«О’равэтльан-ым пыльыльынво нынъэлк’ин» (“and the human becomes the current”)*

The Chukchi are pictured in Dekolonizatsiia’s logo. Thus, is it fitting our first post highlights briefly, the revival of Chukchi culture in contemporary Russia.

Just one of Russia’s many Siberian indigenous peoples is the Chukchi; a group native to the Chukchi Peninsula who speak Chukchi language.

In Chukchi, the group refers to themselves as Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэт (Romanized: lugera verlat; translation: “true people”) [1]. The population of this group stands at under 17,000 according to the latest census data, and is self-divided into divided into two distinct groups: reindeer herders and sea-mammal hunters [2]. The Chukchi are animists, believing that all human and non-human life is endowed with a soul; and that non-Chukchi’s are таннит (Romanized: tannit; translation: “alien”) [3].

Drawing on accounts of ethnographic fieldwork, the Russian documentary Пегтымель (Pegtymel), and the Canadian-made documentary The Blinding Sea, the functions of Chukchi rituals including oral traditions, reindeer herder’s ritual cycles, «добровольной смерти» (“voluntary death”) and «ритуал очищения огнем»  (purification by fire) have noticeably been revived in the post-Soviet era [4].

Not only do Chukchi rituals serve as a site for the accumulation and transmission of ethnic experiences and storage of cultural codes; but also as a site which unites the dual Chukchi communities and thereby arguably ensures the continuation of Chukchi society in the twenty-first century.

References

* Weinstein-Tagrina, Zoia Vladimirovna, and Benjamin McGarr. "On the Variability of Chukchi Traditional Singing and Incantation Practices (Research Note)." Etudes Inuit Studies 45, no. 1 (2021): 507-518.

[1] Lykkegård, Jeanette, and Rane Willerslev. "Regenerating life in the face of predation: a study of mortuary ritual as sacrifice among the Siberian Chukchi." Sibirica 15, no. 2 (2016): 1-39.

[2] Vate, Virginie. "" When willow roots start to thaw, people come back to life...": Relations of Chukchi reindeer herders to plants." Etudes Inuit Studies 45, no. 1-2 (2021): 439-478.

[3] Lykkegard and Willerslev 2016.

[4] Vatè 2005.