Acquisition of reindeer husbandry in the epic and worldview traditions of the Evenki

Abstract

The problem of domestic reindeer husbandry’s entry into the cultural complex of the northern Tungus is examined in the interdisciplinary research based on the epic traditions of the Evenki. The methodological basis of epic historicism is used for solving research problem, it is reinforced with worldview traditions of the Evenki and also with the results of research in archeology and ethnography.

To date the most frequent hypothesis about emergence of reindeer husbandry consists of the assumptions of V. A. Tugolukov, G. M. Vasilevich, E. N. Shirokogorova according to which the northern Tungus tamed a deer in the 1^st centuries AD. At the same time folklore traditions of the Evenki demonstrate the earlier historical time of reindeer’s taming by the ancestors of the modern Evenki and Evens. In the epic of the Evenki, two plots about the taming of the reindeer are widespread. According to the first, the reindeer is tamed by the female ancestor. The second, the most common plot, demonstrates the entry of reindeer husbandry into the cultural complex of the Evenki in connection with ethnogenetic contacts to the east of Lake Baikal. Mythology and ideological traditions point out the relationship between the cult of reindeer husbandry and the cult of the ancestor bear, and also maintain cultural parallels with the Neolithic traditions of the ancient Tungus-Glazkovites. The content of the worldview and shamanic traditions of the Evenki indicates a cultural relationship with the content of the Amur region writings, which according to A. P. Okladnikov and A. I. Mazin, are the embodiment of the worldview traditions of the direct ancestors of the modern Orochon Evenki.

As a result, the author makes an assumption that the epic, mythological, ritual and ethnographic traditions of the Evenki are comparable with the results of archaeological research and indicate a high probability of the emergence of Evenki reindeer husbandry in the Amur region in the 2^nd millennium BC. The work is of interest to the specialists in folklore, history and ethnography, whose scientific interests include the traditions of folklore and the history of the Tungus-Manchu peoples.

References

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