National traditions and customs of the Koryaks. Prospects for the preservation of the Koryaks as an ethnic group
They live in the northeast of Russia. Writing has existed since 1931 in Latin, and since 1936 - on a Russian graphic basis.
By the beginning of contact with the Russians in the 18th century, they were divided into nomadic (the self-name chav'chu is “reindeer herder”) and sedentary (the self-name nymylyo is “residents”, “villagers”), which, in turn, broke up into several separate groups: Karaginians (karan`ynylyo), Alyutors (alutalu), Parents (poytylyo), Kamenets (vaikynel’o), etc. Neighboring peoples, the Chukchi and Eskimos, called them tann`yt - "foreigner", "enemy", the Yukagirs - karaka, the Evens called the settled Koryaks kheekel - "the one who shows up from behind a hillock", and the nomads - chan`-chivar - " the assembled many deers. Nomadic people were settled in the interior regions of Kamchatka and the adjacent mainland, sedentary (coastal) - on the eastern and western coasts of Kamchatka, in the Penzhina Bay and the Taigonos Peninsula.
The settled economy combined hunting, fishing, land hunting and gathering. Sea fur hunting - the main occupation of the Koryaks of the Penzhina Bay (Itkans, Parents and Kamenets) also played important role among the Alyutors, Apukins and Karagins, in lesser degree at the Palani. The hunting season, which was individual in spring and collective in autumn, began in late May - early June and continued until October. The main tools were the harpoon (v`emek), nets. During the hunt, they used leather canoes (kultaytvyyt - “a boat made of bearded seal skins”) and single canoes-kayaks (mytyv). They hunted bearded seals, seals, akiba, spotted seals, and lionfish. Until the middle of the nineteenth century. the settled Koryaks of the Penzhina Bay and the Alyutors hunted cetaceans. Apukinians, Alutorians and Karaginians were engaged in walrus hunting. By the end of the 19th century, as a result of the extermination of whales and walruses by American whalers, the fishery of these animals declined, and fishing began to play a paramount role in the economy. Caught mostly salmon fish. They used locks, nets of a set and net (with a net bag) type, fishing rods (eeg'unen) and hooks on a long belt resembling a harpoon. Fishing was supplemented by hunting for ungulates, fur-bearing and other animals and birds, gathering of wild berries, edible roots, among the Karagins and Palans - gardening and cattle breeding.
Traps, crossbows, nets, pressure-type traps (when the alert breaks and the log crushes the animal), cherkans, etc., were common among hunting tools, and from the end of the 18th century. firearms were the main Among the Alyutors in the nineteenth century. reindeer husbandry developed. Reindeer were most often purchased in exchange for products of the marine fur trade and goods received from Russian merchants.
Nomadic Koryaks (Chavchuvens) were characterized by large-herd reindeer herding with a herd of 400 to 2000 heads. During the year, reindeer herders made four main migrations: in spring - before calving, to moss pastures, in summer - to places where there were fewer midges (blood-sucking insects - mosquitoes, midges, etc.), in autumn - closer to the camps, where there was a massive slaughter of deer , and in winter - short migrations near the camps. The main tools of labor of the shepherds were the lasso (chav'at) - a long rope with a loop for catching deer, a staff and a stick in the form of a boomerang (curved in a special way and returning after being thrown to the shepherd), with which they collected the stray part of the herd. In winter, the nomads hunted fur-bearing animals.
The winter and summer dwellings of the nomadic Koryaks were a frame portable yaranga (yayana) - a cylindrical-conical dwelling, the basis of which was three poles from three and a half to five meters high, set in the form of a tripod and tied at the top with a belt. Around them, in the lower part of the yaranga, forming an irregular circle with a diameter of four to ten meters, low tripods were placed, tied with a belt and interconnected by transverse crossbars.
The upper conical part of the yaranga consisted of inclined poles resting on transverse crossbars, the tops of tripods and the upper ends of the three main poles. On the skeleton of the yaranga, a tire was pulled, sewn from sheared or worn deer skins with fur outward. Along the walls, fur sleeping canopies (yoyon) were tied to additional poles, shaped like a box turned upside down, 1.3-1.5 m high, 2-4 m long, 1.3-2 m wide. The number of canopies was determined by the number couples living in yaranga. The floor under the canopy was covered with willow or cedar branches and deer skins.
The predominant type of dwelling among settled Koryaks was a semi-dugout (lymgyyan, yayana) up to 15 m long, up to 12 wide and up to 7 m high, during the construction of which eight vertical pillars were dug in a round pit from one to one and a half meters deep along the circumference and four in the center. Two rows of logs were driven in between the outer pillars, split lengthwise and forming the walls of the dwelling. They were fastened at the top with transverse beams. From the square frame connecting the four central pillars and forming the upper entrance and smoke hole, eight-slope roof blocks went to the upper transverse beams of the walls. To protect against snow drifts, the Koryaks of the western coast built a funnel-shaped bell of poles and blocks around the hole, and the Koryaks of the east coast built a barrier of twigs or mats. To one of the walls facing the sea, they attached a corridor deepened into the ground with flat roof. Walls covered with dry grass or moss, the roof and the corridor of the dwelling were covered with earth from above. The hearth, consisting of two oblong stones, was located at a distance of 50 cm from the central log with notches, along which in winter they descended through the upper hole. During the fishing season, they entered through a side corridor. Inside the dwelling, on the side opposite the corridor, a platform was installed for receiving guests. Sleeping canopies were hung along the side walls, sewn from old deer skins or old fur clothes.
IN early nineteenth V. under the influence of Russian settlers near the Palans, Karagins, Apukins and Koryaks of the northwestern coast Sea of Okhotsk log huts of the Russian type appeared. By the end of the nineteenth century. among the Karaginians, Alyutorians and, partially, among the Palans, surface dwellings of the Yakut type (booth) became widespread, in which the windows were covered with the intestines of sea animals or a bear. An iron or brick stove with a chimney was installed in the center, and wooden bunks were built along the walls.
The clothes were dull cut. Reindeer herders sewed it mainly from deer skins, seaside, along with deer, used the skins of marine animals. Clothes were decorated with the fur of dogs and fur-bearing animals. In winter they wore double (with fur inside and out), in summer single clothes.
The main food of the reindeer koryaks was deer meat, which was eaten more often boiled; willow bark and seaweed were also consumed. Coastal inhabitants ate the meat of sea animals, fish. Since the eighteenth century purchased products appeared: flour, rice, crackers, bread and tea. Flour porridge was boiled in water, deer or seal blood, and rice porridge was eaten with seal or deer fat.
The main social unit was a large patriarchal (from Latin pater - father, arche - power) family community, uniting close relatives on the paternal side, and sometimes distant relatives for deer. At its head was oldest man. Marriage was preceded by working off the groom in the household of the future father-in-law. After the expiration of the period of working off, the so-called rite of "grasping" was performed, which gave the right to marriage (the groom had to catch the fleeing bride and touch her body). The transition to the husband's house was accompanied by rituals of introducing the wife to the hearth and family cult. Until the beginning of the twentieth century. the customs of levirate (from lat. levir - brother-in-law, brother of the husband: if the elder brother died, the younger had to marry his wife and take care of her and her children), sororate (from lat. soror - sister: a widower must marry his sister dead wife), remnants of group marriage, which led to polygamy.
A typical coastal Koryak settlement united several related families. There were production associations, incl. canoe (using one canoe), the core of which was a large patriarchal family. Around her grouped other relatives engaged in fishing.
The camp of reindeer herders, the head of which was the owner of most of the reindeer herd, who led not only economic, but also social life camps, numbered from two to six yarangas. Within the camp, connections were based on the joint herding of deer, sealed by family and marriage ties, and supported by ancient traditions and rituals. Starting from the 18th century, property differentiation (stratification) among the nomadic Koryaks, due to the development of private ownership of reindeer, led to the emergence of poor farm laborers, who might not be related to other members of the camp.
At the beginning of the twentieth century. there is a destruction of patriarchal-communal relations among the settled Koryaks. This is due to the transition to individual species economic activity: the extraction of small sea animals, fur hunting, fishing and development at the end of the 19th century. reindeer breeding among the Alyutors, and partly the Palans.
The main holidays of the settled Koryaks of the 19th - early 20th centuries. devoted to the fishery of marine animals. Their main moments are the meeting and solemn farewell of the caught animals. Until the beginning of the twentieth century. trade ceremonies were widespread. They were performed on the occasion of the capture of the beast and were associated with the belief in its "revival" and "return" to the hunters in the next season (the festival of the whale, killer whale, etc.). After performing the rituals, the skins of dead animals, noses, and paws were tied to a bunch of family “guardians” to ensure good luck in hunting.
Quotes:
“... A rare Koryak lives up to his 60th birthday. The average life expectancy in Koryakin is 10-15 years less than on the mainland. The birth rate is declining and the infant mortality rate is rising. If throughout Russia this figure is 16, then in Koryakin among the indigenous people - 35 deaths per 1000 births. By 2015, the county's population is projected to decrease by 28%. In short, if anyone survives, they will flee to the mainland.
He will escape from a land abounding in fish, fur-bearing animals, platinum and gold...
... Peculiarities of the digestive system of the Koryaks, Itelmens, Chukchis. Their stomachs digest well almost rotten fish heads or pickled meat - what their ancestors ate from time immemorial. By switching, so to speak, to a civilized diet, the Koryaks acquired diseases of the digestive system. They have a particularly high percentage of patients with cancer of the stomach and esophagus. But the main thing is that in the body of the indigenous northerners there is no alcohol dehydrogenase - an enzyme that breaks down alcohol into constituent, less toxic substances. Therefore, alcoholism in Koryaks occurs almost after the first dose.
The Koryaks are an indigenous people, primarily in the north of Kamchatka.. Now the Koryaks also live compactly in Magadan region and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. According to the 2010 census, there are a little less than 8 thousand Koryaks in Russia.
Since ancient times, the whole life of the Koryaks was connected with the harsh nature of Kamchatka and completely depended on it. The Koryaks deified the slightest phenomena of nature and believed that animals pass along with man and spirits from one world to another.
The very name "Koryaks", according to the main version, comes from "kor" - a deer and is translated as "located by deer". This naming perfectly reflects their view of the world: not animals with a person, but a person with an animal.
Economy and life of the Koryaks
All Koryak tribes were divided into two main types: nomadic reindeer herders (Chavchavs, or Chavchuvens) and sedentary seaside (Nymylans). Each group included several tribes. For example, scientists counted 11 Koryak dialects alone. Alyutors are a special group: they combined both fishing and reindeer herding.
The life and way of life of these tribes differed from each other. So, nomads lived in yarangas - portable tents covered with deer skins. From such yarangas, in which several families were located, temporary settlements were arranged. In summer, settled Koryaks set up huts on the banks of rivers, and in winter they lived in semi-dugouts, 10-30 km away from the water.
It was only possible to survive in the harsh conditions of Kamchatka together, so the Koryaks united in large related communities. The paternal line was considered the main one. The head of the reindeer breeders owned for the most part herds, and associations of coastal Koryaks could be, for example, kayak - using one canoe. But even here relatives were accepted first of all. True, commercial relations also penetrated this patriarchal structure over time: from the 18th century, nomadic Koryaks began to gradually divide into rich and poor. This is due to the fact that the areas for grazing the herd were considered common, but the deer were private. Some became so rich that they needed laborers, and non-relatives were also accepted into the community. At the same time, it was customary to take care of orphans, the elderly, sick and lonely people. Mutual aid was the basis of existence.
Sometimes it also appeared in special forms. Until the very beginning of the 20th century, the Koryaks preserved the customs of levirate (after the death of his elder brother, his younger brother married a widow and took custody of the family) and sororat (remaining a widower, a man married younger sister wives).
The main holidays of the Koryaks
A significant part of everyday Koryak vocabulary is made up of words related to the animal world, hunting, and winter. And this is not surprising: without a successful hunt for the beast, a person was doomed to death. That is why all the main holidays of this people are associated with animals. So, among the Koryak reindeer herders, the main celebrations were the autumn "To Drive the Deer" and the Deer Slaughter Festival, the winter "Return of the Sun", the spring Festival of the Horns. The settled people had holidays for the descent of the canoe, the First fish, the First seal, and in the fall - "Hololo" ("Ololo"), or the holiday of the seal. In the case of large booty, the Koryaks also held special holidays. Ritual dances were danced on them, in which they imitated the movements of animals and birds. Many rituals were based on the myth of the dying and resurrecting beast. The Koryaks had a special relationship with the bear, which they considered cousin person. After the bear hunt, a big religious festival was held. Some settled Koryaks also deified the whale.
Rites and rituals
Such an attitude towards the animal world was reflected not only in the "hunting" rites, but also in all the main ceremonies in human life. One of them, of course, is the wedding.
So, in order to get a wife, a man had to pass a series of tests. At first, by labor: for some time he worked on the farm of the future father-in-law. They looked at him, tested his skills. If probation ended successfully, it was necessary to carry out the rite of grasping: to catch up with the fleeing bride and touch her body. Formal in essence (the girl did not even think of running away for real), this rite performed an important function for the Koryaks - the reconstruction of the hunting process.
The closest connection with nature left its mark in funeral rite. A bow and arrows, essential items, were sent to the funeral pyre with the deceased. They also put gifts there for previously deceased relatives, so that they would send back on the hunt good beast. Prepare for death in advance. Even during the life of a person, funeral clothes were sewn, leaving it a little unfinished. It was believed that if you finish it to the end, a person will die earlier. Then, after the death, the funeral attire was finished with an ugly rough seam. Death itself was not perceived as something finite. In the worldview of the Koryaks, there were five interconnected worlds, and the living and the dead can help each other with the forces of nature. Even among the southern coastal Koryaks, who converted to Orthodoxy before the rest, Christian beliefs were combined with the rites of their ancestors for a long time.
From time immemorial, the Koryaks have survived by what they managed to get together. There is nothing superfluous in their world. Meat and fat of animals, fish, and gathering products were used as food. From the skins they made clothes and a dwelling, which was illuminated with melted fat. Boats were covered with leather. Even from the spouts, tails and paws of the killed animals, amulets were made, which, as the Koryaks believed, protected them from all evil. This picture of the world is striking in its integrity, in it everyone has his own place and fulfills his intended role, on which the lives of others depend.
Everyone is connected with everyone and with nature. This is exactly what modern man lacks.
Maria Andreeva
Among the coastal Koryaks in Siberia, there is a surprising strange custom relating to the relationship of husbands with their wives. The husband considers it a great honor for himself if his wife has sexual intercourse with a stranger. Therefore, the Koryaks gladly give up their wives to any traveler who happens to be in their house in order to give him sexual pleasure.
In tsarist times, Russian travelers, especially postmen, were literally begged by Koryak men to sleep with their wives.
If such a guest returned again to the same house after a year or two, then he was given amazing hospitality. The husband, beaming with happiness, was so pleased with their new meeting that he offered expensive gifts to the guest.
As a rule, the main reason for such irrepressible joy was that as a result of the coitus of this traveler with the owner's wife, the desired boy was born. This is all the more surprising since other Koryaks have absolutely opposite attitude to sex. They believe that such sexual "hospitality" is unacceptable, simply unthinkable, and a husband, if he caught his wife at the crime scene, then the right to kill both partners right there on the spot.
The jealousy of husbands reached such an intensity that their wives, in order to avoid trouble, tried to look as ugly as possible when meeting other men in order to discourage them from any desire. For this, women, leaving home, put on the most dirty and torn clothes.
Sexual "hospitality" was common not only in Siberia, but also in Mountain Tibet.
Marco Polo, visiting Tibet in the 13th century, wrote with surprise:
“No local man considers himself offended if a stranger dishonors his wife or daughter or any woman in his family. On the contrary, he considers such intercourse an omen of good fortune.
Local residents claim that this brings the favor of their gods, and also contributes to their prosperity in this, earthly life, so they easily offer their women to travelers.
It is the custom of the Eskimos to rent out their wives on a short-term lease. The wife is allowed to take part in the hunt of another man, not her husband, and all this time she becomes not only his sexual partner, but also a cook.
Such an agreement is usually reached among members of the same clan, since they all consider themselves half-brothers. Even if the half-brother lived in another village, he still had the right to use the owner's wife when he came to visit. 
It is interesting to note that such "wife-renting" for sexual pleasure is also familiar in Medieval Europe. In Ireland, for example, "sexual hospitality" was considered the privilege of a powerful king of the country or his sons.
When Ed McEinimarch, the son of the Irish king, traveled through the country, every night they brought him new girl to satisfy his sexual appetite.
It was customary to offer a woman for this purpose to any traveler who happened to be in a house where he was provided with an overnight stay. If the owner did not want to give him his wife, then her relative or even a simple servant could play her role.
Sexual "hospitality" was once a common custom in Japan as well. In some parts of the country, it survived until the Middle Ages, but it concerned only the wives of officials. When a high-ranking official went to a distant province for inspection, the wife of the local chief, who was much lower in rank than the arrival, was obliged to provide him with sexual services. 
If she refused the offer to become a “wife for the night,” as this custom was then called, then it was followed by the immediate removal of her husband from his post.
Among some tribes Australian aborigines(for example, arunta) the husband had the right to transfer his rights to his wife to another man for some certain period unless they both belonged to the same genus group. However, throughout this period, the husband remained the owner of his wife and could break the agreement at any moment.
If someone had sex with his wife without his permission, then such a person was considered a criminal and was usually called the "vulva thief."
population- 9,242 people (as of 2001).
Language- Chukchi-Kamchatka family of languages.
resettlement- Koryak Autonomous District of the Kamchatka Region.
By the beginning of contact with the Russians in the eighteenth century. Koryaks were divided into nomadic (self-name chav'chu - "reindeer herder") and sedentary (nymylyo - "inhabitants", "settlers"), in turn subdivided into several separate groups: Karaginians (karan'ynyl'o), Parentsy (poytylyo), Kamenets (vaykynelo), etc. Nomadic settled in the interior of Kamchatka and on the adjacent mainland, sedentary (coastal) - on the eastern and western coasts of Kamchatka, as well as in the Penzhina Bay and the Taigonos Peninsula.
Writing has existed since 1931 in Latin, and since 1936 - on a Russian graphic basis.
Nomadic Koryaks - Chavchuvens are characterized by large herd reindeer herding with a herd of 400 to 2000 heads. During the year, they made four main migrations: in spring (before calving) - to reindeer pastures, in summer - to places where there are fewer midges (mosquitoes, midges, etc.), in autumn - closer to the camps where deer were slaughtered, and in winter - short migrations near camps. The main tools of the shepherds were a staff, a lasso (chav'at) - a long rope with a loop for catching deer, as well as a boomerang-shaped stick (curved in a special way and returning to the shepherd after a throw), with which they collected the stray part of the herd. In winter, the Chavchuven hunted fur-bearing animals.
Elder I. Kechgelhut opens the feast
Nomadic Koryaks lived in summer and winter in portable frame yarangs (yayana), the basis of which was three poles 3.5-5 m high, set in the form of a tripod and tied at the top with a belt. Around them, in the lower part of the yaranga, forming an irregular circle with a diameter of 4-10 m, low tripods were strengthened, tied with a belt and connected by transverse crossbars. The upper conical part of the yaranga consisted of inclined poles resting on transverse crossbars, the tops of tripods and the upper ends of the three main poles. On the skeleton of the yaranga, a tire was pulled, sewn from sheared or worn deer skins with fur outward. Inside, along the walls, fur sleeping canopies (yoyon) were tied to additional poles, shaped like a box turned upside down 1.3-1.5 m high, 2-4 m long, 1.3-2 m wide. The number of canopies was determined by the number of family couples living in yaranga. The floor under the canopy was covered with willow or cedar branches and deer skins.
The economy of the nymylo - settled Koryaks - combined marine hunting, fishing, land hunting and gathering. Sea fur hunting is the main occupation of the inhabitants of the Penzhina Bay (Itkans, Parents and Kamenets). It also played an important role among the Apukians and Karaginians, and to a lesser extent among the Palans. Hunting for a sea animal in the spring was individual, and in the fall - a collective character, began in late May - early June and continued until October. The main tools were the harpoon (v’emek) and nets. They traveled on leather canoes (kultaytvyyt - “a boat made of bearded seal skins”) and single-seat kayaks (mytyv). They caught bearded seals, seals, akiba, spotted seals, and lionfish. Until the middle of the nineteenth century. settled Koryaks of the Penzhina Bay hunted cetaceans. The Apukians and Karaginians were engaged in walrus hunting. By the end of the nineteenth century. as a result of the extermination of whales and walruses by American whalers, the fishery of these animals declined, and fishing began to play a paramount role in the economy. From spring to autumn, huge shoals of salmon fish went from the sea to the rivers of the eastern coast of Kamchatka: char, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, chum salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, kunzhi; in February-March, smelt, saffron cod entered the bays, in April-May the waters off the coast "boiled" from herring, which came for spawning. For catching fish, they used locks, nets of a set and net type, fishing rods and hooks on a long strap resembling a harpoon. Fishing was supplemented by hunting birds, ungulates and fur-bearing animals, gathering wild berries and edible roots. Of the hunting tools, traps, crossbows, nets, pressure-type traps (the alert breaks and the log crushes the animal), cherkans, etc., were common, and from the end of the 18th century. began to use firearms. The Karagins and Palans mastered gardening and cattle breeding.
The ritual is accompanied by wooden masks
The predominant type of dwelling among settled Koryaks was a semi-dugout (lymgyyan, yayana) up to 15 m long, up to 12 m wide and up to 7 m high. During its construction, eight vertical pillars and four - in the center. Between the outer pillars, two rows of logs sawn along were driven in, forming the walls of the dwelling, fastened from above with transverse beams. From the square frame connecting the four central pillars and forming the upper entrance and smoke hole, eight-slope roof blocks went to the upper transverse beams of the walls. To protect against snow drifts, the Koryaks of the western coast built a funnel-shaped bell of poles and blocks around the hole, and the Koryaks of the east coast built a barrier of twigs or mats. To one of the walls facing the sea, a corridor deepened into the ground with a flat roof was attached. Walls covered with dry grass or moss, the roof and the corridor of the dwelling were covered with earth from above. The hearth, consisting of two oblong stones, was located at a distance of 50 cm from the central log with notches, along which in winter they got into the dwelling through the upper hole. During the fishing season, a side corridor served as the entrance. Inside such a dugout, on the side opposite the corridor, a platform was installed for receiving guests. Sleeping curtains made of worn deer skins or worn fur clothes were hung along the side walls.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century. under the influence of Russian settlers, log huts appeared among the Palants, Karagins, Apukins and Koryaks of the northwestern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. By the end of the nineteenth century. The Karaginians and partly the Palans began to build surface dwellings of the Yakut type (booth), in which the windows were covered with the intestines of sea animals or a bear. An iron or brick stove with a chimney was installed in the center of such dwellings, and wooden bunks were built along the walls.
The clothes of the hunter and the shepherd are pulled together with a belt. The "bubble" closure allows you to freely raise your arms
The clothes of all groups of Koryaks were of dull cut. The Chavchuvens usually sewed it from deer skins, while the seaside, along with deer, used the skins of marine animals. The fur of dogs and fur-bearing animals served as decoration. In winter they wore double clothes (with fur inside and out), in summer they wore single clothes. The "all-weather" men's set consisted of a fur kukhlyanka shirt with a hood and a bib, fur pants, a headdress and shoes. Upper trousers were sewn from thin reindeer skin or reindeer skins, lower and summer trousers were made from rovduga or leather cut from an old yaranga tire. Before late nineteenth V. coastal Koryak hunters during the fishing season wore trousers made of sealskins.
Protecting kukhlyanka from snow, they put on a wide shirt - kamleyka - with a hood made of rovduga or fabric, which was also worn in summer in dry weather. For rainy weather, a kamlika made of rovduga, treated with urine and smoked with smoke, served.
Winter and summer men's footwear- shoe-shaped cut with a long (up to the knees) or short (up to the ankles) shaft. Winter clothes were sewn from reindeer skins with the fur outside, summer clothes were made from thin deer, dog, seal or seal skins, rovduga or waterproof, smoked deer skin with trimmed pile. The sole was made from bearded seal skin, walrus skin, deer brushes (part of the skin with long hair from the deer's leg above the hoof).
To the camp
A fur men's headdress - a hood-shaped malachai with headphones - was worn in winter and summer. Included in winter menswear included double or single mittens (lilit) made of deer kamus.
Women sewed for themselves double fur overalls to the knees. For the lower overalls, the chavchuvenki picked up plain thin skins of young deer, for the upper they preferred variegated ones. Among Primorsky Koryak women, alternating white and dark stripes of deer kamus and fur mosaics predominate in clothing. Summer overalls were made from smoky deer skin or rovduga, decorated with strips of red fabric inserted into the seams. Over the overalls, women wore a double or single kukhlyanka in winter, similar to men's, and in spring, summer and autumn - a gagaglu (kagav'lyon) fur shirt with fur inside, much longer than the men's kukhlyanka. The front and back of the gagagli were decorated with a fringe of thin straps, pendants made of dyed seal fur, and beads. Special head women's headwear did not have. During the migrations, the women of the reindeer Koryaks wore men's malachai. Women's shoes decorated with appliqué made of thin white leather from the neck of dogs, but in cut and materials it was identical to men's. In winter, women wore fur double mittens.
IN traditional clothes both old and young
Until the age of five or six, a child was sewn a jumpsuit with a hood (kalny'ykey, kekey): in winter - double, and in summer - single. The sleeves and legs of the overalls were sewn up, and after the child began to walk, fur or rovduk shoes were sewn to the legs. In the clothes of children of five or six years of age, its purpose by gender difference was already clearly visible.
Reindeer Koryaks ate reindeer meat, most often boiled, they also used willow bark and seaweed. Coastal inhabitants ate the meat of sea animals, fish. Since the eighteenth century purchased products appeared: flour, rice, crackers, bread and tea. Flour porridge was boiled in water, deer or seal blood, and rice porridge was eaten with seal or deer fat.
basis social life there was a large patriarchal (from Latin pater - father, arche - power) family community, uniting relatives, and for deer - sometimes distant relatives on the paternal side. It was headed by an older man. Marriage was preceded by a trial period for the groom working off the farm of the future father-in-law. At the end of it, the so-called rite of "grasping" followed (the groom had to catch the fleeing bride and touch her body). This gave them the right to marry. The transition to the husband's house was accompanied by rituals of introducing the wife to the hearth and family cult. Until the beginning of the twentieth century. the customs of levirate (from lat. levir - brother-in-law, husband's brother) were preserved: if an older brother died, the younger one had to marry his wife and take care of her and her children, as well as sororate (from lat. soror - sister): a widower must marry on the sister of the deceased wife.
A typical coastal Koryak settlement united several related families. There were production associations, including canoe associations (using one canoe), the core of which was a large patriarchal family. Around her grouped other relatives engaged in fishing. The camp of reindeer herders, the head of which owned most of the reindeer herd and led not only economic but also social life, consisted of two to six yarangas. Within the camp, connections were based on the joint herding of deer, sealed by family and marriage ties, and supported by ancient traditions and rituals. Starting from the eighteenth century. among the nomadic Koryaks, property division (stratification), due to the development of private ownership of deer, led to the appearance of poor farm laborers, who might not be related to other residents of the camp.
At the beginning of the twentieth century. there is a destruction of patriarchal-communal relations among the settled Koryaks. This is due to the transition to individual types of economic activity: the extraction of small sea animals, fur hunting, and fishing.
sacred bird
The main rites and holidays of the settled Koryaks of the 19th - early 20th centuries. devoted to the fishery of marine animals. Their main moments are the solemn meeting and seeing off of the hunted animals (whale, killer whale, etc.). After the performance of the ritual, the skins, noses, and paws of the killed animals replenished the bundle of family “guardians”.
Main autumn holiday nomadic Koryaks - Koyanaitatyk - "To drive deer" - arranged after the return of herds from summer pastures. After the winter solstice, reindeer herders celebrated the "return of the sun". On this day, they competed in reindeer sled racing, wrestling, running with sticks, throwing a lasso on a target moving in a circle, climbing an icy pillar.
The Koryaks also developed rituals life cycle accompanying weddings, births, funerals.
Shaman
To protect against illness and death, they turned to shamans, made various sacrifices, wore amulets. Premature death was considered the intrigues of evil spirits, ideas about which were reflected in funeral and memorial rituals. Funeral clothes were prepared while still alive, but they left them unfinished, fearing that those who had already finished clothes would die earlier. It was finished with a large, ugly seam while the deceased was in the dwelling. During this time, sleeping was strictly forbidden. The main method of burial is burning on a fire made of cedar elfin. With the deceased, his personal belongings, basic necessities, bow and arrows, food, gifts to previously deceased relatives were laid on the fire. At the coastal Koryaks southern groups, baptized back in the 18th century, the Orthodox funeral and memorial rite was intertwined with traditional customs: burning the dead, making funeral clothes treating the dead as if they were alive.
The main genres of narrative folklore of the Koryaks are myths and fairy tales (lymnylo), historical traditions and legends (panenatvo), as well as incantations, riddles, songs. The most widely represented myths and tales about Kuikynyaku (Kutkynyaku) - Crow. He appears both as a creator and as a trickster-prankster. Animal stories are popular. The characters in them are most often mice, bears, dogs, fish, sea animals. IN historical narratives real events of the past are reflected (the wars of the Koryaks with the Chukchi, with the Evens, inter-tribal skirmishes). In folklore, traces of borrowings from other peoples (Evens, Russians) are noticeable.
Music is represented by singing, recitatives, throat wheezing on inhalation and exhalation. The lyrical ones include “name song” and “ancestral song”, reproducing local and family melodies.
Common Koryak name musical instruments- g'eynechg'yn. The same word denotes a wind instrument similar to an oboe, with a feather squeaker and a birch bark bell, as well as a flute from a hogweed plant with an external slot without playing holes, and a squeaker from a bird feather, and a birch bark trumpet. Also characteristic are a lamellar harp and a round tambourine with a flat shell and an internal cruciform handle with vertebrae on a bracket with inside shells.
Page of the textbook of the Nymylan language by S.N. Stebnitsky
There are 18 national villages in the Koryak Autonomous Okrug. Indigenous people still engaged in reindeer herding, hunting, fishing, processing of meat and fish, as well as sewing fur products. In schools, children learn native language. In the village Palana opened a school of arts. At the House of Culture work folk group, circle of the Koryak language and national dance group"Weem" ("River").
On local television and radio broadcasts are conducted in the Koryak language.
To protect the interests of the indigenous people of the district formed public organization“Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug”, in all national villages, as well as in the Tigilsky and Karaginsky districts, there are its primary cells. In the Koryak Autonomous Okrug, laws are being passed that should help preserve and revive the national way of life, traditional forms management.
How special ethnographic group Koryaks for a long time Alyutors, Olyutors, Alutors (in Koryak and Chukchi - alutalyu, elutalu) were considered. In Russian sources, they are first mentioned with early XVIII V. How special people. The 1989 census singled them out as an independent people.
Named after p. Alyut (modern Alutorskoye), according to another version - from the Eskimo alutor - "an enchanted place." Self-name nymylyu, the same as that of various groups coastal koryaks.
Number of 3500 people. They live mainly in the eastern part of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug - in villages along the coast Bering Sea, from the Gulf of Corfu in the north to the village. Tymlat in the south, and along the middle course of the river. Vivnik, as well as west coast Kamchatka, in the village Rekkiniki. They speak the Alyutor dialect, which is close to the southern branch of the Coastal Koryak dialects. Some linguists consider the Alutor dialect as an independent language.
By type of business and traditional culture The Alyutors are very close to the coastal Koryaks: they were also engaged in marine hunting, including hunting cetaceans and walruses, fishing, gathering, hunting, from the 19th century. - reindeer breeding. Reindeer were exchanged for sea products and essential goods, reindeer transport was used for migrations (dog teams - for everyday household needs, when examining traps and traps during the hunting season).
The Alyutorians had dwellings and clothes similar to those of the Koryak; one of the features of the latter was waterproof kamlikas made from walrus intestines; Alyutors were also distinguished by the habit of sewing trousers made of reindeer skins to winter torbashes.
The beliefs and rituals of the Alyutors differed little from those of the Koryak. Christianity, which had spread among them since the beginning of the 18th century, was not accepted by them.
The Alyutor people still continue to preserve a number of local ethnographic features.
In March 2000, by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, they were included in the Unified List of Indigenous small peoples Russian Federation.
article from the encyclopedia "The Arctic is my home"
BOOKS ABOUT THE KORYAKS
Antropova V.V. Culture and life of the Koryaks. L., 1971.
Vdovin I.S. Essays ethnic history Koryakov. L., 1973.
History and culture of the Koryaks. L., 1994.
Slyunin N.V. Okhotsk-Kamchatsky region. Natural-historical description. SPb., 1900. T. 1.
Stebnitsky S.N. Lymnylo-Nymylansky (Koryak) fairy tales. L., 1938.
