenomenon, aggravated by the creative initiative of a lone genius. It is possible that the drawings on shamanic drums influenced Chukchi writing. The very word “writing” kelikel (kaletkoran – school, lit. “writing house”, kelitku-kelikel – notebook, lit. “written paper”) in the Chukchi language (Luoravetlan language ӆygyoravetien yiӆyyiӆ) has Tungus-Manchu parallels. In 1945, the artist and art critic I. Lavrov visited the upper reaches of Anadyr, where Teneville once lived. There the “Teneville archive” was discovered - a box covered with snow in which monuments of Chukchi writing were kept. 14 tablets with Chukchi pictographic texts are kept in St. Petersburg. Relatively recently, a whole notebook with Teneville's notes was found. Teneville also developed special signs for numbers based on the base-20 number system characteristic of the Chukchi language. Scientists count about 1000 basic elements of Chukchi writing. The first experiments in translating liturgical texts into the Chukchi language date back to the 20s of the 19th century: according to research in recent years, the first book in the Chukchi language was printed in 1823 in a circulation of 10 copies. The first dictionary of the Chukchi language, compiled by priest M. Petelin, was published in 1898. In the first third of the 20th century. Among the Chukchi, there were experiments in creating mnemonic systems similar to logographic writing, the model for which was Russian and English writing, as well as trademarks on Russian and American goods. The most famous among such inventions was the so-called writing of Teneville, who lived in the Anadyr River basin; a similar system was also used by the Chukchi merchant Antymavle in Eastern Chukotka (Chukchi writer V. Leontyev wrote the book “Antymavle - a trading man”). Officially, the Chukchi writing system was created in the early 30s on a Latin graphic basis using the Unified Northern Alphabet. In 1937, the Latin-based Chukotka alphabet was replaced by a Cyrillic-based alphabet without additional characters, but the Latin-based alphabet was used in Chukotka for some time. In the 50s, the signs k’ were introduced into the Chukchi alphabet to denote a uvular consonant, and n’ to denote a velar sonant (in the first versions of the Cyrillic Chukchi alphabet, the uvular one did not have a separate designation, and the velar sonant was denoted by the digraph ng). In the early 60s, the styles of these letters were replaced by қ (ӄ) and ң (ӈ), but the official alphabet was used only for centralized publication educational literature: local publications in Magadan and Chukotka used an alphabet using an apostrophe instead of individual letters. At the end of the 80s, the letter l (ӆ “l with a tail”) was introduced into the alphabet to designate the Chukchi voiceless lateral l, but it is used only in educational literature.
The origin of Chukchi literature dates back to the 1930s. During this period, original poems appeared in the Chukchi language (M. Vukvol) and self-recordings of folklore in the author’s adaptation (F. Tynetegin). Begins in the 50s literary activity Yu.S. Rytkheu. At the end of the 50s - 60s of the 20th century. The heyday of original poetry in the Chukchi language falls (V. Keulkut, V. Etytegin, M. Valgirgin, A. Kymytval, etc.), which continues in the 70s - 80s. (V. Tyneskin, K. Geutval, S. Tirkygin, V. Iuneut, R. Tnanaut, E. Rultyneut and many others). V. Yatgyrgyn, also known as a prose writer, was involved in collecting Chukchi folklore. Currently, original prose in the Chukchi language is represented by the works of I. Omruvier, V. Veket (Itevtegina), as well as some other authors. Distinctive feature development and functioning of the written Chukchi language, it is necessary to recognize the formation of active current group translators of fiction into the Chukchi language, which included writers - Yu.S. Rytkheu, V.V. Leontiev, scientists and teachers - P.I. Inenlikey, I.U. Berezkin, A.G. Kerek, professional translators and editors - M.P. Legkov, L.G. Tynel, T.L.
Ermoshina and others, whose activities greatly contributed to the development and improvement of the written Chukchi language. Since 1953, the newspaper “Murgin Nuthenut / Our Land” has been published in the Chukchi language. The famous Chukchi writer Yuri Rytkheu dedicated the novel “A Dream at the Beginning of the Fog” to Teneville, 1969. Below is the Chukchi Latin alphabet that was in use in 1931-1936.
An example of the Chukchi Latin alphabet: Rðnut gejьttlin oktjabrьanak revoljucik varatetь (What did the October Revolution give to the peoples of the North?) Kelikel kalevetgaunwь, janutьlьn tejwьn (Book for reading in the Chukchi language, part 1). The specificity of the Chukchi language is incorporation (the ability to convey entire sentences in one word). For example: myt-ӈyran-vetat-arma-ӄora-venrety-rkyn “we protect four vigorous, strong deer.” Also noteworthy is the peculiar transmission of the singular through partial or complete reduplication: lig-lig egg, nym-nym village, tirky-tyr sun, tumgy-tum comrade (but tumgy-comrades). Incorporation in the Chukchi language is associated with the inclusion of the word in the form
additional basics
. This combination is characterized by a common stress and common formative affixes.
Containing words are usually nouns, verbs and participles; sometimes - adverbs. The stems of nouns, numerals, verbs and adverbs can be included. For example: ga-poig-y-ma (with a spear), ga-taӈ-poig-y-ma (with a good spear); where poig-y-n spear and ny-teӈ-ӄin is good (base – teӈ/taӈ). Ty-yara-pker-y-rkyn - come home; pykir-y-k – to come (base – pykir) and yara-ӈы – house, (base – yara). Sometimes two, three, or even more of these stems are included. The morphological structure of a word in the Chukchi language is often concentric; cases of combining up to three circumfixes in one word form are quite common:
ta-ra-ӈы-k build-a-house (1st circumfix – verbalizer);
The ethnonym Chukchi is a distortion of the local word Chauchu, “rich in deer,” which is the name by which the Chukchi reindeer breeders call themselves in contrast to the coastal Chukchi dog breeders. The Chukchi themselves call themselves Lygyoravetlan “real people.” The racial type of the Chukchi, according to Bogoraz, is characterized by some differences. Eyes with an oblique cut are less common than eyes with a horizontal cut; there are individuals with thick facial hair and wavy, almost curly hair on their heads; face with a bronze tint; body color is devoid of a yellowish tint. There have been attempts to correlate this type with the Amerindian: the Chukchi are broad-shouldered, with a stately, somewhat heavy figure; large, regular facial features, high and straight forehead; the nose is large, straight, sharply defined; eyes large, widely spaced; the expression on his face is gloomy.
Main mental traits Chukchi - extremely easy excitability, reaching the point of frenzy, a tendency to murder and suicide at the slightest provocation, love of independence, persistence in struggle. The Primorye Chukchi became famous for their sculptural and carved images of mammoth bone, striking in their fidelity to nature and boldness of poses and strokes and reminiscent of the wonderful bone images of the Paleolithic period.
The Chukchi first encountered Russians back in the 17th century. In 1644, the Cossack Stadukhin, who was the first to bring news of them to Yakutsk, founded the Nizhnekolymsk fort. The Chukchi, who at that time were wandering both east and west of the Kolyma River, after a stubborn, bloody struggle, finally left the left bank of the Kolyma, pushing back the Eskimo tribe of Mamalls from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Bering Sea during their retreat. Since then, for more than a hundred years, bloody clashes have continued between the Russians and the Chukchi, whose territory bordered the Russian-populated Kolyma River in the west and Anadyr in the south. In this struggle the Chukchi showed extraordinary energy. In captivity, they voluntarily killed themselves, and if the Russians had not retreated for a while, they would have been deported to America. In 1770, after Shestakov’s unsuccessful campaign, the Anadyr fort, which served as the center of the Russian struggle against the Chukchi, was destroyed and its team was transferred to Nizhne-Kolymsk, after which the Chukchi began to be less hostile towards the Russians and gradually began to enter into trade relations with them. In 1775, the Angarsk fortress was built on the Angarka River, a tributary of the Bolshoi Anyui.
Despite their conversion to Orthodoxy, the Chukchi retain their shamanic faith. Painting the face with the blood of the murdered victim, with the image of a hereditary-tribal sign - a totem, also has ritual significance. Each family, in addition, had its own family shrines: hereditary projectiles for producing sacred fire through friction for famous festivals, one for each family member (the lower plank of the projectile represents a figure with the head of the owner of fire), then bundles of wooden knots “removing misfortunes”, wooden images of ancestors and, finally, a family tambourine.
The traditional Chukchi hairstyle is unusual - men cut their hair very smoothly, leaving a wide fringe in front and two tufts of hair in the form of animal ears on the crown of the head. The dead used to be either burned or wrapped in layers of raw deer meat and left in the field, having first cut through the throat and chest and pulled out part of the heart and liver. In Chukotka there are unique and original rock carvings in the tundra zone, on the coastal cliffs of the river. Pegtymel. They were researched and published by N. Dikov. Among the rock art of the Asian continent, the petroglyphs of Pegtymel represent the northernmost, clearly defined independent group. Pegtymel petroglyphs were discovered in three locations. In the first two, 104 groups were recorded rock paintings
, in the third there are two compositions and a single figure. Not far from the rocks with petroglyphs on the edge of the cliff, sites of ancient hunters and a cave containing cultural remains were discovered. The walls of the cave were covered with images.
Pegtymel rock carvings are made using various techniques: knocked out, rubbed or scratched on the surface of the rock. Among the images of Pegtymel rock art, figures of reindeer with narrow muzzles and characteristic lines of antlers predominate. There are images of dogs, bears, wolves, arctic foxes, moose, bighorn sheep, sea pinnipeds and cetaceans, and birds. Anthropomorphic male and female figures, often wearing mushroom-shaped hats, images of hooves or their prints, footprints, and two-bladed oars are known. The plots are peculiar, including humanoid fly agarics, which are mentioned in the mythology of the northern peoples. and curvilinear ornament. In the 1930s fishing is gradually concentrated in Uelen, Naukan and Dezhnev.
Numerals
Literature:
Dieringer D., Alphabet, M., 2004; Friedrich I., History of writing, M., 2001; Kondratov A. M., Book about the letter, M., 1975; Bogoraz V. G., Chukchi, parts 1-2, 1., 1934-39.
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Yuri Sergeevich Rytkheu: The end of permafrost [journal. option]
Chukotka plan
Map on a piece of walrus skin, made by an unknown resident of Chukotka. At the bottom of the map, three ships are shown heading to the mouth of the river; to their left is a bear hunt, and a little higher is an attack by three Chukchi on a stranger. A series of black spots represent the hills stretching along the shore of the bay.
Chukotka plan
Plagues can be seen here and there among the islands. At the top, a man walks along the ice of the bay and leads five reindeer harnessed to sledges. On the right, on a blunt ledge, a large Chukchi camp is depicted. Between the camp and the black chain of mountains lies a lake. Below, in the bay, the Chukchi hunt for whales is shown.
Kolyma Chukchi
In the harsh North, between the Kolyma and Chukchi rivers, there is a wide plain, the Khalarcha tundra - the homeland of the Western Chukchi. How about the Chukchi numerous nationalities first mentioned in 1641 - 1642. Since time immemorial, the Chukchi have been a warlike people, people hardened like steel, accustomed to fighting the sea, frost and wind.
These were hunters who attacked a huge polar bear with a spear in their hands, seafarers who dared to maneuver in the inhospitable expanse of the polar ocean in fragile leather boats. Original traditional occupation, the main means of subsistence for the Chukchi was reindeer herding.
Currently, in the village of Kolymskoye - the center of the Khalarchinsky nasleg of the Nizhnekolymsky region - representatives of the small peoples of the North live. This is the only region in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) where the Chukchi live compactly.
Kolymskoye along the Stadukhinskaya channel is located 180 km from the village of Chersky, and 160 km along the Kolyma River. The village itself was founded in 1941 on the site of a Yukaghir nomadic summer camp, located on the left bank of the Kolyma River opposite the mouth of the Omolon River. Today, just under 1,000 people live in Kolymskoye. The population is engaged in hunting, fishing and reindeer herding.
In the 20th century, the entire indigenous population of Kolyma went through Sovietization, collectivization, the elimination of illiteracy and resettlement from their habitable places to large settlements performing administrative functions - district centers, central estates of collective and state farms.
In 1932, Nikolai Ivanovich Melgeyvach became the first chairman of the nomadic council, heading the Native Committee. In 1935, a partnership was organized under the chairmanship of I.K. Vaalyirgina with a livestock of 1850 deer. Ten years later, during the most difficult war years, the number of the herd was increased tenfold thanks to the selfless heroic work of the reindeer herders. For the funds raised for the Turvaurginets tank for the tank column and warm clothes for the front-line soldiers, a telegram of gratitude came to Kolymskoye from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin.
At that time, such reindeer herders as V.P. worked in the Khalarcha tundra. Sleptsov, V.P. Yaglovsky, S.R. Atlasov, I.N. Sleptsov, M.P. Sleptsov and many others. The names of representatives of the large reindeer herding clans of the Kaurgins, Gorulins, and Volkovs are known.
Reindeer herders-collective farmers at that time lived in yarangas and cooked food over a fire. The men looked after the deer, each woman sheathed 5-6 reindeer herders and 3-4 children from head to toe. For every corral and holiday, the plague workers sewed new beautiful fur clothes for all children and shepherds.
In 1940, the collective farm was transferred to a sedentary lifestyle, and on its basis the village of Kolymskoye grew, where an elementary school was opened. Since 1949, the children of reindeer herders began to study at a boarding school in the village, and their parents continued to work in the tundra.
Until the 1950s, on the territory of the Khalarchinsky nasleg there were two collective farms, “Red Star” and “Turvaurgin”. In the early 1950s, income from deer slaughter raised the standard of living of the population.
The Turvaurgin collective farm thundered throughout the republic as a millionaire collective farm. Life was getting better, the collective farm began to receive equipment: tractors, boats, power plants. A large high school building and a hospital building were built. This period of relative prosperity is associated with the name of Nikolai Ivanovich Tavrat. Today his name is given to a national school in the village of Kolymskoye and a street in district center Chersky village. In the name of N.I. Tavrata also named a tugboat of the Zelenomyssk seaport, a student scholarship.
Who was Nikolai Tavrat?
Nikolay Tavrat started his labor activity in 1940 in the Khalarcha tundra, he was a shepherd, then an accountant on a collective farm. In 1947, he was elected chairman of the Turvaurgin collective farm. In 1951, the collective farms merged together, and in 1961 they were transformed into the Nizhnekolymsky state farm. The village of Kolymskoye became the center of the Kolyma branch of the state farm with 10 herds (17 thousand deer). In 1956, the construction of modern residential buildings began in Kolyma by the collective farmers themselves. According to the recollections of old-timers, three 4-apartment houses, a kindergarten, and later a canteen for the Kolymtorg trading office and an eight-year school were built very quickly, since collective farmers worked in three shifts. The first two-story 16-apartment building was built in the same way.
Nikolai Tavrat knew his native tundra well. Many times he helped out the Nizhny Kolyma aviators, helping them find reindeer herders’ camps in the vast expanses and difficult weather conditions. In 1959, one of the Soviet film studios shot a documentary about the Turvaurgin collective farm and its chairman N.I. Tavrate. In one of the conversations, the chairman said: “My father’s house is unusual. It spreads over thousands of kilometers. And there is, perhaps, no other place on earth where man is so closely connected with nature as in the tundra...”
From 1965 to 1983 N.I. Tavrat worked as chairman of the Nizhnekolymsk district executive committee, was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR of the 5th convocation (1959), and a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1947 - 1975). For his work activity he was awarded orders October revolution and the Order of the Badge of Honor.
Local historian and local historian A.G. Chikachev wrote a book about him, which he called “Son of the Tundra.”
In the Kolyma National Secondary secondary school them. N.I. Tavrat students study the Chukchi language, culture, customs, and traditions of this people. The subject “Reindeer Herding” is taught. Students go to reindeer herds for practical training.
Today, residents of Nizhny Kolymsk deeply honor the memory of their fellow countryman, a prominent representative of the Chukchi people, Nikolai Ivanovich Tavrat.
Since 1992, on the basis of state farms, the nomadic community “Turvaurgin” was formed, a production cooperative whose main activities are reindeer husbandry, fishing, and hunting.
Anna Sadovnikova
