Chukchi, children of the Crow: How the representatives of the most mysterious people of the Russian North lived and believed in

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The average man in the street, alas, knows little about the Chukchi - it's good if there is at least something other than racist anecdotes. While the Chukchi have always been a warlike and freedom-loving people, whose life is full of magic and mysteries.

Legends of the boa constrictor and early spring

Legends say that once all the Chukchi lived by the sea. This also coincides with the conclusions of scientists: before the spread of reindeer husbandry, the Chukchi lived by sea fishing.

In myths and legends, there are curious details, which in the first half of the twentieth century were explained by the fact that the Chukchi allegedly came from the south. So the names of the months do not coincide with the phenomena of nature: the month of water comes before the rivers open in the tundra, the calves are born a month after the "prescribes the calendar."

Bogoraz-Tan gives a story about the "Big Worm" living somewhere near the Land of the Dead. “This worm is red, striped and so large that it attacks even large animals. When he is hungry, he becomes very dangerous and can ambush a wild deer and kill him, squeezing it in his rings. He swallows his victim whole, since he has no teeth. After eating, he sleeps for several days where he ate, and the children of the dead cannot wake him up, even throwing stones at him. " The researcher comes to the conclusion that this is a description of a boa constrictor and considers this legend to be an argument in favor of the fact that the Chukchi are from warmer regions.

If this is true, then it is very old. According to the modern ethnogenetic scheme, the ancestors of the Chukchi lived on this land at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. The Pegtymel petroglyphs, found in 1965, date back to the period from the 1st millennium BC. to the end of the 1st millennium A. D. NS. and they already depict scenes from the everyday life of peoples whose life is similar to that of Chukchi. One of the tales says that the islands in the Bering Strait were once a single land. The inconsistency of the calendar is possibly due to climate changes on Earth. In any case, the Chukchi are genetically close to the Koryaks and are very different from most other representatives of the North Asian race.

A world created by a naughty daughter

The Chukchi world was created by the Creator, who is also the Pole Star. Moreover, when there was still no light, the villages of Luren and Kanychvey already existed - or, at least, lands with such names.

The Creator created a Crow and a small bird so that they would “continue the dawn”. The raven did not cope with the task, but the bird was able to "hammer out the dawn." And it became light.

Then the Creator created people (moreover, he created everyone from seal bones, and Russian - from flint. Consequently, then there were already seals and someone made this flint), tundra animals, deer. He taught people to reproduce, gave them clothes.

He entrusted the further work to the Crow, and he created mountains, rivers, filled the seas with seals and fish. In the course of this useful activity, the Raven had to face the Kele monsters, whom he defeated. The raven became invisible and hovered over the ground in the form of thunder. Sometimes he turned into a human warrior, sometimes into a powerful shaman. He got married and had a son. In the end, Raven fell ill and died (while remaining an invisible thunder). Raven did not become a deity, they did not turn to him for help, they did not bring sacrifices to him.

(Do not confuse this Raven with another, the trickster borrowed from the Itelmens. The Creator Raven is a completely different creature).

There is another creation myth. A certain girl refuses to marry a rich old man, for which her father kicks her out of the house. When she leaves, she picks up her toys. The girl cannot find shelter anywhere, people, having learned that she disobeyed her father, they expel her.

Then she creates from her toys another, good, people who will accept her. He sews clothes for them from mouse skins, creates seals in the sea and teaches his people to live correctly. When nomadic people come to them, the girl teaches lessons to them too. As she grows old, she meets her father and gives him an easy death. Then she voluntarily leaves this life.

In addition to the Creator, the Chukchi revered Nargynen - nature, the universe, outer space. It was possible to turn to Nargynen for help, but she was very demanding in keeping her promises. The deceiver could lose her favors forever.

They revered both the cardinal points and some constellations, especially Pagittin (the stars Altair and Tarared from the constellation Eagle). The appearance of this constellation foreshadowed the appearance of light, sun and revival in nature.

All life was viewed as a confrontation between two principles: benevolent (sun, heat, light) and evil (moon, cold, darkness). Man did not oppose himself to nature, but lived as a part of this world.

Animal skulls that were kept in the yaranga were considered domestic shrines, but not deities. They were fed, and they were obliged to protect people from evil spirits. Fire was also honored - they talked to him, he was treated.

People, beasts, spirits

Forests, rivers, hills, trees - everything had its patrons, masters. They had to be treated in the same way as neighbors who owned deer. If they behaved with dignity and respect the rules of courtesy, the hosts were welcoming and could generously give gifts.

Animals in Chukchi fairy tales often appear as a special people, also people, only different. So the girl, who is thrown into the sea by her relatives for refusing to marry, is saved by walruses and she becomes the mistress of the walrus country. A hunter can marry a female whale, or a seal. It is not uncommon for animals to abduct human women.

There are legends about people-bears: they are intelligent, speak and build houses, but they are bears with human faces.

Fantastic animals also come across in legends, for example, an eight-legged giant polar bear, which beckons travelers with crying. Or a completely incomprehensible beast, which Bogoraz-Tan calls Kelilgu - "tall and long, he always walked with his mouth wide open and his paws were with long claws." They managed to kill him with difficulty, because, despite his gigantic size, he "was agile and light, jumped high, bit with his teeth and scratched with his paws."

In addition to people and animals, there are also spirits - both benevolent and not so. Shamans cope with evil kele spirits, but you can do without them. Each person among the Chukchi more or less possessed techniques that allowed them to defend themselves. The Chukchi also communicated with their ancestors - they could always ask for advice.

Samurai of the North

Much has been written about the military prowess of the Chukchi. It was their fighting qualities that finally forced at least some of the Internet users to reconsider the attitude towards this people. Readers were surprised to learn that this people waged bloody wars with their neighbors, did not submit to the Russian conquerors (the Chukchi refused to pay yasak, it turned out to be easier to negotiate and trade with them than to conquer them). They made fine leather armor and were good at bows. The Koryaks did not dare to oppose the Chukchi, even if they outnumbered them twice. Wars in the Arctic Circle were fought even under Soviet rule - the latter happened in the late forties, with the Eskimos.

Both truth and fiction are told about the Chukchi warriors. It is hard to believe that the Chukchi knew how to catch arrows with their hands, or jump twenty or forty meters. But they fought well, were ruthless and did not fear death. Life continued after it: in the abode of the ancestors, in heaven. She was, in general, the same as on earth - with herds, yarangas, hunting - but without earthly troubles. But to get there, you have to die a good death - for example, in battle. Or leave voluntarily. Or die peacefully from old age. Death after a long illness, or death of a coward, is bad. Such people end up in the underworld, to the kele spirits.

The custom of killing old people is quite common among the most diverse peoples. But unlike the characters in Jack London's story, who were thrown to the wolves during the nomadic wanderings, the Chukchi left voluntarily, they declared their intention to die to the family, after which their relatives began to persuade them to think again and not to rush. As long as the old man was able to do something, at least give good advice, he felt himself needed close. But if he thought he was too weak, the children had to strangle him with a belt. This was considered a show of respect.

The old people who survived from the mind were still respected, considered the head of the family and the owners of the reindeer herds. Women killed themselves and their children during the wars, not wanting to be captured. Sometimes children had to be killed during hunger - not in order to get rid of an extra mouth, but in order to grant them an easy death.

Contempt for death reached the point that the Chukchi almost did not value life. True, the story of a girl who hanged herself only because her mother did not take her to the fair, still cannot be considered an example of ordinary behavior.

Will there be North Castaneda?

Even a cursory glimpse of the mythology, history and worldview of the Chukchi is enough to experience acute annoyance that this people did not receive the same popularity as Don Juan's Indians, Vikings, or Celts. On the basis of their mythology, it would be possible to develop more than one similar system, the valor of northern warriors does not fade before the notorious “northern courage” (and you call this the north?), And their tales and myths can become material for an amazing fantasy that will have no equal …

Castaneda, of course, used substances to expand consciousness, which attracted many fans to him. There is a similar tradition in the culture of northern peoples, but it is just better not to touch it - these games do not lead to good. To expand the consciousness, it is enough to imagine who nevertheless created the world, where the Creator took the bones of a seal and who was that giant worm at the doorstep of the land of the dead.

Read also: Why in the Russian Empire did it never occur to anyone to laugh at the Chukchi.