Сhuchuna: autochthonous tribes in the historical legends and myths of Yakuts

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of folklore texts as a source for studying the ancient stages of Yakuts' settlement in various landscape zones of Yakutia. The purpose and objectives are to systematize, analyze and interpret folklore materials about the aboriginals of Yakutia using data from linguistics, ethnography and archeology. To systematize folklore plots and classify characters, binary concepts of “ours” and “others” are used. The dominant role is given to the category of “other”, which implies the differentiation of concepts such as “wild”, “alien”, “different”. In the study, descriptive, comparative-correlative, historical-genetic, historical-systemic and retrospective methods were used. The historical-geographical approach was involved in analyzing the historical-geographical periodization of folklore plots. According to the folklore, the aboriginal tribes of Yakutia can be divided into groups of “wild” (chuchuna, mulen), “alien” (hairy giants, tiny foreigners, long-headed sakhalar), and “different” (kara sagyl, foreigners omuk, sleeping in winter, tumats, sortols). At the initial stage of settlement, the territory is perceived as an unexplored “other”, and its inhabitants as part of the “wild” nature. As the area becomes inhabited, the image of the natives acquires real anthropomorphic features, although it retains some anatomical anomalies as a mark of the “alien” peripheral world. The author pays special attention to the transformation of ideas about chuchuna: from “half-people–half-animals” causing primitive fear, then to marginal “thin spirits”, then to “wild people” on whom they sometimes hunt, and finally to Chukchi chuchunas who kidnap women. It is suggested that under the image of mysterious chuchunas of the ethnographic time there were so-called “wanderers” – groups of young Chukchi, inspired by the desire to “see the world”, as described by V. G. Bogoraz. At the final stage of settlement, despite their “different” customs and traditions, the aborigines enter the field of active socio-cultural interaction with the descendants of immigrants and eventually assimilate into their ranks. This is evidenced by both archaeological monuments and toponyms and ethnonyms (omuk, tumat, sortol).

Acknowledgements: The study was carried out using the scientific equipment of the SB RAS Yakutsk Science Center Research and Development Center.

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