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

Chukchi - 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 large number deer (rich man). The Russian colonialists heard this word 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, total number The Chukchi population 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 Northern 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 property, but also slaves, giving preference to young women.

Interestingly, in 1947 the Chukchi in 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 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 it to the back of his wrist 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 the Russian Empire and won. 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 enemies, 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 made it possible to win victories, because the opponents did not understand how to resist it.

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 of social relations was an additional guarantee of survival in the harsh conditions of permafrost. 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 living conditions and lack of food.

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

The northernmost region of the Far East is the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its territory is home to several indigenous peoples who came there thousands of years ago. Most of all in Chukotka there are Chukchi themselves - about 15 thousand. For a long time, they roamed throughout the peninsula, herding deer, hunting whales and living in yarangas.
Now many reindeer herders and hunters have turned into housing and communal services workers, and yarangas and kayaks have been replaced by ordinary houses with heating.
Cucumbers for 600 rubles per kilogram and a dozen eggs for 200 – modern consumer realities in remote areas of Chukotka. Fur production is closed, as it does not fit into capitalism, and the extraction of venison, although still going on, is subsidized by the state - deer meat cannot compete even with expensive beef, which is brought from the “mainland”. A similar story is with the renovation of housing stock: construction companies It is unprofitable to take on repair contracts, since the lion's share of the estimate is the cost of transporting materials and workers off-road. Young people leaving the villages, and serious problems with healthcare - the Soviet system collapsed, and a new one has not really been created.

The ancestors of the Chukchi appeared in the tundra before our era. Presumably, they came from the territory of Kamchatka and the present Magadan region, then moved through the Chukchi Peninsula towards the Bering Strait and stopped there.

Faced with the Eskimos, the Chukchi adopted their marine hunting trade, subsequently displacing them from the Chukotka Peninsula. At the turn of the millennium, the Chukchi learned reindeer husbandry from the nomads of the Tungus group - the Evens and Yukaghirs.

“Now it is no easier to get into the reindeer herders’ camps of Chukotka than in the time of Tan Bogoraz (the famous Russian ethnographer who described the life of the Chukchi at the beginning of the 20th century).
You can fly to Anadyr and then to national villages by plane. But then it’s very difficult to get from the village to a specific reindeer herding team at the right time,” explains Puya. Reindeer herders' camps are constantly moving, and over long distances. There are no roads to get to their camp sites: they have to travel on tracked all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles, sometimes on reindeer and dog sleds. In addition, reindeer herders strictly observe the timing of migrations, the time of their rituals and holidays.

Vladimir Puya

Hereditary reindeer herder Puya insists that reindeer husbandry is “ business card» region and indigenous people. But now the Chukchi generally live differently from how they used to: crafts and traditions fade into the background, and they are replaced by the typical life of remote regions of Russia.
“Our culture suffered greatly in the 70s, when the authorities decided that it was expensive to maintain high schools with a full complement of teachers in every village,” says Puya. – Boarding schools were built in regional centers. They were classified not as urban institutions, but as rural ones - in rural schools, salaries were twice as high. I myself studied at such a school, the quality of education was very high. But the children were torn away from life in the tundra and the seaside: we returned home only for the summer holidays. And therefore we lost the complex, cultural development. There was no national education in boarding schools; even the Chukchi language was not always taught. Apparently, the authorities decided that the Chukchi - soviet people, and we have no need to know our culture.”

Life of reindeer herders

The geography of the Chukchi initially depended on the movement of wild reindeer. People spent the winter in the south of Chukotka, and in the summer they escaped the heat and midges to the north, to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The people of reindeer herders lived in a tribal system. They settled along lakes and rivers. The Chukchi lived in yarangas. The winter yaranga, which was made from reindeer skins, was stretched over a wooden frame. The snow from under it was cleared to the ground. The floor was covered with branches, on which skins were laid in two layers. An iron stove with a pipe was installed in the corner. They slept in yarangas in dolls made of animal skins.

But the Soviet government, which came to Chukotka in the 30s of the last century, was dissatisfied with the “uncontrolled” movement of people. The indigenous people were told where to build new – semi-permanent – ​​housing. This was done for the convenience of transporting goods by sea. They did the same with the camps. At the same time, new jobs arose for indigenous residents, and hospitals, schools, and cultural centers appeared in the settlements. The Chukchi were taught writing. And the reindeer herders themselves lived almost better than all other Chukchi - until the 80s of the 20th century.

Now residents of Konergino send letters at the post office, shop in two stores (Nord and Katyusha), call “the mainland” from the only landline telephone in the entire village, sometimes go to the local cultural club, and use the medical outpatient clinic. However, the residential buildings of the village are in disrepair and major renovation are not subject to “Firstly, they don’t give us much money, and secondly, due to the complex transport scheme, it is difficult to deliver materials to the village,” said the head of the settlement, Alexander Mylnikov, several years ago. According to him, if previously the housing stock in Konergino was repaired by utility workers, now they have neither building materials nor labor. “It is expensive to deliver construction materials to the village; the contractor spends about half of the allocated funds on transportation costs. The builders refuse, it is not profitable for them to work with us,” he complained.

About 330 people live in Konergino. Of these, there are about 70 children: most go to school. Fifty people work in housing and communal services local residents, and the school - together with the kindergarten - employs 20 educators, teachers, nannies and cleaners. Young people do not stay in Konergino: school graduates go to study and work in other places. The depressive state of the village is illustrated by the situation with the traditional crafts for which the Konergins were famous.

“We no longer have marine hunting. According to capitalist rules, it is not profitable,” says Puya. “The fur farms closed, and the fur trade was quickly forgotten. In the 90s, fur production in Konergino collapsed.” All that remains is reindeer husbandry: in Soviet era and until the mid-2000s, while Roman Abramovich remained as governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, it was successful here.

There are 51 reindeer herders working in Konergino, 34 of whom work in brigades in the tundra. According to Pui, reindeer herders' incomes are extremely low. “This is an unprofitable industry, there is not enough money for salaries. The state covers the lack of funds so that the salary is higher than the subsistence level, which in our case is 13 thousand. The reindeer farm that employs the workers pays them approximately 12.5 thousand. The state pays up to 20 thousand extra so that the reindeer herders don’t die of hunger,” complains Puya.

When asked why it is impossible to pay more, Puya replies that the cost of producing venison on different farms varies from 500 to 700 rubles per kilogram. And wholesale prices for beef and pork, which are imported “from the mainland,” start at 200 rubles. The Chukchi cannot sell meat for 800-900 rubles and are forced to set the price at 300 rubles - at a loss. “There is no point in capitalist development of this industry,” says Puya. “But this is the last thing left in the national villages.”

Evgeny Kaipanau, a 36-year-old Chukchi, was born in Lorino into the family of the most respected whaler. “Lorino” (in Chukchi – “Lauren”) is translated from Chukchi as “found camp”. The settlement stands on the shore of Mechigmenskaya Bay of the Bering Sea. Several hundred kilometers away are the American islands of Krusenstern and St. Lawrence; Alaska is also very close. But planes fly to Anadyr once every two weeks - and only if the weather is good. Lorino is covered from the north by hills, so there are more windless days here than in neighboring villages. True, despite relatively good weather conditions, in the 90s almost all Russian residents left Lorino, and since then only Chukchi have lived there - about 1,500 people.

The houses in Lorino are rickety wooden buildings with peeling walls and faded paint. In the center of the village there are several cottages built by Turkish workers - insulated buildings with cold water, which in Lorino is considered a privilege (if you run cold water through ordinary pipes, it will freeze in winter). There is hot water throughout the settlement, because the local boiler house operates all year round. But there is no hospital or clinic here - for several years now people have been sent for medical care by air ambulance or on all-terrain vehicles.

Lorino is famous for its marine mammal hunting. It’s not for nothing that the documentary film “Whaler” was filmed here in 2008, which received the TEFI prize. Hunting sea animals is still an important activity for local residents. Whalers not only feed their families or earn money by selling meat to the local trapping community, they also honor the traditions of their ancestors.

Since childhood, Kaipanau knew how to properly slaughter walruses, catch fish and whales, and walk in the tundra. But after school he went to Anadyr to study first as an artist and then as a choreographer. Until 2005, while living in Lorino, he often went on tour to Anadyr or Moscow to perform with national ensembles. Due to constant travel, climate change and flights, Kaipanau decided to finally move to Moscow. There he got married, his daughter was nine months old. “I try to instill my creativity and culture in my wife,” says Evgeniy. “Although many things seemed wild to her before, especially when she found out the conditions in which my people live. I instill in my daughter traditions and customs, for example, I show national clothes. I want her to know that she is a hereditary Chukchi.”

Evgeny now rarely appears in Chukotka: he tours and represents the Chukchi culture around the world together with his ensemble “Nomad”. In the ethnopark “Nomad” of the same name near Moscow, where Kaipanau works, he conducts thematic excursions and shows documentaries about Chukotka, including Vladimir Pui.

But living far from his homeland does not prevent him from knowing about many things happening in Lorino: his mother remains there, she works in the city administration. Thus, he is sure that young people are drawn to those traditions that are being lost in other regions of the country. “Culture, language, hunting skill. Young people in Chukotka, including young people from our village, are learning to catch whales. Our people live with this all the time,” says Kaipanau.

In the summer season, the Chukchi hunted whales and walruses, and in the winter season, they hunted seals. They hunted with harpoons, knives and spears. Whales and walruses were hunted together, but seals were hunted individually. The Chukchi caught fish with nets made of whale and deer tendons or leather belts, nets and bits. In winter - in an ice hole, in summer - from the shore or from kayaks. In addition, before early XIX centuries, with the help of bows, spears and traps, they hunted bears and wolves, rams and moose, wolverines, foxes and arctic foxes. Waterfowl were killed with a throwing weapon (bola) and darts with a throwing plank. From the second half of the 19th century centuries, guns began to be used, and then whaling firearms.

Products imported from the mainland are available in the village huge money. “They bring “golden” eggs for 200 rubles. I’m generally silent about grapes,” adds Kaipanau. Prices reflect the sad socio-economic situation in Lorino. There are few places in the settlement where one can show professionalism and university skills. “But the situation of the people is, in principle, normal,” the interlocutor immediately clarifies. “After Abramovich’s arrival (from 2001 to 2008), things got much better: more jobs appeared, houses were rebuilt, and first aid stations were established.” Kaipanau recalls how whalers he knew “came, took the governor’s motor boats for free and left.” “Now they live and enjoy,” he says. The federal authorities, according to him, also help the Chukchi, but not very actively.

Kaipanau has a dream. He wants to create educational ethnic centers in Chukotka, where indigenous peoples could relearn their culture: build kayaks and yarangas, embroider, sing, dance.
“In the ethnopark, many visitors consider the Chukchi to be an uneducated and backward people; They think that they don’t wash and constantly say “however.” They even sometimes tell me that I am not a real Chukchi. But we are real people.”

Every morning, Natalya, a 45-year-old resident of the village of Sireniki (who asked that her last name not be used), wakes up at 8 a.m. to go to work at the local school. She is a watchman and technical worker.
Sireniki, where Natalya has lived for 28 years, is located in the Providensky urban district of Chukotka, on the shores of the Bering Sea. The first Eskimo settlement appeared here about three thousand years ago, and in the vicinity of the village remains of the dwellings of ancient people are still found. In the 60s of the last century, the Chukchi joined the indigenous people. Therefore, the village has two names: from Ekimo it is translated as “Valley of the Sun”, and from Chukchi – “Rocky Terrain”.
Sireniki is surrounded by hills, and it is difficult to get here, especially in winter - only by snowmobile or helicopter. From spring to autumn, sea vessels come here. From above, the village looks like a box of colorful candies: green, blue and red cottages, an administration building, a post office, kindergarten and an outpatient clinic. Previously, there were many dilapidated wooden houses in Sireniki, but a lot has changed, says Natalya, with the arrival of Abramovich. “My husband and I used to live in a house with stove heating; we had to wash dishes outside. Then Valera fell ill with tuberculosis, and his attending physician helped us get a new cottage due to his illness. Now we have a European-quality renovation.”

Clothing and food

Chukchi men wore kukhlyankas made of double reindeer skin and the same trousers. They pulled a boot made of camus with soles made of seal skin over siskins - stockings made of dog skin. The double fawn hat was bordered at the front with long-haired wolverine fur, which does not freeze from human breath in any frost, and fur mittens were worn on rawhide straps that were pulled into the sleeves. The shepherd was as if in a spacesuit. The clothes the women wore were tight-fitting to the body and tied below the knees, forming something like pants. They put it on over the head. Over the top, women wore a wide fur shirt with a hood, which they wore on special occasions such as holidays or migrations.

The shepherd always had to protect the number of deer, so livestock breeders and families ate vegetarian food in the summer, and if they ate deer, then it was completely, right down to the antlers and hooves. They preferred boiled meat, but often ate it raw: the shepherds in the herd simply did not have time to cook. The sedentary Chukchi ate the meat of walruses, which were previously killed in huge quantities.

How do they live in Sireniki?

According to Natalya, it’s normal. There are currently about 30 unemployed people in the village. In the summer they pick mushrooms and berries, and in the winter they catch fish, which they sell or exchange for other products. Natalya’s husband receives a pension of 15,700 rubles, while the cost of living here is 15,000. “I myself work without part-time jobs, this month I will receive about 30,000. We, undoubtedly, live an average life, but somehow I don’t feel that salaries are increasing,” – the woman complains, remembering the cucumbers brought to Sireniki for 600 rubles per kilogram.

Dome

Natalya’s sister works on a rotational basis at Kupol. This gold deposit, one of the largest in the Far East, is located 450 km from Anadyr. Since 2011, 100% of the shares of Kupol have been owned by the Canadian company Kinross Gold (ours have no time for such trifles).
“My sister used to work there as a maid, and now she gives masks to miners who go down into the mines. They have a gym and a billiard room there! They pay in rubles (the average salary at Kupol is 50,000 rubles - DV), transferred to bank card“says Natalya.

The woman knows little about production, salaries and investments in the region, but often repeats: “The Dome helps us.” The fact is that the Canadian company that owns the deposit created a Fund back in 2009 social development, he allocates money for socially significant projects. At least a third of the budget goes to support indigenous peoples small peoples Autonomous Okrug. For example, Kupol helped publish a dictionary of the Chukchi language, opened courses in indigenous languages, and built a school for 65 children and a kindergarten for 32 in Sireniki.

“My Valera also received a grant,” says Natalya. – Two years ago, Kupol allocated him 1.5 million rubles for a huge 20-ton freezer. After all, the whalers will get the animal, there is a lot of meat - it will spoil. And now this camera is a lifesaver. With the remaining money, my husband and his colleagues bought tools to build kayaks.”

Natalya, a Chukchi and hereditary reindeer herder, believes that the national culture is now being revived. He says that every Tuesday and Friday the local village club holds rehearsals for the Northern Lights ensemble; courses of Chukchi and other languages ​​are opening (albeit in the regional center - Anadyr); competitions like the Governor's Cup or the Barents Sea regatta are held. “And this year our ensemble is invited to a grand event - an international festival! Five people will fly on dance program. It will all be in Alaska, she will pay for the flight and accommodation,” says the woman. She admits that the Russian state also supports national culture, but she mentions the “Dome” much more often. Natalya does not know of a domestic fund that would finance the peoples of Chukotka.

Another key issue is healthcare. In Chukotka, as in other northern regions, says Nina Veisalova, a representative of the Association of Small Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East (AMKNSS and FERF), respiratory diseases are very common. But, according to available information, tuberculosis dispensaries are closing in ethnic villages. There are many cancer patients. The previously existing health care system ensured the identification, observation and treatment of sick people from among small peoples, which was enshrined in law. Unfortunately, such a scheme does not work today. The authorities do not answer the question about the closure of tuberculosis dispensaries, but only report that in every district and locality In Chukotka, hospitals, medical outpatient clinics and medical and obstetric stations have been preserved.

IN Russian society There is a stereotype: the Chukchi people drank themselves to death after the “white man” came to the territory of Chukotka - that is, from the beginning of the last century. The Chukchi never drank alcohol, their body does not produce an enzyme that breaks down alcohol, and because of this, the effect of alcohol on their health is more detrimental than that of other peoples. But according to Evgeniy Kaipanau, the level of the problem is greatly overestimated. “With alcohol [among the Chukchi], everything is the same as everywhere else. But they drink less than anywhere else,” he says. At the same time, says Kaipanau, the Chukchi actually did not have an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the past. “Now, although the enzyme has been developed, people still do not drink as the legends say,” sums up the Chukchi.

Kaipanau's opinion is supported by Dr. medical sciences GNICP Irina Samorodskaya, one of the authors of the report “Mortality and the share of deaths in economic active age from causes related to alcohol (drugs), MI and IHD from all deaths aged 15-72 years” for 2013. According to Rosstat, the document says, the most high level Indeed, mortality from alcohol-related causes in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is 268 people per 100 thousand. But these data, Samorodskaya emphasizes, apply to the entire population of the district. “Yes, the indigenous population of those territories are the Chukchi, but they are not the only ones who live there,” she explains. In addition, according to Samorodskaya, Chukotka is higher in all mortality indicators than other regions - and this is not only alcohol mortality, but also other external causes. “It is now impossible to say that it was the Chukchi who died from alcohol, this is how the system works. First, if people do not want an alcohol-related cause of death on their deceased relative's death certificate, it will not be listed. Secondly, the vast majority of deaths occur at home. And there, death certificates are often filled out by a local doctor or even a paramedic, which is why other reasons may be indicated in the documents - it’s easier to write that way.”

Finally, another serious problem in the region, according to Veisalova, is the relationship between industrial companies and the indigenous local population. “People come like conquerors, disturbing the peace and quiet of the local residents. I think there should be regulations on the interaction between companies and peoples,” she says.

Language and religion

The Chukchi, living in the tundra, called themselves “chavchu” (deer). Those who lived on the shore were “ankalyn” (Pomor). There is a common self-name of the people - “luoravetlan” ( real person), but it didn’t catch on. 50 years ago, approximately 11 thousand people spoke the Chukchi language. Now their number is decreasing every year. The reason is simple: in Soviet times, writing and schools appeared, but at the same time a policy was pursued of the destruction of everything national. Separation from their parents and life in boarding schools forced Chukchi children to know their native language less and less.

The Chukchi have long believed that the world is divided into upper, middle and lower. At the same time, the upper world (“cloud land”) is inhabited by the “upper people” (in Chukchi - gyrgorramkyn), or “people of the dawn” (tnargy-ramkyn), and supreme deity among the Chukchi it does not play a serious role. The Chukchi believed that their soul was immortal, they believed in reincarnation, and shamanism was widespread among them. Both men and women could be shamans, but among the Chukchi the shamans of the “transformed sex” were considered especially powerful - men who acted as housewives, and women who adopted the clothes, activities and habits of men.

Time and the Chukchi themselves will draw all the conclusions.

By language sedentary Chukchi also differ from reindeer ones. 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 Koryak.

As for God, then they believe that a deity lives in the sky, which was previously on earth; they make sacrifices to the latter in order for it to 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.

Regarding sacrifices, then 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 they practice shamanism towards nightfall, sitting in their reindeer yurts in the dark and without any special 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 settled Chukchi I came across the fact, which they said was 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. You can kneel or bend over inside, so you can only sit or lie in it. It cannot be denied that even in simple canopies, in the most extreme cold, 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.

Regarding men's clothes, then 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 deer skin, 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. The Chukchi use dry soft grass and shavings from whalebone as insoles in their boots; 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, weather permitting. 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, younger and wealthier men wear them to give themselves a more beautiful appearance. 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.

Men's occupations among the reindeer Chukchi are very limited: watch their herd, guard the animals night and day, drive the herd behind 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, make a weak fire, choose convenient place for migrations.

One-year-old reindeer, which the Chukchi destined for harness, are castrated in various rather primitive ways. When sucklings are slaughtered in the fall, the females still have some milk for three to four days. The Chukchi milk was brought to us in a tied intestine. They milk the females by sucking, since they do not know any other way of milking, and this method reduces the taste of the milk. The Chukchi also accustom their riding reindeer to urine, just like the Koryaks. Deer love this drink very much, they allow themselves to be lured by it and thereby learn to recognize their owner by his voice. They say that if you feed reindeer moderately with urine, they become more resilient during migrations and get less tired, which is why the Chukchi carry with them a large basin made of leather to urinate in. In summer, deer are not given urine, as they have no desire for it. In winter, deer want to drink urine so badly that they must be restrained from drinking it in large quantities at a time when women pour out or expose vessels of urine early in the morning from their yarangas. I saw two deer that had drunk too much urine and were so intoxicated that one of them looked like a dead one... and the second, who was very swollen and could not stand on his feet, was first dragged by the Chukchi to the fire so that the smoke would open his nostrils, then they tied him up with belts, buried him up to his head in the snow, scratched his nose until it bled, but since all this did not help at all, they stabbed him to death.

The Chukchi's reindeer herds are not as numerous as those of the Koryaks. The Koryaks are also better at hunting wild deer and elk. As for arrows and bows, the Chukchi always have them with them, but they do not have the dexterity of hitting, since they almost never practice this, but are content with how it comes out. The occupations of the sedentary Chukchi consist mainly of hunting sea animals. At the end of September, the Chukchi go hunting for walruses. They kill so many of them that even polar bears are not able to devour them all over the winter. The Chukchi go 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.

Woman's hair They braid the sides into two braids, which they mostly tie at the ends at the back. As for them tattoos, then 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 commonly indicated is 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 dog fur. This clothing is worn double; on top of 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: taking care of food supplies, processing hides, sewing clothes.

Their food- 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 the stomach of a deer and its blood. The Chukchi use willows as vegetation, 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 fight the guest with female weapons - arms and legs.

A Koryak woman sometimes makes her boyfriend suffer for a long time. For several years the groom tries in vain to achieve his goal, although he remains in the yaranga, carries firewood, guards the herd and does not refuse any work, and others, in order to test the groom, tease him, even beat him, which he patiently endures until the moment 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. Younger brothers marry the widows of their elders, but it is contrary to their customs for the elder to marry the widow of the younger. A barren Chukchi wife is soon kicked out without any complaints from her relatives, and you often meet young women who are thus given to their fourth husband.

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

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

The Koryaks do not know such an exchange of wives; They are jealous and betrayal of their husband was once punished by death, now only by exile. In this custom, Chukchi children obey other people's fathers. As for mutual drinking of urine during the exchange of wives, this is a fiction, the reason for which could be washing the face and hands with urine. During the scanty autumn migrations, such a guest often came to our hostess, and her husband then went to the latter’s wife or slept in another canopy. Both of them showed little ceremony, and if they wanted to satisfy their passions, they would send us out of the canopy.

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

If Chukchi men feel approaching death, they more 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 wait female death, as they put it, but managed to escape the torment of the devils.

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

For burning, the corpse is taken several miles from the yaranga to a hill, and before burning it is opened in such a way that the entrails fall out. This is done to make burning easier. In memory of the deceased, they cover the place where the corpse was burned in an oval shape with stones, which should resemble the figure of a person; larger stones are placed at the head and at the feet, of which the top one lies to the south and should represent the head. The deer on which the deceased was transported are slaughtered on the spot, their meat is eaten, the head stone is coated underneath with bone marrow or fat, and the antlers are left in the same heap. Every year the Chukchi remember their dead; If the Chukchi are nearby at this time, then they slaughter deer at this place, and if they are far away, from five to ten sleds 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 one more thing about these natives Let's say that Chukchi are more often of average height, but Chukchi whose height reaches six feet are not so rare; 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.

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 that borders on feeblemindedness, starting any sentence with “however” and preferring vodka to their wives. We perceive the Chukchi as a distant northern people who are interested exclusively in deer and walrus meat. Who are the Chukchi really?

They 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 carelessly defended the phrase “Latvians are not Chukchi.” In response to this insult, the newspaper Diena published a response from Ooi Milger, a representative of the Louravetlan people (otherwise known as “Chukchi”). He wrote: “In your opinion, it turns out that the Chukchi are not people. This offended me very much. 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 survival. Where does such arrogance come from? Here are the “naive” and stupid Chukchi for you.

Chukchi and all the “rest”

The small Chukchi people are settled over 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 just over 15 thousand people live on it! (Russian census data in 2010)

The name Chukchi is the name of the people “Louratvelans” adapted for Russian people. Chukchi means “rich in deer” (chauchu) – this is how northern reindeer herders introduced themselves to Russian pioneers in the 17th century. “Loutwerans” is translated as “real people,” since in the mythology of the Far North the Chukchi are the “superior race” chosen by the gods. Chukchi mythology explains that the gods created the Evenks, Yakuts, Koryaks and Eskimos exclusively as Russian slaves, 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-geographical environment, customs, traditions, mythology, language and racial characteristics were formed. The Chukchi have increased heat regulation, a high level of hemoglobin in the blood, and a fast metabolism, therefore the formation of this Arctic race took place in the conditions of the Far North, otherwise they would not have survived.

Mythology of the Chukchi. Creation of the world

In Chukchi mythology, the 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 constellations and individual stars are associated with deer and ravens. The Capella star is a reindeer bull with a human sleigh. Two stars near the constellation Aquila - “A female deer with a fawn.” Milky Way- a river with sandy waters, with islands - pastures for deer.

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

Raising children among the Chukchi

In the upbringing of Chukchi children, one can trace a parallel with Indian customs. At the age of 6, the Chukchi begin the harsh education of boy warriors. From this age, boys sleep standing up, with the exception of sleeping supported by a yaranga. At the same time, adult Chukchi were raised even in their sleep - they sneaked up with a hot metal tip or a smoldering stick, so that the boy would develop a lightning-fast reaction to any sounds.

Young Chukchi ran behind reindeer teams with stones on their feet. From the age of 6, they constantly held a bow and arrow in their hands. Thanks to this eye training, the Chukchi’s vision remained sharp for many years. By the way, this is why the Chukchi were excellent snipers during the Great Patriotic War. Favorite games are “football” with a ball made of reindeer hair and wrestling. We fought in special places - sometimes on walrus skin (very slippery), sometimes on ice.

Rite of passage adult life– a test for the viable. The “exam” relied on dexterity and attentiveness. For example, a father sent his son on a mission. But the task was not the main thing. The father tracked his son while he walked to carry out his task, and waited until his son lost his vigilance - then he released an arrow. The young man’s task 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 way of life

The Chukchi have a simple attitude towards 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. Your own death or death from old age is a luxury. Therefore, the Chukchi are excellent warriors. They are not afraid of death, they are fierce, they have a sensitive sense of smell, lightning-fast reactions, and a sharp eye. If in our culture military merit is awarded with a medal, then the Chukchi put a dot tattoo on the back of their right hand. The more dots, the more experienced and fearless the warrior.

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

"Home Shamanism"

The Chukchi have what is called “domestic shamanism.” These are echoes ancient religion louravetlanov, because now almost all Chukchi go to church and belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. But they are still “shamanizing” to this day.

During the autumn slaughter of livestock, the entire Chukotka family, including children, beats a tambourine. This ritual protects deer from disease and early death. But this is more like a game, like, for example, Sabantui - the holiday of the end of plowing among the Turkic peoples.

Writer Vladimir Bogoraz, ethnographer and researcher of the peoples of the Far North, writes that in real shamanic rituals people are cured of terrible diseases and mortal wounds are healed. Real shamans can grind a stone into crumbs in their hands and “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 in order to “travel between worlds.” In Chukotka, people become shamans if a Chukchi is saved in a moment of danger by a walrus, deer or wolf - thereby “transferring” ancient magic to the sorcerer.

A remarkable feature of the Chukchi shaman is that he can “gender me” at will. Men, at the behest of the spirits, become women, even get married. Bogoraz suggested that these were echoes of matriarchy.

Chukchi and humor

The Chukchi came up with the saying “laughter makes a man strong.” This phrase is considered the life credo of every Chukchi. They are not afraid of death, they kill easily, without experiencing heaviness. For other people it is incomprehensible how one can first cry over death loved one and then laugh? But despondency and melancholy for the Chukchi are a sign that a person has been “captured” by the evil spirit of Kele, and this was condemned. Therefore, the Chukchi constantly joke, make fun of each other, laugh. From childhood, Chukchi are taught to be cheerful. It is believed that if a child cries for a long time, then his parents raised him poorly. Girls for marriage are also chosen according to their liking. If a girl is cheerful and has a sense of humor, she has a better chance of getting married than one who is always sad, since it is believed that a sad girl is sick and therefore dissatisfied, because she thinks about illnesses.

Chukchi and jokes

Not only the Chukchi laugh, but they also like to make fun of the Chukchi. The topic of the Chukchi in Russian jokes is one of the most extensive. People have been making jokes about the Chukchi since the times of the USSR. Alexandra Arkhipova, Associate Professor at the Center for Typology and Semiotics of the Russian State University for the Humanities, connects the beginning of the appearance of jokes with the 60s film “Chief of Chukotka.” There, the familiar Chukchi “however” sounded for the first time. The image of the Chukchi in jokes is that of someone who doesn’t know Russian well, a wild, gullible person who constantly reflects. There is also an opinion that we read the measure of our national superiority from the Chukchi. Like, the Chukchi are stupid and naive, but we are not like that. Today, the main topic of jokes has shifted towards the former Chukotka governor Roman Abramovich.

According to anthropologists, the Chukchi were formed as a result of a mixture of American and Asian types. Evolving in the harsh conditions of the north, these people received a fast metabolism, high levels of hemoglobin, and enhanced thermoregulation. The Chukchi themselves call themselves “luoratvelans,” which means “real people.” The name “Chukchi” comes from the word “chauchu”, which means “rich in deer”.

The Chukchi consider themselves a special people, which is emphasized in their self-name. From their folklore you can learn that the world was created by a raven. He taught people how to survive in harsh northern conditions. At the same time, the Luoratvelan people were recognized as superior. It is worth noting that they put Russians on the same level as themselves. According to researchers, in this way the Chukchi decided to justify the fact that their lands were part of Russian Empire.

The Chukchi consider themselves the highest race and only put Russians on the same level as themselves // Photo: russian7.ru

According to one of the Chukchi myths, God the Father appointed his youngest son Russian to dominate over his older brothers Yakut and Even. And another legend says that even though the Russians can be called equal to the Chukchi, they were originally created in order to invent and trade with them wine, tobacco, iron, sugar and other benefits of civilization.

By the way, the Russians could not win the war with the Chukchi. The colonial war, which lasted from 1730 to 1750, ended in victory for the northern people. The Chukchi were conquered under Catherine the Great not by military force, but by “fire water”, iron, sugar, tobacco and the like.

Life, customs and raising children

Because of the jokes about the Chukchi that appeared in the USSR, most people think that representatives of the northern people are incredibly naive, straightforward and even stupid. In fact, this is not true at all.

The Chukchi are forced to lead nomadic image life. This is due to the fact that the basis of their economy is deer. As soon as the deer eat all the food, the Chukchi are forced to change their camp site. The Chukchi live in polygonal tents covered with reindeer skins. To prevent the tent from being blown away by the wind, it is lined with stones around its perimeter. A special structure is erected at the back wall of the tent, where the Chukchi eat, sleep and rest.
Representatives of the northern people, young and old, are dressed in reindeer skins and fur. Newborn babies are also placed in a special deerskin bag with slits for the legs and arms. It is noteworthy that researchers attribute the invention of the baby diaper to the Chukchi. Since it was quite difficult for mothers to keep their children clean in low temperatures, they began to pour wood shavings into diapers, as well as reindeer moss, which has antibacterial properties.

the basis of the Chukchi economy are reindeer // Photo: asiarussia.ru

As for the children, they are brought up in more than harsh conditions. Boys are taught to be brave warriors. Because of this, from the age of six they are forced to sleep standing up. In addition, fathers sneak up on a sleeping child with a red-hot iron in their hands, which they are ready to use if the boy does not wake up. This is how children are taught to react with lightning speed to any rustle. The initiation rite among the Chukchi is as follows: a teenage boy is given a building. Usually kill some animal while hunting. His father follows him. After waiting for the right moment, the parent shoots his son. If the boy noticed the surveillance and managed to dodge, he remains alive.

Illustrious Warriors

Throughout their history, the Chukchi have shown themselves to be brave warriors. They raided neighboring tribes of Eskimos, Karyaks, Yukaghirs and others. The favorite weapon of the northern people is the bow. They fought in armor decorated with wings. When the arrows ran out, the Chukchi warriors threw off their armor, and sometimes heavy fur clothing, so that nothing would hinder their movements.

The Chukchi enjoy the glory of brave and strong warriors // Photo: cyrillitsa.ru

The Chukchi are not afraid of death. They are sure that each of them has several souls and will definitely be reborn. For representatives of the northern people, dying by natural means is a real luxury. It is noteworthy that paradise is possible for the Chukchi only if he falls in battle or dies at the hands of a comrade. When a Chukchi friend turns to him with a request to kill him, he does not hesitate, and completely calmly fulfills it.

Chukotka women are no less severe than men. If the enemy wins, they kill their children, parents, and then commit suicide.

Of course, modern Chukchi are no longer as harsh as in ancient times. According to residents of the northern regions, the Chukotka people are distinguished by their extraordinary hard work, and also, as before, suffer greatly because of the “fire water”. The thing is that the body of the northern peoples is incapable of producing an enzyme that breaks down ethanol. This is why the Chukchi become avid alcoholics literally after the first hundred grams of vodka or other strong alcoholic drinks.

The Chukchi are one of the peoples who most value a sense of humor in a person. It is almost impossible to meet a sad Chukchi. Even in ancient times, it was believed that if a person is sad, it means he has been possessed by an evil spirit. For this reason, representatives of the northern people could only enjoy life no matter what.