Chukchi people
Luoravetlan | |
|---|---|
 Chukchi family and theirSiberian Husky,early 20th century | |
| Total population | |
| 16,241 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Russia | 16,200[1] |
| Chukotka Autonomous Okrug | 13,292[1] |
| Ukraine | 30[2] |
| Estonia | 11[3] |
| Languages | |
| Russian,Chukchi | |
| Religion | |
| Shamanism,Russian Orthodoxy | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| otherChukotko-Kamchatkan peoples | |
TheChukchi,orChukchee(Chukot:Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэт, О'равэтԓьэт,Ḷygʺoravètḷʹèt, O'ravètḷʹèt), are aSiberian ethnic groupnative to theChukchi Peninsula,the shores of theChukchi Seaand theBering Searegion of theArctic Ocean[4]all within modernRussia.They speak theChukchi language.The Chukchi originated from the people living around theOkhotsk Sea.
According to several studies on genomic research conduct from 2014 to 2018, the Chukchi are the closest Asian relatives of theindigenous peoples of the Americasas well as of theAinu people,being the descendants of settlers who neithercrossed the Bering Straitnor settled the Japanese archipelago.[5][6]
Cultural history[edit]
The majority of Chukchi reside withinChukotka Autonomous Okrug,but some also reside in the neighboringSakha Republicto the west,Magadan Oblastto the southwest, andKamchatka Kraito the south. Some Chukchi also reside in other parts of Russia, as well as inEuropeandNorth America.The total number of Chukchi in the world slightly exceeds 16,000.[7]
The Chukchi are traditionally divided into theMaritime Chukchi,who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily fromsea mammalhunting, and theReindeer Chukchi,who lived as nomads in the inlandtundraregion, migrating seasonally with their herds ofreindeer.The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi wordChauchu( "rich in reindeer" ), which was used by the 'Reindeer Chukchi' to distinguish themselves from the 'Maritime Chukchi,' calledAnqallyt( "the sea people" ). Their name for a member of the Chukchi ethnic group as a whole isLuoravetlan(literally 'genuine person').[8]
The anthropologistMarshall Sahlinscalled the Chukchi "tribes without rulers". They often lacked formal political structures, but had a formal cosmic hierarchy.[9]
In Chukchi religion, every object, whether animate or inanimate, is assigned a spirit. This spirit can be either harmful or benevolent. Some of Chukchi myths reveal adualistic cosmology.[10][11]A Chukchishamanonce explained to theethnographerVladimir Bogorazthat "The lamp walks around. The walls of the house have voices of their own.... Even the shadows on the wall constitute definite tribes and have their own country, where they live in huts andsubsistby hunting. "[12]
After thecollapse of the Soviet Union,the state-run farms were reorganized and nominally privatized. This process was ultimately destructive to the village-based economy in Chukotka. The region has still not fully recovered. Many rural Chukchi, as well as Russians in Chukotka's villages, have survived in recent years[when?]only with the help of direct humanitarian aid. Some Chukchi have attained university degrees, becoming poets, writers, politicians, teachers and doctors.[13]
Subsistence[edit]
In prehistoric times, the Chukchi engaged in nomadic hunter gatherer modes of existence. In current times, there continue to be some elements of subsistence hunting, including that ofpolar bears,[14]seals,walruses,whales,andreindeer.There are some differences between the traditional lifestyles of the coastal and inland Chukchi. The coastal Chukchi were largely settled fishers and hunters, mainly of sea mammals. The inland Chukchi were partial reindeer herders.[15]
Beginning in the 1920s, theSovietsorganized the economic activities of both coastal and inland Chukchi and eventually established 28 collectively run, state-owned enterprises in Chukotka. All of these were based on reindeer herding, with the addition of sea mammal hunting andwalrus ivorycarving in the coastal areas. Chukchi were educated in Soviet schools and today are almost 100% literate and fluent in the Russian language. Only a portion of them today work directly inreindeer herdingorsea mammalhunting,and continue to live a nomadic lifestyle inyarangatents.[16]
Relations with Russians[edit]
Russians first began contacting the Chukchi when they reached theKolyma River(1643) and theAnadyr River(1649).[17]The route fromNizhnekolymskto the fort atAnadyrskalong the southwest of the main Chukchi area became a major trade route. The overland journey fromYakutskto Anadyrsk took about six months.[citation needed]
The Chukchi were generally ignored for the next fifty years because they were warlike and did not provide furs or other valuable commodities to tax. Armed skirmishes flared up around 1700 when the Russians began operating in theKamchatka Peninsulaand needed to protect their communications from the Chukchi andKoryak.The first attempt to conquer them was made in 1701. Other expeditions were sent out in 1708, 1709 and 1711 with considerable bloodshed but little success and unable to eliminate the local population on the large territory. War was renewed in 1729, when the Chukchi defeated an expedition from Okhotsk and killed its commander. Command passed to MajorDmitry Pavlutsky,who adoptedvery destructive tactics,burning, killing, driving off reindeer, and capturing and killing women and children.[18]
In 1742, the government at Saint Petersburg ordered another war in which the Chukchi and Koryak were to be "totally extirpated". The war (1744–7) was conducted with similar brutality and ended when Pavlutsky was killed in March 1747.[18]It is said that the Chukchi kept his head as a trophy for a number of years. The Russians waged war again in the 1750s, but a part of Chukchi people did survive this extermination plans on the very far North East (see on the right a map for population territories during the extermination activity by the Russian Empire).[citation needed]
In 1762 with anew ruler,Saint Petersburg adopted a different policy. Maintaining the fort atAnadyrskhad cost some 1,380,000 rubles, but the area had returned only 29,150 rubles in taxes, so the government abandoned Anadyrsk in 1764. The Chukchi, no longer attacked by the Russian Empire, began to trade peacefully with the Russians. From 1788, they participated in an annual trade fair on the lower Kolyma. Another was established in 1775 on the Angarka, a tributary of theBolshoy Anyuy River.This trade declined in the late 19th century when American whalers and others began landing goods on the coast.[19]
The first Orthodoxmissionariesentered Chukchi territory some time after 1815. The strategy worked, trade began to flourish between theCossacksand the Chukchi. As the annual trade fairs where goods were exchanged continued, a common language between the two peoples was spoken. The natives, however, never paidyasak,or tributes, and their status as subjects was little more than a formality. The formal annexation of the Chukotka Peninsula did not happen until much later, during the time of the Soviet Union.[20]
-
A Chukchi man -
Laminar armorfrom hardened leather with pauldrons reinforced by wood, worn bynative Siberians
Soviet period[edit]
Apart from four Orthodox schools, there were no schools in the Chukchi land until the late 1920s. In 1926, there were 72 literate Chukchis. The Sovietsintroduced a Latin alphabetin 1932 to transcribe their language, replacing it withCyrillicin 1937. In 1934, 71% of the Chukchis werenomadic.In 1941, 90% of the reindeer were still privately owned. So-calledkulaksroamed with their private herds up into the 1950s. After 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a major exodus of Russians from the area because of the underfunding of the local industry.[citation needed]
Population estimates from Forsyth:
- 1700: 6,000
- 1800: 8,000–9,000
- 1926: 13,100
- 1930s: 12,000
- 1939: 13,900
- 1959: 11,700
- 1979: at least 13,169
Post-Soviet period[edit]
In the context of theRussian invasion of Ukrainesince 2022, the Chukchis have been reported as one of Russia'sethnic minoritygroups suffering from a disproportionally large casualty rate among Russian forces.[21]
In Russian jokes[edit]
Chukchi jokesare a form ofethnic humor.They are portrayed as primitive yet clever in a naive way.[22][23]
References[edit]
- ^ab"Национальный состав населения".Federal State Statistics Service.Retrieved30 December2022.
- ^State statistics committee of Ukraine – National composition of population, 2001 census.Ukrainian Federal State Statistic Service
- ^RL0428: Rahvastik rahvuse, soo ja elukoha järgi, 31. detsember 2011.Statistics Estonia
- ^Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 323.
- ^Reich, David (2018).Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.New York: Pantheon Books.
- ^Kura, Kenya; Armstrong, Elijah L.; Templer, Donald I. (1 May 2014)."Cognitive function among the Ainu people".Intelligence.44:149–154.doi:10.1016/j.intell.2014.04.001.ISSN0160-2896.
- ^"At the End of the Earth: Three Days with the Chukchi – Passion Passport".Retrieved11 August2023.
- ^"Collins Dictionary".
- ^Subin, Anna Della."The enchanted worlds of Marshall Sahlins".
- ^Zolotarjov, A.M. (1980). "Társadalomszervezet és dualisztikus teremtésmítoszok Szibériában". In Hoppál, Mihály (ed.).A Tejút fiai. Tanulmányok a finnugor népek hitvilágáról(in Hungarian). Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó. pp. 40–41.ISBN963-07-2187-2.Chapter means: "Social structure and dualistic creation myths in Siberia"; title means: "The sons of Milky Way. Studies on the belief systems of Finno-Ugric peoples".
- ^Anyiszimov, A. F. (1981).Az ősközösségi társadalom szellemi élete(in Hungarian). Budapest: Kossuth Könyvkiadó. pp. 92–98.ISBN963-09-1843-9.Title means: "The spiritual life of primitive society". The book is composed out of the translations of the following two originals:Анисимов, Ф. А. (1966).Духовная жизнь первобытново общества(in Russian). Москва • Ленинград: Наука.The other one:Анисимов, Ф. А. (1971).Исторические особенности первобытново мышления(in Russian). Москва • Ленинград: Наука.
- ^Subin, Anna Della."The enchanted worlds of Marshall Sahlins".
- ^"Real People: Will They Survive in the 21st Century?".www.culturalsurvival.org.23 September 2022.Retrieved11 August2023.
- ^Hogan, C. Michael (2008)Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus,Globaltwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
- ^Winston, Robert, ed. (2004).Human: The Definitive Visual Guide.New York:Dorling Kindersley.p. 429.ISBN0-7566-0520-2.
- ^"Amazing Life of Chukchi".English Russia. Archived fromthe originalon 12 April 2011.Retrieved7 May2011.
- ^Forsyth, James (1992)A History of the Peoples of Siberia,for this and the next section
- ^abShentalinskaia, Tatiana (Spring 2002)."Major Pavlutskii: From History to Folklore"(PDF).Slavic and East European Folklore Association Journal.7(1): 3–21. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 17 July 2011.Retrieved18 July2009.
- ^Zhukov, Pavel (16 June 2020)."Russia's bloody struggle against the terrifying Chukchi aboriginals".www.rbth.com.Retrieved9 June2021.
- ^Zhukov, Pavel (16 June 2020)."Russia's bloody struggle against the terrifying Chukchi aboriginals".www.rbth.com.Retrieved9 June2021.
- ^"2 Years Into Ukraine War, Russia's Ethnic Minorities Disproportionately Killed in Battle".The Moscow Times.24 February 2024.
- ^"Gendai Sobieto shakai no minshuu-denshoo to shite no Chukuchi-jooku." ( "Chukchee jokes as a form of modern Soviet folklore", transl. by Hiroshi Shoji). – Kotoba-asobi no minzokushi. Ed. by EGuchi Kazuhisa. Tokyo 1990, 377–385
- ^Бурыкин А.А., Анекдоты о чукчах как социокультурное явление in: Анекдот как феномен культуры. Материалы круглого стола 16 ноября 2002 г. СПб.: Санкт-Петербургское философское общество, 2002. С.64–70(retrieved March 10, 2015)
Further reading[edit]
- Patty A. Gray (2005).The Predicament of Chukotka's Indigenous Movement: Post-Soviet Activism in the Russian Far North.Cambridge.ISBN0-521-82346-3.
- Anna Kerttula (2000).Antler on the Sea.Cornell University Press.ISBN0-8014-3681-8.
- "The Chukchis".The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire.
- "All Things Arctic".Archived fromthe originalon 15 May 2013.
- Ĉukĉ, Even, Jukaghir. Kolyma: Chants de nature et d'animaux. Sibérie 3.Musique du monde.
External links[edit]
- Bogoraz, Waldemar(1904).The Chukchee. Vol. 11 Part 1: Material culture(PDF).Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Leiden • New York: E. J. Brill ltd • G. E. Stechert & Co.
- Bogoraz, Waldemar(1907).The Chukchee. Vol. 11 Part 2: Religion(PDF).Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Leiden • New York: E. J. Brill ltd • G. E. Stechert & Co.
- Bogoraz, Waldemar(1909).The Chukchee. Vol. 11 Part 3: Social organization(PDF).Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Leiden • New York: E. J. Brill ltd • G. E. Stechert & Co.
- Bogoraz, Waldemar(1910).Chukchee Mythology(PDF).Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Leiden • New York: E. J. Brill ltd • G. E. Stechert & Co.
- Siimets, Ülo (2006)."The Sun, the Moon and Firmament in Chukchi Mythology and on the Relations of Celestial Bodies and Sacrifices"(PDF).Electronic Journal of Folklore.32.Estonian Folklore: 129–156.doi:10.7592/fejf2006.32.siimets.
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