Traditional Chukchi items. Chukchi - interesting facts, customs, holidays

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 on another year, the Chukchi performed some kind of ceremony. The boats were removed from the jaws of the whale, on which she lay all winter. Then they went to the sea and brought it a sacrifice in the form of boiled meat. After which the canoe was placed near the home and the whole family walked around it. The next day the procedure was repeated and only after that the boat was launched into the water.

Another Chukchi holiday is the whale holiday. This holiday was held in order to apologize to the killed sea animals and make amends to Keretkun - the owner sea ​​creatures. People dressed in smart clothes, waterproof clothes made from walrus guts and apologized to the walruses, whales and seals. They sang songs about how it was not the hunters who killed them, but the stones that fell from the cliffs. After this, the Chukchi made a sacrifice to the owner of the seas, lowering 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.

The manuscript by K. G. Merck, dedicated to the Chukchi, was acquired by the Imperial Public Library in 1887 and is still kept in its manuscript department. These notes about the campaign through the Chukotka Peninsula (from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the Nizhe-Kolyma fort) represent a description of the region and the ethnography of the peoples inhabiting it.

The manuscript of K. G. Merk, dedicated to the Chukchi, was acquired by the Imperial Public library and is still kept in her manuscript department. These notes about the campaign through the Chukotka Peninsula (from the Bay of St. Lawrence to the Nizhe-Kolyma fort) represent a description of the region and the ethnography of the peoples inhabiting it.

We bring to your attention only selected excerpts from the researcher’s manuscript.

The Chukchi are divided into reindeer and sedentary. Reindeer live all summer until autumn in several families together, near the sedentary camps, and drive their herds to pastures closer to the seashore, several days' journey from their temporary settlements. […] Those from reindeer Chukchi, who settle near sedentary ones, feed all summer only on the meat of sea animals, thereby preserving their herds. The Chukchi store for the winter meat and fat (blub) of sea animals, as well as their skins, whalebone and other things they need. […] Although the reindeer Chukchi give the sedentary people, for the supplies they receive from them, the meat of deer, which they slaughter especially for them, this, in fact, is not an exchange, but rather a kind of compensation at their discretion. […]

The sedentary Chukchi also differ in language from the reindeer Chukchi. The language of the latter is close to Koryak and only slightly differs from it. The settled Chukchi, although they understand the Koryak language, have their own, divided into four dialects and completely different from the Koryak. […]

As for God, they believe that a deity who used to be on earth lives in the sky; they make sacrifices to the latter so that it will keep earthly devils from harming people. But they, in addition, make sacrifices for the same purpose to the devils themselves. However, their religious concepts are very incoherent. You can be more misled by asking the Chukchi about this than by observing their life with your own eyes. However, it can be argued that they fear devils more than they trust any higher being. […]

As for sacrifices, the reindeer Chukchi sacrifice deer, and the sedentary Chukchi sacrifice dogs. When stabbing, they take a handful of blood from the wound and throw it towards the sun. I have often seen such sacrificial dogs on the seashore, lying with their heads towards the water, with the skin left only on the head and legs. This is the gift of the sedentary Chukchi to the sea for the sake of its pacification and a happy voyage. […]

Their shamans perform shamanism by nightfall, sitting in their reindeer yurts in the dark and without much clothing. These activities should be considered as a winter pastime during leisure hours, which, by the way, some women also indulge in. However, not everyone knows how to shamanize, but only some of the reindeer Chukchi and a few more of the settled ones. In this art, they are distinguished by the fact that during their actions they know how to answer or force others to answer in an altered or someone else's dull voice, by which they deceive those present, pretending that the devils answered their questions with their own lips. In case of illness or other circumstances, when they are contacted, shamans can direct the imaginary predictions of the spirits in such a way that the latter always demand a sacrifice of one of the best deer of the herd, which becomes their property with skin and meat. The head of such a deer is put on display. It happens that some of the shamans run around in a circle in a trance, hitting a tambourine, and then, to show their skill, they cut their tongue or allow themselves to be stabbed in the body, not sparing their blood. […] Among the sedentary Chukchi I came across the fact, according to them not so rare, that a male shaman, completely dressed in women’s clothing, lived with a man as a good housewife.

Their dwellings are called yarangas. When the Chukchi stay longer in one place in summer and winter, the yarangas have a larger volume and correspond to the number of canopies that fit in them, which depends on the number of relatives living together. During migrations, the Chukchi divide the yaranga into several smaller parts to make it easier to install. […] For their warm canopies, the Chukchi use six or eight, and the wealthy use up to 15 reindeer skins. The canopies are an uneven quadrangle. To enter, lift the front part and crawl into the canopy. Inside you can kneel or bend over, why only sit or lie in it. […] It cannot be denied that even in simple canopies, in the coldest weather, you can sit naked, warming yourself from the warmth of the lamp and from the fumes of people. […]

In contrast to the yarangas of the reindeer Chukchi, the yarangas of the sedentary Chukchi are covered with walrus skins. The warm canopies of the sedentary Chukchi are bad, and there are always insects in them, since the Chukchi cannot often renew the canopies, and sometimes they are forced to use already abandoned ones.

Chukchi men wear short hair. They moisten them with urine and cut them with a knife, both in order to get rid of lice and so that the hair does not interfere with the fight.

As for men's clothing, it fits snugly to the body and is warm. The Chukchi renew it mostly by winter. […] The Chukchi usually wear trousers made of seal skins, less often of processed deerskin, with underpants, mostly from the skins of young deer. They also wear pants made from pieces of skin from wolf paws, which even have claws left on them. Chukchi short stockings are made of seal skins and the Chukchi wear them with the wool inside until it is cold. In winter, they wear stockings made of long-haired camus. In the summer they wear short boots made of seal skins with the hair facing inward, and against dampness - made of deer skins. In winter, they mostly wear short boots made of camus. […] As insoles in boots, the Chukchi use dry soft grass, as well as shavings from whalebone; Without such insoles, boots do not provide any warmth. The Chukchi wear two fur coats; the lower one remains with them throughout the winter. […] The Chukchi head is often left uncovered all summer, autumn and spring, if the weather permits. If they want to cover their heads, they wear a bandage that goes down to the forehead with a rim of wolf fur. The Chukchi also protect their heads with malakhai. […] over the malakhai they put on, especially in winter, a hood that lies rounded over the shoulders. However, they are worn by younger and wealthier men in order to give themselves a more beautiful view. […] Some Chukchi also wear on their heads, instead of malakhai, the skin torn from the head of a wolf with a muzzle, ears and eye sockets.

In rainy weather and damp fog, which they experience most of the summer, the Chukchi wear raincoats with hoods over their clothes. These raincoats are rectangular pieces of thin skin from the intestines of whales sewn crosswise and look like a folded bag. […] In winter, the Chukchi are forced to beat out their clothes every evening with a mallet cut from horns before entering the yurt in order to clear it of snow. They carry the mallet with them on the sledge. In their tight-fitting clothes that cover all parts of the body well, the Chukchi are not afraid of any cold, although due to their severe frosts, especially with the wind, they freeze their faces. […]

The occupations of men among the reindeer Chukchi are very limited: watch their herd, guard the animals night and day, drive the herd after the train during migrations, separate the sled reindeer, catch the last ones from the circle, harness the reindeer, drive the reindeer into the corral, smoke tobacco, build a weak fire , choose comfortable spot for migrations. […]

One-year-old reindeer, which the Chukchi destined for harness, are castrated in various rather primitive ways. When sucklings are slaughtered in the fall, the females still have some milk for three to four days. The Chukchi milk was brought to us in a tied intestine. They milk the females by sucking, since they do not know any other way of milking, and this method reduces the taste of the milk. […]

The Chukchi also accustom their riding reindeer to urine, just like the Koryaks. Deer love this drink very much, they allow themselves to be lured by it and thereby learn to recognize their owner by his voice. They say that if you feed reindeer moderately with urine, they become more resilient during migrations and get less tired, which is why the Chukchi carry with them a large basin made of leather to urinate in. In the summer, deer are not given urine, as they have no desire for it. In winter, the deer want to drink urine so much that they must be restrained from drinking it in large quantities at a time when women pour out or expose vessels with urine early in the morning from their yarangas. I saw two deer that had drunk too much urine and were so intoxicated that one of them looked like a dead one... and the second, who was very swollen and could not stand on his feet, was first dragged by the Chukchi to the fire so that the smoke would open his nostrils, then they tied him up with belts, buried him up to his head in the snow, scratched his nose until it bled, but since all this did not help at all, they stabbed him to death.

The Chukchi's reindeer herds are not as numerous as those of the Koryaks. […] The Koryaks are also better at hunting wild deer and elk. As for arrows and bows, the Chukchi always have them with them, but they do not have the dexterity of hitting, since they almost never practice this, but are content with how it comes out. […]

The occupations of the sedentary Chukchi consist mainly of hunting sea animals. At the end of September, the Chukchi go hunting for walruses. They kill so many of them that even polar bears are not able to devour them all over the winter. […] The Chukchi go at the walruses together, several people at a time, run at them screaming, throw a harpoon with a throw, while others pull on a five-fathom-long belt attached to the harpoon. If a wounded animal manages to go under water, the Chukchi overtake it and finish it off in the chest with iron spears. […] If the Chukchi slaughter an animal on the water or if a wounded animal throws itself into the water and dies there, then they take only its meat, and the skeleton remains mostly with fangs and is immersed in the water. Meanwhile, it would be possible to pull out a skeleton with fangs and exchange it for tobacco, if the Chukchi did not spare the labor for this. […]

They hunt bears with spears and claim that polar bears, which are hunted on the water, are easier to kill than brown bears, which are much more agile. […]

About their military campaigns. The Chukchi direct their raids mainly against the Koryaks, with whom they still cannot forget their enmity, and in former times they opposed the Yukaghirs, who with their help were almost destroyed. Their goal is to rob deer. Attacks on enemy yarangas always begin at dawn. Some throw lassoes at the yarangas and try to destroy them, pulling out the posts, others at this time pierce the canopy of the yaranga with spears, and still others, quickly driving up to the herd on their light sledges, divide it into parts and drive away. […] For the same purpose, that is, robbery, sedentary Chukchi move on their canoes to America, attack camps, kill men and take women and children as prisoners; As a result of the attack on the Americans, they partially receive furs, which they exchange with the Russians. Thanks to the sale of American women to the reindeer Chukchi and other trade transactions, the sedentary Chukchi turn into the reindeer Chukchi and can sometimes roam with the reindeer Chukchi, although they are never respected by the latter.

Among the Chukchi, Koryaks and isolated Yukaghirs are also found as workers. The Chukchi marry them to their poor women; and the settled ones also often take captive American women as wives. […]

The woman's hair is braided on the sides into two braids, which they mostly tie at the ends at the back. As for their tattoos, women tattoo with iron, some with triangular needles. Elongated pieces of iron are pierced over the lamp and shaped into a needle, dipping the point into boiled moss from lamps mixed with fat, then into graphite rubbed with urine. The graphite with which the Chukchi rub the threads from the veins when tattooing is found in abundance in pieces on the river near their Puukhta camp. They tattoo with a needle with dyed thread, which leaves blackness under the skin. The slightly swollen area is smeared with fat.

Even before the age of ten, they tattoo girls first in two lines - along the forehead and along the nose, then a tattoo follows on the chin, then on the cheeks, and when the girls get married (or around 17 years old), they tattoo the outside of the forearm to the neck with various linear figures. Less often they indicate a tattoo on women’s shoulder blades or pubic area. […]

Women's clothing fits the body, falls below the knees, where it is tied, forming, as it were, pants. They put it on over the head. Her sleeves do not taper, but remain loose. They, like the neckline, are trimmed with dog fur. This clothing is worn double. […] over the above-mentioned clothing the Chukchi wear a wide fur shirt with a hood, reaching to the knees. They wear it on holidays, when traveling to visit, and also during migrations. They put it on with the wool on the inside, and the more prosperous also wear a second one - with the wool on the outside. […]

Women's occupations: caring for food supplies, processing hides, sewing clothes.

Their food comes from deer, which they slaughter in late autumn, while these animals are still fat. The Chukchi save reindeer meat in pieces as a reserve. While they live in one place, they smoke meat over smoke in their yarangas, eat the meat with ice cream, breaking it into small pieces on a stone with a stone hammer. […] They consider bone marrow, fresh and frozen, fat and tongue the most delicious. The Chukchi also use the contents of a deer’s stomach and its blood. […] For vegetation, the Chukchi use willows, of which there are two types. […] In willows of both species they rip off the bark of the roots, and less often the bark of the trunks. They eat bark with blood, whale oil and the meat of wild animals. Boiled willow leaves are stored in seal bags and eaten with lard in winter. […] To dig up various roots, women use a hoe made from a walrus tusk or a piece of deer antlers. The Chukchi also collect boiled seaweed, which they eat with sour lard, blood and stomach contents of reindeer.

Marriage among the Chukchi. If the matchmaker has received the consent of the parents, then he sleeps with his daughter in the same canopy; if he manages to take possession of her, then the marriage is concluded. If the girl does not have a disposition towards him, then she invites several of her girlfriends to her place that night, who are fighting with the guest women's weapons- arms and legs.

A Koryak woman sometimes makes her boyfriend suffer for a long time. For several years the groom tries in vain to achieve his goal, although he remains in the yaranga, carries firewood, guards the herd and does not refuse any work, and others, in order to test the groom, tease him, even beat him, which he patiently endures until the moment female weakness does not reward him.

Sometimes the Chukchi allow sexual relations between children who grow up with parents or relatives for later marriage.

The Chukchi do not seem to take more than four wives, more often two or three, while the less wealthy are satisfied with one. If a wife dies, the husband takes her sister. Little brothers They marry the widows of their elders, but it is contrary to their customs for the elder to marry the widow of the younger. A barren Chukchi wife is soon kicked out without any complaints from her relatives, and you often meet young women who are thus given to their fourth husband. […]

Chukotka women do not have any help during childbirth, and, they say, often die in the process. During menstruation, women are considered unclean; men refrain from communicating with them, believing that this results in back pain.

Wife Exchange. If husbands conspire to seal their friendship in this way, they ask the consent of their wives, who do not refuse their request. When both parties have agreed in this way, the men sleep without asking, interspersed with other people’s wives, if they live close to each other, or when they come to visit each other. The Chukchi exchange their wives for the most part with one or two, but there are instances where they receive a similar relationship with ten at the same time, since their wives do not seem to consider such an exchange undesirable. But women, especially among the Reindeer Chukchi, are less likely to be prone to betrayal. They usually do not tolerate other people’s jokes on this matter, they take everything seriously and spit in the face or give free rein to their hands.

The Koryaks do not know such an exchange of wives; They are jealous and betrayal of their husband was once punished by death, now only by exile.

In this custom, Chukchi children obey other people's fathers. As for mutual drinking of urine during the exchange of wives, this is a fiction, the reason for which could be washing the face and hands with urine. During the scanty autumn migrations, such a guest often came to our hostess, and her husband then went to the latter’s wife or slept in another canopy. Both of them showed little ceremony, and if they wanted to satisfy their passions, they would send us out of the canopy.

Sedentary Chukchi also exchange wives among themselves, but reindeer do not exchange wives with sedentary ones, and reindeer do not marry the daughters of sedentary people, considering them unworthy of themselves. The wives of the reindeer would never agree to an exchange with the settled ones. However, this does not prevent the reindeer Chukchi from sleeping with the wives of the settled ones, to which their own wives They don’t look askance, but the reindeer Chukchi do not allow the settled ones to do the same. The settled Chukchi also provide their wives to foreigners, but this is not proof of their friendship for them and not out of a desire to receive offspring from foreigners. This is done out of self-interest: the husband receives a pack of tobacco, the wife a string of beads for her neck, several strings of beads for her hand, and if they want to be luxurious, then also earrings, and then the deal is concluded. […]

If Chukchi men feel the approach of death, they often order themselves to be stabbed - the duty of a friend; both brothers and sons are not upset by his death, but rather rejoice that he found enough courage not to expect a woman’s death, as they put it, but managed to escape the torment of the devils.

The Chukchi corpse is dressed in clothes made of white or spotted deer fur. The corpse remains in the yaranga for 24 hours, and before it is taken out, they try the head several times, lifting it until they find it light; and while their head is heavy, it seems to them that the deceased has forgotten something on the ground and does not want to leave it, which is why they put some food, needles and the like in front of the deceased. They carry out the corpse not through the door, but next to it, lifting the edge of the yaranga. When carrying out the deceased, one goes and pours the remaining fat from the lamp that burned for 24 hours near the corpse, as well as paint from alder bark, onto the road.

To be burned, the corpse is taken several miles from the yaranga to a hill, and before burning it is opened in such a way that the entrails fall out. This is done to make burning easier.

In memory of the deceased, they cover the place where the corpse was burned in an oval shape with stones, which should resemble the figure of a person; at the head and at the feet, they place a larger stone, of which the top one lies to the south and should represent the head. […] The deer on which the deceased was transported are slaughtered on the spot, their meat is eaten, the head stone is coated underneath with bone marrow or fat, and the antlers are left in the same heap. Every year the Chukchi remember their dead; if the Chukchi are nearby at this time, then they slaughter deer at this place, and if far away, from five to ten sledges of relatives and friends go to this place every year, make a fire, throw bone marrow into the fire, and say: “Eat this.” , help themselves, smoke tobacco and place cleaned antlers on a pile.

The Chukchi mourn their dead children. In our yaranga, shortly before our arrival, a girl died; her mother mourned her every morning in front of the yaranga, and the singing was replaced by howling. […]

To add something more about these natives, let us say that the Chukchi are more often than average in height, but it is not so rare to find Chukchi who reach six feet in height; they are slender, strong, resilient and live to a ripe old age. Sedentary animals are not much inferior to reindeer animals in this regard. The harsh climate, the severe frosts to which they are constantly exposed, their food is partly raw, partly slightly cooked, which they almost always have in abundance, and physical exercise, from which they avoid almost no evening, so long as the weather permits, their few occupations giving them the advantage of strength, health and endurance. Among them you will not find a fat belly, like the Yakuts. […]

These men are brave when confronted by the masses, less afraid of death than of cowardice. […] In general, the Chukchi are free, they engage in exchanges without thinking about politeness; if they don’t like something or what is offered in exchange seems too insignificant, then they easily spit on it. They achieved great dexterity in theft, especially the sedentary ones. To be forced to live among them is a real lesson in patience. […]

The Chukchi seem kind and helpful and demand in return everything they see and want; they do not know what is called swinishness; they relieve their need in their curtains, and what is most unpleasant about this is that they force strangers, often even with a push, to pour urine into a cup; they crush lice with their teeth in a race with their wives - men from their pants, and women from their hair.

A little more about Chukotka beauties. Women of the Reindeer Chukchi are chaste by habit; sedentary women represent the complete opposite of them in this, however, nature has provided the latter with more beautiful features. Both of them are not very shy, although they do not understand it. In conclusion, another addition about the Koryaks. These natives are unsightly, small, and even their secret machinations are reflected on their faces; They forget every gift immediately upon receipt - they insult with death, like the Chukchi, and in general this seems more characteristic of Asia. We must always be in accordance with their mood, so as not to make them enemies; you won’t get anything from them with orders and cruelty; if they are sometimes punished by beatings, then you will not hear any screams or requests from them. The Reindeer Koryaks consider a blow worse than death; For them, taking their own life is the same as going to sleep. […] These natives are cowardly; They not only left the Cossacks of the local forts to the mercy of fate, who were in trouble when the latter were more than once forced to act against the Chukchi because of the Koryaks, but even in those cases when the Cossacks had to flee with them, the Koryaks cut off their fingers, so that the Cossacks could not hold on to the sledges. According to written evidence, in general, the Koryaks killed many more Cossacks while sleeping than the Chukchi during the day with their arrows and spears.

However, is not the reason for their behavior that the Cossacks of these remote regions consider them more as slaves created for them than as subjects standing under the scepter of the greatest monarchy, and treat them accordingly. Thoughtful bosses would have to discourage this if they did not think it would be easier to satisfy their own interests.

Their women apparently never comb their hair. The soiling of their clothes should seem to serve as a guarantee of their chastity for jealous husbands, although their face, which can rarely claim even a shadow of charm, never smiles when looking at a stranger.

K. G. Merck translation from German by Z. Titova

Chukchi, Chukots or Luoravetlans. 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 Anyui rivers. The number according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2002 is 15,767 people, according to the All-Russian Population Census of 2010 - 15,908 people.

Origin

Their name, which the Russians, Yakuts and Evens call them, was adapted in the 17th century. Russian explorers used the Chukchi word chauchu [ʧawʧəw] (rich in deer), by which name the Chukchi reindeer herders call themselves in contrast to the coastal Chukchi dog breeders - ankalyn (seaside, Pomors - from anki (sea)). Self-name - oravet'et (people, in singular oravet'en) or ԓыгъоravеt'ет [ɬəɣʔoráwətɬʔǝt] (real people, in the singular ԓыгъоravет'е'е'н [ɬəɣʔoráwətɬʔǝn] - in the Russian translation luoravetlan). The neighbors of the Chukchi are the Yukaghirs, Evens, Yakuts and Eskimos (on the shores of the Bering Strait).

The mixed type (Asian-American) is confirmed by some legends, myths and differences in the peculiarities of life of the reindeer and coastal Chukchi: the latter, for example, have an American-style dog harness. The final solution to the question of ethnographic origin depends on comparative study the Chukchi language and the languages ​​of nearby American nationalities. One of the language experts, 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, based on their language, the Chukchi were classified as Paleo-Asians, that is, a group of marginal peoples of Asia, whose languages ​​stand completely apart from all the others. linguistic groups The Asian continent, pushed out in very distant times from the middle of the continent to the northeastern outskirts.

Anthropology

The Chukchi type is mixed, generally Mongoloid, but with some differences. 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; large, regular facial features, high and straight forehead; the nose is large, straight, sharply defined; the eyes are large and widely spaced. Some researchers noted the height, strength and broad shoulders of the Chukchi. Genetically, the Chukchi reveal their relationship with the Yakuts and Nenets: Haplogroup N (Y-DNA)1c1 is found in 50% of the population, and Haplogroup C (Y-DNA) (close to the Ainu and Itelmen) is also widespread.

Story

The modern ethnogenetic scheme allows us to evaluate the Chukchi as the aborigines of continental Chukotka. Their ancestors formed here at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. The basis of the culture of this population was hunting for wild deer, which existed here in fairly stable natural and climatic conditions until the end of the 17th century. early XVIII centuries. The Chukchi encountered Russians for the first time back in XVII century on the Alazeya River. In 1644, the Cossack Mikhail 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, after a bloody struggle finally left the left bank of the Kolyma, pushing back the Eskimo tribe of the 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 Russians and Chukchi have not stopped, whose territory bordered on Russia along the Kolyma River in the west and Anadyr in the south, from the Amur region (for more details, see Annexation of Chukotka to Russia).

In 1770, after a series of military campaigns, including the unsuccessful campaign of Shestakov (1730), the Anadyr fort, which served as the center of the Russian struggle against the Chukchi, was destroyed and its team was transferred to Nizhnekolymsk, after which the Chukchi became less hostile to the Russians and gradually began to join into trade relations with them. In 1775, on the Angarka River, a tributary of the Bolshoi Anyui, the Angarsk fortress was built, where, under the protection of the Cossacks, an annual fair for barter trade with the Chukchi took place.

Since 1848, the fair was moved to the Anyui fortress (about 250 km from Nizhnekolymsk, on the banks of the Maly Anyui). Until the first half of the 19th century century, when European goods were delivered to the territory of the Chukchi 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 ordinary products of their own production (clothing made from reindeer fur, reindeer skins, live deer, seal skins, whalebone, polar bear skins), but also the most expensive furs - sea otters, martens, black foxes, blue foxes, which the so-called nose Chukchi exchanged for tobacco with the inhabitants of the shores of the Bering Sea and the northwestern coast of America.

With the advent 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 voluntary 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 trading, having a turnover of no more than 25 thousand rubles.

Farm

Initially, the Chukchi were simply reindeer hunters, but over time (shortly before the arrival of the Russians) they mastered reindeer husbandry, which became the basis of their economy.

The main occupation of the coastal Chukchi is hunting sea animals: in winter and spring - seals and seals, in summer and autumn - walruses and whales. They hunted seals alone, crawling up to them, camouflaging themselves and imitating the movements of the animal. The walrus was hunted in groups of several canoes. Traditional hunting weapons - a harpoon with a float, a spear, a belt net, spread from the second half of the 19th century firearms, hunting methods have become simpler.

Life of the Chukchi

In the 19th century, Chukchi reindeer herders lived in camps of 2-3 houses. Migrations were carried out as the reindeer food became depleted. In the summer, some go down to the sea. The Chukchi clan is agnatic, united by the commonality of fire, consanguinity in the male line, a common totem sign, family revenge and religious rites. Marriage is predominantly endogamous, individual, often polygamous (2-3 wives); among a certain circle of relatives and brothers-in-arms, mutual use of wives is allowed, by agreement; levirate is also common. Kalym does not exist. Chastity does not matter for a girl.

The dwelling - yaranga - is a large tent of irregular polygonal shape, covered with panels of reindeer skins, with the fur facing out. Resistance against wind pressure is provided by stones tied to the pillars and cover of the hut. The fireplace is in the middle of the hut and surrounded by sleighs with household supplies. The actual living space, where the Chukchi eat, drink and sleep, consists of a small rectangular fur tent-canopy, fixed at the back wall of the tent and sealed tightly from the floor. The temperature in this cramped room, heated by the animal warmth of its inhabitants and partly by a fat lamp, is so high that the Chukchi strip naked in it.

Until the end of the 20th century, the Chukchi distinguished between heterosexual men, heterosexual men who wore women's clothing, homosexual men who wore women's clothing, heterosexual women and women who wore men's clothing. At the same time, wearing clothes could also mean performing corresponding social functions.

Chukchi clothing is of the usual polar type. It is sewn from the fur of fawns (grown up autumn calf) and for men consists of a double fur shirt (the lower one with the fur towards the body and the upper one with the fur outward), the same double pants, short fur stockings with the same boots and a hat in the form of a woman's bonnet. Women's clothing is completely unique, also double, consisting of seamlessly sewn trousers together with a low-cut bodice, cinched at the waist, with a slit on the chest and extremely wide sleeves, thanks to which Chukchi women can easily free their hands while working. Summer outerwear They wear robes made of reindeer suede or colorful purchased fabrics, as well as kamleykas made of fine-haired deer skin with various ritual stripes. Costume infant consists of a reindeer bag with blind branches for arms and legs. Instead of diapers, a layer of moss with reindeer hair is placed, which absorbs feces, which are removed daily through a special valve attached to the opening of the bag.

Women's hairstyles consist of braids braided on both sides of the head, decorated with beads and buttons. 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.

Wooden, stone and iron tools

In the 18th century stone axes, spear and arrowheads, and bone knives were almost completely replaced with metal ones. Utensils, tools and weapons are currently used mainly European (metal cauldrons, teapots, iron knives, guns, etc.), but even today in the life of the Chukchi there are many remnants of recent primitive culture: bone shovels, hoes, drills, bone and stone arrows, spearheads, etc., a compound bow of the American type, slings made of knuckles, armor made of leather and iron plates, stone hammers, scrapers, knives, a primitive projectile for making fire by means of friction, primitive lamps in the form of a round flat vessel made of soft stone, filled with seal fat, etc. Their light sleds, with arched supports instead of spears, adapted only for sitting astride them, have been preserved primitive. The sled is harnessed either to a pair of reindeer (among the reindeer Chukchi), or to dogs, according to the American model (among the coastal Chukchi).

With the advent of Soviet power, populated areas schools, hospitals, and cultural institutions appeared. A written language was created. The Chukchi literacy level (ability to write and read) does not differ from the national average.

Chukotka cuisine

The basis of the Chukchi diet was boiled meat (reindeer, seal, whale); they also ate leaves and bark of the polar willow (emrat), seaweed, sorrel, shellfish and berries. In addition to traditional meat, the blood and entrails of animals were also used as food. Raw-frozen meat was widespread. Unlike the Tungus and Yukagirs, the Chukchi practically did not eat fish. Among the drinks, the Chukchi preferred herbal decoctions such as tea.

A unique dish is the so-called monyalo - half-digested moss extracted from a large deer stomach; Various canned food and fresh dishes are made from monyal. Semi-liquid stew made from monyal, blood, fat and finely chopped meat until very recently was the most common type of hot food.

Holidays

The reindeer Chukchi held several holidays: the slaughter of young reindeer in August, the installation of a winter home (feeding the constellation Pegyttin - the star Altair and Zore from the constellation Eagle), the division of herds in the spring (separation of the female deer from the young bulls), the festival of horns (Kilvey) in the spring after the calving of the female reindeer, sacrifices to fire, etc. Once or twice a year, each family celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday.

Chukchi religion

The religious beliefs of the Chukchi are expressed in amulets (pendants, headbands, necklaces in the form of straps with beads). Painting the face with the blood of the murdered victim, with the image of a hereditary-tribal sign - a totem, also has ritual significance. The original pattern on the quivers and clothes of the coastal Chukchi is of Eskimo origin; from the Chukchi it passed to many polar peoples of Asia.

According to their beliefs, the Chukchi are animists; they personify and idolize certain areas and natural phenomena (masters of the forest, water, fire, sun, deer, etc.), many animals (bear, crow), stars, sun and moon, believe in hosts of evil spirits that cause all earthly disasters, including illness and death, have whole line regular holidays (autumn festival of deer slaughter, spring festival of antlers, winter sacrifice to the star Altair, the ancestor of the Chukchi, etc.) and many irregular ones (feeding the fire, sacrifices after each hunt, commemoration of the dead, votive services, etc.). Each family, in addition, has its own family shrines: hereditary projectiles for producing sacred fire through friction for famous festivals, one for each family member (the bottom plate of the projectile represents a figure with the head of the owner of fire), then bundles of wooden knots of “misfortune removers”, wooden images of ancestors and, finally, a family tambourine, since the Chukchi ritual with a tambourine is not the property of only specialist shamans. The latter, having sensed their calling, experience a preliminary period of a kind of involuntary temptation, fall into deep thought, wander without food or sleep for whole days until they receive real inspiration. Some die from this crisis; some receive a suggestion to change their gender, that is, a man should turn into a woman, and vice versa. Those transformed take on the clothing and lifestyle of their new gender, even marrying, getting married, etc.

The dead are either burned or wrapped in layers of raw deer meat and left in the field, after first cutting into the throat and chest of the deceased and pulling out part of the heart and liver. First, the deceased is dressed, fed and told fortunes, forcing him to answer questions. Old people often kill themselves in advance or, at their request, are killed by close relatives.

A baydara is a boat built without a single nail, effective for hunting sea animals.
Most Chukchi by the beginning of the 20th century were baptized in Russian Orthodox Church, however, among the nomads there are remnants traditional beliefs(shamanism).

Voluntary death

Difficult living conditions and malnutrition led to such a phenomenon as voluntary death.

Anticipating many speculations, the ethnographer writes:

The reason for the voluntary death of old people is not the lack of good attitude towards them on the part of relatives, but rather the difficult conditions of their life. These conditions make life completely unbearable for anyone who is unable to take care of themselves. Not only the elderly resort to voluntary death, but also those suffering from some incurable disease. The number of such patients dying a voluntary death is no less than the number of old people.

Folklore

The Chukchi have a rich oral folk art, which is also expressed in the art of stone bone. The main genres of folklore: myths, fairy tales, historical legends, tales and everyday stories. One of the main characters was the raven - Kurkyl, culture hero. Many legends and fairy tales have been preserved, such as “Keeper of the Fire”, “Love”, “When do the whales leave?”, “God and the Boy”. Let's give an example of the latter:

One family lived in the tundra: a father, a mother, and two children, a boy and a girl. The boy herded the reindeer, and the girl helped her mother with housework. One morning, the father woke up his daughter and ordered her to light a fire and make tea.

The girl came out of the canopy, and God caught her and ate her, and then ate her father and mother. The boy returned from the herd. Before entering the yaranga, I looked through the hole to see what was going on there. And he sees God sitting on an extinguished fireplace and playing in the ashes. The boy shouted to him: “Hey, what are you doing?” - Nothing, come here. A boy entered the yaranga and they began to play. The boy plays, and he looks around, looking for his relatives. He understood everything and said to God: “Play alone, I’ll go to the wind!” He ran out of the yaranga. He untied the two most evil dogs and ran with them into the forest. He climbed a tree and tied the dogs under the tree. God played and played, he wanted to eat and went to look for the boy. He goes and sniffs the trail. I reached the tree. He wanted to climb a tree, but the dogs caught him, tore him into pieces and ate him.

And the boy came home with his herd and became the owner.

Historical legends have preserved stories about wars with neighboring Eskimo tribes.

Folk dances

Despite the difficult living conditions, the people found time for holidays, where the tambourine was not only ritual, but also simply musical instrument, the tunes of which were passed on from generation to generation. Archaeological evidence suggests that dances existed among the ancestors of the Chukchi back in the 1st millennium BC. This is evidenced by petroglyphs discovered beyond the Arctic Circle in Chukotka and studied by archaeologist N. N. Dikov.

All dances can be divided into ritual-ritual, imitative-imitative dances, staged dances (pantomimes), playful and improvisational (individual), as well as dances of the reindeer and coastal Chukchi.

A striking example of ritual dances was the celebration of the “First Slaughter of the Deer”:

After the meal, all the tambourines belonging to the family, hanging on the poles of the threshold behind a curtain of raw skins, are removed, and the ritual begins. The tambourines are played by all family members in turn for the rest of the day. When all the adults finish, children take their place and, in turn, continue to beat the tambourines. While playing tambourines, many adults call upon “spirits” and try to induce them to enter their body….

Imitative dances were also common, reflecting the habits of animals and birds: “Crane”, “Crane looks for food”, “Crane Flight”, “Crane looks around”, “Swan”, “Seagull Dance”, “Raven”, “Bull (deer) fight )", "Dance of the Ducks", "Bullfight during the Rut", "Looking Out", "Running of the Deer".

Trade dances played a special role as a type of group marriage, as V. G. Bogoraz writes, they served on the one hand new connection between families, on the other hand, old family ties are strengthened.

Language, writing and literature

Main article: Chukchi writing
By origin, the Chukchi language belongs to the Chukchi-Kamchatka group of Paleo-Asian languages. Closest relatives: Koryak, Kerek (disappeared at the end of the 20th century), Alyutor, Itelmen, etc. Typologically, it belongs to the incorporating languages ​​(a word-morpheme acquires a specific meaning only depending on its place in the sentence, and can be significantly deformed depending on the conjugation with other members of the sentence).

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 came into widespread use. Since the 1930s The Chukchi use an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet with the addition of a few letters. Chukotka literature is created mainly in Russian (Yu. S. Rytkheu and others).

We are all accustomed to considering representatives of this people as naive and peace-loving inhabitants of the Far North. They say that throughout their history the Chukchi grazed herds of deer in permafrost conditions, hunted walruses, and played tambourines as entertainment. The anecdotal image of a simpleton who keeps saying the word “however” is so far from reality that it is truly shocking. Meanwhile, in the history of the Chukchi there are many unexpected turns, and their way of life and customs still cause controversy among ethnographers. How are representatives of this people so different from other inhabitants of the tundra?

Call themselves real people

The Chukchi are the only people whose mythology openly justifies nationalism. The fact is that their ethnonym comes from the word “chauchu”, which in the language of the northern aborigines means the owner of a large number of deer (rich man). This word Russian colonialists heard from them. But this is not the self-name of the people.

“Luoravetlans” is how the Chukchi call themselves, which translates as “real people.” They always treated neighboring peoples arrogantly, and considered themselves special chosen ones of the gods. In their myths, the Luoravetlans called the Evenks, Yakuts, Koryaks, and Eskimos those whom the gods created for slave labor.

According to the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, the total number of Chukchi is only 15 thousand 908 people. And although this people was never numerous, skilled and formidable warriors, in difficult conditions, managed to conquer vast territories from the Indigirka River in the west to the Bering Sea in the east. Their lands are comparable in area to the territory of Kazakhstan.

Painting faces with blood

The Chukchi are divided into two groups. Some are engaged in reindeer herding (nomadic herders), others hunt sea animals, for the most part they hunt walruses, since they live on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. But these are the main activities. Reindeer herders also engage in fishing; they hunt for arctic foxes and other fur-bearing animals of the tundra.

After a successful hunt, the Chukchi paint their faces with the blood of the killed animal, while depicting the sign of their ancestral totem. These people then make a ritual sacrifice to the spirits.

Fought with the Eskimos

The Chukchi have always been skilled warriors. Imagine how much courage it takes to go out into the ocean on a boat and attack walruses? However, not only animals became victims of representatives of this people. They often made predatory trips to the Eskimos, moving to the neighboring North America through the Bering Strait on their boats made of wood and walrus skins.

From military campaigns, skilled warriors brought not only stolen goods, but also slaves, giving preference to young women.

It is interesting that in 1947 the Chukchi once again decided to go to war against the Eskimos, then only by a miracle was it possible to avoid an international conflict between the USSR and the USA, because representatives of both peoples were officially citizens of the two superpowers.

Koryaks were robbed

Over the course of their history, the Chukchi have managed to quite annoy not only the Eskimos. So, they often attacked the Koryaks, taking away their reindeer. It is known that from 1725 to 1773 the invaders appropriated about 240 thousand (!) heads of other people's livestock. Actually, the Chukchi took up reindeer herding after they robbed their neighbors, many of whom had to hunt for food.

Having crept up to the Koryak settlement in the night, the invaders pierced their yarangas with spears, trying to immediately kill all the owners of the herd before they woke up.

Tattoos in honor of slain enemies

The Chukchi covered their bodies with tattoos dedicated to their killed enemies. After the victory, the warrior applied to back side wrists right hand as many points as he sent opponents to the next world. Some experienced fighters had so many defeated enemies that the dots merged into a line running from the wrist to the elbow.

They preferred death to captivity

Chukotka women always carried knives with them. They needed sharp blades not only in everyday life, but also in case of suicide. Since captured people automatically became slaves, the Chukchi preferred death to such a life. Having learned about the victory of the enemy (for example, the Koryaks who came to take revenge), mothers first killed their children, and then themselves. As a rule, they threw themselves with their chests on knives or spears.

Losing warriors lying on the battlefield asked their opponents for death. Moreover, they did it in an indifferent tone. My only wish was not to delay.

Won the war with Russia

The Chukchi are the only people of the Far North who fought with Russian Empire and won the victory. The first colonizers of those places were the Cossacks, led by Ataman Semyon Dezhnev. In 1652 they built the Anadyr fortress. Other adventurers followed them to the lands of the Arctic. The warlike northerners did not want to coexist peacefully with the Russians, much less pay taxes to the imperial treasury.

The war began in 1727 and lasted more than 30 years. Heavy fighting in difficult conditions, partisan sabotage, cunning ambushes, as well as mass suicides of Chukchi women and children - all this made the Russian troops falter. In 1763, the army units of the empire were forced to leave the Anadyr fort.

Soon British and French ships appeared off the coast of Chukotka. There is a real danger that these lands will be captured by long-time opponents, having managed to come to an agreement with the local population without a fight. Empress Catherine II decided to act more diplomatically. She provided the Chukchi with tax benefits, and literally showered their rulers with gold. The Russian residents of the Kolyma region were ordered, “... not to irritate the Chukchi in any way, under pain, otherwise, of liability in a military court.”

This peaceful approach turned out to be much more effective than a military operation. In 1778, the Chukchi, appeased by the imperial authorities, accepted Russian citizenship.

They coated the arrows with poison

The Chukchi were excellent with their bows. They smeared the arrowheads with poison; even a slight wound doomed the victim to a slow, painful and inevitable death.

Tambourines were covered with human skin

The Chukchi fought to the sound of tambourines covered not with deer (as was customary), but with human skin. Such music terrified enemies. Russian soldiers and officers who fought with the aborigines of the north spoke about this. The colonialists explained their defeat in the war by the special cruelty of the representatives of this people.

Warriors could fly

The Chukchi, during hand-to-hand combat, flew across the battlefield, landing behind enemy lines. How did they jump 20-40 meters and then be able to fight? Scientists still don't know the answer to this question. Probably, skilled warriors used special devices like trampolines. This technique often allowed him to win victories, because his opponents did not understand how to resist him.

Owned slaves

The Chukchi owned slaves until the 40s of the 20th century. Women and men from poor families were often sold for debt. They did dirty and hard work, just like the captured Eskimos, Koryaks, Evenks, and Yakuts.

Swap wives

The Chukchi entered into so-called group marriages. They included several ordinary monogamous families. Men could exchange wives. This form social relations was additional guarantee survival in harsh permafrost conditions. If one of the participants in such a union died while hunting, then there was someone to take care of his widow and children.

A nation of comedians

The Chukchi could survive, find shelter and food, if they had the ability to make people laugh. Folk comedians moved from camp to camp, amusing everyone with their jokes. They were respected and highly valued for their talent.

Diapers were invented

The Chukchi were the first to invent the prototype of modern diapers. They used a layer of moss with reindeer hair as an absorbent material. The newborn was dressed in a kind of overalls, changing an improvised diaper several times a day. Life in the harsh north forced people to be inventive.

Changed gender by order of the spirits

Chukchi shamans could change gender at the direction of the spirits. The man began to wear women's clothes and behave accordingly, sometimes he literally got married. But the shaman, on the contrary, adopted the style of behavior of the stronger sex. According to Chukchi beliefs, spirits sometimes demanded such reincarnation from their servants.

Old people died voluntarily

Chukotka elders, not wanting to be a burden to their children, often agreed to voluntary death. The famous ethnographer Vladimir Bogoraz (1865-1936) in his book “Chukchi” noted that the reason for the emergence of such a custom was not a bad attitude towards older people, but difficult conditions life and lack of food.

Seriously ill Chukchi often chose voluntary death. As a rule, such people were killed by strangulation by their closest relatives.