What houses do the Eskimos live in? Eskimos are the indigenous peoples of the Far East. Social structure, customs and laws
05/07/2018 Sergei Soloviev 6,951 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 back in the first millennium BC along the shores of the Bering Sea.
It is believed that the word "Eskimo" comes from "Eskimantsik", that is, "raw food", "chewing raw meat, fish." Many hundreds of years ago, Eskimos began to settle in vast territories - from Chukotka to Greenland. Currently, their number is small - around the world about 170 thousand people. This people has its own language - the Eskimo, it belongs to the Esko-Aleutian family.
The historical connection of the Eskimos with other peoples of Chukotka and Alaska is obvious - it is especially noticeable with the Aleuts. Also a great influence on the formation of the Eskimo culture was exerted by the neighborhood with another people of the North - the Chukchi.
Eskimos traditionally hunt fur-bearing animals, walruses and gray whales, donating 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 swivel harpoon (ung`ak`), the bone tip of which is separated from the spear shaft. For a very long time, whales were the main food source for these people. However, the population of marine mammals gradually decreased, so the Eskimos were forced to "switch" to hunting for seals and walruses, although they, of course, did not forget about hunting whales. 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 sea hunting: on kayaks or on the so-called canoes - light, fast and water-stable boats, the frame of which was covered with walrus skins. Some of these boats could carry twenty-five or about four tons of cargo. Other kayaks, on the other hand, were built for one or two people. As a rule, the prey was divided equally between the hunters and their numerous relatives.
On land, the Eskimos moved on dog sleds - the so-called arc-dust sledges, into which the dogs were harnessed “like a fan”. In the 19th century, the Eskimos slightly changed the technique of movement - they also began to use short, dustless sleds, in which runners were made of walrus tusks. To make it easier to walk in the snow, the Eskimos invented special skis - "rackets", which were a small frame with fixed ends and cross braces intertwined with leather straps. From below they were lined with bone plates.
A native of Chukotka. Photo: Konstantin Lemeshev / TASS
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 hunting fur-bearing animals. Basically he was beaten in order to sew clothes for himself. However, in the 19th century, the demand for furs increased, so those who chew raw meat, who had acquired firearms by that time, began to actively shoot these animals as well, and exchange their skins for various goods that were brought from Big Earth... Over time, the Eskimos turned into unsurpassed hunters, the fame of their accuracy spread far beyond the places where they lived. The Eskimos' methods of catching arctic fox and fox are very similar to those used by the Chukchi - they are also excellent hunters.
Back in the 18th century, the Eskimos "spied" from the Chukchi the technology of building frame yarangs. Before 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 reindeer skins, then it was covered with turf, stones, and skins were again laid on top. In the summer, the Eskimos built light structures of a quadrangular shape with pitched roofs on wooden frames, which were covered with walrus skins. At the very end of the 19th century, the Eskimos had light plank houses with gable roofs and windows.
It is believed that it was the Eskimos who first began to build snow huts - igloos, domed structures 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 intestines.
The Eskimos also adopted the style of clothing from the Chukchi. In the end, they stopped making clothes from bird feathers and began to make better quality and warmer clothes from reindeer skins. Traditional Eskimo shoes are high fur boots with a plug-in sole and an oblique bootleg, as well as fur stockings and seal torbasa (kamgyk). Eskimo waterproof shoes were made of sealskins. Eskimos' fur hats and mittens Everyday life they were not worn, they were worn only during long journeys or wanderings. Festive garments were decorated with embroidery or fur mosaics.
Eskimos speak to members of the US-Soviet Bering Bridge expedition on Little Diomede Island (USA). 1989 Photo: Valentin Kuzmin / TASS
Modern Eskimos still honor the old traditions, deeply believing in spirits, the relationship of man with animals and objects that surround him. And shamans help people to communicate with this world. Once upon a time, each village had its own shaman, but now there are fewer people able to penetrate the worlds of spirits. Today's shamans are highly respected: gifts are brought to them, they are asked for help and prosperity, they are the main figures in almost all festive events.
One of the most revered animals among the Eskimos has always been the killer whale, it 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 organized 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, summoning all the inhabitants of the village. The culmination of the holiday was a joint feast, where the main dish was walrus meat. The shaman gave part of the carcass to the spirits of water, urging them to join the meal. The rest went to the people. The walrus skull was solemnly hoisted on the sacrificial site: it was assumed that this was a tribute to the main patroness of the Eskimos - the killer whale.
Many fishing holidays have survived 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 - 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 certainly accompanied by a tambourine, which is considered a family heirloom and is passed down from generation to generation - until then, until it completely fails.
The multimedia project "Faces of Russia" has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together, while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, within the framework of the project, we have created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. In support of the first series of films, illustrated almanacs were released. Now we are halfway to the creation of a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the people of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy of what they were like for their descendants.
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The cycle of audio lectures "Peoples of Russia" - Eskimos
General information
ESKIM'OSY,- one of the indigenous northern peoples, an ethnic community, a group of peoples in the United States (in Alaska - 38 thousand people), in the north of Canada (28 thousand people), in Denmark (the island of Greenland - 47 thousand) and Russian Federation(Chukotka autonomous region Magadan region - 1.5 thousand people). Eskimos inhabit the territory from the eastern edge of Chukotka to Greenland. The total number is 115 thousand people (less than 90 thousand people in 2000). In Russia, the Eskimos are small ethnic group- according to the 2002 census, the number of Eskimos living in Russia is 19 thousand people, according to the 2010 census - 1738 people - living mixed or in close proximity to the Chukchi in several settlements on the eastern coast of Chukotka and on Wrangel Island.
The languages of the Eskimo-Aleutian family are divided into two groups: inupik (closely related dialects of the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, northern Alaska and Canada, Labrador and Greenland) and Yupik - a group of three languages(Central Yupik, Siberian Yupik and Sugpiak, or Alutiik) with dialects spoken by the population of the west and southwest of Alaska, St. Lawrence Island and the Chukchi Peninsula.
Formed as an ethnos in the Bering Sea region until the end of the 2nd millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, the ancestors of the Eskimos - carriers of the archaeological culture of the Thule - settled in Chukotka and along the Arctic coast of America to Greenland.
The Eskimos are divided into 15 ethno-cultural groups: the Eskimos of southern Alaska, on the coast of Prince William Bay and Kodiak Island, were strongly influenced by the Russian during the period of the Russian-American Company (late 18th - mid-19th centuries); The Eskimos of western Alaska, to the greatest extent, preserve their language and traditional way of life; Siberian Eskimos, including the Eskimos of St. Lawrence Island and the Diomede Islands; Eskimos of northwest Alaska, living along the coast from Norton Bay to the US-Canadian border and in the interior of northern Alaska; The Mackenzie Eskimos are a mixed group on the northern coast of Canada around the mouth of the Mackenzie River, formed in the late 14th - early 20th centuries from indigenous people and Nunali Eskimos - settlers from northern Alaska; the copper Eskimos, named for the cold-forged tools of native copper, inhabit the northern coast of Canada along Coronation Bay and the Banks and Victoria Islands; Netsilik Eskimos in Northern Canada, on the shores of the Boothia and Adelaide Peninsulas, King William Island and the lower Buck River; close to them Eskimos-igloolik - the inhabitants of the Melville Peninsula, the northern part of Baffin Island and Southampton Island; Caribou Eskimos living in the inner tundra of Canada west of Hudson Bay are mixed with other Eskimos; Eskimos of Baffin Land in the central and southern parts of the island of the same name; The Eskimos of Quebec and the Eskimos of Labrador, respectively, in the north - northeast and west - southwest, up to the island of Newfoundland and the mouth of the Gulf of St. women and white hunters and settlers); The Eskimos of the west of Greenland are the largest group of Eskimos, from the beginning of the 18th century they underwent European (Danish) colonization and Christianization; polar Eskimos - the northernmost aboriginal group on Earth in the far northwest of Greenland; The Eskimos of eastern Greenland, later than others (at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries), faced European influence.
Throughout their history, the Eskimos have created cultural forms adapted to life in the Arctic: a harpoon with a swivel tip, a hunting kayak boat, deaf fur clothing, a semi-dugout and a domed dwelling made of snow (igloo), a fat lamp for cooking food, lighting and heating dwellings, and etc. The Eskimos were characterized by the lack of a formalized tribal organization, the absence of clans in the 19th century (except, apparently, the Bering Sea Eskimos). Although some groups were Christianized (18th century), the Eskimos actually retained animistic ideas, shamanism.
The traditional occupations of the Eskimos are marine hunting, reindeer husbandry, and hunting.
The Eskimos have five economic and cultural complexes: hunting for large sea animals - walruses and whales (Eskimos of Chukotka, St. Lawrence Island, the coast of northwest Alaska, the ancient population of western Greenland); seal hunting (northwestern and eastern Greenland, islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago); fishing (Eskimos of the west and southwest of Alaska); roving caribou deer hunting (Eskimos-caribou, part of the Eskimos of northern Alaska); a combination of caribou hunting with sea hunting (most of the Eskimos of Canada, part of the Eskimos of northern Alaska). After the Eskimos were drawn into the orbit of market relations, a significant part of them moved to commercial fur hunting (trapper), in Greenland - to commercial fishing. Many work in construction, iron ore mines, oil fields, in the Arctic trading posts, etc. The Greenlanders and Eskimos of Alaska have a wealthy stratum and a national intelligentsia.
By the middle of the 20th century, four independent ethnopolitical communities of the Eskimos were formed.
1) Eskimos of Greenland - see Greenlanders. 2) Eskimos of Canada (self-name - Inuit). Since the 1950s, the Canadian government has been pursuing a policy of concentration of the indigenous population and the construction of large settlements. Preserve the language, English and French languages(Eskimos of Quebec). Since the end of the 19th century, they have had a writing based on the syllabic alphabet. 3) The Eskimos of Alaska are largely English-speaking, Christianized. Since the 1960s, they have been fighting for economic and political rights. The tendencies towards national and cultural consolidation are strong. 4) Asian Eskimos (Siberian), yupigyt, or yugyt (self-name - "real people"; yuits - the official name in the 1930s). The language belongs to the Yupik group, the dialects are Sirenik, Central Siberian, or Chaplinsky, and Naukansky. Writing since 1932 based on the Chaplin dialect. The Russian language is widespread. They are settled on the coast of the Chukotka Peninsula from the Bering Strait in the north to the Gulf of Cross in the west. The main groups are: navukagmit ("naukans") living in the territory from the village of Inchoun to the village of Lawrence; the Ungazigmit ("Chaplins"), who settled from the Senyavin Strait to Provideniya Bay and in the village of Uelkal; sirenigmit ("sireniktsy"), residents of the village of Sireniki.
The main traditional occupation is hunting sea animals, mainly walrus and seals. The whale production developed until the middle of the 19th century then declined due to its extermination by commercial whalers. The beast was beaten on rookeries, on ice, in the water from boats - with darts, spears and harpoons with a separating bone tip. They also hunted reindeer and mountain sheep with bows and arrows. Since the mid-19th century, firearms have been spreading, and the commercial value of fur hunting for fox and arctic fox has increased. Bird hunting techniques were close to those in Chukchi (darts, bird balls, etc.). They were also engaged in fishing and gathering. Sled dogs were bred. Natural exchange with the Chukchi reindeer and American Eskimos was developed, trade trips to Alaska and St. Lawrence Island were regularly made.
The main food is walrus, seal and whale meat - ice cream, pickled, dried, boiled. Venison was highly prized. Vegetable food, seaweed, and molluscs were used as spices.
Initially, they lived in large settlements in semi-dugouts (now "lu"), which existed until the middle of the 19th century.In the 17th and 18th centuries, under the influence of the Chukchi, frame yarangs made of reindeer skins (myn "tyg" ak ") became the main winter dwellings. The walls of the yaranga were often lined with turf, made of stones or planks. The summer dwelling is rectangular, made of walrus skins on a wooden frame, with a sloping roof. Until the beginning of the 19th century, communal houses remained - large semi-dugouts, in which several lived. families, as well as meetings and holidays.
The main means of transportation were dog sledges and walking skis in winter, and leather kayak boats in open water. Sleds, like the Chukchi ones, were arched-dusty and harnessed by a fan until the middle of the 19th century, then the East Siberian sled with a harness in a train spread. The kayak was a lattice skeleton covered with leather, except for a small round hole at the top, which was pulled together around the rower's waist. Rowed with one two-bladed or two single-bladed oars. There were also multi-oared canoes of the Chukchi type for 20-30 rowers (an "yapik").
Until the end of the 19th century, the Eskimos wore deaf clothes - a kukhlyanka, sewn from bird skins with feathers inside. With the development of exchange with the Chukchi reindeer herders, clothes began to be sewn from reindeer fur. Women's clothing - a double fur jumpsuit (k "al'yvagyn) of the same cut as that of the Chukchi. Summer clothes, both for men and women, were deaf kamleika, sewn from seal intestines, later - from purchased fabrics. Traditional footwear - fur boots (kamgyk) with a tailored sole and often with an obliquely cut bootleg, male - to the middle of the lower leg, female - to the knee; leather pistons with a toe cut much more than the rise of the leg in the form of a "bubble." , leaving a circle or several strands on the crown.Tattoos for men - circles near the corners of the mouth (a relic of the custom of wearing a lip sleeve), for women - complex geometric patterns on the face and hands.To protect against diseases, face painting was also used with ocher and graphite.
Traditional decorative arts - fur mosaic, colored tendon thread embroidery on rovduga, beads, walrus tusk carving.
Among the Eskimos, the patrilineal account of kinship, patrilocal marriage with labor labor for the bride prevailed. There were canoe artels (an "yam ima), which consisted of the owner of the canoe and his close relatives and in the past occupied one semi-dugout. Its members shared the hunting prey among themselves. at the head of the settlements ("land owners").
The Eskimos invented a rotatable harpoon to hunt sea animals, a kayak, an igloo snow house, and special deaf clothing made of fur and skins. The Eskimo language belongs to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Russian Eskimos have a textbook of this language. There is also a dictionary: Eskimo-Russian and Russian-Eskimo. The programs in the Eskimo language are prepared by the Chukotka State TV and Radio Company. The songs of the Eskimos have become more and more popular lately. And in many respects thanks to the Ergyron ensemble.
Anthropologists believe that the Eskimos are arctic Mongoloids. The word "Eskimo" ("raw food", "one who eats raw fish") belongs to the language of the Indian tribes of Abnak and Athabasca. From the name of the American Eskimos, this word has become the self-name of both American and Asian Eskimos.
Eskimos are people with their own ancient worldview. They live in harmony with nature. Despite the fact that some groups of Eskimos were Christianized as early as the 18th century, this people retained animistic ideas and shamanism.
Eskimos believe in the master spirits of all animate and inanimate objects, natural phenomena, localities, wind directions, and various human states. The Eskimos believe that a person is related to any animal or object. Evil spirits are represented as giants and dwarfs.
To protect themselves from disease, the Eskimos have amulets: family and personal. There are also cults of the wolf, crow and killer whale. The mediator between the world of spirits and the world of people is a shaman among the Eskimos. Not every Eskimo can become a shaman, but only one who is lucky enough to hear the voice of the spirit-helper. After that, the shaman already alone meets with the spirits he hears, and concludes with them a kind of alliance about mediation.
The Eskimos believed in good and bad spirits. Of the animals, the killer whale was especially revered, which was considered the patron saint of sea hunting; she was depicted on canoes, her wooden image was worn by hunters on their belts. The main character of cosmogonic legends is Raven (Koshkli), the main plots of fairy tales are associated with a whale. The main rituals were associated with hunting cults: the festival of the Heads, dedicated to the hunt for walruses, the festival of Kit (Pol'a), etc. Shamanism was developed. After the 1930s, the Eskimos organized fishing farms. Traditional occupations and culture began to disappear. Traditional beliefs, shamanism, bone carving, songs and dances are preserved. With the creation of writing, the intelligentsia is formed. Among the modern Eskimos, there is a rise in national consciousness.
N.V. Kocheshkov, L.A. Feinberg
‘ENTSY, enneche (self-name - "person"), the people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug (103 people). The total number is 209 people. According to poll data, the number is about 340 people (in the census data, part of the Entsy is recorded by the Nenets and Nganasans). According to the 2002 census, the number of Entsy living in Russia is 237 people, according to the 2010 census. - 227 people ..
The name "enets" was adopted in the 1930s. In pre-revolutionary literature, the Enets were called Yenisei Samoyeds, or Khantai (Tundra Enets) and Karassin (Forest Enets) Samoyeds, after the names of the encampments where the yasak was brought.
Settlement - Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous District of Krasnoyarsk Territory. They live in Taimyr, live in the Ust-Yeniseisky and Dudinsky districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The language is Enets, dialects - tundra, or somatu, Khantai (madu-baza), and forest, or pe-bai, Karassin (bai-baza), the Samoyed branch of the Ural-Yukagir family of languages. Russian is also widespread (75% speak fluently, 38% of the Entsy consider their native language) and Nenets languages.
Both the local population, the reindeer hunters, and the Samoyedians who assimilated it - newcomers from the south of Siberia and the middle Tomsk region, took part in the ethnogenesis of the Ents. In Russian sources, the Entsy are mentioned since the end of the 15th century as Molgonzei - from the name of the Mongkasi clan, or Muggadi (hence the name of the Russian prison Mangazeya). In the 18th - early 19th centuries, they are referred to as the Yenisei Samoyeds. The Enets were divided into tundra, or madu, somata, Khantai Samoyeds, and forest, or pe-bai, Karasin Samoyeds. In the 17th century, madu roamed between the lower reaches of the Yenisei and Taz, pe-bai - on the upper and middle reaches of the Taz and Yenisei and on the right bank of the Yenisei in the basins of the Khantayka, Kureyka and Lower Tunguska rivers. The Entsy population at the end of the 17th century was about 900 people. From the end of the 17th century, under pressure from the Nenets from the west and the Selkups from the south, they retreated to the lower Yenisei and its eastern tributaries. Some of the Entsy were assimilated. Since the 1830s, groups of tundra and forest Entsy begin to roam together. Their total number at the end of the 19th century was 477 people. They were part of the right-bank (eastern coast of the Yenisei Bay) and forest-tundra (Dudinka and Luzino regions) territorial communities.
The main traditional activity is reindeer hunting. Fur hunting was also developed, and fishing on the Yenisei. Reindeer husbandry was widespread, mainly of packs, and draft reindeer husbandry was also borrowed from the Nenets. The Enets sledges were somewhat different from the Nenets ones. In the 1930s, the Enets were organized into reindeer herding and fishing farms.
The traditional dwelling is a conical tent, close to the Nganasan one and differing from the Nenets one in the details of its construction and covering. In the 20th century, the Nenets type of plague was adopted, from the Dolgans - the Narty chum-balk. Modern Enets live mainly in stationary settlements.
Winter men's clothing- double blind parka with a hood, fur pants, high shoes made of reindeer kamus, fur stockings. The women's parka, in contrast to the men's, was swinging. Under it, they wore a sleeveless jumpsuit sewn with fur inside, with sewn copper decorations: sickle-shaped plaques on the chest, rings, chains, tubes on the hips; a needle case, a bag for flint, etc. were also sewn to it. Women's shoes were shorter than men's. Womens winter hat It was also sewn in two layers: the lower one - with fur inside, the upper one - with fur outside. From the 2nd half of the 19th century, the forest Enets and from the 20th century, the tundra ones adopted Nenets clothes.
Traditional food - fresh and frozen meat, in summer - fresh fish. Yukola and fish meal - porsa - were prepared from fish.
Until the 18th century, there were clans among the Ents (among the tundra Ents - Malk-madu, Sazo, Solda, etc., among the forest ones - Yuchi, Bai, Muggadi). Since the end of the 17th century, due to the resettlement to the east and the destruction of the traditional tribal land use, they split into smaller exogamous groups. Until the 19th century, large families, polygamy, levirate, marriage with payment of kalym remained. Since the end of the 19th century, neighborhood communities have become the main form of social organization.
Forest Enets were officially converted to Christianity. Cults of host spirits, ancestors, shamanism are preserved. Folklore includes mythological and historical legends, animal tales, and stories. Artistic applique work on fur and cloth, bone carving have been developed.
Materials used
Related post Peoples of Russia
Eskimos
Prepared by a student of grade 3, B "
Secondary school number 47
Rusakov Vsevolod
St. Petersburg
2011
Eskimos
ESCIMOS are one of the indigenous northern peoples. Eskimos inhabit the territory from the eastern edge of Chukotka to Greenland. In total, there are less than 90 thousand people in the world (as of 2000). In Russia, the Eskimos are a small ethnic group (according to the 2002 census, 1,750 people) living mixed or in close proximity to the Chukchi in several settlements on the eastern coast of Chukotka and on Wrangel Island.
The traditional occupations of the Eskimos are sea hunting, reindeer herding, and hunting.
The Eskimos invented a rotatable harpoon to hunt sea animals, a kayak, an igloo snow house, and special deaf clothing made of fur and skins. The Eskimo language belongs to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Russian Eskimos have a textbook of this language. There is also a dictionary: Eskimo-Russian and Russian-Eskimo. The programs in the Eskimo language are prepared by the Chukotka State TV and Radio Company. The songs of the Eskimos have become more and more popular lately. And in many respects thanks to the Ergyron ensemble.
Anthropologists believe that the Eskimos are arctic Mongoloids. The word "Eskimo" ("raw food", "one who eats raw fish") belongs to the language of the Indian tribes of Abnak and Athabasca. From the name of the American Eskimos, this word has become the self-name of both American and Asian Eskimos.
Eskimos are people with their own ancient worldview. They live in harmony with nature. Despite the fact that some groups of Eskimos were Christianized as early as the 18th century, this people retained animistic ideas and shamanism.
Eskimos believe in the master spirits of all animate and inanimate objects, natural phenomena, localities, wind directions, and various human states. The Eskimos believe that a person is related to any animal or object. Evil spirits are represented as giants and dwarfs.
To protect themselves from disease, the Eskimos have amulets: family and personal. There are also cults of the wolf, crow and killer whale. The mediator between the world of spirits and the world of people is a shaman among the Eskimos. Not every Eskimo can become a shaman, but only one who is lucky enough to hear the voice of the spirit-helper. After that, the shaman already alone meets with the spirits he hears, and concludes with them a kind of alliance about mediation.
The dwelling of the Eskimos, IGLU ”. The needle is made of ice.
Eskimo clothes-, KUKHLYANKA "
The life of the Eskimos is completely dependent on the extraction of seals and cetaceans, which is what made them the inhabitants of the sea coast. The fat of these animals, as well as the seal skins, allow the Eskimos to endure the harsh Arctic climate and completely not depend on any plant resources. Seals are a necessary and sufficient condition for their existence. They are obtained partly from kayaks - light boats in the form of a shuttle, partly from the ice or the shore.
The main devices for hunting among the Eskimos are:
kayaks, or boats consisting of a timber frame fastened with straps and waterproof sheathing of sealskin;
special jacket, apron and other accessories for the kayak to fully protect the sealer from the water; only his face remains open. Some Eskimo tribes have two or more local kayaks (such, for example, canoes the Eskimos of the Bering Strait); the northernmost tribes have no kayaks at all, since the sea there is almost always covered with ice;
hunting bubbles - air-inflated bubbles of sea animals attached to a harpoon or dart on a strap. They are designed to prevent the wounded animal from leaving, and in case of a miss, they will keep the weapon on the surface;
specially fixed on the shaft harpoon tips and other throwing weapons. Having pierced the skin of the animal, such a tip is separated from the shaft and unfolds in the wound; the shaft is either completely detached, or remains hanging on the belt along with the bubble. In this case, the wounded animal cannot break the harpoon or pull out the tip from the wound;
sleigh with a dog sled.
The Eskimos have two types of dwellings - tents for summer wandering and winter houses.
Tents are usually designed for ten or fewer people (sometimes more). They represent a structure of 10-14 poles, fastened at one end and covered with a double layer of skins. The tents, apparently, are arranged about the same everywhere and differ from the dwellings of neighboring tribes only in that the longest poles and the highest part of the tent are either in the center of it or at the entrance.
Winter homes are much more varied. They are usually built of stones and earth, with wooden rafters and roof supports. Only the Eskimos of the central regions use the snow houses; Western Eskimos build their houses primarily of planks and sod outside. In the Far North, they are forced to use stones and bones of sea animals instead of wood. As for the arrangement of houses, a long and very narrow passage leads to each of them, raised at both ends - that is, entering a house, a person must first go down and then rise again before getting inside. Inner part consists of one room, where there is only a bed or bench for rest and sleep; the premises are divided into parts for individual families. The entrance corridor, or tunnel, usually has a side chamber with a hearth. In earlier times, in more populous villages, it was customary to have a public building for meetings and solemn occasions. In a winter house, more than one family almost always lives, but their number rarely exceeds three or four, although there are houses about 20 meters long, intended for ten families.
Men and women among the Eskimos dress practically the same - in tight-fitting pants and a jacket with a hood that can be pulled over the head (at least for men); only the face and hands remain open. The kayaker's jacket is roughly arranged in the same way, the lower edge of which is tightly pressed against a special frame around the place where the hunter sits; at the same time his hands are protected by waterproof leather gloves. Eskimo shoes - various shoes and boots - are crafted with great skill from carefully and ingeniously prepared leather.
It would be more correct to attribute the Eskimos to sedentary rather than nomadic tribes, since they usually spend many years wintering in one place for many years. However, for the rest of the year they are constantly on the move, transporting tents and things from place to place; the route is chosen depending on the purpose - whether it is hunting for reindeer or seals, fishing or trade exchange.
The Eskimos lead the life of hunters and fishermen and, broadly speaking, do not own property. They own only the most essential items and a supply of provisions for less than a year; more is not allowed by tradition and custom.
In general, the property of the Eskimos can be classified as follows:
1. Property of several families related to the winter home; however, only its wooden parts are of real value here; women build everything else from scrap materials.
2. The common property of one or at most three related families - a tent and other household property, such as: lamps, troughs, wooden dishes, stone cauldrons; a boat umiak, in which you can transport all this property, including the tent; a sleigh or two sleighs and dog sleds to them. To this can be added supplies for the winter, exclusively on which one can usually live for two to three months; and, finally, a varied but always very small stock of items to exchange.
3. As for personal property, clothes can be recognized as such (usually, at least for the main family members, these are two sets, more rarely); sewing supplies for women; kayaks for men, along with related accessories, tools and weapons; some other tools for woodworking; weapons for hunting on land. Only the very best sealers own two kayaks, but some have two sets of accessories for them (this is a large harpoon - a separate tip and a shaft with a belt and a bubble; a small harpoon or a dart with a bubble; a dart for hunting birds; a spear with a smooth, not serrated tip; fishing tackle and some other small items).
Despite the very limited ideas about property, the Eskimos maintained a kind of trade exchange with each other, for which they undertook long journeys (although they could go on the road and just like that, without any specific purpose). The objects of exchange were usually things that were usually necessary in everyday life or objects that can be found only in certain places - such as soapstone, lamps and vessels made of it, whalebone, walrus bone and narwhal teeth, some types of leather, sometimes even ready-made boats and kayaks. but almost never food.
Language
The dialects of all Eskimo tribes are close to each other and understandable in any place where real Eskimos live.
Social structure, customs and laws
What will be discussed in this section is closely related to the peculiarities of the Eskimo lifestyle, which is quite natural. The life of the hunter people requires a natural partnership and shared ownership of things; it restricts property rights and allows many to enjoy the results of one person's labor. Of course, this is balanced by certain obligations on the part of the rest. Consider the features of the social structure of the Eskimo society.
Eskimos form communities of three types: family, inhabitants of one house and inhabitants of one winter quarters. There are practically no connections of this kind between winter huts.
A family. It is very rare to see a man have more than one wife, but his right to divorce his wife and take another is almost unlimited. However, divorce, polygamy, and wife swaps are supported public opinion only if necessary for procreation, especially for the appearance of male heirs. Marriages are arranged in three ways: through intermediaries, by agreement from childhood and by force. Some degree of violence in marriage is common in all barbarian and savage tribes. In addition, the consent of the bride's parents and brothers is required for marriage. In fairy tales, there is often a story about a girl who had many wonderful fans, but who did not want to let go of her brothers or parents. The marriage is concluded without special ceremony and does not impose any special obligations. The bride brings her clothes to the groom's house, a special semicircular ulo knife and usually a lamp. The family in the narrow sense, as a rule, includes, in addition to the spouses and their children, also adopted children, widows and other dependent and helpless relatives who occupy a subordinate position and are something like a servant. We tend to believe that the so-called slaves, or captives, of the Western Eskimos occupy about the same position. The family in a broader sense includes married children, unless they have a separate winter home, a separate boat and a tent for summer wanderings. It is the ownership of this kind of property that defines the real community - the family. Sometimes the parents of the second spouse are included in it. The wife always obeys the husband's mother. In addition, the husband has the right to punish his wife with a blow to the face sufficient to leave a visible mark. But children and even more so servants are never subjected to corporal punishment. If a man has two wives, the second is considered just a concubine and takes the place of the first only if she dies. In the event of a divorce, the son always leaves with his mother. As a result of this organization, a family usually has more than one breadwinner. The owner of the boat and the summer tent is considered the head of the family. After death, these things are transferred to the eldest son along with the duties of a breadwinner. If the deceased does not have an adult son, the next of kin takes the place of the breadwinner; when the children grow up, their mother can start her own home with them, without looking back at their adoptive father.
Inhabitants of the same house. In Greenland, several families often live in the same house. Each of them is for the most part a separate farm; each married couple and their children have their own place on the main couch, next to it is their own lamp; the unmarried inhabitants of the house and guests sleep on the side couches and a couch by the window.
Inhabitants of one winter hut or village they constantly contact each other both in the village and in the common hunting grounds and, quite naturally, form a close community. No outsider can settle nearby without the general consent of the inhabitants of the winter house.
Basic rules related to property and mining
From every harvested seal each inhabitant of the winter hut received a small piece of meat and a corresponding portion of fat; if there was not enough for everyone, the inhabitants of the house received their share first. They did not bypass anyone; thus, even the poorest did not need food and fat for lamps, as long as the hunters of the winter quarters regularly returned with their prey. In addition, the successful hunter usually invited others to share a meal with him.
Outside the permanent villages, everyone had the right to build a house, hunt and fish anywhere. Even the dams blocking the river at summer fishing grounds belonged to no one; they could be used or even destroyed by anyone.
Anyone who has found a piece of wood or some orphaned things, became their rightful owner; to do this, he just had to pull things above the tide line and mark them with stones.
If a wounded seal left with a harpoon tip, the hunter lost the right to him as soon as the beast managed to free itself from the hunting bubble. The same thing happened if the animal with a small bubble from the dart went far away. The one who found and finished off the wounded seal, took the carcass for himself, and returned the weapon to the owner, if such was announced.
If two hunters hit at the same time a bird or a seal, the carcass obtained was divided equally along with the skin. But if it was a deer, it was received by the one whose weapon fell closer to the heart; the second got only a portion of the meat.
Anything unusual - by type or size - production was considered common even more so than usual. This also applied to the first prey of the season and beasts taken in times of need or long-term failure. And the largest animals - mostly whales - were generally considered common prey. Everyone who took part in the butchering of the carcass could get his share, regardless of where he lived and whether he took part in the hunt.
If you could not get no seals or other large animals, the wealthiest families in the house usually invited the rest to take part in the meal. This did not apply to the rest of the inhabitants of the winter quarters.
If one hunter borrowed weapons or tools from another, and then lost or damaged them, he did not have to compensate for the loss in any way. Moreover, if the owner stopped monitoring his fox traps, then anyone who put them in order, guarded and checked, became the rightful owner of the prey.
If a person regretted the deal, he had the right to refuse it. Nothing was sold on credit without immediate payment.
Some general rules can be added to this.
Every healthy man was obliged to engage in sea hunting until old age or until his son succeeds him. Accordingly, he was obliged from childhood to prepare his son for this difficult task.
Living in tight and crowded communities made it necessary to rule friendly calm communication - all quarrels and disputes were prohibited. As a result, there are practically no curses in the Greenlandic language.
The Eskimos did not have any courts or governing bodies - all issues were resolved at general meetings.
Meetings of the first kind are daily communal meals to which the hunter has invited other hunters. Only men took part in them, women ate later; at such meetings, the events of the day and other issues of common interest were discussed and evaluated.
Other meetings were real festivals, usually held in the middle of winter; but there were also summer holidays, which, of course, attracted more guests. In addition to food and conversation, the main entertainments of such holidays were:
various games and competitions in strength and dexterity;
singing and playing tambourines with dancing and recitation;
satirical or offensive songs, which in some sense played the role of a court.
His favorite pastime was playing ball. They played in two ways - either members of one team threw the ball to each other, and members of the second tried to intercept it, or each team set its own goal at a distance of 300-400 steps, and the players tried to hit it with the ball, kicking it from different sides.
They also practiced competitions for the strength of hands and fingers, exercises on a rope stretched from the ceiling, kayaking races, boxing on a flat platform, etc.
Any disputes, except those that required blood feud and the death of the offender, were resolved with the help of offensive songs. The "plaintiff", who had some kind of claims against the "defendant", put together a song in advance and invited the opponent to meet him, indicating the time and place. Usually, especially on important occasions, each side had a support group that would replace it when needed. The singing was accompanied by playing tambourines and dancing. The approval or condemnation of the audience was the decision of the "court" - and at the same time the punishment.
As for the real crimes, the violation of property rights, for obvious reasons, could only be trivial. The murder required a blood feud on the part of the closest relative. Having performed revenge, he had to announce this to the relatives of the murdered.
THERE IS NO ONE OPINION AMONG SCIENTISTS ABOUT their origin and settlement. There is an assumption that the present-day Eskimos are descendants of a nation that arose in the third millennium BC. and that they came from the Pacific coast of East Asia, from where the ancestors of the Eskimos reached the Bering Sea through Kamchatka. Then, in the first millennium AD, they settled in Chukotka and along the Arctic coast of America to Greenland. Their main self-name is Inuit (in Canada) and Yupigit (in Siberia). The Chukchi call them "Ankalyn", which means "Pomors".
The Eskimo language belongs to the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleutian family. Eskimos are divided into 15 ethnocultural groups: Eskimos of Alaska, Siberian Eskimos, Eskimos of Canada, Greenland, etc. By the middle of the twentieth century. formed four independent communities: the Eskimos of Greenland, Canada (Inuit), Alaska, Asian (Siberian).
Greenland has two state languages- Eskimo and Danish. Writing among the Greenlandic Eskimos has existed since the 18th century. This is due to the activities of Danish and German missionaries and the colonial administration. During the twentieth century. Greenlandic Eskimo writers have created a very significant volume works of art different genres. Most of the population of modern Greenland is of a mixed Mongoloid-Caucasian type (from white men and Eskimo women). Therefore, the indigenous inhabitants of the island consider themselves Greenlanders (Kalatdlit), and not Eskimos, which emphasizes their difference from the Eskimos of Canada and Alaska, and also testifies to the fact of the emergence of a new people in Greenland. Canadian Eskimos have their own writing system based on the Canadian syllabic writing. However, English and French are also common.
Eskimos of Canada have their own autonomous territories within northwest regions countries and separate parts Peninsula Labrador. Alaska Eskimos are distinguished by the greatest degree of preservation of their language along with knowledge of English. In Russia in 1848 the Russian missionary N. Tyzhnov published the primer of the Eskimo language. Modern writing based on Latin graphics was created in 1932 (the first Yuitsky primer). In 1937, the writing of the Russian Eskimos was transferred to the Russian graphic basis. IN modern language The influence of the vocabulary, elements of morphology and syntax of the Chukchi and Koryaks living next to them is felt by the Russian Eskimos. They also speak Russian and Chukchi. There is modern Eskimo prose and poetry.
TODAY THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ESCIMOS IN THE WORLD IS 170 thousands of people. Of these, about 56,000 people live in the United States (48,000 in Alaska, the rest in the states of California and Washington), just over 50,000 in Canada, about 50,000 in Greenland, and about 19,000 on the Jutland Peninsula. In Russia, mainly in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Magadan Region, there are mixed or in close proximity to the Chukchi - just over 1,700 people.
Eskimos are unusually adapted to life in the Arctic. They invented a rotatable harpoon for hunting sea animals, a kayak, an igloo snow house, special clothes made of fur and skins, and adopted from the Chukchi the art of building a house out of skins - yaranga.
Eskimos believe in spirits living in various natural phenomena, see the connection between man and the surrounding world of objects and living beings. In their opinion, there is a single creator, Silya, and the owner of sea animals Sedna endows the Eskimos with all the riches of the sea. The owner of the bears is Nanuk, the deer is the Tekkeitzertok. The Eskimos greatly respect the killer whale, the patroness of sea hunting. In the minds of the Eskimos, evil spirits are incredible and scary creatures. Every Eskimo village has a shaman, and a tambourine is considered a sacred item.
The Eskimos have their own funeral ritual. When the Eskimo died, he was buried immediately, previously wrapped in skins on which he slept, and additional clothes were added so that the soul of the deceased would not freeze. The body was then tied up with a rope and dragged headfirst from the deceased's dwelling to a place where many stones could be found to cover the body. The corpse was covered with enough stones to protect it from dogs, arctic foxes and crows. This was the end of the burial, since it is almost impossible to dig a hole of sufficient depth in permafrost conditions. Near the grave (stone embankment), they usually left the things of the deceased, which he might need in the afterlife - a sled and a kayak along with weapons, if the deceased was a hunter; a lamp, a needle, a thimble and other sewing accessories, a little fat and matches if a woman was dying.
There is every reason to recognize the Eskimos as the most peaceful people. According to custom, disputes between them are resolved, so to speak, by a "vocal competition" - whoever sings better is right.
Among the Eskimos there was a custom of laboring for a wife, the custom of wooing children, marrying a boy to an adult girl, the custom of "marriage partnership", when two men exchanged wives as a sign of friendship. In wealthy families, polygamy was encountered.
THE MAIN ACTIVITY OF THE ESCIMOS AND TODAY REMAINS THE HUNTING OF THE SEA BEAST - WALRUS AND TULEN. Until the middle of the XIX century. they were also engaged in whale hunting, hunting reindeer and mountain sheep, and from the middle of the 19th century. began to hunt for arctic fox and fox. They are also engaged in fishing and gathering (collecting tubers, roots, stems, algae, berries). Eskimos breed sled dogs. Carving on walrus bone and whalebone has been developed. Nowadays, many Eskimos work in construction, in mines, oil fields, in Arctic trading posts, etc. The Greenlanders and Eskimos of Alaska have a well-to-do stratum and national intelligentsia.
Eskimos are surprisingly tactful. In the relationship between a man and a woman, there is a special respect for a hunter who finds food for a family at a constant risk to his life. Perhaps it was this perception of a man, combined with the peculiar beauty and sophistication of national dress, that often attracted European travelers who willingly married Eskimos.
The Eskimos have their own traditional diet, which is dominated by the meat of walruses, seals, and whales. An indispensable element of the diet is seal blood. Venison is especially appreciated - the meat is tasty, but dry, devoid of fat, as well as the meat of polar bears and musk oxen. Seasoning for meat is seaweed, mollusks. They believe meat warms and invigorates. Rotten seal fat with cloudberries is considered a delicacy. Eskimos and birds eat, bird eggs. Traditionally, meat was eaten raw, dried, frozen, dried, boiled, or prepared for the winter: fermented in pits and eaten with fat, sometimes semi-cooked. Raw whale fat with a layer of cartilaginous skin was revered. The fish was dried and dried, and in winter they ate fresh frozen.
Earlier, the Eskimos lived in large settlements in semi-dugouts. In the XVII - XVIII centuries. they adopted from the Chukchi the method of constructing frame yarangas covered with reindeer skins, and they became the main type of dwellings for them. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century. the Eskimos retained communal houses - large semi-dugouts, in which several families lived, meetings and holidays were held.
The Eskimos built the igloo house from snow blocks. Inside, the igloo was covered with, and sometimes the walls were covered with skins of sea animals. The dwelling was heated with grease bowls. The inner surfaces of the walls melted as a result of heating, but the walls did not melt, because the snow easily absorbed excess moisture.
In our days, the life of the Eskimos has changed a lot. They gained access to the benefits of civilization. However, life in the Arctic requires courage and constant composure from them. You cannot relax, the North does not forgive this. The courage of the Eskimos deserves special respect. This is life in constant struggle, overcoming difficulties and finding harmony with the harsh nature.
