“If there is no culture, there is no history...”: Traditional Culture among Northern Kamchatka Reindeer Herders in the Post-Soviet Period

Authors

  • Takashi Irimoto Hokkaido University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2015.3.120

Abstract

Oliutorskii Chauchu, the Koryak reindeer herders of Northern Kamchatka, have faced serious economic and social hardships since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They had to adapt their traditional reindeer herding, maintenance of village infrastructures and production to a free-market economy. Previously, they based these on the principles of state control. Despite the social changes during the Soviet era, they maintained not only their worldview but also various rituals connected with reindeer herding. Even though some Koryak reindeer herders – the local intelligentsia – received a Soviet education based on materialism, they openly expressed their conviction in religious traditions and discussed spiritual ties between reindeer herders, reindeer, nature and Koryak mythology even in the early 1990s. They saw no contradictions between science and Koryak religion and tried to explain some religious elements by means of science. They thought that finding rational explanations behind traditional beliefs was the purpose of science. They also believed that it was necessary to practice traditional Koryak knowledge and pass it, along with their rituals, to younger generations.

This paper aims to study how deeply religion was rooted in the everyday life of reindeer herders in the Oliutorsk Region (Northern Kamchatka). It also shows how religious experience helps young Koryak people form ethnic identity. The paper is based on the author’s observations and interviews, which he collected during his fieldwork among the reindeer herders in the Oliutorsk Region during the early 1990s.

Author Biography

Takashi Irimoto, Hokkaido University

PhD., Professor Emeritus

References

Irimoto, T. (1994). Idoshiki Jukyo — Kamchatka, Hitotsu no Tent ni Yonju to no Tonakai no Kegawa [Abode for Seasonal Movements — Kamchatka, Forty Reindeer Hides for One Tent], Kikan Minzokugaku, 69, p. 57.
Irimoto, T. (1995a). Animal Rituals of the Koryak in Kamchatka Region. In The Second International Conference of Northern Studies Association on Animism and Shamanism of Northern Peoples. Sapporo, Hokkaido University.
Irimoto, T. (1995b). Koryak no Tonakai Kugi [Reindeer Sacrifice of the Koryak]. In The 29th Conference of the Japanese Society of Ethnology. Osaka, University of Osaka.
Irimoto, T. (1995c). Religious Observations of the Koryak. In International Conference on the Circumpacific Forest Cultures. Kyoto, International Resarch Centre for Japanese Culture.
Irimoto, T. & Yamada, T. (Eds.). (2004). Circumpolar Ethnicity and Identity. (Senri Ethnological Studies, No.66). Osaka, National Museum of Ethnology.
Irimoto, T. & Yamada, T. (Eds.). (2007). Anthropology of Peoples in the North. Kyoto, Kyoto University Press.
Jochelson, W. (1905, 1908). The Koryak. Pt. 1–2. The Jesup North Pacific Expedition. New York, Memoirs of the American Museum of National History.

Published

2015-10-01

How to Cite

Irimoto, T. (2015). “If there is no culture, there is no history.”: Traditional Culture among Northern Kamchatka Reindeer Herders in the Post-Soviet Period. Quaestio Rossica, (3), 227–242. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2015.3.120

Issue

Section

Vox redactoris