POLAR BEAR in MATERIAL and SPIRITUAL CULTURE of the NATIVE PEOPLES of CHUKOTKA «BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION» Final Report

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POLAR BEAR in MATERIAL and SPIRITUAL CULTURE of the NATIVE PEOPLES of CHUKOTKA «BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION» Final Report POLAR BEAR IN MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE OF THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF CHUKOTKA «BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION» Final Report Compiled by SVETLANA KOCHNEVA Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters of Chukotka, Alaska Nanuuq Commission V.G. Tan-Bogoraz Chukotka Regional Universal Public Library Pacific Fisheries Research Center (Pacific NIRO) (Chukotka Branch) ANADYR 2007 Translated from the Russian by Olga Romanenko ([email protected] ph.: 907-278-2566) Anchorage, Alaska 2008 1 About the Author Svetlana Kochneva was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), graduated from St. Petersburg University of Culture and Art, and for almost ten years worked at the Science Library of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2002, she has lived in Anadyr (Chukotskiy Autonomous District), working as the head of the Service Department of the V.G. Tan-Bogoraz Chukotka Regional Universal Public Library. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 From the Author ........................................................................................................................... 5 Part 1 – Polar bear and Man: on the history of the issue. ............................................................. 8 Bibliography. ................................................................................................................................ 9 Part 2 – Polar bear in traditional world outlook of the peoples of the North… ......................... 12 Bibliography… ........................................................................................................................... 23 Part 3 – Traditional polar bear hunting… ................................................................................... 32 3. 1 Rituals, taboos, and superstitions associated with hunting and harvest of polar bears ………………………………………………………………………………………..……...…32 3. 2 Polar bear hunting tactics………………………………………………………………….35 3. 3 Polar bear Hunters Councils… ........................................................................................... 39 3. 4 Polar bear hunting equipment. ............................................................................................ 40 3. 5 Rules of harvest distribution… ........................................................................................... 42 3. 6 Size of bear harvest… .......................................................................................................... 43 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 44 Part 4 - Polar bear carcass butchering and partitioning, and use of polar bear meat for food ………………….53 4. 1 Polar bear carcass butchering and partitioning… .............................................................. 53 4. 2 Polar bear meat in the diet of the people residing in the Northeast of Russia. .................. 54 Bibliography… .......................................................................................................................... 58 Part 5 – Rituals and celebrations honoring Polar bear… ............................................................61 5.1 Greeting polar bear as a guest, food offerings and gifts… .................................................. 62 5.2 Apologetic rituals and bear dance…..................................................................................... 64 5.3 Rituals of burial of polar bear bones and skull… ................................................................ 65 Bibliography. ............................................................................................................................. 69 Part 6 – Economic importance of the polar bear skin… ........................................................... 79 6. 1 Processing polar bear skin, and its traditional use in everyday life… ................................ 79 6. 2 Demand for polar bear fur, and sale of fur by native people of Chukotka… .................... 80 Bibliography. ............................................................................................................................. 81 Part 7 – Use of other parts of polar bear carcass… ................................................................... 86 7. 1 Use of other parts of polar bear carcass in everyday life… ............................................... 86 7. 2 Sacred use of other parts of polar bear carcass… ............................................................. 86 Bibliography. ............................................................................................................................ 87 Part 8 – Polar Bear in folklore… .............................................................................................. 90 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 94 Part 9 – Polar Bear in art…........................................................................................................ 99 Bibliography… ....................................................................................................................... 103 Conclusion… .......................................................................................................................... 107 Attachment № 1 – Typological key to themes… ................................................................... 109 Attachment № 2 – Combined list of literature… .................................................................. 119 3 INTRODUCTION This project “Gathering traditional knowledge of the native peoples of Chukotka on the polar bear and its habitat” was carried out in 1999-2002 by the Chukotka Association of Traditional Marine Mammal Hunters (CHAZTO), Alaska Nanuuq Commission, and Pacific Fisheries Research Center (TINRO), Chukotka branch. The project “Polar bear in material and spiritual culture of the native peoples of Chukotka” was started in 2004. The main goal of the project was to gather information about different ways to hunt polar bears, about use of harvested animals, about rituals and customs associated with polar bear, and about the image of polar bear in visual arts and folklore. Information was obtained using two methods: 1) interviewing native people of different generations in Chukotka villages; 2) analysis of the literary sources on history and ethnography of the region. In 2005, the project was joined by the V.G. Tan-Bogoraz Regional Universal Public Library of Chukotka that undertook the work on “Bibliographic information” section. The project is funded by the United States National Park Service. 4 FROM THE AUTHOR The history of man’s acquaintance with the polar bear is as long as the history of humans inhabiting the coasts and islands of northern seas. The first written sources containing information about this animal date back to distant times. Japanese manuscripts mentioned polar bears already in the year 650. Moscow first learnt of stories about the life of polar bears in the XVII century, when Russians started to settle the coasts of the White and Barents Seas. Information about the material and spiritual importance of polar bears for the native population of the North can be found in general geographical and faunistic monographs of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Those that deserve to be mentioned here include works by F.P. Vrangel, A.V. Middendorf, V.L. Seroshevskiy, V.G. Bogoraz, N.L. Gondatti, A.E. Nordenscheldt, A.A. Bunge, D.N. Anuchin, V.I. Iohelson. In the XX century, literature on polar bears was supplemented by studies on the distribution and population size of this predator; its economic use and importance; and its evolution, biology and ecology. Data on the economic and cultural importance of the polar bear in the life of aboriginals of the far North can be found only in works by a few authors: S.A. Buturlin, B.M. Zhitkov, N.F. Kalinnikov, G.Ya. Sedov, A.I. Mineev, G.A. Ushakov, G.A. Menovshchikov, I.S. Vdovin, S.M. Uspenskiy. As published materials accumulated over the years, lists of references on polar bears and the history and ethnography of Chukotka peoples were compiled. We haven’t found any systematic bibliographic information on the material and cultural importance of the polar bear in the life of the Chukotka native peoples. Therefore, the present annotated list is the first one in which Russian sources of information are analyzed. Information on the cultural importance of the polar bear is mostly fragmentary; it usually presents only parts of rituals that were most interesting to the travelers and explorers at that time. We have practically no complete descriptions of the rituals honoring polar bear- rituals that would start with preparations for the hunt and finish with burial of the polar bear bones and skull. Bibliographic information gathered within the framework of this theme is not limited to the territory of Chukotka only. Features of cultural development of the Northeast of Asia allow the combination of the territories of Yakutia, Taimyr peninsula, Magadan area, Kamchatka, and Chukotskiy Autonomous District (AD) into one cultural and historical zone, within which cultural impulses spread both in eastern and western directions over the course of millennia. In order to explain the traditional view of life, particular rituals, and mythological topics, we compare materials
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