Chukchi - interesting facts, customs, holidays. Where do the Chukchi and Eskimos live

Throughout the 17th-19th centuries, the harsh Arctic was shaken by the Chukchi-Eskimo wars. An armed conflict between the two peoples almost broke out in 1947, but then, through the efforts of the Soviet authorities, a diplomatic scandal was avoided. The instigators of military clashes with the inhabitants of North America have always been the Chukchi. It was they who over and over again carried out armed raids on the Eskimo settlements. What is the reason for this enmity?

Revenge for the tribesmen

The width of the Bering Strait, separating Alaska and Chukotka, at its narrowest point is only 86 km. In summer, this distance is quite possible to overcome on a strong boat, and in winter - to walk on ice. For seasoned warriors, accustomed to living in the harsh conditions of the Arctic, the idea of ​​going to a neighboring continent did not seem too risky.

The raids usually took place in the summer. The Chukchi boat used for sea fishing is called anyapik. A frame made of wood and whale ribs is covered with walrus skin, it will turn out pretty robust construction capable of "surviving" frequent collisions with ice floes. The average boat is about 9 m long and can hold 12 rowers.

It is interesting that the Chukchi have always peacefully coexisted and even made friends with the Eskimos inhabiting Asia, they were at enmity exclusively with the inhabitants of Alaska. The fact is that in the XV-XVI centuries the Yukaghir tribe drove the Chukchi to the east, to the ancestral lands of the Eskimos of our country. The two peoples became neighbors, and there were no military clashes. Over time, these people actually turned into a single ethnic group. The more numerous Chukchi gradually assimilated many Eskimos.

Our compatriots have completely different relations with the inhabitants of North America. The famous ethnographer Vladimir Germanovich Tan-Bogoraz (1865-1936) wrote in his two-volume book "Chukchi" that one of the reasons for the regular predatory raids on the Eskimos was revenge for the killed fellow tribesmen.

Old-timers told the researcher that it all started with a hunter and a shaman, who were once carried away on an ice floe to the shores of Alaska. Inhabitants of North America greeted the Chukchi with hostility. The hunter was killed and the shaman was enslaved. He managed to return home, calling on the Spirit of the walrus and using the magical help of totem animals. The rescued shaman told his fellow tribesmen how the Eskimos had done wrong. Then the decision was made about the first armed raid.

Subsequently, the Chukchi more than once attacked the inhabitants of Alaska, robbed them, killed them, and abducted women and children. In these military skirmishes, representatives of both sides perished; over time, mutual hatred only grew.

Trade Disagreements

However, the Chukchi were not always at enmity with the Eskimos. There were also truces between the two peoples, during which the inhabitants of Asia and North America established trade relations. People exchanged reindeer and walrus skins, whale oil, household utensils, various tools, and handicrafts. But the strengthening and development of economic ties was hampered by mutual mistrust.

The Chukchi went on trade missions, equipping themselves as for waging war. They kept their spears and bows and arrows ready. The Eskimos also greeted the newcomers with extreme caution. Having left their goods on the shore, a group of visitors stepped aside. The locals considered the brought things and products and left next to them what they were going to give in return. Sometimes the parties could not agree immediately, people had to make mutual concessions without resorting to words.

This "silent bargaining" lasted a long time, and any misunderstanding (loud shout, sudden movement, offensive gesture) could lead to an armed clash. And those who died as a result of such incidents are a pretext for declaring a new war.

It is worth saying that armed conflicts between the Eskimos and the Chukchi were sometimes recognized by both sides as futile. When the profits from the predatory raids became disproportionate to the number of combat losses, the rulers of the two peoples concluded a truce. They swore allegiance to the sun in the presence of shamans and compensated each other for material damage.

Abduction of women

Along with the desire to take revenge on old enemies and get hold of looted goods, one of the main reasons for the frequent raids of the Chukchi on the lands of Alaska was the desire to capture young women and children.

Needless to say, the peoples of the Far North have always suffered from small numbers. They needed an influx of "fresh blood", reindeer herders' camps required working hands, men needed brides who are not their distant relatives. It is no coincidence that an Eskimo wife was considered a reason for the pride of a glorious warrior who managed to get her on a difficult trip to another continent.

Some of the most desperate Chukchi, in search of their ideal, even reached the territory of Canada. In the 19th century, they had already heard about the black women inhabiting this country. To kidnap and bring home such an unusual beauty was considered the height of military valor and luck. True, such cases were isolated.

Military strategy

The Chukchi always carefully prepared for their armed sorties to another continent. In the 18th century, whole armadas, consisting of hundreds of canoe boats, went to war against the Eskimos. And the number of soldiers who were ferried in them sometimes reached 800-1000 people. They were experienced and battle-hardened "paratroopers". Equipped with bows and spears, they wore armor of dense walrus skins.

The Chukchi attacked either at dawn or waited for the moment when the Eskimo men would go hunting, and the women would be left without defenders. Sometimes a small group of invaders deliberately made a noise in order to draw back the main forces of the enemy, while the main forces of the aggressors came from the rear, killing and robbing the Eskimos.

It is noteworthy that not only the Chukchi whaling and walrus hunting took part in the raids, but also nomadic reindeer herders from the tundra, who eagerly joined their relatives living on the coast by hunting. The Asiatic Eskimos, who were friends with their Chukchi neighbors, sometimes went on military sorties to Alaska. They attacked their own tribesmen living in North America.

These are the dramatic events that unfolded in Alaska in the 17th and 19th centuries.

Everyone has heard the expression "naive Chukchi girl" and jokes about the Chukchi. In our understanding, this is a person far from the achievements of civilization. A symbol of naivety, which borders on stupidity, who begin any sentence with "however" and prefer vodka to their wives. We perceive the Chukchi as a distant northern people who are exclusively interested in deer and walrus meat. Who are the Chukchi really?

Know how to stand up for themselves

Valdis Kristovskis, a Latvian politician and leader of the Unity party, in an interview with the Latvian newspaper Delfi inadvertently defended the phrase “Latvians are not Chukchi”. In response to this insult, the newspaper Diena published the reply of Ooi Milger, a representative of the Lowravetlan people (in other words, "Chukchi"). He wrote: “In your opinion, it turns out that the Chukchi are not people. This offended me a lot. The Louravetlans are a people of warriors. Many books have been written about this. I have my father's carbine. Latvians are also a small people who had to fight for their survival. Where does this arrogance come from? " Here are the "naive" and stupid Chukchi.

Chukchi and all the "others"

The small Chukchi people are settled in a vast territory - from the Bering Sea to the Indigirka River, from the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr River. This territory can be compared with Kazakhstan, and a little more than 15 thousand people live on it! (data of the census of the population of Russia in 2010)

The name of the Chukchi is the name of the people “lowratvelany” adapted for the Russian people. Chukchi means “rich in reindeer” (chauchu) - this is how the reindeer herders presented themselves to the Russian pioneers in the 17th century. "Lowverans" is translated as "real people", since in the mythology of the Far North the Chukchi are the "highest race" chosen by the gods. The Chukchi mythology explains that the gods created the Evenks, Yakuts, Koryaks and Eskimos exclusively as slaves of the Russians, so that they would help the Chukchi trade with the Russians.

Ethnic history of the Chukchi. Briefly

The ancestors of the Chukchi settled in Chukotka at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. In such a natural geographic environment, customs, traditions, mythology, language and racial characteristics were formed. The Chukchi have increased heat regulation, a high level of hemoglobin in the blood, a fast metabolism, because the formation of this Arctic race took place in the Far North, otherwise they would not have survived.

Chukchi mythology. world creation

In Chukchi mythology, a raven appears - the creator, the main benefactor. Creator of the earth, sun, rivers, seas, mountains, deer. It was the raven who taught people to live in difficult natural conditions. Since, according to the Chukchi, Arctic animals participated in the creation of space and stars, the names of the constellations and individual stars are associated with deer and crows. The star chapel is a deer bull with a man's sleigh. Two stars near the constellation Eagle - "A female deer with a fawn." The Milky Way is a river with sandy waters, with islands - pastures for deer.

The names of the months of the Chukchi calendar reflect the life of a wild deer, its biological rhythms and peculiarities of migration.

Raising children among the Chukchi

In the upbringing of Chukchi children, a parallel can be traced to Indian customs. At the age of 6, the Chukchi begins a harsh upbringing of warrior boys. From this age on, boys sleep standing up, with the exception of sleeping on the yaranga. At the same time, the adult Chukchi were brought up even in a dream - they sneaked up with a hot metal tip or a smoldering stick, so that the boy developed a lightning-fast reaction to any sounds.

Young Chukchi chased reindeer teams with stones on their legs. From the age of 6, they constantly held a bow and arrow in their hands. Thanks to such eye training, the Chukchi's eyesight remained sharp for many years. By the way, that is why the Chukchi were excellent snipers during the Great Patriotic War. Favorite games are "soccer" with a reindeer wool ball and wrestling. We fought in special places - sometimes on walrus skin (very slippery), then on ice.

The rite of passage into adulthood is a test for the viable. At the "exam" they relied on dexterity and attentiveness. For example, the father sent his son on a mission. But the task was not the main one. The father tracked down his son while he walked to carry it out, and waited until the son lost his guard - then he shot an arrow. The task of the young man is to instantly concentrate, react and dodge. Therefore, passing the exam means surviving. But the arrows were not smeared with poison, so there was a chance of survival after being wounded.

War as a lifestyle

The Chukchi have a simple attitude to death - they are not afraid of it. If one Chukchi asks another to kill him, then the request is carried out easily, without a doubt. The Chukchi believe that each of them has 5-6 souls, and there is a whole "universe of ancestors". But in order to get there, you must either die with dignity in battle, or die at the hands of a relative or friend. Death or death from old age is a luxury. Therefore, the Chukchi are excellent warriors. They are not afraid of death, fierce, they have a keen sense of smell, lightning-fast reaction, a sharp eye. If in our culture a medal is awarded for military merits, then the Chukchi on the back right palm put a dot tattoo. The more points, the more experienced and fearless the warrior.

Chukchi women correspond to the harsh Chukchi men. They carry a knife with them in order to stab children, parents, and then themselves in case of serious danger.

"Home shamanism"

The Chukchi have a so-called "domestic shamanism". These are echoes of the ancient religion of the Lowravetlanians, because now almost all Chukchi go to church and belong to the Russian Orthodox Church... But they are still “shaman”.

During the autumn slaughter of cattle, the entire Chukchi family, including children, beats a tambourine. This ritual protects deer from diseases and early death. But it is more like a game, like, for example, Sabantuy - the holiday of the end of plowing among the Turkic peoples.

The writer Vladimir Bogoraz, an ethnographer and researcher of the peoples of the Far North, writes that in real shamanic rites, people are cured of terrible diseases, mortal wounds heal. Real shamans can grind a stone into crumbs in their hand, "sew up" a lacerated wound with their bare hands. The main task of shamans is to heal the sick. To do this, they fall into a trance to "travel between worlds." In Chukotka, they become shamans if a walrus, a deer or a wolf rescues the Chukchi at a moment of danger, thereby "transferring" ancient magic to the sorcerer.

A notable feature of the Chukchi shaman is that he can, at will, "my gender." Men, at the behest of the spirits, become women, even get married. Bogoraz suggested that these are echoes of matriarchy.

Chukchi and humor

The Chukchi invented the saying "laughter makes a person strong." This phrase is considered the life credo of every Chukchi. They are not afraid of death, they kill easily, without experiencing severity. For other people it is not clear how you can first cry over the death of a loved one, and then laugh? But despondency and melancholy for the Chukchi is a sign that a person was "captured" by the evil spirit of Kele, and this was condemned. Therefore, the Chukchi are constantly joking, making fun of each other, laughing. From childhood, the Chukchi are taught to be cheerful. It is believed that if a child cries for a long time, then his parents raised him badly. Girls for marriage are also chosen according to their liking. If a girl is cheerful and with a sense of humor, she has more chances of getting married than an eternally sad girl, since it is believed that a sad girl is sick, and therefore unhappy because she thinks about illness.

Chukchi and jokes

Not only the Chukchi laugh, but they also love to make fun of the Chukchi. The topic of the Chukchi in Russian jokes is one of the most extensive. They have been joking about the Chukchi since the times of the USSR. Associate Professor of the Center for Typology and Semiotics of the Russian State Humanitarian University Alexandra Arkhipova connects the beginning of the emergence of anecdotes with the film of the 60s "The Head of Chukotka". There the familiar Chukchi "however" sounded for the first time. The image of the Chukchi in jokes is a wild, gullible person who does not know Russian well, he constantly reflects. There is also an opinion that we read the measure of our national superiority from the Chukchi. They say that the Chukchi are stupid and naive, but we are not like that. To date, the main theme of the jokes has shifted towards the former Chukotka governor Roman Abramovich.

Azat Minnekaev "Two walruses"

To begin with, a short Chukchi heroic legend, written down by V.G. Tan-Bogoraz, whose biography deserves a separate description ... but let's not talk about him. The legend is this:

"Two people from Cape Chaplin, one of them a shaman, were carried away by a blizzard in the winter on floating ice. The ice floe drove to Lawrence Island, to the village of Chibikak. Residents ran out, killed one of them, drilling his skull with a sharp drill. The shaman was left alive. , made a slave. One night only spent the night with them, then called his walruses-spirits. Many walruses came, stood in a row so that he could walk over their heads. After many adventures, the shaman returned to the Chukotka cape and told people what fate befell his comrade.The people decided to avenge him.

The next summer, soldiers from all the villages gathered on the shore. We got into the boats. Many large boats sailed towards Lawrence Island. On the shore, they saw a village. A thick fog lay on the ground. Almost all the soldiers went down to the ground, they wanted to attack the enemy. Several people headed straight for the village, covered by the fog. The old man said: "Give a voice, howl like a wolf." They howled like wolves. Another old man, from the inhabitants of the Isle of Lawrence, said then: "Oh, they are here." The young warriors replied: “It can't be! We are on the island. " - “Well, yes, yes! Answer them. " Then they roared like walruses. At this time, a large detachment of attackers slowly approached them from behind. Suddenly they pounced on the islanders and began to kill them. The women began to gag in terrible fright. Others cut walrus meat to treat the winners. There was a great massacre! Many women were taken with them to Cape Chaplin.

Four years later, the islanders set out to avenge the attack. They came at night, all the people were asleep. They killed people simply by thrusting spears through the furry canopy wall. One little boy, an orphan, managed to run away from them, woke up the others. The attackers fled to the sea. The next year, the old people from Lawrence Island said: “Enough. Let the world be. " Summer came, and many islanders converged on the shore. They brought a lot of wooden vessels and gave them to the people of this side. The old man of our shore said: “How to answer? Give them skins. " They were given soft skins. "What kind of skins?" - "Deer skins". - "What are deer?" - "They are with horns." - "What are horns?" Then they were shown the head of a deer. They look, they say, “Oh, how wonderful. The nose is like holes in the leather covering of the canoe. " “Try the meat better.” We boiled reindeer fat. Then they tasted it: "Oh, this is delicious." They left and left the old man. He was a shaman. The people of this coast took him prisoner, just as the islanders took one of our people four years ago.
In the 15th-16th centuries, the Chukchi were pushed away from their former habitats far to the east by the Yukaghir tribes, forced to migrate under the pressure of the Tungus (those, in turn, were driven from the Lena basin by the Turkic and Mongolian ancestors of the Sakha Yakuts). In search of new places, the Yukaghirs occupied the Anadyr basin, reaching the Bering Sea and territorially dividing the Chukchi and Koryaks, linked by a common origin.

In the Yukaghir folklore, there are legends that the Yukaghirs in their present habitats were met by a certain ancient people who lived mainly by hunting elk, divided into "people of the forest" and "people of the sea"; they fought with the Yukaghir aliens, but they defeated them, and the aborigines were forced to retreat (and the elk range covers the upper and middle reaches of the Kolyma, Indigirka and Anadyr).

The Chukchi, retreating to the east, entered the territories inhabited by the Asian Eskimos, and they had no one to move and nowhere to retreat - they had to make room. Whether because of the long-standing ties between the two peoples, or because the coastal Chukchi and the Eskimos had nothing to share with the Eskimos - there was enough sea animal for everyone at that time - but this "compaction" was mostly peaceful. Chukchi clans often simply settled in Eskimo camps - even at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, there were many Eskimo settlements (Kivak, Chechin, etc.) in which the Chukchi lived. The population of such villages spoke a mixed Chukchi-Eskimo jargon, or, as in Uelen at the end of the 18th century, in two languages.

The Eskimo population of most of the mixed camps over time was completely assimilated - on the side of the Chukchi hunters rushing to the coast there was a numerical superiority, however, to this day, many places on the shores of both oceans, inhabited exclusively by Chukchi, bear names based on the Eskimo roots Assimilation was facilitated by a constant trade exchange between the coastal and reindeer Chukchi: the hunters needed reindeer skins and products from them, and reindeer breeders needed blubber and strong belts from the skins of sea animals. The Eskimos, on the other hand, did not have mainland brothers, so it was economically profitable for them to speak the Chukchi language and have relatives among the Chukchi.

The Chukchi language is full of Eskimo words, mainly describing sea fishing, while in the Asian Eskimo language, Chukchi terms are borrowed, reflecting the reindeer herding life. Many names among the Chukchi are of Eskimo origin, and vice versa; This confusion was greatly facilitated by the ideas of reincarnation that existed among both peoples.

Relations between the Chukchi and the American Eskimos developed differently. Documents from the beginning of the 18th century mark the attacks of the Chukchi on the population of Alaska, the seizure of property and the capture of women and children. From about the middle of the 18th century, indications appear that the Chukchi, along with raids, are also conducting trade in Alaska: "In summer, in calm weather, on canoes, in winter, on ice, on reindeer, to Imoglin Island, which lies almost in the middle of the strait.(about. Ratmanova) , and from there you can move to America in one day, then the Chukchi often visit that part of the world and bargain there, and sometimes they carry out robberies there. "

Right: Eskimo walrus skin armor. Similar Chukchi laminars - mergev - differed only in the rectangular shape of the "wings"

In 1789, the centurion I. Kobelev managed to persuade the "uvelensky prison of the best footman Opreya" to take him with him on such a trade expedition to Ukipen-island (King Island). Chukoch gathered one and a half hundred people on ten cargo canoes. Approaching the island, the Chukchi stopped the canoes, "dressed in kuyaki, holding a spear, bows and arrows on bowstrings as they should fight." The same was done by the "ukipants" on the shore, as Kobelev writes, "for example" - peaceful trade ties had just begun to improve by that time, and neither side completely trusted the other.

The exchange often took place in the form of "silent bargaining" - one side left their goods and walked away. Representatives of the other side put their things in front of the things they needed and also departed. Sometimes, before it was possible to "agree", it was necessary to make several counter-proposals, and any misunderstanding could lead to a bloody denouement, after which the survivors of the losing side could organize an expedition with the aim of revenge - along the way, seizing prey and captives.

In 1793, the Senate discussed the report of Captain Billings, in one of the paragraphs of which it was reported that "The northeastern Americans, having expressed their desire, had a friendly treatment with the Russians, they ask for protection from the attack and plunder of the Chukchi." The American Eskimos complained to the Russians that the Chukchi "almost every year on canoe coming to their land, they exterminate them by murder, their property is robbed, and their wives and children are taken prisoner."

These raids were attended not only by the coastal Chukchi, but also by their friends, the Asian Eskimos, and the land Chukchi reindeer herders who did not have a canoe. "The interaction of the army and the navy" of the Chukchi is described in a document of the 18th century: "The reindeer Chukchi come to the seated Chukchi on reindeer and on winter hikes to the Koryak they raise those seated on their reindeer, and, on the contrary, the sedentary Chukchi of reindeer bow and in places far from the sea in tundra living in summer carry them on their canoes by sea and by river and give them their canoes for mutual friendship, and from them deer instead of their canoes they take deer skins of different titles on their dress. "

The Eskimos, I must say, did not remain in debt - they turned the captured Chukchi into slavery or subtly killed.

The Chukchi did not have specialized combat "drakkars" - the same canoes were used both in peacetime and in wartime and were used only to transfer forces, but not naval battles... Occasionally, the collisions that occurred at sea were mainly reduced to a firefight from bows - a full-fledged boarding battle is impossible on deckless ships with tension sheathing. On the other hand, a "diving war" was possible against them, when a man sank under the water and cut the skin, after which the canoe sank to the bottom together with the crew. This method of fighting enemy boats was rarely used, mainly by fugitives to escape from pursuers, because it was risky for a diver, because the Chukchi and Eskimos, as a rule, did not know how to swim and generally considered water to be the habitat of the kele. The division into rowers and infantrymen did not exist: the main thing was to land, and there both of them equally participated in the land battle.

The flotilla described by Kobelev of a dozen canoes and hundreds of one and a half soldiers was quite typical, but he also mentions a voyage to Alaska in the earlier times of the combined armada of hundreds of canoes and eight hundred "paratroopers". Chukchi "Vikings" on their campaigns along the coast sometimes reached the territory of Canada (black women were considered the most valuable prisoners of such long-distance expeditions).

The course of the raid itself, according to the Chukchi, was described by the missionary A. Argentov: "Driven by a sense of revenge for some old grievances and with self-interest in mind, the Chukchi decided to make a raid. It was in 1840. Among 70 people, they moored to some island on a foggy night; the natives, the canoes (so that they did not run into the sea), then they attacked the sleepy inhabitants by surprise and stabbed many. children were taken captive, and the frail, sick, mutilated and elderly were killed without a trace. "Why leave their miserable for torment!" - added the narrator. " Having finished off the feeble members of the tribe who were left without breadwinners, the attackers showed humanism without any quotation marks: by not allowing them to die of hunger, but by killing them with weapons, like soldiers, they helped to escape to the upper world, to a better life.

To protect against mutual attacks, both the Chukchi and the Eskimos tried to locate settlements on a hill, a rocky promontory or a pebble spit protruding into the ocean, from where it was more convenient to defend, and in Peaceful time easier to see prey at sea. Near or between the settlement and the coast, fortifications were erected, the simplest and most rapidly erected of which were walls made of stretched walrus skins, in which small loopholes were pierced with a spear. In order to make it difficult to approach housing on the road along which the enemies were supposed to go, the Eskimos could install camouflaged pegs that crippled the legs of the attackers, or wooden plates with spikes, as in a bear hunt. As a field fortification, the Asiatic Eskimos sometimes built a snow fort, flooded with water for strength. The approaches to the fortress were also poured with water. If the fortress was on a hill, then a sled equipped with sharp stakes and weighted with stones for speed and onslaught could be tied up above the places of the proposed assault.

Back in 1931, the inhabitants of Naukan traditionally covered yarangas almost to the roof with stone, turning them into fortresses.

There were also capital stationary stone fortresses (in Eskimo "umky"), with loopholes of two types: for archery and stone rolling. The entrance was closed with a stone slab. True, these castles were not ditched: in the permafrost, digging trenches deeper than half a meter with stone and bone tools is difficult even in summer. Such fortresses were not designed for a long siege, but the Arctic peoples did not know how to lead it - usually, after a short intensive shelling, they proceeded to the assault. But often the inhabitants of the village could be saved by the very fact of the presence of a fortress (if it was not about revenge for this particular family) - the attackers usually sent scouts ahead, and if they saw that a fortress had been erected in the village, and the inhabitants were ready for defense, then those hungry for more profit than feats of arms the aggressors could bypass this settlement by the side.

Tactical techniques can be judged by legends similar to those given at the beginning of the post: they tried to attack unexpectedly: at dawn, in the morning fog, or they specially chose the time when the bulk of the men were on the hunt and the village was left without defenders. The Eskimos, on the other hand, when going hunting, sometimes resorted to tricks: they exhibited in prominent places heaps of stones the size of a man, dressed in parks - they were supposed to appear to the scouts as sentries. It is often mentioned that the flotilla, when approaching the enemy's settlement, was divided: most of it covertly pushed ashore and was preparing to attack from the rear, while the smaller one hovered in view of the settlement, diverting attention to itself. The landing could also take place at a distance from the enemy camp, so that the inhabitants did not immediately learn about it, and those who arrived could take a break from rowing.

If the war became protracted and unpromising for both sides, a truce was concluded, trade relations were gradually established - and although cases of Chukchi intercontinental banditry continued almost until the end of the 19th century, they became less and less frequent; at the beginning of the twentieth century, in a conversation with Bogoraz, a Chukchi merchant described the situation as follows: "The wars are over. The time for peace has come. Everyone thinks only about the benefits, and all the tribes and peoples are mixed." There is a mention on the Internet that the last war of the Chukchi with the Eskimos took place already in 1947 and ended with the victory of the Chukchi, but I could not find any mention of the original source of this information, so I could not find the details (what the border guards of both sides were doing at that time, how large-scale the shootout took place what were international implications... and whether they were at all, or was it just the Soviet Chukchi with the Soviet Eskimos drunkenly fought) I cannot tell and vouch for the reliability of the fact itself. UPD:

general information

The Chukchi are the indigenous people of the Russian Federation, one of the small peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. Self-name - lygoravatlan ("real people"). Self-names are widespread at the place of residence or migrations: uvelyyt - "Uelens", chaalyt - "roaming along the Chaun River", etc. According to their way of life, the Chukchi are divided into two large groups: tundra nomadic reindeer herders (self-name - chauchu, "reindeer man") and seaside - sedentary hunters for sea animals (self-name - ankalyn, "coastal"). Among the Western Chukchi, the self-name Chugchit is widespread (probably from the Chauchu). Russian name"Chukchi" also comes from Chauchu.

They speak the Chukchi language, which has several very close dialects, which have survived quite well today. The writing system was created in 1931 on a Latin graphic basis, later replaced by the Russian alphabet.

According to modern research, the ancestors of the Chukchi lived in the interior regions of Chukotka at least 6 thousand years ago. At the beginning of the 1st millennium A.D. NS. In connection with the emergence of a surplus population in the Chukchi tundra and changes in climatic and natural conditions, some Chukchi tribes moved to the sea coast, to the area of ​​the Eskimos, partially assimilating them, partially adopting many features of their culture. As a result of the interaction of land and sea hunting cultures, an economic division of labor took place. The Yukaghirs also took part in the ethnogenesis of the Chukchi.

Settlement area and number

In 2002, there were 15,767 Chukchi living in the Russian Federation, of which 12,622 people (about 70%) live in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Chukchi lived mainly on the territory of the Chukotka, Providensky and Iultinsky regions. The intensive development of reindeer husbandry in the 18th century, the need for new pasture lands caused the Chukchi to advance to the west and south. By the beginning of the 20th century, they occupied the entire modern territory of the Chukotka autonomous region, part of the Chukchi ended up in Kamchatka, another small group - beyond the Kolyma in Yakutia. Here they still live: in Kamchatka - in the Olyutorsky region (the village of Achay-Vayam and others) of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug (1530 people), in Yakutia - in the Nizhne-Kolymsky region (1300).

The distribution of the Chukchi among the districts of the district in recent decades indicates their weak migration. Changes in numbers are mainly due to natural growth and changes in the boundaries of the districts (Shmidtovsky, Anadyrsky). Chukchi live in all settlements of the district together with Russians, Eskimos, Evens, Chuvans and other peoples. There are no purely Chukchi settlements, but in most villages the Chukchi predominate.

Lifestyle and support system

The main traditional occupation of the tundra (reindeer) Chukchi is nomadic reindeer herding. The reindeer herders spent most of the year on the move. Each group of Chukchi had permanent migratory routes, its own grazing territory. In the forest zone, migrations were made in 5-6 days, in the tundra - 3-4 times per winter. Semi-free reindeer grazing was practiced everywhere. In summer, the herds were on the ocean coast, where there were fewer mosquitoes and gadflies. About a quarter of the Chukchi reindeer spent summer in the continental part of Chukotka on the northern slopes of the mountains, where snow remained. With the onset of autumn, all reindeer herders moved inland to the border of the forest. The Chukchi did not know a shepherd's dog, and the shepherds were with the herd around the clock. Reindeer husbandry provided everything necessary for life: food, clothing, housing, means of transportation.

The basis of the economic activity of the coastal Chukchi was made up of marine animal hunting, the products of which (meat, fat for food and heating, clothing) also provided all vital needs, and also served as an object of exchange with reindeer herders. Some of the Chukchi reindeer were also engaged in marine hunting during the herds stay on the coast. Fish were caught in case of extreme need in their free time from grazing. Some greater importance fishing was in the basins of large rivers - Anadyr, Chauna, Kolyma. The development of trade relations stimulated the development of the fur industry, which before that was also not of great importance. IN Soviet time reindeer husbandry in Chukotka developed successfully. Improving the breed of animals, a more rational structure of the herd, successes in the fight against necrobacteriosis (hoofs) and other diseases, anti-oozing treatment of animals contributed to a significant increase in the livestock and productivity of the industry as a whole. By the beginning of the 90s. in Chukotka there was one of the largest herds of domestic reindeer in the world - about 500 thousand. Reindeer husbandry formed the basis of the state farm economy, covering the losses of other industries, was the main sphere of employment for a significant part of the Chukchi, and ensured their economic prosperity.

In the context of market reforms, there is an intense destruction of the industry. The number of deer in the district has decreased by more than half. The reform of state farms, the transition to new forms of organization of the industry on the basis of private and collective ownership, not supported by material and technical resources, led to the curtailment of production. Almost all livestock breeding, a number of fur farms, on which Chukchi women worked, were liquidated.

Ethno-social setting

The ethno-social situation in many regions of Chukotka is extremely difficult. Its main components are massive unemployment of the indigenous population, problems with providing villages with fuel, food, electricity, an increase in morbidity and mortality among aboriginal people. According to these and a number of other parameters, Chukotka, due to the peculiarities of its geographical position and climatic conditions, is in the most distressful situation among other regions of the North. The incidence of tuberculosis in the Chukchi and other indigenous peoples of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is 10 times higher than the corresponding figures for the non-indigenous population. In 1996, there were 737.1 indigenous people per 100 thousand of the population with active tuberculosis, including 233 children. community. In September 1996, a resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation "On urgent measures to stabilize the socio-economic situation in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug" was adopted. In recent years, with the arrival of a new governor, the situation has changed for the better, but much remains to be done to overcome the crisis.

Ethno-cultural situation

According to the 2002 census, the Chukchi language was considered their native language by 27.6% of the Chukchi. The Chukchi language is taught in many villages. Since 1992 it has been studied in the secondary school curriculum. Educational, fiction and socio-political literature is systematically published in the Chukchi language, and the district radio and television broadcasts. Since 1953, the newspaper "Sovetken Chukotka" has been published (at present - "Murgin nuteneut", supplement to the regional newspaper "Krainy Sever"). Teachers of the Chukchi language are trained by the Anadyr Pedagogical College, the Russian State Pedagogical University named after V.I. Herzen in St. Petersburg, Magadan Pedagogical Institute. Some of the Chukchi youth speak their native language, which is certainly a positive and stabilizing factor. The main elements of traditional material and spiritual culture are preserved: vehicles, housing (in the tundra for reindeer herders), holidays, rituals and customs, religious performances.

The work of the artists of the professional Chukchi-Eskimo choreographic ensemble "Ergyron", the Chukchi poetess A. Kymytval is widely known in the country and abroad. The traditional art of engraving and bone carving has survived and is developing. The Chukotka Branch of the North-Eastern Complex Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been established in Anadyr, which employs about 10 researchers from the Chukchi and other peoples of the North. Various aspects of the traditional culture of the Chukchi, their language, folk methods of treatment, the problems of transforming economic relations and forms of ownership and other urgent problems for the district are being studied. However, the difficult socio-economic situation in the whole district does not provide an opportunity for the full development of all traditional forms of culture and art. People, especially in remote villages and in the tundra, are busy surviving in these harsh conditions. Today it is important to at least carefully preserve the surviving centers of culture.

Management and self-government bodies

The Chukchi are one of the few indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North of the Russian Federation that formally have their own autonomous education. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is currently a subject of the Russian Federation. The creation of the county has played important role in the development of the economy and culture of the local indigenous population. However, with the development of the mining industry in Chukotka, the growth in the number of newcomers, the district increasingly lost the features of a national-state formation, turning into an ordinary administrative-territorial unit. The only reminder of his former destiny was the position of Chairman of the District Executive Committee, which, according to the established tradition, was held by a representative of the Chukchi people. In other organs state power the Chukchi were represented purely symbolically. Suffice it to say that at the end of the 80s. only 96 Chukchi worked in the sphere of state and economic management, most of them in insignificant positions. Unfortunately, this trend continues today. The functions of a self-governing body are performed by the Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, established in 1989. Its territorial branches operate in each district of the okrug.

Legal documents and laws

The legislative base of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in relation to indigenous peoples is represented by a number of documents. The Charter of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (adopted by the Duma in 1997) contains articles that determine the policy of state authorities to protect and ensure the rights of indigenous peoples, the development of education, culture, environmental protection, organization local government and other important issues for the indigenous population. A Temporary Regulation “On the Procedure for Transferring Land Plots for Reindeer Farms” has been developed. A temporary regulation "On the procedure for agreeing on the allotment of land plots for the use of the subsoil of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug" was approved, which takes into account the interests of small peoples. The Laws “On preferential taxation of enterprises participating in the development of social infrastructure of national villages”, “On the referendum of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug”, “On the procedure and principles of granting tax incentives” were adopted. A number of provisions, vital for the Chukchi and other indigenous peoples of the district, were reflected in the Resolutions of the executive power: “On measures to implement the program for the development of national villages (1996),“ On measures to streamline the production and sale of biologically active raw materials of reindeer ”(1996),“ About the Chukotka District Scientific and Consulting Council for Whaling "(1997) and others.

Modern environmental problems

The state of the natural environment in the district began to cause serious concern already in the late 1980s. By this time, as a result of industrial development, wasteful use of land, the area of ​​reindeer pastures in comparison with 1970 decreased by 5 million hectares. A widespread deterioration of the pasture area, a decrease in the supply of fodder is observed at the present time. There are 8 specially protected areas with an area of ​​3 million hectares (4% of the entire territory of the district). Attempts are being made to implement international projects on the territory of the Okrug (Beringia Park, ECORA project).

Prospects for the preservation of the Chukchi as an ethnic group

The Chukchi is one of the few northern peoples of Russia, which is not yet threatened with disappearance from the national map of Russia in the promising future. The degree of preservation of the traditional culture of the Chukchi, the level of their ethnic self-awareness, ethnic solidarity allows making positive predictions and looking into the future. However, if in the near future the state and regional authorities do not provide significant support to the indigenous ethnic group of Chukotka and do not raise the socio-economic status of the district, then the Chukchi, as the most vulnerable part of the population, will be thrown far back in their development and survival. It should also be emphasized that the Chukchi organizations and their leaders should play a huge role in the preservation and consolidation of the people.

Education

Schoolchildren can easily answer the question "Where do the Chukchi live?" In the Far East there is Chukotka or the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. But if we complicate the question a little: "Where do the Chukchi and Eskimos live?", Difficulties arise. There is no region of the same name, you need to find a more serious approach and understand the national intricacies.

Are there any differences between the Chukchi, Eskimos and Koryaks

Of course there is. All these are different nationalities, once tribes with common roots and inhabiting similar territories.

Regions in Russia where the Chukchi or Luoravetlans live are concentrated in the north. These are the Republic of Sakha, Koryak Autonomous Okrug and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Since ancient times, their tribes have inhabited the extreme regions of Eastern Siberia. At first they roamed, but after the taming of the deer, they began to adapt a little to a sedentary lifestyle. They speak the Chukchi language, which has several dialects. Luoravetlans or Chukchi (self-name) divided themselves into sea hunters living on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and deer, tundra.

Some anthropologists attribute the Eskimos to the Mongoloid race of arctic origin. This nationality lives in the state of Alaska (USA), in northern regions Canada, on the island of Greenland (Denmark) and quite a bit (1500 people) in Chukotka. In every country, the Eskimos speak their own language: Greenlandic, Alaskan Inuit, Canadian Eskimo. They are all divided into different dialects.

Who are the Chukchi and Koryaks? The Luoravetlans first pushed back the Eskimo tribes, and then territorially separated from the Koryaks. Today the Koryaks (a common nationality with the Chukchi) make up the indigenous population of the autonomous region of the same name in the Kamchatka region in Russia. There are about 7000 of them in total. The Koryak language belongs to the Chukchi-Kamchatka group. The first mentions of the Koryaks are found in the documents of the 16th century. People are described, some of whom were engaged in reindeer husbandry, and the other in sea fishing.

External appearance

Where do the Chukchi live and what do they look like? The answer to the first part of the question is formulated above. More recently, scientists have proven the genetic relationship of the Chukchi and Indians. Indeed, their appearance has a lot in common. The Chukchi belong to the mixed Mongoloid race. They are similar to the inhabitants of Mongolia, China, Korea, but somewhat different.

The eye section of Luoravetlan men is more horizontal than oblique. The cheekbones are not as wide as those of the Yakuts, and the skin color is with a bronze tint. Women of this nationality in appearance have more similarities with Mongoloids: wide cheekbones, diffuse noses with large nostrils. Hair color for both sexes is black. Men cut their hair short, women braid two braids and decorate them with beads. Married women wear bangs.

Winter clothes of luoravetlanov are two-layer, they are sewn most often from fawn fur. Summer clothing consists of reindeer suede capes or jackets.

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Character traits

Drawing a psychological portrait of this nation, they note the main feature - excessive nervous excitability. Luoravetlana is easy to get out of the state of spiritual balance, they are very hot-tempered. Against this background, they have a tendency to murder or suicide. For example, a relative can easily respond to the request of a seriously ill family member and kill him so that he does not suffer in agony. This nationality is extremely independent and original. In any dispute or struggle, they show unprecedented persistence.

At the same time, these people are very hospitable and good-natured, naive. Selflessly they come to the aid of their neighbors and all who are in need. Very easy to relate to the concept marital fidelity... Wives are rarely jealous of their husbands.

Living conditions

Where the Chukchi live (pictured below), there is a short polar summer, and the rest of the time is winter. To indicate the weather, residents use only two expressions: "there is weather" or "there is no weather". This designation is an indicator of the hunt, that is, will it be successful or not. From time immemorial, the Chukchi have continued their fishing traditions. They love seal meat very much. A happy hunter hunts three in one exit, then his family with children (usually 5-6) will be fed for several days.

Families often choose places for yarangas surrounded by hills, so that there is more calm. It is very cold inside it, although the dwelling is lined up and down with skins. Usually in the middle there is a small fire surrounded by rounded boulders. There is a suspended cauldron with food on it. The wife is engaged in housekeeping, butchering carcasses, cooking, salting meat. There are children next to her. Together they harvest plants in season. The husband is a breadwinner. This way of life has been preserved for many centuries.

Sometimes such indigenous families do not go to the villages for months. Some children don't even have a birth certificate. Parents then have to prove that this is their child.

Why is the Chukchi a hero of jokes?

It is believed that humorous stories about them were folded by the Russians out of fear and respect, a sense of superiority over themselves. Since the 18th century, when the Cossack detachments moved across endless Siberia and met the tribes of the Luoravetlanians, rumors began to circulate about a warlike nationality, which is very difficult to surpass in battle.

The Chukchi taught their sons from infancy to fearlessness and dexterity, bringing them up in Spartan conditions. In the harsh area where the Chukchi live, the future hunter must be sensitive, be able to endure any discomfort, sleep while standing, and not be afraid of pain. Favorite national wrestling takes place on a spread, slippery seal skin, along the perimeter of which sharp-pointed claws stick out.

Militant reindeer herders

The Koryak population, which earlier became part of the Chukchi Russian Empire, escaped from the battlefield if she saw at least a few dozen luoravetlanov. Even in other countries, tales of militant reindeer herders who are not afraid of arrows, dodge them, catch and launch them with their hands, have come across. The captured women with children killed themselves in order not to fall into slavery.

In battle, the Chukchi were merciless, accurately hitting the enemy with arrows, the tips of which were smeared with poison.

The government began to warn the Cossacks not to engage in battles with the Chukchi. At the next stage, they decided to bribe the population, persuade, and then solder it (more in Soviet times). And at the end of the 18th century. a fortress was built near the Angarka river. Fairs were periodically held near it in order to trade with reindeer herders in an exchange way. Luoravetlans were not allowed to enter their territory. Russian Cossacks have always been interested in where the Chukchi live and what they do.

Trade affairs

The reindeer herders paid tribute to the Russian Empire in the amount that they could afford. She was often not paid at all. With the beginning of peace negotiations and cooperation, the Russians brought syphilis to the Chukchi. They were now afraid of all representatives of the Caucasian race. For example, they had no trade relations with the French and British just because they were “white”.

Business ties were established with Japan, a neighboring country. The Chukchi live where it is impossible to extract metal ores in the bowels of the earth. Therefore, they actively bought protective armor, shells, other military uniforms and equipment, metal products from the Japanese.

With the Americans, the Luoravetlans exchanged furs and other obtained goods for tobacco. The skins of the blue fox, marten, and whalebone were highly prized.

Chukchi today

Most of the Luoravetlan mingled with other peoples. There are almost no purebred Chukchi left now. The "ineradicable people", as they are often called, assimilated. At the same time, they preserve their occupation, culture, way of life.

Many scientists are sure that the small indigenous ethnos is threatened to a greater extent not by extinction, but by the social abyss in which they find themselves. Many children cannot read and write, do not go to school. The standard of living of luoravetlanov is far from civilization, but they do not strive for it. The Chukchi live in harsh natural conditions and do not like being imposed on them by their own rules. But when they find frozen Russians in the snow, they bring them to the yaranga. They say that they then put the guest under the skin together with their naked wife, so that she warms him up.

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

Ethnology abstract

Traditional culture of the Chukchi

Irkutsk, 2007

Introduction

The ancestral home and settlement of the Chukchi

Main occupations

Social system

Life of the Chukchi

Beliefs and Rites

Conclusion

Introduction

Chukchi, (self-name, "real people").

The number in the Russian Federation is 15.1 thousand people, the indigenous population of the Chukotka Aut. districts (11.9 thousand people). They also live in the north of the Koryak auth. districts (1.5 thousand people) and in the Nizhne-Kolymsky district of Yakutia (1.3 thousand people)

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people), speak the Chukchi language.

The first mentions of the Chukchi in Russian documents - from the 40s of the 17th century, divide them into "reindeer" and "foot". Reindeer herders wandered in the tundra and on the coast of the Arctic Ocean between Alazeya and Kolyma, at Cape Shelagsky and further east to the Bering Strait.

The settlements of "foot" Chukchi, sedentary sea hunters, were located together with the Eskimo between Cape Dezhnev and the Gulf of the Cross and further south in the lower reaches of the Anadyr and the Kanchalan River. The number of Chukchi at the end of the 17th century was about 8-9 thousand people.

Contacts with the Russians were initially preserved mainly in the lower Kolyma. Attempts to impose yasak on the Lower Kolyma Chukchi, military campaigns against them in the middle of the 17th century did not bring results.

Due to military conflicts and an epidemic of smallpox, the number of the Lower Kolyma Chukchi decreased sharply, the rest migrated to the east. After the annexation of Kamchatka to Russia, the population of the Anadyr prison, founded in 1649, began to grow, which

Since the end of the 18th century, trade contacts between the Chukchi and the Russians have intensified.

According to the "Charter on the management of foreigners" in 1822, the Chukchi did not bear duties, they contributed yasak voluntarily, receiving gifts for this. The established peaceful relations with the Russians, Koryaks and Yukagirs, the development of reindeer herding, contributed to the further expansion of the Chukchi territory to the west.

By the 1830s, they penetrated the river. Bolshaya Baranikha, by the 1850s - to the lower Kolyma, by the middle of the 1860s - in the interfluve of the Kolyma and Indigirka; to the south - the territory of the Koryaks, between Penzhina and the Korf Bay, where they were partially assimilated by the Koryaks.

In the east, assimilation by the Chukchi - Eskimos increased. In the 1850s. American whalers joined the trade with the Primorye Chukchi. The expansion of the Chukchi habitat was accompanied by the final separation of territorial groups: Kolyma, Anyui, or Maloanyui, Chaun, Omolon, Amguem, or Amguemo-Wonkarem, Kolyuchino-Mechigmen, Onmylen (internal Chukchi), Tuman, or Vilyunei, Bingomor sea ​​Chukchi) and others. In 1897 the number of Chukchi was 11,751 people.

Since the end of the 19th century, due to the extermination of the sea animal, the number of coastal Chukchi fell sharply, by 1926 it amounted to 30% of all Chukchi. Modern descendants of the coastal Chukchi live in the village of Sirenki, Novo Chaplino, Providence, Nunligran, Enmelen, Yanrakynnot, Inchoun, Lorino, Lawrence, Neshkan, Uelen, Enurmino on the eastern coast of Chukotka.

In 1930, the Chukotka National District was formed (since 1977 - ed.

district). For the ethnic development of the Chukchi in the 20th century, especially during the period of consolidation of collective farms and the formation of state farms from the second half of the 50s, consolidation and overcoming of the isolation of individual groups is characteristic.

The ancestral home and settlement of the Chukchi

The Chukchi were subdivided into reindeer - tundra nomadic reindeer breeders (self-name chauchu - "reindeer man") and seaside - sedentary hunters for sea animals (self-name ankalyn - "coastal"), living together with the Eskimos.

These groups were related by kinship and natural exchange. The self-designation at the place of residence or nomadism is widespread: uvelyyt - "Uelenians", "chaalyt" - "Chukchi wandering along the Chaun river". These self-names are preserved, even among the inhabitants of modern large-scale settlements. The names of smaller groups within the settlements: tapkaralyt - "living on the spit", Gynonralyt - "living in the center", etc.

Among the western Chukchi, the self-name Chugchit is widespread (probably from the Chauchu).

Initially, the Chukchi's ancestral home was considered the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, from where they moved northward, assimilating part of the Yukaghirs and Eskimos. According to modern research, the ancestors of the Chukchi and related Koryaks lived in the inner districts of Chukotka.

Occupying the habitat of the Eskimos, the Chukchi partially assimilated them and borrowed many features of their culture (fat lamps, canopies, the design and shape of tambourines, fishing rituals and holidays, pantomime dances, etc.).

Long-term interaction with the Eskimos also affected the language and worldview of the indigenous Chukchi. As a result of contacts between land and sea hunting culture, the Chukchi experienced an economic division of labor. Yukaghir elements also took part in the ethnogenesis of the Chukchi. Contacts with the Yukaghirs became relatively stable at the turn of the 13-14th centuries, when the Yukaghirs, under the influence of the Evens, moved eastward into the Anadyr River basin.

Reindeer husbandry developed among the tundra Chukchi, apparently under the influence of the Koryaks, shortly before the appearance of the Russians.

Main occupations

The main occupation of the tundra Chukchi was nomadic reindeer herding, which had a pronounced meat and skin character.

Sled reindeer were also used. The herds were comparatively large in size, the deer were poorly trained, grazed without the help of dogs. In winter, the herds were kept in places sheltered from the wind, migrating several times during the winter; in the summer, men went with the herd to the tundra, women, old men and children lived in camps along the banks of rivers or the sea.

The reindeer were not milked; sometimes the shepherds sucked out the milk. They used urine to lure the deer. Deer were castrated by biting the seed canals.

The main occupation of the coastal Chukchi is hunting for sea animals: in winter and spring - for seals and seals, in summer and autumn - for walrus and whales. Seals were hunted alone, crawling up to them, disguised and imitated the movements of the animal. The walrus was hunted in groups of several canoes. Traditional hunting weapons are a harpoon with a float, a spear, a belt net, from the 2nd floor.

19th century firearms spread, hunting methods became simpler. Sometimes seals were shot at high speed from a sled.

Fishing except for the Anadyr, Kolyma and Sauna basins was poorly developed. Men were engaged in fishing. Fish were caught with a butterfly net, milk yield, nets. In the summer - from the canoe, in the winter - in the ice-hole. Salmon was harvested for future use.

Before the advent of firearms, wild deer and mountain sheep were hunted, which were later almost completely exterminated.

Under the influence of trade with the Russians, the fur trade spread. Hunting for birds with the help of "bol" - throwing tools made of several ropes with weights, which entangled a flying bird, has survived to this day. Earlier, when hunting for birds, they also used darts with a throwing board, trap loops; the eiders were beaten in the water with sticks. Women and children were also engaged in the collection of edible plants.

To dig out the roots, they used a tool with a horn tip, and later an iron.

Traditional crafts - dressing of fur, weaving bags from fibers of fireweed and wild rye for women, bone processing for men. Artistic carving, and engraving on bone and walrus tusk, appliqué from fur and sealskin, and deer hair embroidery have been developed.

The Chukchi ornament is characterized by a small geometric pattern. In the 19th century, handicraft associations arose on the east coast for the production of carved walrus bone objects for sale. In the 20th century. plot engraving on bone and walrus tusk developed (works by Vukvol, Vukvutagin, Gemauge, Halmo, Ichel, Ettugi, etc.).

A workshop in the village of Uelen (founded in 1931) became the center of bone carving art.

In the 2nd floor. 19th century many Chukchi began to hire whaling schooners and gold mines.

Social system

For the social system of the Chukchi, by the beginning of contacts with the Russians, the development of the patriarchal community into a neighboring one, the development of property, differentiation was characteristic.

Deer, dogs, dwellings and canoes were in private property, pastures and fishing grounds were in the communal property. The main social unit of the tundra Ch. Was a camp of 3-4 related families; among the poor, the camps could unite families that were not related by kinship; in the camps of large reindeer herders, their workers lived with their families.

Groups of 15-20 camps were linked by mutual aid. The Primorskie Ch. United several families into a kayaking community headed by the kaydar owner. Among the reindeer Ch. There were patrilineal related groups (warat) linked by common customs (blood feud, the transmission of ritual fire, common signs on the face during sacrifices, etc.).

Until the 18th century. patriarchal slavery was known. The family in the past is a large patriarchal, by the end. 19th century - small patrilocal. According to the traditional wedding ceremony, the bride, accompanied by relatives, came to the groom on her reindeer. At the yaranga, a deer was slaughtered and its blood was applied to the bride, the groom and their relatives were put on the face of the groom's generic marks.

The name of the child was usually given 2-3 weeks after birth. There were elements of group marriage ("variable marriage"), labor for the bride, and among the rich, polygamy. The reindeer Ch. Had many problems with a disproportion in the sex structure (there were fewer women than men).

Life of the Chukchi

The main dwelling of the Chukchi is a collapsible cylindro-conical yaranga tent made of reindeer skins in the tundra, and walrus in the seaside.

The vault rested on three poles in the center. Inside, the yaranga was fenced off with curtains in the form of large deaf fur sacks stretched out on poles, illuminated and heated with a stone, clay or wooden fat lamp, on which food was also cooked.

They sat on skins, tree roots or antlers. Dogs were also kept in yarangas. The yaranga of the coastal Chukchi differed from the dwelling of reindeer herders by the absence of a smoke hole. Until the end of the 19th century, the coastal Chukchi retained a semi-dugout borrowed from the Eskimos (valkaran - "house of the jaws of a whale") - on a frame of whale bones covered with turf and earth. In summer they entered it through a hole in the roof, in winter - through a long corridor.

The camps of the nomadic Chukchi consisted of 2-10 yarangas, they were stretched from east to west, the first from the west was the yaranga of the head of the community. The settlements of the coastal Chukchi numbered up to 20 or more yarangas, randomly scattered.

Chukchi

Chukchi or luoravetlana(self-name - ygoravetiet, oravetiet) - a small indigenous people of the extreme northeast of Asia, scattered over a vast territory from the Bering Sea to the Indigirka River and from the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr and Anyuya rivers.

According to the data of the All-Russian population census of 2002 - 15,767 people, according to the All-Russian population census of 2010 - 15,908 people.

The number of Chukchi in Russia:

The number of Chukchi in Russia:

Their name, which they are called by the Russians, Yakuts and Evens, was adapted in the 17th century.

By Russian explorers, the Chukchi word chauchu [ʧawʧəw] (rich in reindeer) is what the Chukchi reindeer breeders call themselves, in contrast to the Primorye Chukchi - dog breeders - ankalyn (seaside, pomors - from anky (sea)). The self-name is oravetԓiet (people, singular oravetԓien) or ԓygoravetԓiet [ɬəɣʔoráwətɬʔǝt] (real people, in the singular ԓygoravetԓien [ɬəɣʔoráwətɬʔǝn] - in the Russian transmission luoravetlan).

Chukchi neighbors are Yukaghirs, Evens, Yakuts and Eskimos (on the shore of the Bering Strait). The Chukchi type is mixed, generally Mongoloid, but with some differences. Eyes with a slanting cut are less common than those with a horizontal cut; the width of the cheekbones is less than that of the Evenks; there are individuals with dense facial hair and wavy, almost curly hair on the head; complexion with a bronze tint; body color is devoid of a yellowish tint.

The mixed type (Asian-American) is confirmed by some legends, myths and differences in the peculiarities of the life of the deer and the coastal Chukchi: the latter, for example, have an American-style dog harness.

The final solution to the question of ethnographic origin depends on the comparative study of the Chukchi language and the languages ​​of the nearest American peoples. One of the experts in the language, V. Bogoraz, found it closely related not only to the language of the Koryaks and Itelmens, but also to the language of the Eskimos. Until very recently, according to the language, the Chukchi were ranked among the Paleoasians, that is, to the group of the outlying peoples of Asia, whose languages ​​stand quite apart from all other linguistic groups of the Asian continent, ousted in very distant times from the middle of the mainland to the northeastern outskirts.

History

The modern ethnogenetic scheme makes it possible to evaluate the Chukchi as the aborigines of continental Chukotka. Their ancestors were formed here at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. NS. The basis of the culture of this population was hunting for wild deer, which in fairly stable natural and climatic conditions existed here until the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. The Chukchi first encountered the Russians in the 17th century on the Alazeya River.

In 1644, the Cossack Mikhail Stadukhin, who was the first to bring news of them to Yakutsk, founded the Nizhnekolymsky prison. The Chukchi, who were roaming both east and west of the Kolyma, after a bloody struggle finally left the left bank of the Kolyma, pushing 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 between the Russians and the Chukchi, whose territory bordered on the Russian one along the Kolyma River in the west and Anadyr in the south, from the Amur Territory, did not stop (for more details, see.

Who are the Chukchi really?

Russian-Chukchi wars).

In 1770, after Shestakov's unsuccessful campaign, the Anadyr prison, which served as the center of the struggle between the Russians and the Chukchi, was destroyed and his team was transferred to Nizhnekolymsk, after which the Chukchi became less hostile to 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 Big Anyui, where, under the protection of the Cossacks, an annual fair for exchange trade with the Chukchi took place.

The Chukchi treated all their neighbors extremely arrogantly, and not a single people in their folklore, with the exception of the Russians and themselves, is called people proper. In the Chukchi myth of the creation of the world, the purpose of the Russians is considered to be the production of tea, tobacco, sugar, salt and iron, and all these trade with the Chukchi. But, for some unknown reason, the Russians despised their destiny and began to fight.

Since 1848, the fair was moved to the Anyui fortress (about 250 km from Nizhnekolymsk, on the banks of the Small Anyui).

Before the first half of the XIX century, when European goods were delivered to the Chukchi territory by the only land route through Yakutsk, the Anyui Fair had a turnover of hundreds of thousands of rubles. The Chukchi brought for sale not only the everyday products of their own catch (clothes made of reindeer furs, reindeer skins, live deer, seal skins, whalebone, skins of polar bears), but also the most expensive furs (beavers, martens, black foxes, blue foxes) , which the so-called nasal Chukchi traded for tobacco from the inhabitants of the shores of the Bering Sea and the northwestern coast of America.

With the appearance of American whalers in the waters of the Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean, as well as with the delivery of goods to Gizhiga by ships of the volunteer fleet (in the 1880s), the largest turnover of the Anyui Fair ceased, and by the end of the 19th century it began to serve only the needs of the local Kolyma bargaining, with a turnover of no more than 25 thousand.

Language and Literature

By origin, the Chukchi language belongs to the Chukchi-Kamchatka group of Paleoasian languages. The closest relatives: Koryak, Kerek (disappeared at the end of the twentieth century), Alyutor, Itelmen, etc. Typologically refers to the incorporating languages ​​(the word-morpheme acquires a specific meaning only depending on the place in the sentence, while it can significantly deform depending on the conjugation with other members of the proposal).

In the 1930s. the Chukchi shepherd Teneville created an original ideographic writing (samples are kept in the Kunstkamera - Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences), which, however, never entered wide use. Since the 1930s. Chukchi use an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet with the addition of several letters. Chukchi literature is created mainly in Russian (Yu.S.

Rytkheu, etc.).

How do modern Chukchi live?

Aleutian

neighboring Chukchi and Eskimos

lives next to the Chukchi

member of the Chukchi and Eskimos

Alaskan Chukchi

northwest of the Chukchi and Koryaks

northwest of the Chukchi

compatriots of the Chukchi and Eskimos

neighbors of Chukchi and Eskimov

neighboring Chukchi and Eskimos

neighboring Chukchi and Eskimos

live next to the Chukchi

(Chukotka.

house of whale jaws), living among the peoples of the shores of the Bering Sea (Eskim, Aleutsi, Chechchi): a semi-skeleton with a skeleton of a large bone, covered with earth and a tent

the essence of plague for the Chukchi

and the plague for the Chukchi and the tip for the Indians

Chukchi profession

Chukkas on a sleigh

Chukchi spirit - the owner of sea animals

suitable neighbors for the Chukchi

southern neighbor Chukchi

between the Chukchi and Enixi

These words were also found for the following requirements:

the capital of the Chukchi

Answer options for your crossword puzzle

Anadyr

Aleutian

ALEUTKA

ALEUTHES

joke

Valkarana

• Culture Vancarania, approx.

  The Vankarani culture existed north of Lake Poopo, now the territory of the Oruro Department in Bolivia, at an altitude of about 4000 meters.

• (Chukchi house of whale jaws) living among the peoples on the coast of the Bering Sea (Eskimos, Aleuts, Chechis): semi-skeleton with a skeleton of large bone bones covered with earth and a tent

KERETKUN

• Chukchi spirit - the owner of sea animals

KORNAKI

KORNACH

NANAITS