The origin of the Yakuts is still controversial among scientists. The Yakut culture has features southern peoples(cattle breeding, horse breeding skills, South Siberian type riding and pack saddles, leather utensils, making butter and kumiss) and northern, taiga features (forms of fishing and hunting farming and tools, types of portable dwellings, some customs). In all likelihood, the ancestors of the Yakuts were both local tribes living on the Lena River and ancient Turkic tribes that came from the south.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, Turkic tribes were pushed to the north and northeast by Mongol-speaking tribes and settled in the Lena River basin. Here, while continuing to develop cattle breeding, they adopted from the Evenki tribes some skills of hunting, fishing, reindeer herding and other elements of northern culture.
The main occupations of the Yakuts were cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, and in the north - reindeer herding.
Cattle breeding among the Yakuts it was primitive, grazing. They bred mainly horses. It is not for nothing that in Russian documents of the 17th century the Yakuts were called “horse people.” The most heartfelt wish of the Yakuts was: “Let your stallion neigh; May your bull always moo..."
Horses all year round They were kept on pasture, hay was stored only for young animals. Sometimes in very coldy the horses in the pasture were covered in ice. If the owner did not have time to clear the ice with an iron scraper, the horse died. The Yakut horse is short, strong, with shaggy hair, well adapted to local conditions.
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A developed branch of the Yakut economy was hunting . They hunted on horseback with bows and arrows for fur-bearing and ungulate animals and birds. A trap was set for the bear: bait was placed under a canopy of logs - a horse's head or dry meat. The canopy was supported by a thin log. The bear touched a log, and the canopy crushed it.
Fishing the poorest population was engaged. They said about the poor man: he is a fisherman. Fish were caught in rivers and lakes with horsehair nets, traps, nets, and fishing rods. Bright beads or shreds were tied to the fishing rod as bait. In the fall, fish were caught collectively with a seine, then it was divided among all participants.
Women collected berries, saran tubers, sorrel, wild onions, larch and pine sapwood. The sapwood was dried and stored for future use. There was a saying: “Where there is pine, there are Yakuts.”
On the issue of the origin of the Yakuts, the vulgar migrationist point of view, first expressed by researchers of the 18th century, still reigns supreme in science. (Stralenberg, Miller, Gmelin, Fischer) and repeated with differences only in details by all authors, right up to the latest. This point of view of the “origin of the Yakuts from the south” is considered an ethnographic axiom.
However, this simplified concept cannot satisfy us. It replaces the problem of the formation of the Yakut people with the question of their geographical movement, is based on a non-historical approach to the problem of ethnogenesis and does not provide the key to understanding the complexity and originality of the Yakut culture and language. This concept explains only some features of the culture and language of the Yakuts, but leaves a number of others unexplained.
Repeated attempts were made to identify the Yakuts with one or another of the ancient peoples of Asia: they were brought together with the Huns, Sakas, Uighurs, Kurykans, Sakyats, and Uriankhs. But all these attempts are based either on the consonance of the names of this or that people with the self-name of the Yakuts “Saka”, or on extremely shaky geographical considerations.
In order to correctly approach the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts, it is necessary first of all to raise the question of the ethnic composition of the Yakut people. To what extent is this people a homogeneous group and what data does it have that would allow it to identify its components?
Not only at the present time, but also during the era of the Russian conquest, i.e., around the middle of the 17th century, the Yakuts were an already consolidated ethnic group. They stood out sharply from all their neighbors - forest hunting tribes - not only more high level economic and social development, but also by the fact that, in contrast to the motley and multilingual mass of the Tungus-Lamut-Yukaghir tribes, the Yakuts spoke the same language.
However, in socio-political terms, the Yakuts during the era of the Russian conquest were far from unified. They were divided into many tribes, large and small, independent of each other. Based on yasak books and other documents of the 17th century. we can have a fairly complete idea of the tribal composition of the Yakut population of that time, and partly of the geographical distribution of individual tribes and their numbers.
We know up to 80 names of large and small Yakut tribes that existed in the 17th century. The number of the largest of them (Megintsy, Kangalasy, Namtsy, etc.) was 2-5 thousand people each, others numbered several hundred souls.
It is quite legitimate to assume that these tribal groupings reflect to some extent a complex, multi-tribal composition Yakut people.
This assumption is confirmed by the analysis of both anthropological and linguistic and ethnographic material.
The study of the racial composition, material and spiritual culture, language and ethnonymy of the Yakuts reveals the heterogeneity of the elements included in the Yakut people.
Anthropological data (Gekker's materials on 4 Yakut naslegs) indicate the presence of two or more main racial types in the Yakut population, some of which apparently have a connection with the type of North Baikal Tungus (Roginsky), and perhaps North Asian.
A fairly clear idea of the heterogeneity of the composition of the Yakut people is given by the analysis material culture Yakuts. This latter contains elements of very heterogeneous origin. The Yakut pastoral economy is clearly of southern origin and links the Yakuts to the nomadic cultures of southern Siberia and Central Asia. However, the cattle breeding of the Yakuts also underwent a peculiar transformation in the conditions of northern nature (acclimatization of livestock breeds, originality of methods of keeping livestock, etc.). On the contrary, the fishing and hunting economy of the Yakuts does not reveal any connections with the south, but is clearly of local, taiga origin.
In the clothing of the Yakuts, we see next to elements that connect the Yakuts with southern Siberia (festive “sangyyah”, women’s headdresses), types that should be considered local (“son”, shoes, etc.).
The shape of the dwelling is especially indicative. We find almost no elements of southern origin here. The dominant type of Yakut dwelling - a “booth” in the form of a truncated pyramid of inclined poles - can only be compared with the ancient “Paleo-Asian” type of dwelling - a quadrangular dugout, from which it,
apparently it has developed. Another, now almost extinct, type - the conical “urasa” - again brings the Yakuts closer to the taiga hunting culture.
So, the analysis of the material culture of the Yakuts confirms the conclusion that the Yakut culture is of complex origin, that in its composition, along with elements brought from the southern steppes, there are a number of elements of northern, taiga, i.e., autochthonous origin. At the same time, it is especially important to emphasize that all these elements did not mechanically pass into the Yakut culture, but were processed, and that some of them only gave rise to the completely independent development of original cultural traits on the local Yakut soil.
Analysis of the phenomena of spiritual culture, in particular religion, from the point of view of clarifying the cultural ties of the Yakuts, is a difficult task. For this purpose, it is useless to compare the basic forms and content of the beliefs and cult of the Yakuts with similar phenomena among other peoples, since they are only a reflection of the socio-economic system of a given people and their similarity does not always indicate cultural kinship. The latter can be traced by individual details in rituals and beliefs, as well as by theonymy (names of deities). Here we find some common features with Buryat beliefs (the names of some deities), but more with Tungus cults (a type of shamanism; the costume and shape of a shaman’s tambourine, a hunting cult), and in some details with Paleo-Asian ones (shamanic spirits “keleni” || Chukchi “ kele" || Koryak "kala" |] Yukagir "kukul", "korel")
Linguistic data also confirms the correctness of our point of view about complexity ethnic composition Yakut people.
The Yakut language is very well studied in terms of its connection with the Turkish and Mongolian languages (Bötlingk, Yastrembsky, Radlov, Pekarsky), but is completely unstudied in terms of its connection with the Tungusic and Paleo-Asian languages. However, in great job Radlov about the Yakut language clearly shows that this language is not basically Turkish, but is a language of “unknown origin”, which was subjected to Mongolization during its development, and then (twice) Turkization, and that the modern Turkish structure of the Yakut language is only the result of the last stage its development.
The substrate on which the formation of the Yakut language took place was probably the Tungus dialects of the Lena-Aldan-Vilyui basin. Traces of this substrate can be traced not only in the Yakut vocabulary, but even in phonetics (okaniya and akaniya of Yakut dialects, geographically related to the areas of the Tungusic okaya and akakan dialects; length of vowels and consonants) and in grammatical structure (lack of local case). It is possible that in the future it will be possible to discover an even more ancient Paleo-Asian (Yukaghir) layer in the Yakut language.
Finally, the ethnonymy of the Yakuts not only preserves traces of the multi-tribal and multi-lingual composition of the Yakut people, but also gives more accurate indications of the presence in its midst of both alien southern and local northern elements. The remnants of the southern tribal groups that joined the Yakut population can be considered the Yakut tribes and clans (now naslegi): Batulintsev, Khorintsev, Kharbyatov, Tumatov, Ergitov, Tagusov, Kyrgydaytsy, Kirikytsy. On the contrary, a number of other names of clans and tribes should be considered the remnants of local groups that underwent Yakutization: Bytakhsky, Chordunsky, Ospetsky and other clans and naslegs; The Tungus also have one-shift births.
Traces of the foreign origin of some of these tribal groups have been preserved in Yakut folklore. So, the Yakuts have a memory that the Khorins (Khorolors) spoke special language. There is even a Yakut proverb: “I’m not telling you in Khorolor, but in Yakut”; The northern Yakuts have an expression “good rear” - the language of the Khorin people, an indistinct, incomprehensible language. Traces have also been preserved that the Urankhians were a special tribal group. Probably, after their unification with the Sakha tribe, the expression “uranghai-sakha” was formed, meaning the entire Yakut people.
As for the origin of the term “Sakha” - the current self-name of the Yakuts, apparently, it was the name of one of the tribes that became part of the Yakut people. The transfer of this name to the entire nation was probably caused by the dominance of this tribe in social or cultural terms. It is quite possible to assume a historical connection of this Sakha tribe with the “sakhyat” of Rashid-Eddina, and perhaps with the ancient Sakas Central Asia. But this assumption does not mean at all, as previous researchers assumed, that the Yakuts as a whole are direct descendants of these Saks or Sakyats.
The Sakha tribe must, apparently, be identified with the speakers of that Turkish language, the penetration of which, from Radlov’s point of view, gave final shape to the Yakut language, giving it its current Turkish system.
All the facts we cited above, therefore, testify to the same thing: the complex composition of the Yakut people, the presence in it of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural elements. Some of these elements are of local northern taiga origin, and their presence in the Yakut population means nothing more than the presence of an ancient autochthonous layer, which can be considered conditionally “Tunguska”, and perhaps also Paleo-Asian. But the other part has a direct connection with the nomadic south: elements of this kind can be traced in the language, culture, and ethnonymy of the Yakuts. The presence of these “southern” elements in the Yakut population is a fact beyond doubt. But the whole question lies in the interpretation of this fact, in explaining the origin of these “southern” elements.
The very process of formation of the Yakut people consisted in the economic and cultural interaction of native hunting and reindeer herding and alien pastoral groups. In this way, a general cultural type was developed (in which cattle breeding became predominant) and the Yakut language was formed (based on a local substrate, but under the dominance of Turkish alien elements, which determined the Turkish design of Yakut speech).
The penetration of pastoral groups from southern Siberia to the north, into the Middle Lena basin, did not have the character of a one-time mass migration of an entire people. Such relocation, at a distance of 2.5 thousand kilometers, to unknown and desert areas northern taiga, would be an impossible task. In fact, judging by all available data, there was a slow, gradual advance of individual clan groups (Turkic and Mongolian), partly from the Baikal region, partly from the Upper and Middle Amur. This movement could go down the Lena to the area of present-day Yakutsk, and along the Lena through the Chechuysky portage or Suntaro-Olekminsk to Vilyui, and along Vitim, and along Oleksa, and even along Aldan. The resettled clans probably moved in stages, lingering for more convenient places on the way to. Most, in all likelihood, lost their livestock, many of them died themselves.
But over the course of many centuries, after many failures, individual groups managed to move into the Middle Lena basin and acclimatize their livestock here.
In the Aldan-Vilyui interfluve, incoming pastoral groups met with the local hunting and fishing population - Tungusic or Paleo-Asian in language. The relations established between the newcomers and the natives were of course varied, but they were hardly generally hostile. Russian documents of the 17th century. In most cases they paint us a picture of peaceful economic and everyday relations between Yakut herders and Tungus hunters. There was a regular exchange between both sides, beneficial to both parties.
These peaceful economic relations between aliens and natives were the most important prerequisite for the process of gradual rapprochement and merging of them, as a result of which the Yakut people were formed.
Thus, the process of Yakut ethnogenesis was a complex process that took place mainly in the current habitat of the Yakuts. It consisted of uniting newcomer pastoral groups with local taiga hunting and fishing tribes. The cultural superiority of the newcomers, carriers of a more progressive pastoral cultural and economic way of life, also determined the predominance of the dialects they brought, which was expressed in the Turkic structure of the Yakut language, in which, however, the aboriginal, pre-Turkic and pre-Mongolian substrate is clearly visible. The same can be said. about the entire Yakut culture: the dominant layer in it is the pastoral culture of steppe origin, but from under this layer a more ancient layer of the taiga hunting and fishing Tungus-Paleo-Asian culture emerges quite clearly.
The Yakuts, who call themselves Sakha (Sakhalar) are a people that, according to archaeological and ethnographic research, was formed as a result of the mixing of Turkic tribes with the population in the region of the middle reaches of the Lena River. The process of formation of the nationality ended approximately in the 14th - 15th centuries. Some groups, for example, the Yakut reindeer herders, formed much later as a result of mixing with the Evenks in the north-west of the region.
The Sakha belong to the North Asian type of the Mongoloid race. The life and culture of the Yakuts are closely intertwined with the Central Asian peoples of Turkic origin, however, due to a number of factors, it differs significantly from them.
The Yakuts live in a region with a sharply continental climate, but at the same time they have managed to master cattle breeding and even agriculture. Harsh weather conditions also affected national clothing. Yakut brides even use fur coats as wedding attire.
Culture and life of the people of Yakutia
The Yakuts trace their ancestry back to nomadic tribes. That's why they live in yurts. However, unlike the Mongolian felt yurts, the round dwelling of the Yakuts is built from the trunks of small trees with a cone-shaped steel roof. There are many windows in the walls, under which sun loungers are located at different heights. Partitions are installed between them, forming a semblance of rooms, and a smear hearth is tripled in the center. Temporary birch bark yurts - uras - can be erected for the summer. And since the 20th century, some Yakuts have been settling in huts.
Their life is connected with shamanism. Building a house, having children and many other aspects of life do not take place without the participation of a shaman. On the other hand, a significant part of the half-million Yakut population professes Orthodox Christianity or even adheres to agnostic beliefs.
The most characteristic cultural phenomenon is the poetic stories of the olonkho, which can number up to 36 thousand rhymed lines. The epic is passed down from generation to generation between master performers, and more recently these stories have been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage UNESCO. Good memory and high life expectancy are some of the distinctive features of the Yakuts.
In connection with this feature, a custom arose according to which a dying person old man calls for someone from younger generation and tells him about all his social connections - friends, enemies. The Yakuts are distinguished by their social activity, even though their settlements consist of several yurts located at an impressive distance. The main social relations take place during major holidays, the main one of which is the holiday of kumis - Ysyakh.
No less characteristic of Yakut culture is throat singing and playing music on the national instrument khomus, one of the variants of the mouth harp. Yakut knives with an asymmetrical blade deserve special attention. Almost every family has a similar knife.
Traditions and customs of the people of Yakutia
The customs and rituals of the Yakuts are closely related to 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 foundation of a yurt and the birth of a child, marriage and burial are not complete without rituals.
It is noteworthy that until recently, Yakut families were polygamous, each wife of one husband had her own household and home. Apparently, under the influence of assimilation with the Russians, the Yakuts nevertheless switched to monogamous cells of society.
The holiday of kumis Ysyakh occupies an important place in the life of every Yakut. Various rituals designed to appease the gods. Hunters glorify Bay-Bayan, women - Aiyysyt. The holiday is crowned by a general sun dance - osoukhai. 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 house begins with serving the fire - throwing food into the fire and sprinkling it with milk. Feeding the fire is one of the key moments of any holiday or business.
Yakuts(from Evenki Yakolets), Sakha(self-name)- people in Russian Federation, indigenous people Yakutia. The main groups of Yakuts are Amginsko-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 Yakut language Turkic group 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 took part in the ethnogenesis of the Yakuts. and assimilated the local population. The ethnogenesis of the Yakuts was completed by the 17th century.
In the northeast of Siberia, by the time the Russian Cossacks and industrialists arrived there, the most numerous people, occupying a prominent place among other peoples in terms of cultural development, were the Yakuts (Sakha).
The ancestors of the Yakuts lived much further south, in the Baikal region. According to Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Derevianko, the movement of the ancestors of the Yakuts to the north apparently began in the 8th-9th centuries, when the legendary ancestors of the Yakuts - the Kurykans, Turkic-speaking peoples, information about which was preserved for us by runic Orkhon inscriptions, settled in the Baikal region. The exodus of the Yakuts, pushed to the north by their 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. A member of the government expedition to study Siberia, Jacob Lindenau, 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, known in legends. A.P. Derevianko believes that with such a movement of tribes to the north, representatives of different nationalities, not only Turkic, but also Mongolian, also penetrated there. And for centuries there was a complex process of merger different cultures, which were also enriched on the spot with the skills and abilities of the indigenous Tungus and Yukaghir 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” (Dyon, Aymakh, Russian “volosts”), the largest - Kangalas and Namtsy on the left bank of the Lena, Megintsy, Borogontsy, Betuntsy, Baturustsy - between Lena and Amga, numbering up to 2000-5000 people.
The tribes often fought among themselves and were divided into smaller clan groups - “paternal clans” (aga-uusa) and “maternal clans” (ie-uusa), i.e., apparently, going back to different wives of the ancestor. There were customs of blood feud, usually replaced by ransom, military initiation of boys, collective fishing (in the north - catching geese), hospitality, and exchange of gifts (beleh). A military aristocracy emerged - the 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 families, often lived in separate yurts, men often served in the military squad of the toyon. Professional traders appeared - the so-called gorodchiki (i.e. people who went to the city). The cattle were in private property, hunting, pasture lands, hayfields, etc. - mainly in the community. The Russian administration sought to slow down the development of private land ownership. Under Russian rule, the Yakuts were divided into “clans” (aga-uusa), ruled by elected “princes” (kinees) and united into naslegs. The nasleg was headed by an elected “grand prince” (ulakhan kinees) and a “tribal administration” of tribal elders. Community members gathered for ancestral and inheritance gatherings (munnyakh). Naslegs were united into uluses, headed by an elected ulus head and a “foreign council”. These associations went back 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 Yukagirs, the Olekminsky are strongly acculturated by the Russians.
Small family (kergen, yal). Until the 19th century Polygamy remained, and the wives often lived separately and each ran their own household. Kalym usually consisted of livestock, part of it (kurum) was intended for the wedding feast. A dowry was given for the bride, the value of which was about half of the bride price - 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. Men looked after horses, women looked after cattle. In the north, deer were bred. Cattle were kept on pasture in the summer and in barns (hotons) in the winter. Haymaking was known before the arrival of the Russians. Yakut cattle breeds were distinguished by their endurance, but were unproductive.
Fishing was also developed. We fished mainly in the summer, but also in the ice hole in the winter; In the fall, a collective seine was organized with the division of the spoils between all participants. For the poor people who did not have livestock, fishing was the main occupation (in documents of the 17th century, the term “fisherman” - balyksyt - is used in the meaning of “poor man”), some tribes also specialized in it - the so-called “foot Yakuts” - Osekui, Ontul, Kokui, Kirikians, Kyrgydais, Orgots and others.
Hunting was especially widespread in the north, constituting the main source of food here (arctic fox, hare, reindeer, elk, poultry). In the taiga, before the arrival of the Russians, both meat and fur hunting (bear, elk, squirrel, fox, hare, bird, etc.) were known; later, due to the 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), horse chasing the animal along the trail, sometimes with dogs.
There was gathering - the collection of pine and larch sapwood (the inner layer of bark), which was stored in dried form for the winter, roots (saran, mint, etc.), greens (wild onions, horseradish, sorrel); raspberries, which were considered unclean, were not consumed from the berries.
Agriculture (barley, to a lesser extent wheat) was borrowed from the Russians at the end of the 17th century, before mid-19th V. was very poorly developed; Its spread (especially in the Olekminsky district) was facilitated by Russian exiled settlers.
Wood processing was developed ( artistic carving, coloring with alder decoction), birch bark, fur, leather; 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 hand-twisted from horsehair, woven, and embroidered. There was no spinning, weaving or felting of felt. The production of molded ceramics, which distinguished the Yakuts from other peoples of Siberia, has been preserved. The smelting and forging of iron, which had commercial value, as well as the smelting and minting of silver, copper, etc., were developed from the 19th century. – carving on mammoth bone.
They moved mainly on horseback, and carried loads in packs. There were known skis lined with horse camus, sleighs (silis syarga, later - sleighs of the Russian wood type), usually harnessed to oxen, and in the north - straight-hoofed reindeer sledges; types of boats common with the Evenks - birch bark (tyy) or flat-bottomed from boards; sailing karbass ships were borrowed from the Russians.
Housing
Winter settlements (kystyk) were located near the meadows, consisting of 1-3 yurts, summer settlements - near pastures, numbering 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 coated on the outside with clay and manure, the roof was covered with bark and earth on top of the log flooring. The house was placed in the cardinal directions, the entrance was located on the east side, the windows were on the south and west, the roof was oriented from north to south. To the right of the entrance, in the north-eastern corner, there was a fireplace (osoh) - a pipe made of poles coated with clay, going out through the roof. Plank bunks (oron) were arranged along the walls. The most honorable was the southwestern corner. The master's place was located near the western wall. 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 northern side of the yurt a stable (khoton) was attached, often under the same roof as the living quarters; the door to it from the yurt was located behind the fireplace. A canopy or canopy was installed in front of the entrance to the yurt. The yurt was surrounded by a low embankment, 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 stable for calves (titik), sheds, etc. were placed at a distance. There was a conical structure made of poles covered with birch bark (urasa), in the north - with turf (kalyman, holuman). WITH late XVIII V. polygonal log yurts with a pyramidal roof are known. From 2nd half of the XVIII V. Russian huts spread.
Cloth
Traditional men's and women's clothing - short leather trousers, fur belly, leather leggings, single-breasted caftan (sleep), in winter - fur, in summer - from horse or cow hide with the hair inside, for the rich - from fabric. Later, fabric shirts with a turn-down collar (yrbakhy) appeared. Men girded themselves with a leather belt with a knife and a flint; for the rich, with silver and copper plaques. A typical women's wedding fur caftan (sangiyakh), embroidered with red and green cloth and gold braid; elegant women's fur hat made of expensive fur, hanging down the back and shoulders, with a high cloth, velvet or brocade top with a silver plaque (tuosakhta) and other decorations sewn onto it. Women's silver and gold jewelry is common. Shoes - winter high boots made of deer or horse skins with the hair facing out (eterbes), summer boots made of soft leather (saars) with a boot covered with cloth, for women - with appliqué, long fur stockings.
Food
The main food is dairy, especially in summer: from mare's milk - kumiss, from cow's milk - yogurt (suorat, sora), cream (kuerchekh), butter; they drank butter melted or with kumiss; suorat was prepared frozen for the winter (tar) with the addition of berries, roots, etc.; from it, with the addition of water, flour, roots, pine sapwood, etc., a stew (butugas) was prepared. Fish food played main role For the poor and in the northern regions where there were no livestock, meat was consumed mainly by the rich. Horsemeat was especially prized. In the 19th century Barley flour came into use: unleavened flatbreads, pancakes, and salamat stew were made from it. Vegetables were known in the Olekminsky district.
Religion
Orthodoxy spread in the 18th-19th centuries. The Christian cult was combined with belief in good and evil spirits, the spirits of deceased shamans, master spirits, etc. Elements of totemism were preserved: the clan had a patron animal, which was forbidden to kill, call by name, etc. The world consisted of several tiers, the head of the upper one was considered Yuryung ayi toyon, the lower one - Ala buurai toyon, etc. The cult of the female fertility deity Aiyysyt was important. Horses were sacrificed to the spirits living in the upper world, and cows in the lower world. Main holiday- spring-summer kumiss holiday (Ysyakh), accompanied by libations of kumiss from large wooden cups (choroon), games, sports competitions and etc.
Was developed. Shamanic drums (dyungyur) are close to Evenki ones.
Culture and education
In folklore, the heroic epic (olonkho) was developed, performed in recitative by special storytellers (olonkhosut) in front of a large crowd of people; historical legends, fairy tales, especially tales about animals, proverbs, songs. Traditional musical instruments – harp (khomus), violin (kyryimpa), percussion. Among the dances, round dance osuokhai, play dances, etc. are common.
Schooling has been carried out since the 18th century. in Russian. Writing in the Yakut language since the middle of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century. an intelligentsia is being formed.
Links
- V.N. Ivanov Yakuts // Peoples of Russia: website.
- Ancient history of the Yakuts // Dixon: website.
Yakutia, 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 an amazing people.
Briefly about the region
A few centuries ago, on the territory of modern Yakutia, the Yakut district, the predecessor of the modern region, was located. The current Republic of Sakha was formed in April 1922 - initially as an 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 considered to be Yakutsk, which grew out of the Yakut fort on the right bank of the Lena. One of the peculiarities 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 humanity, since Adam and Eve, from whom all people on Earth descended, were northerners. Another version speaks of the existence in ancient times of a certain Tygyn, from whom the Yakuts supposedly originated. There is also an opinion that the Yakuts are Tatar tribes from the time of the Horde, that they are the descendants of ancient Europeans, that the Evenks and many, many others are genetically close to them. Nevertheless, archaeological research has revealed that people began to live on the territory of future Yakutia already during the Paleolithic. In the first millennium AD, the ancestors of the Evenks and Evens came here; Turkic-speaking tribes continued to inhabit the region until the fifteenth century. According to historians, the Yakuts were formed as a result of the mixing of Turkic-speaking and local tribes. Also in the blood of the Yakuts there may be genes of alien Tungus.
Features of the Yakuts
It is easy to recognize a Yakut by its appearance. They tend to have an oval face with a wide forehead, slightly slanted eyelids, and large, black eyes. The mouth is also large, the enamel of the teeth is yellowish, the nose is usually hooked, but can also be straight. The skin color is grayish-yellow or dark-skinned. The hair is black, coarse, and does not curl. Growth is usually small. The Yakuts have a fairly high life expectancy.
This people has well-developed hearing, but their vision, on the contrary, is not very good. They are not known for their speed of movement; they do everything slowly. You won’t find super strong athletes among the Yakuts either. The nation is characterized by high efficiency. For a long time, their main occupations were horse breeding, cattle breeding, fishing, and fur-bearing animal hunting. The Yakuts also processed wood, tanned hides, sewed carpets, clothes, and 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 remains to this day).
Dwelling of the Yakuts
Since the ancestors of the Yakuts were nomadic people, the current Sakhalars (this is their self-name) live in yurts (of course, not all of them; this does not apply to city dwellers). Their settlements are a collection of several houses. The Yakut dwelling differs from the Mongolian yurts in that it is built from round logs, and not from felt. Only small trees are used. It is a sin for them to cut down tall, large trees - this is one of the traditions and customs of the Yakuts.
The roof is made cone-shaped, and the door is located on the east. In addition, Yakut yurts have many small windows, along which there are a wide variety of sun loungers - low and high, wide and narrow, fenced off from each other so that they form small rooms. The highest lounger is intended for the owner, the lowest is located near the entrance to the house.
As a rule, yurts are placed in 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 home is very important for the Yakuts - it should bring happiness.
National Costume
The Yakut costume directly depends on temperature conditions - the climate in the Sakha Republic is not hot, which is why clothes are often sewn using horse or cow hide (and not just fabric). Fur is used for winter clothing.
The costume itself is a caftan with wide sleeves and a belt, combined with leather pants and fur socks. In addition, the Yakuts also wear fabric shirts, belted with a strap. In addition to fur and leather, a wide variety of materials are used - silk, cloth, and rovdugu. In ancient times, suits were often made from suede. The festive suit is more flared at the bottom, with puffed 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 must find her a future life partner almost from the very moment of birth. They choose a boy and throughout for long years they 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 have good health, are strong, resilient, know how to work with their hands - make yurts, get food, and so on. This means that such a man will pass on 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, while for some this process takes quite a long time.
Matchmaking also relates to the traditions and customs of the Yakuts and proceeds as follows. The girl is forbidden to leave the house on this day, and her parents go to the house of the candidate for her hand in marriage. They talk not with the guy himself, but with his parents, describing to them all the advantages of their daughter - here it is very important to try to make their future daughter-in-law like them in absentia. If the guy’s parents don’t mind, then they name the size of the dowry - previously, the dowry was given in deer (this is still the case in some places), now - in money. When the parents shake hands, the ceremonial preparations for the wedding begin. The girl is prepared for the ceremony by her mother. She must give her daughter a dowry, which certainly includes richly decorated outfits - this shows that the bride is not from the poor.
Yakut wedding attire used to be made only from natural materials, but now this is not so necessary. Only one thing matters: dazzling White color, it means purity and innocence. Also, the outfit must have a tight belt.
The girl chooses the wedding time. At first, the bride and groom are in different yurts. The shaman (instead it 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 of various slander and everything bad. Only after this ritual 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 face to face; someone must always be next to them). Then they are declared legitimate husband and wife and a meal begins, during which the girl must wear amulets - they protect the newly-made family from evil and disease. Traditional dishes at a Yakut wedding are venison, beef, fish, and foal. Drinks include kumiss and wine.
Before the wedding, Yakut girls can walk with their heads uncovered; after getting married, the young wife must now hide her hair from everyone except her husband.
Yakut art
Yakut songs are also special. First of all, we're talking about about olonkho - local epic folklore, which is considered a type of poetry. It is performed like an opera. This oldest species Yakut art, which is now considered a UNESCO property.
Olonkho can be of any size - the maximum reached thirty-six thousand (!) lines. They include all the traditional traditions and tales of the Yakuts. Not everyone can perform Yakut songs - for this you need to have the gift of oratory and the ability to improvise, as well as be able to give your voice different intonations and colors. Olonkho is told without interruption - up to seven nights in a row, so the performer must also have a good memory (however, this is distinguishing feature all Yakuts).
The Yakuts also have their own national musical instrument. It looks like a jew's harp; some consider it a type of jew's harp. This instrument is called khomus. Also included in the art of the Yakuts is throat singing, for which they are very famous.
Traditions and customs
Some traditions and customs of the Yakuts have long remained unchanged. So, to this day they greatly revere nature, believing that it is alive. They believe in the existence of good and evil spirits and that nature helps fight the latter. For example, lightning, thunder, thunderstorms, according to their beliefs, are pursued by evil spirits. The wind also has its own spirits - they guard peace on earth. The Yakuts especially reverence water; they bring offerings to it - boats made of birch bark. You should not put anything sharp into the water - it can injure her. Among the Yakuts, fire is considered the patron of the hearth; previously it was not extinguished, but when moving from place to place, it was taken with them in special pots. The Yakuts pay special respect to the spirit of the forest, which helps them in their fishing. The sacred animal for these 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 “Koumiss Festival”. At the end of it, you definitely need to perform a special round dance in honor of the sun - in this way you thank the luminary for its warmth.
The traditions and customs of the Yakuts include blood feud. There are also a lot of birth rituals. And when you die, you need to call one of the young people to you and leave him all your connections - tell him about both friends and enemies.
- Yakutia is the only region in our country where there are three time zones at once (the difference with Moscow is 6, 7 and 8 hours).
- Almost half of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle.
- Yakutia has first place in the Russian Federation in terms of the total amount of reserves of all natural resources.
- In addition to the two state languages, Evenki, Even, Dolgan and Yukaghir dialects are common in the Republic of Sakha.
- Yakuts do not grow hair on their bodies.
- Almost every Yakut family has special national knives with an asymmetrical blade.
- Yakut legend says that the Sat stone, 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.
- Sakhalar is the self-name of the Yakuts, and Sakhalar is a person born from the marriage of a Yakut and a European.
These are not all the features and customs of the Yakuts. Such an interesting nation needs to be studied long and carefully in order to be fully imbued with their spirit - just like any other nation on Earth.
