Origin of the Eskimos. Peoples of Russia. Eskimos. Language and culture
At the word "Eskimo" the imagination draws a chum among the expanses of snow and little men wrapped from head to toe in deer skins. For some, this term is associated with ice cream on a stick. Few people know that the Eskimos are an ancient people who lived in the northern regions even before our era. They have an original culture, traditions passed down from generation to generation. Some of the customs of these northern people are so different from ours that they can even cause shock.
Nation
The Eskimos are an indigenous people living in the far north. They occupy the territory of Greenland, their settlements are in Canada (Nunavut), Alaska, the Chukchi Peninsula. Scientists attribute this people to the group of Mongoloids of the Arctic type. They are also called the term "Inuit" (from the English word inuit), which is the politically correct name of the nation. Together with other indigenous peoples of Kamchatka, they form the continental arctic race. The origin of the word "Eskimo" goes back to the Indian name eskimanzig, that is, "a person who eats raw fish." This name, coined by the natives of America, is still in use today. Groups of indigenous peoples living in Chukotka, the Far Eastern islands, in different parts of Alaska, call themselves "Yupik", which translates as "a real person." All representatives of this nation speak the Escaleutic languages, which are a collection of related dialects.
population
Together, all representatives of this northern people living on different continents make up only 170,000 people. Most of them are in Greenland (about 56,000) and Alaska (48,000). The rest settle in Chukotka, the islands of St. Lawrence, Wrangel, in the Canadian Nunavut. Some tribes live in the north of Europe (in Denmark and other countries). Approximately 1,500 people live on Russian territory.
Appearance
Representatives of this people look like typical Mongoloids. They are characterized by the following features:
- swarthy skin;
- narrow slit of the eyes;
- wide nose;
- black hair;
- round face.
Women, like men, have a stocky physique. This is a low race, Europeans are much taller than the average Eskimo. Girls wear long hair that is braided.
Story
To refer to the ancient ancestors of modern Eskimos, anthropologists have proposed the term "paleo-Eskimos", which is conditional. Scientists distinguish among them the cultures of Saqqaq, Dorset. In parallel with them, the Independence culture developed, subdivided into I and II (according to time intervals). The oldest of them is recognized as Sakkak, which existed from about 2500 to 800 years. BC. In her time, Independence I existed. It is believed that modern Chukchi and Saqqaq people have the same prehistoric ancestors. An ancient site of Paleo-Eskimos was found on Wrangel Island in the 70s of the last century. A harpoon was discovered there, which, according to archaeologists, had lain in the ground for more than 3,300 years.
More recent is the Dorset culture. People who belonged to it inhabited the northern regions of Canada as early as the first millennium BC. The hunters of these ancient tribes used spears and spears to hunt animals. At the site of the remains of dwellings, stone lamps were found that worked on seal oil. Representatives of Dorset knew how to carve figures from seal tusks, decorate them with patterns. Near Dorset there were tribes related to Independence II. From their mixing in the 8th century AD, peoples called "Tule" were formed - the progenitors of modern Eskimos. In order to draw such conclusions, scientists took DNA samples from the remains of ancient people who lived in the northern territories. Representatives of Thule in the ninth century occupied the Canadian territories, displacing more backward tribes from them. In the 13th century they moved to Greenland.
Life
Eskimos form communities, which include residents of one settlement (winter hut). They consist of many families in which everyone is engaged in certain duties. The family may include not only the husband and wife and their children, but also the next of kin. Several families often live in the same dwelling. Married couples sleep with their children in the center of the house. Lonely members of the community take seats on the edge. For the most part, marriages are monogamous, with each man having one wife. However, no one forbids him to marry two girls or divorce. But this is rare, since the way of life of the people is aimed at preserving the well-being of the family and society as a whole.
The way of life of the Eskimos involves close cooperation, which requires high consciousness from each member of society. They hunt together, use items belonging to the entire village. Residents constantly communicate with each other, there are unspoken laws between them. Postulates are expressed in the following rules:
- Outsiders do not have the right to build a house inside the settlement without the consent of all its inhabitants.
- Each settler takes a certain small part of the booty. In this case, first of all, meat and fish are received by members of the family of a successful hunter. Thanks to this, none of the inhabitants of the village goes hungry.
- Each person can live and hunt outside the community if he wants to.
- If someone finds any objects or things and their owner is not found, the finder takes them for himself.
- When none of the hunters is lucky on the hunt for a long time, the richest families invite others to dine with them.
The Eskimos do not have any self-governing organizations. All problems are discussed within society and immediately resolved. Scandals and quarrels on any occasion are prohibited. This rule is dictated by the need for a peaceful neighborhood in a small area. The languages of these peoples do not have abusive words. With such a way of life, there are practically no crimes among the population. If a murder occurs (which is extremely rare), this requires retaliatory measures according to the law of blood feud. The person who committed this act must be killed by a relative of the murdered. When vengeance is done, relatives are informed.
Women
Girls in Eskimo families assume a subordinate position. In order to get married, you need the permission of both parents. When there are boys (brothers) in the family, they must also give their consent. If the parents do not want to let go of their daughter, she will stay with them. A man can take a girl to his wife by force if her parents (but not she) agree to this. There are no marriage ceremonies. The girl just comes to a new house, taking with her clothes, sewing supplies, a knife.
The wife has no voice in the family, she must obey her husband and mother-in-law. A man can hit his wife for any wrongdoing. But their children are never punished. In the case when a husband decides to have another wife, the first one still remains the main one. As a rule, the second girl is needed for procreation if the first wife cannot have children for any reason.
Men
The male half of the population is mainly engaged in food production. This is their main duty. Every man of working age must hunt and fish until his strength fails him. He is obliged to accustom his sons to this from childhood. Men often hunt in an organized manner, so there must be friendly relations between them. In this regard, there are no disputes over production. If two hunters harpooned a seal or game at the same time, the meat is divided in half. Whales are hunted together and are initially considered common prey.
When hunters take some things from each other (harpoons, arrows, guns), then if they are lost, compensation is not paid. If one person set traps for an animal or fish, and then abandoned to follow them, other hunters can take prey for themselves. It goes to the one who first found them, repaired them, began to care for them. Such rules are due to concern for the preservation of one's kind.
dwelling
By the standards of a civilized person, the houses of the Eskimos are very unusual. They have two types of dwellings: summer and winter. Summer ones look like a plague or a tent. The design is very simple. Several long poles are fastened at the top, and their ends rest against the ground, forming a circle. Then they are covered with deer skins sewn together into large panels. On one side, the skins are pushed aside, forming a passage.
Winter houses have a different device, depending on the region where the tribes live. In Greenland, these are traditional snow buildings called "igloos". Eskimos living in Chukotka build houses from boards, earth, and bones. In countries such as Denmark, dwellings are made of stones and wood. The entrance to them is very narrow and is located low. A long corridor leads to a large room in which several families live.
Greenlandic Eskimos build an igloo out of snow. First, rectangular blocks are molded from the snow mass up to about half a meter in length. Mark a circle of the desired diameter and lay snow parallelepipeds around the circumference. The blocks are tilted slightly towards the center to form a cone. At the top they are rounded, forming a dome. The very top of the needle is not closed, leaving a hole for smoke to escape. There is a hearth in the very center of the house.
The round room is divided into parts, each of which is occupied by one family. There is no furniture, only a bed for sleeping. There is a lamp next to it. On average, the diameter of the house is 3-4 meters. 10-12 people live in it. Sometimes they make a needle with a diameter of 15-20 meters for 8-10 families. Tunnels are laid between dwellings in order to move from one to another without falling into frost.
Clothing and household items
Women and men wear approximately the same clothes. These are long jackets made of deer skins with a hood trimmed with fox or sable fur. They are decorated with national ornaments, tails, fur inserts in contrasting colors. On their feet they wear high boots - thick boots made of deer or dog skins with fur on the outside. Hands are protected from frost with warm mittens.
Eskimos have very few household items. They do not accumulate property. These are sedentary tribes that live for some time in one place, and then withdraw and move to another. They transport tents on sledges along with utensils. These people stock up on food. At the same time, the richest families do not procure provisions for more than a year. Tents, sleighs, boats, dog teams, dishes are considered common property of all families living in the same dwelling. Personal items include:
- Clothes.
- Tools.
- Sewing accessories.
- Weapon.
- Fishing equipment.
Eskimos can exchange some things with other tribes. These are mainly animal skins, tusks and fangs of seals, whalebone.
Lessons
The two main activities of this northern people are hunting and fishing. They are also engaged in sea fishing - catching walruses and seals. Tribes living in Canada and Kamchatka hunt deer, arctic foxes, and game. With the advent of civilization in Greenland and the formation of cities there, many Eskimos became hired workers. They take jobs on fishing boats and do the same thing for a paycheck. Those people who are engaged in their own craft have the following devices:
- wooden boats upholstered in seal skins - kayaks;
- waterproof kayaker jacket;
- harpoons, spears;
- sledges, dog teams;
- traps, traps.
Hunters make special protective suits for hunting wild animals, which can be compared to bulletproof vests or knightly armor. Thin plates of walrus tusks are connected to each other with leather cords. Armor is distributed on the body in such a way as to protect the vital organs. It is lightweight and does not restrict movement.
Seals are very important to the Eskimos, as their meat makes up a large part of the menu. Some species of these animals are hunted all year round. Special traps are placed on the ice to warn of the approach of a seal. When it emerges from the water, it is harpooned. Before death, the animal is given water to drink in order to appease the water spirit, the mistress of sea animals, Sedna. Walruses and whales are hunted in groups as they are very large animals. The bowhead whale meat is enough to feed the entire village for a year. Therefore, to catch him is a great success.
Food
Basically, the Eskimos eat the meat of the animals they hunt. For the most part it is:
- seals
- walruses
- seals
- deer
- White bears
The Eskimo style of eating is even called the meat diet, due to the predominance of this product in it. The rest of the diet is marine and freshwater fish and sometimes game. People do not have the opportunity to engage in agriculture, as they are surrounded by permafrost. Sometimes women gather roots, berries, if plants are found near the winter hut. Seaweed is also eaten. People of this nationality are of the opinion that it is the meat diet that gives them strength, makes them healthy, and helps to accumulate energy in conditions of constant cold.
Animal fats and proteins found in meat replace the Eskimos with all the vitamins and minerals that the bulk of people take from the whole variety of natural products. In the course of medical research, it turned out that a meat diet provokes cardiovascular diseases, vein thrombosis, and strokes. Mortality from apoplexy in this people is twice as high as that of the white population. Eskimos eat all the edible parts of the body of fish and animals, so they compensate for the lack of vitamins. Retinol and calciferol are present in the liver of fish and mammals, and ascorbic acid is found in seaweed, sealskin, and brain.
A feature of nutrition is that the products are consumed raw. In this case, spices are not used. After cutting the animal, pieces are cut off from it and placed on metal or cardboard plates. Brains, viscera, fat are eaten with meat. If people have not eaten for a long time, then the whole settlement is invited to the table. The concept of "lunch" or "dinner" does not exist, since food is taken when hunger is felt, and not at a certain time. The female half of the population and children eat after men, as hunters need a lot of strength to hunt.
In addition to eating animal entrails, Eskimos also drink their blood. They consider it extremely beneficial for health. The benefit is explained by the fact that the nutrients contained in the blood of the animal saturate the human blood with the missing elements. It gives strength, endurance, helps to endure abnormal cold.
Popular Eskimo dishes:
- Akutaq. The dish is seal or walrus fat mixed with berries and fish fillets. Sometimes roots, edible leaves of plants are added there.
- Anllek. Considered a delicacy. It is done like this: when it is possible to find stocks of mice-voles collecting seeds and grains in minks, they are taken away, and in return they put a little other food. The grains are eaten raw or mixed with meat and fat.
- Igunak. This is the carcass of a killed animal (deer, seal, walrus, etc.), buried in the ground and lying there for some time. Inside it, fermentation takes place, as well as partial decomposition. The meat contains cadaveric poison, so Europeans cannot eat such dishes. Eskimos are immune to it, due to the fact that food is present in the diet of many generations.
- Maktak. This is the skin of a whale with a fatty layer, previously frozen.
Dish Akutaq Religion
The appearance of white people greatly influenced the life of the server peoples. This also applies to religious beliefs. Therefore, some tribes now profess Christianity, but this is a consequence of the intervention of civilization. The main religion of the Eskimo tribes is animism. This is a belief in spirits that can help or harm a person, so they need to be worshiped, to bring gifts. Nature is considered animate, and the existence of a soul is attributed to all animals.
The whole world is ruled by the creator, in whose subordination are various deities. For example, the goddess of sea possessions and animals is Sedna. She also rules over the realm of the dead. Each settlement has its own shaman. This is a person who has the gift to penetrate the world of spirits. He mediates between humans and gods. The shaman performs rituals to appease the spirits, tells mortals about the plans of the gods. They are also folk healers. In difficult situations, they are asked for advice, asked to resolve the dispute.
Religion obliges people to treat animals with respect. You can only kill them for food and never for idle entertainment. There is a legend among the Eskimos that they agreed with Sedna that they would destroy walruses and seals only for food in order to survive the family. The goddess commanded sea animals to sacrifice themselves so that after death they become part of the human body and thereby continue the human race. To do this, she gave them the ability to create offspring.
Traditions
Some features of the life of the Eskimos are not entirely clear to white people. The exchange of wives for a while is a common practice among representatives of this nationality. There are situations when a woman must accompany her husband on a trip, prepare food for him, take care of him, but for health reasons or other reasons it will be difficult for her to do this. Then the man borrows a wife from another settler. After completing the planned business, the woman returns to her former husband.
Eskimos do not kiss their relatives and loved ones. Instead, they rub their noses. Europeans believe that this is due to negative weather conditions. There is a danger of frostbite of the lips, as moistened areas of the body are immediately covered with ice. Often the lower part of the face is completely covered, as icicles appear under the nose from warm breath. And in men, the beard can completely freeze.
The Eskimos are unable to wash due to the extreme cold. They smear the body with seal or bear fat, and rub the face with fish. It helps to resist frost, reduces the possibility of frostbite on the skin. Representatives of tribes living in Europe and America wash once a year, in the summer.
Now travel agencies organize excursions to Eskimo villages for those wishing to get acquainted with the life and customs of this people. You can even rent an ice house and spend the night in it. For thrill-seekers, bathing in a heated bath, which is installed in the middle of a snow house, is arranged.
Russian Eskimos make up an insignificant part of a fairly large polar people living both in Russia - at the very tip of Chukotka, and beyond its borders - on the coast of Alaska, in the polar regions of Canada and Greenland. The total number of Eskimos is 97 thousand people, and only 1,700 of them live in Russia.
The Eskimos are the direct heirs of an ancient culture spread from the end of the first millennium BC. along the shores of the Bering Sea. From their distant ancestors, the Eskimos inherited Mongoloid features of appearance.
The ethnonym “Eskimos” was first introduced to Europeans by the French pastor Biar: in his report on a trip to America in 1611, the word “eskimantsik” was used, which in the language of the Wobinaki Indians meant “eaters of raw meat” - this is how they called the Eskimos who ate raw whale skin and the like.
The self-name of the Eskimos is Yugipyt, or Yugyt, which means “real people”.
Indeed, the Eskimo treated the newcomers, most often helpless in the face of the Arctic, as inferior beings. The Greenlandic Eskimos call such "dog son" with a touch of irony and condescension.
The highest praise on the lips of an Eskimo is the words that an English admiral heard from an old Eskimo hunter after many years of wintering and wandering together: "You are almost like us."
Until the middle of the 19th century, the Eskimos had little contact with the Russians. The rapprochement occurred when Russian fishermen joined the main occupation of the Eskimos - hunting for sea animals, mainly whales, walruses and seals. However, the transfer of hunting to industrial rails threatened the traditional way of life of the natives.
To date, no more than 20% of Russian Eskimos are fluent in their native language, and these people are mostly of the older generation. The rest can only understand Eskimo.
At present, there are no purely Eskimo settlements left in Chukotka. Everywhere they live with Russians, Chukchi and other peoples. They are the predominant part of the population only in 2 villages - New Chaplino and Sireniki.
The Eskimos moved to the Arctic at the dawn of human history. And now they are better adapted to life in cold climates than any other people. Their nostrils are narrower than those of other races, which reduces the loss of moisture and heat during breathing. They even developed protective pads of fat on their cheekbones and eyelids, always exposed to the wind and frost.
However, the Eskimos would not have been able to survive in the Arctic if not for their clothing. They make mittens and boots from sealskin, trousers from bearskins, and caribou skins and bird skins with full plumage are used for shirts. The seams are sewn so skillfully that they do not let water through. One person puts on two shirts and two pairs of trousers at the same time - the lower ones with fur to the skin, the upper ones with fur outward.
Wandering through the permafrost, the Eskimos built their dwellings from snow, chopping it with bars. The bars were stacked on top of each other in a converging upward spiral. These igloos, as the Eskimos called their buildings, were sometimes provided with a semblance of windows: a piece of transparent ice was inserted between the snow bars. But even in this case, bowls with fat gave light. The heat of burning fat, together with the warmth of human bodies, raised the temperature in this artificial snow cave to 15 degrees, so that its inhabitants threw off heavy clothes and half-naked comfortably settled down on fur blankets.
The life of the Eskimos was made up of a series of unthinkable hardships. And yet, "the Eskimos give the impression of being the happiest people," the researchers unanimously confirm. Eskimo sees the world in bright colors. Isn't there enough reason to rejoice? He did not die during the hunt, he safely returned to the hearth, provided the family with food ...
And what a delightful feeling it is - during a sudden blizzard on the way, hastily build a needle for yourself, fence yourself off from the whistle of a snowstorm. Laying the last block of snow behind him and closing the entrance, the Eskimo laughs. This is the laughter of a winner. He did not surrender to evil spirits, he outwitted them, he is smart, brave, a real person, he will always cope with difficulties. How not to rejoice in this?
"Laughter is in the air", - says an old Eskimo proverb.
Sergey Tsvetkov, historian
Where do Eskimos live? and got the best answer
Response from User deleted[master]
Greenland, North America,
Answer from Evgeny Kuadzhe[guru]
In yurts and yarangas if they roam.
Answer from Maria Travina[expert]
In yurts and yarangas.
Answer from User deleted[expert]
The Eskimos are an indigenous people inhabiting territories from the eastern edge of Chukotka to Greenland.
Answer from Vitalik ido[guru]
in the refrigerator with popsicles
Answer from Guter[newbie]
In yurts
Answer from >Egorkina<
[expert]
In Eskimosia. -)
Answer from Nicholas[guru]
where is popsicle on a stick made 🙂
Answer from sunny[guru]
Geographically - Greenland Island, Northern Canada, Alaska (USA)
Type of housing - portable huts made of poles and skins of marine animals, most often - walrus skins. Just as often, in winter, houses are built from ice, called "igloos". To do this, cube-shaped pieces are cut out in the ice mass and stacked in a spiral layer by layer, leaving it in the ceiling of this hemispherical structure. t hole - a chimney, the entrance is usually directed to the south, or from the leeward side.
Modern Eskimos prefer comfortable, comfortable European-type housing (ordinary houses)
Answer from User deleted[active]
in the tundra
Answer from Chimera[guru]
The Eskimos are an indigenous people inhabiting territories from the eastern edge of Chukotka to Greenland. In total - less than 90 thousand people (for 2000, approximately). The languages belong to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family.
Anthropologists believe that the Eskimos are Mongoloids of the Arctic type. Their main self-name is "Inuit". The word "Eskimo" ("raw foodist", "one who eats raw fish", "one who comes from another land", "one who speaks a foreign language") belongs to the language of the Indian tribes Abnak and Athabaskans. From the name of the American Eskimos, this word has become the self-name of both American and Asian Eskimos.
In the Russian Federation, the population is 1718 people. The language is the Esco-Aleut family of languages. Settlement - Chukotka Autonomous District of the Magadan Region.
The most eastern people of the country. They live in the north-east of Russia, on the Chukchi Peninsula. Self-name - yuk - "man", yugyt, or yupik - "real person".
But if we proceed from one translation option for the meaning of ESKIMOS, namely "one who speaks a foreign language", I myself have a fair question =)
Where do Eskimos live?
Probably in a needle, yaranga, plague, depending on the location.
Each people of the world has its own characteristics, which are absolutely normal and ordinary for them, but if a person of a different nationality gets into their midst, he may be very surprised at the habits and traditions of the inhabitants of this country, because they will not coincide with his own ideas about life. We invite you to learn 8 national habits and characteristics of the Eskimos, some of which will surprise you very much.
They can borrow someone else's wife
If the permanent wife is sick or has a small child, it is convenient to change her for a young and strong woman who is easier to move around with. After all, on the way, a woman should not only fulfill her marital duty, but cook food, help the head of the family in every possible way and share the hardships of the road. For the exchange of wives for several days, there is a special term - "areodyarekput".
They call internet travel
At the beginning of the 21st century, the Eskimos got acquainted with the Internet, and this term needed to be translated into their language. The experts chose the word ikiaqqivik - "travel through the layers". Previously, this was the name of the shaman's ritual, which, in search of an answer to any question, "traveled" through time and space.
They sniff each other when they meet
The traditional Eskimo greeting, used mostly by relatives or lovers, is called "kunik". It looks like this: one of the greeters presses his nose to the forehead or cheeks of the second and draws in air - as if sniffing, inhaling a familiar smell. They said that the custom arose because lips freeze in severe frost - you can’t kiss, and they even called it an Eskimo kiss. In fact, this greeting is purely friendly and is due to the fact that those who meet in the cold can have the lower part of the face covered.
They compete in pulling the thread with their ears
The program of the World Eskimo Olympic Games includes a special competition - pulling the thread with the ears. Loops are made at the two ends of the thread. Opponents sit face to face, a loop is put on each ear. And as others pull the rope with their hands, they try to pull the thread with their ears (or rather, with their heads and even torso tilts), until someone refuses to continue the competition because of pain. I must say, not every ear is able to withstand such a struggle.
They risk their lives for a handful of mussels
Monotonous food is sometimes so annoying that the Eskimos decide on an extremely dangerous event - collecting mussels under the ice. There is a thick layer of ice on the surface of the Arctic seas almost all year round. You need to catch a short time of low tide, when a hollow space forms under a huge ice layer, cut a hole in it, go down and harvest mussels from it.
This is a really risky business. The collectors have no more than half an hour to leave the ice cave before the wave arrives - if you do not have time, death is inevitable. In addition, the ice, hanging almost in the air at low tide, can collapse on desperate collectors. And all for the sake of a handful of mussels, which are eaten in one sitting.
Their women use moss and algae instead of pads.
Eskimo women use the skins of fur-bearing animals, moss-moss and thin wood shavings made from alder as means of protection on critical days. Those who live near the sea prefer algae.
Their children are afraid of Kalupiluk
Every culture has its own specific monsters and monsters that scare children if they don't go to bed now. The Eskimos are afraid of Kalupaluk (Qalupalik or Kallupilluk) - a ghost that is just waiting to drag careless people under the ice, to the bottom of the sea.
They put players on the graves
The custom of leaving the deceased his favorite things exists among many northern peoples. Sending the deceased to the "upper people", the living "sent" with him everything that, in their opinion, could be useful in another life. Before it was knives, walrus tusk crafts, now it is modern household appliances. Most often - video cassettes and players.
05/07/2018 Sergey Solovyov 6951 views
Eskimo plague. Photo: Konstantin Lemeshev / TASS Russian Eskimos live in the Chukotka Autonomous District of the Magadan Region. Less than two thousand Eskimos live in Russia.
The origin of the Eskimos is not known for certain. Some researchers consider them to be the heirs of an ancient culture that was spread as early as the first millennium BC along the shores of the Bering Sea.
It is believed that the word "Eskimo" comes from "eskimantsik", that is, "raw foodist", "chewing raw meat, fish." Many hundreds of years ago, the Eskimos began to settle in vast territories - from Chukotka to Greenland. At present, their numbers are small - around 170 thousand people around the world. This people has its own language - Eskimo, it belongs to the Esko-Aleut family.
The historical connection of the Eskimos with other peoples of Chukotka and Alaska is obvious - it is especially noticeable with the Aleuts. Also, the proximity to another people of the North - the Chukchi - had a great influence on the formation of the Eskimo culture.
Eskimos traditionally hunt fur-bearing animals, walruses and gray whales, handing over meat and fur to the state. Photo: Konstantin Lemeshev / TASS
The Eskimos have long been engaged in whaling. By the way, it was they who invented the rotary harpoon (ung`ak`), the bone tip of which is separated from the shaft of the spear. For a very long time, whales were the main source of food for these people. However, gradually the number of marine mammals decreased markedly, so the Eskimos were forced to "switch" to the extraction of seals and walruses, although they, of course, did not forget about hunting for whales. The Eskimos ate meat both in ice cream and salted form, it was also dried and boiled. For a long time, the harpoon remained the main weapon of this people of the North. It was with him that the Eskimo men went on a sea hunt: in kayaks or on the so-called canoes - light, fast and stable boats on the water, the frame of which was covered with walrus skins. Some of these boats could carry twenty-five people or about four tons of cargo. Other kayaks, on the contrary, were built for one or two people. As a rule, the prey was divided equally among the hunters and their numerous relatives.
On land, the Eskimos traveled on dog sleds - the so-called arc-dust sleds, in which the dogs were harnessed with a "fan". In the 19th century, the Eskimos slightly changed the technique of movement - they also began to use short, dust-free sleds, in which the runners were made from walrus tusks. To make it more convenient to walk in the snow, the Eskimos came up with special “racquet” skis, which were a small frame with fixed ends and transverse struts intertwined with leather straps. From below they were lined with bone plates.
Indigenous inhabitant of Chukotka. Photo: Konstantin Lemeshev / TASS
The Eskimos also hunted on land - they mainly shot reindeer and mountain sheep. The main weapon (before the advent of firearms) was a bow with arrows. For a long time, the Eskimos were not interested in the production of fur-bearing animals. He was mostly beaten in order to make clothes for himself. However, in the 19th century, the demand for furs increased, so the “chewing raw meat”, who by that time had firearms, began to actively shoot these animals, and exchange their skins for various goods that were brought from the mainland. Over time, the Eskimos turned into unsurpassed hunters, the fame of their accuracy spread far beyond the borders of the places where they lived. The Eskimos' methods of hunting arctic fox and fox are very similar to those used by the Chukchi, who are also excellent hunters.
Back in the 18th century, the Eskimos “peeped” from the Chukchi on the technology of building frame yarangas. Previously, they lived in semi-dugouts with a floor deepened into the ground, which was lined with whale bones. The frame of these dwellings was covered with deer skins, then it was covered with turf, stones, and the skins were again laid on top. In the summer, the Eskimos built light quadrangular buildings with shed roofs on wooden frames, which were covered with walrus skins. At the very end of the 19th century, the Eskimos had light wooden houses with gable roofs and windows.
It is believed that it was the Eskimos who were the first to build snow huts - igloos, domed buildings with a diameter of two to four meters and a height of about two meters from compacted snow or ice blocks. Light entered these structures either directly through the snow blocks of the walls, or through small holes that were closed with dried seal guts.
The Eskimos also adopted the style of clothing from the Chukchi. In the end, they stopped sewing clothes from bird feathers and began to make better and warmer things from deer skins. Traditional Eskimo shoes are high boots with a false sole and a slanting top, as well as fur stockings and seal torbasa (kamgyk). Eskimo waterproof shoes were made from seal skins. The Eskimos did not wear fur hats and mittens in everyday life, they were worn only during long journeys or wanderings. Festive robes were decorated with embroidery or fur mosaics.
Eskimos speak to members of the Soviet-American expedition "Bering bridge" on the island of Little Diomede (USA). 1989 Photo: Valentin Kuzmin/TASS
Modern Eskimos still honor the old traditions, deep down believing in spirits, the kinship of man with animals and objects that surround him. And shamans help people communicate with this world. Once upon a time, each village had its own shaman, but now there are fewer people capable of penetrating into the worlds of spirits. Living shamans enjoy great respect: they are brought gifts, they are asked for help and well-being, they are the main figures at almost all festive events.
One of the most revered animals among the Eskimos has always been a killer whale, she was considered the patroness of sea hunters. According to the beliefs of the Eskimos, the killer whale could turn into a wolf, helping hunters in the tundra.
Another animal that the Eskimos treated with special respect is the walrus. Around the middle of summer, a period of storms set in, and hunting at sea was temporarily stopped. At this time, the Eskimos held a holiday in honor of the walrus: the carcass of the animal was pulled out of the glacier, the shaman began to frantically beat the tambourine, calling all the inhabitants of the village. The culmination of the holiday is a joint feast, where walrus meat was the main dish. The shaman gave part of the carcass to the water spirits, calling them to join the meal. The rest went to the people. The skull of a walrus was solemnly placed on a sacrificial place: it was assumed that this was a tribute to the main patroness of the Eskimos - the killer whale.
Many fishing holidays have been preserved among the Eskimos to this day - in the fall, for example, "seeing off the whale" is celebrated, in the spring - "meeting the whale." The folklore of the Eskimos is quite diverse: all oral creativity is divided into two types - unipak and unipamsyuk. The first is directly “news”, “news”, that is, a story about recent events, the second is heroic legends and stories about events of the distant past, fairy tales and myths.
The Eskimos also love to sing, and their chants are also divided into two types - public hymn songs and "songs for the soul", which are performed individually, but always accompanied by a tambourine, which is considered a family heirloom and is passed down from generation to generation - until until it completely fails.
