Hunting Folklore in Contemporary Yakut Culture: An Anchor in the Traditionality of Post-Industrial Society
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2025-1-140-152
In traditional Yakut culture, hunting has always occupied an important place in the subsistence system. This complex process was surrounded by a series of sacred practices and representations preserved in a somewhat modified form in modern Yakutia. Hunting is still a very popular seasonal activity in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and is practiced even in urban areas. Today, it is accompanied by modern technical means and methods and is shrouded in a series of bureaucratic procedures. However, the ritual remains an unchanging element of this process. The whole algorithm of hunting is linked to a series of conventions, beliefs, and rituals that seem anachronistic in modern reality. Nevertheless, the ritual still plays an important role in hunting, as it is a binding rule and a criterion for the success of the hunt. In this context, it is interesting to examine the preservation of traditions in modern society: How and why do they coexist in the reality of the XXI century, and on what principle are such stable artifacts of traditionality based? The relevance of this topic arises from the rapid modernization processes that many indigenous ethnic groups of the Russian North have undergone. They were decisive for the formation of some mechanisms of resistance to these processes and the emergence of ‘zones’ in which ethnicity was condensed and concentrated. Hunting is an example of such a zone in modern Yakut culture. This study examines hunting from the perspective of anthropological discourse, analyzes its functional role in social processes related to globalization and traditionalization, and considers hunting folklore as a means of expressing public messages, using both published and field ethnographic material. Finally, the authors conclude that in highly traditional societies, the ‘anchors’ of ethnic culture are those areas of traditional life associated with the categories of ‘fear’ and ideas about the mystical. Thus, hunting is seen as a socio-cultural phenomenon that preserves traditions because traditional ideas about interaction with nature and closeness to the irrational are preserved in this area.
Keywords: Yakutia, modern hunting, hunting folklore, modern folklore, horror stories, traditionalism
References:
1. Natsional'niy sostav naseleniya [National composition of the population] / Territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). URL: https://14.rosstat.gov.ru/folder/179476 (accessed: 21.05.2024).
2. Gaevaya I.K., Batozhergalova I.I., Konstantinova V.A. (eds) Statisticheskiy ezhegodnik Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya): statisticheskiy sbornik [Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): statistical collection] / editorial board: Yakutsk: Tipografiya SMIK, 2023. 544 p.
3. Naselenie Yakutii - samoe vooruzhennoe na Dal'nem Vostoke [Yakutia's population is the most armed in the Far East]. YASIA. URL: https://ysia.ru/naselenie-yakutii-samoe-vooruzhennoe-na-dalnem-vostoke/ (accessed: 11.02.2023).
4. Rosgvardiya: na rukakh u rossiyan nalhoditsya bolee 6,6 mln edinits zaregistrirovannogo oruzhiya [Rosgvardia: Russians have more than 6.6 million registered weapons in their hands]. TASS. URL: https://tass.ru/obschestvo/7474587 (accessed: 26.03.2024).
5. Priklonsky V. L. Tri goda v Yakutskoy oblasti: Etnograficheskie ocherki [Three years in the Yakutsk region: Ethnographic sketches]. Zhivaya starina – Living Antiquity, 1890, no. 1, pp. 63–83 (in Russian).
6. Troschansky V.F. Evoliutsiia chernoi very (shamanstva) u yakutov [Evolution of black faith (shamanism) among the Yakuts]. Moscow, URSS Publ., 2012. 210 p. (in Russian).
7. Yastremsky S.V. Ostatki starinnykh verovanii u yakutov = Ueberreste eines von Urahnen stammenden Cultus bie den Iakuten [Remains of ancient beliefs in Yakuts = Ueberreste eines von Urahnen stammenden Cultus bie den Iakuten]. Irkutsk, Typolithography of P. I. Makushin, 1897. 44 p. (in Russian).
8. Ionov V.M. Dukh – khoziain lesa u yakutov [Master spirit of the forest in Yakuts]. Petrograd, Tip. Imp. Acad. of Sciences, 1916. 49 p. (in Russian).
9. Ksenofontov G. V. Uraangkhai-sakhalar [Uraangkhai-sakhalar]. Vol. 1. Yakutsk, National Publishing House of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). 1992. 414 p. (in Russian).
10. Kulakovsky A.E. Materialy dlia izucheniya verovanii yakutov [Materials for the study of Yakut beliefs]. Yakutsk, 1923. 107 p. (in Russian).
11. Antonov N.K. Predanie ob obriade posviashcheniya v okhotniki: sbornik statey i materialov po etnografii narodov Yakutii [Legend about the rite of initiation into hunters: a collection of articles and materials on the ethnography of the peoples of Yakutia]. Yakutsk, 1961. pp. 23–25 (in Russian).
12. Nikolaev S.I. Narod sakha [Sakha people]. Yakutsk, Yakutskiy krai Publ., 2009. 300 p. (in Russian).
13. Nikolaev S.I. Obychai naroda Sakha [Customs of the Sakha people]. Yakutsk, Sakhapolygraphizdat Publ., 1996. 48 p. (in Russian).
14. Golovnev A.V. Etnichnost': ustoychivost' i izmenchivost' (opyt Severa) [Ethnicity: stability and variability (the experience of the North)]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie – Ethographic Rewiev, 2012, no. 2, pp. 3–12 (in Russian).
15. Lamazhaa Ch.K. Arkhaizatsiya, traditsionalizm i neotraditsionalizm [Archaisation, traditionalism and neotraditionalism]. Znaniia. Pontmaniia. Umeniia, 2010, No 2, pp. 88–93 (in Russian).
16. Author's field materials, May 2023, RS(Ya), Vilyui district, Sydybyl village, Dogoyusov P.A., born in 1984.
17. Author's field materials, May 2024, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, A.A. Kondratyev, born in 1994.
18. Author's field materials, February 2023, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, R.I. Ivanov, born in 1966.
19. Author's field materials, March 2023, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Olekminsky District, Yunkyur village, V.G. Permin, born in 1954.
20. Author's field materials, September 2019, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Olekminsky Rayon, Yunkyur village, Samsonov A.P., born in 1975.
21. Author's field materials, March 2021, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Srednekolymsky District, Argakhtakh village, N.P. Struchkov, born in 1942.
22. Author's field materials, May 2023, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Tattinsky District, Cherkeh village, T.S. Sobakin, born in 1988.
23. Okhotnich'i rasskazy [Hunting stories]. Bayanay: nauchno-populiarniy zhurnal okhotnikov i rybolovov – Baynai: popular science magazine of hunters and fishermen, 2016, no. 6 (74), pp. 22–25 (in Russian).
24. Okhotnich'i rasskazy [Hunting stories] / Bayanay: nauchno-populiarniy zhurnal okhotnikov i rybolovov – Baynai: popular science magazine of hunters and fishermen, 2016, no. 12 (80), pp. 30–33 (Iin Russian).
25. Okhotnich'i bayki [Hunting tales] / EXO-YKT. URL: https://www.exo-ykt.ru/articles/ohotnichi-bayki (accessed: 30.06.2024).
26. Otvazhniy Bulchut [Brave Bulchut] / EXO-YKT. URL: https://www.exo-ykt.ru/articles/otvazhnyy-bulchut (accessed: 30.06.2024).
27. Mikhailov D. Strashnye istorii Yakutii [Scary stories of Yakutia]. Vol. 1. Yakutsk, 2017. 60 p. (in Russian).
28. Strashnye istorii Yakutii [Scary stories of Yakutia]. URL: https://vk.com/sakha_horror?w=wall-60308515_312 (accessed: 30.06.2024). (In Russian).
29. Strashnye istorii Yakutii [Scary stories of Yakutia] URL: https://vk.com/sakha_horror?w=wall-60308515_507 (accessed: 30.06.2024) (in Russian).
30. Strashnye istorii Yakutii [Scary stories of Yakutia]. URL: https://vk.com/sakha_horror?w=wall-60308515_871 (accessed: 30.06.2024) (in Russian).
31. Dundes A. Texture, Text, and Context of the Folklore Text vs. Indexing. Journal of Folklore Research, 1997, no. 3, pp. 221–225.
32. Dandes A. Fol'klor: semiotika i/ili psikhoanaliz: Sbornik statey [Folklore: semiotics and/or psychoanalysis: Collection of articles]. Translated from English by A.S. Arkhipova. Moscow, Oriental Literature Publ., 2003. 279 p. (in Russian).
33. Arkhipova A., Kirziuk A. Opasnye sovetskie veshchi: gorodskie legendy i strakhi v SSSR [Dangerous Soviet Things: Urban Legends and Fears in the USSR]. Moscow, New Literary Review Publ., 2021. 532 p. (in Russian).
34. Scientific archive of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fund. 11. Inventory. 1. File. 51. List. 1-5.
35. Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR of 16 March 1957 № 300 "On measures for the further development of the economy and culture of the peoples of the North" / Electronic fund of legal and regulatory-technical documents URL: https://docs.cntd.ru/document/765714380 (accessed: 05.06.2024) (in Russian).
36. Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR of 26 October 1957 № 1177 "On measures to improve the use of pine plantations, the development of fisheries and increase the procurement of pine nuts, furs, hog game and wild berries in the taiga regions of Siberia, the Far East and the North of the European part of the RSFSR" / Electronic Library of Historical Documents. URL: https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/372721-o-merah-po-uluchsheniyu-ispolzovaniya-kedrovyh-nasazhdeniy-razvitiyu-promyslov-i-uvelicheniyu-zagotovok-kedrovyh-orehov-pushniny-borovoy-dichi-i-dikorastuschih-yagod-v-taezhnyh-rayonah-sibiri-dalnego-vostoka-i-severa-evropeyskoy-chasti-rsfsr-postanovlenie (accessed: 05.06.2024) (in Russian).
37. Gogolev A.I., Fedorova A.R. Sovremennaya yakutskaya strashnaya istoriya kak zhanr gorodskogo postfol'klora [Modern Yakut scary story as a genre of urban postfolklore]. Chelovek i kul'tura – Man and Culture, 2022, no. 2, pp. 38-45 (in Russian).
38. Loiter S.M., Neelov E.M. Sovremenniy shkol'niy fol'klor [Modern school folklore]. Petrozavodsk, PetrSU Publ., 1995. pp. 10 (in Russian).
39. Pekarskiy E.K. Slovar' yakutskogo yazyka [Dictionary of the Yakut language]. Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences Publ., 1959. 1280 p. (in Russian).
40. Bravina R.I., Popov V.V. Pogrebal'no-pominal'naia obriadnost' yakutov: pamyatniki i traditsii (XV–XIX vv.) [Yakut funeral and memorial rituals: monuments and traditions (15–19 centuries)]. Novosibirsk, Nauka Publ., 2008. 294 p. (in Russian).
41. Gurvich I.S. Tainstvenniy chuchuna (istoriia odnogo etnograficheskogo poiska) [Mysterious Chuchuna (History of one ethnographic search)]. Moscow, Mysl Publ., 1975. 96 p. (in Russian).
42. Avtomonova N.S. Mif: khaos i logos / Zabluzhdaiushchiysya razum? [Myth: chaos and logos / Deluded mind? Diversity of non-scientific knowledge]. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1990. Pp 30–57 (in Russian).
( 190.63 kB ) 
( 161.41 kB )
Issue: 1, 2025
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 140 — 152
Downloads: 26