Water/River as a Macro-Element of the Yukagir’s Cultural Geography

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/288-303

Abstract

The article considers one of the main landscape codes of cultural geography – water/river, which in part determined the specifics of economy and spiritual values of the wandering hunting tribes of Eastern Siberia. The areas of nomadic hunting and fishing tribes of Eastern Siberia have significantly decreased over the past two thousand years, and currently the territory of the Nelemninsky National Council and the tribal community “Teki Odulok” in the Verkhnekolymsky region (ulus) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is the only place of compact residence of descendants of the ancient population. Among the northern nomads –Yukagirs-hunters and fishermen, the water/river landscape code was of a cultural-forming significance; water/river provided food, transport and served as a reference point in space. The significance of water resources is considered in diachronic and synchronous ranges against the background of the ethnic history of the Yukagir people with the involvement of archival and literary data. It is shown that the modern functioning of the unique culture of northern nomad dog breeders in the Upper Kolyma is due to the preservation of a homogeneous feeding territory and a minor transformation of the traditional annual economic cycle. The territorial community, the organization of living space in such climatic conditions and the semi-nomadic way of life have developed stable stereotypes of thinking and behavior, a system of values and preferences for this group of Yukagirs. The understanding of space of the nomad dog breeders reveals the mechanisms of formation and influence of the water/river discourse on various aspects of their activities. Traditionally from antiquity and to the beginning of the 20^th century during the period of fishing and nomading on boats and rafts in the warm season, the tribal groups of forest Yukagirs were isolated for a long time. This situation implied various potential dangers and risks, real and mythologized. The ancient landscape code water / river in the absence of dirt roads in the warm season and a large bog area determined the nomadic nature of the culture. The figurative and geographical model of the water universe at the locus of the water hunters and fishermen of the Upper Kolyma is captured in the discourse of spiritual and material culture as an ambivalent element. In the geo-cultural area of the descendants of the aboriginal northern nomads, the concept of the water element is traditionally built on cultural meanings, images and symbols. The appropriating nature of the economy and the longstanding significance of one of the main landscape codes of water/river stimulate the continued exsistence of ancient pagan religious and mythological representations among the forest Yukagirs in the foreseeable future.

For Citation: Zjukova, L.N. 2021. Water/River as a Macro-Element of the Yukagir’s Cultural Geography. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 288–303.

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