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« on: June 22, 2019, 08:04:40 PM »
108 SOCIOLOGY
and it is considered most disgraceful for the girl if her fiance has not eaten the contents. Tliis would seem to show that the Yakut attach some importance to the conduct of a girl before marriage.^
Sieroszewski describes what he calls the barbaric means which the Yakut employ to keep girls chaste. This consists of a chastity girdle, a kind of leather trousers, differing from a man's in that they open only at one side, and secured by many leather straps about the loins. This garment is worn constantly, not being re- moved even at night. -
It cannot be said, then, that the Yakut take no care to preserve the chastity of their young women ; though it would seem that their regard for this matter is largely regulated by concern about the Jcali/m. If this has been partly or fully paid, the parents do not take any further interest in preserving the girl's chastity. In other words, the real legal marriage precedes the actual official wedding ceremonies sometimes by several years; and, in fact, is accomplished when the suitor formally hands over to the father of his bride a certain portion of the J:ali/m. During this time the husband has to visit his wife in the house of her family, and any children born in this period live with the mother.^
In the marriage ceremonies of the Yakut several stages may be distinguished : (i) the matchmaking ; (ii) the compact ; (iii) the l)etrothal ; (iv) the bringing home of the bride. They betroth their children often when only one or two years old, but the bride is not given away until a certain part of the kali/m has been i>aid. As a matter of fact, the Yakut do not employ the term kah/m. which they think to be a Russian word ; they say suwu (snlu), or Joirmu, terms which describe the two most important factors in the Tcalym^: swvu [suhi), the payment to the parents, and Jcurnm, that to the family (gens). Other parts of the kaJi/m are : uos assar, ' the opening of the mouth ', which is never returned, and is paid at the beginning of the matchmaking proceedings to propitiate the father of the bride ; and Jioinohor'' Msi, 'the gift for the night'. The Jcalym is made up of horses, cattle, furs, meat, &c.
The marriage ceremonial consists essentially in an exchange of gifts ; for while the bridegroom pays kalym, the bride on her part
* Ibid. ^ Sieroszewski, 12 Lat ir Kraju Yakiitoir, p. 342.
' Langans, The Yakut, 1824, pp. 146-7. Similar statements are to be found in tlie works of N. Kostioff, Customary Law of the Yakut, p. 280, and N. S. Shchukin, Tlie Yakut, 1854, p. 27.
* Sieroszewski, op. cit., p. 325. ^ Maak writes hoinosor.
MARRIAGE 109
brings to his house her dowry, ainiii. The matchmaker, in the person of the bridegroom's father or some other respected person, goes to the house of the bride. This is called t'ningnur tiuscr, ' the arrival of the matchmaker '. Afterwards there follows a visit from the mother of the bridegroom, referred to as hodohol tiuser, 'the arrival of tlie matchmakeress '. She spends two or three days with the bride, is well entertained with rich feasts, as her husband had been, and, when she departs, presents are given to her train.' These, howevei-, are usually returned when tlie bride goes to her new home.
Maak says that after this follows the bringing home of the bride ; J>ut Sieroszewski describes another ceremony which probably pre- cedes the visits of the prospective father-in-law and mother-in-law. This is the betrothal, called Mtegan. Two or three of the most honoured male relatives of the suitor accompany him to the house of the girl's father, where they sit for two days on the billiri/Jc.'^ After this they leave the house, but return in a short time without the suitor, ask the father on his behalf for his daughter's hand, and arrange with him the amount of the Jcalpn. During all this time the girl must be absent, and but seldom is her opinion asked. She, however, often observes the groom without being perceived by him. No one sends matchmakers to a house where a suitor has been refused for a whole year after the refusal.^ Dui-ing the time of her fiance's first visit to a girl he must avoid the rest of her people, being comj^elled to remain behind a hanging which cuts off her special sleeping-place from the rest of the yurta.^
When the marriage compact is concluded this is referred to as sinnahh Ihongoruta, 'they have given their word'.^
At last the father and mother of the bride assemble their relatives and conduct her to the bridegroom's house. This is called tiungnur hodolioi tiuser, i.e. 'arrival of the matchmaker and matchmakeress '. Horses with richly decorated saddles, called charamni, bring the bride's tinna. Her clothes are known as dnnii
^ Maak, Jlie Viluijxk District of the Yakutsk Territonj, 1887, part iii, pp. 93-5.
" Billinjk is a bench in the quietest and warmest nook of the wall in the side of the yurta. The most honoured guest— the shaman who is called in to perform his office, or the matchmaker — is placed upon it. This hiUinjk must be distinguished from another called 'left' hilliryk, the bench on which the Avomen and girls sit and sleep.
^ Sieroszewski, op. cit., pp. 328-30.
* Pavlinoff, Marnage Law of the Yakut, 1871, pp. 300-4.
° Priklonski, op. cit., p. 54.
110 SOCIOLOGY
tangaha, and the cattle she brings as iinnd sieJcJii. The meat and other food that come "with her are called l\ijs lesif, ' gifts of the bride '. In her retinue the men ride first, and the horse on which she is mounted, as richly caparisoned as she herself is richly dressed, is led by the bridle by one of her train. Among them is usually a highly skilled horseman. As the cavalcade approaches the house of the bridegroom there comes thence another good rider, and the two ride a race. The loser is tied to the saddle of the poorest girl in the bride's train, and during the wedding-feast he has to wait upon the guests. This custom is known as ken Jcersier, ' the race of the youths '. The bride does not at once enter the t/urta. Three men who can drink much Icumijs are first sent in, and are given large quantities of this liquor, which they must drink Vl\). Only then does the matchmaker lead into the yurla the bride and all her train.
Then comes the ceremony of ' the sacrifice to the fire ', which is strictly observed even by Christian Yakut. ^
Priklonski- says that the bride approaches the fire from the north, and throwing into it three sticks brought from her own yurta, and a piece of butter, pronounces these words : ' I come as mistress to rule the hearth '. Then she bows to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, and the feast begins, the young couple being seated apart from the rest of the company. After the feast, the married pair retire to the sleeping-place prepared for them.
For three days the bride's gens is entertained by the gens of the groom ; various gifts are then exchanged, and they depart to tiieir homes.
The marriage ceremonies of to-day are without dances or songs, says Sieroszewski ; ^ but he was told by several Yakut that formerly the bride was welcomed to her new abode by a shaman, and that a sacrifice was performed by him on her behalf.
A Yakut wife in her husband's house is surrounded by various prohibitions, which affect both her and the other inmates mutually in their relations to each other. The prohibition which binds the woman is with regard especially to her father-in-law, but refers also to other older male relations. It is known as kinitti, and according to this she (i) is not allowed to pass in front of the fire of the father-in-law and other older male relatives, but must pass
* Maak, op. eit.. pp. 94-5. * Op. cit., p. 56.
3 Op. cit., p. 219.
MARRIAGE 111
l)eliincl it from the north-west ; (ii) must not talk in a loud voice, nor ut;e words with a douldo meaning; (iii) must not call her father-in law by his name, and even if his name signilies an ol)ject in common use, she can only name this object Ijy means of a periphrasis— e. g. if he is called ' Flint', she must say 'fire-stone', when speaking of a flint ; (iv) must not eat of the head of any animal, for the father-in-law is head of the house ; (v) must, when addressing her father-in-law or mother-in-law, draw her cap down as far as possilde over her eyes ; (vi) must not show her hair to her father-in-law, or bare her feet or any part of her body before him.^
Sieroszewski - says that the custom of Jcinitti was formerly much more strict. The bride was forbidden to show herself for seven years after her marriage to her father-in-law or brothers-in-law, or to any male relative of her husband. The married pair lived on the left (women's) side of the yurta behind a special partition. From there, through a crevice, the young woman could observe the men of the household, and so as to avoid meeting them, must pass in or out through the pig-sty entrance of the i/iida and not through that used by the other inmates. If she could not avoid a meeting, she must cover her face: so that sometimes a bride might die without any of the men of the household having seen her features. At the marriage ceremony the bride's sister must not show her head, or so much as her hair, to the bridegroom or to any of his male relations.^
The men of the household must also observe certain rules. Formerly they had to avoid the bride altogether, saying, ' Ah, poor child, she is bashful.'"* Nowadays they need do no more than keep a guard upon their language, so as not to say anything unseemly in her presence, for the Yakut customarily use great freedom in conversation. They must not show in her presence any part of their bodies bare — the arm above the elbow, or the leg above the ankle. The bride enjoys the care and pro- tection of everybody, and it is said that sometimes she does no work for a whole year after marriage, but only eats and sleeps. Her dowry is her personal property and inalienable.^
A Yakut usually takes his wife from another clan {aya-usa).
^ Priklonski, op. cit., pp. 60-1.
2 Op. cit., pp. 337-41. 3 ii^ij,
* Gorokhotf, Kinitti, E. S. S. I. R. G. S., 1887, p. 71.
^ Priklonski, op. cit., p. GO.
112 SOCIOLOGY
Sieroszewski knew of only one case of a man taking a wife from his own gens, and when the woman shortly after marriage grew blind, it was said that this was a pnnishment for breaking an old custom.^ Gorokhoff states that rich Yakut look for their wives not only outside their own clan, but outside the nasleg, i. e. in another uhis.'-' '?'
When the Cossacks fii-st came among the Yakut, they found polygyny fully developed ; but nowadays, as the Yakut have become poorer, and the Icdlijm is somewhat large, it is not so much practised. Another reason for the decline of the custom is that girls die in infancy more frequently than boys, as they are not so carefully tended. The less civilized an vlus is, the fewer women it contains."* Jochelson says : ' The Arctic Yakut, having come into contact with the Yukaghir, must have fallen under the in. fluence of their marriage customs ; for the Yakut living in the northern part of the Kolyma district, near the tundra Yukaghir, do not observe at present their old exogamic custom.' ^
We suggest that the decline of exogamic custom among the Yakut, ascribed by Mr. Jochelson to Yukaghir influence, may be rather the result of environment, which, causing the people to disperse, forces men to take wives from among their own gens. On the other hand, the custom of exogamy among the Yakut is not of an indefinitely ancient date. The following facts may be adduced in support of this assertion : (i) In their legends and traditions there are frequent references to unions between people of the same clans, even between brother and sister ; (ii) the exis- tence of regulations enforcing avoidance of each other among members of the same family ; (iii) the terminology of relationships.
Some of the allusions in the traditions mentioned above are as follows :
' Thy sister was thy wife ; thy mother was thy wife ; the wife of thy brother was also thy wife.' *^ ' Of old when the youth could draw the bow he took to wife his sister and led her to a quiet place.' " * In ancient times when an older or younger sister was
^ Sieroszewski, op. cit., p. 330. ^ GorokhofF, ibid.
^ An uliis is composed of several naslegs.
* Sieroszewski, op. cit., pp. 332-3.
^ Jochelson, The Yukaghir and Yiikaghirized Tungns, J. N. P. E., 1910, p. 80.
® Recorded in the tdus of Bayagantay in 1885. Sieroszewski, op. cit., p. 335.
' Recorded iu the iilus of Namsk, 1891. Sieroszewski, op. cit., p. 335.
MARRIAGE 113
given in nianiage into anotlier clnn, tlie brothers tlid not let her
go before they had lain with her (custom of t7/o/M«««r) When
strangers take to wife from her l)rothers a woman wlio is still a virgin, the brothers account it a shame for themselves.'^ The expression chohmnur is still used to denote having sexual inter- course with a woman, and also making a hostess of her. In the old folk-ballads, olongho, we have allusions to a hero being in danger, and his sister-lover going to his rescue. -
If 3'oung women have sexual relations with men before marriage, it is always within their own clan, and there is a decided tendency towards such relations. In the idus of Kolymsk, in a village called Andalykh, in the autumn the older girls, with the know- ledge of their parents, go at night to small houses on the lake, where they receive boys from the neighbourhood. One night in 1883, Sieroszewski lost his way, and found himself in one of these houses. He heard also of other places in this neighbourhood where girls spent their time in fishing through the ice, and receiving boj's of their clan by day and by night.^
This tendency is restricted by different prohibitions, such as that boys between the ages of ten and twelve must sleep apart from their sisters, in spite of the fact that this entails additional expense for beds. This is not to be accounted for by any con- siderations of mere modesty, for it is not unusual for the girls to appear quite naked in the presence of their brothers.^
The terms of relationship, which will be more fully treated later, are characterized by an absence of any words for ' husband ' and 'father'. The term aga, corresponding to our 'father', literally means only ' older ' : in inquiring some one's age people say, ' Is he aga (older) or haJijs (younger) ? ' The term erim, corre- sponding to our ' husband ', means in fact ' my man '. While the ordinary word for wife is oijoJch, there is a special term for ' my woman' — djaTihatcr-cm:' The term for 'mother' is ?/c, literally, ' womb ', ' embryo '. In the olongho the heroes often go on journeys to find out who their fathers are. That the relation of the child was primarily regarded as being only with the mother is shown Ijy the older name of the clan, yc-vsa, which remains now only as the name of a subdivision of the clan (aga-usa). The members of ye-usa must be of the same blood, while the aga-usa may include
Ibid. 2 Op. cit., pp. 336-7. =» Op. cit., p. 342.
' Op. cit., p. 337. "^ Op. cit., p. 338.
114 SOCIOLOGY
others also. Tlius i/e-usa has retained only a part of its old signifi- cance.^ The al)0ve considerations seem to point to a transition from a matrilineal, matrilocal, and perliaps matripotestal endo- gamic organization to one which is patrilineal, patrilucal, patri- potestal, exogamic.
B. The Altaians.
Wierbicki,- the Kussian missionary, describes the marriage ceremony among the Altaians as it was at the end of the nine- teenth century. He distinguishes two types of the ceremony, as it obtains among (a) the southei*n, and (b) the northern Altaians.^
He says that among the northern Altaians the wife is still usually obtained by capture. From his description it is evident that this form of marriage is so sanctified by public opinion that the capture is now at the stage of becoming jiractically symbolic ; for in the Altaian marriage ceremonies we see at the present day nothing more than symbolic traces of original marriage by capture.
According to the southern form of marriage custom, a young man sends to his jjrospective father-in-law matchmakers, one of whom, kneeling before the father-in-law, delivers the following- eloquent speecli : * I come, bending my knee upon your thres- liold. I come, bowing to your beliefs. I come, in admiration of your way of life. I come to ask you for a head ! May the union that I come to make be as inseparable as two cheeks ; may it be as impenetrable as a warrior's breastplate. May our kinship be as close as the rings in a birch-trunk, or as stitches of silk in a garment ! I come to ask of you a haft for a haftless knife. Nine generations ago there \vas war : I come to make peace."*
' Op. cit., p. 293.
2 Wierbicki, The Xathr.'^ oftho Altai, 1893, pp. 81-5.
' By southern Altaians Wierbicki understands the so-called Kalmuk of Altai. But the name Kalmuk is not correctly applied here, for it implies that these people are Mongolic, whereas, linguistically at least, they are a Turkic tribe. The second tribe included by Wierbicki among the southern Altaians is that of thfi Kalmuk-Uriankhai, who have more of a Mongol admixture. Still another group, according to him, are the Teleut. The northern Altaians he takes to include the Tartars of Chern, cheni being the name of the dense, dark forest which covers the northern slope of the Altai. These so-called Tartars show little trace of Tartar origin, and are the result of a mixture of Turkic and Mongolic tribes. All these people have in common, however, the Turkic language and traditions. (Wierbicki, op. cit., pp. 5-7.)
?* Priklonski says that among the Yakut when a matchmaker comes to a family with whom his principal was formerly at feud, he must bring
MARRIAGE 115
I come ill admiration of your way of life. I come to make a union between us. What answer will you give me ? '
With these words the matchmaker, still kneeling, otters to the father a pipe filled with tobacco, turning the mouthpiece towards him. Meanwhile a second matchmaker holds ready a piece of burning fungus, to present it to the father as soon as he shall stretch out his hand to take the pipe.
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« on: June 22, 2019, 08:01:28 PM »
The typical Gilyak marriage-right includes cousins (though it is exogamic), and marriages are arranged in childhood. The custom of payment for a wife exists, but this is either merely a formality, or what is received is divided among relatives.'* There are now, however, a great many marriages concluded without regard for the rules, for Schrenck ^ speaks of the Jcah/m as the one and only condition of marriage. This Gilyak custom of * buying a wife ' — umgtc geni/ch — he considers similar to the Neo-Siberian (Tungus, Ostyak, Samoyed, Tartar, Votyak) marriage customs. In this case the marriage is concluded, and the groom can take his bride
^ This type of supplementary union is in most cases equivalent to polyandric marriage, and may be accounted for by the unequal propor- tion of the sexes in the population. According to the last (1912) statistics of Piitkanoff, for 2,556 Gilyak men there were only 2,093 women.
-' A. N. MaksimofF, in his work Group-Marriage, 1908, pp. 41-2, ques- tions whether the Gilyak have any regular custom of supplementary unions, called by Sternberg ' group-marriage '. He quotes statements like the above, which show that the collateral j;» enjoys a husband's rights only when the individual husband is away. Or, that when the husband finds his wife in fla<jra:ite delicto with her jj», the expression of his face reveals that he is not indifferent ; and he remarks that among the Amur Gilyak the husband feels no less anger against a pa than against any other man in such circumstances (L. Sternberg, 'The Gilyak of Sakhalin,' E.Ii., 1893, No. 2, p. 26). If a/)^ had a right to the wife of his ruf (brother), the husband would probably sink his jealousy befoi'e that consideration. Maksimoft' thinks that there is no light in question ; it is merely that if a woman betrays her husband with his ruf, this is considered less blameworthy than if she had done so with a stranger (op. cit., p. 41). See Sternberg, 'Hie Gilyak, p. 24.
* Op. cit., p. 29. * Op. cit., p. 81.
^ The Natives of the Amur Country, vol. iii, pp. 2-7.
MARRIAGE 101
homo as soon as tlio 7.(?7//»» is paid. Sometimes the high price of a wife compels a man to abduct her from some remote viHage ; but such an act is usually followed bj'' blood-revenge.^
The higher the price of a wife, the greater is the resjiect paid to her in her husband's famil3\-
A Gilyak will usually have two or three individual wives; rich people have more.^ After the death of a husband, his wife passes, without any Icahjm, to one of his younger lirothers, ac- cording to the decision of the clan. Of course, nominally and even actually, she was already her husband's younger brother's wife, and her children his children"^; but after the husband's death another husband is chosen for social and economic reasons.
If there are no younger brothers, an elder brother of the deceased is chosen to support the widow and her children, but he has no right to live with her as his wife,"' The children ))elong wholly to the father, and succeed to his property at his death. After the l)irth of the first child, the father ceases to be called by his own name, and is known as ' the father of So-and-so '.
VII. The Ainu.
Marriage among the Ainu is generally considered to be exo- gamic, and indeed in one of the tales recorded by Pilsudski," a young man goes outside his own village to visit a young woman he desires to marry, and who. he says, has been ' reared for him '. Another suitor (who in the sequel turns out to be a sea-god) he finds has preceded him, and the parents of the girl are puzzled to know to which of the two they shall give their daughter, for by their inlaid pipes and other marks, the two suitors appear to be from one village, in the same neighbourhood as that of the girl.
On the other hand, in his article on the Ainu in Ephron and Brockhaus's Enojclopacdla, Pilsudski says that the Ainu tries to find a girl for his wife as near by as possible, even in the same village and among near relatives.
* Op. cit., p. 4. ^ Ibid. ^ Sternberg, op. cit., p. 21.
* Sternberg met in the villag'e of Tangi a family in which two brothers lived regularly with one wife, the union being based only on sentiment, for the younger brother was rich and could bu}' a wife for himself (pp. 24-5).
* Op. cit., pp. 81-2.
" B. Pilsudski, Materials /or the Study of the Ainu Language and Folk- Lore, 1912 Tale No. 20, pp. 172-6.
102 SOCIOLOGY
Batclielor' also states that the Ainu marry cousins, and in some cases, nieces, as well as a deceased brother's wife, but they cannot form unions with a sister-in-law's sister or brother's wife's sister. There is a firm belief that violation of this rule will be punished either by death or by failure to have issue.
This restriction, however, does not imply true exogamy, because, as we see from the following quotation,- peoj^le often marry within the village.
' If the j^oung woman herself or her parents have V)een tlie main movers in the business' — pi'oposals of marriage— 'the bridegroom is removed from his own family to take up his a])ode close to the hut of his father-in-law ; he is, in fact, adopted. But if the bride- groom did the wooing, or his parents were the jirime movers, the bride is adopted into his family. Or if a woman of one village chooses a man of another, he, if agreeable, goes to live with her ; or if a man chooses a woman who resides at a distance, she, if agreeable, goes to live with him.^ Persons who marry in their own villages are all called uinival; "blood-relatives", "brethren", but those who remove from their homes to be married into some distant family are called niritak, "relations taken away", or "dis- tant relations", "brethren brought in".'
Betrothal of children exists, but it does not compel these children to marry, if they are unwilling to do so on reacliing maturity. ' The boy and girl exchanged clothes, and, I believe, homes,' says Batchelor,^ ' until the season for their union came round. Then, if the parents of the lad were the prime movers in the proposal, the young lady remained at his home, but if other- wise, the bridegroom went to live with the bride's parents, or at least, in her village.'
The general method among the Ainu of obtaining a wife is by serving for her ; and Pilsudski sa5'S that if jnu'chase of a wife occurs either in real life or in the myths, this is usually in places where the Ainu have come into contact with the Gilyak and are influenced by them.^' ^
' Batchelor, TJie Ainu and their Folk-Lore, 1901, p. 229.
2 Op. cit., p. 225.
^ According to a personal communication from Mr. Pilsudski, the Ainu do not like to give their daughters into another family, but prefer to adopt the son-in-law. His position, though, is much better in such a case than among the Gilyak.
* Op. cit., pp. 227-8. ^ Pilsudski, op. cit., p. 133.
® In a personal communication from Mr. Pilsudski, he says that the follow-
MARRIAGE 103
B.itchelor^ says that if a girl courts a young man. she 'may enslave herself to his jtarents as a price for their son '. Pilsudski,^ however, states that though the custom of ?women trying to win men did formerly exist, it is no longer observed, and Ainu women 'are even very much displeased at any hint of such a thing'. Their mythology ascribes this custom to Tungus women. It is called among the Ainu l-qjnjjoslirc, ' to make the first advances'.
A girl, until she marries, is quite free in her intercourse with men. Some of the myths ?' mention that some time after a girl was married to a man, she married him again ' for good '. In this case we must understand the first 'marriage' as in fact a be- trothal, accompanied by sexual intercourse ; while the second marriage referred to was the real marriage, after which the woman was called macipi, 'the wife'. While she is betrothed, and if she is younger than her fimice, she is called ' circsJiX maci,' ' the brought-up wife ' ; and if she is about the .same age, she is termed uJcoresJce maci.*
Batchelor gives the following desci'iption of the betrothal of an adult man :
' The bridegroom's father takes a small sword, and, placing it in the hands of the father of the bride, says: "This sword is a pledge of betrothal ; take it and M'orship. Do thou pray to the goddess of fire." Then, having received the sword, he worships the fire, saying: "We have here and now settled to marry our son and daughter ; therefore, O thou goddess of fire, hear thou and be witness thereto. Keep this couple from sickness, and watch over them till they grow old." The bridegroom's father then receives the sword, and worships in like manner.'
The marriage ceremony consists in a feast and exchanging of presents, the old men making fetiches for the new * heart of the house '.
'Soon after marriage the bridegroom makes a knife-sheath, a spoon, a shuttle, and a weaving-loom, and presents them to his bride. This ... is called mat-eilara, i.e., "making my wife". The bride then makes a girdle, a pair of leggings, a necklace, and
ing fact will show how foreign the idea of wife-purchase is to the Ainu mind : If an Ainu wishes to purchase a wife, the only way he can accom- plish his end is to form illicit relations with another man's wife. If the fact becomes known, a divorce follows, and the Ainu is compelled to pay damages to the aggrieved husband.
1 Op. cit., p. 230. 2 Op. cit., p. 142.
3 Pilsudski, op. cit., p. 236 ; also p. 59. * Op. cit., p. 63.
104 SOCIOLOGY
a headdress, which she j^resents to her husband ; this is called IwTiu ciJiara, "making my husband", ' ^
Polyg5'ny is practised ; and according to Batchelor a man's wives ' live in separate houses, and are not on speaking terms with one another'.-
Polyandry is unknown among the Ainu •"' ; occasional cases only occur in districts bordering on Gilyak territory.
Divorces are of frequent occurrence. The matter is settled by the eldest of the clan ; the children being either divided between the two parties, or all given to the one who is considered in- nocent."* Among the grounds for divorce, according to Batchelor, are, on the part of the man, ' want of love towards her, or of her towards him ; incompatibilit}' of temper ; general disrespect on the wife's part ; idleness, and failure to keep the hut supplied with fuel and vegetable food ; unfaithfulness ; lack of male issue. A woman might dissolve her connection with her husband for the reason of adultery, dislike to him, idleness, inability to keep the larder supplied with fish and animal food. . . . When a man divorced his wife, he merely made her a present and sent lier back to her parents, and when a woman wished to be free from her husband, she simply walked off and left him to shift for him- self. In cases which have occurred under my own eye, the subject was made more of a familj^ aifair. and the presents were sent to the parents of the women who were divorced, and were not given to the women themselves.' ' Unfaithfulness is usually punished by beating."
Both Sternberg" and Pilsudski" agree that the Ainu are the only people of north-eastern Asia among whom strong traces of mother-right are found. Pilsudski says that they are just at the stage of transition from mother-right to father-right. As traces of matriarchy he cites the superior position of women among the Ainu as compared with neighbouring tribes, e.g. the Gilyak. Tliis is especially evident during pregnancy, when she is surrounded
' Batclielor, op. cit., p. 226. - Op. cit., p. 231.
=" Pilsudski, op. cit., p. 130.
* Pilsudski, 21ie Ainu, Epliron and Brockhaus's Encyclopaedia. "^ Pilsudski, op. cit., p. 233.
" Pilsudski, op. cit., p. 63; Batchelor, op. cit., p. 234. ' 'Hie Gihjal; 1905, p. 21.
* Pilsudski, ' Schwangerschaft, Entbindung und Fehlgeburt bei den Bewohnern der Insel Sachalin (Giljaken und Ainu) ', in Anthropos, 1910, pp. 762-4.
MARRIAGE 105
with every care, and even regarded with veneration. Marriage is never by purcliase. If the husband does not go to live in the house of his wife's parents, the wife goes to him, but the first few yeai-s after marriage are usually spent with her parents, in whose house her first child is often born.
Relationship through the mother is of more importance than that through the father, the maternal uncle being very often the most important member of the family.^ Another evidence of this state of things may be cited from Batchelor, who, however, curiously enough, considers it a mark of the inferior social position of women after marriage : ' When not called by her own maiden name (a wife) is merely called So-and-so's wife ... as long as her husband is living. Should he die, she is always known by her name as a maiden, or called So-and-so's mother, should she have a son or daughter.' -
THE NEO-SIBERIANS. VIII. The Tungusic Tribes.
The Tungus proper, Christians and non-Christians, customarily begin sexual intercourse with their wives long ))efore official marriage ; as soon, in fact, as a certain portion of the Icalym (ten reindeer, more or less) has been paid to the father of the bride.''
The Tungus of the Yeniseisk Government practise polygamy. According to PatkanofF,* a girl is free to choose her husband ; and if her father does not approve of her choice, she elopes with the man she has chosen. Samokvasoff "" says that among the Tungus of Nerchinsk and Verkhneudinsk, there exists a custom of inter- change of children, one family giving a son in exchange for a daughter from another family. In this exchange, however, the father of the bride still receives a small Icahpn from the groom.'' The Tungus give as a daughter's dowiy a new suit for the husband, a cover for the chum (tent), some reindeer, and some household
^ Op. cit., PI). 763-4; see also The Ainu, Ephron and Brockhaus's Eticijclopaedia, by the same author.
» Batchelor, op. cit., p. 226.
^ A. Sgibnieff, Tlie Tungus of the Sea-Coast Territory, 1859, p. 42 ; see also Patkanoff, Essay on the Geography and Statistics of the Tungusic Tribes of Siberia, 1906, part ii, p. 281.
? Op. cit., p. 282.
® Samokvasoff, A Code of Customary La>v among the Aborigines of Siberia, 1876, p. 65.
« Ibid.
106 SOCIOLOGY
utensils. The Trans-Baikal Tungus give a complete house.^ The hilf/m usuall}^ consists of reindeer. If, after paying the whole lalf/m, the bridegroom should die before taking home his bride, his rights in the woman pass to a brother or other near relative, who has to pay no further Imljim. Tliis, however, is conditional upon the claimant's l)eing not more than twenty years older, or ten years younger, than the bride.'-
If an elder brother dies, his wife goes to a younger brother ; or sometimes a father will take the wife of a deceased son, it l^eing considered that he bought her with the Tcali/m he paid for his son.^
If a wife is taken in adultery with her lover, both receive coi'poral punishment. The lover, if he does not belong to the same gens, has besides to give up his horse to the offended husl)and.*
In spite of this rule, it must ])e observed that a Tungus husband will often wink at illicit relations between his wife and, e.g., American fishermen, since this is found profital)le. This partially accounts for the fact that the husbands themselves are quite frequently unfaithful to their w'ives.
The Tungus proper are exogamic ; but on this point there is a lack of detailed information, bej'ond the fact that they purchase their wives from another gens (clan). The Tungus who have migrated to the Arctic region very often marry within the clan.
The Tungusic tribe of Goldi has a custom under which the bride must avoid the bridegroom from the time of the match- making until the l.ast moment of one of the marriage ceremonies, called dansari. At the dansari there is a certain ceremony called ' first meeting of the two ' {di/relacJio-iiri). After this a feast is held for the guests, and afterwards, when every one is going to bed, the bride is led to the bridegroom, and they are placed beneath the same blanket, even though she may be quite imma- ture. No sexual act takes place at this time, however. After this the bride remains some time longer in her parents' house, and is not taken to the house of the bridegroom until the time for the performance of the next ceremony, hhosodabgalilni.'' She re- ceives as her dowry various garments, carpets, household utensils.'' Only rich people can afford to have more than one wife.
* P. Tretyakoff, The Country of Turnldiaml; p. 380.
^ Samokvasoff, op. cit., p. 45. ^ Op. cit., p. 65. * Op. cit., p. 26.
^ P. Shiinkevich, ' Moments of Goldi Life,' E.R., pp. 12-13.
^ Op. cit., pp. 14-15.
I
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Another Tungusic tiil>p— tlio Orochi — have collective marriage existing alongside of individual marriage similar to that of the Gilyak. The}- have a classificatory system, the terms of which correspond with the norms of sexual relations, and they preserve considerable traces of cousin-marriage. The difference l»etween the Gilyak and Orochi is that a man's elder brothers are included in the same class as his father's younger brothers. Hence a man can marry the wife of his father's j'ounger brother, or his niece. Two-sided cousin-marriage is allowed. Owing to their nomadic life, however, these rules are not very strictly preserved.^
An Orochi generally has only one wife, though rich people may have several. Poor men often carry off other men's wives, ]>ut this is usually followed by bloodshed. Patkanoff says that a custom exists among them of giving their wives and daughters to honoured guests for the night. -
The custom of avoidance binding the wife, sometimes the bride- groom, with regard to the relatives on the side of each respectively, which prevails among the Finnic, Mongolic, and Turkic tribes of Siberia, does not seem to have been observed among the Tungus.
IX. The Turkic Tribes.
A. The Yakut.
It would seem at first sight that the Yakut girl is fairly free in her relations with men before the official marriage. In the southern provinces of the Yakut district, says Priklonski,'" a. fiance has the rights of a husband towards the girl after he has paid the first instalment of the lali/m. Whenever he pays her a visit he must make her a gift, and then only her parents give tacit consent to his spending the night with her. But we read also in the same author that among certain families there still exists the following ancient custom: At the head of the bed where the betrothed lie together (in the gii'l's home, if the Imhjm is not fully paid up. in the man's, if it is) is placed a cup of salamata.* The man, if he is satisfied with his fiancee, eats up the salamata ; if not, he leaves it untouched. The parents secretly inspect the cup ;
^ Sternberg, The Turano-Ganotcanian System and the Xations of Is.E. Asia, Int. Congr. Am., 1912, London, pp. 326-7.
* Patkanoff, op. cit., p. 116.
» Priklonski, 'Three Years in the Yakutsk, Territory,' L.A. T., 1891, p. 54.
* Salamata, i. e. meal fried in melted butter.
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The custom of avoidance might perhaps prevent marriages between relatives in spite of the inclination of the Yukaghir towards consanguineous marriages, but it could not lead to a strict exogamy owing to the environment. ' As a hunting tribe they frequently have to scatter in various families, or groups of related families, in search of food. In such cases, being isolated and far away from other tribes or clans, they have had to satisfy their sexual desires within the group or even within the family."*
1 Op. cit., p. 76. 2 Op. cit., p. 77. ^ Op. cit., p. 80.
* Op. cit., p. 86. ?• Ibid. « Op. cit., p. 82.
' Op. cit., p. 84. « Op. cit., p. 86.
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This could not be prevented even by the extreme sh3'ness which, according to Jochelson, characterizes the social relations of the Yukaghir. Jochelson says that the exogamic Tungus and Yakuts were influenced by the Yukaghir marriage customs where they came into contact in the north, but we may just as well suppose that it was the influence of their new environment, so different from tliat in their original home in the south.
When a man favours a girl, he begins to perform different services for her relatives. These are silently accepted or rejected without explanation. They are called pogUomt (* to serve for '), and form a test of the man's ability. The period of service is shorter if the groom is an able man, or if the bride becomes pregnant, or if the fiather feels that the man has already become sufficiently attached to his house. ^
In former days the groom had to chop wood before the house of his future father-in-law. After three da5'S of this work, if the fuel was accepted, it meant that he was accepted also. Then the father- in-law went with him to the wood and chose the thickest tree he could. The gi'oom had to cut this down and drag it to his father- in-law's house, and then only was he accepted. Nowadays, says Jochelson, an intermediary is sent, and, in a standing posture, he says to the girl's parents :
'Father and mother, I have come to you on an errand. The old man [the name of the young man's father follows] sends his greetings, and wants me to tell you that he wishes to sit with you at one hearth.' [Free translation.]
But the bride's father answers diplomatically:
* Do not come to me with such propositions.' [Free translation.]
The matchmaker leaves the house, but returns on the following day, and says:
' Father, mother, my orphan-lad you to the hearth's warmth why not admit ? '
The bride's father answers :
' I have to find out what the other relatives think of it.'
The matchmaker thanks him for his answer and retires, but returns again after some time, saying:
' My father, my mother, what words with, what thoughts with, do (you) sit? Your good word to hear, having come, (I) stand.'
The father of the girl invites the matchmaker to a seat by his side, saying :
» Op. cit., p. 88.
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* I will say, tho bridogroom shall be admitted to my house if he is willing to stay witli me till the end of my life, till my death.' ^
The matchmaker thanks him and goes away, and the next night, when the groom comes to the sleeping-tent of his wife, as he has done before, he brings with him his hunting implements and places them where they can be easily seen, thus formally becoming a member of the family. He must not, however, bring anything more than his clothes and weapons, 'for', say the Yukaghir. 'he comes to a ready-made bed.'-
Usually the young people settle the matter between themselves before this formal ceremony, but the father may sometimes object to having the young man as his son-in-law, which does not, however, prevent the girl receiving him at night.
The son-in-law occupies a very subordinate position. Only when he has his own children does he acquire the right to use some of the furs and other objects without permission. Only after the death of his fathei--in-law and other old men of the family, and when his wife's brothers go away to their fathers-in- law, does he become the head of the family."'
If the young man wants to leave his father-in-law, he can be prevented from taking his wife with him, unless he has his own children. Sometimes two families exchange their girls, and some families do not allow the youngest daughter and the youngest son to go aAvay.*
The Yukaghir of the tundra, who have been in contact with the Tungus, combine their own custom of 'serving 'for the bride with the Tungus' custom of purchasing her {marxin-woJcn, i. e. ' the price of a girl ') and taking her to the house of the bride- gi'oom's parents.
The service for a wife lasts from one to three years ; and if the parents reject the man, he leaves the house without receiving any compensation. The marriage ceremonies are here more compli- cated and better preserved. When the matchmaker comes to the house, he brings some presents of skins called ' the mouth-opener ' {anan loholcrctc). After the parents have given their consent, he settles with them the price of the bride and the time when she can be removed to the house of her parents-in-law ; Avhen this
^ Op. cit., p. 89. == Ibid.
^ The son-in-law is nexiijinl to the parents and elder relations of his wife, but he is not bound by this custom in relation to the younger generation. ?• Op. cit,, pp. 90-2.
MARRIAGE 95
time conios, the bridegroom leaves the parents of the bride, a,nd his parents frequently move their camp near to her home. The matchmaker and his wife come to fetch the bride ; he states the price paid for her and inquires what her dowry is to be. On one of the sledges accompanying the bride are placed the wedding clothes for the bridegroom, which she has made with her own hands. But before the bride's train sets out on its journej', her father kills a reindeer, and with its blood the mother and the match- maker's wife smear the girl. This is termed * a washing ' (meciecum). Concerning this custom, the Yukaghir say they wash the child ' before it is sent away to live with strangers '. After this, the bride is dressed in her best garments, her face being covered with a kerchief, and the matchmaker and his wife place her in the first sledge, they walking beside her. Some relative in the wedding party fires a gun to protect the bride from the attacks of evil spirits : this is called ' shooting into the eyes of the evil spirits '.'
'On reaching their place of destination the train makes three rounds about the tent of the bridegroom's parents, stopping opposite the place where the nuptial bed is to be prepared inside. Nobody comes out to meet the bride, but a young girl lifts the door-flap of the tent, and the matchmaker leads in the bride. All the bridegroom's relatives are assembled in the tent. The kerchief is removed from the bride's face, and she bows to the parents and to all the relatives older than the bridegroom. Then the matchmaker's wife brings in the skins, the blanket, and other articles of bedding, prepares the nuptial bed in the place previously appointed, and sets the bride upon it. The costume sewed by the bride for the bridegroom is then brought in. He puts it on, and seats himself beside his bride. Then the matchmaker's wife brings the presents, consisting of kerchiefs, shawls, trinkets, knives, and other articles, and distributes them among the relatives.' -
The reindeer brought by the bride have their heads behind the antlers painted red, and are then turned in among the rest. Then the matchmaker and the groom take certain reindeer from the herd of the latter's parents, and, accompanied by the bride, they lead them to her father's house to serve as her purchase-price. ' The matchmaker has a long leather halter and the bridegroom a short one. The bride's father comes out of the tent to accept the
^ Op. cit., p. 94. 2 j]ji^|_
96 SOCIOLOGY
reindeer, and the matchmaker gives him the long haltor to symholize that the reindeer nowhelong to him. The bridegroom, however, retains his short halter.' ' They then return home, announcing the success of their mission, and the bridegroom's father sends the matchmaker to invite the parents and relatives of the bride to the wedding feast. A separate place is prepared for the couple on the skins which form their bedding. After the feast, the father of the bridegroom, with the help of the match- maker, distributes presents to the bride's father and other relatives. These presents usually consist of spoons, plates, arrows, and axes. Then the guests disperse, and tlie married couple are left in the tent, which they do not leave for three days. On the fourth day they go to visit the bride's parents.'-
If we take into consideration the fact that the reindeer and other presents exchanged during these ceremonies are fairly equal in value, we cannot regard any of them as the purchase-price of the bride, as is the case among the Tungus ; neither do we find here, either actually or symbolically, any trace of marriage by capture.-' Jochelson says that among the Christianized Yukaghir the Church ceremony is performed one or more years after the native wedding.*
We do not find open polygyny in the present marriage customs of the Yukaghir, but it existed previously, though only to a limited extent. Of course, as a man went to live in his father-in- law's house, he could not very well bring another woman there ; unless, as some facts indicate, the wives were sisters, and in this case the custom of ncxiyini was violated.^ Good hunters, strong warriors, and shamans, who did not as a rule live in the houses of their fathers-in-law, frequently had more than one wife. We find also that in some cases a man played the part of son-in-law in one house for one part of the year, and in another house for the rest of the year. Jochelson met a Yukaghir on the Korkodon Kiver who told him that his father had lived in this way." In those parts where the Cliukchee have come into contact with the Yukaghir, the latter have adopted a form of supplementary union called by certain authors ' group-marriage ', in which members of one group visit and may cohabit with the wives of another group, with certain restrictions."
» Ibid. 2 Op. cit., p. 95. ^ Maksinioft; op. cit., p. 43.
* Jochelson, op. cit., p. 96. ^ Op. cit., p. 110.
« Op. cit., p. 111. ?' Op. cit., p. 112.
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Although Me see in the Yukaghir marriage some matrilocal arrangements, it docs not follow that we have here an instance of matriarchy ; for the children are called by the name of the father, they reckon their descent from their father's male ancestors, and the duty of blood-revenge is incumbent on paternal relatives. According to an old Yukaghir, there once existed the custom of reckoning the first son and daughter among the relatives of the mother and the rest among those of the father ; but, as Jochelson t>bserves,^ this was probably in order to keep the son-in-law in the house of his wife's parents. At the present day, Russian law calls all children born previous to the Church marriage after the mother, and the rest after the father.
VI. The Gilyak.
^Vmong these people a girl is not necessarily a virgin until she marries, and if the parents are careful of her behaviour it is for two special reasons : (a) they fear that the girl may be united to a man who is not of her own social position ; they fear that a child born of the union may be out of the marital class to which it ought to belong. In this case, as well as in that where the father is unknown, the child must be killed.^ A man ' without father' is called ytk-lcliairnd, and is a pariah, who does not belong to the marital class, cannot associate with women, &c. But there are, in fact, very seldom such men ; for as soon as a girl is observed to be pregnant, she is forced to tell the name of her seducer. He is then called upon to marry the girl, and usually consents very readily, as the lal/jm in such circumstances is a small one. Only when the girl refuses to tell the name of the father of her child is the infant killed to save the clan from shame. '^
But a Gilyak woman will very seldom have intercourse with a man of a forbidden matrimonial class, i. e. with a man who is not of the class of jpu (husband) to her, and Sternberg says that they condemn Russian women who sell themselves for money.*
The marital classes of the Gilyak are based strictly on relation- ship, and are interwoven with the regulation of sexual relations. Age pla5-s here no part, for we sometimes find old men and young lads in the same class.
» Op. cit., pp. 112-13. 2 Sternberg, The Gilijak, 1905, p. 25.
' Op. cit., p. 82. " Op. cit., p. 26.
167S Q
98 SOCIOLOGY
There aie four main social classes : I. Ite, father's fathers. II. Ymlc (mother) and ytk (father). III. Angcy (wife) and^ or ivn (husband). IV. Tuvn, brothers and sisters, real and classificatory.^
The Gilyak calls not only his own mother ynik, but also all her sisters and all the wives of his father's brothers, real and classifi- catory, as well as the sisters of these women. He calls not only liis own father iitk, but also the husbands of his mother's sisters, and his father's brothers ; though in certain tribes, e.g. in Sak- halien, the term is applied only to the younger brothers of his father. A Gilyak woman names by the term j)u not only her husband, but his brothers and the husbands of her sisters. The Gilyak calls not only his wife angei), but also the wives of his elder brothers (real and classificatory), and these wives' sisters, and similarly all sisters of his wife. He used the same term for all daughters of his uncles (proper) and all daughters of the brothers of the women whom he calls ymlcr
These classes could only originate under a rule by which all men in one class, A, had to take wives from another class, B, so that the men of class A are destined from birth to marry the daughters of their mother's brothers. This most important regu- lation of Gilyak marriage is implied in their saying : ' Thence, whence you came forth — from the clan of your mother— you must take your wife.' Although this regulation is not strictly kejjt at present, it still exists in their terminology, the woman who is not of the mother's clan being called yol^h, i. e. the woman with whom sexual i-elations are forbidden (the elder brothers among the eastern Gilyak, who are forbidden to have intercourse with their younger brothers' wives, call them yolh). Also the woman who is a relative on the mother's side is called angey ;
^ This term for the class of brothers and sisters, real and classificatory, appears in print in four different forms : t'uer, nif, rum, iuvn. As Dr. Sternberg uses the term turn (see pp. 22, 26, and 106 of Sternberg's work) more often than r»r«, we prefer to follow the former spelling, rather than the spelling riif, which occurs in some works in English. Ruer appears to be a misprint.
* There is, however, a difference between western and eastern Gilyak in this respect. Among the foi"mer a man terms his 'wives' — angey — all his brothers' wives ; while among the latter only the wives of the elder brother are addressed as angey, the wives of the younger ones being called yokh (forbidden class). See op. cit., pp. 22-3.
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while even to-day the correct marriage is one with the daughter of tlie mother's brother (real or classificatory). On the other hand, marriage with the daughter of the father's sister, or the inter- change of daughters, is forbidden.^ When Sternberg made his registration of families he discovered how greatly this custom preponderates even now.
During the census which Sternbeig undertook in order to study the Gilyak family and gens structure, he was impressed by the large immber of married w^omen in one gens who call themselves * sisters' and the older women 'aunts', and who in the latter case were actually in that relation to the older women. Thus, in spite of great changes in the social structure of these natives, the old marriage regulations are still quite strongly preserved.^
The following schematic table showing the original marriage regulations of three family-gentes, forming one clan, is given :
Gens A. Gens B. Gens C. Male A marries fe- Male B marries fe- Male C marries fe- male B (sister of male male C (sister of male male A (sister of male B). Their sons marry C). Their sons marry A). Their sons marry daughters B ; and their daughters C; and their daughters A; and their daughters marry sons daughters marry sons daughters marry sons C. A. B.
Inside the clan there is an endogamic arrangement, while each gens is exogamic. The gens B, which gives wives to the gens A, is called ahmalk (i.e. father-in-law); and towards gens C, which takes wives from gens A, it is in the relation of tuyma ahmalk (remote father-in-law). Gens C, in relation to A, is called ijn^gi (son-in-law). All three clans call each other ^a^u// (cognate).
In some cases, if the brother has only one daughter, and the sister several sons, or vice versa, not every man can have a wife.^ This holds, of course, only with regard to having an individual wife ; but all people who are in the relation of angey and pu have really the right of sexual intercourse, not only before, but also after, the individual marriage. In the absence of her husband, a wife can have intercourse with any man who is pu to her. Frequently it is the brothers of the husband, or those pu who live in the same village, that take advantage of this privilege. Sometimes a man from a distant part, hearing that an angey of
' People who cannot marry or have sexual intercourse are under the law of avoidance. Even brothers and sisters are forbidden to speak to or look at one another.
2 Op. cit., p. 'ib. 3 Op. cit., p. 32.
H 2
100 SOCIOLOGY
his is living in a certain village, will come to claim his right. A Gilyak accompanying Sternberg came with him from the west to the east coast and found there an angcif in one of the yurta.^
If a wife is discovered having intercourse with a man who is not her 2m, this involves a fight or tlie severe punishment of the man ; but if the individual husband finds a^w with his wife, only the expression of his face reveals that he is not indifferent, for he cannot take any action.^
If a Gilyak M'oman has a son, she usually asks her brother to betroth the boy to his daughter. The boy's father ties a dog's hair round the wrist of the girl in token of the betrothal. When the girl is five or six years old, she usually j^asses to the house of her future husband, with whom she grows up, and whose wife she Ijecomes at maturity.^
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MARRIAGE 85
him in the cult of his ancestors. Nevertheless, to a certain extent, she is always under the protection of lier blood-relatives.'
Divorce is simple and easy, the daughters of the marriage remaining with the mother, and the sons with the father. Some Koryak men divide their reindeer equally between their children when the latter marry— others give more to the sons. On the father's death, daughters as a rule receive nothing ; sons or, in their absence, brothers of the deceased, being the beneficiaries. A widow's reindeer become the possession of her brother-in-law, with whom she lives unless she has children, in which case the brother-in-law has only temporary charge of them.-
The Koryak levirate rules are as follows ^ :
1. The widow must be married to the younger brother, younger cousin, or nephew (son of sister or brother) of her deceased husband.
2. The widower must marry the younger sister, younger cousin, or niece (daughter of sister or brother) of his deceased wife.
According to Jochelson, the Koryak levirate has for its object the maintenance of the union between two families. Thus, the brother of a married woman will very often court her husband's sister, and such marriages are preferred. Most frequently mar- riages are contracted between the inhabitants of neighbouring villages.
If the Koryak levirate aims at strengthening family alliances, why then cannot a widower marry his deceased Avife's elder sister, and why cannot a widow marry her deceased husband's elder brother? To this question Jochelson suggests the following reply : That the elder brother and elder sister occupy the places of the mother or father in the family should either of the parents die, and so marriage of the widower with the elder sister of his former wife, and of the wudow with the elder brother of her former husband, are held to be as incestuous as if these relations- in-law were actually the parents.
In Kamenskoye a younger brother mat) marry the widow of his eldest brother, and a younger sister may marry the widower of her eldest sister, while in other places they must do it. There are however, cases where the widow goes to live in the house of her dead husband's younger brother without becoming his wife.*
1 Op. cit., p. 74G. ^ Op. cit. pp., 745-7.
» Op. cit., p. 749. ?• Op. cit., pp. 749-52.
8G SOCIOLOGY
Owing to the custom of levirate and the great desire for children, polygyny is frequent, and in the mythology we have tales of great Avari'iors ^\?ho had harems of women taken by force. The first wife is the mistress of the house, and the husband even sleeps between the wives, but the first alwajs lies on his right. ^
Su])plementary unions were liot found by Jochelson among the modern Koryak, and they themselves deny that the custom of exchanging wives ever existed among them.- The statements of Krasheninnikoff and Steller bearing on this point are slightly different. Steller says that among the inhabitants of Kamchatka men sometimes decided to exchange wives, but he does not say what people he refers to.-' Krasheninnikoff relates that the Rein- deer Koryak are very jealous, so that a man will kill his wife merely through suspicion, and if he find her with a lover, will rip open with a knife the abdomens of both offenders. Owing to this, married M'omen make themselves as repulsive-looking as possible, having uncombed hair, unwashed feet and hands, and worn-out clothing."* On the contrary, among the Maritime Koryak, as among the Chukchee, a\ hen friends exchange visits, or when guests come to the house, they sleep with the wife and daughters of the host, who leaves the house for the night, in some cases to spend it with the wife of the guest ; in consequence of this the women are very careful as to their appearance. '
With regard to abnormal sexual relations, Krasheninnikoff says that the Koryak had no concubines, but that some of them kept Tcoeliclmch whom they called l:eijev (Jochelson writes qcccu).^ They did not occupy honourable positions, as among the Kamchadal, but were kept in subjection, and to be termed l;eycv was a great insult." Kei/ev are not found among the Koryak of to-day, and * transformed shamans ', i. e. those who have apparently changed their sex, have now almost died out among these people, while the few that remain are, as Jochelson thinks, more closely connected with shamanistic exhibitions of power. ^ Even in the case of the Chukchee, who still occasionally have * transformed
1 Op. cit., pp. 754-5. = Op. cit., p. 756. '' Steller, p. 347.
" Krasheiiinnikoft", ed. 1819, p. 201. ^ Op. cit., p. 202.
* It must be remembered that neither Krasheninnikoff nor any other author who mentions koekrhiich explains precisely who these people were, whether men or women. It is onl}- conjecture that they were men living tnodo Socratis. This question will be more fully discussed in the chapter on ' Shaman and Sex '.
'' Op. cit., p. 222. ^ Jochelson, op. cit., p. 755.
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shiuiians ', Bogoras fouml among 3,000 Kolyma Chukchee only five cases of men changing into women, and only two of them were 'married'. Krasheninuikoff mentions another 'marriage rela- tion ' which can be called abnormal or mystical. The Maritime Koryak have at times ordinary stones instead of wives. A man will put clothes on such a stone, put it in his bed, and sometimes caress it as if it were living. Two such stones were given to Knisheninnikoflf by a man called Okerach from Ukinsk ; one of them he called his wife, and the other his son.^
III. The Kamciiadal.
According to Krasheninuikoff,'- when a Kamchadal wished to marry, he looked for a woman in the next village, very seldom in his own. Having chosen one, he asks her parents to allow him to serve them for a certain period : this permission is easily obtained, and during the time of service he endeavours to win their favour. When the period is at an end, he asks to be allowed to take the woman, and if he has found favour in the eyes of her, her parents, and her relatives, he marries her ; if not, they recompense him for his services. At times a man takes service in a strange village without disclosing his intentions, which remain unknown, unless revealed by a friend or cousin.
Having obtained permission to take his bride, he is still obliged to capture her, because now all the women of the village protect her from him. She is dressed in several heavy gowns and closely wrapped up so that she looks like a stuffed figure.^ If he is fortunate enough to find her alone, or only a few women with her, he throws himself upon her, and, loosening the strings, he tears off her clothes until she is naked, for the w^hole marriage ceremony consists in his touching her sexual organs with his hand.^ This is not always easy ; because, although when clothed in this way she cannot defend herself, tlie women with her are very active in their defence of her.^ There is a case on record of a man who for
' Krasheninnikoff, op. cit., p. 222.
2 Op. cit, ed. 1819, vol. ii, p. 164. ^ Op. cit., p. 165.
* Steller's account on the whole agrees with that of Krasheninnikoff. He says that the essential part of the marriage ceremony consists in * Einstecken des Fingers in die Schaam'. (Op. cit., p. 345.)
* It is only among the Koi7ak and Kamchadal in Siberia that this action constitutes the essential element of the marriage ceremony; but a similar rite is found amonor certain tribes of the north-western Amerinds.
88 SOCIOLOGY
ten years had been trying to obtain his wife, and his head and body were much disfigured by his struggles, which were neverthe- less quite in vain. Sometimes, however, the bridegroom obtains an immediate victory, and then he must leave the woman as soon as possible and she must call after him in a caressing voice, *Mi, Mi, Mi, Mi, Mi ! ' The same night he comes to sleep with her, and the next day he takes her to his home without any ceremony.^ Only after some time does he come with her to her parents' house to celebrate their marriage.^
In 1713 Krasheninnikoff witnessed, near the Eiver Katuga in Kamchatka, the following marriage ceremony. * The bride, and the bridegroom with his relatives, went to his father-in-law in rude boats. The women, including the bride, sat in the canoes, which were guided by the men, all quite naked. The women carried with them a quantity of prepared food. About 100 metres from the house, they landed and began to sing, and a shamanistic ceremony was performed over the head of a fish, which was after- wards given to the eldest woman of the company.^
' Then over the bride's dress they placed more garments, so that she looked like a stuffed figure, and the bridal pair with their attendants returned to their boats. On reaching the landing-place near the house, the bride was carried into the dwelling by a young lad sent for her by her parents. A leather strap was placed round her body, and by this means she was let aown from the roof into the yurta. She was preceded by the oldest woman already mentioned, who placed the dried fish on the threshold so that the pair as well as all the company might step over it. Then the woman stamped on it and placed it on the wood for the fire.'^ All the guests sat down and the women removed the extra garments,
See F. Boas, The Indian of the Lower Fraser Biver (Brit. Ass. Adv. So., 1894) and J. Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, J. N. P. E., vol. i, p. iv ; also the same author. The Lillooet Indians, J. N. P. E., vol. ii, part v.
^ The other authority on the Kamchadal (Itahnen), Steller (Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, 1774), agrees -with Krasheninnikoff that the man must serve the woman's father (' er kann auf keine andere Art zu einor Frau kommen, als er muss sie dem Vater abdienen '), but he difl'eis in stating that after the ceremony of resistance by the women the bridegroom comes to live in his father-in-law's house. Maksimoff (op. cit., p. 50) supposes that they are both right, in that both customs have existed among these people, or else that Steller describes the more ancient customs, and Krasheninnikoff those which are more modern and affected by Russian influence.
=* Op. cit., p. 166.
2 Op. cit., pp. 167-9. * Op. cit., p. 168.
MARRIAGE 89
\Yhich were divided among the relatives ; the latter also presented gifts. The next day the father-in-law entertained his guests, and on the third day all the company dispersed except the newly- married pair, who had still to work for some time for the father- in-law.' ^
All these ceremonies are held only in the case of a first marriage. A widow marries a second husband without ceremony, but before any one takes her as a wife she must have intercourse with some one else, who is usually a stranger, as the fulfilment of the office is rather despised. Krasheninnikoff relates that in former times this fact prevented some widows from marrying a second time, but since the Cossacks were established there, they perform the office of a stranger.-
Marriage was forbidden only between a father and his daughter and a mother and her son. A son-in-law could marry his mother- in-law, and a father-in-law could marry his daughter-in-law. Marriage was also allowed between first cousins. Divorce was easily obtained, and it consisted in a simple separation. Re- marriage is allowed, in the case of the woman, without the ceremony of capture and without the intercourse above mentioned (termed by Krasheninnikoff a purification ceremony). A man could have two, three, or more wives according to his wealth. Sometimes each wife lived in her own yurta, sometimes all lived together, and each of them must be captured as above described. ' These people ', says Krasheninnikoff, ' are not so jealous as the Koryaks. They do not look for virginity when marrying, and some of them told me that the son-in-law may even reproach his parents-in-law if his wife is a maid. This, however, I was unable to confirm. The women also are not jealous, as is seen not only from the fact that several wives of one husband live together quite peaceably, but that they acquiesce in the presence of the koek- chiicli whom some Kamchadal keep instead of concubines.'"^ Steller^ confirms Krasheninnikoff in his statement about virginity not being regarded as essential in a bride.
IV. The Kuril.
According to Krasheninnikoff,'' the Kuril marriage ceremony was similar to that of the Kamchadal. A man would have several
' Ibid. 2 Qp (.it^ p 169 ; Steller, op. cit., p. 346.
=> Op. cit., pp. 169. 170. " Steller, op. cit., 1774, pp. 345-6.
5 1786. vol. ii. n. 183.
' Up. cit., pp. 16y. 1 ( "^ 1786, vol. ii, p. 183,
90 SOCIOLOaY
wives, but did not live with them, only visited them secretly by night. The otlier authority, Polonski,^ confirms this, and adds that the man could avoid the cajituring process by settling matters with the girl beforehand, and escaping with her to the next island ; but whether wife-capture was really a custom of equal importance with that of resistance, or a violation of it, he does not say.-
V. The Yukaghir.
Jochelson^ observed no rites connected with puberty, nor any initiation ceremonies among the Yukaghir, but such rites may be inferred from his description of the marriage ceremony, and from certain taboos. For instance, a girl who has reached the age of puberty must observe certain taboos when her brother is absent on a hunting expedition. ' She must not look up above, but down on the earth, and on the earth she must not look at the footsteps of her brother ; she must not inquire about the hunt, or listen to the tales of her brothers with regard to the hunting.''* She may not eat of the head or fore part of the game killed, nor look at the head of the animal. But this taboo affects only unmarried sisters, and if the girl violates it the expedition will suffer from lack of food.^
A boy becomes a man when he takes part for the first time in a hunting expedition for big game, such as the bear or reindeer. Then he is called ' four-legged-animal-killer-man' (jjclolcun-no ineyebon Icudec'uje coromox). The girl becomes a woman at men- struation, which is called by the Yukaghir 'red paint' {Jceileni). After this she has a separate sleeping-tent, and is free to receive visitors from the same local group at night. The visitor is, however, usually the same man, and if he finds a rival in the tent he fights with him ; and that the Yukaghir distinguish between the girl who is faithful to one lover and one who is not, is shown by the terms, ' a girl with one thought ' and ' a girl with many thoughts ', the latter also having a special name ayuhol. If a man wishes to marry an aijahol, it is not even necessary for him to serve her parents. •"
There also exists the custom called by some anthropologists * hospitality prostitution ', by which the bed of an unmarried girl
1 The Kuril, p. 382. ^ Maksimotf, op. cit., p. 52.
^ The Yukaghir and Yukaghirised Tuiigus, J. N. P. E., vol. ix, pp. 63 5.
* Op. cit., pp. 77-8. " Op. cit., p. 78. ^ Op. cit., p. 66.
MARRIAGE 91
is offered to a traveller. An old Yukaghir woman explained to Jochelson that this Wi\s due to the poor conditions of life among the i>eopIe, and to the fact that the bed of a married couple was taboo, and hospitality demanded that a good bed be offered to the visitor. It did not follow tluit the girl yielded herself to him, for often she did not remove her apron if she disliked the man. Jochelson thinks that this custom cannot be reckoned as hospi- tality prostitution in origin, but has acquired this character under Russian influence.
* Men of authority or of wealth can choose any woman, married or unmarried. Officials, Cossacks, merchants, and even mission- aries introduce these habits into the villages and camps of non- Russian tribes ; and thus the custom may have sprung up among the Yukaghir of offering girls to travelling officials, merchants, and other Russian guests. . . . One must conclude, then, that what was first done by violence or at the orders of Russians, found favourable soil and in time became a'custom.' ^ Mr. Jorgeson, a Swedish investigator, found that the natives believed this custom to prevail in Russian homes. On the other hand, it must be remembered that a Yukaghir does not look for virginity in his bride, and so long as a girl does not become pregnant the older people close their eyes to her lover's visits. -
The Custom of Avoidance.'^ This custom is very strictly main- tained among the Yukaghir, and is called nexiijini, which means * they are bashful (in the presence) of each other '. It holds good between blood-relatives of the class cmjepul, that is, brothers, sisters, male and female cousins.
Among relatives by affinity the following persons must avoid each other :
a. The father and his son's wife.
h. The elder brother or elder male cousin, and the wife of the younger brother or male cousin.
c. The elder brother or the elder male cousin, and the wife of
the younger brother's or younger male cousin's son.
d. The elder brother or the elder male cousin, and the wife of
the son of his younger sister or of his younger female cousin.
e. The mother and her son-in-law.
Besides this, the father does not speak to his daughter's husband
1 Op. cit., p. 67. 2 Op. cit., p. 68. ^ Op. cit., p. 75.
92 SOCIOLOGY
nor the elder brother to his younger sisters husband. Persons wlio are ncxh/ini should not address eacli other directly, should not look in each other's faces, and should not uncover their bodies in the presence of each other, nor even bare the legs above the knees. Men who are nexi/jinl to each other should not uncover their sexual oi'gans or talk of sexual matters among themselves. The same girl must not be visited by two men who are ncxiijini to each other. These rules are more closely observed among the relatives by affinity [poyilpc and uialpe) than among blood-relatives {emjcpul).^
On inquiring as to the origin of this custom, Jochelson was told ' Our fathers did so ', or * Wise men know that it ought to be so '.'^
One may suppose that these restrictions consciously aimed at exogamy, especially if w^e take into account the fact that some natives told Jochelson that when the parents are blood-relatives, the children die.-' 'Wise people follow the custom of nexii/ini,' said one Yukaghir.^ At the same time cohabitation between near relatives at the present day does actually occur, and in this case a special blanket is used, having two bags for the feet of the couple instead of one.^
The violation oi nexii/ini is looked upon only as imprudent, and as soon as the couple are married this relationship is removed by means of certain ceremonies.*^
The Yukaghir say that in former times marriage was forbidden only between first cousins, and that they do not consider second cousins as consanguineous relatives. The myths often refer to consanguineous marriages, especially between brother and sister. Jochelson himself knew of a marriage between a woman and her brother. Such cohabitation is at the present time secret, but marriages between cousins do occur. "^
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1 Op. cit., p. 598. 2 Op. cit., pp. 159-60. ' W. H. Dall {Alaska and its Resources, p. 381) says that if a Chukchee wife bear only daughters her husband remarries until he obtains a son ; but Bogoras did not notice this as a rule, because a daughter can replace a son veiy easily among reindeer-breeding people. He saw some families consisting only of daughters— also in this case sons-in-law may be adopted. Among the Maritime Chukchee, however, a girl cannot replace a boy. (Op. cit., p. 601.) * Ibid. 78 SOCIOLOGY the Ijeavs let her go, with presents and incantations. She returns home, and by means of their incantations succeeds in regaining the favour of her husband, and persuades him to drive her rival from the house. The latter perishes from hunger and cold.' ' Bogoras often saw women quarrel, and even fight, over the favours of their husband.- Similar examples of jealousy are described by Maydell.^ Supplcmentan/ Unions. The Chukchee form of supplementary unions, called by Bogoras ' group-marriage ', sometimes consists of ten couples. The husbands belonging to such a group are called ' companions in wives ' {nav-tnmgit). A man has a right to the wives of all his companions, and may exercise this right when visiting the camp of any one of them. The husband in this case usually leaves the house for the night. In former times this custom embraced only members of the same family, except brothers ; but now friends, unrelated, may join such a group, after which they become like relations, helping and sujiporting each other. As in the case of individual marriage, a similar rite is performed, consisting also in anointing each other with blood, first in one camj) and then in the other, and sometimes the man will even serve with the herd in order to be received into the group. People of unequal age and bachelors are not easily accepted. People living in the same camp seldom unite themselves into such a group, in which case, owing to the proximity of the tents, the custom might easily develop into one of regular instead of occasional intercourse. Poor people, however, who belong to such a union sometimes live in one tent, it is said ; but Bogoras did not himself see an example of this. Sometimes such unions become polj^andry, if a bachelor is accepted as a companion. Bogoras heard of certain cases in which each companion takes the wife of another and lives with her for several months, or even permanently. At the present time all Chukchee families take part in such organizations. In some cases all men have equal rights in each woman ; in other cases a man may have several so-called marriage-companions, to whose wife he has a right, while these companions do not possess the same rights with regard to each other. Sometimes nowadays these unions are entered upon without any rite. It is possible to break the tie 1 Op. cit., p. 601. 2 Op. cit., p. 602. ^ YqI i, p. 164. MARRIAGE 79 which binds the union, but in practice this is not done, unless there is a case of syphilis in the grouji. People of other tribes, e. g. the Tungus, are also received into such unions, and also Russians ; of course, in this case the Russians see in the custom only an opportunity to profit by the loose conduct of women who desire payment in the form of slaughtered reindeer. Such rela- tions with the Eskimo have existed for a very long time, and are undoubtedly due to trade intercourse ; and so the American Eskimo has a temporary wife when visiting the Asiatic coast, and the Chukchee when visiting the American shores.^ 'These marital ties with strangers', says Bogoras, 'lead us to the so-called "prostitution of hospitality ". It cannot be positively ascertained whether in ancient times the custom existed among the Chukchee. According to Russian accounts of ancient times, it was customary for Russian merchants at the spring Chukchee fairs to visit the rich maritime traders. They would bring with them iron, kettles, tobacco in bags, and gave all this to the host as a present. The host, in return, offered his Avife to the guests, having first covered the sleeping place with beaver, fox, and marten furs, numerous enough to cover the value of the present. Nowadays no such custom exists.'- Cases in which the girl accepts the guest willingly for some small present are considered by the Chukchee as forms of supplementary marriage. Bogoras says he was never offered hospitality -prostitution, but was often asked to participate in what he calls ' group-marriage '. After the death of one of several brothers, the next brother succeeds him, and acts as husband to the woman and father to the children, for whom he keeps the herd of the deceased. If the woman is too old, he does not exercise his right of levirate, which is here considered more as a duty than a right and only appertains to the younger brother, cousin, or even nephew, and never to the elder brother or uncle." Bogoras says that his information about the Maritime Chukchee is rather scanty. On the whole, however, the basis of marital union among the Maritime Chukchee and the Asiatic Eskimo is the same as among the Reindeer Chukchee. We find again the marriage of near relatives, marriage by exchange between families, woman for woman, and finally marriage with a strange family ' Op. cit., pp. 602 and 607. ^ Op. cit, p. 607. ' The custom of levirate is widespread among the Amerinds and the Aleuts (Veniaminoff; Dall). 80 SOCIOLOGY after a term of service. 'Group-marriage'^ and the levirate are fully developed. - The only difference between the marriage customs of the Maritime and Keindeer Chukchee is that the former are seldom polygynous, as they cannot support more than one family ; in their tales, however, wo frequently find examples of polygyny.^' Tlie marriage- rite among the Maritime tribe consists of sacrificing to the hearth and, generally, anointing with red ochre instead of blood. When Bogoras asked what marks the married couple painted on their faces, he received the invariable reply, ' It makes no difference.' * Perhaps they have themselves forgotten that it was in former times, as it is now among the Reindeer Chukchee, the family mark that is so painted.^ II. The Koryak. Contrary to the custom of all neighbouring tribes, Koryak girls must have no sexual intercourse before marriage. A young man who serves for a girl who has violated this rule is ridiculed, and her father and brother 'are angry', as the Koryak say." It is considered shameful for a girl to bear a child before marriage ; she must go out into the wilderness to be delivered, and after- "wards she kills and buries the child. After she has reached puberty, she must not remove her combination garment during the night, especially when a stranger is in the house ; she must ^ The quotation marks indicate that I do not agree with Mr. Bogoras's use of the term. The Chukchee form of supplementary union does not correspond by any means exactly to any of the types of group-marriage instanced by Prof. Westermarck in his History of Human Marriage. ^ ' In regard to the prostitution of hospitality, it should be said that under the influence of American whalers, paid prostitution has developed among all the Maritime peoples on both coasts of Bering Sea. During the entire voyage, each ship has on board several young women from the Asiatic or the American shore. I have witnessed how, on the arrival of an Ameincan ship at the village Unisak, women in skin boats ai^proached it from all sides, offering themselves quite openly. In order to be better understood, they would press their hands to their cheeks and close their eyes, s3'mbolizing sleei^.' (Bogoras, p. 610.) ^ Op. cit., p. 611. * Op. cit., p. 610. ' When dealing with marriage among the Chukchee, we have limited our sources to Bogoras, because all other writers on the subject, namely. Resin, Maydell, Augustynowicz, and Diachkoff, give us similar, but not such exact descriptions. Thus Bogoras's writings include previous, as well as his personal, observations. Our action is sanctioned by the fact that such an authority as Maksimoff makes Bogoras the chief, if not the exclusive, authority in his work, Conirihutiou to the History of the Family among the Aborigines of Russia, 1902. p. 45. « Jochelson, the Koryak, J. N. P. E., vol. vi, 1908, pp. 134-5. MARRIAGE 81 hIso bphave distantly to the man who is serving for her, and frequently she is sent away from home for that period.^ Dittmar - says that a Koryak girl who has sexual intercourse before marriage is shot by her fatlier. and similar statements are found throughout the Koryak mythology/^ When taking the census of the Maritime and Reindeer Koryak families. Jochelson did not find a single illegitimate child, while among the Yukaghir, northern Tungus, northern Yakut, and Russian settlers in northern Siberia, it was almost impossible to find a fomily not including such children. The chastity of Koryak girls is confirmed 'not only', says Jochelson, 'by the tales and assertions of the Koryak themselves and from my impressions obtained in Koryak homes, but also by the testimony of such experts in love afl:airs as the Gishiga Cossacks.'^ Jochelson gives the following table of Marriage ProJiibitions (rela- tives between whom marriage is forbidden are quite numerous and may be divided into relatives by blood and relatives by affinity): Blood-relatives. A man is forbidden to marry (1) his mother, (2) daughter, (3) own sister, (4) cousin, (5) fathers sister, (6) mother's sister, (7) brother's daughter, and ( own sister's daughter. Between all other blood-relations marriages are per- mitted. In answer to Jochelson's questions concerning second- cousins, some Koryak replied that they did not consider them relatives. 'From this the conclusion may be drawn that beyond that degree no blood-relationship is recognized, but, on the other hand, in direct ascending and descending lines, even very distant degrees, such as great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers, and great-grandchildren, are recognized as relatives.' Iielafives bij Affinity. A man may not marry the following rela- tives by affinity : (1) stepmother ; (2) sister of living wife (i. e. simultaneously two sisters) ; (3) cousin of living wife (i. e. simultaneously two cousins ; (4) younger brother's widow ; (5) deceased wife's elder sister ; (6) nephew's widow ; (7) sister of brother's wife (i. e. two brothers cannot marry two sisters) ; ( cousin of brother's wife (i. e. two brothers cannot marry two 1 Ibid. 2 2)/e Kon'iken, p. 32. ' Krasheninnikoff (Description of the Country of Kamchatka, ed. 1786, vol. ii, p. 163) mentions that among the Reindeer Koryak, the bride- groom sleeps with his bride during the period of service, but as this is not confirmed by any other authority it is probable that he has confused them with the Chukchee. Even Krasheninnikoff states that at the ceremony of seizure the bride's body is well wrapped up, (Ibid.) * Jochelson, op. cit., p. 736. 1679 Q 82 SOCIOLOGY cousins) ; (9) simultaneously an aunt and Lev niece ; (10) two brothers cannot marry, one an aunt and the other her niece ; (11) two male cousins cannot marry, one an aunt and the other her niece ; (12) an uncle and nephew cannot marry two sisters, two cousins, or two women of whom one is an aunt and the other her niece; (13) a stej^-daughterJ To Jochelson's questions concerning these prohibitions, one Koryak said that ' relatives of the categories mentioned would die soon if they should enter into cohabitation with one another'.^ At the same time, all our earlier evidence concerning the Koryak seems to point to endogamic marriage. In the ' Description of people living near Yakutsk, Okhotsk, and in Kamchatka', compiled by the local administration circa 1780, but published in 1792, we read that the Koryak ' do not take wives from another ord, and do not give their daughters for wives out of this ord, but marry among themselves.''' Though the term ord is not defined, one may suppose that it corresponds to a clan or local group. The statement of Krasheninnikoff is similar : ' They take their wives mostly from their own stock, first cousins, aunts, step- mothers ; the only people whom they do not marry are sisters, mothers, step-daughters.' "* Jochelson '' himself asserts that in Koryak mythology only marriage with a sister or a mother is held to be a crime, but there are many instances of marriages between cousins. Thus we may suppose that most of the marriage prohibitions are of later intro- duction. All ''' the authorities agree on this fact, that the bridegroom has to serve his future father-in-law for a certain period and must often undergo severe tests. No one of them makes any mention of wife-purchase, or of the substitution of gifts or money for service for a wife. On the contrary, Krasheninnikoff states that the son-in-law, however rich he might be in reindeer, had to serve for from three to five years. Bogorodski ' and Dittmar ® say that if the man does not please his future father-in-law, he can be sent away even after five or ten years without receiving any reward for his 1 Op. cit., pp. 736-7. 2 iijij 3 Op. cit., p. 395. * Krasheninnikoff. ed. 1819, vol. ii, p. 221. " Jochelson, op. cit., p. 738. " Krasheninnikoff', ed. 1819,vol.ii,p.222; Lp.ssg^s, Eeise von Kamtschatka nach Franl-reich, vol. ii, pp. 65 8 ; Kennan, pp. 152-5 ; Diachkoff, p. 104. ^ Bogorodski, 1853, p. 109. '^ Dittmar, 1856, p. 25. MARRIAGE 83 service. Maksimoff ^ thinks tli.at the custom of serving for the bridle is the relic of a former custom by which a man went to live 2>ermanently in his father-in-law's house. As proof of his theory he quotes the formula used in arranging a marriage, as given by Yelistratoff.- The father of the suitor addresses the father of the bride : ' I come to you, my friend, to assist my son in his court- ship. Here you have my son I I give him to you — if you wish, keep him as your son or as your workman.' Jochelson'' considers that this custom of service provides a period of probation and test, especially as the son-in-law is not treated so well as an ordinary servant would be. ' The principal thought is not his usefulness, but the hard and humiliating trials to which he is subjected.' This opinion is confirmed by Koiyak tales. In former times, not only the bridegroom but also his ' match- maker ' was obliged to serve in the house of the bride. Before the man enters the service of the father-in-law he has chosen, the matchmaker, called by the Koryak " the asking one ', entei's the home of the girl's father and the following dialogue ensues : 'Here I have come!' 'What for?' 'I am looking for a wife.' ' For whom ?' ' For So-and-so' (mentioning the name). After some meditation, the host says: 'Well, we have girls, but they are bad, later on you may yet scold us.' ' No, it is all right.' ' Then let him come, I will not harm him ' ; and in these words the father gives his permission for the suitor to serve for his dau2:hter. Very often the suitor goes to make the proposal himself, especially if his parents disapprove of his choice. The term of service varies from six months to three years, or even longer, after which the father announces to the suitor that he may take the girl to wife.'* The marriage ceremony itself, which gives the husband full right to his wife, is the act of 'seizing' his w'ife, described by all our authorities with only slight variations. Most of them agree with Jochelson that the bride must not surrender to the bride- gi'oom without a struggle, nor will the bridegroom take her with- out encountering the usual difficulties."' The bride is wrapped up ^ Maksimoff, op. cit., p. 47. 2 Yelistratoff, West Coast of Kamchatka, 1787, pp. 152-4. ' Jv)chelson, op. cit., p. 74. * Joclielson, op. cit., p. 739. ^ Jochelson {The Koryak, p. 742) quotes here Steller's explanation of the origin of this custom. He thinks it is an imitation of animals — a bitch, too, does not at once yield to the dog (Steller, Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka, p. 347). G 2 84 SOCIOLOGY ill various garments which cannot be removod without cutting. The bridegroom must attack lier, cut and tear off her clothes, and touch her sexual organs with his hand. The girl herself resists, and tries to run away, and besides this, her girl friends attack and try to beat the bridegroom back ; and if tlie girl does not care for the man she tries to hide among the neighbours, while her parents endeavour to keep her at home.' Kennan relates that on the marriage day the friends and rela- tives are invited ; and, to tlie accompaniment of the drum and songs, the bride runs round the yurta. The groom pursues her, and at each corner is attacked by the women, who try to stop him with their feet, and beat him unmercifully with branches of the alder-tree. Finally the bride slackens her speed, or she would not be caught at all. and then the man tears off her clothes and touches her bod}'.^ Jochelson, on the other hand, says that marriage is accompanied neither by feasts nor by shamanistic ceremonies. Sometimes the couple leave at once for the bride- groom's house, or they remain for some time still with her father. In certain places the bridegroom, after successful ' bride-seizing ', leaves at once for his home, and sends his parents or relatives to fetch the bride. 'When the bride approaches the house of her bridegroom's parents, the latter come out with firebrands taken from the hearth to meet her.'^ The bride brings with her no dowry, only her clothes ; but she brings some presents to the bridegroom's mother and sisters. As soon as she enters the hoiise she must prepare some meal. Among the Maritime Koiyak this meal is eaten by the family, and among the Keindeer Koryak this is followed by a sacrifice to the Supreme Being and his son ' the Cloudman ', the protector of married couples. In former times there existed another rite called ' dyeing red ', which consisted in anointing the bride's forehead and abdomen with blood. After a certain time the 5'oung couple visit her parents, and are again met with firelirands from the hearth, and this time the bridegroom brings presents. In certain rare cases it is the son-in-law who comes to live with the bride's family. In such cases he is adopted into the family. The young wife coming to tlie house of her husband must join ' In former times, apparently, not only the women but also the bride's male relatives defended her from the groom (Jochelson, Tlte Korijah, p. 743). ^ Kennan, op. cit., pp. 152-5. ^ Jochelson, 'Hie Koryak, p. 743.
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CHAPTER IV MARRIAGE
PALAEO-SIBERIANS I. The Chukchee.
Among the Chukchee, especially among the reindeer-breeding portion of the tril)e, unmarried people are extremely rare, and in most cases they are individuals with a certain sexual defect. This kind of deformity is called by the Chukchee totamorhinc {' thou acquirest a swelling on the mcnibrnm virile ')}
In the Chukchee language there is no term for ' girl ', for virginity is not required or expected. There is a word for * woman ' {neusqat), and for ' separate woman ', i. e. a woman living alone {nanra-naw). There is also an expression ' not yet put in use' {yep ayaakelen), probably nearly equivalent to our word ' girl '. In spite of this and of the sensuality of the Chukchee, which shows itself in private life and in their mythology, Bogoras^ observes: 'Still, many of the Chukchee girls are chaste until their marriage ; and in comparison with the other tribes of this country, the Chukchee are considerably more decent. Among the Russians and Russianized natives throughout the whole north- east from the Lena River to Kamchatka hardly any girl remains a virgin until marriage. Most of them begin sexual life with the first traces of maturity, being but fifteen or sixteen, and sometimes only twelve or thirteen years old, and c^uite immature. All kinds of cases of adultery and incest occur even in the families of the clergy, and are participated in by monks and missionaries.' We read that the Reindeer-Chukchee girl is shy and proud by nature, and 'would avoid flirting with a man wholly unknown to her'.^ But if she has children before marriage they are treated in the same way as children born after marriage. If a very young girl bear children she is called ' the fawn mother ' (some female fawns bearing young when they are one year old). On the whole, the
^ Bogoras, The aiidxhee, ,T. N. P. E., vol. vii, p. 539. ^ Op. cit., p. 672. 3 iijij_
MAEKIAGE 71
Chukcliee have an idea that early marriages are bad for the health of the woman, and intercourse with one 'not having lull breasts and the menses' is considered shameful.^ According to Dr. Meli- koff, the violation of a girl not perfectly mature is a serious crime, and therefore is Severely punished by the Council of the Elders.^
Marriage between relatives, especially between cousins, is the most frequent form among the Chukchee. Sexual intercourse between uncle and niece is considered incestuous, though Bogoras knew of two cases of such relations, one of which was a marriage. The husband in this latter case was ridiculed by the neighbours. The same writer observed two cases of sexual relations between father and daughter, and gives us many examples of Chukchee tales relating to marriage between brother and sister, which in actual life are considered incestuous.''
One tale about the country of Luren (a Chukchee village called Luren lies on the Pacific shore, north from Indian Point) says : * The Maritime people living in that country were exterminated by famine. Only two were left : a full-grown girl and her infant brother. She fed him with pounded meat. When he grew up she asked him to marry her. "Otherwise we shall remain child- less," said the sister. '*"VVe shall have no descendants, and the earth will remain without people. It cannot be peopled other- wise. And who sees us? Who will say 'shame'? Who wdll know about it in the world ? We are all alone in the world." The brother said, " I do not know, I feel bad ; it is forbidden." Then the sister began to think. '' How can I do it ? Our line of descent will break off with us." The young woman goes to a distant place, builds a house, quite different to their own, prepares everything belonging to it, and makes new clothes for herself. Then she returns and tells her brother that she has seen a house somewhere on the shore. The brother goes in search of this house and finds it. The sister is already there. She has changed her clothes, the expression of her face, the tone of her voice, and he takes her for another woman. After some hesitation he takes her for his wife. Then begins a life in two houses : the sister is here and there and plays with success her double role.
' Op. cit., p. 573.
"^ Dr. Melikotf's report is in manuscript. Bogoras, however, expresses some doubt with regard to the trustworthiness of Melikoff's interpreter, the Chukchee Eiheli. There is no Council of the Elders now and no punishment as a public institution, says Bogoras (p. 574).
* Bogoras, op. cit., p. 576.
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Finally, when she is pregnant, the brother ceases to think of his sister, and they live at the new place. One child is born, then another. The family multiplies and becomes a peoi)le. From them are born all the people in the camps and villages,'^
Tliere exists universally among the Chukchee a custom of marrying young children, who then grow up together and are very much attached to one another later on, when they are actually married. This is the case in marriages between relatives or between members of two friendly families.
While staying on the Dry Anui Kiver, Bogoras heard of a marriage arranged before the birth of one of the children. One Chukchee had a son three years old. The wife of another was about to give biith to a child, and they were all convinced that it would be a daughter ; so they settled that the marriage ritual should take place the first autumn after the birth of the girl. Sometimes families exchange their daughters.-
The most curious side of this custom is that the age of the persons whose relatives marry them by exchange is of no account. In a case he observed on the Oloi Eiver, Bogoras states that a man, Qimaqiii, gave his five-year-old son to be married to a girl of twenty, and in exchange for her he gave his niece of twelve years old to be married to a man who was over twenty years of age. The wife nursed the boy, waiting until he should grow up. In some cases of this kind the wife may have a male * marriage- companion', and, having a child of her own, nurse it and her contracted husband together.^ This is done, as the Chukchee say, *to ensure the love of the young husband in the future.''*
3Iarriage Ceremonies. The most usual method of oljtaining the wife is by serving for her. This is called among the Chukchee * for wife herdsman being ' {naundourgin). This term is also used by the Maritime Chukchee, altliough they have no herds. There the bridegroom lives in the house of the girl's father and works for him. But we find, especially in the myths, the description of another kind of marriage. When a man from one village seeks a wife from another, often at a great distance, he has to surmount
' Op. cit. p., 577. 2 Op. cit., p. 578. ' Ibid.
* ' The marriage between a full-grown girl and a young boy ', says Bogoras, 'occurs between many other people more civilized than the Chukchee. Until recent times they were very frequent in the villages of Great Russia, the role of actual husband in this case falling to the father-in-law. This is called snokhachc^tvo (from s)iokha — daughter-in-law). Such intercourse the Chukchee consider improper.' (Op. cit., p. 578.)
MARKIAGE 73
many diftieulties. either on the part of lier parents or herself. In such tales the bride is sometimes described as being kept in a big iron box, and the suitor must set her free ; sometimes the parents conceal the place where she is hidden. But there are also cases where the bride is the opposer, being described as a strong and proud girl. Thus, in one story, a girl caused her suitors to run foot-races with her. and the one who succeeded in distancing her she took in marriage. Sometimes a series of contests takes place before a man succeeds in obtaining his wufe. Even at the present day such romantic marriages occur. ^
In the case of serving for a wife the bridegroom makes preliminary inquiries through a friend or relative, a proceeding which is termed 'Thou askest for a wife' [neicew girJcin). This friend begins service as a representative of the suitor by bringing from the woods bundles of fuel. The father-in-law then has a conversation with him, in which the former shows anger and displeasure, either real or affected. The * asking for a wife ' lasts several days or even weeks, during which the representative must not only work, but try to please the family. When the father gives his consent, this is sometimes reckoned as the end of the courtship, and the suitor may take the girl ; but in most cases, even nowadays, this only gives him the right to court her person- ally. Frequently he acts himself from the beginning without the help of an intermediary ; the gathering of fuel is, however, an essential part of the procedure. Only then does the period of trial begin, and lasts from one to three years. Some of the old Chukchee refuse food and shelter to the poor suitor, and at any time he may be dismissed ; but it is considered a disgrace to return home passively instead of resisting such treatment. After the first few months, the suitor is allowed to sleep in the inner room, and then usually he cohabits with his future bride. If he is a good herdsman, the father endeavours to postpone their departure, and ' when the son-in-law takes his wife home without quarrelling with her father he is usually given some reindeer, the number of which depends upon the quality of woi'k done by the young man during his period of service'.
Bogoras was told that a wealthy Chukchee gives his son-in-law * freedom of one day ', which means that the bridegroom is free to catch as many reindeer as he can for himself on that day. As
' Op. cit, pp. 580-3.
74 SOCIOLOGY
a rule it is considered improper to pay for a bride 'as if she were a reindeer', and the Cliukchee always criticize the Tungiis and Yakut on this point. A second wife is very rarely acquired through service ; the suitor gives to the girl's father a few reindeer, not as payment, but as a so-called 'joyful gift'. Still, Bogoras knew of middle-aged rich men who already had families, and who had to serve several months in the families of the girls whom they wished to marry.^
The time of trial is much easier and shorter when the suitor is adopted as a son-in-law, called by the Chukchee ' continuous dweller' {vata itilin). The wife is withheld from him for several years to make his attachment stronger ; but even after his wife has borne him a child, he may be dismissed at any time. ' Only after a stay of several years, when his work has left its mark on the common herd, and perhaps he has some reindeer marked with his own ear-mark, does his position become more stable, and then he receives a voice in the family affairs.' ^
Some tales describe the ravishing of Chukchee girls performed by men of other tribes, by spirits, by an eagle, a whale, a raven, &c. Sometimes the ravishing was practised within the tribe, but this seldom occurs in modern times. ' In olden times ... a com- pany of 5'oung men would seize a young girl in the open, bind her hands and feet, and carry her to the house of one who wanted to have her for a wife. Not only the men of alien families, but even the relatives and the cousins, acted so after being refused by the father of the girl.'^ After such an abduction the parents would sometimes receive another woman of the family in exchange for their daughter. Marriages by flight, in the case where parents refuse their consent, do occur, though rarely.
The Eeindeer Chukchee sometimes like to take wives from other tribes — the Koryak, the Tungus, and the Yukaghir. The woman soon adopts Chukchee manners. As all the tribes in the neighbourhood of the Eeindeer Chukchee are much poorer than the latter, they very readily give their daughters in marriage to rich Chukchee. A poor member of one of their tribes is thought very lucky if he is adopted as a son, and later on as a son-in-law, by a Chukchee reindeer-breeder.'*
Bogoras knows of twenty cases of marriages between Kussians and Chukchee, and supposes that here economic reasons play a
» Op. eit., p. 586. - Op. cit., p. 587.
^ Op. cit., p. 590. ' Op. cit., p. 592.
MARRIAGE 75
certain part.^ The Russian women adapt themselves very easily to the new hlb and like it, tliough it is dillicult for them in the beginning. ' One knows neither the language nor the way of life ' — said one of them to Bogoras. ' One feels a yearning to go back to the river, and weeps all the time. Then comes an old " knowing- woman " and performs an incantation, which takes away the sorrow and makes one more adapted to the new life.'^ Keferring to this, the Russian women on the liver said that the Chukchee women, with their incantations, take out of the woman her Russian soul and put in its place a Chukchee soul. Therefore these women ever afterwards love life in the open.^
Generally, mixed Russo-Chukchee marriages are without children. 'I should also mention', says Bogoras, 'that many Russianized families of the Lower Kolyma form actual combina- tions of group-marriages with Chukchee families ; or, properly speaking, the Chukchee consider it as a group-marriage, and the Russians rather as a kind of prostitution. The Chukchee set great value on these relations, because they consider the Russians, notwithstanding all their hunger and need, as belonging to a higher civilization ; and the Russians strive to get out of these relatives some reindeer-meat free of cost, also some cheap reindeer- skins and costly peltries of the tundra. So in several Eussian families, even of clerks, merchants, and clergymen, there are children reputed to be of Chukchee blood. Thus the two eldest children of the church-beadle of Nishne-Kolymsk, a son and a daughter, are called by the neighbours "Chukchee offspring". I asked the mother about the origin of this name. '"Of course they are Chukchee, paid for with many reindeer. In those years I fed the whole hungry neighbourhood." And this "was true ' — adds Bogoras — ' because on the Lower Kolyma in times of hunger, every piece of food is divided among all.' ^
Bogoras did not know of any marriages between the Chukchee and the Yakut, because, he explains, the Yakut do not suffer so much from hunger as the Russian Creoles and the Tungus.
Marriage liite. This occurs in the house of the groom, if he
^ The Reindeer Chukchee of late years have removed to some fifty miles' distance from the nearest Russian village in order to restrict the coming of hungry river-men with their still more hungry dogs. But those who have married Russian girls cannot very easily go away from their relatives, and so they become poor. (Bogoras, p. 594.)
' Op. cit., p. 593. 3 iijid^ 4 Op. cit., p. 594.
76 SOCIOLOGY
takes the wife to himself, or in the house of the bride, if the liridegroom becomes an adopted son-in-law. The groom goes to the house of her father to fetch the bride ; she drives her own reindeer, and is sometimes surrounded by her relatives. Then behind the tent, at a spot set apart for sacrifices, is jjlaced a family- sledge on which the tent-poles are usually carried, and on both sides of it at some distance stand the travelling-sledges of the bride and groom, on which fire-drills and charm-strings are placed. A sacrificial reindeer is killed, and other ' sacrifices, bloody and bloodless, are made to the dawn and the zenith. Then the couple is anointed with the blood of the reindeer, one or two members of the groom's family generally also undergoing the ceremony in order that the bride may not feel lonely ; then the groom and the bride paint on their faces the family mark of the groom '.' After- wards the woman anoints the sledges with blood, feeds the holy objects of the household with reindeer-marrow, and sprinkles some sacrificial blood on the hearth, addressing it thus : ' Be well ! [Mimeleu gatvarlcni !).' -
A second marriage-rite is performed after a few days or a few weeks, in the house of the bride's parents. It is called ' a journey out of loneliness ' {Alaranto iirgin). The bride drives the reindeer, but never the same as used for her first journey. The wife, the groom, and his relatives, if they accompany him, bring to the bride's parents some reindeer, some meat-puddings, and other presents. But they insist that it is a present, not a payment for the bride, as it is given after the marriage-ceremony. ' On their arrival at the bride's camp, the bride and groom are again anointed, the bride's family mark is painted on their faces, and the bride makes a sacrifice to the hearth of her home.'^ After a feast, they return the next day to the bridegroom's home, where the rite of anointment is once more repeated, and the husband's family mark is painted once more.
Marriage among them is not very permanent, however, and the wife is sent back to her parents on very light pretexts. Bogoras knew a family on the Dry Anui Eiver, in which the eldest son had changed wives ten times in the course of three years. For one of them he had served three, for another four months.'' Usually, however, if the union is severed, this occurs shortly after the marriage ceremony, and in most cases the marriage is broken by
1 Op. cit., p. 595. 2 ibiti
" Op. cit., p. 596. * Op. cit., p. 599.
MARRIAGE 77
the bride s famil)-, which rechiims lier. Th^ children who still require nursing go with the mother, the others go with the father. Sometimes the wife is carried away from her husband by her elder brother against her wish.*
Bogoras himself met a rich and gentle Chukchee on the Dry Anui River whose wife was taken away from him by her brother. When he went to claim her, the brother asked him, 'Will you promise not to refuse me your reindeer ? ' As the husband would not accede to this request, his wife was not returned to him.
In 1897. Bogoras, during the census preparations, found out •. that one-third of the women had been divorced several times.
The Reindeer Chukchee are mainly monogynists, but about one-third are polygynists. Many rich reindeer-breeders who have separate herds keep a wife with each herd, but frequently those who have only one herd have several wives. When a Chukchee has several wives in the same camp, he tries to give them separate tents, or separate sleeping-places in one tent, but there are also cases, met with chiefly in their tales, in which the husband sleeps between two wives. The first wife is generally much older and controls the others, who are more like servants.^ If a wife has no children, she insists on her husband marrying another woman.' ' Cases are by no means rare, however, where the husband, enamoured of the second wife, becomes indifferent to the first, and even expels her from the house.'*
Precisely such a case is described in a popular tale, 'The Bigamist" : ' There lived a man with two wives, an old one and a young one ; when he took the young wife he abandoned the old one, did not love her or sleep with her any longer, he beat her all the time. In great grief she went out into the desert and came to a bear's haunt ; she entered, the bear-mother was angry Avith her for entering ; the woman said, "Why don't you kill me ? My husband always beats me. It is better that you kill me." The woman stays with the bears and lives with them. When spring comes
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62 SOCIOLOGY
Kidiii) {?), luisband of an elder sister.
Kiitmt, daughter's husband, husband of younger sister and of mother's younger sister.
Kinit, son's wife, wife of younger bruther. The wife of an elder brother is sangas.
Bargiin, form of address of a younger brother's to an elder brother's wife.
Badjjja, form of address of an elder brother's to a younger brother's wife.
Kirani/aJch aga, stepfather. KiriinijaJch-i/u, stepmother.
Ogo, child. Kefers exclusively to age, and may be used also with reference to birds, animals, trees.
Ogom, ' my child ', refers also to grandchildren and even to younger brothers. Colloquially this is used by older people in addressing younger ones, without any reference to relationship.
Vol, ' boy ', ' son '. Sister's husband younger than the speaker. In general, different degrees in the descending line of male relationship, defined more exactly by the addition of various words.
Kt/s, 'girl', 'daughter'. Son's wife, and different degrees in the descending line of female relationship, with various defining terms added.
KaJch itol, adopted brother. Ittilih Jci/s, adojited sister.
Igird, twins.
Sieroszewski says that the Yakut have no name for widow or widower.
From what has been said we see that the terms for ' mother ' and ' wife ' being definite and ancient, the concept corresponding to these terms must have originated in the mind of the Yakut before that of ' father ' and ' husband '. Another curious fact in this connexion is that in the olongho we have frequent references to heroes who go forth to find their fathers.^
The terminology of relationship takes into account primarily sex and degrees of age. Thus Yakut society consists of two main groups, [a) men and women of the paternal line l)orn earlier [uhay, agas), and (b) men and women of the paternal line born later {ini, haJgs).
' Op. cit., p. 338.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 63
VII. Tiii; MoNnuLic Tribivs.
Tlie Mongol ic tribes of Siberia belong to the nomadic peoples, though their mode of life is becoming more sedentary. Mr. F. W. Leontovich,^ ?who has made a special study of the Mongol peoples, says that they still preserve ^vith great care their clan genealogies ; and though they are widely dispersed, those living among alien groups keep the memory of the clan to which they originally belonged. The patriarchal type of clan-organization is universal among the Mongolic tribes.
The Mongols proper trace their descent from Biurte-Chino (' Blue- Wolf '). the ancestor of Djingis-Klian, and say that they are in the direct line of descent from the latter.- But many other Mongolic tribes make the same claim, e.g. the Buryat clan of Selenginsk.
Historically, the Mongols are divided into two groups. East and West Mongols. The latter were made up of four tribes, named after four brothers, Djungar, Turgut (Turgout), Khoshot, and Durbot (Diirbiit). They called themselves the Fourfold Con- federacy, or the Four-Coloured Confederacj', from the four colours of their insignia, as distinguished from the East Mongols, who formed a Fivefold Confederacy of five groups corresponding to the five colours of their insignia.
In war they formed nine group-units, each Avith insignia of a particular colour, hence the name ' Nine-Coloured ' ascribed to these people. In the clan, the rule of seniority is observed, so that among the Kalmuk for example, when a new halting-place is reached, they pitch their tents in an order depending on priority of age.-'
The Urianlchai The Kobdinsk Ui'iankhai. like the Darkhat and Baita, are Turki in origin, but use a Mongolic dialect and consider themselves as belonging to the old Western Mongolic branch of the Oliut."* The Mongols call them Uranga. They have no hereditary rulers, as the Turkic and Tangnu Uriankhai have, but are governed by two administrative officials called ombo. They are divided into ten sumyns, and are, according to Fotanin, ' the poorest and most disorganized of the Mongolic tribes.
' TJi- Ancient Mongolo-Kalmuh Code ....
^ N. Kharuzin, Ethnoymphy, 1901, vol. i, part ii, p. 234.
' Op. cit., p. 2.3.5. * Sometimes spelt Eliiit.
® Sketches of North-Weatern Mongolia, 1881, vol. ii, i)p. 34-8.
64 SOCIOLOGY
The Kalniul: Eucli Kalniuk family occupies a tenl Ly itself; and several such tents occupied by related families form a Ichoton having a common household administration with an elder at the head. Several hhoions, related to each other, and having a common wandering-ground, compose an aijmali. A group of related aijmaJis form an ofol; which was formerly mainly an administrative or strategic group. These old ofoJcs are now represented by clans {(ingi), and the word ofoJc is reserved for the common wandering- ground of the clan. An ulus is made up of related clans forming a 'confederation', sometimes called orda, and governed by an elder, known as noi;on. The tiibe {tangatchi) comprises several uIhscs, and is governed by an elder, called tayslia}
Kharuzin^ says that the tribal elder was elected at a general assembly of the tribe. The result of the election was made known by placing the chosen man upon a sheet of felt, called Icoshma. Candidates must be in the line of direct descent from the clan of Dj'nniis-Khan ; so that in the Mongolian state, based on the clan system, one clan has precedence over all others. The descendants of this privileged clan call themselves ' white-bones ' in contra- distinction to all the other clans who are known as ' black-bones '. Noble ladies are known as * white -flesh ' and common women as 'black-flesh'.^ At the present day the office of tribal elder is no longer elective, but hereditary, passing from father to son or to the nearest relative in the male line ; hence it is not now a question of the ascendancy of a clan but of a family. The tribal elder is in modern times almost independent of any control in the exercise of his office ; for the council of clan elders, which was formerly invested with the power of regulating his authority, has practically lost all significance. Still, the old patriarchal tradition prevents exercise of an unlimited despotism by the tribal chief over people who are of the same tribe or clan as himself; he may, however, be as despotic as he will towards the class of slaves.'*
21ic Buryat. The Buryat form a branch of the Eastern Mon- gols. They speak a dialect of the Mongolian language, differing both from the spoken tongue of the true Mongols of Khalkas and from the language of Mongolic literature. It is also distinct from Kalmuk. According to some traditions, they are descendants
> Op. cit., p. 236. - Ethnography, 1903, vol. iii, p. 231.
^ 8. Pallas. Travels through Siberia and Tartary, part iii, p. 204. ^ Kharuzin, ibid.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 65
of the ancient Oyrat.^ The north-western Buryat trace their descent from Bukha-Noyna, a mythical hero, while those of the south-west claim as their common ancestor the hero, Barj^ubator. The Selenginsk Buryat say that they are descended in direct line from Djingis-Khan. The Buryat of the Irkutsk Government, north-west of Lake Baikal, are called Bargu-Buryat ; those from the south-west of tlie lake are known as Mongol-Burj'at. The Buryat inhabiting the Amur basin have the name Aga-Buryat.
In ancient times the Buryat clan was known as >/agan. The Russians have formed administrative clans, each composed of several yoijans. At the head of the clan is an elder, called shelenga. Several clans are combined to form an administrative group called in Russian ricdonisira, with an elder known as taysha. Among social events which help to preserve the unity of the clan, one of the most important is their institution of a co-operative hunt, in which all members of the clan, or of several allied clans, take part. It is called zcgeta-aba among the Bargu-Buryat, and by the Mongol-Burj^at, aha-JchaidaJc. The hunt sometimes lasts for several months, and is under the leadership of a tiibucJd, whom every one obeys, and whose office is very often hereditary. Besides the tuhuchl there are usually several galshas {gal, 'fire') whose duty it is to look after the fire and food ; and two guides, gazarisli. There are also other assistants of lesser importance called ya'klnihj and malgoP-
Another social event of great importance as a means for pre- serving the unity of the clan is the tailgan. In the description of this socio-religious festival we shall follow Klementz,''
The tailgan is a public sacrifice (as distinguished from a private one, called kirik) performed on behalf of the whole community. Sacrificial animals are supplied by several households, according to their means ; and after the sacrifice the meat is divided equally among the participants. The tailgan is a popular or social festival, in which the youths engage in wrestling and jumping ; foi'merly there was archery as well. Tailgans are celebrated in honour of the various zayans, at certain definite seasons of the year: the
' N. Kharuzin in his Ethnographi/ (1901, vol. i, part ii, p. 2.34) says that the Oliut are identical with the Oyrat and are Western Mongols. Other reliable authorities, such as Agapitoft' and Khangaloft', and Klementz, class them with the Eastern Mongols. Pallas says that ' Oyi-at are commonly called Kalmuk '. (Pallas, op. cit., p. 203.)
- 'The Buryat', Brockhaus and Ephron, Encyclopaedia.
^ Klementz, Article ' Buriat ', E. R. E.
66 SOCIOLOGY
tailgan to the western Tengrris in spring corresponds to the Yakut spring festival, >/s_)/rtJch ; that to the Waicr-Klmns is in summer, and the one to the mothor-earth, at the end of the latter season. The general character of all these festivals is the same, the only- special features being connected with the character of the deities invoked. The commonest and widest-spread form of the ritual is that used at the sacrifices in honour of the western Khans}
A large open space at the foot of a hill is selected by the people, who go out into the fields in a body.'- The various utensils, the wine, and the sour milk provided for use at the festival, are fumigated beforehand with pine-bark. At the house of one of the more respected particii)ants, the shaman sprinkles tarasun before the assembled company, who are in readiness to set out for the appointed spot. There, utensils with i^rovisions are arranged in a row from west to east ; the participants take their seats towards the south in a place called turglie — a name also given to branches of birch stuck in the ground in front of the utensils. There is also a place set apart for the sacrificial animals, and for big kettles in which the meat is to be boiled. Every participant has to provide a rope made of white hair intertwined with white and black ribbons. By means of the rope formed by joining these (a white hare-skin being then affixed to it) the tops of some birch-trees which are now planted in the ground are bound together and the trees supported with pegs to keep them in an inclined position. When this is done, the shaman reads a prayer, and the participants, at his command, pour out the contents of brimming cups, which they have been holding in their hands.''
This libation is thrice repeated, and the empty cups are thrown away. If a man's cup falls on its bottom, this is accounted a favourable omen, and he is acclaimed by all with shouts of ' Torokh ! ToroJch ! ' Further libations are made, after the shaman has placed in each cup a branch of the Picea sibirica {jido), and sour milk is given to the sacrificial animals, which are then killed and their skins taken off with the heads and legs. The lungs, larynx, and heart are left with the skins, which are stuffed with
I Iljid.
- Except the married women and widows, who in exogamic society are of a different clan. These remain at home. The jjarticipants in the festival are all men and girls.
3 Ibid.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 67
straw. Birch-twigs are stuck in the nostrils, and to the foreheads are fastened pieces of the bark of the Jido. Each of the stuffed skins is hung on one of the birches prepared before, Avith the head turned in the direction of the dwelling of the deity invoked.^
The meat is now boiled and separated from the bones, which are collected, those of each animal in a separate heap, on little tables made of birch-sticks, and burnt. The ends of the animals' intestines are burnt in a separate fire.-
The principal rite is performed after this. Everyone takes a pail containing meat, and stands up, while the shaman invokes the western rayfl«6'. These come, each in his turn, and relate their own stories. When Bukha-Noin-Baobai '?' arrives, the shaman goes down on all fours, bellows like a bull, butts those present as if with horns, and tries to overturn the birch-trees tied with the white ropes, while several men hold up the trees against his attack. Unsuccessful in this, the Khan dei>arts with fresh bellow- ings. The shaman next invokes another ::ai/au, Nagad-Zarin ; and then this rite, together with the whole ceremony, is con- cluded by petitions and entreaties to the western gods for various benefits.'*
VIII. The Finnic Tribes.
The clan among the Finnic tribes appears to have been in the past, even if it is not always now, the most important social unit. The terminology used within the clan in the Finnic tril)es of the Votyak, Ostyak, Cheremiss, and Mordva, shows that family relationships are classificatory, and that degrees of age play an important part in these relationships. This is the conclusion reached by Mr. Kharuzin in his Etlinocjraxjlnj .^ As far as the evidence hitherto gathered goes, a similar system obtains among other Neo-Siberians like the Yakut and the Altaians, as well as among some of the Palaeo-Siberians, e. g. the Gilyak and Yukaghir, and, to a certain extent, the Chukchee and the Koryak.
The Vofi/aJi. — Thus the Votyak use the words aij and mum// for 'father' and 'mother' respectively, these terms also signifying
' Ibid. 2 ii^i^i
^ Bukha-Noin-Baobai : ' Fathor-Master-Ox ', the most popular of the ?western Khans and progenitor of a Buryat tribe. He is the second son of Budurga-Sagan-Tengeri (Klementz, ' Tengris or heaven-gods ', § 4 of art. quotedj.
* Ibid.
^ Ethnography , vol. ii, 1903, p. 36.
F 2
68 SOCIOLOGY
* male ' antl ' female '. The terms nun'ia and agaii mean generally 'a man older than myself, whether father, elder bi-other, uncle, or nephew. The word r//«, meaning a 'man younger than myself, is similarly used. Apcvj and aliay, signifying a ' woman older than myself, and ^ suzcr\ a 'woman younger than myself, are applied in a similar way to relatives.^
A Votyak clan comprises from ten to thirty villages. The clan is united by its descent from a common founder-protector, and by a common cult. At the present day, however, the group of villages is becoming more and more a territorial unit, known as mer, and less of a clan in the strict sense. The group of clansmen claiming descent from a common ancestor is known by the name di.'^
The OsfifctJi. Castren says that the Ostyak, like the Samoyed, are divided into clans, of which each is in fact a large family and an independent state .?^' * The elder of the clan was called urt. They are sometimes mentioned in literature as kniaz (' prince '), a Russian word imported by the Cossacks, and by them aj^plied indiscrimi- nately to all sorts of native authorities. In ancient times the tcrt was very powerful, but in some matters he gave place to the oldest man of the clan in deference to the latter's greater age and experience,^
At the time of the Tartar dominance the Ostyak clans were called vdlosti. Since the Russian conquest the office of urt has been abolished, and it has become difficult to trace the clan geneal- ogies. The northern Ostyak are still nomadic and pagan, and are occupied Avith reindeer-breeding. The southern division, living along the Irtysh, are more or less sedentary fishermen and tillers of the soil.^
From the old Ostyak tales and songs Patkanoff has drawn an account of their society as it was befoi'e the Tartar and Russian conquests. These people have never exhibited a tendency to unite into anything resembling a nation or even an organised tribe ; they have always been grouped in clans independent of each other, each clan having its own chief, and there was seldom even anything
1 I. N. Smirnoflf, The Vot,jal\ 1890.
^ Piervukhin, Materials for the ArchaeoJor/y of the Eastern Provinces of Russia, 1896.
^ Castren, Reiseerinnerungen aiis den Jahren 1838-1844, 1853, p. 286.
* Only the Obdorsk Ostyak have preserved their patriarchal insti- tutions intact. (Castien, op. cit., p. 286.)
« N. ratkanoff, The Ancient Life of the Ostijal; 1891, vol. iv, p. 75.
'' Op. cit., vol. iii, p. 87.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 69
like an alliance of clans. The chief (prince) was the real rulei', but on certain important occasions there was an assembly, in which only the oldest members of the clans were allowed to take part in discussions. Every assembly began with a sacrifice to the gods, and a general feast to which the people were summoned by the slaves of the chief. ^ The chiefs (princes) and their families formed a strong aristocratic caste. They were probably chosen for their physical prowess and moral (Qualities, but this was before the time referred to in the songs and legends. They were a warrior class, whose duty it was to defend the land from foreign foes.'^ In time of peace they occupied themselves with hunting and tournaments.
The commoners {mi/gdat-ijals), although much more numerous, are but seldom referred to in the poems.^ The slaves {fei/, ort, ' male slaves ' ; teif-ncn, ort-ncn, ' female slaves ') were probably obtained in war, and had various household occupations in the houses of the nobles. They were private property, and their owners could do with tliem what they Avould. They were often given as part of the kalt/m for a bride. On the whole, the treatment accorded them was kind.^
When the Ostyak were at war with the Saraoyed, and after- wards with the Tartars and Russians, they formed alliances among their clans.'* During these wars they had, like the Vogul and Samoyed, the custom of scalping a slain enemy. Some of the songs tell also of the heroes eating the hearts of the foes they had killed.^
' Op. cit., p. 76. - Op. cit., p. 77. ^ Qp. cit., p. 82.
* Op. cit., p. 83. 5 Op. cit., p. 105. « Op. cit., p. 101.
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There is an interesting custom among these people, which is possibly a survival from an older family system. This is the presentation of harli/, i. e. a gift from the maternal uncle. Until a boy is seven years old his hair is braided into two tresses worn in front of the ears. When he reaches his seventh birthday, his maternal uncle sends to him saying : ' Come ; I will restore to you harltj.' He goes, and his uncle cuts off the tresses, in return for which he is supposed to present the boy with a horse. If, as sometimes happens, he fails to do so, the family of the boy has the right to demand fulfilment of the duty through the proper tribal authority.''
lite Kirgis. Among the Kirgis, where Mohammedanism has destroyed the religious side of the culture except the cult of the hearth, the social side has been much less affected, and the clan organization remains fairly strong. All the Kirgis of the Great, ]Middling, and Little Ordas (excluding recent admixtures, such as the Kara-Kalpak) count as their tribal ancestor the mythical Alash-Khan : all three ordas have the watchword Alash. Besides, each clan has as its special watchword the name of one of the remote clan ancestors, its special insignia, and its own genealogy/
' Potanin, Sketches of Norlh-Wesfeni Afonr/oJia, 1883, vol. iv, pp. 1-2. - Unfoitunately Mr. Potanin does not give a full list of relationship terms, -whieh are so imjiortant for a full understanding of social structure. 3 Op. cit., p. 9. ?* Potanin, op. cit., p. 38. ^ Kharuzin, op. cit., p. 232.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 55
Potanin speaks of Kotan as the t'oiimler of the Kirgis nation, and of his three sons as the originators of the three ordas.^
In cases of blood-vengeance (khuna), the clan as a whole has the responsibility for exacting the penalty from the aggressor, while the latter's clan in similar manner assumes his guilt.
The authority of seniors and of their council is strictly pre- served in their clans and onlas.-
'Hic Vrianlihai. The tribes of the Uriankhai inhabit chiefly the valley between the Sayan Mountains and the Tangnu-Oloy, from the Upper Kobdo to the Upper Bulguna River. One part of these people, living in the north of the Tangnu-Oloy, have become mongolized, speak a Mongol dialect, and like to be known as the Mongol Oliot (Oliut). Potanin speaks of them as the Kobdinsk Uriankhai.
The Uriankhai proper are a Turkic people, speaking a Turco- Tartar dialect. They call themselves Tuba or Tuva ; Uriankhai is the Mongol name for them. Potanin heard some of them call themselves Tangnu Uriankhai, or Tangnu Tuvas.'
The Tangnu Uriankhai form five Moshuns. The head of each is called ogurta {ogurda, (jiirta). One such ogurta, older than the rest, is known as amhan, and the others are subordinate to him. He, like the others, has one Jchoshun to govern. Each Idioslmn is divided into four sumyns, except that of Kemchik, which is divided into ten. The sumijn from which the oguiia comes, gives its name to the whole Ichosliun, and the chief uses the same name, with the addition of the word ogurta. For instance, the Tchoshun governed by the amhan is composed of four siimgns, of which one is called Uin. Hence the whole khosJtun is known as Uin, and the amhan is called Uin-Ogurta. From this it appeai-s that a sianyn is a clan, though Potanin tliinks that the sumi/n is further subdivided.*
The Yakut. The Yakut of to-day are grouped in clans [aga-usa), naslegs, and ulascs.
A clan is composed sometimes of only a few individuals, some- times of several hundreds. A nasleg comprises from one to more than thirty clans. The idus often includes several naslegs. In former times the social group corresponding to the nasleg was called aimak, while an idns corresponds to an older group known
' Potanin, op. cit., p. 17. - Kharuzin, op. cit., p. 23-3.
^ Potanin, op. cit., 1881, vol. ii, pp. 7, 8. * Potanin, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. lU-12.
56 SOCIOLOGY
as djon. At present the largest ulus {djo>i) is the Djon Djakar of Ului, which comprises 11,000 souls.^
There appears to be some confusion in the use of the terms idus and naslcg. Both are sometimes called djon, and a clan, almdk. But, however used, ahnah always denotes a subdivision of a djon.
Thus the northern Yakut uluses of Verkhoyansk, Ustiansk, Elgetsk, Jigansk, and Kolymsk have only two strata in their social structure ; with them nasleg and clan are one ; and this is subordinate to the djon (uIhs)."- ^
The Clan. Sieroszewski thinks that the clan composed of blood- relatives is the basis of Yakut social structure. The word aga-usa, he says, means literally ' father-clan ' ; but he could not obtain a completely satisfactory explanation of the term usa from the Yakut. One of the most satisfactory was that given him in the idus of Namsk, in 1^91 : ' Take all the branches, knots, leaves, and buds which spring from one root, and you have an usa.'* Instead of iisa, the Yakut often use the word idrdii, i.e. 'origin', 'root'. They use the expression Jcun-cit nruta ('blood and flesh relation- ship ') to refer to members of the same clan. That this was not an empty phrase Sieroszewski had ample opportunity of convincing himself. Especially in the north, from a mixed throng of people he was often able to pick out members of one clan by their strong resemblance to each other.^ According to one account given to Sieroszewski, the Yakut reckon as members of a clan descendants only as far as the ninth generation, after which they speak of sijgan. One is allowed to marry a sygan ; and the saying is, 'A sygan is an uru ("degree of relationship") which it is not sinful not to save from drowning.' ^
Of course, at the present time, blood-relationship within the
^ Sieroszewski, ' 12 Lat w Kraju Yakuioic', p. 270.
^ The term iiaaley has not been in use long, and is Russian or Tungus in origin ; even its pronunciation is strange to the Yakut tongue. The word nlus is known all over Siberia, and indeed throughout Asia : the Kirgis, Mongols, Buryat, Tartars, and even the Afghans use it. but with variations of meaning. Among the Mongols it means ' nation ' ; among the Tartars, ' society ' ; the Buryat and Tartars use it to denote a small territorial group, a subdivision of the clan ; only the Afghans use it in the same sense as the modern Yakut, to signify a large confederation of clans. From a certain dislike to the term which Sieroszewski observed among the Yakut, and from the fact that it has only com- paratively recently appeared in official documents, he thinks that the word was imported by the Cossacks from some other nation. (Op. cit., pp. 472, 473.)
=> Op. cit., p. 480. •• Op. cit., p. 246. ' Op. cit., p. 247.
^ Recorded by Sieroszewski in the idus of Namsk, 1892.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 57
clan is hardly more tluvn a tradition.' When the Russians first came into contact with the Yakut, their clan system was quite highly developed, and the head of the clan (bis-iisu-foi/onoy had his power limited to that of judge and leader in war.
All economic and legal questions were decided by a council of elders {ogonyor) — fathers, uncles, elder brothers. Even now, ac- cording to Sieroszewski, a Yakut will not buy or sell without consulting his father, uncle, or elder brother.'
This form of social organization was intimately connected with the ownership by the Yakut of large herds of horses, the common property of the clan ; but when they began to herd cattle, this involved a division of the tribe into smaller social groups, so that the memory of the old large herds of horses and large groups of people was only preserved in the ancient poems known as olongho.* Thus, in the new economic conditions, as Sieroszewski thinks, the family came to be the most important social unit, more stable than the old clans of the horse-breeders. Antagonism between family and clan shows itself nowadays in disputes which arise over questions of inheritance. ° Failing a male heir, claim to property lapses to the clan, and even a married sister of the deceased receives nothing."
The whole clan to which a murderer belonged was held respon- sible for the crime, and must make compensation either in blood or by payment of damages. Sometimes a blood-feud between clans became hereditary. An injury done by one member of a clan to another of the same clan, if such cases ever arose, was not held punishable. In the case of a dispute between members of different clans, the decision of a clan would always be given in favour of its own clansman. If a man killed a fellow-clansman, he was tied to a tree in the depths of a forest and left there to perish.^
Clans sometimes made alliances called iiyeUaJch (' reconciled ', 'peaceful'). Sieroszewski thinks that these alliances were made
' Op. cit., p. 248.
^ The meaning of his is not quite clear. Some of the Yakut said that it is identical in meaning with ulus. The spirits invoked by a shaman are said to be divided into three his: heavenly, earthly, and subterranean. Each of these his is as large as three times nine ttsa (op. cit., pp. 471-2). This word, which is no longer in use, may be derived from the old Turanian word hifjCdch, hicis, hi/cd, meaning free, unmarried girl, noble woman (op. cit., p. 335j.
' Op. cit., p. 447. * Op. cit., p. 304, ^ Op. cit., p. 305.
« Op. cit., p. 304. " Op. cit., p. 252.
58 SOCIOLOGY
between clans more or less remotely related by bluod, that they were compelled to enter into such pacts by their common need of defence against outsiders or by some economic cause, and that they cemented the alliance by common sacrifices and festivals. These latter were called //si/alhs ; the most important Ijeing the lesser i/s>j(tJch in spring, and the great i/si/alc/i at midsummer. Ysi/cdhs were also celebrated at weddings, peace-conferences, or simply as an expression of joyousness. They were sham fights or tourna- ments, trials of military skill, and ]>y the results were decided the position that a particular clan should occupy in a confederation or alliance. Very often these tourneys ended in real fights.
Although nowadays ihaysyalih is in a state of decadence,^ never- theless, so lately as 1880-81, Sieroszewski witnessed some of these festivals in Verkhoyansk, which were quite crowded and very lively. Formerly no ijsi/alJi could be held without the presence of a shaman, and the di'inking of htmiys from a common cup was a ver}' impor- tant feature of the festivities.'^
All the traditions point to the great solidarity of alliances between the chiefs of clans ; also to their independent attitude with regard to each other. Superior to them all was the council of the confederation.
' This, like the clan council, was composed of three circles. In the first sat the chiefs of the clans {bis-usa-ioyono) and scscny '' ; in the second the nobles {toyons) and warriors {hatyrs) ; and in the third the common people and the youths. Each clan was grouped behind its representative in the first circle, an arrangement still observed in the %ilus councils, when they are held in the open air.'
The sj)eeehes of the orators were addressed to the whole tribe thus assembled in council. Here the watch-word of the alliance, Urui! (the same 'Hurrah!' whose sound has gone forth into all lands) often rang out ; often the orators called upon the god of the allies, the father of all the Yakut, Aiy-toyon, to hear them from his milk-white throne. Here toyon-kyl, tlie eagle, symbol of the confederation, looked down upon them from his perch.^
^ The ifxijalch was similar to the tsatjan-tsara (white month) or New Year festival of the Mongols, to the taihjans of the Buryat, to the bear- festival of the Gilyak, &c.
2 Op. cit., pp. 2G0-2.
^ Sesen or sckhen, an adviser or wise man (not necessarily old, but always inspired). (Op. cit., 257.)
^ Op. cit., p. 260.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 59
Each clan and each confoileration of chins within the tribe liad its own shout, or watchword, and badge and songs, but these are now almost forgotten by the Yakut.
Thr Funiih/. The general term signifying relationship is itru. But iini means also 'wedding', 'relationship by marriage'. To denote blood-relationship the Yakut say kan-dt uruta ('blood-and- flesh relationship '). There is no other word corresponding to the concept of relationship, unless it be tonh'j, ' root ', ' Ijeginning ', * origin *, or Mnjihi, ' household '. This latter term, however, embraces even serving-men ; while a son who leaves the house is no longer considered one of the largan.
There are two names for a clan : Yc-iisa, ' mother-clan ', and aga-Ksa, ' father-clan '. Nowadays yc-usa, whatever its original signification, is a ' mother-clan ' only in name, being really suIj- ordinate to the aga-iisa. In the ye-usa relationship is reckoned in the male line only to the ninth generation, as far, that is, as the traditional sygan, ' whom it is no sin to allow to drown '. Since in the aga-usa also, only nine generations are reckoned for con- sanguinit}^, the sygan again marking the limit, since, in both ye-usa and aga-usa, married females are not reckoned, and since, in both, descent is reckoned in the male line, it follows, at least in theory, that the two groups are identical. In practice they are identical if the aga-usa comprises only one ye-usa ; but, as a matter of fact, usually it is composed of several. According to traditions recorded by Sieroszewski in the Namsk district, and according also to his own opinion, the distinction between ye- and aga-usa arose as follows : In comparatively recent times, until the coming of the Russians, indeed, the Yakut had the custom of polygyny. The offspring of a man by all his wives formed the basis of an aga-usa ; while the offspring of each separate wife would form that of a ye-usa.^ Each yc-usa has its own old name, better remembered than the official name given at baptism after some Russian clerk or merchant. -
Terms of Relationship.^ TiJrut {tordij), ' origin '. Torid-Uirhn, ' my ancestors '. Ahugii, ' forefather '.
Asil, father's father and his brothers. KJios-iisa, ' paternal grandfather '.
^ Op. cit., p. 298. 2 Op. cit., p. 293.
' Op. cit., Appendixes i. and ii. Also pp. 337-9.
60 SOCIOLOGY
Aba, father's mother and her sisters. Khos-iiM, ' paternal grand- mother '.
Abaga [obaf/a], father's elder brother and father's elder lirst cousin on the father's side ; also mother's father.
Agd, literally ' older ' ; also used to denote a father. A Yakut will ask concerning the age of some person as compared with his own : ' Is he ar/a (older) or balijs (younger) *? '
Agas {iidji/), elder sister, paternal uncle's daughter, daughter of a first cousin on the father's side — in general, any woman older than the speaker, and belonging to the same aga-usa.
Ubaif (biij), elder brother, elder male cousin on the father's side : younger brother of father and father's cousin in the paternal line, and their elder sons ; generally any man older than the speaker and younger than his father, in the aga-usa.
Ini, younger brother, father's younger brother and his son ; in general any man in the aga-usa younger than the speaker, but who could not be his son.
Sitrdju (?) ^ By this term women address a younger brother, younger sons of father's brothers, and the sons of these.
Surits (?) ^ This term is addressed by a woman to her father's brothers younger than herself,
Sangas, father's sister, father's female cousin in the male line ; wife of father's brother, wife of elder brother, and of elder cousin in the male line ; wife of brother's son ; all being older than the speaker.
Balys, younger sister, younger cousin in the male line ; father's sister younger than the speaker ; generally, any woman in the aga-usa younger than the speaker.
Sidn, grandson, brother's son ; generally any relative in the third degree of relationship in the male line.
Sian-cMr, great-grandson, cousin in the male line of the fourth degree of relationship ; generally, any person in the fourth degree of relationship in the male line.
Sygan (?)^, the children and grandchildren of two sisters in their relations to one another; family connexions.
St){g), remote relatives — so remote as not to come under the prohibited degrees of marriage. In the female line this term applies to the second generation. In former times, in the male line, the prohibitions included even the ninth generation, and nowadays reach to the fourth generation at least.
' The interrogation points are Sieroszewski's.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 61
Ychchaf, ' descendant ',
Ar, ' man '; (irim, ' my man ' — the colloquial name for a husband. Ogonnlor, 'old', is another collo({uial term for a husband, or a host.
Oiiolh, 'wife'. Amahhsin, 'old', amiilJisiii-cni, 'my old', are colloquial terms for a ?wife. Dja'khtcr, 'woman', djalhterem, ' my woman ', are other colloquial names.
Yci, ' mother ' (literally ' womb ', ' embryo '), used also in reference to mothers of animals.
Tai/, mother's brother. Ultilhan-Uui, mother's elder brother (uhilchan, ' big '). Achchigaii-tay, mother's younger brother [achchi- gat/, 'small').
Tai/sangcis, wife of a maternal uncle. AcJichir/a)j-ta/f is the term for sons of a mother's brother older than the speaker ; chos- tag, those younger than the speaker. The wife of an acJichigag- tag is called achcJiigag-tag-sangas. The wife of a chostag is spoken of as chos-Tiinit. The daughter of a maternal uncle older than the speaker is called tag agas ; younger than the speaker, tag halgs. Tag sidn is the name for a grandchild of a maternal uncle. The mother's older sister is also tag agas. and her younger sister tag halgs ; while their husbands are known as fag-Jcutwi.
Togon, father of the husband. The literal meaning is ' master ', 'chief.
Kliotun, husband's mother. Literally ' mistress '.
Aga-lajlgn, father-in-law (wife's father), his brother, and his father. Tangiir also means wife's father, his brother, or his father ; the father of a son's wife or of a brother's son's wife, or of a grandson's wife. In a word, every man connected with the wife, including the match-maker, or the men representing the clan at the wedding.
BilldJch, remote relations or, rather, friends.
Ya-hglgn, wife's mother, wife's mother's sister or mother. Kliodogog also means wife's mother, wife's mother's sister or mother ; also the mother of a son's wife or grandson's wife ; and, generally, every kind of remote female relative, match-maker, or female representative of an allied clan at the wedding.
Uol-Jcglgn, wife's brother, wife's male cousins on both sides.
Agas kgign, wife's elder sister, wife's elder female cousins on the mother's side, elder daughter of wife's brother.
Kiim halgs, wife's younger sister, wife's cousin on the mother's side, younger daughter of wife's brother.
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SOCIAL OKGANIZATION 47
the family of that chinsiiuin, and this would lead to an internecine struggle. As a matter of fact, however, the killing of a fellow clansman does receive punishment. The murderer is shunned l)y the clan, and has to leave it. This involves the further penalty of being buried without due rites, for these can only be performed l)y members of his own clan. But crimes within the clan are rare, because, as Sternberg says, ' numerous prohibitions of speech lessen the opportunities for quarrelling, and liberal marital rights among the clansmen make the passion of jealousy milder and practically make any acts of violence against women unnecessary — ? such acts being the most frequent causes of blood-revenge among these people.' ^
In clans which have intermarried with the Ainu, a people among whom strong traces of a matriarchate still exist, in cases of manslaughter the brother of the mother of the victim and the victim's father or brother receive compensation, which is divided between them equally.-
When a crime is committed against a member of the clan by an outsider, the offended clan will stand out very firmly for their rights. This holds good not only Avhen a man is the oftender — and it is indifferent whether his crime is intentional or not — but also even when an animal is. If a man is killed by a bear, he must be avenged by the death of the animal in question, or of another bear in its place ; and the • man (owner) of the mountain ' must give fhusind to the clan of the deceased by sending them many animals. There is a regular procedure for taking vengeance on the bear, and only when the animal is slain and its flesh eaten at a feast is the deceased accepted into the society of the ' men of the mountain '. His clansmen then offer sacrifice to him.'' The soul of an unavenged victim cannot go to the land of the dead, but must remain near the living, incarnated as a bird-avenger, called fakhch, and finally crumbles into dust. On the grave of a murdered man is placed the stump of a tree with the roots upwards, whereas the stump placed on an ordinary grave usually has the roots turned down. The roots they fashion into the form of a bird, or else place upon them the image of one. As the soul of a murdered man, like that of any other Gilyak, continues to exist only for three generations, so the obligation to take ven- geance for his blood binds his fellow clansmen only till the third
1 Op. cit., p. 03. - Ibid. 3 Op. cit., pp. 04 5.
48 SOCIOLOGY
generation it" the act of vengeance is not performed by a contem- porary. Vengeance is never executed upon a woman, or upon the private property of the guilty person.^
Both clans are under a kind of martial law, between the time of the murder and that of the carrying out of the blood-vengeance. If the clans live near each other the matter is settled quickly, but if they ai*e separated by a considerable distance a military expedi- tion on a small scale is arranged.'^
Thusind originated as an alternative to blood-vengeance, and has finally replaced it. Sternberg says^ that as every clan was intimately connected with at least two others, ahmallc and ymgi, and often with others besides, it was always difficult, because of the protective attitude of the Gilyak towards their women, to put the custom of blood-revenge into practice, as the clans would be reluctant to involve women with whom they were so closely related in the horrors of war. Although a woman could neither take active part in inflicting vengeance for blood, nor herself suffer this punishment, she could play a role in the affair which, though passive, was still important. She might hide the object of the clans- men's vengeance ; or, by abstaining from assisting them with sup- plies of food and water, or with fire for cooking, hinder them from carrying out their aim ; for the law was strictly against the members of one clan making use of the food, water, or fire of another clan.
Thusind is accompanied by a complicated ritual, which includes an imitation of blood-vengeance. The most important participator in this ceremonial is the ]clila)j-nkulcli ('speaking-man', 'orator'), a personage somewhat resembling a barrister in his functions. He must be a rich and important member of a neutral clan. When the offended clan ajiproaches the habitat of the murderer's fellow clansmen to demand thusind, a halt is made, and the IMaij- nivukh goes forward alone to name the sum demanded. The clansmen of whom the demand is made do not at first agree, and the proceeding has to be repeated two or three times. This is followed by an imitation of the taking of blood-revenge. Two champions, one from each clan, accompanied each by his khlaji- nivKJih, advance between the two parties to the dispute, bearing shields. They engage in a combat, which is usually merely a feigned one, though it sometimes develops into a real fight, during which the two JMajj-niinilxhs do their utmost to calm the anger of the combatants. This over, two dogs, provided by the ' Op. cit., pp. 95-7. - Op. cit., pp. 97-100. ^ Op. cit., p. 101.
^
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 49
two clans, are killed, and offered as a sacrifice to the l)ird-avenger. Then a feast is held, at which the thusind is paid and friendship re-established between the clans. ^
VII. Common sin. Though all the Gilyak have certain common religious and social laws which must not be broken, there are, besides, oeitain prohibitions, the forms of which are peculiar to a given clan. The breach of these latter rules constitutes a * sin ' for that clan only. Some of these prohibitions, or taboos, are sexual, for besides marriage relations with an alimalk or ipncfi, sexual relations are permitted with certain persons and prohibited with others. This will be dealt with in the chapter on 'Mar- riage'. There are also speech taboos with the whole class of (nvii (ruvn), acJiJc (mother and aunts of the wife). Other taboos are connected with the clan cult, and the breaking of them involves payment of thuslnd to the god. The breaking of such taboos by members of another clan requires payment of tlmsind to the offended clan. Not only is the breaking of a taboo a sin, but also failure to perform religious duties. The sin of an individual acts in such a case to the detriment of the whole clan ; just as, on the other hand, the observance of socio-religious duties is essential to the preservation of the clan as a whole. ^
Clansmen prefer to live together, but this is not always possible, and therefore the territorial group does not always correspond to the clan. In eveiy such group each clan has its own special rights.^ Clan-names are generally the names of localities where the clans formerly lived. Here and there we find names of animals as the origin of clan-names, but this occurs chiefly where there is a Tungus admixture."*
Both Chinese and Russians tried to impose upon the Gilyak clan rulers, and the ruler chosen was a sort of elder — not, how- ever, a clan elder, but a village elder ; an arrangement quite opposed to Gilyak ideas of government.
In the natural Gilyak social organization there is no trace of a despotic authority. The * old men ' [Icheymars) of tlie clan decide questions of cult and clanship, for they are the repositories of the clan customs, traditions, and genealogies ; and they have much authority in this respect. But apart from this they have no great influence or real authority or importance.
' Op. cit., pp. 102 6. ^ Op. cit , pp. 106 8.
3 Op. cit., p. 110. * Op. cit., p. 111.
50 SOCIOLOGY
All the clans have some men known as yz ('host'), or nrdla- nmikhi (lit. ' good and rich '), who either through wealth, physical prowess, or some accomplishment such as oratory, have an im- portant though unofficial standing in the clan. In time of need such men may be called upon to assume the responsibility of upholding the customary law ; but the Ixhal (clan) as a whole has supreme authority over theni.^
As has been said, clans connected by marital ties, calling each oihev 2mndf, customarily formed friendly alliances. Not only was a clan thus friendly with its own alinuiTIc and ynKji, but the whole group formed by these three clans, together with others connected with alimalh and nmg'i by marriage, formed a friendly alliance. These alliances did not amount to a confederation such as we see among the Mongols, but that they did exist is clear not only from the traditions but also from certain present-day practices. One of the duties of an allied clan towards others in the alliance was that of hospitality or ' feeding '. An inter-clan maxim says : ' One must feed jinuji^ ('sons-in-law'). This implies actual support of a son-in-law only in a few cases, but there remain even at the present day, says Sternberg, traces of a time when it was the custom for sons-in-law to go to live in the houses of their fathers- in-law.'- A custom connected with the making of friendship with an )img\ is that of ' treading upon the threshold ' with an exchange of gifts.''
The solidarity of the group formed by a clan with its alimalh and jimgi is shown in bear-hunting, the trai:>ping of sables, and the hunting of sea-animals.
The principle of mutual help is also seen in the hereditary rites, according to which the ymgi receives iron shagund, and the alimalh, fur shagund, the iron shagund being afterwards returned as halym. This exchange shows that the payment of hahjm among the Gilyak is merely formal, and was not originally in the nature of payment for a wife."* Sternberg thinks that the origin of the halgm in the marriage of the Gilj'ak was as follows. When the clan of the mother could not provide W'ives enough for the clan of the father, a man would have to go to some other clan for his wife. This was an illegal proceeding ; consequently a sort of thusind had to be paid to the clan, and the latter propitiated their clan-gods with it as compensation for the breach of socio-religious
' Op, cit., pp. 119-22. ' Op, cit., p. 128.
3 Op. cit., p. 124. ?? Op. cit., pp. 125-6.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 51
law. In moilern times the custom of giving ladiim has been extended to all marriages, and the origin of the custom forgotten.' The bear-festival, one of the most important means of cementing inter-clan friendships, is held eveiy winter in one or another of the villages. It plays among the Gilyak, says Sternberg, a role similar to that of the Olympic games among the Greeks.-
V. The TunctUsic Tribes.
Family and clan organization is relatively strong among the Tungus proper. ' Tungus families often separate from the clan in search of new hunting-grounds, but a single person never leaves his family ; and even an isolated family will retain the memory of its connexion with the clan for a long time. The Lamut of the Chaun country, who consist of stragglers from all the clans living farther to the south, still consider themselves as belonging to particular clans ; though this connexion has at present no real office, because of the distance of their habitat from that of their clans.' 2 It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the Tungus clans of the present day are composed only of people related by blood. In many cases the clan is an artificial creation ; and, as Middendorff * observes, if there is a group consisting of less than a hundred souls, they call themselves a clan ; if above this number, they call themselves an orda.
The clan is called (according to Georgi) tagaiin ; and, being origin- ally based on a system of blood-relationships, the members of a clan may not mari-y each other. A clan was governed by an elder, called daruga, whose office was hereditary. But in the middle of the eighteenth century the Russians introduced native adminis- trators, elected for terms of three years, who were, in fact, Russian governmental agents for the collection of taxes.' The popular tradition is that the clan-names originated from the founders of the clan, or heroes, and such is certainly the case
1 Op. cit., p. 127. 2 j^jj 3 Bogoras, Tlte Chuk-chee, p. 537.
* Micidendorff", Sibirische Reise, vol. iv, p. 1398.
' Patkanoff, Essay on the Geography and Statistics of the Tungusic Tribes of Siberia, 1906, vol. i, part ii, p. 91. Among some Tungusic tribes of the Trans- Baikal, there were, besides the clan elder (called sometimes taijsha, toyon), family or sub-clan elders, known as zaysan or oterikan. According to Georgi, the words daruga, zaysan, tayshan are of Mongolic origin. Oterikan would appear to be of Tungusic derivation, since in Tungus otrykan (atrikan) means * old ', and atyrkon is ' man ', 'husband'. (Patkanoff, op. cit., p. 91.)
E 2
52 SOCIOLOGY
witli clans like the Kurkugiisk, Chemdalsk, Chapogirsk, all in the Yenisei district. A few clans derive their names from some river or hill of the district where they were formerly settled ; some of these place-names being of Tungus origin, others Russian. Russian proper names like Davydkin, Nironoff, are occasionally found as names of clans ; but, as Patkanoif observes, such names are not found in eighteenth-century writers, and are notliing but arbitrary appellations attached by the Russians to groups ai-tificially formed by them from fragments of disintegrated clans.^
The Tungus clan is not an indivisible whole, but is composed of several sub-clans, and thus resembles a Yakut naslcg, for instance. Thus, e. g., the Lamunkhinsk clan of Tungus living in the Yakut district is made up of four sub-clans, Khorinsk. Donda- konsk, Lamunkhinsk, and Tugiasirsk. The first two sub-clans originally consisted of Mongol-Buryat, who since the seventeenth century have been living among Tungus, and thus have become tungusized. This shows, says Patkanoff, that even under a regular Tungus organization an alien element may sometimes be hidden."
The clan organization has been preserved most pure among those Tungus who have remained in isolated districts, mixing with alien elements only on their borders ; that is, it has re- mained in its purest state among the ' nomadic ' and ' wandering ' tribes, especially the latter. Christianity and a sedentaiy mode of life have been unfavourable to the preservation of their social structure no less than to that of their religious cults.^
In speaking of their mode of life, investigators so long ago as the eighteenth century had already divided them into three classes : Horse-Tungus, Reindeer-Tungiis, and Dog-Tungus. Georgi in 1775 speaks of the Steppe (Horse) Tungus and the Forest (Reindeer and Fishermen) Tungus.^ The present administrative classification of these people by the Russians is into Sedentaiy, Nomadic, and Wandering.'' The Sedentary Tungus are less than one per cent, of the whole, and do not now differ greatly from the Russian immigrant peasantry, having intermarried with the latter for so long. They live for the most j^art in the Trans-Baikal district, and have forgotten their original language.*
The Nomadic Tungus are cattle-breeders, and change their
' Op. cit., pp. 92-3. "^ Op. cit., pp. 93-4. ' Op. cit., p. 9-5.
* Op. cit., p. 233. =* Op. cit., p. 198. « Op. cit., pp. 200, 216.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 53
habitat according to the season of the year. Each clan has its own region assigned to it, land over which they can wander at will, and where no strangers are allowed to settle. They form about 50 i>er cent, of all the Tungus. and inhabit the Trans-Baikal and Yakutsk districts.'
The Wandering tribes are found all over Siberia except in the Trans-Baikal. They wandor throughout the year, regardless of seasons, and have no special clan-districts assigned among them, but keep to long irregular tracts of country, without any definite frontiers, along the rivers. They form about 45 per cent, of all the Tungus proper, and pay even less in taxes than the Nomadic people. They have preserved their language and nationality better than any other section of this tribe.^
Since the clan as a whole has certain duties imposed upon it, such as that of keeping the roads in order, &c., and since the clan customarily separates in its wanderings, they find it difficult to carry out these obligations ; hence some of these people have formed themselves into territorial groups, from which no such duties are required.^
A small number, about 4 per cent, of the Tungus, like some of the Buryat, have joined the regiment of Cossacks, and in conse- quence are exempt from the payment of taxes. ^
VI. The Turkic Tribes.
The nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of Siberia have as their social unit the clan. The clans are joined in larger groups, which combine to form tribes. These again are grouped as nations, each of which claims descent from a common ancestor.
Formerly, says Kharuzin,* tribal elders in the Turkic tribes were elective, and their authority was limited by the tribal assembly and by the council of elders of the clan. The clan organization is still preserved with great strictness, especially among the Turkic tribes of the Altai.
TJie Altaians. The tribes of the Russian Altai have no common name, but are divided into three main groups : Altaians proper, Telengit, and Toyoles. These groups do not differ very greatly from one another in language, and form one nation. Their clans
' Op. cit., pp. 198, 215. 2 Op. cit., pp. 197, 215.
3 Op. cit., p. 96. * Op. cit., p. 202.
* N. Kharuzin, Ethno(/iaj)hi/, 1901, vol. i, part ii, p. 231.
54 SOCIOLOGY
are known as seolcs (in Eussian, Jcocniu, ' bones ') or ' generations '. The Altaians themselves reckon as many as twenty-four of these, but Potanin thinks that this number has some mystical significance and does not represent the actual number of these groups.
The members of one clan live among those of another, and they do not form separate encampments, as the Kirgis do, of each clan by itself. 1
The people of a seoJc consider themselves related to each other. When a member of the scoJc Totosh meets another Totosh clans- man older even by one day than himself, he addresses him as ' uncle ' — ahagay, if on the father's, tatj, if on the mother's side. A fellow clansman younger than himself he will call 'nephew'- — uchim, for a paternal, dcgnym for a maternal ' nephew '. A woman older than himself he calls 'aunt', tcnge ; or ahioncsh, 'grandmother' (literally, ' old woman '), if she is much older.- Siijni/m (literally, ' girl ') is the name for a younger sister, and edem for an older.'
655
« on: June 22, 2019, 07:50:40 PM »
The Yukaghir language, according to Jochelson,^ has three terms to describe their system of relationship, viz. (i) coro-mimchon])e, ' men of the clan ' ; (ii) coro-monulpe, ' relatives ' ; (iii) lepiil, ' blood ' — i.e. kinsfolk. The last term, which might be thought to apply to blood-relatives only, in fact includes also relatives bj' affinity.
System of Consanguinity.
Grandmothers
Grandfathers
Younger
paternal
aunt
Elder father,
Younger
paternal
uncle
Father
k
Elder mother
-Mother -j lounger j maternal ^ aunt
Younger
maternal
uncle
Elder brothers and sisters
Self
Younger brothers and sisters
: a general of brothel's,
Child
Terms of Consanguinity.* I. Classificatory. Emjepid {emje, 'younger') classificatory term comprising the whole group
the Kamchadal koekchuch of the time of Ki-asheninnikoff, and suggests a possible explanation of the real nature of these latter. This matter will be more fully discussed in the chapter on ' Shaman and Sex ', and will be developed in a later woi-k,
» Op. cit., p. 133. 2 Op. cit., p. 132.
=» Op. cit., p. 68. ?* Ibid.
40 SOCIOLOGY
sisters, and cousins, male and female, of the father and mother. These are further distinguished according to age.*
1. Tata (Kolyma dialect) ; Icoklle (tundra dialect) : elder brother, elder male first-cousin.
2. Paha, ahuja, or ahu\ : elder sister, elder female cousin of different degrees.'*
3. Emje: younger brother, younger sister, younger cousin. Koyojed-emjc, younger brother ; paijnjcd-emje, younger sister.
4. Ecic : father, lit. 'guardian' or 'fosterer' — derived from the verb encle, * to feed, to nourish '.'
5. Emc'i: mother; probably from amc, 'who does, produces, creates \*
G. Como-cie : father's elder brother, elder first or second cousin, &c. — a contraction for comojed-ecic, 'big-father'. 'Big', here = ' provider ', with reference to this person's position in the family.
7. Idiefel; or edietek: father's younger brother, younger first- cousin, &c. Lit. 'a little father' (diminutive).^
8. Cemmei (contracted from cotnoje-d-cmei, ' big mother ') : mother's elder sister, elder female cousins, first, second, &c. The elder sister takes care of her younger sister's children like a mother.
9. JSlmdiefeli (Kolyma dialect), yadie (tundra dialect) : mother's younger sister, younger female cousins, first, second, &c. Probably ' little mother '.
10. Xoja, xojadlc (Kolyma), xoujeidie (tundra) : mother's younger brother, younger male cousins of different degrees. Xojadic lit. = ' little grandfather '.
11. Emjnodic (Kolyma), aijno (tundra): father's j'ounger sister, female first-cousin, «S:c. Emjnodie=^\\.ii\e dear one'."
* Brothers and sisters may be distinguished from cousins by the use of the term unkenme, ' birth-fellow ', for the former, or by speaking of an *clder-brother-by-birth', &c. (Op. cit., p. 69.j
2 Op. cit., p. 69. 3 Op. cit., p. 70.
* Uncles and aunts included under the general term enijepul in reference to the older generation of grandfather.'; and grandmothers, are not addressed by their nephews and nieces by any general name. (Op. cit., p. 70.)
^ Op. cit., p. 71.
* *As we have seen from the terms Nos. G-11, the group of blood relatives of true and collateral uncles and aunts — who, like every other generation, form together in respect to the older generation, a younger generation of evijepiil— is divided into separate sub-groups, according to age on the one hand, and according to kinship of the father and mother on the other hand. There are but one class of uncles and but one class of aunts, who do not form, b}- their names, a .'ei^arate sub-group in their own generation : these belong, by their terms, to the group
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 41
12. Xa.ra (Kolyma), xaicie (tundra) : mother's elder brothers and elder male cousins of various degrees, as well as grandfathers (paternal and maternal) and all brothers and male cousins of different degrees of the latter.
13. Epie (Kolyma), ubucic (tundra) : father's elder sister and elder female cousins of different degrees, as well as the grand- mothei"s (paternal and maternal), and the latter's sisters and female cousins of different degrees.^
'Among the female members of a family the father's elder sister occupies the first position, after the father's mother, in respect to the household ; and the mother's elder brother, after the mother's father, is the head of the family.' -
Blood-relatives of the descending grades are denoted by terms which are merely descriptive and not classificatory :
II. Descriptive. — 14. Aduo, ' son ' {adil, * boy ', and uo, ' cliild ').
15. Mapxkhto or marxlno, ' daughter ' [marxU, ' girl ', and no, ' child ').
'The descriptive terms for nephews and nieces, according to which group of brothers and sisters or cousins of the class emjepul their parents belong to, are as follows ' : ^
16. Nephews : (i) mettata-d-aduo, ' son of my elder brother (or elder male cousin) ' ; (ii) metpabad-aduo, ' son of my elder sister (or elder female cousin) ' ; (iii) mefemjed-adiw, 'son of my younger brother or younger male cousin, or of my younger sister or younger female cousin '.
17. Nieces: (i) mettata-marxil ; {ii) metpaba-marxd ; {Hi) metemje- marxd.
Similar descriptive terms are applied to grandsons, and grand- daughters :
18. Grandsons : mdaduod-adiio, ' son of my son ' ; metmarxluod- aduo, ' son of my daughter '.
19. Granddaughters : mctuduod-niarxd, ' daughter of my son ' ;
metmarxliwd-marxd, ' daughter of my daughter '.
ot the elder generation, to the group of the grandfathers and grand- mothers. Thus we have the following terms :' (12 and 18j. (Op. cit, p. 71.)
' The terms xfixa and epie are also used to denote old men and old women in general (op. cit., p. 73 '.
^ ' This inclusion of the mother's elder bi-other or father's elder sister in one term with the grandfathers or grandmothers proves unmistakably that the terms do not denote various degrees of blood-relationship, but show the position of these jjersons in the family, or clan.' (Op. cit., p. 72.J
^ Op. cit., p. <3.
42 SOCIOLOGY
20. Grand-nephews and grand-nieces are similarly designated ; e. g. mettatad-aduod-aduo, * son of the son of my elder brother, or of my elder male cousin ' ; mcipaJ)ad-marxluod-aduo, ' son of my elder sister's, or of my elder female cousin's, daughter ' ; &c.^
System of Affinity.^
The elder'' generation call the wife of a member of the younger generation"* ........ nial.
The elder generation call the husband of a member of the younger generation ....... jjo7?7.
The younger generation call the wife of a memljer of the elder generation .... ..... t/edie.
The younger generation call the husband of a member of the elder generation ........ pulei.
A person calls the male relatives of the elder generation of his or her spouse ........ jwgil.
A person calls the female relatives of the elder generation of his or her spouse ........ pogil/'
A person calls the male relatives of the younger generation of his or her spouse ........ pidei.
A person calls the female I'elatives of the younger generation of his or her spouse ....... yedie.
Terms of Affinity-.'''
The system of affinity is, like that of consanguinity, elassificatoiy. The following four classes of terms for relatives by affinity are used by the Kolyma Yukaghir; each class including persons of different degrees of affinity : pogd, nial, pulei, and ycdic. Among the Tundra Yukaghir the first two classes, pogiipe and nialpe (plural of pogil and nial), have become merged into one class, nialpe.'
I. Fogil : ^ (a) wife's father (father-in-law) ; (&) wife's mother (mother-in-law); (c) husband's father (father-in law) ; ((?) husband's
' Op. cit., p. 73.
^ 'According to the above table it might seem that the coufusion of nial and 2^01/il, which is complete among the Tiuidia Yukaghir, has coui- menced among the othor branch also. A few terms, like that for uncle's wife, have not been ascertained.' (Op. cit., p. 75.)
^ Including the parental generation and elder brothers and sisters, and cousins.
* Including the generation of children and nephews and younger brothers and sisters.
' Here we should expect the term iiinl.
•^ Op. cit., p. 73. ' Ibid. ** Op. cit.. p. 74.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 43
mother (mother-in-law) ; (c) daughter's husband (son-in-h\\v) ; (/) younger sister's husband (brotlior-in-hiw) ; {fj) wife's elder brother (brother-in-law); [h) husband of younger brother's, or male cousin's, daughter ; (?) husband of sister's, or female cousin's (of various degrees), daughter ; and ij) husband's elder brother.'
II. Xial : {a) son's or nephew's wife (daughter-in-law) ; (h) younger brother's or younger cousin's wife (sister-in-law) ; (c) wife of younger brother's, or younger male cousin's, son ; and [d) wife of younger sister's, or younger female cousin's, son.
III. Pulci : (a) elder sister's or elder female cousin's husband ; {h) wife's younger brother or male cousin ; and (r) husband's younger brother or younger male cousin. -
IV. Yedic: (a) elder brother's or elder male cousin's wife; (b) husband's or wife's younger sister.
Among the Tundra Yukaghir, Jcelil, and among the Kolyma Yukaghir, sahoyax. form still another class of relatives by affinity: {a) husband of wife's sister or female cousin ; (&) wife of wife's brother or male cousin ; (c) husband of husband's sister or female cousin ; and {d) wife of husband's brother or male cousin.
IV. The Gilyak.
The Gilyak elan is called Tihal, literally ' foot-sack ' (used in travelling). The real significance of this term is best seen in the answer that a Gilyak will give to the question, ' Why do you call such-and-such people your relations?' 'Because we have a common ahmaJk, ymc/i, common fire, common mountain-men. sea-men, sky-men, earth-men ; common bear, common devil, common tlnisind. common sin. ' "'
I. Common ahmalJc. The father-in-law of one clansman is the father-in-law of the whole clan ; and the son-in-law of a clansman is the son-in-law of the whole clan. The men form the permanent element in the clan ; the women either leave the clan or come to it from another. So the clan forms a society or union, cemented by common rights and marital duties of men related through
' .Tocholson thinks that the word j)0[/il is made up of ^)o (a term formerly applied to captive slaves, who are now known as ' hired labourers'; ; (ji, a possessive suffix, and /, a suffix used to form nouns from verbs. The tei-m would thus mean ' his labourer '. The verb lyngilonii, he says, means ' to serve for a girl at her parents' house '. Thus the term pogil comes to denote persons who serve, or are served, for a bride. (Op. cit., p. 74.)
^ Brother, sister, cousin, being all eiujepiil.
- L. Sternberg, The Gihjcih, 1905, pp. 78-9.
44 SOCIOLOGY
their fathers, taking their wives from another similar group, and giving their women in marriage to a third clan, all clans being thus exogamic and patriarchal in organization. In spite of the dominant patriarchal principle, Gilyak are related also through their mothers, for they have a common * father-in-law ' clan ; and all women coming into a clan are to each other in the relationship of sister, aunt, or niece.' Sternberg says that the j)rinciple that a man must take his wife from his mother's clan, that the wife must be a blood-relative of her husband, is a religious principle, connected with the cult of ancestors, especially with mother-cult.-
No clansman need fear that at his death he will leave his family without support, for even while he lives his wife and children are nominally, often even actually, the wife and children of his brother ; and at his death one of his brothers, chosen by the clansmen, is bound to undertake the rights and duties of father and husband towards his widow.-*
The clan, of course, does not exist in its primitive purity at the present day. Natural causes, like epidemics, the dwindling of families, &c., have made it necessary, in order to prevent its extinction, for a clan to adopt individuals, and sometimes whole groups, from other clans or even from other tribes. Another means by which new blood was imported into the clan was : If two men married sisters, they were regarded as fellow clansmen, and often their children were considered as brothers and sisters."*
II. Common fire. The common fire is also a symbol of the unity of the clan. 'The chief owner of the fire,' whom they imagine as an old woman, is thus not only a good spirit who bestows the use of fire on living clansmen, but also an interme- diary between the living and the dej^arted ancestors who are the heroes of the clan. By being burned the dead are given to the ' owner of the fire ', who has the power of choosing some of them to become also ' owners ' of the clan-fire. "^
Only a clansman has the right to kindle fire on the hearth of a fellow clansman, or to take fire out of his yurta. If a man from another clan lights his pipe in the yurta, he must finish smoking it before he goes out. Any infringement of these customary rules
' Op. cit., pp. 79-80. 2 Op. cit., p. 80.
I Op. cit., p. 81. ?• Op. cit., pp. 82-3.
^ People who have been struck dead by lightning, or have died from burning, are reckoned as worthy to be received into the society oi' the ' owners of the fire '. (Op. cit., pp. 84, 85.)
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 45
will hring niisfurtimo on the clun, juul the :ilien clansiuaii who has brought it about may have to pay a fine in consequence. Each clan has its own firebrand, kept by the eldest of the chin, and only from this firebrand can the fire be made at which the l)ear meat is cooked at the bear festival. When a clan divides, the eldest of the clan breaks the firebrand in two, giving a half to the eldest of that portion of the clan which is removing. Then only is the clan regarded as formally divided.^
III. JLcn of the Mountain, Sea, Sl\if, Farth.'^ Those clansmen who die by drowning, are killed by wild animals, or those who are beloved by the 'owners' of the mountain, sky, sea, or earth, join the society of these 'owners' after death. All clansmen worship their ancestors, the 'owners' referred to, in sacrifices and festivals which are regularly held in their honour, and the ' owners ' in return provide the clansmen with food : all that nature gives them is the free gift of the gods ; hence it is a sin to be inhospitable, for it is not man but the gods who give food to a guest.^ At the sea-hunting the master of the boat receives no greater share of the spoils of the chase than any one else ; indeed, the products of the hunt are sometimes divided among the families of men who have not taken part in it.^ As regards such objects as swords, shields, &c., of the more costly kind, though they are more than other things regarded as individual property, yet if a clansman needs them for Mh/m, for burial, &c., they give them freely. In the case of inherited property, the maxim si suos haeredes non Jiabef, gentiles familiam hahento is strictly observed. If there is no family (including labourers attached to the house- hold) an inheritance passes to the next of kin on the father's side, even if there are much nearer relatives on the side of the mother. The latter can receive, but only by special bequest, certain ol)jects known as shagtoid, which are private property. Iron sliagund may be so given to the clan ymgi, since they will be returned to the surviving fellow clansmen of the deceased in the form of Jcalijm ; or fur shagund may be given to the clan aJimalJc, in which case they will come back as dowry.^
IV. Common hear. It is the common duty of clansmen to feed the bear, and to take part in the bear-festival, when the bear, either tame or \vild, is killed.'' This festival has both a religious
Op. cit., pp. 85-6. 2 Op. cit., p. 86. ^ Qj,. cit., pp. 87-8.
Op. cit., p. 89. => Op. cit., p. 90. « Ibid.
46 SOCIOLOGY
and a sucial sigiiificauce. In the former case, it is a religious duty to venerate the slain bear, for he may belong to the fra- ternity of the ' owners of the mountain ', or be the incarnation of some remote fellow clansman's spirit, which has been received into that fraternity. Again, the bear is regarded as the inter- mediary between mortals and the ' owner of the mountain ', so that sacrifices may be sent by the bear to that spirit ; an important matter, for this 'owner' has power over all animals. This is the reason why the bear-festival plays such an important part in the life of the clan, and why, although clansmen from other groups may be present at the festival, the organization and management of the feast are in the hands of the clansmen, only sons-in-law besides being allowed to assist in this way. The expenses of the festival are shared by the clansmen.
Socially the bear-festival is also very important. It affords an opportunity for widely separated members of the clan to meet and share various social pleasures, the more so as the ceremonies are usually followed by games and sports of different kinds. Besides, it gives scope for the formation of friendships with other clans.^
V. Common devil: i.e., a common enemy in the person of a deceased clansman or a slain enemy. An individual who has quarrelled with his fellow clansmen, one whose death has not been avenged, or one who has been buried without due funeral rites, may become a hostile spirit and bring trouble upon his clan. The same may be expected from an offended individual belonging to another clan. In such cases ^ the shaman will be requested to appease the hostile spirit.
VI. Common tJiusind. This means compensation exacted in lieu of blood-revenge and compensation also for many other offences, such as the abduction of a woman, the dishonouring of a woman, theft, &c. The responsibility for payment of thusind rests with the clan as a whole, as does also the duty of exacting thusind from the offender on behalf of an injured clansman.^ Compensation in money, however, is only a secondary, and a modern, consideration, and cannot always, even nowadays, replace the ancient duty of exacting blood-revenge for man- slaughter. This latter offence often goes formally unpunished within the clan. The killing by way of blood-revenge of a fellow clansman would involve another act of vengeance on the part of
» Op. cit., pp. 90-2. ? Op. cit., p. 92. ^ n,id.
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Relatives-in-law (Father-in-law and Mother-in-law).
Relatives-in-law Self Wife Wife's Child-in-law's
(Brother-in-law and ^ r ' sister's parents.
Sister-in-law). | husband. |
Son. Daughter-in-law.
Daughter. Son-in-law.
' For the female the system is practically the same, except that in the table of affinity the talalhin ("wife's sister's husband") relation is not found.' ^
The collective term for relatives by affinity is matdlirarrikhi (' affinity peoj)le ').
Terms of Affinity."
Matalin .... Father-in-law.
Naw-matalin'' . . . Mother-in-law.
Intuulper .... Son-in-law.
Inte Daughter-in-law.
' Women among themselves use simply the term naiogel (ibid.). 2 Op. cit., p. 539. 3 Ibid. 4 Op. cit., p. 541. ^ Ibid.
« Op. cit., p. 539. ' From verb maiarkin, ' thou takest ', ' thou takest to wife ' (ibid.).
32 SOCIOLOGY
Aacew-matalin^ . . . Brother-in-law.
Nanchnn-waiaUn . . Sister-in-law.
Takalhin .... Husband of wife's sister.
Uitiirit .... Son-in-law's or daughter-in-law's father.
Neiimirit (' woma,n-umirit ') Son-in law's or daughter-in-law's mother.
The relation between men married to two sisters is considered extremely close ; and in ancient times, according to Bogoras,^ it constituted a tie even stronger than brotlierhood. Such men call each other takalhin, which means literally, ' brace-companion '. The closeness of the bond is expressed in the following proverbs : ' Man of the wife's sister (is) of the old male-brother beyond ' {TaJcalhin Idrna-yecamet-tomgcpu 2>((>'oc); 'Man of the wife's sister is on the same lake-shore a fall-companion' {TaJcalhin ennan- hifhilinli rilid-tomr/in) — that is to say, that they must fight and fall together.''
Step-relationship in all its degrees is denoted by the suffix -Iqdl, 'intended for'. E.g. uivaqiicilqiil, 'intended for husband', ' bridegroom ' ; neivcinliqal, ' intended for wife ', i. e. ' bride '.*
Elihilqdl . . Step-father.
Elalqal . . Step-mother (also, in polygynous families, 'another
wife of my father').
Ekkelqiil . . Step-son.
Neel-kelqitl . . Step-daughter.
Yicemit-tumgcdqCd Step-brother.
CakettilqCil . . Step-sister (in respect of the brother).
The term neic-mirgiJqdl, 'step-grandmother', is often used in polygynous families.
II. The Koryak.
The family is the only well-defined and stable social unit among the Koryak, though there are indications of a tendency for families related by marriage to diaw together in larger gi'oups, united by certain moral and material obligations — a tendency that might have led to the establishment of a real clan organization, but for the destructive influence of the Russians.*
^ Aacek means 'young man', neusqat means 'woman'. These terms are used by both wedded parties. Sometimes they say also Eiuhic-matalin ('wife's uncle') and eccainaw-maialin ("wife's aunt') (ibid.).
2 Op. cit.. p. 540.
' Bogoras says that 'jjerhaps this relation may be considered as a sur- vival of group-marriage, although at present grouj)-marriage between takalhit exists but rarely ' (ibid.).
* Op. cit., p. 539.
^ Jochelson, The Konjak, p. 761.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 33
The tendency to\Yaril.s a wider social grouping is seen also in the custom of fraterniziuj^ with members of unrelated families. Jothelson says that tlioro is no formal rite accompanying the establishment of these friendships, that there is merely an ex- change of gifts between the friends. In former times members of such alliances were bound to help each other in war ; nowadays, as wars are no longer waged, there are only certain obligations of mutual material assistance. Women also form such friendships.^
In the old warlike days there was a class of slaves, about whom Jochelson speaks as follows :
'The Koryak say that in ancient times the rich and the strong- men held slaves. These remained at home and were employed for different kinds of housework, and under the supervision of the women. It is difficult to ascertain how far they Avere the property of the conquerors, and whether they could be bought and sold.' ^
As in the case of the Chukchee, the Koryak have, in modern times, been grouped by the Eussian administration into what the latter call ' clans '. These have no relation whatever to any aboriginal system of grouping according to family relationship. The modern clan system is territorial in origin, and is simply due to the mistake on the part of the Russians of confusing the social system of these people with the more developed form seen among the Tungus and Yakut. Even as a territorial group system the present nomenclature is misleading, for, since their original registration, many families have migrated to other districts. The men chosen by the Russians as chiefs of these ' clans ' are not the natural heads of the community.^
Jochelson gives the following account of the Koryak custom of blood-revenge : ' The duty of avenging the murder of a relative fell upon the male members of a consanguineous group. Ac- cording to the account of the Koryak, the immediate avengers were the brothers ; then followed cousins, nephews, and the more remote relatives on the father's or mother's side. In case there were no brothers, the father or uncle, unless impeded by age, would take their place. On the whole, however, vengeance by blood was considered by the Koryak to be the duty of all blood- relatives, and not of single individuals. A consanguineous group consisting of one or several families was also jointly responsible for a murder committed by one of its members, and in so far
> Op. cit., pp. 763 4. ' Op. cit.,p. 766. ^ Op. cit., pp. 767-8.
1679 J)
34 SOCIOLOGY
must be regarded as one juridical personality.* We know thut the old men often attempted to check the spread of blood-revenge. For tliis purpose ransom was resorted to. Keindeer people would give reindeer to the family of the victim ; while the ransom of the Maritime people would consist of skins, embroidered clothes, arms, and other articles.'^
The family formed a group, bound by certain tahuos. Thus the hearth, the family drum, and the fire-drill were tahoo to all outsiders. The principle of seniority was preserved not only in the family but in the settlement. In the latter, as long as no stronger man appeared, the founder was considered the elder. Thus, by seniority we are to understand superiority not only in age but also in physical strength. The elder's dwelling was distinguished by having erected near it a post, known as the guardian of the settlement. The elder usually had many wives and children, and the respect in which he was held was extended to his fjimily even after his death. He often possessed shaman- istic powers, or else kept a shaman helper. Shamans were also held in great esteem in social life.'^
The Korj'ak family is organized vn the i>rinciple of seniority, the father being the head of the family. After his death, his brother or eldest son, or, failing these, his adopted son-in-law, married to the eldest daughter, takes his place as family head.'* This principle of the authority of the senior obtains also among women. The mother is the head of the family, so far as house- hold affairs are concerned ; or, failing her, the wife of an adopted son-in-law, or the wife of the eldest son.^
With regard to the position of women, the following data are given by Jochelson : ' The men get the best pieces of food, the women receive Avhat is left over. Thus among the Eeindeer Koryak, only the men sit around the food which is served in the
* The last two rules woukl seem to show that the social organization of the Koryak, whether it was into larger family group or clan, was already fairly advanced, since responsibility for crime and punishment were no longer in the hands of individuals.
- Here we see a still more advanced stage of development of primitive law: peaceful settlement of blood-feuds by compensation. (Op. cit., p. 771.) « Op. cit., p. 762.
* The bridegroom, however, very seldom goes to live in his father-in law's bouse. Of 181 marriages registered by Jochelson, only 11 (6%) were cases in which the son-in-law was adopted into his father-in-law's family. (Op. cit., p. 744.)
* Op. cit., p. 744.
SOCIAL OKGANIZATION
35
inner tent ; and, besides the children, only the mother or the eldest wife is present, who distributes the food, or treats the guests. The other women and yiils receive the leavings, which they eat in the outer tent. Among the Maritime Koryak, too, the women and girls eat separately, by the hearth, after the men have eaten.' ^
Yet, the husband will often consult his wife about affairs, and a daughter's preference is frei^uently consulted with regard to her marriage. Generally, the attitude towards a wife is one of kindly protectiveness ; and Jochelson observed that Koryak families were for the most part united and happy.-
Terms of Consanguinity.^
Yihiy-acice. ijilmj-apa (' linked grand- father')*
Acice (Paren), apa fKanienskoye), apapel (Reindeer Koryak)
Yibii-ana (' linked-grandmother ' j *.
Ama, ana .....
Eiiniiv (Chukchee, oidiiv)
Itcei
Apa (Paren), tata (Kanienskoye) enpic (Reindeer Koryak)
Ella {vava, ainma, terms of endear- ment used by Reindeer Koryak) ^
Enpiciket (dual of eiqji'c, ' the fathers')
Qaitakalnin . . . . .
Eninelan ......
Etcani ......
Cakit
Enpici-cakit .....
Nenca-cakif .....
Yilalni-tHmrjiH (female cousin, nau- yilalni-tuntgin)
Kminin, oxakik (Qaikminin, 'boy')
Yilni-kminin (' linked-son ')* .
Xarakik ......
Yilni-navakik* . . . . .
Illaica (niece, nau-illawa)
Great-grandfather,
Grandfather and great-uncle (pater- nal and maternal).
Great-grandmother.
Gi-andmother and great-aunt (pater- nal and maternal).
Uncle (paternal and maternal).
Aunt (paternal and maternal).
Father.
Mother.
Parents.
Brother.
Eldest brother.*
Younger brother.
Sister.
p]ldest sister.*
Younger sister.
Cousin (paternal and maternal).
Son.
Grandson.
Daughter.
Granddaughter.
Brother's or sister's child.
1 Op. cit., p. 74.5. 2 Op. cit., p. 743. ^ Op. cit., p. 759.
* ' It is also of interest', says Jochelson, 'that the Koryak terms for grandson, granddaughter, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, are formed by a combination of the word " linked " with primary terms for son, daughter, &c.' (Op. cit., p. 760.)
5 Op. cit., p. 760.
* That the eldest brother and sister are named by distinct terms shows the importance of their position in the family (ibid.).
li 2
36 SOCIOLOGY
Terms of Affinity.'
Maialan . . .... Father-in-law and brother-in-law.
Xaii-Dialahni ..... Mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
hit'nculpi . . . . Son-in-law.
Iiite . ...... Daughter-in-law.
Tdkalnln ..... Husband of wife's sister.
2s'nii-iah((lnin ..... Wife's sister.
Naiil (' female friend '; . . Term of address used by one wife
to another wife.
III. The YuKAGiiiR.
At the time of the Kussian conquest the Yukaghir had u fairly well organized clan-system, M'hich is, however, now in decadence. But there is no tribal unity among them'-; and, as Jochelson points out, there are no traditions concerning a tribal ancestor in their myths, as there are in those of the Koryak.^
The Russians nominally accepted the clan organization of the Yukaghir as the basis of their administrative divisions of the tribe ; but this was only in appearance, for they often joined into one fragments of different clans ; and a Yukagliir clan of to-day, as arranged by the Russians, is composed of people who have nothing in common, says Jochelson, save ' the mutual obligation to pay tribute ', the ' old man ' of former days being replaced by an elder elected under Russian sui^ervision.'*
From an analysis of the clan-names of the Yukaghir, Jochelson comes to the conclusion that their original clans ' comprised not merely groups of consanguineous families, but also families con- nected only by the fact that they inhabited common territoiy '.^ The testimony of the Yukaghir confirms the conclusion."
Thus he says that the central consanguineous group in a clan traced their descent from a common ancestor often as far back as to the sixth or seventh generation, while outsiders constitute the territorial element in the clan. It is interesting to note in this connexion that the Yukaghir say that for purposes of marriage the
1 Op. cit., p. 760.
^ "Whatever feeling of tribal unity m;iy exist is shown only in the fact that the clans never fight among themselves, except as a result of disputes about women, or in cases of blood-revenge: organized war is levied only against other tribes. {The Yukaghir, dc, p. 126.)
^ Jochelson, The Koryak, p. 17.
* Jochelson, TJie Yukaghir and Yttkaghirized Tungus,-^. 115.
'' The Hare clan on the Yassachna River, for instance, is known as 'Hare clan', 'Hare descent', or 'Hare custom ', while the same people are also called ' the people from the Yassachna River' (ibid.).
« Op. cit., p. 116.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 37
fourth generation are no longer relatives, and yet the clansmen can trace their genealogies often for many generations.'
Concerning the origin of Yukaghir clan-names, Jochelson observes : ' The animal names of some Yukaghir clans might lead us to suppose that they had some connexion with totemic cults, if it were not for a total absence of totemic conceptions among the modern Yukaghir. The name of the ancestor of the Yassachna Yukaghir, "Tabuckan" (Hare), might point towards his identity with an animal, the hare ; but even that much cannot be said in regard to the names of the other two clans. The Yukaghir say that the Korkodon people were called the Fish clan, because they fed exclusively on fish, while the Goose clan owes its name to the incident that one of its shamans once turned into a stork (not as might be supposed, into a goose) and flew about with the birds. Thus these names do not seem to contain any indication of a former existence of totems among the Yukaghir.' -
Clansmen still preserve the memory of the common clan ancestor, although his cult is at the present day in decadence. The terri- torial element, which may even not be Yukaghir at all, but Tungus, Koryak, or Chuvantzy, has been assimilated and allowed to join in the cult of the ancestor of the consanguineous group. The process of assimilation has to some extent been assisted by intermarriage, though this has not affected the matter so much as it might have done if marriage among the Yukaghir were not endogamic (i.e. within the clan, not within the village).^
There were, however, other factors which advanced the assimi- lation of the inner and outer groups in the clan. These were the ' old man ', the shaman, the ' strong man ' with his warriors, and the first hunter with his group of inferior hunters. Of these, the ' old man ' and the shaman belonged of necessity to the consan- guineous group in the clan. The ' old man ' regulated war, fishing and hunting expeditions, selecting the resting-places during the wanderings of the clan, and assigning the district for hunting, &c., to each group, if the clan separated for the purposes mentioned. ' He brought sacrifices to the spirit of the clan ancestor, presided at festivals, and enforced obedience to the established customs.' As a rule the oldest man of the clan was the ' old man ", but in some cases the ablest elder was chosen. * In all important matters, the " old man" of the clan consulted the oldest representatives of the
' Op. cit., ].. 117. - Ibid.
^ Op. cit., pp. 117-18. " Op. cit., p. 119.
38 SOCIOLOGY
separate families, the pohdpe (i.e. "the old men "), who constituted a council, and by whose advice the " old man " was not infrequently- guided.'' His wife held a similar position among the women, although the powers of government were in the hands of the 'old man ', whom both men and women must obey. She superintended the division of the spoils of the chase.
The shaman's position was of almost as great importance as that of the ' old man'. Before any undertaking he had to perform various ceremonies, and he was the intermediary between the living and the dead. After his death he did not cease to be the protector of his clan. His corpse 'was dissected, the flesh being separated from the bones, which were divided among his blood- relatives. The "old man" received the skull, which was then attached to a wooden trunk. Tlie idol, clad in precious garments, received the name " Xoil " and was worshipped as the guardian deity of the clan.'-
The duty of the * strong man ', with his warriors, was to defend the clan ; neither he nor the hunter was necessarily of the same blood with the consanguineous part of the group. Sometimes the hunter and the ' strong man ' were the same individual ; but not always, for their duties were different: the hunter had to provide the animal food, and the skins for clothing for his clan. While at the px'esent day the offices of ' old man ', shaman, and ' strong man ' are becoming little more than a tradition, that of the hunter, especially in the clans on the Korkodon and Yassachna Eivers, is still very important. The hunters have no special share, or larger share than anyone else, in the game they procure ; their sole in- centive to energetic pursuit of their calling is their communal instinct, which Jochelson found so strong in them that a sleepless night after the fatigues and anxieties of the day's hunting did not ]n'event them from being eager with the first light to set about the trying tasks of a new day. The hunter is working, he says, ' for the people of his own blood ', though in fact, as we have seen, he need not be of the inner circle in the clan.' They believe also that the spirits will not help a hunter who hunts for his own gain and not for that of the clan.''
There was formerly among the Yukaghir a class of slaves called 2^0 (lit. ' worker').'' For a hired labourer they have another word,
1 Op. cit., p. 119. - Op. cit., p. 120.
s Op. cit., pp. 121-5. * Ibid.
* The position of slaves among the Yukaghir is ver}- simihiv to that of
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
39
uicil. Tlie slaves were captives of war. and the position of women among tliem was better than that of the men, who could belong neither to the class of warriors nor of hunters. Their position is well described by Jochelson : ' The slave stayed in the house with the women, the old people, and the children, and did house-work on equal terms with the women. In addition, however, lie was allowed to do such work as the fitting up of sledges and nets, and to participate in fishing parties.' ^
Blood-vengeance was strictly exacted by the Yukaghir. They called it Icpud-nicil ('blood-anger') ot cuhojc-yono ('heart-anger'). 'The avengers are the victim's relatives in the male line on the father's side. If the relatives of the victim on the mother's side found the culprit first, they had to disclose his hiding-place to the relatives on the father's side, and, in exceptional cases, assist them in carrying out the act of vengeance.*^
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Permission to join the camp must be obtained from those who have already set up thek tents there. There exists a class of vagrants who spend most of their lives in wandering about the tundra, sometimes owning a few reindeer, and sometimes none at all.
The Maritime Clmlxliee. — The Maritime Chukchee live in villages, the organization of which is founded on territorial con- tiguity, not on family relationship. Here the family which has inhabited the village for the longest time uninterruptedly occupies
1 Bogoras, The Chukchee, pp. 612-28.
24 SOCIOLOGY
the attooran, 'front house', or armacl-ran, 'the house of the strongest'. The master of this house is called aftooralln, ' the one of the front house ', or armacl-raUn, ' the one of the house of the strongest '. Sometimes this man lays claim to a certain privileged relationship with the local spirit, and occasionally he even receives tribute ; this custom, however, is by no means general, for many villages have no ' front house ' at all.
A special social unit among these people is the outgrowth of their occupation as fishermen ; it is called the ' boatful ', utticat-yirin. It consists of eight oarsmen and one helmsman, the latter being known as 'boat-master', attw-ermedn. He is also the owner, and was formerly the constructor of the boat. The skin-boat of former times is now, however, usually replaced by the American whaling-boat. A boat's ci-ew is formed of the nearest relations of the owner,^ and the products of the hunt are divided among them as follows : Small seals are the property of those who kill them, but the master of the boat receives a seal or two, even if he has killed none himself. ' The meat and the blubber of thong-seals and walrus are divided in equal portions among all the members of the crew. The heads are taken by the master, and the tusks of the walrus go with the head. In due time these heads figure at the ceremonial of heads. Then the walrus tusks are divided among [the] families
of the crew In dividing the hides of the walrus, the master
takes that of the first one caught ; the man at the prow takes the second : and the following hides are taken by the paddlers, one after another. If the number of walrus killed is too small, the distribution may be continued in order the next year.'^
Cases of murder are differently regarded by the Chukchee, according to whether they are committed within or without the family group. In the latter case murder is subject to blood- revenge on the part of the family group of the victim. Murder within the family group is usually considered a matter to be dealt with by that group alone. ^ Bogoras quotes several incidents in support of the Chukchee statement that it is usually a 'bad man' who is murdered by members of his own family group. They think that it is better to dispose of a troublesome individual in this way than to be forced to undertake a blood-feud by leaving
^ The master of the boat among the Eskimo is called umialil- (from nmiah, 'boat'), and the boat's crew as a social organization exists everj'- wbere among the Asiatic and American Eskimo. See Murdoch, Point Barroic Eskimo, and Rink. 77/f Eskimo Tribes.
^ Bogoras, Hie Gntkchee, p. 631. ^ Bogoras, op. cit., p. 663.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 25
such a person to be killed by a member of iiuotiier family. An incident cited by Bogoras to illustrate this point of view concerns the killing of a certain Leivitihin, who was accustomed to ill-use the members of his own family, and worse still, \vas cruel to his driving-reindeer, which are first among things ' dear to the heart ' of the Reindeer Chukchee. One day, with a misdirected blow, he killed one of his team. For this it was decided that he must die. 'Otherwise', they said, 'he will be killed by somebody else, and we shall have a feud on our hands.' His own brother came to his camp, and, watching his opportunity, stabbed him in the back with a knife. This act was approved by the common consent of all the neighbours, because he was * a bad one, a source of torment to the others'.'
Other examples cited, however, show that the victims were some- times not ? bad men ', but that the murderers were simply acting for their own material interests, or in anger. In one such case a rich reindeer-breeder, having killed his wife, had to pay a heavy fine to the brother of his victim. But, on the whole, it appears that such murders are regarded as not being the concern of any one outside the family group.
The duty of blood-revenge lies upon the relatives of the person slain — first the relatives in the paternal line; failing paternal relatives, those on the mother's side are next held responsible. Certain friends, esjjecially ' gi'oup-marriage ' companions, are also held to the duty of taking revenge for blood.
Each camp has its ' strong man ', and sometimes also its ' violent man '. The ' strong man ' {ermccin) is sometimes the master of the camp. He has a stronger influence among the Maritime Chukchee than among the Reindeer people where each camp ' lives its own independent life '.-
This is shown in the following incident related by Bogoras : In the Chukchee village Valkalen, where Bogoras stopped for two days to rest his teams, an cnnecin, named Canla, offered to sell him a large bag of seal blubber as seasoning for the food of the dogs. Such food was usually paid for with compressed tea and leaf- tobacco ; but Canla did not want these. He wished to buy a fine white Russian bitch, leader of one of Bogoras's teams, and offered,
* The common consent of the neighbours to the killing of a ' bad man ' is of great importance also among the Eskimo (Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 582, quoted by Bogoras) ; Bogoras, The Chukchee, p. 6G3.
* Bogoras, op. cit., pp. 641-2.
26 SOCIOLOGY
besides the lilubber, a Ijeavcr-skin aiul two fox-skins as payment. The owner of the clog, a Cossack in Bogoras's party, would not sell, because Canla did not have the peltries with him. The ermecin took back the blubber and departed, deeply offended because his promise to pay was not trusted. When Bogoras tried to buy food elsewhere in the village no one would sell ; * Canla is the ermecin,'' the villagers exj^lained, * and he says " no traffic ". Finally, they were forced to hand over the bitch to Canla, who in due time delivered the promised peltries.^
The ' strong man ' in modern times is simply a man of great physical strength, daring temper, and adventurous disposition ; but when the Chukchee were frequently at war with the Koryak, Eskimo, and Cossacks, the 'strong man' was the hero, as we see in the extant primitive Chukchee war epic.^
* The Chukchee are described as less perfidious, and as dealing more frankly with their enemies than the other tribes ';^ hence we find in their tales fewer descriptions of night attacks and murders of the sleeping than of battles consisting of a series of single combats.
There is at present no class of slaves, but such formerly existed, as we see from the tales ; and Bogoi'as even met men who described themselves as the descendants of slaves. As to the origin of this slave class Bogoras says : * ' The term for a male slave was x^urel, and for a female slave nauchin. The latter is simply a variation of the word neiisqdt, "woman". Other synonyms of the word purel are dmulin, viyolin, gupilin. Properly speaking, a j^'urel was a captive of another tribe, or perhaps a man of the same tribe who was enslaved in lieu of blood-revenge. . . . Amiilin signifies also " weak one ", " weakling ", and is used as an invective, especially with the superlative prefix ciq {ciq-cimidin, "a very weak one"). Viyolin signifies ''assistant", and is used even for some of the benevolent spirits. Gupilin signifies ''a working-man", and is applied to all workers, male and female, even those belonging to one's own family. Nevertheless, all these terms are used in a contemptuous sense, and may be used as invectives. They are applied also to the real slaves almost without discrimination.'^ ' I was told that in cases of murder blood-revenge may be replaced by the taking of a man from the family of the murderer. This man must wholly replace the [victim]. He must perform his
' II. id. 2 Op. cit., pp. 644-5.
=> Op. cit., p. 646. * Op. cit., p. 659.
^ Ibid.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 27
work and all his duties. Thus iii the case of the Chukchee killed at the Anui fair in the year 1895, of whom I have spoken before, the kinsmen of the one killed came to the fixir the next year, and asked for retribution. They were offered tea, sugar, and tobacco. They took all this, but then asked for the Cossack who killed the man, or at least any other of the Cossacks. He was to be taken to the tundra, and to live there in the family of the killed man, to be a husband to his widow, a father to his small children. Then only might the feud be considered as wholly settled. They re- peated the request the following year, and were again paid in tea and other valuables."
A case is also cited by Bogoras in which a boy was actually taken from the family of the slayer to replace a murdered man. This writer knows of no other cases in Avhich a dead kinsman was replaced by a living enemy ; but he was told that in former times there were frequently such cases, that the substitutes were treated like slaves, and had to obey their masters blindly, on pain of being themselves put to death. -
In the tales there is mention of the capture of numbers of herdsmen along with the herds taken in war. These herdsmen were enslaved, being particularly valuable in that they ' knew their own herds better than the victors '. ' Captive women were hard- worked, and were made the wives of their masters. Sometimes they were sold from one camp to another ; but, on the whole, their position was little different from that of the Chukchee women.'*
A group of kindred families is called varat, i. e. ' collection of those who are together'. A member of such a group is called enan-varatJcen, ' one of the same varat '. Another name for the group is cin-yirhi, ' collection of those who take part in blood- revenge '. Since the custom of blood-revenge still exists in full vigour, the last name is of great importance. 'The Chukchee varat may perhaps be called the embryo of a clan ; it is unstable, however, and the number of families " that are together" changes almost every year. Moreover, when one varat picks a quarrel with another (usually one living in the neighbourhood) there will always be a few families that are connected equally with both interested parties.'^
In former times, according to Bogoras,* there existed a clan organization more strict than the present-day varat. It consisted
^ Bogoras, op. cit., p. C61. ^ Ibid. ' Op. cit., p. 660.
* Op. cit., p. 541. "• Op. cit., p. 543.
28 SOCIOLOGY
of from ten to fifteen related families, living always together, dividing among themselves various occupations, such as hunting, fishing, and reindeer-breeding, and keeping themselves continually in readiness for war. If this is so, we cannot, with Mr. Bogoras, regard the varat as a clan in embryo, but rather as a decadent relic of a former more regular clan organization. The 'clans' established by the Kussian administration among the Chukchee are purely arbitrary, and have no relation to their old clan system — whatever its real nature may have been. ' The whole territory of the Chukchee was divided into five parts, and each of these parts, with the people living in it, was called a "clan". Some rich reindeer-breeder among those friendly disposed to the Russians was called "Chief ".' ' He is also known by the names ' Chukchee King ', ' Black King of the Tundra ', ' Chukchee Tsar '.^ All this has not made the enforcement of tribute easier : many Chukchee are still practically outside the sphere of Russian control.'
The individual Chukchee family is composed of a husband with his one, or several, wives, and his children. His parents, with their unmarried children, usually live near by. Old people enjoy considerable respect ; this is especially the case among the Rein- deer Chukchee, and Bogoras^ assigns as the reason for this the fact that the father retains the herd as long as he lives. But he states that even among the Maritime Chukchee ' those that cannot walk are carried on the shoulders of their young relatives \^
Although, as stated above, the family is the only stable social unit, even this institution is not so firm as among other Siberian tribes. It often happens that an adult male or female member of the family will depart in order to seek a new home for himself or herself, individual migrations of this sort being frequent from Maritime to Reindeer Chukchee ai;d vice versa.^
System of Relationship. ' In the Chukchee system of relation- ship ', says Bogoras, ' the paternal line preponderates to a marked degree over the maternal. The first is designated as " that coming from the old male (buck) " {kirnaipu-ival'm\ also Jiirne-tomgin, ''old male (buck) mate", or as ''that coming from the i^enis" {i/aelJiepti-ivalin).
* Bogoras, op. cit., p. 543.
* An eighteenth-century traveller in the Chukchee country, SarytchefF by name, says, 'The Chukchee have no chiefs or authorities. Each community has a man who is richer than the others, or who has a larger family ; but he .also is little obeyed and has no right to punish anybody' {Sanjtchefs licet . . . 1785-93, vol. ii, p. 107).
* Bogoras, op. cit., p. 543. •* Op. cit., p. 544. ' Op. cit., p. 545. •= Op. cit., p. 537.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
29
[Kirne-tomgin or hrna-iakalhin means also generally '"older relative"; lirnei/iccmit-tom<ji)i, "older brother". For takaJhin see p. 540.] The second is designated as "that coming from the matrix " {kujolhcpu-n-alin). The paternal relatives are also called ''those of the same blood" {cnncnmuUlit), meaning the blood with which the usual sacrificial anointment is administered.'^ At the 'ceremonials the people paint their faces with blood, and pei-sons of the same paternal line of descent use the same marks, which descend from generation to generation '.^ ' Patei'nal rela- tionship is considered to be much stronger than maternal relation- ship. There is a Chukchee saying that has it that even a distant relative on the father's side is much nearer to the heart than a maternal cousin,' ^
There is no word for ' family ' in Chukchee : rayirin means ' houseful ' or ' those in the house ', and yaratomgit signifies ' house-mates '. A member of the family who leaves the house ceases to have these names used in reference to him.
The following tables^ show the recognized degrees of blood- relationship and the terminology used for them.
System of Consanguinity. Ancestors
Linked-Grandparents
Grandparents-
Father's Cousins
Second Cousins
Father
Mother
Uncles Aunts
Linked- Cousins
Cousin
Self
Elder Brothers Child
Younger Brothers
Sisters
Grandchildren
I
I
Linked-Grandchildren
^ Op. cit,, p, 537. ' Op. cit., p. 538.
Descendants,
* Op. cit., pp. 537-
* Op. cit,, p, 540.
30
SOCIOLOGY
Terms op Consanguinity.
Forefather (ancestor).
Great-grandfather.^
Grandfather and great-uncle.
Grandfather (children's term — aug- mentative form from epi, 'father'.
Grandmother and great-aunt.
Grandmother (children's term).
Uncle, paternal and maternal.
Aunt, paternal and maternal.
Father.
Mother.5
Parents.
Brother.
A brother or sister older than my- self.
A brother younger than myself.
The eldest brother.
The youngest brother.
The middle brother.
Sister (male language).
Elder sister (male language).
Middle sister (male language).
Younger sister (male language).
Sister (female language).
Elder sister (female language). Middle sister (female language). Younger sister (female language).
Male cousin, paternal and maternal.
Female cousin, paternal and ma- ternal (male language).
Female cousin, paternal and ma- ternal (female language).
* The fourth degree of relationship is expressed by means of the prefix i/ilhi, 'link', 'junction', e.g. yilh-eUie, ' great-gi-andsou ', y'dhUoo-tomg'ni, 'male cousin twice removed' (ibid.).
'^ Sometimes one particularizes, eliir-»iirgin, 'paternal-grandfather', and ehi-viiniii), 'maternal grandfather' (ibid.).
^ This term may be made more definite by the addition of eli- and ela- : eliliinditv, 'paternal uncle ' ; elandeiv, 'maternal uncle' (ibid.).
* Amme probably means the mother's breast. Ate and amme are used chiefly by young children (ibid.).
® Inpiiia-chin and inpina mean lit. 'old man' and 'old woman' (ibid.).
^ The stem tomgi means 'companion', 'mate', also 'kinsman'. It is used in forming compounds denoting various degrees of relationship, sometimes only between males, sometimes only between females (ibid.).
' Lie-clin and eleni are used by both males and females. The former term is pronounced by women iitineJiii, according to the rules for female pronunciation, in which all contractions are avoided (ibid.).
** Op. cit., p. 539.
Att uuloii {' forc-goci-') Yilhi-mh-ffin (' linked-grandfather ') Minjin- ......
Apainin ......
New-mirgin {ne, new, 'woman') Epiqai ......
Endiio^ ......
Eccai ......
El ill ill (address: ate, 'papa') . Ela (address : amme, ' mamma ') ' . A7////7 ('fathers') . . . .
Yicemit-tomgin "^ (' fellow-brother ') . Ine-elin ......
Ele-ni''
Enan-inaalin .....
Enaii-elane . . . . .
Wuthitcen .....
Cakiliet ......
Inpici-cahihet .....
Wuthitca-calcihet, or wuthitcen.
Xenca-caJcihet .....
Caket-tomgin (' sister-mate ') .
Inpici-cal-et-tomgin (' elder sister mate ')
Wuthitca-calcet-tomgin ('middle sis- ter mate ' ^)
Nenca-caket-tomgin ('younger sister mate')
Yelhi-tomgin (' cousin-mate '), more rarely yelo .....
Naic-yelhi-tomgin (in respect to male cousins) .....
Nawgel
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 31
FAik Son.
yeekih Daughter.
EJue (T^\\i., clutcgot). . . . (Tiandson and nephew.
Eloo-tomgin Parents' cousin's son (male lan- guage).
Eluwgo-iowfjitt .... Parents' cousin s son (female lan-
guage).
Xauloo-tomgiu Parents' cousin's daughter (male
language).
Kauluwgo-tomgin ' . . . . Parents' cousin's daughter (female
language).
' Of all these terms, a collective may be formed by means of the word -rat, -ret, which signifies ''collection", "set", .and is used only in combination with others. Thus, ykcmrct, " company of brothers '* ; cal-ettiraf, " company of sisters " (in regard to male relatives); yelhirat, "company of male cousins " ; kret, "company of boys" (k, shortened for kmin in, "boy", "child").'"
To indicate relationships beyond these classified degrees there are used two other terms : cimceMn, ' the near one ', and cicctMn, or cicclcn, ' kinsman '. The latter term is wider in denotation than the former."
System or Affinity."*
Affinity of Male.
658
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16 ETIINO-GEOGRAPHY
members of the expedition have ah'eady proved the cultural and physical similarity, if not the identity, of the i)eoi")les on the opposite shores of the Nortli Pacific.^ Tlie term Palaeo-Siberians must be understood also to include the Ostyak of Yenisei, the remains of a formerly much larger stock, who are as isolated as eacli tribe among tlie other Palaeo-Siberians, and are not connected with the North-Western Amerinds.
Some of the recent linguistic researches carried out by a dis- tinguished member of the Jesup Expedition, Mr. Jochelson of Petersburg, throw most important light on the Bering Sea ethnological problem ; especially when compared with the lin- guistic work done by the members of the Jesup Expedition on the American shores. Thus Mr. Jochelson has found that the Aleut and the Eskimo languages are closely connected ; they have many roots in common, and the similarity extends both to the morpho- logy and physiology of their plionetics and to many grammatical forms. He thinks the Aleut language is one of the oldest Eskimo dialects.^ About the Yukaghir language he says that it differs morphologically in many respects from the languages of the Neo- Siberians, but has much in common with the Palaeo- Siberian languages of the neighbourhood. He has made acquaintance with two independent Yukaghir dialects, while the travellers before him thought the Yukaghir languages quite extinct.^ The Chuk- chee and Koryak languages are very similar, although the Koryak is more vital and has many dialects, and the Chukchee has practically none.
B. As to the tei*m Neo-Siberians, the various tribes of Central Asian origin whom we group under it have already been so long in Siberia, and have become so intermixed with one another as the result of wars and contact by other means, that they are now sufficiently differentiated from the kindred peoples of the region of their origin to be deserving of a generic name of their own.
The term Ural- Altaians is objectionable linguistically, besides the fact that ethnologically it does not serve to specify the Ural- Altaians of Siberia. Modern linguists, especially those of Finland, Germany, and Hungary, are still at work upon the problem, but have not yet said their last word as to whether or not they approve
' See Jochelson, Ethnological Problems along the North Pacific Coasts, 1908.
?^ Notes on the Phonetic and Structural Basis of the Aleut Language, 1912. ' Materials for the Study of the Yukaghir Language, S^c, 1900.
ETHNOLOGY 17
of the classitication of Castren ; ^ and exception has justly been taken to the grouping together of Finnic and Tungusic tribes,^ while it seems no less o1»jectionable from an anthropological point of view to put together in one class such different physical types as those represented by the Mongols and the Turks. Moreover, the term Altaians applies most naturally to the tribes inhabiting the Altai Mountains, and in the first place to the Turkic tribe of Altaians proper (sometimes called the Kalmuk of Altai).
Except as regards substituting * Neo-Siberians ' for 'Altaians' and ' Palaeo-Siberians ' for * Palaeasiats ', we shall follow the classification of Patkanoff.
The last census of 1897, of which the results were published in 1904-5, shows the population of Siberia as amounting to about six millions. Now, as the Europeans (Russians and Poles, mostly) themselves number about five millions, the number of aborigines is less than one million.'^ The most complete work on the census
^ See the work of Prof. H. Paasonen of Helsingfors, ' Beitriige zur finnisch-ugrisch-samojedischen Lautgescbichte ' {Becue Onentale, Buda- pesth, 1912-13).
^ Prof. Paasonen, op. cit. For the opposite opinion see the work of Prof. H. Winkler, Der uralaltaische Spyaclistumm, das Finnische und das Japanische, Beiiin, 1909, and his other works.
^ Accoi'ding to the last census, the European Siberians numbered 4,705,082 (Patkanoff, Statistical Data for the Racial Composition of the Population of Siberia, its Lanrniage and Tribes, Petersburg, 1912). They comprise five widely different classes: («) Voluntary exiles, who, even before the Russians annexed Siberia, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, being dissatisfied with Muscovite rule, migrated to Siberia and mixed with the natives, forming a class of Creoles. They are a very hardy stock, athletic and prolific, splendidly adapted for survival in the struggle for existence. Other immigrants joined them in the early years of the Russian conquest. The Russian name for them is starozyly, from staryi, 'old', zyl (jil), 'lived' — i.e. peoplu who have lived long there. (b) In strong contrast to these are the Russian peasants who have much more recently migrated to Siberia, and who have not jet found their places in the new environment — virtual nomads, wandering from place to place in the effort to find a spot in which they can settle down and feel themselves at home. These are known as nowosioly, ' new settlers ' (Chyliczkowski, Syberya, pp. 6 and 227). (c) Criminals, banished into penal servitude, or deported without being condemned to hard labour. Some of these who have escaped from prison, or (in the case of those who have not been sentenced to confinement) who cannot find employment, become vagabonds or bandits (brodiayi, 'Waders'), and wander through the country ; in summer they live on what they can beg or steal, and in winter, sometimes, as a last resource, they give themselves up to the Russian authorities to be incarcerated, this being practically the only alternative to starvation, {d) A fourth class, including Russian ofiicials, merchants, and persons of various professions and occupations, living chiefly in towns and settlements, (e) Finally, political prisoners, mostly
18 ETIINO-GEOGRAPHY
of 1897 is that of Patkanoif, published in 1912, which differs slightly from the statistics of Stanford's Cotnjjendiuni of 1906, although the latter is also based on the census of 1897. The figures, as given by Patkanoff, are as follows :
Total Native Poimlation . . 870,536 (Males, 442,459 ; Females, 428,077).
Mongols M. 145,087 ; F. 143,014.
Tungus M. 38,303; F. 37,201.
Turkic tribes M. 221,573 ; F. 214,166.
Samoyed M. 6,501; F. 6,001.
Finnic tribes M. 12,732 ; F. 11,965.
Chukchee 11,771 (5,811 M.).
Koryak 7,335 (3,733 M.).
Kamchadal 2,805 (1,415 M.).
Ainu 1,457 ( 769 M.).
Gilyak 4,649 (2,556 M.).
Eskimo 1,307 ( 631 M.).
Aleut 574 ( 289 M.).
Yukaghir 754 ( 388 M.).
Chuvanzy 453 ( 236 M.).
Ostyak of Yenisei .... 988 ( 535 M.).
The Palaeo-Siberians.
1. Tlie ChidccJiee. In north-eastern Siberia, between the Anadyr River and the Arctic Ocean (except in the extreme north-east). Many of the Chukchee, according to Patkanoff, are still inde- pendent of Russian control, hence the total number of the tribe is
of the educated class, either confined in prisons or kept at hard labour, or banished to live in Siberia under certain restrictions which do not permit of their engaging in occupations suitable for people of their training. By a kind of irony of history, it is just these i^olitical prisoners who have turned with interest and sj^mpathy to the study of the native tribes, and it is not too much to say that but for the information collected by them in modern times a book like this could not have been written. Thus we read in the report of Mr. V. Ptitsin, a member of the revisory committee on the work of the East-Siberian section of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society : ' It is well known that the best work done, up to this time, in the East-Siberian section of the Imperial Geographical Society, is the work of exiles. Almost all of the work done and the observations made at the section's meteorological stations must also be credited to exiles.' It is hardly necessary to remark tbat the word ' exiles ' in the above quotation is not a euphemism for ' criminals '. The works published in more recent years show tbat the same can be said of the present state of affaii-s. Many of the investigators now in the field started their work as political exiles.
The majority of European Siberians are Russians (Great Russians and Little Russians) of the professional class, including a large number of exiles. The Polish element is second in point of numbers. Members of other nations, Germans, Greeks, French, and English, formed an insig- nificant minority at the time of the last census.
ETHNOLOGY 19
difficult to ascertain. They number probablj^ about 11,771 (5,811 -^ Males).
2. Tlte Kon/al: South of the Chukchee, between the Anadyr and the central part of the peninsula of Kamchatka (except the coast-lands between the Gulf of Anadyr and Cape Olintovsk). Their number is 7,335 (3,733 M.).
3. TJic Kamchadal. The (comparatively) pure Kamchadal are found chiefly in the southern part of the peninsula of Kamchatka. They number 2.805 (1,415 M.), possibly including some of the Koryak Kamchadal. and not including several wandering tribes.
4. Ute Ainu. In the island of Yezo and the southern part of Sakhalin. Their number is 1,457 (769 M.).
5. TJie Gilyalx. Near the mouth of the Amur and in the northern part of Sakhalin. Their number is 4,649 (2,556 M.).
6. The Eskimo. Asiatic shore of Bering Strait, as well as the whole Arctic region from Alaska to Greenland ; i. e. Asiatic Eskimo as well as American. Number, 25,000. In Asia alone, 1,307 (631 M.).
7. The Aleut. Aleutian Islands of Alaska. 574 in number (289 M.).
8. Tlie Ynl-aghir. Between the lower Yana and lower Kolyma Eivers. 754 in number (388 M.).
9. TJte Chiivanzij. South of Chuan Bay, on the upper and middle Anadyr. 453 (236 M.).
10. The Ostyah of Yenisei. On the lower Yenisei, between the lower Tunguska and the Stony Tunguska as far as Turukhansk. 988 (535 M.).
The Neo-Siberians.
1. Finnic Tribes, {a) The Ugrian Ostyak, from the northern part of the Tobolsk district to the mouth of the Ob, and eastward as far as the Tomsk district and the Yenisei Kiver ; they number 17,221 (9,012 M.). (b) The Vogul (called also Maniza or Suomi), between the middle Ob, from Berezov to Tobolsk, and the Ural Mountains. They number 7,476 (3,720 M.).
2. The Samoyedic Tribes. In the Arctic region from the mouth of the Khatanga River to the Ural Mountains, and thence, in Europe, to Cheskaya Bay. Together with the Yourak, Ostyak- Samoyed, and other small tribes, they number 12,502 (6,501 M.).
3. The Turkic Tribes. Only the eastern group of the Turkic race
c 2
20 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
belongs to Siberia. ' The central group (Kirgis-Kasak, Kara-Kirgis, Uzbeg, Sartes, Tartars of the Volga) and the western group (Turkoman, some of the Iranians of the Caucasus and Persia, Osmanli Turks) inhabit eastern Europe and Central Asia. This eastern, or Siberian, branch comprises: (a) tlie Yakut in the Yakutsk district along the Lena, as far as the Amur and the island of Sakhalin ; with the Tolgan they number 226,739 (113,330 M.); (b) the other Turco-Tartars of the Tobolsk and Tomsk Governments, 176,124 (89,165 M.). All the Siberian Turks number 476,494.
4. 2'Jie Mongollc Tribes, (a) Western Mongols, or Kalmuk, who call themselves Eleut. Only a very small number (in 1897, only 15) of these are found in Siljeria ; the majority are in Central Asia, {h) Eastern Mongols or Mongols j^roper. Of these only a small number (in 1897, 402) of the Kalkha, the northern branch, are in Siberia ; the rest are in Mongolia, (c) The Buryat, in- habiting the districts round Lake Baikal. Their number is 288,599 (175,717 M.).
5. Tlie Tungusic Tribes, [a] Tungus proper 62,068 (31,375 M.), found throughout eastern Siberia from 60° E. long, to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Arctic to the Chinese frontier ; {b) other Tungusic tribes, viz. (i) the Chapogir, between the lower and Stony Tunguska ; (ii) the Goldi -5,016 (2,640 M.) — on the lower Amur. Thej' are called Twanmoa-tze, 'people who shave the head ', by the Chinese from their habit of shaving off their hair : (iii) Lamut, along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk ; (iv) Manchu (Manjour) — 3,340 (2,105 M.)— only a small part living in Siberia, most of them in Manchuria ; (v) Manyarg (Manegre, Menegre, Monagir) — middle Amur, about 126° E. long. — 160 (75 M.) ; (vi) Oroch (called also Chih-mao-tze, 'red-haired people ', by the Chinese) between the lower Amur and the Pacific
^ That is, if wo follow Deniker's division of these people into Eastern, Central, and Western groups. (See his liaces of Man, 1900, pp. 375-8). Katlloff divides the Turks into four linguistic groups : (i) Eastern, com- posed of Altaian tribes comprising eight linguistic sub-groups : (a) South Altaic (i.e. Altaic proper and Teleut) ; (b) Barabinsk ; (r) North Altaic (Kumanila, Tartar of Chern, or Tuba) ; (r/) Abakansk-Tartar ; (e) Chu- limsk-Tartar ; (/) Sayan and Uriankhai language ; (g) Karagas ; [h) Ouigur (now extinct), (ii) AVestcrn (Kirgis, Kara-Kirgis, Irtysh Tartar, Bashkir, Tartar of Volga), (iii) The Mid-Asiatic (eastern and western Turkestan). (iv) Southern (Turkoman, Turks of the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkan Peninsula). According to Radloff, the Yakut and Chuvash represent a ' strange stream falling into the Turkic ocean'.
ETHNOLOGY 21
coast-2,407 (1,329 M.); (vii) Orochon, on the Olekma River. Their name means * reindeer-keeper ', and tliey are commonly called Reindeer-Tungus ; (viii) Oroke (Orokho, Orotzko)— 749 (395 M.)— in the interior and on the eastern coast of Sakhalin; (ix) Solon (lit. ' shootei-s ')— 15 (7 M.) — south of the middle Amur, about 120° E. long. All the Tungusic tribes together number 76,507.1
To the question, Are the aborigines of Siberia dying out? we tind an answer in a work of Patkanotf devoted especially to the subject of the increase of the natives of Siberia.- He says : 'If we consider the question of the increase of Siberian natives from the geographical or territorial point of view, we can draw the following conclusion. The natives who live in regions almost wholly barren, and those in the northern part of the southern provinces, where agriculture is possible indeed, but is at best an uncertain means of livelihood, are not increasing.'^ The natives, however, who live along the rivers and, in general, in places where agriculture is possible in middle and southern Siberia, are increasing in numbers, and this in spite of famines and epidemics.*
The whole of Siberia was annexed by the Russians towards the end of the eighteenth century, but the beginning of the Russian conquest dates from 1582, when the chief town of Khan Kuchum, Isker, was occupied by the Cossack Yermak. In 1684 another ^ chief of the Cossacks, Dejneff, reached the mouth of the Anadyr. At the end of the eighteenth century Atlasoff occupied Kamchatka.
It is only since the Mongolic war that we hear of the migra- tions of the different triJjes of Siberia, though in reality they must have begun much earlier : the first Manchu invasion of China dates back to the tenth century, and is known by the name of Kidaney or Lao. The second historical invasion was in the twelfth century, and is known by the name of Uy-Dgey or Giney. This caused certain movements of the people of south Siberia. Soon after this, in the beginning of the thirteenth centurj^, the Mongols, under the chieftainship of Djingis Khan and with the aid of the original Tartaric tribes, after having broken the power
^ All the above figures are taken from S. Patkanoff, op. cit. The account of the distribution of tribes is taken, with some necessary changes, from the Gazetteer of Ethnology of Akira Matsumura of Tokyo, 1908.
* Concerning the Increase of the Aboriginal Fopulation of Siberia, 1911.
» Op. cit., p. 164. * Op. cit., p. 165.
22 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
of the Giney dynasty in China, subjected to their rule the whole of western Siberia and eastern Europe,^ Since then the name 'Tartars' was gradually transferred to the western people now called 'Turks'. The pure Tartars no longer exist, and the name is now used collectively for the Turkish tribes intermixed with Mon- golian, who possess perhaps a strain of old Tartar blood in them.^ In the beginning of the thirteenth century the Mongol-Buryat began to arrive in the country of the upper Amur, and from there they moved to the west, to Lake Baikal. They met here the Turkish tribe of Yakut.' The Yakut, who had to give up their territory to the newcomers, made for the Lena, and moved along this river to the north. But this area being already occupied by the Tungusic tribes, they met with great resistance. In the end, however, the Tungus had to go. They went to the west, towards Yenisei, and to the extreme north. Some, too, migrated to the east, to the Stanovoy Mountains, to the Okhotsk, and to the Amur country. But the Yakut did not stay on the banks of the Lena ; thoy went further, to the extreme north, where they caused more disturbance amongst the Palaeo-Siberians. AM this migration of Neo-Siberians forced the Palaeo-Siberians to leave their own lands or else to mix with the newcomers, hence obviously their numbers must have considerably decreased.* Secondary migrations among the Palaeo- as well as the Keo-Siberians were caused by the invasions of the Russians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Not only were they forced to relinquish their land, but they sought to escape registration and the payment of YasaK; or taxes.
^ Schrenck, op. cit., vol. i, p. 95. ^ Akii-a Matsumura, op. cit., p. 341.
* Schrenck (op. cit., p. 95) calls the Yakut a Tartaric tribe.
* Schrenck, op. cit., p. 257.
PART II. SOCIOLOGY
CHAPTER III
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
PALAEO-SIBERIANS
I. The Chukchee.
Tlie Beindeer Chulcliec. — The most natural division of tlie Chukchee is into Eeindeer and Maritime, the Eeindeer people living in camps, and the Maritime in villages.
Among the Reindeer Chukchee, people are often in friendly relations with those in neighbouring camps, or related to them by blood. Since those composing a camp are not always relatives, not the camp but the family must be considered as the permanent unit. The camp, however, is the economic though unstable unit ; according to the Chukchee maxim, ' One camp, one herd '. Normally it consists of a few families — from ten to fifteen persons usually. Rich people prefer to divide their herds, thus forming new camps. If they need help in the care of the herd they employ a stranger, the so-called ' assistant '.
Eveiy camp has its ' master ', or man living in the ' front tent ', aunralbi or attooral'm, lit. ' the one in the chief house ' ; while those living in the other tents are nim-tungit, 'camp-companions'.^ The ' master ' is also called ' the strongest one '.
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The climate of the Altai Mountains is also severe, and it is liable to sudden changes, especially on the coasts of the big lakes. From sunset till the following midday the temperature sometimes falls as far as —8° and — 9° C, and as early as August the frosts begin. In the southern valleys, separated from the north by the mountains, the climate is milder.
^ Tretyakoff, op. cit., p. 74. ^ GolovachefF, op. cit., pp. 33-7.
8 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
(b) The climate of the Kirgiz Steppe and the Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk territories is warmer than the climate of the Tobolsk and Tomsk Governments.
Average Annual Temperature. Average January.
Akmolinsk ) ,, ,o'^t^ .oron iq rop,
o • 1 ,• 1 i*- i^rom +2 to +2-5 0. — lo-o \j.
Semipolatinsk )
The average range of temperature between winter and summer temperature is 36", and between January and July the average range is 40°,
In the winter there are rain-storms called Burany, and in the summer there are great winds. There is little rain and snow. Rain in the summer is particularly rare.
(c) South-eastern Siberia, including the Irkutsk and Trans- Baikalian Governments, has long periods of cold, sharp transition from cold to warm seasons, great scarcity of snow in the quiet, windless winter. There are frequent summer rains, except during the years when drought occurs. In the town of Irkutsk the average annual temperature is —0-5° ; average for January, —21°; average for July, -t- 18-1°.
Frosts often extend into the middle of May, and they begin again about the beginning of September. A similar average temperature is found on the other side of Baikal, but the average annual temperature in Chita is — 2-7°.
The enormous Lake of Baikal has a considerable influence upon the climat,© of its coasts : it moderates the summer heat and the winter cold, except, of course, when it is frozen. Like north- eastern Siberia, the climate of the Trans-Baikalian valleys is very rigorous, through the cold and the descent of the heavy air from the mountains : 40° of frost is not uncommon there. The summer is abundant in rainfalls and in storms,^
{d) The Amur and Sea-Coast region has two sub-types of climate : southern Amur-Sea-Coast type, and northern Okhotsk- Kamchatka type.
The Aonur-Sea-Coast climate is exemplified by the following
table :
Average Annual Tenqjeratun Nerchinsk. . -5-8°C. Blagoveshchensk —0-7 Khabarovsk . + 0-5 Nikolaevsk . -2-4
* Golovacheff, op. cit., p. 34.
July.
January.
-f 18-2^ C.
-33-5°C,
4-21-4
-25-5
-f20-8
-25-2
-f 15-3
-24-2
July.
Jatiuari/.
+ 16-3°C.
-10-8°C,
+ U-2
- 15-3
+ 16-1
- 8-0
GEOGRAPHY 9
Throughout winter the temperature frequently falls as low as —20°, whilst the summer temperature rises to +37-5° in shadow. The summer rainfall is more abundant here than in Trans-Baikalia.
The Okhotsk-Kamchatka climate is shown from tlie following table :
Average Annual Temperature. Udiusk . . -3-5°C. Okhotsk . . -50 Petropavlovsk . +2-2
The humidity of Kamchatka is high owing to the influence of the seas surrounding this peninsula, the moist nature of the ground, and the slow melting of the snows on the Kamchatka Mountains. There is a substratum of lime, which prevents the soil from absorbing the water and thus encourages the growth of tayga. The whole western part of the peninsula is covered by the tayga.^
The mountains of southern Siberia give birth to the three great river systems of the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena.
The Oh, the largest river in western Siberia, has its source among the lakes and glaciers of the Altai Mountains. On leaving the mountains and entering the lowlands of the north it divides into a main stream and its great left tributary, the Irtysh, with the Ishym and Tobol. Its tributaries on the right bring it near to the streams of the Yenisei Basin, with which it is connected by canals. The length of the Ob-Irtysh is 3,400 miles.
The Yenisei is regarded in its main stream as the largest of Siberian rivers (Yenisei-Angara, 3,809 miles). It originates in the confluence of two rivers in Chinese territory, Khakema and Bikema by name, after which confluence it is known as the Ulukema. It serves as the basin of many tributaries, including the mountain torrent Kemchik. Cutting through the Sagan Mountains and reaching Eussian territory, it is renamed Yenisei (loannesi, i. e. ' great water ', in Tungusic). It flows along the western foot of the eastern Siberian plateau. Here it has been deprived of western tributaries by the Ob system, the only important left tributary being the Abakan ; but it has very important right tributaries, of which the Upper Tunguska (Angara) flows out of Lake Baikal, forming, as it were, a con- tinuation of the Selenga, which flows into that lake. Other tributaries are the ^liddle and Lower Tunguska.
^ Golovacheff, op. cit., p. 34.
10 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
Baikal is the largest mountain lake in the world. It is like a cleft between precipices, and is very deep (1,400 metres), its bottom being lower than some portions of the Pacific bed. The winds blowing from the neighbouring mountains make the lake dangerous for navigation ; and the natives on its shores offer sacrifices to it to calm its waters : they call it the ' Holy Sea '.
The Lena (Lena-Vitim, 3,2S0 miles in length) takes its rise in the mountains surrounding Lake Baikal. Its most important right tributaries are the Aldan, Olekma, and Vitim, of which the Aldan brings the Lena system near to that of the Amur.
The Amur originates from a double confluence of streams. The smoothly-jflowing Ingoda, merging in the rough waters of the Onon, forms the Shilka, a swift, shallow stream, full of rocks and boulders. This river is joined farther on by the Argunia, from which confluence the great Amur is born. (Amur in Tungusic means ' good ', ' kind *.) ^
Besides these largest rivers there are others of some importance, the Yana, the Indigirka, the Kolyma, and the Anadyr of the Clnikchee Peninsula.
The mountains of Siberia do not form a continuous chain, but rather a series of detached ranges, in the following order from west to east : the Altai Mountains proper, or Gold Mountains, between the Irtysh and Yenisei rivers ; the Sayan Mountains, between the Yenisei and the Selenga ; and the Yablonoi Moun- tains, between the Selenga and the Shilka — the latter being a tributary of the Amur system. The Yablonoi mountain-chain is called in the extreme north-east the Stanovoi Mountains, and these in turn throw off" several spurs, including the Verkhoyansk range. The peninsula of Kamchatka has its own volcanic system, of which some peaks attain a height of 5,000 metres.^
These mountains are all well forested and rich in minerals. The valleys of the south are very fertile and well adapted to agriculture. This especially applies to the southern districts of the Tobolsk Government and the Akmolinsk Territory. In the west the broad steppes afford excellent ground fur cattle-breeding, and are the natural road into Turania. Their flat, low-lying surface is frequently swept by furious wind-storms {buran). The Ishym Steppe (between the Ishym and Irtysh rivers) and the Barabine Steppe (between the Irtysh and the Ob) are the largest steppes in which pastoral life is possible, although the abundance
^ Golovacheff, op. cit., pp. 46-8. ^ Nalkowski, op. cit., p. iM6.
GEOGRAPHY 11
of swamps, with myriads of annoying insects in summer (which force tlie natives to wear masks), and a local disease called sibirshtj/a iazva, make open-air life not always comfortable. The Barabine Plain is not strictly speaking a steppe, for it contains many marshes and birch forests. It forms a magazine of salt for Siberia.^
We may distinguish two physical divisions corresponding very roughly to the two climatic zones of northern Asia, viz., a northern division, with a typically Arctic climate, which com- prises the tundra and the tayga ; and a southern division, with a sub-Arctic climate, which includes the steppe country, as well as mountains and fertile valleys.
A. In the north the predominant feature is the frozen swamp- desert, known as the tundra. ' Only in the less cold and therefore chiefly southern tracts of the Arctic zone, in the more favourable localities ' are found * willow-bushes and small meadows on river- banks and in fjords," or even clumps of dwarf shrubs, which consist of a denser growth of the same ever-green, small-leaved, shrubby species as appear singly in the tundra among mosses and lichens .... Where the climate is most rigorous the vegetation forms only widely separated patches on the bare, usually stony soil, and we have rock-tundra.'^ The peculiar bluish hue of the tundra, and the vast expanse of its flat surface, present to the traveller a curious illusion of having before him a great waste of waters rather than a plain. This resemblance to the sea is heightened when moonlight floods the tundra, or when the wind has heaped up a light snowfall into dunes and undulating furrows.*
The swampy surface of these vast frozen deserts renders them impassable except in w'inter, when they are frozen over.
The animals of the tundra consist chiefly of white or polar bear, arctic fox, lemming, polar hare, and reindeer. The reindeer is found also in more southern provinces, where polar animals do not exist. Reptiles do not live in the tundra at all, but insects abound even in the most northerly parts during summer. At this time of the year the mouths of the rivers are covered with masses of migratory birds. The chief of them are : gerfalcon, white owl, plover, white partridge, and many geese and ducks.
* Nalkowski, op. cit., p. 384. "^ Probably estuaries.
2 Schimper, op. cit., pp. 685-6. * Tretyakoft', op. cit., p. 7.
12 ETIINO-GEOGRAPHY
Most Arctic animals and birds ivre white in colour for the greater part of the year.'
B. South of the tundra extends the tayga. The region between tayga and tundra is called ' Marginal Forest ', and is covered with bushes, dwarf birch, and willow trees. The tayga is composed- of primeval forests, which grow on the swampy ground. In the north the tayga has no grass or insects, but nearer the south grass begins to grow and insects to appear, the latter gradually increasing in numbers the farther one goes in a southerly direction.
At a first glance there appears very little difference between western Siberia and the eastern part of European Russia, but the dry and rigorous winter of Siberia is not conducive to the growth of oak, elm, ash, maple, and apple trees, which flourish in eastern Russia. On the other hand, the Siberian fir-tree will very seldom grow in eastern Russia. Towards the south, where firs become gradually more scarce, bkch and aspen trees take their place. The northern slopes of the Altai Mountains are covered with sub- polar vegetation, while the verdure of the southern slopes is more of the Steppe order, very rich, and plentifully besprinkled with wild flowers. In the forests are to be found brown and black bears, sables, squirrels, and, nearer to the Steppes, wolves, which are seldom met in the dense forests. Farther south are reptiles, and all southern Siberia is pestered throughout the summer, especially in June, by gnats, midges, gadflies, and horseflies, which disappear with the advent of the snow.
In the Steppe of Kirgiz there are numbers of domestic animals, as well as wild horses, gazelles, and marmots. The Amur country has a combination of the vegetation of northern and central Asia. Farther south appear birds and beasts of prey, such as vultures and tigers. In the soil of the tayga there is often found some gold-dust, or small nuggets of gold, washed down from the rocks of the neighbouring mountains, and called by the gold-diggers rozsypi (Russian).-
' Goloviicheff, op. cit., p. 71.
"^ Op. cit., pp. 63-5, and Nalkowski, op. cit., pp. 345-6.
CHAPTER II
ETHNOLOGY
In dealing with the ethnology of northern Asia we are confronted with a task of peculiar difficulty. No other part of the world IH'esents a racial problem of such complexity, and in regard to no ^^ other part of the world's inhabitants have ethnologists of the last hundred years put forward such widely differing hypotheses of their origin.
In fact, any even probable solution of this racial problem, or any scientific classification based either on resemblances and differences of physical types, on linguistic coincidences, or on common features of material and social culture, would be premature. We shall, therefore, mention the most important attempts at classification that have hitherto appeared in the scientific literature dealing with this subject, and shall propose, so to speak, a tempo- raiy classification, based on geographical and historical data. This will afi'ord a convenient basis for the systematic treatment accord- ing to their geograj^hical grouping of the tribes dealt with in this work, and will serve as a clue to their chief migrations. It will also permit us to keep within the limits of the Siberian region, a procedure which, while it may be undesirable from a wide racial l>oint of view, is ethnically allowable, since modern Siberia is the home of a well-marked groujJe ethnique, walled-in, as it were, by her no less well-marked physical frontiers. The western frontier, as being the most accessible, is practically non-existent from an ethnical standpoint ; since we find the same Steppe tribes in eastern European Russia as in south-western Siberia, and the same Arctic peoples in Arctic Russia as in Arctic Siberia. Yet although these people, on both sides of the border, have many physical and cultural characters in common, they are more easily and profitably studied in Siberia, for the reason that in Europe their culture and physical type and those of the Russians mingle and interact to such an extent that it is often difficult to distinguish the respective elements.
Until about 1883, i.e. up to the time of Schrenck,^ all the inhabi-
* Tlie Natives of the Amur Country, pp. 254-62.
14 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
tants of northern Asia were genex'ally known as Ural-Altaians. Tliis name was first used some seventy years ago by the Finnish investigator, M. A. Castren/ and was based on similarities in the phonetics and morphology of the languages of the Finns, Lapps, Turks, Tungus, Mongols, and Samoyed. Max Miiller accepts this name, calling the Ural- Altaian group the northern division of the Turanian family, and basing his reasons for doing so on the lin- guistic researches of Castren and Schott.- These two investigators succeeded in discovering similarities among the agglutinative languages of the tribes mentioned, just as Hodgson, Caldwell, Logan, and M. Miiller pointed out resemblances in the Tamulic, Gangetic, Lohitic, Taic, and Melaic languages of the southern Turanian group.^ ' They must refer chiefly to the radical materials of language, or to those parts of speech which it is most difficult to reproduce, I mean pronouns, numerals, and prepositions. These languages will hardly ever agree in what is anomalous or inorganic, because their organism repels continually what begins to be formal and unintelligible.'*
All other tribes of Siberia Miiller classes as * People of Siberia ', and places them in the north Turkic division of the Turkic-Altaic class.
Midler's ' People of Siberia ' comprise the Kamchadal, Yukaghir, Chukchee, Koryak, and all others who do not belong to the lin- guistic group which Castren called Ural-Altaian. These tribes, together with the Aleuts and Eskimo, were called by F. R, Miiller (1873) the ' Arctic or Hyperborean races '.^ Li Peschel's book of about the same date these people form two Mongoloid groups, which he considers as extending through Asia, Polynesia, and America. One of these groups, composed of the Ostyak of Yenisei, Yukaghir, Ainu, and Gilyak, he names ' Nordasiaten von unbe- stimmter systematischer Stellung'. The other group, consisting of all other natives of the north-east, of Amerinds such as the Tlingit, and of the tribes of Vancouver, he calls 'the Bering Tribes'. Now, as Schrenck points out, we can hardly call peoj^le like the Ainu, living partly in Nippon, an island washed by the warm current of Kurusivo, an * Arctic or Hyperborean ' tribe ; and if the Ostyak, Yukaghir, &c., are ' Northern Asiats of undetermined
' Beiseherichte unci Briefe aiis den Jahren 1845-9 (1853).
2 Altai/ische Studien, 1860.
^ Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Lani/iiar/e, 1861, p. 322.
* Ibid. ^ AUgemeine Geographie, Vienna, 1873, p. 188.
ETHNOLOGY 15
position,' so, no less, are the Kamchadal, Koryak, and Chukchee.' Schrenck himself forms one class of all the tribes not belonging to the ' Ural-Altaian * group, calls tliem the ' Northern and North- Eastern Palaeasiats '. and supposes that they once occupied much J more extensive territories in northern Asia, and have been driven to their present inhospitable habitats by more recent comers. He thinks that they are only the remains of a formerly more numerous stock ; and that contact with the intruders has influenced especially their physical type. Of these Mongolic types only those escaped contamination who, like the Ainu, fled to the neighbouring islands. The Basques of Europe, he thinks, present an analogous case, being an old people who have been driven out by Celts.- Schrenck proposes this classification as a temporary device, until such time as the linguists have determined to what people the Palaeasiats are akin, and terms his classification a historico-geographical one.^
Now, if we are to provide a name for these unclassified tribes ^ of the extreme north and east of Asia, who difter in various respects from one another, but have many characteristics in common, and differ still more from the other peoples of Siberia, viz. the Ural- Altaians of Castren, we would projiose the name ' Palaeo-Siberians' as conforming better to the historical and geograj^hical data. It is not ambiguous, as ' Palaeasiats ' is, for it could not, like the latter, be taken to include other indigenous Asiatic peoples now becoming extinct ; and it implies a comparison and a contrast with the other tribes — Finnic, Mongolic, Turkic, Samoyedic, and Tungusic— who are comparatively recent comers to Siberia, and whom we shall call * Neo-Siberians', not including under this term any Mongols. Turks, or Finns living outside Siberia. These two names explain themselves, and are especially suitable for our comparative study of the natives of this region.
A. The name Palaeo-Siberians, then, is applied to these people as representing the most ancient stock of dwellers in Siberia ; and ^ even if the work of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, headed by Professor Franz Boas, should ultimately be held to prove that they migrated thither from America, this would not depose them from their position as the earliest comers among the existing population of Siberia, while it would certainly make the term Palaeasiats meaningless. The investigations conducted by the
^ Schrenck, op. cit., p. 255.
2 Op. cit., p. 258. => Op. cit., p. 257.
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I am indebted to so many persons for help in connexion with this book, that it is impossible for me to mention all their names in this necessarily brief acknowledgement. In particular I wish to record my warm gratitude to my tutor, Dr. Marett, who first suggested to me the idea of writing the book, and who, during its preparation, has helped me with many invaluable hints and suggestions. A grateful acknowledgement of much valuable aid is also due to Mr. Henrj- Balfour of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, and to many other members both of English and Continental Universities.
xiv AUTHOR'S NOTE
For ;t rich supply of materials ami l)ibliographical suggestions I owe thanks to various Russian scholars, especially to Dr. Sternberg, Mr. Maksimoff, Mr. Jochelson, and Mme. Kliaruyina. Mr. Jochelson has shown endless patience in aiding me in my search for data, and in resolving my doubts on various points.
To two of my own countrymen, Mr. Pitsudski and Mr. Sieroszewski, Poles who have spent many years in close personal contact with Siberian natives, I gladly take this opportunity of offering my cordial thanks for their help.
A grant from Somerville College enabled me to start the work in the autumn of 1912. Grants for its continuation have also been twice made to me by the Keid Trust of Bedford College, London (in 1912 and 1913). The ti-ustees of this re- search fund have thus shown a very active and generous interest in the work of one who is twice a stranger, being both of another college and of foreign nationality. I wish to express my special thanks to them.
The task of improving my imperfect English was very kindly undertaken by my friends Miss Hilda Walton and Miss Katherine Menke of Somerville College, and Miss Agnes Dawson and Mr. H. U. Hall, of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Mr. F. H. Nixon kindly attended to the final stage of proof-correcting after my departure from England. I am indebted for the photographs to Mr. Pilsudski,Mr. Stroyecki, Dr. Sternberg of the Imperial Russian Academy of Science, and Prof. Franz Boas of Columbia University.
CONTENTS
PART I. ETHNO-GEOGEAPHY.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Geography ........ 1
II. Ethnology . . . . . . . .13
PART II. SOCIOLOGY.
III. Social Organization ...... 23
IV. Marriage 70
V. Customs and Beliefs connected with Birth . 129
VI. Death, Burial, Future Life, and Ancestor
Worship ........ 145
PART III. RELIGION.
VIL Shamanism 166
VIII. The Shaman, his Vocation and his Preparation . 169
IX. Types of Shamans ....... 191
X. The Accessories of the Shaman .... 203
XL The Shaman in Action ...... 228
XII. Shamanism and Sex ...... 243
XIII. Gods, Spirits, Soul ...... 256
XIV. Some Ceremonies ....... 291
PART IV. PATHOLOGY XV. ' Arctic Hysteria ' . . .
Biographical Sketches Bibliography Glossary . Index
Plates
307
326 331 352 366
at end.
MAPS.
Ethnological Map of Siberia . Physical Map of Siberia .
PART I. ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I
GEOGEAPHY
Siberia occupies the whole of northern Asia, from Turania and the eastern Asiatic plateau to the Arctic Ocean, and from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific. It forms one-fourth of the whole >y continent of Asia, and has fewer inhabitants than London.^ The total area is 5,493,629 square miles, or more than the area of the United States, Alaska, and Europe taken together (5,184,109 square miles).- Its frontier in the south coincides roughly with the parallel of 60° N. lat., whence it stretches northwards over about 30° of latitude. Its western meridian is 60° E., and from this it extends eastwards through about 130° of longitude.
There are several different opinions as to how the name Siberia originated. Golovacheff •^' thinks that it was taken from the name of an ancient tribe called ' Syvyr ' or * Sybir ', who came originally from Mongolia and settled on the banks of the middle Irtysh, in the present Government of Tobolsk. For a long time before the Eussian colonization of Siberia this tribe was subject to the Tartaric Khans, and all that remained of it was its name, which was also the name of the chief town of Khan Kuchum — ' Sibyr ' or * Isker '. However, when we consider that the name Sibyr was the name by which the Eussians called the ancient town Isker, it seems that tlie opinion of Chyliczkowski * is perhaps nearer to the truth. The eastern Slavs, he says, used to call all the northern regions by the name of ' Sievier '. Hence the country of northern Asia, as well as its chief town, ' Isker ', was named ' Sievier ', ' Sivir ', ' Sybir '.
The frontiers of Siberia are very difficult of access. In the south, mountains and deserts separate it from China. In the east, mountains shut it off from the sea, and the sea itself, especially the Sea of Okhotsk, is extremely difficult to navigate on
^ Nalkowski, Geografja Rozumoua, pp. 378-9.
'^ Kennan, Siberia, pp. 57-8. ^ Siberia, p. 3. * Syberya^ p. 1.
1679 Tt
2 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
account of fogs and ice. Northwards Siberia is open to the Arctic Ocean, but. as the mere mention of this name suggests, there is no access for navigators to those shores. The search for a North-Ecost Passage, which occupied four centuries, met its chief obstacle in the rounding of Cape Chelyuskin. Finally, some fifty years ago, Nordenskiuld succeeded in making his way Ijy sea along the Arctic shores, by choosing as the time for his voyage, not the short Arctic summer, when the highest temperature of the region scarcely affords enough heat for the melting of the sea-ice, but the beginning of autumn, when the waters of the Siberian rivers, warmed by the continental heat of southern Siberia, on reaching the Arctic coast form a current of relatively warm icefree fresh water, setting eastward along the Siberian shores. This memorable voyage of the Vega, however, did not establish the possibility of making the route a permanent trade- route to Siberia, for the amount of ice in the Kara Sea in different years is very variable. Hence the proposal to construct a railway between the Petchora and the Ob. Also, the necessity for a long and difficult coasting voyage round the Samoyedic peninsula gave rise to another proposal — to cut a canal through the neck of this peninsula to the mouth of the Ob.^ Only in the west, owing to the lower altitude of the Middle Ural and the nearness to each other of the Asiatic and European rivers of this region, is Siberia easily accessible. This is the route which war and trade have followed from time immemorial ; by this path the chief Asiatic migrations have reached Europe ; and now, in the contrary direction, the stream of colonization is passing from Europe into Asia.-
* Nalkowski, op. cit., pix 379-82.
^ Nearly all Russian writers in describing geographical conditions refer move to the administrative than to the physical division of the country. Therefore, before proceeding with our real subject, we shall give an idea of the administrative division. There are three great 'General Governments '—Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, and the Trans-Amur Country.
A. Western Siberia is composed of:
I. The Tobolsk Government, which is divided into the following districts: 1. Tobolsk; 2. Berezovsk ; 3. Surgutsk ; 4. Ishimsk; 5. Kur- gansk; 6. Tinkalinsk ; 7. Tarsk ; 8. Turinsk ; 9. Tiumensk ; 10. Yalu- iorovsk.
II. The Tomsk Government, divided into the following districts: 1. Tomsk; 2. Barnaulsk ; 3. Biisk ; 4. Kainsk ; 5. Kuznieck ; 6. Mari- insk ; 7. Zmeinogorsk.
III. Akmolinsk Territory.
IV. Semipolatinsk Territory.
GEOGRAPHY 3
In its configuration, Siberia may be regarded as comprising two parts : (a) Western Siberia, from the Ural Mountains to the River Yenisei, of tertiary formation, flat, bounded by mountains in the south ; {b) Eastern Siberia, east of the Yenisei, of older geological formation, rising here and there into hilly regions difficult of access, and culminating in iiigh mountains in the extreme east, the region of Bering Soa.^
The Amur region forms still a third geographical district. It slopes eastward from the watershed to tiie Pacific, and its chief river is the Amur, a stream which, with its great tributaries, affords splendid facilities for navigation.
The island of Sakhalin lies opposite the Amur region, and marks the eastward extremity of Siberia.
Being shut in by mountains keeping off the warm winds from the south, and being o^jen to the northern winds, Siberia, owing to its great land-mass, has a cold and continental climate, under the influence of which the windows break with the cold, the milk is sold in pieces, people become blind from the glittering snows, and one's breath becomes frozen. The ground, except on the surface, remains always frozen, except in the south-western parts of Siberia. As, at a certain distance from the surface, the ground keeps the average temperature of the year, and as, taking Siberia as a whole, the average temperature is below 0°, the ground remains frozen for the whole j'ear, notwithstanding certain seasonal differences in climate. When a well was dug at Yakutsk to a depth of 380 feet, the temperature of the ground at this point was found to be 0^^ In this eternal ice the bodies of diluvial
B. Eastern Siberia.
I. The Yeniseisk Government, divided into the following districts: 1. Krasnoyarsk; 2. Yeniseisk; 3. Kansk; 4. Achinsk; 5. Minusinsk; 6. Turukhansk.
II. The Irkutsk Government, divided into the following districts : 1. Irkutsk; 2. Balagansk ; 3. Niznieudinsk ; 4. Verkholensk ; 5. Kirensk.
III. Yakutsk Territory, divided into the following districts ; 1. Ya- kutsk; 2. Olekminsk ; 8. Viluysk; 4. Verkhoyansk; 5. Kolymsk.
C. TJie Trans-Amur Country.
I. Trans-Baikal Territoiy, divided into the following districts : 1. Chitinsk ; 2. Nerchinsk ; 3. Verkhneudinsk ; 4. Selenginsk ; 5. Bar- guzinsk.
II. The Amur Territory.
III. The Sea-Coast Territory.
IV. The island of Sakhalin. (Northern part of Sakhalin.) ' Nalkowski, ibid.
"" Op. cit., p. 383.
4 ETIINO-GEOGRAPHY
animals, mammoth, &c., long ago extinct, have been found jireservecl, with bones, flesh, and hair.
Only northern and north-eastern Siberia have a truly Arctic climate ; the south and south-west may be called sub-Arctic. It is difficult to draw a definite line between the two zones, but it may be said that Arctic climatic conditions are found further south in the east than in the west.
While the climate of the Northern Zone (i. e. the northern regions of the Tobolsk Government, the northern and central parts of the Yeniseisk Government, the Yakutsk Territory, and the north-east part of the Sea-Coast Territorj') is more or less uniform thi-oughout, tlie Southern Zone has four distinct climatic types. These are —
(«) The south of the Tobolsk and Yeniseisk Governments, and nearly all the Government of Tomsk.
{b) Kirgiz Steppe region, including the Akmolinsk and Semi- polatinsk territories.
(e) South-eastern Siberia, including the Irkutsk and Trans- Baikalian Governments.
{(1) The Amur and Sea-Coast regions.'
A. First as to the Arctic region. ' Its low level and exposed northern aspect, combined with its high latitude and enormous extension southwards, are the chief reasons which cause the climate of this region to be the most " continental ", as it is technically termed, that is, subject to the greatest extremes of heat and cold, of any region on the globe.'-
The ' continental ' climate has another characteristic, viz. its extreme dryness, the summer being wetter than the winter, especially in eastern Siberia. Towards the north the total rainfall and snowfall decreases. The coldest places are not on the Arctic coast, but further south in the neighbourhood of the middle Yana River. The reason of this is that in the winter the winds blowing in the northern tundra from the Arctic Sea are laden with moisture, and not only cold but also warm currents of air easily reach the flat northern tundra. In the southern mountainous region these warm air-currents, being lighter, rise towards the top of the mountains, and the cold currents of air, being heavier, sink into the valleys, where they cause most bitter cold. Generally during the winter in this part of Siberia it is
* See GolovachefF, op. cit., p. 30.
2 Stanford's Compendium of Geograpluj, dr., Af^ia, vol. i, p. 4.
January.
July.
-23-7° C.
+ 16-3° C
-23-2
+ 15-3
-43-3
+ 190
-50-8
+ 15-1
GEOGRAPHY 6
warmer at the summit of a mountain than it is at the foot. On the coast of the Gulf of Ob, and generally near the Kara Sea, it is cooler than in places of the same latitude east or west. This is on account of the great accumulation of ice in the Kara Sea. With the exception of this small region, eastern Siberia is colder than western, as is shown in the following table of the average annual temperature :
Berezov — 4-6°C.
Turukhaiisk ...... —8-2
Yakutsk -110
Verkhoyansk -16-9
Verkhoyansk (67" 84' N. latitude) is the Asiatic pole of greatest cold. To give an idea of the difference between the winter cold and summer heat, we shall take the average temperature of January and July, the coolest and the hottest months :
Berezov Turukliansk Yakutsk Verkhoyansk
To show what the extremes of cold and heat are, \ve shall give a table of the highest and lowest temperatures :
Cold. Heat.
Turukhansk . . -56-6=C. +32-7°C.
Yakutsk . . . -60-6 +38-7
Verkhoyansk . . -67-1 +30-8
In western Siberia the winter temperature varies, but in the east the winter temperature is unchangeable. On the other side of the Arctic Circle the days are very dark ; they are marked only by a dull light on the horizon.^
Tretyakoff^ says that in Turukhansk, on the River Yenisei, just without the Arctic Circle, the temperature in winter some- times falls to — 40° C. He says that at such times the atmosphere is so dense that it is difficult to breathe. The earth, the ice, the branches of the trees, crack with a dull noise. One can hear the ringing stroke of the axe on the trees at a great distance. Iron becomes so brittle that any ordinary blow may break it, and trees become as hard as iron. Even the fire seems to burn feebly. In the first half of December, daylight lasts only three hours. The sun rises almost due south, and remains above the horizon only
^ Golovachetf, op. cit., pp. 30-2.
* Tretyakoff, The Country of Turukhansk, pp. 74-5.
6 ETHNO-GEOGRAPHY
two liours. At the end of January the climate becomes milder, and the prevailing winds are north, veering to south. ^
Schimper- characterizes the Arctic climate as follows: 'Tem- perature and illumination constitute the chief characteristics of the polar climate, the former in the long, cold winter, and the short, cool summer, the latter in the long winter night and the long summer day. During the greatest part of the three summer months (June, July, August) the sun is above the horizon continuously for 65 days in lat. 70° and for 134 days in lat. 80°. The summer temperatures are very unequal in the different parts of the polar district, but aie dependent, not so much on the latitude, as on the distribution of land and water, and on the presence or absence of warm currents.' Schimj^er summarizes the main features of the Arctic climate as follows :
1. Shortness of the warm season.
2. Low temperature of the air during summer.
3. Continuous light during summer.
4. Dry winds in winter.^
Tlie Arctic snowstorm, Avhicli is so characteristic of the M'inter season, may be visualized from the following description ^ • The first part of November is rich in falls of snow, and in the second part of this month the cold becomes quite severe, and snowstorms ov 2»(>'[/(is [hliyMen in Ostyak) are very frequent, when earth and air are hidden by fmiously whirling snow-dust, which penetrates the pores of the most closely-woven cloth. When the jyurga thunders through the wilderness, the native stops in his way, ties up the leather thongs with which he guides his reindeer-team, and lies down at full length upon his sledge, with his head to windward, and the reindeer, too, stretch themselves upon the ground in a similar posture. Sometimes they lie like this for three, or even four days, the man without food, and never moving save to give some fodder to his animals. In the northern region, pnrgas are most frequent between December 15 and January 15. A purga never lasts for less than twenty-four hours, and some- times continues, with short intervals, for twelve days.'' When, however, the snowstorm i)asses, there often follows a spectacle which richly rewards the eyes of the traveller.
On the northern horizon a small pale cloud appears." As it
1 Tretyakoft; The Countn/ of Tio-ukJuoisk, pp. 74-5.
2 PUmt-Gcoqraphy, pp. 663-4. ' Ibid.
* Tretyakoff, op. cit., p. 72. '^ Ibid. « Op. cit., p. 73.
GEOGRAPHY 7
rises higher it glows with a stronger light, and at last assumes the form of an arch, with raj-s streaming from its curve. Beforo two hours have passed, these rays increase greatly in size, and appear now rather as belts of lights extending upwards to the zenith. Now they glow with a delicate rosy light, now they disappear, to return again, no longer rose-coloured, l)ut of every hue of the rainbow, as if momentarily illumined from behind by some mysterious light. In the unceasing play of the rays they sometimes combine into a single fiery ball, then spread out again into a colonnade of light. It should be remarked that the streamers, when they cross the zenith, lose their brilliant colours, and appear like a delicate, rarefied mist. The more vivid the aurora borealis, the darker seems the sky. In calm, bright weather, or when there is a light wind from the north, this spectacle continues throughout the night. Sometimes, though not very often, the aurora borealis disappears suddenly, as if sucked in by the sky. This strange natural phenomenon begins to appear in the sky in November, and ceases in Mai'ch.^
B. Southern and south-western Siberia is much milder, although the characteristics of a continental climate are there also quite marked. We shall consider the climate of southern Siberia accord- ing to our division of it into four climatic types.^
(a) The southern part of the Tobolsk and Yeniseisk Govern- ments, and nearly all the Government of Tomsk, have generally a very severe climate, liable to great and sudden changes :
Average Aiimial Temj^erature. June. Januan/.
Tobolsk. ; . -0-2 C. -I- 16-6^^ C. -19-7°C.
Ishim . . . -11 -fl9-3 -19-6
Tomsk . . . -0-7 -fl90 -19-6
Barnaul. . . +0-3 +200 -17-9
Yeniseisk . . -2-2 -f201 -25G
Minusinsk . . +0-6 +19-7 -18-6
There are great extremes of both cold and heat :
Cold. Heat.
Kurgan . . . -350°C. +33'^C.
Ishim . . . -42-0 -f290
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