The Yukaghirs. Spiritual culture (mythological worldview, traditional beliefs, holidays and rituals)

Yukaghir traditional mythology was based on worshipping nature, on shamanism, hunting and fishing rituals. They believed the world to have three parts: the upper heavenly world, the middle earthly world, and the lower underworld. Each is populated by many spirits that periodically interact. Good supernatural beings were divided into four groups: heavenly deities, master spirits of the earth, master spirits of animals and birds, and also master spirits of inanimate objects that people interact with every day. Vladimir I. Jochelson wrote that their supreme deity is called Pon (it means “a thing”), but this is a special being that has no analogues in the world religions. Local beliefs claim that Pon lived on the firmament and could help people, for instance, to cope with a disease or hunger. Celestial objects and phenomena (the sun, the moon light, the moon, the sky itself) were given special prominence and there were myths explaining the origins of the world and its regularities. 

The earth was populated by master spirits that helped not only people, but also animals, plants, water sources. Normally, people could not see master spirits of the earth, but some of them appeared to people under certain circumstances. 

The master of fire (Lochin-Pogil) or the Man of Fire (Lochin-Shoromo) was the patron of families. Yukaghirs believed that he protected the family hearth, he lived in the hearth and moved with the family. Without his help, people could not light fire and a quarrel with him would bring misfortune to the person or the person’s family. The master of fire could foretell the future, give good advice concerning various economic activities, migrations, etc. Therefore, people paid him respects and were fearful of offending him. People ubiquitously “fed” fire with cigarettes, tea, alcohol, and other things. 

Evil spirits kukul , korel were described as invisible beings living in the underworld that was divided into two tiers. The top tier, the world of souls, is home to the souls of the dead, and the bottom tier is home to kukupe (plural of kukul ). This is a realm of eternal darkness and cold. These beings can penetrating into a person’s body thus causing many of its diseases, and eat their organs. The host of these spirits is headed by the Grandfather with Pointed Head. 

Yukaghirs’ life-cycle rituals were recorded in ethnographic literature. Unlike the Northern group, Forest Yukaghirs, according to Vladimir Jochelson, did not have the tradition of celebrating weddings. Marital customs of Tundra Yukaghirs looked as follows: after a successful courtship, the bride would move to the bridegroom’s place. When celebrating their wedding, the bride and the groom wore special clothes. Matchmakers would put the girl in a sled and send her on to the bridegroom’s yurt, while some relatives fired guns to both sides of the wedding procession to scare away evil spirits. Upon arrival, the bride gave the reindeer she brought with her to the herd of her husband-to-be, while he and his relatives gave their family’s reindeer to the family of the bride as the bride price. That event was accompanied by a wedding feast where the bride’s relatives were given gifts. A special table was set for the newlyweds on the pelts of their bridal bed. When the principal part of the wedding was concluded, the bride’s relatives went to their homes while the newlyweds remained in the dwelling without leaving it for three days. On the fourth day, they went to visit the bride’s parents. After that, the wedding was deemed a fait accopmli.

 Birth rites were accompanied by steps intended to make the birth easier for the woman and help her give birth to a healthy child. It involved untying the straps on the clothes and shoes of everyone present, opening all the drawers in the home and the flue. When a child was born, the parents “lost” their names and were referred to as “the father of such and such” and “the mother of such and such.” Yukaghirs believed the human soul to be triune. After death, the bodily aibii (soul in Yukaghir) went to the world of the dead; the head aibii visible only to shamans, it looks like a double of the dead person and goes to the world of spirits aibidii after death, and then reincarnates in a newborn. The third soul is the dead person’s shadow and it exists in inanimate objects as well. Beliefs in reincarnation are still widespread in the northeast of Yakutia not only among Yukaghirs, but also among Evens, the Chukchi, and Yakuts. 

In the late 19 th -early 20 th centuries, Yukaghir funeral rites were strongly influenced by Christianity, and many funeral traditions had been lost by then. Graves were mostly dug in the ground, above-ground burials on daises were also partially preserved.

Above-ground burial in the Kolyma tundra. Photo: Vladimir Jochelson. Late 19 th century. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. No. 4399-5/2

Tundra Yukaghirs put the coffin in a sled and harnessed a reindeer that was killed with a stab through the heart at the burial site. Thus a person going to the other world was given a means of transportation. 

There were some hunting and fishing rituals meant to ensure good hunting and fishing. Animals were believed to understand the Yukaghir speech. To hide their intent and plan of action, hunters used a specially developed metaphorical language. Women were perceived as physiologically unclean beings capable of hurting both hunting and fishing, and several prohibitions applied to them. For instance, women were prohibited from stepping on bird feathers, stepping over the blood of killed animals, fresh pelts and hunting and fishing implements, looking in the eyes of the killed reindeer and moose. 

Yukaghirs’ shamanic rituals were mostly connected with treating the sick and ensuring luck in hunting and fishing. The shaman’s traditional attributes are a caftan, a breast-collar, a hat, shoes, straps, a drum, a stick, and pictures of helping spirits. Evil spirits were believed to be the cause of all human diseases; the shaman fought them or parlayed with them to bring the soul of the ill person back from the world of deceased relatives. Yukaghirs’ shamanism in its rituals and accoutrements was strongly influenced by the Evenk-Yakut tradition on the one hand and pressured by Christianity on the other (although there were cases of people with “parashamanic” abilities appearing in the Russian milieu). Unlike Evens and Yakuts, Yukaghir shamans viewed their drum as a lake the shaman dives in to reach the underworld. Their neighboring peoples saw the drum as an embodiment of the means of conveyance the shaman used for their permutation. Another unique and archaic trait was worshipping dead shamans. The bodies of dead shamans were dismembered and their body parts kept as clan relics. 

Yukaghirs’ folklore tradition includes songs and prose such as mythological tales, legends, stories of powerful people and shamans, fairy tales and tales of animals, riddles. The Yukaghir heroic epics of the hero Edilvey cycle is also unique. Unlike in the epics of other Siberian peoples, the main hero, upon emerging victorious, is punished by the Master of the Land for having spilled too much human blood. Songs are heavily based on improvisation and have a very noticeable emotional component. 

Meeting the sun was a traditional holiday of Forest Yukaghirs. Once a year, different Yukaghir groups traveled from all the tributaries of the Kolyma after the ice drift and assembled for the celebration at the location named Prorva. The event was celebrated in June and symbolized the waking of nature and the start of the annual cycle. Celebrations continued for two-three weeks. During that time, relatives exchanged information on the events of the year, young people made each other’s acquaintance, possible couples-to-be-married were determined and wedding rites were celebrated. Celebrations concluded by the end of June, Yukaghirs once again split into small groups and went to their fishing places.

Yukaghir Collective Dances. Photo: Vladimir Jochelson. Late 19 th century. Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. No. 4399-110

The toses are a unique element of the Yukaghir culture (Yukaghir, tos , “birch bark,” or shangar shiorle, “writing on birch bark” / “writing on a tree’s skin”). They are messages on birch bark and are traditionally divided into “male” and “female.” “Male” toses are maps or routes reflecting the movement of a particular Yukaghir group and intended to notify other groups. As a rule, they were left in the forest at prominent places. Additionally, they had information on the outcomes of hunting and fishing, on the most important events in the life of the group, and the chronology of the events listed. While “male” toses have analogues in other cultural traditions, “female” toses are unique. These are love messages young unmarried girls send to young men describing their feelings, life events, specifics of relations between different people. Additionally, these drawings reported the age, marital and family status, occupation, and the intentions of the one writing the message.