Yakuts (general information). Traditions and customs of the Yakuts History and national culture of the Yakuts

Customs of the Sakha people. - Yakutsk: NIPC Sakhapoligraphizdat, 1996. - 48 p.

ISBN 5-85259-110-6

© Nikolaev S.I. - Somogotto, 1996

Handed over to the set 19.03.96. Signed for publication on April 22, 1996. Format 70x108/z2 - High print.

Literary typeface. Conv. p. l. 2.1. Uch.-ed. l. 2.13. Circulation 3000 copies. Zach. No. 33.

NIPC "Sakhapolygraphizdat" 677000 Yakutsk, st. Kirova, 9

(File name: Custom_of_Sakha)

© Somogotto S.I.

© Safonova V.N.

The customs of the Sakha people (Yakuts)

environmental practices

hunting customs

Customs to repair fate and happiness

Name customs

language customs

Miscellaneous customs

environmental practices

Due to the high cost of publications, it is not necessary to write works, but to give some of their schemes. Below I will give only a schematic list of customs. The details and interpretations of them will have to be filled by the readers themselves. The ancients were very afraid of the contamination of the soil thawing over the summer. Pollution was called "eteh abaahyta" - "the devil of old polluted estates and parking lots." The thinner the thawing soil, the fewer people and livestock had to use such soil. It was forbidden to live next to two or more families. Even forced dyukkashchestvo (cohabitation of two families) sought to limit. Forbidden to visit eteh 'And unnecessarily. When coming to eteh after a long absence from their native places, it was supposed to put eteh in the hearth 'A a stone with a through hole and with a plea to feed the fire. Those who did not perform the rite became victims of eteh 'A- eteh abaahyta. Upon arrival from afar, in old age, they were not advised to visit eteh, because the devil would definitely “eat” it. Those who came from afar to die in old age were believed that they were “attracted to themselves by their native grave land” (“buora tardybyt”). It was forbidden to build a new house on the site not only 'A, but any demolished and burned down house.

This prohibition also applied to the estates of telgehe, khoton, etc. Each family had at least four seasonal estates "surt": autumn surt, spring surt, etc. "Surt" from the Ugro-Samody "yurt", from him and "yurt "(yurt). The Yakut dwelling had the Ugrian-Samoyedic name "mo" (holomo from kalamo - a fishing house, khaltaama - bark house). The word "mo" replaced the Tungus "duu" or "die". The Turks have "home" - "uy". It was strictly forbidden to concentrate cattle, horses and deer in one place. To disperse them, a peculiar semblance of deer capacity, cattle capacity and human capacity of the area was used. From here you will understand why ancient Yakutia did not have a single settlement. You will also understand why those who grew up in such ecological cleanliness from ancient times, today have fallen into decay in settlements that copy the cities and villages of the West with eternally thawed soil. There, the thawed soil is self-cleaning, and the soil of Yakutia only accumulates pollution. Add more agricultural chemicals, etc. The result is often obtained in places, probably worse than the troubles of the Aral Sea. So call the ancients "savages." The ancients considered their nature hanging by a thread (“kyl sa5attan inngnen”). From here - it was forbidden to move a finger in the direction of changing the natural: its appearance. That is why there were almost no releases before the Russians; lakes, clearing forests, draining swamps for farmland. Hence the small number of domesticated animals and the almost absence of the truly rich. They lived by reindeer herding, that is, hunting and fishing, on deer and a few cows and mares for milk for children. The complex was partially disbanded after the Russians. There was also a limitation of the accumulation of livestock of domesticated animals. The custom "kyi" testifies to that. When the number of domesticated horses reached the forbidden limit, the violator was forced to drive away a certain number of domesticated horses to their wild shoals on the grassy upper reaches of the rivers. The details of that Paleolithic diring custom are not needed in today's practice. And I do not find it necessary to overload this brief guide with them. To get fish and game in excess of the need was punished mercilessly. It was forbidden for children to play with carcasses of game and fish caught. In case of accidental killings and obtaining inedible fish and game, customs forced them to be eaten by the getter. Otherwise, he had to fall under the curse of the victims. Such a curse was called "buu". "Seren buuluo5a!" (“Be careful, he will curse!”) - everyone was warned. Especially dangerous were considered "buu" inedible: all insects, reptiles, parts of fish, all birds (with the exception of upland and waterfowl), dogs, wild cat foxes, wolves. Especially dangerous; were considered shamanic fanged ("aryngastaakh"), clawed ("tyngyrakhtaakh") and prophetic ("tyllaakh", "sangalaakh", "toyuktaakh"): parrot birds, goldeneye, loons, cuckoo, lark, local nightingales. So that the accidentally killed "prophet" did not cause harm, a piece of his own meat was placed in his beak or mouth and his corpse was buried on the arangas, on the branches and forks of trees. It was believed that their avengers should “blame” the dead themselves, seeing a piece of meat in their beak and graze, they say, “he stole it himself.” In practice, the ban on "inedible" was the oldest type of "Red Book".

It would have been hard to imagine a safer one. Each element, phenomenon, locality, natural rarity was endowed with its master spirit - its ecological protector. For example, Sung Diaahyn ("Sung" - onomatopoeic, "Dyaahyn" - from "diaahyy" - to yawn) is a thunderer with a fiery whip. He was considered a heavenly hunter of earthly wandering devils. Under a tree broken by lightning, it was customary to look for: a stone of happiness “gyol taha”, where “gyol” is in Tunguska “stone”. This was found if the tree happened to be the site of the ancients with stone tools. The discovered stone tool served as an amulet of happiness and a talisman against diseases and accidents. In search of the "stone of happiness" they came only at dawn, immediately after a thunderstorm. They approached the broken tree, stalking like an animal. Digging began with prayerful quiet muttering. In the case of finding the desired, a joyful exclamation was uttered: “ala-kyy” or “alyas” from the Tungus “alak!” - "hooray!". By the way, the exclamations “Urui” and “Aikhal” were pronounced only at Uruu (wedding) and Ysyakh. "Urui" from "uruu" - "offspring" and means "give offspring and offspring of livestock." "Aikhal" in Tunguska has a similar meaning. The cry "kyyryk" was used when cheering the winner and when winning sports competitions. He replaced "hooray!" and in a military environment. They picked up the stone of happiness only by feeding the fire on the fire and sprinkling the liquid from the food. Note: in the "equestrian olonkho" those ancient military-sports exclamations and exclamations of the Tungus-Khamnigan epics, which delivered the concept of "uluger" (emergency, scandal) and the word "gahai" - "mother's relative or relative" (khahaydaan) to the Yakuts, are completely absent. It turns out that the “horse” olonkho are younger than the Tungus nimngakans in Yakutia. The spirit-owner of the mountains is depicted by customs as a monkey, and the word "monkey" in dictionaries is translated as "haya ichchite", or "spirit-owner of the mountains." Often the concept of Chuchunaa ("Bigfoot") is confused with the master spirit of the mountains. Among the "descendants of the steppes" the concept of "meadow" - "syhyy" corresponds to the Tungus "sygyi" - "forest". In the idea of ​​the master spirit of the taiga, the heterogeneity and multilingualism of the later Sakha people were reflected. In the Vilyuy valley, the spirit-master of the taiga was considered a natural bear, figured as Ehekeen (literally "Grandfather"). It will be discussed below. In the upper reaches of the tributaries of the Vilyui and in the outlying parts of Yakutia, Singken (hingken) or Sebeki (hebeki) was considered the master spirit of the forest. They were considered Tungus. In fact, these are Samoyedic spirits, because the Enets and Nganasans had similar Sibichi and Sibuchi - another evidence of the once self-speaking Tungus-speaking Yakutia. Meanwhile, there are ideas about the same Sib, in the person of Sibian, as an eccentric, mischievous, but kind spirit. Hunters turned into a personal portable Singken-Sebeki - all anomalies: the skin of a motley squirrel, the stem of talina, which formed a ring or knot in its natural growth, etc. There was also a hoof of a musk deer, two front teeth-cutters of a wild deer, a ball of subcutaneous hair of an elk (muyeelle), etc. n. Part of the Evens of the same Singken called Ydyk. That's where the Yakut concept of "Ytyk" comes from. Here the concept of the master spirit of the forest merges with the concept of the god of hunting. The hunter kept his personal gods in his dwelling on an honorary corner. On the fishery, he carried them with him in a special bag. With luck in the fishery, with words of gratitude, he “fed” him from his trophy. Feeding was carried out by rubbing fat on the nose of the amulet and twirling over the smoke of the fat and blood of the prey poured onto hot coals.

Melted fat and blood in such cases were sprinkled on hot coals and flames. This was done so as not to put out the fire by simply adding blood and fat. Hence the origins of sprinkling, that is, hyakh. Much older than milk fat, blood and fat became objects of sacrificial sprinkling, that is, the domestication of animals. In case of failure in the fishery, instead of “feeding”, the hunter spanked his god with a thin talina, saying: “You are a bad helper: we came empty-handed.” In Central Yakutia and in the North-West, Bayanay or Barylakha is considered the master spirit of the taiga and the god of hunting. Here again the Ugro-Samoyed Payanay and Barulak. (“bar” - large, “-l” - flexion, “-ak” - mouth, i.e. “large-mouthed”, and their idols were made large-mouthed.). Sometimes a very old thick tree of any species (and a special “kuduk” tree) was sometimes considered the spirit and master of the taiga and hunting. Such a long-lived tree enjoyed the rarest respect. "The burning of such a shrine was considered a harbinger of great misfortune in this district. Its lower branches were always hung with gifts in the form of toy models of household items. Salama on Ysyakh and garlands on European Christmas trees originate from these all-Siberian ornaments of the sacred tree. They say that as if the first Christmas trees came from the Swedish court, who borrowed the decoration of the tree from the Finno-Finns. And we take our own back only in the form of imitation of the West. There are many similar examples. Such is the deplorable result of chronic belittling: one’s own and exalting only someone else’s, they say, " only someone else's is better." Tree "kuduk" (from the distortion of which arose "aar-kuduk", "aal-k utuk" and "aal-luuk") - a very strange tree. It occurs in all breeds. Its strangeness lies in the fact that it, like a magnet, attracts to itself any living creatures of the neighborhood with no one knows what. Around it is always trampled, the branches are planted to a shine, and the bark is scratched by the wood-climbing and claw marks of the clubfoot. A similar phenomenon is also observed among the bushes, because only on them are the pellets and urea indicating the limits of "possession" left. There are no external differences in "kuduk". Hunters revere the “kuduk” very much and do not approach it, so as not to scare away its visitors with their smell. A rare accidental stumbled in the dark and in bad weather was considered an omen of impending bad luck. However, the old Hunters, even without seeing them, sense the approach to the “kuduk” and do not themselves know which way. They say "sense". Apparently, all living creatures of the taiga are guided by the same. Hence the attention paid to him by paganism.

hunting customs

The above chapter is called "environmental" conditionally - to cover general environmental problems. But in fact, environmentalism permeates the vast majority of economic customs of the Yakuts of the past. The custom "chalbarang" or "hebeerin" is a local more ancient simplified version of the common northern "bear holiday", which occurred from the Pacific Amur to Yamal. It is apparently associated with the continuous presence on this strip of the inseparable trio of Nanai-Khan-Manchi and Nenei-Khanty-Mansi (Manchi). The presence of this trio in Yakutia is clearly disguised by their fragmentation into small constituents: Nanagirs-Mayaats, Angry-speaking Odu, Maya, Maimaga, Kup, Dyap (dyabyl), Chap, etc. Due to the striking resemblance to a naked man, the carcass of a bear without a skin, This animal is considered by the entire trinity of ethnic groups to be a relative of a woman who allegedly married a clubfoot. From that legend and all the conventions with a living and dead bear.

The bear was described as a demigod and a half-man. From those stories, as a demigod, he knew everything they thought and said about him. They cited half-were about how the bear punished those who were eager to meet him and the boasters who boasted that they would get the clubfoot. They also talked a lot about the kindness and wisdom of the owner of the taiga. Hence, in the past no one dared to think ill of a bear. Everyone refrained from swearing, even when the bear bullied people and cattle. “Grandfather condemned” (Sameleete) - said the wounded by the bear. However, like hunting lions, getting a bear was like passing a test of courage. Unlike the Tungus, bear hunting among the Yakuts was a kind of special sport. Not everyone was allowed to see him - even from among professional hunters. The head of the sport "esehit" (bear hunter) selected students from among the hunters who were not only physically hardened, but also with sufficient nervous hardening and composure. When the slightest symptoms of alarmism and timidity were detected, even strong men were rejected and removed. Reaction speed, dexterity and resourcefulness were highly valued. The Yakut esehit was only a male sport. And among the Tungus, women not only participated in a group raid, but often successfully entered into combat with a clubfoot. Another difference between the Yakut esehit and the Tungus was the hunting of a bear mainly in a den. And the Tungus mined it outside the lair. During the bear hunt, all participants completely switched to a special slang speech - “harrystal rear” - the language of amulets. He replaced almost every word of ordinary speech with conditional words. For example, “Yl ere, nykaa Khara, kirgille, kytaanahta khachiy, kytararda tart” (literally: “Gentle Black, take a woodpecker, knock on a hard one, charge red”). This phrase meant: "Young man, take an ax, chop wood, kindle a fire." You can read fragments from this dictionary in the book by S. Nikolaev “Evens and Evenks of South-Eastern Yakutia”. The one who discovered the lair informs in passing at the end of a normal conversation: “Umuha5y chongttum” (saw a hole) or “Ongkholu ukteetim” - “The leg hit a bump”. Hearing that phrase, the esahit pretends that he missed the remark. The next day was spent alerting the raid participants. At the same time, there were no direct talks about the round-up. Outwardly, it looked as if the fisherman had just come to visit. To know about the upcoming raid, he gave a silent look and conditional inconspicuous gestures. The secrecy was brought to the point that no one except the addressee had any idea about the impending raid. Outsiders should have learned about the latter only later. By the dawn of the next day, all the participants silently entered the dwelling of the leader. Also silently, in single file behind the leader, they approached the den, carrying on their shoulders prepared far from the den, pole plugs. Approaching, the leader hurried to shove into the mouth of the lair all the plugs supplied by the relay. Only after fixing the plugs, they began to wake up the sleeping bear. Until his full awakening, it was forbidden to take action. They woke up out of belief so that other bears would not attack them in a sleeping state. Indeed, cases of attacks by bears on people in a sleepy state were very rare. In the awakened bear, they began to shoot in turn. Here the esahit taught his students in practice.

However, for safety, the hunters were mainly to be made up of the most experienced. Before firearms, a bear in a den was killed with spears, which was troublesome due to dodging and self-defense of the victim. For the inept, sacrifice came at the cost of many broken spears. Often the victim managed to escape from the lair. Then experienced bear dogs, silent on a leash, were let loose on him. Pupils were required to keep the dogs on a leash. It was not easy, because the bear cubs in those moments were angrier than the clubfoot itself. The difficulty was that not a piece of rope should have been left around the neck of the bear cubs. In torn dogs, the ropes were cut with blows of a knife, an ax or a palm tree. A dog that left with a piece of rope died precisely because of the rope, for a smart predator did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of that flaw of the bear cub. Jumping out of the besieged lair was rarely without injury. It was here that composure, speed of reaction, resourcefulness in actions became saving. At times the bewildered hunters became dangerous to each other. It so happened that blows with a palm tree, a spear, an ax and shots hit their own comrades. The most faithful bear-dogs helped out here. Often they pulled out the wounded from under the paws of an angry wounded bear. Usually at least two bear cubs were taken for a round-up. The more of them, the more reliable it was. Experienced bear cubs died only because of the depth of the snow and the small number of flocks. It was believed that in this case there is no equal to the Yakut husky, capable of engaging in single combat with a clubfoot one on one in defense of a wounded owner. The youngest of those who participated in the raid for the first time was obliged to go down to the lair for the killed animal. It was the oldest custom of instilling courage and composure. All raiders were required to pass through it. The descent into the den for the dead animal was a real test. I had to go down without a ladder, tied around my chest with an insurance rope. If necessary, those standing outside the lair were supposed to pull the person being rescued by that rope. This tool was not reliable. If necessary, a forced flight from a suddenly revived animal or when a sufficiently grown and unnoticed young animal appears from behind the carcass of a killed animal. In addition, in the crown of the lair, the eyes of a living and a dead animal shone equally. The very method of pulling out the carcass of the beast was also terrible for a beginner. It was required to open the mouth and pass the wand behind the fangs. Having clamped the mouth with that stick, they put on the muzzle of the beast a noose of a rope lowered from above. The noose, thrown behind the stick, clamped the mouth, and the fangs did not allow the loop to slip when the carcass was pulled up by the rope. The tightness and stench of the lair acted on the beginner's nerves with terrifying force. And if the resurrection of an animal and a living young animal are added to everything, then others had to be pulled out of the lair in a swooning state and often already wounded. However, that school of courage did not refuse this test. After pulling the carcass up, the subject had to pass all the smelly bedding of the animal upstairs and sweep the lair clean. The heap of bedding pulled out from the branches was destroyed so that not a trace of them was left near the lair. This was an unbreakable custom. Often the same lair was subsequently found chosen by another animal. At the first puncture with a skinning knife, they said: “Be careful, grandfather (woman), sharp branches: do not cut yourself!”. Skinners had to work with knives while standing on only one side of the carcass. It was forbidden to work on both sides of the carcass, so that other bears in subsequent fights would not hit the hunter with both paws.

Bears were considered left-handed, and during fights they were especially wary of hitting their left paws. When maneuvering between the trunks, they tried to dodge to the right. After removing the skin, the fat layer of the carcass was removed in the same way. Next came the removal of the viscera and skinning without breaking the bones. Chalbarang or sebeerin, i.e., the feast of bear meat was a real feast in the sense of obtaining a rare pleasure from eating. Today's youth do not know what real hunger is when people swell and die. She is also unfamiliar with chronic malnutrition, when at breakfast they dream of lunch and dinner, and the dream of somehow eating their heart's content and satiety haunts for months and years. They were not attracted to alcohol or drugs. Truly hungry, except for the dream of satisfying hunger, there are no desires. Pre-revolutionary and pre-collective farm Yakutia was the land of chronic malnutrition. The bulk of the Yakutians did not have arable farming even under Richard Maak, that is, until the middle of the 19th century. R.K. Maak, with statistics in hand, calls the Yakuts tree-eaters and fish-eaters. In short, their main food was tree bark (sapwood) and lake minnow (mundu). We undeservedly threw this fish into a landfill. After all, minnow on the goat and minnow crackers in fish oil (olorbo - fish salamat) were not very inferior in delicacy to sprats and sprats in oil. In front of foreigners, we are proud, like our cuisine, of someone else's mash (salamaat) and fried dough (pancakes), but not all acceptable: giblets. Offering offal to a foreigner is the same as treating them to African locusts and southeastern snakes and dog meat. But we don’t notice our interesting dishes, such as olorbo, mundu on the goat, yukola, smoked meats and dried meat. First forgotten, and then stolen by local chefs in the 60s of the XX century. at Somogotto, the lists of dishes are now called folk cuisine. And they did not understand what is prestigious there for strangers and their own. It turns out, however, that without the author, appropriations are not always brought to the true national standard. Domaakov and Maakov tree-eaters and mundues all their lives from Deering-Yuryakh chronically lacked fat - the body's main defense against record frosts. There was plenty of butter to be had from the few low-milk cows. With chronic underfeeding, slaughter also did not provide sufficient fat. As a result, aryy-sya (butter and lard) were a rare and much-desired delicacy of the Yakut people. The wealth of all feasts was measured by the amount of butter and lard put on the table. “They had so much butter and lard at their wedding”, “Byttyka Marya has so many chabychs of butter”, “Don’t chop lard” (“Sya kyrbyyr buolbatah”), “No, it will warm with bacon” (“syanan a5aabat”) , they said then. Read the work of R.K. Maak "Vilyui District" (St. Petersburg, 1886). That policy, as they say, did not bend and stated the real truth. Then do not believe any "scientific" and "historical" tales about the supposedly ancient paradise of the Yakuts. I personally experienced the edge of that “paradise”. In the light told, you will understand why the bearish chalbarang 'And from Amur to Yamal called "bear holidays". Like rich weddings and ysyakhs, chalbarangs were the only opportunity to eat to their heart's content and feast on the sharpest fat to satiety. And they didn’t need any wine or koumiss. Chalbarang didn't need invitations. There were few who lived at an accessible distance, and everyone who wished had the right to come without an invitation. The custom of the ancient nimaat’a considered the hunted bear not the personal property of the hunter. The latter was obliged to give the skin to the eldest or the most beautiful person. If desired, the latter had a pre-emptive right to a beautiful skin if the miner was not married. The feast began with the simultaneous feeding of the fire and the esekeen. The pronunciation of any kind of algys was forbidden here.

Fire and eseken'a were fed silently and plentifully. Eseken'om called the head of the bear itself, laid on a special table, placed on the honorary corner of the dwelling. The table had a single leg, decorated with transverse lines of charcoal. When “feeding”, the nose and mouth of the animal’s head were rubbed with cow butter, and the blood and fat of the bear were splashed into the fire. At the same time, everyone shouted “hoo!” in unison. Everyone put the first piece of bacon and meat into their mouths with an exclamation of "hoo!", some shouted "hoo!" accompanied by a wave of hands like wings. This meant that it was not people who regaled themselves with bear meat, but forest crows. After the meal, each departing person was given a piece of bear meat in the form of gifts for their family. So, from the carcass there was often nothing left for the miners themselves. It was an inviolable law of antiquity. Even in his thoughts, the miner had no right to grumble, fearing the coming bad luck in the fishery. A similar nimat called “taraan” (from “tar5at” - “distribution”) also spread during the slaughter of cows and horses for meat, a sign of a relatively recent hunt for these animals, like a bear. The proverb about that distribution of meat according to the custom “cockroach”, A.P. Okladnikov in the first volume of the "History of the YASSR" translated as millet (taraan buolan tarkammyt). In fact, that proverb only complained about the ruinous nature of the cockroach custom. A.P. Okladnikov, who did not distribute almost without a trace the meat of his own slaughter cattle, how was it possible to understand about the devastation for the Yakut of that type of niamat'A. The custom with musk deer (buucheen) was instructive. This small, bunny-sized, beautiful animal was almost completely exterminated due to the healing "musk deer stream". In terms of meatiness, one carcass of musk deer cannot feed many hungry people. When such a baby fell into a trap designed for an elk, they staged a completely hilarious scene in all seriousness. Having brought it to the urasa, the residents of the urasa were given conditioned signals used in cases of the extraction of the largest fat elk (“lakei”), that is, when they approached the door, they did not enter, but knocked. To the question: "Who is there?" they answered: “Bayanai came, only the doors are small - they don’t fit in.” The hostess and the kids with joyful laughter rushed to feed the fire with the words: “Thanks to Bayanay!”. The grown-up son began to demonstrate an imitation of squeezing off part of the door jamb and forced disassembly of part of the entrance in order to drag too large prey into the dwelling. Then all those present staged an alleged overpowering to lift a heavy carcass that “does not fit” into the door; "Somehow" dragging the "great" prey, dancing - "hook-hook", - they chanted: "Welcome to us, generous Bayanay." The rite ended with the feeding of the personal hunting deity. This custom taught to equally rejoice in great and small gifts. It was believed that the god of hunting favors the hospitable and grateful, being angry at the dissatisfied and indifferent. From hunting I will give another colorful custom - the custom with the Siberian Crane. The Siberian Crane was considered a bird of both happiness and misfortune. It was generally accepted that only a lucky person can see and hear, without frightening the mating dance of the Siberian Cranes. Cranes, accidentally frightened in a mating dance, were believed to carry away part of the happiness of the culprit. It was allowed to harvest Siberian Cranes only outside of marriage and after the final growth of the chicks. Killing a Siberian Crane during a mating dance was considered an irreparable sin.

The miner warned his family by knocking not on the door, but on the window. It was forbidden to show noisy joy here. Having silently fed the fire, the hostess passed through the window to the miner a women's dress and a scarf. Slowly, having put on those clothes, the getter passed the Siberian Crane through the open window to the hostess with the words: “The daughter-in-law has arrived. Have a guest!" The hostess, having seated the “daughter-in-law” at the honorary table, began to treat and court, as if alive, the daughter-in-law. The ceremony was tedious and long, but no one dared to shorten it. Only a day later, when the “daughter-in-law gets enough sleep,” the Siberian Crane was eaten like ordinary game. Sterkh was considered a living deity of those who were born from the gods of Song and versification "Yrya terdutten". For those, the Siberian Crane was a completely taboo bird with a lot of conventions and rituals. They can only be described as a stand-alone book. In general, being born from yrya terde was considered a misfortune, because the happiness of such people should have consisted only of success in creativity, accompanied by sheer bad luck in their personal lives. "He or she is from yrya terdntten" - they spoke of those with sad sympathy.

Customs to repair fate and happiness

Today, the higher the level of education, the stronger the superstitions have become. Perhaps soon we will reach the custom of the Old Yakut parents of stealing their own children from themselves, described below. Thanks to the shamans, the illiterate attributed the high colds and environmental infant mortality to the devils. To deceive the latter, arranged the following. Parents, whose children were dying out, having learned the upcoming next birth, secretly from everyone, suddenly built a new hut in a fresh place. They picked up a bitch who was expecting puppies at the same time as the woman in labor. At the moment of permission, only a woman in labor and a midwife should have been present in the old hut. The husband with the whelping bitch at that time had to be with the horses on the road close to the woman in labor. The midwife let the father of the family know about the permission and completion of the first necessary procedures with the child and the woman in labor with the conditional cry of any bird through the open window. Then the husband, with one puppy in his bosom, walking backwards, went up to the window and held out the puppy. The grandmother, who came up to the window, also backing away, was holding out a swaddled child through the window, taking a puppy instead. The husband with the child jumped to the new hut. There the child was handed over to a temporary nurse. The grandmother, on the other hand, thrust the swaddled puppy into the swell in which the newborn child should have been laid. Arriving again, the husband threw the bitch with the rest of the puppies into the old hut through another window. Through the same window, a woman in labor and a grandmother crawled out, approaching the window, also backing away. From the window to the horses, everyone moved only backwards, so that there would be no leaving traces. The operation was carried out only in sunlight, in which the devils, as creatures of the night, should not have appeared and seen what was happening. All the simple furnishings of the old hut were left untouched. And long before the birth, the cattle were specially kept in another place. No one returned to that hut. It was forbidden to go there later. "Clairvoyants" and shamans told how the devils, "devouring" newborns, were looking for a child and a family. According to them, the devils, like trackers, carefully searched for traces of the departed. Since the footprints were only entered, and no exits were left, the devils came to the conclusion that there was no woman in labor, but only a bitch. Many were sure that in this way they got rid of the devils. Surprisingly, the higher the level of prosperity of the family, the higher the percentage of childlessness and infant mortality became.

In Yakutia of the past, childlessness and infant mortality were the primary ailment of rich and wealthy families. “The poor are recognized by a crowd of children, and wealth is recognized by the eerie silence of the absence of children's voices,” they said then. On this occasion, there were discussions about the alignment of the types of happiness by fate: to whom - in children, to whom - in wealth. Based on such judgments about the different parts of happiness, all sorts of customs arose for borrowing, moving, intercepting and even stealing happiness. Here are some of them. Families with non-surviving children tried to get themselves a foster child from large families. It was dominated by kinship transfers. Wishing to give security to at least one of the children or pitying a relative, the poor with many children quite willingly gave up their child to the rich. However, in cases of mistreatment of adopted children, there were cases of taking away those given by their parents and the children themselves fleeing back. To avoid the latter, almost everyone preferred to deal only with the youngest children. There was a belief that if the adopted child ran away, the children who appeared after him in the former childless children again began to die out. “A foster child ran away from them - the keeper of the happiness of all their children,” they said on this occasion. This belief often made life easier for a foster child in a strange family, and many became overly spoiled, because those who suffered looked at the foster child literally as a living god of the family. In cases of adoption of children from completely strangers, the sale and purchase of children also took part. Using covert trade, children from large families were bought and not at all childless. They bought to turn the bought into cheap workers. Often this happened when children were bought from afar, that is, away from the places where the parents lived. There were opinions that among those given into the wrong hands were children, taking with them all the happiness of the abandoned family and the prosperity of the one that accidentally received that carrier of happiness. Thus, even those with many children tore off their own child only in extreme cases. Because of this opinion, the adoption of orphans into any family was widely practiced. Wherein there were assurances that this or that family began to seriously improve its affairs after the adoption of this or that orphan. The idea of ​​living carriers of happiness and well-being extended to living creatures, which were called "uruulaakh" and "suehy terde". They talked about how happiness in living creatures went away after the death and sale of “uruulaakh” and “suehy terde”. Those who believed in a miracle turned that animal into a living shrine “ytyk c?ehu”. These were the horse, cow, deer, dog. In such animals, the tail, mane, horns were not cut off. They were not urged, they were not whipped. On special days, they were decorated with salama: rags and ribbons. Along with such “ytyk”, shamanic “toluk ytyk” (tyyn toluk ytyk), in Even “ydyk” could also be found in the family. These were animals on which the shaman "suffered" one or another fatal illness of their owner. These could be any kind of domestic animals. It was believed that as long as that animal lives, its owner should also live. They treated such animals as a person, that is, as their owner. The experienced ones were in a similar position: “mother-cow” (iye ynakh), “mother-mare” (iye bie), etc. against the disfavor of fate and fate. It turns out that from the very dawn of diring sapientation, humanity undertook an attempt to regulate with its mind not only the physical levers of survival, that is, it also showed the makings of a remarkable philosopher. Almost all the customs of luring, appeasing and favoring all kinds of spirits and gods are practically attempts to regulate the distribution of happiness.

The concept of “bayanaidaah bulchut” (hunter with Bayanay) had both laudatory and condemning meanings. In the first case, they meant the master of the craft, who is favored by the god of hunting. At the same time, they condemned those hunters who got their luck not by skill, but with the help of shamanic spirits, who forced Bayanai to help that unkindly enterprising fisherman. It was believed that those shamanic spirits helped not for free, but for a bloody sacrifice. According to popular beliefs, during the years of prosperous harvests for game, the bloody sacrifice could be repaid at the expense of hunting trophies. And in seasons of bad luck, the payment in blood had to be covered first with the blood of one's own domestic animals, and then with the blood of family members and relatives. And those shamanistic devils were considered to be almost persistent. They did not leave until the complete destruction of the family. And not all shamans were able to untie them. There was a custom of acquiring such shamanic spirits and in the matter of enrichment with any kind of life values. Those spirits, although they helped enrichment, remained painfully bloodthirsty, as in the shamanic Bayanay. People who had acquired shamanic spirits for the purpose of enrichment were called "nyaadylaah" or "tanghalaah". In short, those two terms were the names of these shamanic spirits. At the same time, the shamanic “nyaady” is synonymous with the concept of “nyaady” - “a woman relative from a marriage phratry”. The word "tangha" is destiny. These shamanistic spirits were explicitly called "tangha" for Their intervention in the affairs of fate and destiny "tangha". The custom of eavesdropping on the tangha is nothing but eavesdropping on the chatter of such unlawfully interfering in the affairs of the natural 'Tangha' (destiny), such as those shamanic spirits and others. It turns out that bureaucratic affairs of the fate of the "tangha" were disposed of by all and sundry. The term "tangha" itself is a monolingual relative of "tangra". The latter in superlatives with "-ra". And in the first, the excellent “-ra” was replaced by “ka” (ha) - “man”. This series also includes the custom of accusations of allegedly stealing milk yield from neighbors' cows. The reason for the rise to the surface of that custom was always an epidemic of some kind of lactational disease of dairy cows. That epidemic always arose at the very height of the summer big milk. Cows suffering from this illness became very thin, their hair dried up, their tail became brittle, their udders wrinkled, their horns, hooves, and nipples became covered with cracks. Their milk yield either dropped sharply or stopped altogether. In the latter case, a clear liquid flowed from the nipples. At the same time, only dairy cows suffered from this disease. As a result of this disease, the death of dairy calves began. The threat of starvation hung over the cattle breeders without dairy products. It was then that, out of hopelessness, the cattle breeders began to look for the sorceress who supposedly “stole” the milk yield of cows during the day with fire. Those searches were practically the Yakut variety of the world-famous African "witch hunt", reminiscent of the search for a "scapegoat". The search for "witches", i.e. sorceresses, allegedly conjuring milk production, began with the usual mass amateur performance, i.e. from inventions: allegedly who, when and where "saw with his own eyes" how this or that thief sorceress secretly approached other people's cows and made magical grasping or stroking movements on the udder and coccyx of dairy cows. The number of "eyewitnesses" here increased like inventions of who, where and when saw abaasy.

They also told about how that sorceress milks milk from one of her cows, equal to the milk yield of three or four ordinary cows. To those stories they added that that "stolen" witch's milk was teeming with moving tiny white worms and the milk dishes in her cellar were surrounded by lizards and frogs. Others, passing by, threw sorceresses of various reptile reptiles into the milk cellar for the materiality of "proof". In terms of the poisonousness and sharpness of the genre, such “were” had no equal. Here the Yakut storytellers had a gift of such fabulous power that N.V. Gogol would envy them. At a woman suspected of witchcraft, her milk dishes were secretly pierced with “anti-witchcraft” needles, her cattle, house, buildings were mutilated with awls, her children, husband, and relatives were persecuted. Some of those long-suffering old bastards still made it to my youth. According to them, the accusation of such witchcraft "theft of milk" was practically a collective murder, for many of those persecuted laid hands on themselves or went crazy. Such was the cruelty of the "culture" of superstition. However, as I was able to find out later, while studying shamanism, among other peoples of the former USSR, a similar accusation of allegedly stealing milk yield from neighbors' cows occurred with almost all pastoralists of the former USSR. Consequently, lactational milk loss disease in cows has been a common disease in dairy cattle. As for the very problem of this type of witchcraft, I had suspicions about a possible denial by the persecuted themselves about their past use of that type of witchcraft. In short, and I involuntarily temporarily took the side of the masses, who assured of the existence of the fact of this kind of sorcery. From here, not believing in my personal abilities, I everywhere set off in hot pursuit of that phenomenon experts from among the former shamans who had retired from shamanism due to uselessness. The latter, having already put all their shamanic armor into a coffin, willingly began to investigate the survivors persecuted for the sorcery "theft of milk." And their conclusion was the same everywhere. This type of sorcery had no place at all in the arsenals of magic and sorcery. Consequently, the accused were mere scapegoats for complacency from the epidemic of that lactational disease of dairy cows. It turns out that the cruelty of the situation itself created superstitious cruelty. Hence the question arises: “What kind of inexorable situations caused the cruelty of the “heroism” of the olonkho at one time? After all, according to olonkho, "bogatyrism" is the most severe avoidance of peaceful compromises and the solution of all conflicts by the only scuffle and stabbing. And whether such cruelty and uncompromisingness will be useful in the future and present life is up to the youth themselves to decide. In addition to the requirements of Soviet policy, it remains to puzzle over the vital reasons for the almost unanimous self-denial of the olonkho by the olonkhosuts themselves. The wise creators of the latter clearly saw something compelling to take such a desperate step. In addition, the indicated decision of the olonkhosuts turned out to be a repetition of the refusal of the epicists of the entire planet from their epics. And the olonkhosuts were completely illiterate to be suspected of imitating the universal fashion of the planet according to epics. As you can see, it's not that simple. Calm, thoughtful discussions would be needed here without using the method of the former persecution of "sorcerers - thieves for stealing milk."

Name usages

The personal name and the name of the ethnos (ethnonym) constitute the personal passport of the people and its constituents. The loss of an ethnonym, generic names and ethnic names of a person is the loss of a passport, i.e. the death of an ethnos, because names are annulled only by death. It is with the names in Yakutia that the situation is very bad. This culture of the region almost died forever. During the administrative leapfrog, the names of tribes and clans that have been going since the Deering times have been completely destroyed. They were replaced by the names of localities, as if fearing to get lost in their native land. So, the descendants of those tribes turned into nameless chocks. The illiterate officials of the voivodship understood and cherished those monuments of ancient culture more than the later highly educated ones. It turns out that education does not help in understanding cultural values.

The ethnonyms of ethnic groups are also treated at random. This is due to the fact that their composition changes from day to day. More rubber than all the composition of the small. As the next benefits appear, the small ones run from ethnic group to ethnic group and back. And the decrease in their numbers in a similar way, those who do not understand, refer to the physical death of the ethnic group. However, desertion in a foreign ethnos has been a regularity of the disappearance of ethnos since ancient times, in which shame for their own ethnos went to eliminate that ethnos. This process is always inexorable, because it depends on the loss of ethnic pride. The marked defections from ethnic group to ethnic group are also associated with the original artificiality of the creation of the ethnic groups of Yakutia. They were created in the form of administrative units for the convenience of collecting yasak and organizing self-government: more precisely, mutual responsibility. However, the creation of those ethnic groups ran into insurmountable obstacles. There were no ethnic groups in Yakutia by the arrival of the Russians. None of the Yakutians recognized anything other than their own kind. The latter did not have time to coalesce themselves into ethnic groups. This is understandable. After all, clans are formed into tribes and ethnic groups in the conditions of the need to organize collective self-defense from external and internal enemies. From external enemies, Yakutia was reliably protected by Santa Claus and gave. And there were no internal enemies in Yakutia because there was nothing to plunder. Each family lived dozens of kilometers from the nearest neighbor. She somehow subsisted from hunting and fishing on reindeer and kept a few cows and mares for her children's milk. This deer-breeding began to disintegrate into specialized branches under the tsar and collective farms. Part of it is preserved to this day. These are the Yakutians that the voivodship first tried to divide in Russian into volosts, putting them at the head of the “best” with the titles “prince” or “tiun”. Nobody recognized those units.

They did not even come to redeem the "amanats", that is, the hostages, because the birth was not administrative, but only to recognize whom to marry. There was no control or power in those clans. That is why olonkho until the XIX - XX centuries. could not come up with either a policeman or administrators with authority. Since there were no prisons, no police, no bosses, then there could be no question of either power or statehood. It was a primitive system unmanaged by anyone, where each person did not command anyone, did not obey anyone. All this is clearly depicted in the olonkho and in legends. They did not give exhaustive opportunities to create yasak-paying units and language oases. Their boundaries were indistinct, and multilingualism was widespread. In the yasak lists, very often the same person had several names in different languages. In the old legends and stories there is not a word about translators and language difficulties in communication. In addition, it was impossible to distinguish Dolganin from Yakut, Tungus from Lamut, Koryak from Chukchi by language. Finally, the voivodeship decided to create administrative ethnic groups (paying units) combined according to linguistic and occupational characteristics. So, all the northern "foot" wholesale were called Yukaghirs, reindeer herders - Lamuts and Tungus (on the Amur "Orochi", "Oroki", "Orochen", that is, deer), "horse" were called Yakuts - Yakoltsy. At the same time, tax benefits were provided only in the presence of "horse". That is why the olonkho went to stick out the possession of a horse. Because of those benefits, almost all the small ones went to join the ranks of the equestrian Yakuts and Buryats. So, without noticing it, the voivodeship laid the foundation for the desertion of the few from their ethnic group and language.

The creation of ethnic groups on unequal preferential terms immediately turned into an ethnic scandal that lasted a century and a half. Among the Yakuts, it was christened “the bloody age of the Kyrgyz” or “the age of hunting people for their names” (aatyn ylaary). According to the popular interpretation, the “Kyrgys Age” was hunting for everyone in order to “take away his name from him”. In other words, yasak collectors hunted for everyone in order to write his name as a yasak payer in the lists of one or another newly created ethnic group, without asking where he wants to go. But he could not ask, because everyone was eager to sneak into the preferential "Yakuts". Disgruntled people fled in droves. Historians called this phenomenon "mass migration of the Yakuts to the outskirts", but it should have been called "a general revolt against forced enrollment in ethnic groups." Those reindeer breeders who had fewer horses and cows became fugitives, and therefore did not fall into the lists of the "Yakuts". It was especially hard for the low-cattle Saga-speaking Dolgans, when the more prosperous of them easily got into the lists of "Yakuts". So it happened and the separation of the Dolgans from the Yakuts and the merger of part of them with the Yakuts. This phenomenon destroyed the appearance of a linguistic bridge, which passed from hand to hand the saga language from the Yenisei Khakass saga language to the inhabitants of Lena. How in practice the “Kyrgys bloody hunt” proceeded for each name of the “obscure” “descended” for inclusion in the lists of ethnic groups was preserved by the children’s “game of Kyrgyz”. When I was little, I played that game. The game started with catch-ups. Having caught up, they entered either into a fight or into a struggle. The victor sat astride the defeated, shouting: "Will you pay tribute?" (Daangnyn biere5in duo?) or “Do you give up your name?” (Aakkyn biere5in duo?). For the guys, this game could not do without blood from the nose. This was the game of "Kyrgyz blood". The children did not take that game from the ceiling. This was clearly the picture of the administrative “birth” of the ethnic groups of Yakutia by means of personal catching of each for inclusion in the lists of yasak-payers, i.e., in the newly created ethnic groups. Hence, those yasak lists are evidence of the birth of all the ethnic groups of Yakutia. The document is hard to find.

Actually, "ethnos", "people" and "nation" are political and administrative concepts for collective self-defense or for the collective imposition of one's will on others who are weaker. Such a “birth” of the Yakuts as a people was understood even by the illiterate Yakuts of the 19th century. And they unanimously begin their pedigree from Tygyn, a man of the 17th century. It turns out that scientific Yakut studies are inferior to those Yakuts of the 19th century in understanding the everyday truths of life. When creating ethnic groups through such administration, ethnonyms were assigned to them by no means out of desire. Dissatisfaction with this was expressed in the form of the emergence of self-names in droves, translated as "a real person." These are: Nenets - neney, gold - ulch, Oirot - tyva, etc. The ethnonym "yaka" (yuka) is an exact copy of the Yukagir "yuka", only without the "-gir". The Yakut “Odun khaantan” (“from the blood of Odun”) is again an exact copy of the Yukagir odul. Only plurals are formed from different sounds "-n" and "-l". The Yukagir “omok” among the Yakuts “omuk” is a marriage phratry. The American Indians also had the Omok tribe (see: the song "Pipe of Peace" in the epic "Song of Hiawatha"). The Yakut "hoi baha" - the worship of the skull - is again a copy of the Yukaghir worship of the skull "koil". "Tyy", "khayyhrar" of the Yakuts are similar to the Yukagir. The Yakut "ungk" and "ungkuu" are constructed in Yukagir. Are there too many parallels? Then "sakha" where? This is yaka, haka, sakha - the name of three saga-languages: Khakass saga-language, Dolgan saga-language and Yakut saga-language. And what reason do we have not to believe the statement of the Yakut language itself, that it comes from three saga-languages ​​"us sakha", born in the language of uren-urenkhai, urengoi? And why does he not declare that he is also from the Turkic, Khunkhuz-Khun, Mongolian and Kurykan languages? It turns out that we prejudicedly plug our ears when a living witness speaks against us. Nevertheless, we accidentally landed on the point when we called our republic "Sakha-Yakutia", because we distinguished ourselves from the Saga-Khakass and from the Saga-Dolgan. Now the revival of the face of the people in personal names is coming. After all, it was not in vain that the “Kyrgys Age” hunted for our names. For their destruction and replacement with church names, they were given the title of “new baptist”, freed from yasak for a short time, and even given some coppers. In order not to be considered “backward”, our ancestors sold their culture of names back in the 17th century not for pieces of silver, but for miserable copper coins. Today, to restore them, it is necessary to overcome the barbed wires of laws. Only writers and journalists have the right to an illegal false "Yakut" name. And those of their names still bear the names of false names - pseudonyms. Now they are changing passports, and it would be completely painless to replace official names with their Yakut ones. It just needs official permission.

language customs

Language customs and customs, according to the characteristics of the individual's personal differences, are at the boundaries of various branches of knowledge. The latter either nod at each other, or do not find themselves sufficiently knowledgeable to undertake to study such comprehensive things as the indicated customs. As a result, the latter remain not only unexplored, but even tolerably described. Hence, often even among academicians of the past, their ideas about them remain at the level of the ancient most downtrodden old women of pre-revolutionary times. You don't have to go far for examples here. After all, for more than three centuries, many Yakut scholars, like ancient grandmothers, had to assure their readers that the Turkic language could be delivered to Yakutia only by the creators of the Turkic language personally. In short, they were (and remain to this day) confident that languages ​​were delivered and are delivered to foreign-speaking regions only by the creators of the language personally, through their resettlement. Other ways of transmitting the language were not recognized and are not recognized. From such grandma's insanity ideas about the Yakuts, our Yakut studies for more than three centuries consider the indigenous population to have arrived in Yakutia from the south, and the Yakuts themselves are declared to be considered not an independent people, but only the dregs of the Turkic-Mongols - in the same way as it is not customary not to consider the Siberian people as an independent ethnic group Russians. The educated part of today's Yakuts is happy, happy with such a "theoretical" destruction of the Yakuts as a people and proudly gives out the bloody victories of foreign khaganates and khanates with "Yakut history" and "Yakut victory."

In the euphoria of such an issuance of someone else's history as one's own, the past of the Yakuts remained completely unexplored. There is a white spot there... In order not to argue pointlessly about the past, let's take a look at the customs of spreading languages ​​to foreign-speaking territories. In today's Yakutia, the study of foreign languages ​​is becoming fashionable. Many of the Yakuts are already fluent in foreign languages. Based on the experience of “studying” the past, from the indicated fact of the possession of foreign languages ​​by many Yakuts, Yakut studies should have already concluded that those foreign-speaking Yakuts descended from foreigners who moved to Yakutia and personally transferred to the Yakuts both their blood relationship and their languages. And, lo and behold, Yakut studies are silent about how those foreign languages ​​got to Yakutia, and does not talk about the origin of foreign-speaking Yakuts from Napoleon, Churchill and Barbarossa. The teachers of a foreign language in today's Yakutia are mainly the Yakuts themselves, who learned those languages ​​not in the foreign states themselves, but in the cities of Russia. Hence, it turned out that the desired foreign language can be obtained not necessarily from the hands of the creators of the language themselves, but by relay race, through links of transmission. Then in Yakutia of the past, where there were no planes, no trains, no highways, foreign distant languages ​​could hardly make their way in any other way than through multi-link relay transmissions. It is only the illiteracy of those who passed the baton that can explain such a state of the Turkic language of the Yakuts that this language is not able to understand any of the Turkic speakers, either past or present. For a greater depth of knowledge of languages ​​and to broaden their horizons, the wealthy part of today's Yakutians got into the habit of traveling to Western foreign countries. Upon arrival from there, they become the most fashionable people of the region and a visual live campaign to follow in the transition to the languages ​​they have studied. If this today's custom is transferred to the past of Yakutia, then it was not strangers who should have moved to Yakutia to deliver southern languages, but on the contrary, the Yakutians themselves, envious of the south, should have often gone south for languages ​​and knowledge, because bread itself does not go by mouth. It was the Yakut people who had gone there to imitate their “advanced” people out of envy, and not strangers, uninvited random strangers from outside. Those who do not want to admit this fact should be reminded that the Yakut people did not want to replace their native languages ​​with Russian until the second half of the 20th century, despite the abundance of Russians in Yakutia from the 20th to the 20th centuries. On the other hand, it was much easier for Yakutians to go south than for a southerner to Yakutia. The fact is that a pure southern cattle breeder could not break into Yakutia due to the lack of feed for livestock for thousands of miles. And the reindeer breeder from Yakutia would easily have overcome that path on reindeer, eating hunting and fishing, and being a guest of foresters like himself. Cabinet Yakut studies have never paid attention to the purely practical aspects of the spread of the language and folklore and the origin of the Yakuts. It delved only into dubious half-similarity of words and sounds and procrastinated forefinger over the map of Asia. I did not pay attention to the practice of life because of the prejudiced disdain for the Yakuts, not considering them an active and amateur people, capable of going far for progress themselves.

Yakut studies have always proceeded from the opinion that the Yakuts of the past did not have a thinking head, and could only skillfully and clumsily borrow ready-made solutions from strangers who were smart. In short, the resettlement theory openly considered the Yakuts to be savages. With a different approach, they would not have been exhibited as evidence of resettlement from the south, stuffed with tales of fools, fakes of Er Sogotokh Ellyai's descent from heaven - as a descent downstream from the upper Lena. With today's customs, the main reasons for replacing the native language with a foreign one are either a numerical minority in the prevailing foreign-speaking environment, or the loss of feeding qualities by the native language. A numerical minority of little-speaking people in the Yakut-speaking environment was created during the settlement and enlargement of settlements. From that point on, the languages ​​of the few and the number of the few themselves began to disappear through the replacement of ethnicity. That phenomenon today is often declared the extinction of the few. But in fact, this is not extinction, but desertion from the ranks of one's ethnic group and the transition of deserters to the ranks of other ethnic groups. And this happens for several reasons. The main one is shame for one's ethnic group and envy of others. This is the eternal reason that destroyed all the deceased ethnic groups and peoples of the planet. Shame for one's ethnic group and envy of others is a terribly sticky psychological epidemic. As the symptoms of this epidemic appear, a rare ethnic group recovers and the patient becomes almost doomed. One measure of the restoration of the language, such patients cannot be saved. Shame for one's ethnic group and envy of others corrode such an ethnic group, like metal rust. Until the Soviet era, while the Yakuts were proud of their victories over the small, the strong Yakut ethnic group was one of the healthiest in its region. But after the spread of confusion about the supposedly southern origin of the people through education, the first rust of envy of the southerners and a sense of shame for their birth in the North and for belonging to a too peaceful ethnic group appeared in the soul of the Yakut ethnos, which did not stain its biography with the shed sea of ​​foreign blood. And shame for the excessive peacefulness of their dearing ancestors forced them to declare their ethnic group descended from anyone who distinguished himself by shedding more blood. The amount of foreign blood shed has become a standard: only among those educated Yakuts went to look for their alleged ancestors of antiquity. At the same time, they forget their chronic small numbers since ancient times; and a similar number in the large-scale bloodshed of antiquity never led to survival. And some ancestors of the Yakuts could not be the only exception in these ancient meat grinders. Because of that rye, envy of strangers went from the second half of the 20th century. mass loss of Yakut language by youth. The threat of an imminent loss of the Yakut language hung over the ethnic group. It was then that the commotion of the struggle for the revival of the native language and the struggle for culture began. At the same time, preaching national revival with one mouth, they continue to raise shame for their ethnic group on the shield: “it’s a shame to be a Yakut - we are the Hunno-Hunhuz and Turks - the descendants of the ancient destroyers of peoples!”. And with such shame for their ethnos, they dream of saving their ethnos from disintegration ... Meanwhile, the custom of the Yakut language breaking up into unglued fragments of professional "languages" and replacing the native language with foreign ones has already passed into an inexorably unstoppable pattern. The Yakut language in the future expects the same fate that befell the languages ​​of the few. The loss of the native language began with cities, regional centers and industrial settlements. The process is now moving to enlarged and small villages in the hinterlands. As soon as the railroad brings up an additional contingent of foreign-speaking people, the process will gallop. Hence, the initial spread of Saga-linguism (instead of Tungus-speaking) clearly followed the current pattern from epicenters to peripheries.

The remnants of the same process, with the preservation of even accents, are preserved to this day. However, there is no one to study their patterns and details: everything is blamed on the dialects of the “single, indivisible” Yakut language, up to the assignment to the dialect of the Yakut language of the Dolgan saga language - the ancestor of the Yakut saga language. The attribution of the Dolgan saga language to Yakut deceived all Yakut studies, destroying the bridge that relayed elements of the Khakass saga language to Yakutia. If the Kurykan language had delivered, then the Yakut language would have called itself not “Saga-language”, but “Kurykan-language” or “Turk-language”. However, the Yakut customs are accustomed to listening only to what they want and plug their ears when the Yakut language itself says that it is only a “saga language”, and not a Turkic or Kurykan, Mongol, Xiongnu language. In short, bias was born before the educated Yakuts themselves. There is practically no one to study the reasons for the self-preparation of the Yakut language for going into oblivion. The measures taken today to save the language, in my opinion, on the contrary, will accelerate the death of the language. First of all, inventing new, taken from the ceiling, terms for the most common concepts with additional complexities will further alienate those who want to use it from the language. Replenishment of the dictionary with long-forgotten archaic, serving concepts and activities long gone from life, will fall on the brains with unnecessary weighting ballast. The enrichment of the dictionary in this way, of course, will serve as a source of pride when the Yakut language then takes its place among the dead languages. Today, the abandoned Yakut language no longer needs its complication of mothballs, but simplification and making it concise business. A similar process is going on everywhere on the planet today. There it came to the point that the literary classics were replaced by short comics and the laconic business language of journalism becomes dominant. Spontaneously, the language of journalism has long become predominant in our country. Only his efficiency has lately upset the fashion of the novel "Tygyn Darkhan" and the language of shamanism. Both of these fashions introduced archaic and ornate eloquence and verbosity. The very course of life went to demand savings not only in rubles, but also in words. The real reasons for the gradual departure from the life of the Yakut language and languages ​​of small numbers are still not a lack of patriotism. These languages ​​are gradually losing their feeding qualities due to attachments to types of occupations that are losing their profitability. For example, all the languages ​​of the small ones have served since ancient times hunting, fishing and reindeer herding. With violations of the current human intensity and ecology, those types of occupations almost cease to feed their adherents. Together with them, the languages ​​that serve them begin to agonize. Here, patriotism alone cannot revive those languages. The most resourceful of the few and the Yakuts have long moved to cities and industrial towns with other languages ​​and types of occupations. And such an act of them cannot be condemned: after all, they cannot die along with the dying out types of occupations and the languages ​​\u200b\u200bserving them. Another thing is when, if desired, they could try to preserve their ancient languages ​​​​as a means of communication with their fellow tribesmen in a new place of residence and new occupations. However, even here they are hindered by the lack of compact accommodation. The Yakut language has exactly the same fate. After unlocking the veteran Deering - deer herding, gaining independence as a branch of cattle breeding and reindeer husbandry, those types of farming gradually began to dig their future grave. In other words, they went to violate human capacity and destroy the self-protective integrity of nature.

From such sacrilege, their former main source of life, hunting and fishing, began to disappear. All types of animal husbandry used to be only ancillary industries to the main ones - hunting and fishing. So, the Yakuts even before R.K. Maaka, that is, until the middle of the 19th century, remained tree-eaters and fish-eaters. Today, at the end, deprived of a forage base, the Yakut cattle breeding gradually ceases to feed the Yakuts. Along with the extinction of cattle breeding, naturally, the Yakut language tied to it is also on the decline. The latter will be given a fresh breath if they manage to attach the Yakut language to the new non-pastoral nursing occupations. And if they fail, the language cannot be saved by patriotism alone. In the ancient East, they cut off the head of a messenger who brought bad news. Like that wild custom, the author of these lines has to be afraid that emotional fellow tribesmen would attack him for the truth reported here about the fate of the Yakut language and minority languages. However, someone needs to be told the undisguised truth that other heads should also be included in the search for a way out of that impending inexorable pattern. And silence will not help matters here. Today's custom of replacing the native language has clearly clarified a number of other issues that had to be puzzled over when recreating pictures of the origin of the Yakuts. It turned out that the language is by no means the property of some ethnic group and people. Assigning it to a specific ethnos can often turn out to be a simple privatization by not the original creator of the language. Language is not a servant of an ethnos, but a slave of the type of occupation served by it. For example, the pastoral language is absolutely indifferent to who, by ethnicity, will use it. With equal zeal, he will serve anyone by origin who undertook to feed on the cattle breeding of the type he serves. So, the Turkic language served the same way from Baikal to Istanbul in all ages, who were engaged in its cattle breeding. Among those were the Kok Turks, Tavgachs, Urankhai-Airats (arats), Sogds, Kushans, Baktras, Parthians, Oguzes, Seljuks, Ottomans, Tatars, Tatabs, etc. Who was the original author of that language was hidden for centuries. It is possible that they took it away and privatized it, along with cattle breeding, from some destroyed tribe. It turns out that the type of occupation, which turned out to be enviable to others, along with the serving language, like a thing, wandered from hand to hand. With such a transfer, like a trophy coin, many of the temporary privatizers were physically exterminated, leaving only a type of occupation with his servant language. Only those languages ​​that served an unattractive type of occupation did not budge. For example, the tongues that served the circumpolar hunting business of Arctic marine animals will not be picked up where those marine animals do not exist. The Turkic language of the Khakass sagas from the Yenisei through Dolgan went to Lena because of reindeer herding. And then he did not go entirely, but only for that part that turned out to be suitable only for the cattle-breeding part of the Dolgan-Yakut reindeer cattle breeding. This explained the incomplete copying of the Khakass saga language by the Dolgan and Yakut saga languages. And if the Dolgan and Yakut saga languages ​​turned out to be different, then the types of their reindeer herding were different.

In Yakut Turkology, they searched in vain and are still looking for kinship in nominal stems, because the winning language from the defeated language threw out everything that looked like its lexical fund. From the conquered language, he took for himself only dissimilarities. Hence, nominal stems are not the main indicators of the marriage of languages. Language fusion indicators are suffixes, affixes, prefixes, inflections. Their set can describe how many and whose hands the language has been. As today's customs have shown, the main figure in replacing the linguistic appearance of the region is not an outsider with his imported language, but the aborigine himself, in imitation of someone else, replacing his native language with someone else's. Here, the only exception is the development of deserted corners by one newcomer population. And in replacing the native language with a foreign one, only children become actors, whom their parents translate from the cradle into a foreign language. In the transition of children to a foreign language, which changes the linguistic appearance of the region, the main stakeholders are not foreign aliens, but the child's parents themselves. And they change the language of the child in order to provide their child with a promising nursing language. Here the ingenuity of parents is inexhaustible. They get the necessary language in any way. The well-established customs of changing languages ​​and ethnicities are, in fact, the main cuisine and the "birth" and disintegration of an ethnos and a people. In other words, contrary to the opinions of ancient grandmothers and some scientists, not a single ethnic group and people was born in a ready-made form with a single jerk of the mother in the birthing room and did not die, uttering the last breath in the hospital. Folk-forming processes in the guise of different customs proceeded in the inconspicuous dullness of everyday life every day from the initial pecking out of weak signs of the emergence of linguistic jargon to the complete attenuation of the signs of a disappearing ethnic group and people, that is, an ethnic group and a people are “born” and “die” at the same time. And, not understanding this dual unity of the process, grandmothers and scientists are looking for the most accurate to the minute “date of birth” of this or that ethnic group and people. Such blunders are justified only in those cases when peoples and ethnic groups "give birth" to decrees and orders, decisions and resolutions of administrative institutions, such as "to form a people called" Khakas "and name lists of the Yakuts in the 17th century, dividing the Yakuts into tax-paying administrative units" Yakol”, “Tungus”, “Lamut”, “Chukcha”, “Dolgan”, “Yukagir”, etc. The pre-Russian mutual influences of linguistic oases on each other, which proceeded without political division into ethnic groups, practically continue today in the face of the customs of replacing native languages ​​and ethnic groups. Working on the revival of customs, in fact, it was necessary to hand over the revival of these two ultra-basic customs into reliable hands. And today by customs we mean more the customs of superstition and the little things of everyday theatricalization. We search for them during the day with fire, invent supposedly ancient ones from ourselves, and try to force them into the brains of schoolchildren, regardless of whether they will be useful in their practical life in the 21st century. At the same time, we consider the main thing to be an excessive emphasis on national peculiarities. In short, sticking out those theatrical customs, we represent the 21st century, nothing less than the stage of a variety theater. And what if that 21st century turns out to be not a pop stage and the protrusion of national characteristics will be taken by the numerical majority as a demonstrative challenge to others ... The customs of replacing languages ​​​​and ethnic groups in Yakutia since the 17th century. continue to this day. They continue as a single continuous process. The task of the ethnographer, folklorist, linguist and historian is to carefully observe all the features and details of this huge vital laboratory. Since the 17th century to this day in that process remain unchanged: children are the physical fixers of substitutions for foreign native languages ​​and ethnicity; their promising languages ​​are chosen by their parents themselves; it is not strangers-migrants who teach a foreign language to a child, but their bilingual parents or their fellow tribesmen who have mastered a foreign language; the transition to foreign languages ​​and ethnos acquires a mass character only when the teaching of a foreign language becomes mass, the teaching of that language is carried out en masse by their fellow tribesmen, and when a massive number of fellow tribesmen begin to feed on the fruits of the type of occupation that is served by that prestigious language.

Thus, the mass Russification of the Yakuts with the loss of their Yakut language began only in the second half of the 20th century, when a huge army of Russian language teachers appeared from the Yakuts themselves and when a large mass of Yakuts went to feed on “white labor” (urung ule), served by the Russian language, and when there were almost no people who did not understand Russian speech among the Yakuts. When transferring this today's picture of Russification of the Yakuts to the ancient replacements of languages ​​in Yakutia, we get the following alignment. In large and medium toponyms, as well as in one-two-syllable ancient ethnonyms of the entire North of Eurasia and America, only varieties of languages ​​of the Ugro-Samody system dominate circumpolarly. Consequently, the original inhabitants of the ancient northern hemisphere were only Diringians, who spoke the Ugrian-Samody language system. In the future, various branches of that system of paleo-languages ​​began to form myriads of independent local languages ​​through interbreeding. In Yakutia, due to the unique features of the pole of cold citadel, those ancient languages ​​and ethnonyms remained until the 17th century. preserved as in a museum of rarities. Before the Tungus language, this region was probably dominated by the languages ​​of the Oduls (Oduns), Alai and Hanga-Yi (Ngana-Yi or Maya-Mayaatov-Nganasan). The Odul-Odun languages ​​belong to the Ugric group. Alai - apparently, to Khanty-speaking, and Khanga (Khangal) to self-speaking. These are the conditions under which the legend about the famous "Yukaghir fires" or bonfires probably arose. That ancient Ugrian-self-speaking was for the first time rammed from the Pacific Ocean to the Ob, which appeared out of nowhere, Tungus-speaking. The epicenter of the origin of this mass language was clearly not located on the outskirts of the region. Otherwise, its spread to the entire region would have left legends, such as military campaigns and mass migrations of the Turkic-speaking people to the West. The Tungus language, apparently, originated somewhere in the center of the region and began to spread in all directions, like circles of waves on the water from a fallen object. Only such a spread could be silent and non-sensational. In any case, after the Ugro-Samody of antiquity, the Tungus language was the pre-Turkic complete master of the linguistic background of Yakutia. Toponymy also confirms this. The economic basis of the Tungus language was, apparently, reindeer herding. About how in life itself the replacement of the former universal Tungus-speaking of Yakutia with the saga language took place, followed by the replacement of the ethnicity of the Yakuts, was silent and silent all those who were looking for and looking for the origin of the Yakuts. They are silent because the reconstruction of the life picture of those replacements will make pointless the hunt for the likeness of the word "Sakha" in order to give out the history of the emergence of this single people in the history of the birth in the centuries. Meanwhile, all of them publicly admit that the Yakut saga language is a hybrid language that arose only in Yakutia itself. From such a recognition, it would seem that the recognition of the emergence of the Sakha people themselves in Yakutia itself should have followed as a result of the replacement of the former native Tungus language with a hybrid Saga language. The birth of a people has never yet outstripped the transition to a new "native" language. With the exception of administrative-prikzny replacements of ethnicity without taking into account the language, as in Khakassia, and in Yakutia in the 17th century. the appearance of an oasis of saga-pagans was not an indicator of the “birth” of ethnic groups. In addition, the term "saga" is only the name of a language, later transferred to the newly formed ethnic groups as their ethnonym.

The word "saga", most likely, once meant "language", because the first book for reading for Yakut children was named instead of "sakha rear" - "sakha sangata". From the same word "saga" came the names of the epics "The Saga of the Forsytes", "The Saga of the Nivelungs", the Vietnamese newspaper "Nyan-zan", as well as among the Nganasan Mayaats "sang" - "language". In the case of ethnonymic origin, the word "saga" still does not begin with the sound "s", because in the regions of the Yenisei and Lena there was no Iranian-language ethnonym "sak". The Tungus speakers of the Yenisei and Lena pronounced the ethnonym "saga" as "dyoko" and "nyoko". Consequently, they meant "yaka" from: the groups "yu," yuren "," yurenhai "," yurengoy ". It has already been noted above that each; the language in ancient times was not a servant of an ethnic group, but of a type of occupation, and served equally everyone, regardless of ethnicity, who undertook to feed on the type of occupation served by it. Since the types of occupations of the same name are professionalized within themselves according to their specifics, then the languages ​​of the same name, which served those specialized parts of the types of occupations of the same name, should have been divided, according to their professions, into their internal different types. So, for example, an accountant is an accountant. Accordingly, according to their specialization, accountants are divided into transport accountants, trade accountants, construction accountants, etc. It is precisely this specialization, in alliance with territorial isolation, that apparently created hacking and shecking dialects and many dialects of the Evenki language. At the same time, the general Tungus language, obviously not without specialization and attachment to specific natural and climatic zones, split into its Even, Evenk and Manchurian branches. Hence, the southern Manchurian branch could not take root in the Arctic with its mountain subpolar reindeer breeding, and the Amur subtropical branch of the Evenki language could not adapt to the conditions of the Olenyok northern reindeer breeding. The homeland of the Huns was clearly arid steppes and semi-desert regions close to the Gobi desert. They say that the favorite routes of their predatory campaigns. They stormed the waterless Khingan, threatened China through the sands and forced them to build a great wall. In their right mind, such robbers could not poke their noses in the direction of the pole of cold. In terms of professionalization, cattle breeding and the language of the ancient Turks were similar to the Huns. The language and economy of the Aigurs (Uighurs) were the same. Only their ethnonym is close to the Yenisei Samoyeds. However, their military-provisional purpose, cattle breeding, unable to survive without robberies, would hardly of its own free will turn its face to the North towards piecemeal small pastures, forests and cold weather. To deduce the ancestors of the Yakuts from those three minions of the steppe robberies was complete absurdity, both in economic and linguistic terms. It was unacceptable even to send refugees and deserters from among them towards Yakutia, because the wolf, even in his deathbed, reaches out to the sheepfolds, and not to the side where there is nothing to profit from. Because of such comprehensive illogicalities, supporters of southern origin, as if from fire, were afraid to economically recreate the life picture of the “migrations” of the ancestors of the Yakuts from the south.

Linguistic customs in their age are the same age as the age of mankind itself. As already noted above, their lack of knowledge created rumors in almost all areas of humanitarian knowledge. That is why it was necessary to allocate a little more space to this custom than to other customs. I believe my readers will understand that in these brief notes more than half a century of the author's observations in all areas of life are collected in a compressed lump. Those remarks of the author are only abstracts for future major monographic studies of the followers of his views on this issue. In this abstract-short monograph, the author was forced to highlight only a few customs. Today's economy forced him to such laconism. However, it would be a sin for the author to complain about such a feature of life. The need for economy in humanities research has matured in the last century. The value of labor then began to be measured not by the value of thought, but by the thickness of the page and the number of units published. The continuation of such customs of the humanities, together with a sea of ​​newsprint, went to threaten in the near future the complete destruction of the rest of the planet's forest area - the lungs of the globe. Hence, we must welcome the forced limitation of life itself, excessive verbosity with unnecessary waste of money and paper.

The custom of disgust "pyy, plow!"

Genuine disgust is found in extreme situations. In my long wanderings in search of the "ancestral home" of my ancestors, I did not leave a white spot for myself from the entire territory of the former USSR. At the same time, he did not find an equal in disgust to the Yakuts. The latter, due to disgust, had little left to feed small children and pregnant women, who were fed only fresh and confidently safe food. As soon as a woman became pregnant, they began to feed her with freshly killed game and still live fish, boiling them without delay. The fish that managed to “fall asleep” was considered unsuitable for it. The meat of even a recent slaughter was considered not to be served to babies and a woman in labor. It was forbidden to serve them even today's warmed food. Everything was served fresh and fresh. They tried not to serve cattle meat to these protected ones, believing that cattle suffer from human diseases. Of those judgments, raw milk and products, none of the Yakuts even took it into their mouths: “Pyy, raw!” and rudely turned away. Hence the swearing: “belenehkho meskeybut” (grown up on raw curdled milk), that is, unclean.” Suorat sour milk was made from boiled milk. Raw water was also not consumed. Even when chilled, they unmistakably recognized where boiled and unboiled: water. A very limited amount of living creatures fell into the number of edible in appearance, smell and feed. Academician Johann Georg Gmelin obviously did not like the Yakuts of the past for some reason. To his inquiries about edibles, they listed only inedibles: canine, feline, reptiles, down to the last of women and cattle. Presumably, it was the same in reverse order: the shamans also provided information in response to annoying questions about their professional secrets. In 40 - 50 years. 20th century (and to my personal questions about the affairs of shamans) they directly demanded: “Show first what you know and can do, and I will say accordingly.” Others jokingly advised asking their more talkative clients about it.

This is almost all the scientific and questioning information of all published and unpublished shamanism, Stroganina was then made from the largest and fattest river fish for the reason that those reservoirs did not directly pollute the water with their waste. The estates of the latter were never located on the blown banks of large rivers. Cattle meat has always been eaten only in carefully boiled and fried forms. Horse meat and foal meat were treated differently, since the entire population of horses was kept on distant, inviolable wild pastures. Hence their meat was considered safe from human contamination. This type of meat was boiled and fried almost only for the sake of pasteurization (“suulungui” - undercooking, preserving juices). Horsemeat and colt, because of their natural purity, were also used for planing. Thawed stroganina from fish and foal was disdainful to eat. Until recently, among the Yakuts themselves, there were disputes over the assessment of the qualities of natural purity of various types of pickled fish. There was even swearing “symahyt”. The outlying regions were the late preservers of the "sym". And according to archaeological excavations, it was the Central Yakut Diringovites who started the “Syma” culture, and the Kuullaty ureh finds put an end to the “Symahyt” curse. It turned out that the Yakutians mastered the technology of fermentation of fish and meat extremely successfully: poisoning from fermentation similar to poisoning from canned food has never happened. The masterful use of fermentation technology can also be evidenced by the manufacture of several types of poisons for arrows by the Yakut people of the past. The latter acted almost like a kurapé.

Miscellaneous customs

1. People of any shamanic profession were not allowed to any festivities and celebrations. Their appearance at holidays and celebrations was among the bad omens.

2. The knife was not among the gifts. If they were given, then after tapping the tip on metal or stone. A knife with a blunt edge was presented as a gift to the one who gave the dog.

3. In any case, it was customary to serve the knife to anyone only with the side of the handle, holding the edge yourself. In cases of a challenge to single combat (duel), instead of throwing a glove on the floor in Europe, they extended the knife to the enemy with the tip forward.

4. It was forbidden to stir coals and fuel in a fire, hearth and stove with a knife, palm tree, lance, pitchfork and anything sharp.

6. It was considered insulting to treat guests with a shoulder blade and a part of the neck, called holduk.

7. Steamed horses, wrestlers, runners were “tied out” until they cooled down, without giving a drop of drink. The serge hitching post was invented so that a sweaty horse would not grab until the snow cooled. If the rules of “tying out” were violated, the hard-to-treat catarrhal disease “urut” (opoy) appeared in the steamed ones. In this disease, in the first place, chronic diarrhea with inflammation of the pegs occurred in horses. Spoiled horses with this disease were in a hurry to cut them for meat.

8. It was considered punishable Seleen 'om destruction and digging of graves.

According to the customs of the Yakut people, I have a lot of accumulated over a long practice. If there are specific concise orders supported by specific sponsors, I can continue publishing.

In the difficult conditions of permafrost, the Yakuts founded statehood, brought out frost-resistant breeds of cows and horses adapted to the northern nature, and created a unique artistic and philosophical epic olonkho. Developing comprehensively, the people strengthened their positions and became even stronger with the advent of the new time.

Distribution area

We must not forget that the peoples of Yakutia descended from nomads, but according to legend, they once found a valley, ideal for living, called Tuymaada. Today, in the center of it is the capital of the republic - Yakutsk. A large number of Yakuts is observed in the Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk regions of the Russian Federation, but of course, the largest number can be found in their place of long-standing habitat - now the Republic of Sakha.

The words "Yakuts" and "Sakha" according to one of the versions go back to one common, earlier concept, which became widespread as a self-name. On the other hand, it is assumed that other ethnic groups called the people first, and Sakha - they themselves.

Having established the center in the place of their current residence, throughout history, the Yakuts continued to increase their habitat. Moving to the east of Siberia, they mastered and improved reindeer husbandry, developed their own harness techniques. As a result, they managed to take root in those parts.

History and origins

The nationality was formed in the 14-15th century. It is generally accepted that the Kurykans from Transbaikalia moved to the middle part of the Lena River, displacing the Tungus and other "local" nomads. Although in part the groups united, created interrelations of a business nature, although against this background conflicts did not cease to flare up.

Of course, there were many toins (leaders) who became famous for their unifying moods. Trying to suppress internal rebellions, as well as to pacify external enemies (competitors for pastures and lands), there were attempts to resolve the issue in an aggressive way - Badzhey's grandson Toyon Tygyn. However, violent methods only alienated other nationalities from the Yakuts, intensifying the confrontation.

The turning point in history was the accession of the territory to the Russian state, which took place in 1620-30. With development and progress, Orthodoxy also knocked on every door of the booth (housing). Encouraging methods for those who were baptized, and punitive methods for adherents of the faith of the fathers, achieved their goal - most of the Yakuts adopted a new religion.

Culture and life of the people of Yakutia

The Yakuts have learned to survive in difficult conditions, and the traditions and customs of the people are dictated by the factors that contributed to this. Dwellings located at a far distance did not affect the social activity of the representatives of the people.

At the end of his life, the elder had something to tell the younger generation - friendships were made at common holidays and during rituals, and enemies appeared when territories were divided. The people were not peaceful. The long-standing habit of hunting, fighting for life and the ability to handle weapons (bows) created the conditions for conflicts between other ethnic groups of the location.

The family has been honored from time immemorial, the older generation has been and remains in high esteem. They are not treated with condescension, as happens in the modern world, on the contrary, they are respected for their great life experience, they listen to their instructions, and even more so they consider it an honor to receive them at home.

Yakut dwelling

A people's yurt - a booth - served as a home here. It was built in the form of a trapezoid of young logs, and the gaps between them were densely packed with manure, shavings and sod. The shape of the walls expanding towards the ground made it possible to economically and quickly heat the room with a hut stove, which was located in the center. There were no windows or there were small openings that were easy to close.

In the summer, birch bark was used for construction, creating urasa - seasonal housing. She stood near the booth. All things were not even transferred into it, because winter returned very soon. A yurt was a cone-shaped tent with a door rounded at the top. Sleeping places were located along the perimeter, sometimes separated by symbolic partitions. There was no stove here - the fire was kindled on the ground, so much so that the smoke went straight through the hole in the top.

Cloth

Initially, the purpose of clothing was to protect the body from the cold, so it was sewn from the skins of dead animals. Having mastered cattle breeding, the skins of domestic animals came to replace them. Metal belts and pendants served as an aesthetic component against the background of a large fur item. Also, the craftswomen tried to combine the colors and thickness of the fur so that an eye-catching trim appeared on the shoulders or sleeves. Later they began to use fabrics and embroidery. In summer, the colors were full of variety, reflecting the riot of nature.

The classic set was:

• fur hat sewn up or with a fabric insert;
• a fur coat girded with a metal belt;
• leather pants;
• knitted wool socks.

Shoes and mittens were also made of fur, not forgetting that hands and feet get frostbitten first.

Yakut cuisine

In view of the conditions of survival, food of animal origin was used completely - from fish, poultry (from hunting), cows, horses or deer, there was no trace left after cooking. Everything was in motion:

• meat;
• offal;
• heads;
• blood.

Soups were cooked from naive products, they were stewed, ground into liver. Dairy products occupied a special place in the diet. They depended on the presence in the house of drinking - ayran, sourat, dessert - chokhoon, as well as cheese and butter.

One of the most unusual ways of cooking is freezing. You can’t do without it in Siberia, so the Yakuts can boast of such a dish as stroganina (formerly “struganina”). Fish (chir, nelma, muskun, omul and others) or deer meat were frozen in the natural environment and served on the table in the form of the thinnest layers or shavings. The “makanina” was also thought out, which gave a taste to the raw product. It consisted of a mixture of salt and ground pepper 50/50.

Who worshiped the Yakuts since ancient times

Despite the adoption of Christianity, the culture of Yakutia is still closely connected with the canons of faith that their ancestors laid down in them. According to the legends of the people, every element of nature and the surrounding world has a master spirit that aroused fear and reverence. As a sacrifice, horse hair from the mane, cloth clappers, buttons and coins were left on them. There were ruling patrons:

• roads - he will show the way and help you not to go astray;
• reservoirs - because of it, one cannot throw a knife or sharp bows into the rivers, and a small birch bark boat with a symbol of a person inside is considered an offering;
• earth - the spirit of the feminine, which is responsible for the fertility of all living things;
• wind - protected the earth from enmity;
• thunder and lightning - if the element fell into a tree, its remains were considered healing;
• fire - keeps the peace in the family, so the hearth was transferred from place to place in a clay pot, so that it would never be extinguished;
• forests are an assistant in hunting and fishing.

crafts

After uniting with a big and strong Russia, the life of the people has changed. Cattle breeding continued to flourish, with the emergence of frost-resistant breeds of cows and horses, which to this day remain unique in their kind. However, agriculture also developed, despite the fact that in the conditions of a sharply continental climate, the street thermometer remains at around 40-50º for a long time, and winter lasts 9 months a year.

Hunting and fishing, which were once the last hope for food, faded into the background. The development of the economy helped to maintain the population, as harsh winters often ended fatally. In the icy cold many kilometers from the settlement, fighting with frost and wild animals, not every hunter returned home. A young family that did not have anyone to count on could be left without food, and, for lack of supplies (there was simply nothing to send to the bins), simply died of hunger.

The people entrusted the movement on the snow cover to a self-bred Laika breed, and the protection of the house - less agile and large in size, but with the same warm "fur coat" to the Yakut dog.

Yakuts (self-name Sakha; pl. h. Sakhalar) is a Turkic-speaking people, the indigenous population of Yakutia. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. According to the results of the 2010 All-Russian Population Census, 478.1 thousand Yakuts lived in Russia, mainly in Yakutia (466.5 thousand), as well as in the Irkutsk, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk territories. The Yakuts are the most numerous (49.9% of the population) people in Yakutia and the largest of the indigenous peoples of Siberia within the borders of the Russian Federation.

Distribution area

The distribution of the Yakuts across the territory of the republic is extremely uneven. About nine of them are concentrated in the central regions - in the former Yakut and Vilyui districts. These are the two main groups of the Yakut people: the first of them is somewhat larger in number than the second. "Yakut" (or Amga-Lena) Yakuts occupy the quadrangle between the Lena, the lower Aldan and the Amga, the taiga plateau, as well as the adjacent left bank of the Lena. "Vilyui" Yakuts occupy the Vilyui basin. In these indigenous Yakut regions, the most typical, purely Yakut way of life has developed; here, at the same time, especially on the Amga-Lena plateau, it is best studied. The third, much smaller group of Yakuts settled in the region of Olekminsk. The Yakuts of this group became more Russified, in their way of life (but not in language) they became closer to the Russians. And, finally, the last, smallest, but widely settled group of Yakuts is the population of the northern regions of Yakutia, i.e., the basins of the river. Kolyma, Indigirka, Yana, Olenek, Anabar.

The northern Yakuts are distinguished by a completely unique cultural and everyday way of life: in relation to it, they are more like hunting and fishing small peoples of the North, like the Tungus, Yukagirs, than like their southern tribesmen. These northern Yakuts are sometimes even called "Tungus" (for example, in the upper reaches of the Olenek and Anabar), although they are Yakuts in their language and call themselves Sakha.

History and origins

According to a widespread hypothesis, the ancestors of modern Yakuts are the nomadic tribe of Kurykans, who lived until the 14th century in Transbaikalia. In turn, the Kurykans came to the region of Lake Baikal because of the Yenisei River.

Most scientists believe that in the XII-XIV centuries AD. e. The Yakuts migrated in several waves from the region of Lake Baikal to the Lena, Aldan and Vilyui basins, where they partly assimilated and partly displaced the Evenks (Tungus) and Yukaghirs (Oduls) who lived here earlier. The Yakuts were traditionally engaged in cattle breeding (Yakut cow), having gained a unique experience in breeding cattle in a sharply continental climate in the northern latitudes, horse breeding (Yakut horse), fishing, hunting, developed trade, blacksmithing and military affairs.

According to Yakut legends, the ancestors of the Yakuts floated down the Lena on rafts with livestock, household goods and people until they found the Tuymaada valley - suitable for cattle breeding. Now this place is modern Yakutsk. According to the same legends, the ancestors of the Yakuts were headed by two leaders Elley Bootur and Omogoi Baai.

According to archaeological and ethnographic data, the Yakuts were formed as a result of the absorption of local tribes of the middle reaches of the Lena by the southern Turkic-speaking settlers. It is believed that the last wave of the southern ancestors of the Yakuts penetrated the Middle Lena in the XIV-XV centuries. Racially, the Yakuts belong to the Central Asian anthropological type of the North Asian race. In comparison with other Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia, they are characterized by the strongest manifestation of the Mongoloid complex, the final formation of which took place in the middle of the second millennium AD already on the Lena.

It is assumed that some groups of Yakuts, for example, reindeer herders of the northwest, arose relatively recently as a result of mixing of individual groups of Evenks with Yakuts, immigrants from the central regions of Yakutia. In the process of resettlement in Eastern Siberia, the Yakuts mastered the basins of the northern rivers Anabar, Olenka, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma. The Yakuts modified the reindeer husbandry of the Tungus, created the Tungus-Yakut type of draft reindeer husbandry.

The inclusion of the Yakuts into the Russian state in the 1620s–1630s accelerated their socioeconomic and cultural development. In the 17th-19th centuries, the main occupation of the Yakuts was cattle breeding (breeding of cattle and horses), from the second half of the 19th century, a significant part began to engage in agriculture; hunting and fishing played a secondary role. The main type of dwelling was a log booth, in summer - a urasa made of poles. Clothes were made from hides and furs. In the second half of the 18th century, most of the Yakuts were converted to Christianity, but traditional beliefs were also preserved.

Under Russian influence, Christian onomastics spread among the Yakuts, almost completely replacing the pre-Christian Yakut names. At present, the Yakuts bear both names of Greek and Latin origin (Christian) and Yakut names.

Yakuts and Russians

Accurate historical information about the Yakuts is available only from the time of their first contact with the Russians, that is, from the 1620s, and joining the Russian state. The Yakuts did not constitute a single political entity at that time, but were divided into a number of tribes independent of each other. However, tribal relations were already disintegrating, and there was a rather sharp class stratification. The tsarist governors and servicemen used tribal strife to break the resistance of part of the Yakut population; they also used the class contradictions within it, pursuing a policy of systematic support for the ruling aristocratic stratum - the princes (toyons), whom they turned into their agents for managing the Yakut region. Since that time, class contradictions among the Yakuts began to become more and more aggravated.

The position of the mass of the Yakut population was difficult. The Yakuts paid yasak with sable and fox furs, carried out a number of other duties, being extorted by the tsarist servants, Russian merchants and their toyons. After unsuccessful attempts at uprisings (1634, 1636-1637, 1639-1640, 1642), after the transition of the toyons to the side of the governors, the Yakut masses could only respond to oppression with scattered, isolated attempts of resistance and flight from the indigenous uluses to the outskirts. By the end of the 18th century, as a result of the predatory management of the tsarist authorities, the depletion of the fur wealth of the Yakutsk region and its partial desolation was revealed. At the same time, the Yakut population, which for various reasons migrated from the Lena-Vilyui region, appeared on the outskirts of Yakutia, where it had not previously been: in Kolyma, Indigirka, Olenek, Anabar, up to the Lower Tunguska basin.

But already in those first decades, contact with the Russian people had a beneficial effect on the economy and culture of the Yakuts. The Russians brought with them a higher culture; since the middle of the 17th century. an agricultural economy appears on the Lena; the Russian type of buildings, Russian clothing made of fabrics, new types of crafts, new furnishings and household items gradually began to penetrate into the environment of the Yakut population.

It was extremely important that with the establishment of Russian power in Yakutia, intertribal wars and predatory raids of the Toyons stopped, which used to be a great disaster for the Yakut population. The self-will of the Russian servicemen, who had been at war with each other more than once and drawn the Yakuts into their strife, was also suppressed. The order that had already been established in the Yakut land since the 1640s was better than the previous state of chronic anarchy and constant strife.

In the 18th century, in connection with the further advance of the Russians to the east (the annexation of Kamchatka, Chukotka, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska), Yakutia played the role of a transit route and a base for new campaigns and the development of distant "lands". The influx of the Russian peasant population (especially along the valley of the Lena River, in connection with the arrangement of the postal route in 1773) created the conditions for the cultural mutual influence of the Russian and Yakut elements. As early as the end of the 17th and 18th centuries among the Yakuts, agriculture begins to spread, although at first very slowly, houses of the Russian type appear. However, the number of Russian settlers remained even in the 19th century. relatively small. Along with peasant colonization in the XIX century. sending exiled settlers to Yakutia was of great importance. Together with the criminal exiles, who had a negative influence on the Yakuts, in the second half of the 19th century. political exiles appeared in Yakutia, first populists, and in the 1890s also Marxists, who played a big role in the cultural and political development of the Yakut masses.

By the beginning of the XX century. in the economic development of Yakutia, at least in its central regions (Yakutsky, Vilyuisky, Olekminsky districts), great successes were observed. An internal market was created. The growth of economic ties accelerated the development of national identity.

During the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1917, the movement of the Yakut masses for their liberation unfolded deeper and wider. At first it was (especially in the city of Yakutsk) under the predominant leadership of the Bolsheviks. But after the departure (in May 1917) of the majority of the political exiles to Russia in Yakutia, the counter-revolutionary forces of the toionism gained the upper hand, which entered into an alliance with the Socialist-Revolutionary-bourgeois part of the Russian urban population. The struggle for Soviet power in Yakutia dragged on for a long time. Only on June 30, 1918, the power of the Soviets was proclaimed for the first time in Yakutsk, and only in December 1919, after the liquidation of Kolchakism in all of Siberia, was Soviet power finally established in Yakutia.

Religion

Their life is connected with shamanism. The construction of a house, the birth of children and many other aspects of life do not pass without the participation of a shaman. On the other hand, a significant part of the half-million population of Yakuts professes Orthodox Christianity or even adheres to agnostic beliefs.

This people has its own tradition, before joining the state of Russia, they professed "Aar Aiyy". This religion assumes the belief that the Yakuts are the children of Tanar - God and Relatives of the Twelve White Aiyy. Even from conception, the child is surrounded by spirits, or as the Yakuts call them - “Ichchi”, and there are also celestials who are also surrounded by the still born child. Religion is documented in the administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Yakutia. In the 18th century, Yakutia was subjected to universal Christianity, but the people treat this with the hope of certain religions from the state of Russia.

Housing

The Yakuts are descended from nomadic tribes. That is why they live in yurts. However, in contrast to the Mongolian felt yurts, the round dwelling of the Yakuts is built from the trunks of small trees with a cone-shaped roof. Many windows are arranged in the walls, under which sunbeds are located at different heights. Partitions are installed between them, forming a semblance of rooms, and a smeared hearth is tripled in the center. Temporary birch bark yurts - urases - can be erected for the summer. And since the 20th century, some Yakuts have settled in huts.

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (oosh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, on the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (khoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof with housing, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings. Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were set up at a distance. Since the end of the 18th century, polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof have been known. From the 2nd half of the 18th century, Russian huts spread.

Cloth

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is a women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth and a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

Food

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century, barley flour came into use: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, salamat stew. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsk district.

crafts

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called “horse people”) and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). Haymaking was known before the arrival of the Russians. The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive.

Fishing was also developed. They fished mainly in the summer, but also in the winter in the hole; in the fall, a collective seine fishing was organized with the division of prey between all participants. For the poor who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui , Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgoths and others.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare, bird, etc.) was known, but later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horseback chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), raspberries, which were considered unclean, were not used from berries.

Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century, until the middle of the 19th century it was very poorly developed; its spread (especially in the Olekminsk district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, etc., were developed, from the 19th century - carving on mammoth ivory.

Yakut cuisine

It has some common features with the cuisine of the Buryats, Mongols, northern peoples (Evenks, Evens, Chukchi), as well as Russians. Methods of cooking in the Yakut cuisine are few: it is either boiling (meat, fish), or fermentation (koumiss, suorat), or freezing (meat, fish).

From meat, horse meat, beef, venison, game birds, as well as offal and blood are traditionally used. Dishes from Siberian fish are widespread (sturgeon, broad whitefish, omul, muksun, peled, nelma, taimen, grayling).

A distinctive feature of the Yakut cuisine is the fullest possible use of all components of the original product. A very typical example is the recipe for cooking carp in Yakut. Before cooking, the scales are peeled off, the head is not cut off or thrown away, the fish is practically not gutted, a small lateral incision is made, through which the gallbladder is carefully removed, a part of the large intestine is cut off and the swim bladder is pierced. In this form, the fish is boiled or fried. A similar approach is used in relation to almost all other products: beef, horse meat, and so on. Almost all by-products are actively used. In particular, giblet soups (is miine), blood delicacies (khaan), etc. are very popular. Obviously, such a thrifty attitude to food is the result of people's experience of survival in harsh polar conditions.

Horse or beef ribs in Yakutia are known as oyogos. Stroganina is made from frozen meat and fish, which is eaten with a spicy seasoning from a flask (ramson), spoon (like horseradish) and saranka (onion plant). From beef or horse blood, khaan is obtained - Yakut black pudding.

The national drink is koumiss, popular among many eastern peoples, as well as a stronger koonnyoruu kymys(or koiuurgen). Suorat (curdled milk), kuerchekh (whipped cream), kober (butter churned with milk to form a thick cream), chokhoon (or chehon- butter churned with milk and berries), iedegey (cottage cheese), suumeh (cheese). From flour and dairy products, the Yakuts cook a thick mass of salamat.

Interesting traditions and customs of the people of Yakutia

The customs and rituals of the Yakuts are closely connected with folk beliefs. Even many Orthodox or agnostics follow them. The structure of beliefs is very similar to Shintoism - each manifestation of nature has its own spirit, and shamans communicate with them. The laying of a yurt and the birth of a child, marriage and burial are not complete without rites. It is noteworthy that until recently, Yakut families were polygamous, each wife of one husband had her own household and dwelling. Apparently, under the influence of assimilation with the Russians, the Yakuts nevertheless switched to monogamous cells of society.

An important place in the life of every Yakut is occupied by the holiday of koumiss Ysyakh. Various rituals are designed to appease the gods. Hunters glorify Bai-Bayanai, women praise Aiyysyt. The holiday is crowned by the universal dance of the sun - osouhai. All participants join hands and arrange a huge round dance. Fire has sacred properties at any time of the year. Therefore, every meal in a Yakut home begins with treating the fire - throwing food into the fire and irrigating it with milk. Feeding the fire is one of the key moments of any holiday and business.

The most characteristic cultural phenomenon is the olonkho poetic stories, which can have up to 36 thousand rhymed lines. The epic is passed down from generation to generation between master performers, and most recently these stories were included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Good memory and high life expectancy are one of the distinguishing features of the Yakuts. In connection with this feature, a custom arose according to which a dying elderly person calls someone from the younger generation to him and tells him about all his social ties - friends, enemies. The Yakuts are distinguished by social activity, even though their settlements are several yurts located at an impressive distance. The main social relations take place during major holidays, the main of which is the holiday of koumiss - Ysyakh.

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukaghirs, the Olyokma are strongly acculturated by Russians.

12 facts about the Yakuts

1. It is not so cold in Yakutia as everyone thinks. Almost throughout the territory of Yakutia, the minimum temperature is on average -40-45 degrees, which are not so terrible, since the air is very dry. -20 degrees in St. Petersburg will be worse than -50 in Yakutsk.
2. The Yakuts eat raw meat - frozen foal meat, sliced ​​\u200b\u200band shavings or cut into cubes. The meat of adult horses is also eaten, but it is not so tasty. Meat is extremely tasty and healthy, rich in vitamins and other useful substances, in particular, antioxidants.
3. Stroganina is also eaten in Yakutia - the meat of river fish, mainly whitefish and omul, trimmed with thick chips, stroganina from sturgeon and nelma is most valued (all these fish, with the exception of sturgeon, are from the whitefish family). All this splendor can be consumed by dipping the chips in salt and pepper. Some also make different sauces.
4. Contrary to popular belief, most people in Yakutia have never seen deer. Deer are found mainly in the Far North of Yakutia and, oddly enough, in South Yakutia.
5. The legend of crowbars becoming brittle like glass in severe frost is true. If, at a temperature below 50-55 degrees, you hit a solid object with a cast-iron crowbar, the crowbar will shatter into pieces.
6. In Yakutia, almost all grains, vegetables and even some fruits ripen perfectly during the summer. For example, beautiful, tasty, red, sweet watermelons are grown not far from Yakutsk.
7. The Yakut language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. There are a lot of words in the Yakut language that begin with the letter "Y".
8. In Yakutia, even in 40-degree frost, children eat ice cream right on the street.
9. When the Yakuts eat bear meat, they make the sound "Hook" before eating or imitate the cry of a raven, thereby, as it were, disguising themselves from the spirit of the bear - it's not we who eat your meat, but crows.
10. Yakut horses are a very ancient breed. They graze all year round on their own without any supervision.
11. Yakuts are very hardworking. In summer, haymaking can easily work 18 hours a day without a break for lunch, and then have a good drink in the evening and after 2 hours of sleep, back to work. They can work 24 hours and then plow 300 km behind the wheel and work there for another 10 hours.
12. The Yakuts do not like being called Yakuts and prefer to be called "Sakha".

Yakutia, the Republic of Sakha is a small, remote and rather cold region of the Russian Federation. That's all that, as a rule, the vast majority of the population of our country knows about this area. Meanwhile, the Yakuts are amazing people.

Briefly about the region

A few centuries ago, the Yakutsk district, the predecessor of the modern region, was located on the territory of modern Yakutia. The current Republic of Sakha was formed in April 1922 - at first as the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1990, it was transformed into the Yakut-Sakha SSR, and it received its modern name a year later.

Yakutia is part of the Far Eastern Federal District and covers an area of ​​more than three million square kilometers. At the same time, the population of the entire district barely reaches a million. The main city of Yakutia is Yakutsk, which grew out of the Yakut prison on the right bank of the Lena. One of the features of the region is that two state languages ​​officially coexist on its territory - Russian and Sakha.

Where did the Yakuts come from

There are legends about the origin of the Yakuts. One of them, for example, claims that this people is the fundamental principle of all mankind, since Adam and Eve, from whom all people on Earth descended, were northerners. Another version speaks of the existence in antiquity of a certain Tygyn, from whom the Yakuts allegedly originate. There is also an opinion that the Yakuts are the Tatar tribes of the times of the Horde, that they are the descendants of the ancient Europeans, that the Evenks are genetically close to them and many, many others. Nevertheless, archaeologists' research revealed that people began to live on the territory of the future Yakutia already in the Paleolithic times. In the first millennium of our era, the ancestors of the Evenks and Evens came here, the Turkic-speaking tribes continued to populate the area of ​​the region until the fifteenth century. According to historians, the Yakuts were formed as a result of a mixture of Turkic-speaking and local tribes. Also in the blood of the Yakuts there may be genes of alien Tungus.

Features of the Yakuts

In appearance, the Yakut is easy to recognize. They tend to have an oval face with a broad forehead, slightly slanted eyelids, and large, black eyes. The mouth is also large, the enamel of the teeth is yellowish, the nose is usually humped, but it can also be straight. The color of the skin gives off a grayish yellow or is swarthy. The hair is black, coarse, not curly. Growth is usually small. Yakuts have a rather high life expectancy.

This nation has a well-developed hearing, vision, on the contrary, is not very good. They do not differ in speed of movement, everything is done slowly. There are no super-strong athletes among the Yakuts either. The nation is highly productive. Since ancient times, horse breeding, cattle breeding, fishing, and fur hunting have been considered their main occupations. The Yakuts also processed wood, dressed skins, sewed carpets, clothes, blankets.

Religion occupies a huge place in the life of the Yakuts. Now they are Orthodox, but since ancient times their life has been closely connected with shamanism (in some places this has remained to this day).

Yakut dwelling

Since the ancestors of the Yakuts were nomadic people, the current Sakhalars (this is their self-name) live in yurts (of course, not all, this does not apply to the inhabitants of cities). Their settlements are a collection of several houses. The dwelling of the Yakuts differs from the Mongolian yurts in that it is built from round logs, and not from felt. In this case, only small trees are used. Cutting high, large for them is a sin - this is one of the traditions and customs of the Yakuts.

The roof is made cone-shaped, and the door is located from the east. In addition, Yakut yurts have many small windows, along which there are a variety of sun loungers - low and high, wide and narrow, fenced off from each other so that small rooms are obtained. The highest sunbed is intended for the owner, the lowest is located near the entrance to the house.

As a rule, yurts are placed in the lowlands so that they are not blown by the wind. Often houses are made collapsible - if the tribe leads a nomadic lifestyle. The choice of a place to build a dwelling is very important for the Yakuts - it should bring happiness.

National Costume

The Yakut costume directly depends on temperature conditions - the climate in the Republic of Sakha is not hot, which is why clothes are often sewn using horse or cow skin (and not just fabric). For winter attire, fur is taken.

The costume itself is a caftan with wide sleeves and a belt, combined with leather pants and fur socks. In addition, Yakuts wear fabric shirts, belted with a belt. The material, in addition to fur and leather, is used the most diverse - and silk, and cloth, and rovduga. In ancient times, suede suits were often sewn. The festive costume is more flared down, with puff sleeves and turn-down collars.

Yakut wedding

A wedding among the Yakuts is a special phenomenon. There is an ancient sacred tradition, according to which the parents of a baby, almost from the very moment of birth, must find her a future life partner. They choose a boy and for many years observe his life, character, habits, demeanor - after all, it is very important not to make a mistake in the game for your daughter. As a rule, first of all, they pay attention to those boys whose fathers are in good health, strong, hardy, able to work with their hands - make yurts, get food, and so on. This means that such a man will transfer all his skills and abilities to his son. Otherwise, the boy is not considered as a potential "groom". Some parents of daughters manage to choose a future husband for their baby quickly, for some this process takes quite a long time.

Matchmaking also refers to the traditions and customs of the Yakuts and goes as follows. The girl is forbidden to leave the house on this day, and the parents go to the house of the candidate for her hand and heart. They do not talk with the guy himself, but with his parents, painting them in colors all the virtues of their daughter - here it is very important to try to make the future daughter-in-law like them in absentia. If the guy’s parents don’t mind, then they call the size of the bride price - before, bride money was given in deer (this is still preserved in some places), now it is money. When the parents shake hands, solemn preparations for the wedding begin. The mother prepares the girl for the ceremony. She must also give her daughter a dowry, which certainly includes richly decorated outfits - this shows that the bride is not from the poor.

The wedding attire of the Yakuts used to be sewn only from natural materials, now it is not so necessary. Only one thing is important: a dazzling white color, it means purity and purity. Also, the dress must have a tight belt.

The time of the wedding is chosen by the girl. At first, the bride and groom are in different yurts. The shaman (instead of him there may be the father of the bride or the mother of the groom) fumigates them with birch bark smoke - it is believed that this cleanses the newlyweds from various slanders and everything bad. Only after this ceremony are they allowed to see each other and make a traditional circle around their future home (important: until this moment, the bride and groom do not meet eye to eye, there should always be someone next to them). Then they are declared legal husband and wife and a meal begins, during which the girl must have amulets - they protect the newly-made family from evil and disease. Traditional dishes at the Yakut wedding are venison, beef, fish, foal. From drinks - koumiss and wine.

Before the wedding, Yakut girls can walk with their heads uncovered; after getting married, the young wife must henceforth hide her hair from everyone except her husband.

Yakut art

Yakut songs are also special. First of all, we are talking about olonkho - local epic folklore, which is considered to be a type of poetry. It is performed like an opera. This is the oldest type of Yakut art, which is now considered a UNESCO heritage.

Olonkho can be of any size - the maximum reached thirty-six thousand (!) Lines. They include all the traditional legends and legends of the Yakuts. Far from everyone can perform Yakut songs - for this it is necessary to have an oratorical gift and the ability to improvise, as well as be able to give your voice different intonations and colors. Olonkho is recited without interruption - up to seven nights in a row, so the performer must also have a good memory (however, this is a hallmark of all Yakuts).

The Yakuts also have their own national musical instrument. It looks like a jew's harp, some consider it just a variety of a jew's harp. This instrument is called khomus. The art of the Yakuts also includes throat singing, for which they are very famous.

Traditions and customs

Some traditions and customs of the Yakuts have long remained unchanged. So, even today they greatly revere nature, believing that it is alive. They believe in the existence of good and evil spirits and that nature helps to fight the latter. So, for example, lightning, thunder, thunderstorm, according to their beliefs, pursue evil spirits. The wind also has its own spirits - they guard peace on earth. The Yakuts especially revere water, they bring offerings to it - boats made of birch bark. Do not put anything sharp into the water - it can injure her. Fire among the Yakuts is considered the patron saint of the hearth, before it was not extinguished, but moving from place to place, they took it with them in special pots. The Yakuts pay special respect to the spirit of the forest, which helps them in their hunting. The sacred animal for this people is the bear, whose claws they wear as amulets and talismans.

Their numerous holidays are closely connected with the traditions and customs of the Yakuts. For example, Ysyakh, which takes place at the beginning of summer. This is a family holiday, symbolizing the friendship of peoples, it is considered the most important among the Yakuts. Its other name is “Kumiss Feast”. At its end, it is imperative to perform a special round dance in honor of the sun - in this way the luminary is thanked for the warmth.

Blood feud also belongs to the traditions and customs of the Yakuts. There are also many birth rituals. And at death, you need to call one of the youth to yourself and leave all your connections to him - tell him both about friends and enemies.

1. Yakutia is the only region in our country where three time zones operate at once (the difference with Moscow is 6, 7 and 8 hours).
2. Almost half of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle.
3. Yakutia has the first place in the Russian Federation in terms of the total amount of reserves of all natural resources.
4. In addition to the two state languages, the Evenki, Even, Dolgan and Yukaghir dialects are widespread in the Republic of Sakha.
5. Yakuts do not grow body hair.
6. Almost every Yakut family has special national knives with an asymmetrical blade.
7. The Yakut legend says that the stone Sat, which is taken from the stomachs of birds and animals, is considered magical, but it will lose its power if a woman looks at it.
8. Sakhalar is the self-name of the Yakuts, and Sakhalyar is a person born from the marriage of a Yakut and a European.

This is not all the features and customs of the Yakuts. Such an interesting nation needs to be studied for a long time and carefully in order to be fully imbued with their spirit - however, like any other nationality on Earth.

Yakuts(from Evenki rings), Sakha(self-name)- people in the Russian Federation, the indigenous population of Yakutia. The main groups of the Yakuts are Amga-Lena (between the Lena, lower Aldan and Amga, as well as on the adjacent left bank of the Lena), Vilyui (in the Vilyui basin), Olekma (in the Olekma basin), northern (in the tundra zone of the Anabar, Olenyok, Kolyma river basins). , Yana, Indigirka). They speak the Yakut language of the Turkic group of the Altai family, which has groups of dialects: central, Vilyui, northwestern, Taimyr. believers - Orthodox.

Historical information

Both the Tungus population of taiga Siberia and the Turkic-Mongolian tribes that settled in Siberia in the 10th-13th centuries participated in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. and assimilated the local population. The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts was completed by the 17th century.

In the north-east of Siberia, by the time the Russian Cossacks and industrialists arrived there, the Yakuts (Sakha) were the most numerous people who occupied a prominent place among other peoples in terms of the level of cultural development.

The ancestors of the Yakuts lived much further south, in the Baikal region. According to Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Derevyanko, the movement of the ancestors of the Yakuts to the north began, apparently, in the 8th-9th centuries, when the legendary ancestors of the Yakuts settled in the Baikal region - the Kurykans, Turkic-speaking peoples, information about which was preserved for us by runic Orkhon inscriptions. The exodus of the Yakuts, pushed northward by stronger neighbors the Mongols - newcomers to the Lena from the Trans-Baikal steppes, intensified in the 12th-13th centuries. and ended around the XIV-XV centuries.

According to legends recorded at the beginning of the 18th century. Yakov Lindenau, a member of the government expedition to study Siberia, a companion of Academicians Miller and Gmelin, the last settlers from the south came to Lena at the end of the 16th century. led by Badzhey, the grandfather of the tribal leader (toyon) Tygyn, well-known in the legends. A.P. Derevyanko believes that with such a movement of tribes to the north, representatives of various nationalities also penetrated there, not only Turkic, but also Mongolian. And for centuries there was a complex process of merging different cultures, which, moreover, were enriched on the spot with the skills and abilities of the indigenous Tungus and Yukagir tribes. This is how the modern Yakut people gradually formed.

By the beginning of contacts with the Russians (1620s), the Yakuts were divided into 35-40 exogamous "tribes" (Dion, Aimakh, Russian "volosts"), the largest - Kangalas and Namtsy on the left bank of the Lena, Megins, Borogons, Betuns, Baturus - between Lena and Amga, numbering up to 2000-5000 people.

The tribes were often at enmity with each other, divided into smaller tribal groups - "paternal clans" (aga-uusa) and "maternal clans" (iye-uusa), i.e., apparently ascending to different wives of the progenitor. There were customs of blood feud, usually replaced by a ransom, military initiation of boys, collective fishing (in the north - catching geese), hospitality, exchanging gifts (belakh). A military aristocracy stood out - toyons, who ruled the clan with the help of elders and acted as military leaders. They owned slaves (kulut, bokan), 1-3, rarely up to 20 people in a family. Slaves had a family, often lived in separate yurts, men often served in the military squad of the toyon. Professional merchants appeared - the so-called townspeople (i.e. people who traveled to the city). Livestock was in private ownership, hunting, pasture land, hayfields, etc. - mainly in the community. The Russian administration sought to slow down the development of private ownership of land. Under Russian rule, the Yakuts were divided into "kinds" (aga-uusa), ruled by elected "princes" (kines) and united in naslegs. At the head of the nasleg were the elected "grand prince" (ulakhan kines) and the "tribal administration" of the tribal foremen. Community members gathered for tribal and hereditary gatherings (munni). Naslegs united in uluses headed by an elected ulus head and "foreign council". These associations ascended to other tribes: Meginsky, Borogonsky, Baturussky, Namsky, West and East Kangalassky uluses, Betyunsky, Batulinsky, Ospetsky naslegs, etc.

Life and economy

The traditional culture is most fully represented by the Amga-Lena and Vilyui Yakuts. The northern Yakuts are close in culture to the Evenks and Yukaghirs, the Olyokma are strongly acculturated by Russians.

Small family (kergen, yal). Until the 19th century polygamy was preserved, and the wives often lived separately and each ran their own household. Kalym usually consisted of cattle, part of it (kurum) was intended for a wedding feast. For the bride, a dowry was given, the value of which was about half of the kalym, mainly items of clothing and utensils.

The main traditional occupations are horse breeding (in Russian documents of the 17th century, the Yakuts were called "horse people") and cattle breeding. The men took care of the horses, the women took care of the cattle. Deer were bred in the north. Cattle were kept in the summer on grazing, in the winter in barns (hotons). Haymaking was known before the arrival of the Russians. The Yakut breeds of cattle were distinguished by endurance, but were unproductive.

Fishing was also developed. They fished mainly in the summer, but also in the winter in the hole; in the fall, a collective seine fishing was organized with the division of prey between all participants. For the poor who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in the documents of the 17th century, the term "fisherman" - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of "poor"), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called "foot Yakuts" - osekui, ontuly, kokui, kirikians, kyrgydais, orgoths and others.

Hunting was especially widespread in the north, being the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, bird). In the taiga, by the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare, bird, etc.) was known, but later, due to a decrease in the number of animals, its importance fell. Specific hunting techniques are characteristic: with a bull (the hunter sneaks up on the prey, hiding behind the bull), horseback chasing the beast along the trail, sometimes with dogs.

There was gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of the bark), harvested for the winter in dried form, roots (saran, coinage, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel), raspberries, which were considered unclean, were not used from berries.

Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century, until the middle of the 19th century. was developed very poorly; its spread (especially in the Olekminsk district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.

The processing of wood (artistic carving, coloring with alder broth), birch bark, fur, and leather was developed; dishes were made from leather, rugs were made from horse and cow skins sewn in a checkerboard pattern, blankets were made from hare fur, etc .; Cords were twisted from horse hair with hands, weaved, embroidered. Spinning, weaving and felting of felt were absent. The production of stucco ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had a commercial value, the smelting and chasing of silver, copper, etc., were developed, from the 19th century. - carving on mammoth bone.

They traveled mainly on horseback, transporting goods in packs. There were known skis lined with horse kamus, sledges (silis syarga, later - sledges like Russian wood firewood), usually harnessed to bulls, in the north - straight-dust reindeer sleds; types of boats common with Evenks - birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; sailing ships-karbasy borrowed from the Russians.

dwelling

Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near mowing fields, consisted of 1-3 yurts, summer ones - near pastures, numbered up to 10 yurts. The winter yurt (booth, diie) had sloping walls made of standing thin logs on a rectangular log frame and a low gable roof. The walls were plastered on the outside with clay and manure, the roof over the log flooring was covered with bark and earth. The house was placed on the cardinal points, the entrance was arranged in the east side, the windows - in the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the northeast corner, a hearth (oosh) was arranged - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, which went out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. At the western wall there was a master's place. The bunks to the left of the entrance were intended for male youth, workers, on the right, at the hearth, for women. A table (ostuol) and stools were placed in the front corner. On the north side, a barn (khoton) was attached to the yurt, often under the same roof with housing, the door to it from the yurt was behind the hearth. In front of the entrance to the yurt, a canopy or canopy was arranged. The yurt was surrounded by a low mound, often with a fence. A hitching post was placed near the house, often decorated with carvings.

Summer yurts differed little from winter ones. Instead of a hoton, a barn for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were set up at a distance. From the end of the XVIII century. polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof are known. From the 2nd half of the XVIII century. Russian huts spread.

Cloth

Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather pants, a fur underbelly, leather legs, a single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow skin with wool inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhs) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and flint, the rich - with silver and copper plaques. Characteristic is a women's wedding fur long caftan (sangyah), embroidered with red and green cloth and a gold braid; an elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur that goes down to the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn on it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is widespread. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with wool outside (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saary) with a top covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.

Food

The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - koumiss, from cow's - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kuercheh), butter; oil was drunk melted or with koumiss; suorat was prepared for the winter in a frozen form (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; stew (butugas) was prepared from it with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc. Fish food played a major role for the poor, and in the northern regions, where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horse meat was especially valued. In the 19th century barley flour is used: it was used to make unleavened cakes, pancakes, stew-salamat. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsk district.

Religion

Orthodoxy spread in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of dead shamans, master spirits, etc. Elements of totemism were preserved: the clan had an animal patron who was forbidden to be killed, called by name, etc. The world consisted of several tiers, the head of the upper was considered Yuryung ayy toyon, lower - Ala buuray toyon, etc. The cult of the female deity of fertility Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, cows were sacrificed in the lower world. The main holiday is the spring-summer koumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of koumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions, etc.

Was developed. Shaman tambourines (dungur) are close to Evenk ones.

Culture and education

In folklore, the heroic epic (olonkho) was developed, performed in recitative by special storytellers (olonkhosut) with a large gathering of people; historical legends, fairy tales, especially fairy tales about animals, proverbs, songs. Traditional musical instruments are vargan (khomus), violin (kyryympa), percussion. Of the dances, the round dance osuokhay, game dances, etc. are common.

Schooling has been going on since the 18th century. in Russian. Writing in the Yakut language since the middle of the 19th century. At the beginning of the XX century. intelligence is formed.

Links

1. V.N. Ivanov Yakuts // Peoples of Russia: website.
2. Ancient history of the Yakuts // Dixon: website.