SIBERIAN YUPIK

'Siberian Yupiks', or Yuits, are indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik (also known as Yuit), a Yupik language of the Eskimo-Aleut family of languages.
They were also known as 'Siberian Eskimo' or 'Yupiks'. The name Yuit (Юит, plural: Юиты) was officially assigned to them in 1931, at the brief time of the campaign of support of indigenous cultures in the Soviet Union.

Contents

Material culture

Traditional crafts

Spiritual culture

Shamanism

Amulets

Concepts about the animal world around them

Orca and wolf

Whale

Celestial concepts

External links

Bibliography

Notes

See also

Material culture

Traditional crafts

The Siberian Yupik on St. Lawrence Island live in the villages of Savoonga and Gambell, and are widely known for their skillful carvings of walrus ivory and whale bone, as well as the baleen of bowhead whales. These even include some “moving sculptures” with complicated pulleys animating scenes such as walrus hunting or traditional dances.

Spiritual culture

Shamanism

Many Eskimo cultures had persons acting as mediator (between human and beings of the belief system, among others) — usually termed as “shamans” in the literature. As Eskimo cultures were far from homogenity (although had a certain relatedness), thus also shamanism among Eskimo peoples had many variants.
Siberian Yupiks had shamans as well.^[1]Духовная культура (Spiritual culture), subsection of Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) — see the section on Eskimos Ungazigmit people (the largest of Siberian Yupik variants) had s, who received presents for the shamanizing, healing. This payment had a special name, — in their language, there were many words for the different kinds of presents and payments and this was one of them.Rubcova 1954:173 (The many kinds of presents and the words designating them were related to the culture: fests, marriage etc.; or made such fine distinctions like “thing, given to someone who has none”, “thing, given, not begged for”, “thing, given to someone as to anybody else”, “thing, given for exchange” etc.^[2]).

Amulets

Amulets could be manifested in many forms, and could protect the person wearing them or the entire family, and there were also hunting amulets. Some examples:

★ a head of raven hanging on the entrance of the house, functioning as a familiar amulet^[3];

★ figures carved out of stone in shape of walrus head or dog head, worn as individual amulets;^[4]

★ hunting amulets were attached to something or worn.^[3] About the effige of orca on the tools of the marine hunter, see the beliefs concerning this peculiar marine mammal below.

Concepts about the animal world around them

The orca, wolf,Rubcova 1954:156 (see tale ''The orphan boy with his sister'')Menovshchikov 1962:439,441Духовная культура (Spiritual culture), subsection of Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) — see the section on Eskimos raven, spider,Menovshchikov 1962:440–441 whale,Menovshchikov 1962:439–440Rubcova 1954:218 were revered animals. Also folklore (e.g. tale) examples show that: for example a spider saves the life of a girl.Menovshchikov 1962:440–441^[6]
It was thought that the prey of the marine hunt could return to the sea and become a complete animal again. That is why they did not break the bones, only cut them at the joints.^[7]

Orca and wolf

In the tales and beliefs of this people, wolf and orca are thought to be identical: orca can become a wolf or vice versa. In winter, they appear in the form of wolf, in summer, in the form of orca. Orca was believed to help people in hunting on the sea — thus the boat represented the image of this animal, and the orca's wooden representation hang also from the hunter's belt. Also small sacrifices could be given to orcas: tobacco was thrown into the sea for them, because they were thought to help the sea hunter in driving walrus. A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos

Whale

It is thought that during the hunt only those people who have been selected by the spirit of the sea could kill the whale. The hunter has to please the killed whale: it must be treated as a guest. Just like a polite host does not leave a recently arrived dear guest alone, thus similarly, the killed whale should not be left alone by the host (i.e. by the hunter who has killed it). Like a guest, it should not get hurt or feel sad. It must be entertained (e.g. by drum music, good foods). On the next whale migration (whales migrate twice a year, in spring to the north and in the autumn back), the previously killed whale is sent off back to the sea in the course of a farewell ritual. If the killed whale was pleased to (during its being a guest for a half year), then it can be hoped that it will return later, too: thus, also the future whale hunts will succeed.

Celestial concepts

In a tale, the sky seems to be imagined arching as a vault. Celestial bodies form holes in it: beyond this vault, there is an especially light space.^[8]

External links

In English:

★ Asian Eskimo Language page of Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia

★ Ethnologue report

★ The Asiatic (Siberian) Eskimos

★ Yupik (Asiatic Eskimo) by Ludmila Ainana, Tatiana Achirgina-Arsiak, Tasian Tein; part of Alaska Native Collections page

★ Endangered Languages in Northeast Siberia: Siberian Yupik and other Languages of Chukotka by Nikolai Vakhtin
In Russian:

★ Г.А. Меновщиков: Азиатских эскимосов язык is a summary of the Chaplino dialect. It can be read among other articles, collected under name Языки мира — Палеоазиатские языки (Languages of the world — Paleoasian languages).

★ Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) -- see the section on Eskimos

★ Духовная культура (Spiritual culture), subsection of Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) — see the section on Eskimos

★ A radio interview with Russian scientists about Asian Eskimos

★ ICC Chukotka, the regional office of Inuit Circumpolar Council

Bibliography

★ Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.

★ Menovshchikov, G.A.: Grammar of the language of Asian Eskimos. Vol. I. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow • Leningrad, 1962. Original data: Г.А. Меновщиков: Грамматиκа языка азиатских эскимосов. Часть первая. Академия Наук СССР. Москва • Ленинград, 1962.

★ Menoščikov, G.A. (the same author as above!): Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes. Published in Diószegi, Vilmos et Hoppál, Mihály: Folk Beliefs and Shamanistic Traditions in Siberia. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1968, 1996.

★ de Reuse, Willem J. (1994). ''Siberian Yupik Eskimo: The language and its contacts with Chukchi''. Studies in indigenous languages of the Americas. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-397-7.

★ Rubcova, E.S.: Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Academy of Sciences of the USSR
★ Leningrad, 1954. Original data: Е.С. Рубцова: Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Академия Наук СССР. Москва
★ Ленинград, 1954.

Notes

1. Menovshchikov 1968[1996]:442
2. Rubcova 1954:62
3. Rubcova 1954:380
4. Rubcova 1954:380,551–552
5. Rubcova 1954:380
6. Rubcova 1954, tale 13, sentences (173)–(235)
7. Rubcova 1954:379
8. Rubcova 1954:196

See also

★ Sirenik language

★ Siberian Yupik language

★ Yupik language

★ Yupik

★ Eskimo
And also (Eskimos) from Russian Wikipedia.