Presentation on the topic: Peoples of Siberia: culture, traditions, customs. Ancient Siberian customs, rites and rituals Interesting traditions of the peoples of Siberia
A new anthology on the history of Siberia
The Novosibirsk publishing house “Infolio-Press” is publishing “Anthology on the History of Siberia”, addressed to schoolchildren studying the history of our region independently or together with their teachers. The compilers of the manual are Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of Novosibirsk Pedagogical University V.A. Zverev and Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Novosibirsk Institute for Advanced Training and Retraining of Education Workers F.S. Kuznetsova.
The anthology is part of the educational and methodological set “Siberia: 400 years as part of Russia”, intended for students educational institutions. Earlier, in 1997-1999, a textbook by A.S. was published. Zuev “Siberia: Milestones of History”, as well as three parts of a textbook under the general title “History of Siberia” (authors - V.A. Zverev, A.S. Zuev, V.A. Isupov, I.S. Kuznetsov and F. S. Kuznetsova). “History of Siberia” has already gone through its second mass edition in 1999-2001.
“Anthology on the History of Siberia” is a textbook that helps create a full-fledged national-regional component of education in grades VII-XI in Siberian schools. But it does not contain ready-made answers to problematic questions. This is a collection of legislative acts, bureaucratic reports, materials of administrative and scientific surveys, excerpts from the memoirs of Siberian city dwellers and literate peasants, writings of travelers and writers. Most of these people were eyewitnesses and participants in the events that took place in Siberia in the 17th - early 20th centuries. Other authors judge Siberian history by the material remains of past life, by the written, oral, and visual evidence that has reached them.
The texts of the documents are grouped into eight chapters according to the problem-chronological principle. Taken together, they give the reader the opportunity to form their own idea of the past of the region and answer important questions that interest many Siberians. What peoples lived on the territory of our region in the 17th-18th centuries and why are some of them impossible to find on a modern map of Siberia? Is it true that the Russian people, having settled in Northern Asia, over time adapted so much to the local natural features and mixed so much with the indigenous inhabitants that by the middle of the 19th century. formed a completely new “Chaldonian” people? Was Siberia far behind European Russia in its development by the beginning of the 20th century? Is it appropriate to say that it was “a country of taiga, prisons and darkness,” a kingdom of “semi-savagery and real savagery” (these are assessments that were expressed in Soviet times)? What achievements of our Siberian great-grandfathers “grew Russia” in the old days and what can we, today’s Siberians, be proud of in the historical heritage of our ancestors?
The compilers of the anthology tried to select evidence so that it would highlight the state of traditional folk culture, everyday life and customs of Siberians - “indigenous” and “newcomers”, villagers and city dwellers. By the end of the 19th century. established orders began to crumble, unusual innovations penetrated the culture and way of life. The modernization of society that began then was also reflected on the pages of the anthology.
To understand the problems of a particular chapter, you must read the introduction placed at the beginning of it. Such texts briefly characterize the significance of the topic, speak about the main assessments and judgments existing in historical science and in public consciousness, the principles of materials selection are explained.
Before each document there is a short information about the author and the circumstances of the creation of this text. After the document, the compilers placed questions and tasks under the heading “Think and Answer.” Completing the assignments is designed to help students carefully read documents, analyze historical facts, draw and justify your own conclusions.
At the end of each chapter, “Creative tasks” are formulated. Their implementation involves working with a complex of texts. The compilers of the anthology recommend that schoolchildren carry out such work under the guidance of a professional historian. The result of a creative assignment can be a historical essay, a speech at a scientific and practical conference, or the creation of an exhibition in a family or school museum.
Since the manual is intended primarily not for scientific work, but for educational work, the publication rules are simplified. There are no notes in the text, except for the omission of words inside or at the end of a sentence (the omission is indicated by an ellipsis). Some long texts are divided into several parts. Such parts, as well as entire texts, are sometimes preceded by headings in square brackets, invented by the compilers of the anthology. Also included in square brackets are words placed by the compilers in the text of the document for its better understanding. Asterisks indicate notes made by the author of the document. The notes by the compilers of the anthology are numbered.
Readers are invited to the fifth chapter of the anthology - “What was everyday life in the lives of generations” (the title has been changed in the newspaper publication).
Vladimir ZVEREV
Life and traditions of Siberia
A family of Siberian peasants.
Engraving by M. Hoffmann (Germany)
based on a sketch by O. Finsch, made in
Tomsk province in 1876
This chapter of the anthology is devoted to a description of the traditions characteristic of the culture and way of life of the Siberian peasantry in the 18th - early 20th centuries.
Traditions are those elements of culture or social relations that exist for a long time, change slowly and are passed on from generation to generation without a critical attitude towards them. For centuries, traditions have played the role of the foundation, the core Everyday life people, therefore Russian society - at least until the “complete collectivization” at the turn of the 1920-1930s. - some historians call a society of a traditional type, and the then popular culture- traditional culture.
The meaning of peasant life was the labor produced by family members on “their” arable land (legally, the bulk of the land in Siberia belonged to the state and its head, the emperor, but peasant land use was relatively free until the beginning of the twentieth century). Agriculture was supplemented by livestock farming and crafts.
Knowledge of the environment, the “way” of family and community relationships, and the upbringing and education of children were also traditional. The entire material and spiritual culture of the village turned out to be traditional - created with one’s own hands objective world(tools of labor, settlements and dwellings, clothing, etc.), beliefs preserved in the mind and “in the heart,” assessment of natural and social phenomena.
Some folk traditions were brought to Siberia from European Russia during the settlement of this region, the other part had already developed here, under the influence of specific Siberian conditions.
IN research literature reflected different approaches to the assessment of traditional folk culture, rural life of Russia and, in particular, Siberia. On the one hand, already in the pre-Soviet period a purely negative view of “patriarchalism, semi-savagery and real savagery” (Lenin’s words) appeared, and began to prevail in the works of Soviet historians, as if they reigned in the pre-revolutionary, pre-collective farm village and interfered with the authorities and intelligentsia in this village "cultivate" On the other hand, it has long existed in Lately the desire to admire old folk traditions, even to their complete “revival,” intensified. These polar assessments seem to outline the space for the search for truth, which, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle.
For publication in the anthology, historical documents have been selected that describe and explain in different ways some aspects of the traditional culture of Siberians. Both the views of the peasants and the judgments of external observers - scientists (ethnographers, folklorists) and amateurs - a local doctor and teacher, a leisure traveler, etc. are interesting. Basically, the situation is presented through the eyes of Russian people, but there is also the opinion of a foreigner (an American journalist).
Questions will be legitimate modern readers: How were the culture and life of our ancestors fundamentally different from today’s everyday life? Which of the folk ideas, customs and rituals remains viable in modern conditions, needs to be preserved or revived, and which are hopelessly outdated by the beginning of the twentieth century?
It is unlikely that the picture highlighted by the sources allows for unambiguous answers...
F.F. Devyatov
The annual cycle of working peasant life
Fedor Fedorovich Devyatov (c. 1837 - 1901) - a wealthy peasant from the village of Kuraginskoye, Minusinsk district, Yenisei province. In the second half of the 19th century. actively collaborated with scientific and educational institutions and press organs in Siberia.
[Take] the average family in terms of labor force. Such a family usually consists of a household worker, his [wife], an old father and an old mother, a teenage son from 12 to 16 years old, two young daughters and, finally, a small child. Such families are the most common. This family is busy with work all year round. No one here has time for extraneous earnings, and therefore, during harvesting, people often gather here, which takes place on a holiday.
Such a family, having 8 work horses, 2 plows, 5-6 harrows, can sow 12 acres. She uses 4 scythes for mowing and 5 sickles for reaping. With such a farm, it seems possible to keep up to 20 heads of cattle, horses, mares and teenage youngsters, 15 heads in total; sheep up to 20-30 heads and pigs 5. Geese, ducks, chickens are an integral part of such a farm. Although fishing exists, all the fish are spent at home and are not sold. An old father or grandfather usually does the fishing. If he sometimes sells part of the fish, it is only to gain a few coppers for God to buy candles.
6 dessiatines are sown with rye and egg, 3 dessiatines with oats, 2 dessiatines with wheat; and barley, buckwheat, millet, peas, hemp, all together 1 tithe. Potatoes and turnips are sown in special places. During the years of average harvest, the entire harvest from 3 dessiatines of rye, 2 dessiatines of oats, and 1 dessiatine of wheat is used for home consumption. All small bread also stays at home. Bread from 3 dessiatines of rye, 1 dessiatine of oats and 1 dessiatine of wheat goes on sale. All other products of the economy, such as cattle and lamb meat, pork, poultry, milk, butter, wool, feathers, etc. - all this goes for personal consumption in the form of food or clothing, etc.
Dealers of manufactured and small goods and, in general, all peasant needs are almost always also buyers of grain and other products of the peasant economy; in the shops, peasants take various goods according to the account and pay with farm products, bread, livestock, etc. In addition, due to the remoteness from cities, doctors and pharmacies, their own home self help. This is not like the treatment of healers, but simply every thrifty old housewife has five or six infusions, for example: infusion of pepper, trefoil, birch bud, cut grass ... and St. John's wort, and the more thrifty ones have camphor lotion, lead lotion, strong vodka , turpentine, mint drops, chilibukha, various herbs and roots. Many of these medicinal substances are also purchased from the store.
The peasants make carts, sleighs, bows, plows, harrows and all the necessary agricultural implements themselves. Many people also make a table, a bed, a simple sofa and chairs at home - with their own hands. Thus, the total expenditure in the said peasant family is up to 237 rubles per year. Cash income can be determined up to 140 rubles; the rest is therefore paid in products.
Not included in the income account, as well as in expenses: bread given for work in kind, for example, for sewing ... sheepskin coats, asyams from home cloth, shoes (many of these things are sewn at home by women, family members), for wool yarn , flax, soap factory for making soap, etc.; bread is also exchanged for lime for whitening walls. Mural dishes, wooden dishes, seeders, vessels, troughs, sieves, sieves, spindles, shanks are delivered by settlers from the Vyatka province and are also exchanged for bread. The exchange is made in this manner: the person who wants to buy a vessel fills it with rye, which he gives to the seller, and takes the vessel for himself; This is called the “scree price”.
This expresses almost the entire annual cycle of working peasant life. Its source is labor. The labor force arrives in the family, the development of the land arrives and increases; grain sowing and cattle breeding are increasing; in a word, income and expenses are growing.
Devyatov F.F. Economic life of the Siberian peasant /
Literary collection. St. Petersburg, 1885.
pp. 310-311, 313-315.
Notes
1 Help- collective neighborly mutual assistance. The church did not allow work on holidays, but the time of suffering was expensive, and the peasants circumvented the ban by working not on their farms, but on the farms.
2 Tithe- the main submetric measure of area in Russia, equal to 1.09 hectares.
3 Rye and egg- in this case - winter and spring rye.
4 Azam- men's outerwear, a type of caftan or sheepskin coat.
5 Mural dishes- covered with glaze.
6 Shank- a wooden tube, a part of equipment for spinning or weaving.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. What types of occupations were traditional in peasant farming?
2. What type (natural, market, mixed) can the described economy be classified as? Why?
3. What, according to F. Devyatov, is the main “source of peasant life”? What nature of the peasant economy does this author’s statement indicate?
4. Does your family have medical “home self-help”? What does it consist of?
N.L. Skalozubov
The peasants admired the plowing...
Nikolai Lukich Skalozubov is a Tobolsk provincial agronomist and a prominent public figure. As part of the Kurgan Exhibition in September 1895, he organized two plowman competitions. In total, 87 local peasants took part in them, who had to plow the paddocks allocated to them “quickly and well.”
First competition
The assessment [of the results of plowing] was provided to the peasants themselves, and the deputies approached their task in a highest degree in good faith. If disagreements arose among them, the field was carefully examined by everyone again, and in most cases the verdicts were unanimous. The commission was also accompanied by some of the plowmen participating in the competition, listening carefully to the assessment.
The plowmen eagerly awaited the results of the assessment; the excitement of some was very great. One old man approached the manager and asked: “What is it, you know, my plowing didn’t turn up?” - “Yes, the old people say, you plow shallowly, you need to plow better!” Without saying a word, the old man falls down and lies unconscious for several minutes. They say that another plowman cried when he learned that his arable land was rejected.
Contrary to the existing opinion that the Siberian peasant is pursuing the productivity of arable implements to the detriment of the quality of work, it turned out to be completely the opposite: the appraisers recognized the best arable land where there were more furrows per paddock, and the remarkable thing is that this attribute was found out last, i.e. First, the arable land was assessed by the thoroughness of the development of the land, by its depth, and only then the furrows were counted.
Second competition
The best arable land, as last time, was considered to be the one that, at the greatest depth, seemed more leveled, with a large number of furrows in the paddock, small blocky, without virgin soil, with straight furrows and well covered with stubble. The best arable land, as expected, and according to the unanimous verdict of the peasants, turned out to be the arable land made with the Sacca plow. The peasants admired this plowing: not a single straw was visible on the arable land, the clods were crushed so finely and the layers covered each other so well that the field had the appearance of a fence. Nevertheless, half of the commission’s votes did not [immediately] agree to rate this arable land above excellent ploughing.
The appraisers did not even want to compare plow plowing with plowing plowing: “But this is a factory plow, put it wherever you want - it will plow well; We love our plow: it’s cheap, but you can plow it well.” “It’s good, but the road is not for us,” was the review [about the factory plow].
Skalozubov N.L. Report on [agricultural and handicraft industry]
exhibition [in Kurgan] and its catalogue. Tobolsk, 1902. S. 131-132, 134-135.
Notes
1 Plow Sacca- steel plow produced by the Rudolf Sack company (Kharkov).
2 Ploughing- in this case - made by a Siberian plow with two wooden coulters and moldboards.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. What criteria did the peasants present when assessing the quality of plowing?
2. What in the above description indicates the serious attitude of the peasants to the work of the plowman?
3. Why did the peasants prefer the plow rather than the plow in their daily work? How does this fact characterize their economic life and mentality (worldview)?
Eyewitnesses about family agricultural rituals
The first spring plowing in Western Siberia as described by F.K. Zobnina
Philip Kuzmich Zobnin is a native of Siberian peasants, a rural teacher, and the author of a number of ethnographic works.
Early in the morning, after breakfast or tea, they began to gather for the arable land. Every business must begin with prayer. This is also where plowing begins. When the horses are already harnessed, the whole family gathers in the upper room, closes the doors and lights candles in front of the icons. Before starting prayer, according to custom, everyone must sit down, and then get up and pray. After prayer, in good families, sons going to the arable land bow at the feet of their parents and ask for blessings. Before leaving the gate, they are often sent to see if there are any women on the street. It is considered a bad omen when a woman crosses the road on such an important trip. After such a disaster, at least come back...
That’s what they do if they haven’t left the yard yet: they go back to the upper room to wait and only then leave.
Zobnin F.K. From year to year (description of the cycle of peasant life
in the village Ust-Nitsinsky Tyumen district) //
Living antiquity. 1894. Issue. 1. P. 45.
The beginning of spring sowing in Eastern Siberia as described by M.F. Krivoshapkina
It's time to sow. We are planning to go to the field tomorrow. Preparations begin. First of all, they definitely go to the bathhouse and put on clean underwear; Yes, not only is it clean, more moral men even wear brand new, brand new underwear, because “sowing bread is not a simple matter, but everything is a prayer to God about it!” In the morning, a priest is invited and a prayer service is served. Then they spread a white tablecloth on the table and put a rug with a salt shaker that they have hidden since Easter; light candles in front of the image and pray to God; say goodbye to family; and if the father does not go himself, then he blesses the children who bow at his feet.
Upon arrival, horses are laid in the field; and the elder owner pours the grain into a sack (i.e., a basket made of birch bark or some twigs) and leaves it at the porch of the winter hut. Then, as usual, everyone sits down next to each other; get up; pray on all 4 sides; the eldest goes to scatter the grain, while the others plow. Having made this, as they say, beginning (beginning), everyone returns home, where dinner has already been prepared and all the relatives have gathered. All that remains, if it is close, is to send for a priest, who must bless both the bread and the wine and drink the first glass with the owner. Lunch is over. Younger family members or workers go to work hard; and the elder sees off the guests, pours grain into bags and goes out to sow.
Krivoshapkin M.F. Yenisei district and its life.
St. Petersburg, 1865. T. 1. P. 38.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. What is common in economic family rituals among the peasants of Western and Eastern Siberia?
2. How do these rituals characterize the attitude of peasants to their work? Do the rituals described have a rational basis?
3. What conclusions about relationships in a peasant family can be drawn based on the proposed sources?
John Fraser
It will not be long before the Russian peasant becomes capable ofto a colonialist role
John Fraser is a famous American journalist who visited Siberia in 1901. He outlined his impressions in a book translated into various European languages.
Nowhere in the United States - after all, Siberia is often called the new America - is there such a huge expanse of beautiful land, as if created for arable farming and awaiting only human hands to cultivate it. However, there is little hope that Siberia, through the labor of its inhabitants alone, will allocate any of its natural resources to other countries. This situation will probably continue for several generations.
The Siberian peasant is a bad worker
It is an undoubted fact that the Russian peasant is one of the worst colonialists on the entire globe. A simple man strives mainly to eat enough and save a few kopecks for Sunday so that he can get drunk.
The Russian government is sincerely trying, as far as possible, to ease the fate of the immigrants. Thus, it orders American agricultural implements and sells them at a very low price. But wherever you look, you notice how little endurance the immigrant has. First of all, he, for example, does not want to live [on a farm] at a distance of 3, 5 or 10 miles from his neighbors, but strives to live in a village or city, even if the plot allocated to him is at a distance of 30 miles from them. Whether he cultivates a plot of land, sows wheat, but does not start harvesting on time and, thus, the crop is half destroyed. He reaps with a sickle, and meanwhile part of the wheat disappears from the rains. He has no idea about fertilizing the soil and doesn’t think at all about the future. He has no desire to get rich. His only desire is to work as little as possible. The principle that guides him in life is best described by the well-known word - “nothing.” This word means: “I don’t care, don’t pay attention to it!” In other words, it expresses the concepts contained in the words: phlegmaticity, indifference, negligence.
Of course, all the settlers are descendants of serfs; in the person of their ancestors, human dignity was subjected to the greatest humiliation. Therefore, one cannot hope to meet enterprising and independent people in their descendants; even in the expression of their faces there is a stamp of humiliation and indifference.
The government is trying with all its might to educate the settlers in such a spirit that they understand all the benefits of the latest improvements in agriculture and begin to apply them. But all his efforts do not lead to tangible results...
In all likelihood, it will not be long before the Russian peasant becomes capable of a colonialist role.
Poor life and low level of culture
The villages here have a very deplorable appearance. The huts are built from rough-hewn logs. The gaps between individual logs or boards are sealed with moss to protect against snow and wind. During the winter, the double windows are tightly closed and nailed, and in the summer they are not opened very often.
Russian peasants have no idea about hygiene. They do not know a completely separate bedroom. At night they spread skins and pillows on the floor and sleep on them without undressing. In the morning they just wet their face a little with water and don’t use soap at all.
It is clear that the entertainment of these people living far from cultural centers, are very limited. Drunkenness is the most common occurrence here, and vodka is often of extremely poor quality. In every village there are guys who can play the accordion; Folk dances are often held to the sounds of it. Women are not very attractive: they have no intelligence, their eyes are expressionless. Their only dream is to acquire a red scarf with which they tie their heads.
The dwellings are characterized by terrible hygienic conditions and a stench, but this does not prevent their inhabitants from being extremely hospitable. While the peasant huts have a miserable appearance, in almost every village here you can find a large white church with golden or gilded domes. The men are simple-minded, very religious and superstitious. These are uncouth and dark people; his passions are the most primitive. A Siberian peasant will never do today what can be put off until tomorrow. But he was moved to rich country, and there is hope that soon culture will develop more here, and then Siberia will be able to shower the whole world with its riches.
Gleyner A. Siberia, America of the future.
Based on the essay “The Real Siberia” by John Foster Fraser.
Kyiv, 1906. pp. 15-17, 19-20.
Note
1 mile- English non-metric unit of length equal to approximately 1.6 km.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. How does the author’s assessment of peasant culture differ from the judgments contained in previous documents? Can it be considered absolutely indisputable?
2. What role does the author assign to the state in the “education of migrants”, and what does he see as the reasons for the failure of its activities?
3. Compare the description of the settlements and dwellings of Siberians made by an American journalist with the descriptions given in this anthology and in a textbook on the history of Siberia. What could be the reasons for such a striking discrepancy in estimates?
4. What future did John Fraser promise for Siberia? Was his prediction justified a hundred years later?
S.I. Turbin
Siberians are not keen on porridge...
When the coachman and I entered the hut, the owners were already sitting at the table and slurping cabbage soup; but let the reader not think that Siberian cabbage soup is the same as Russian cabbage soup. There is no similarity between them. Apart from water, meat, salt and thick grains, Siberian cabbage soup contains no impurities. Putting cabbage, onions and any greens in general is considered completely unnecessary.
The cabbage soup was followed by jelly, which was served with mustard, unfamiliar to our common people, diluted with kvass. Next came, not exactly boiled and not exactly fried, but rather a steamed pig, lightly salted and very fatty. The fourth dish was an open pie (stretch) with salted pike. Only the filling was eaten in the pie; It is not customary to eat the edges or the bottom. Finally, something like pancakes with cottage cheese, fried in cow butter, appeared.
There was no porridge. Siberians are not keen on it, and they don’t even like buckwheat. The bread is exclusively wheat, but very sour, and baked from batter. This was the daily lunch of a good peasant. Kvass, and even very good one, can be found in every well-built house in Siberia. Where bread is baked from rye flour, it is always sown on a sieve. Using a sieve is considered reprehensible.
- We, thank God, are not pigs! - say the Siberians.
- How can there be chaff, God forbid! - say the Siberians.
New settlers who have a strong addiction to it get a lot for sieve bread.
Turbin S.I. Old-timer. Country of exile and disappeared people:
Siberian essays. St. Petersburg, 1872. pp. 77-78.
Notes
1 Thick grain- large, not finely ground, peeled.
2 Chaff- chaff, ears of grain from which the grain has been winnowed. The sieve had smaller cells than the sieve, so the sifted flour turned out to be cleaner, without any admixture of bran and chaff.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. How did lunch in the house of a wealthy old-timer in Siberia differ from an ordinary Russian meal (highlight at least five features)?
2. How did sieve bread differ from bread sifted on a sieve? Why, according to the author, did the new settlers prefer sieve bread?
A.A. Savelyev
In the spring, when the river opens up, everyone rushes to wash themselves with fresh water...
Winter carts at the inn.
Engraving from a book published in Paris in 1768.
Records of signs, customs, beliefs and rituals were made by the ethnographer Anton Antonovich Savelyev (1874-1942) during the period of exile (1910-1917) in the Pinchug volost of the Yenisei district of the Yenisei province. In this publication they are grouped thematically.
In the field and in the arable land
The old owner says “venter” (ventel) “to go catch fish in the spring.” To get into the hut, you have to step over the fishing gear laid out on the floor. - “No, soaring, this is not necessary; no need at all. Don't step through. Through this, the fish will not go into it. It’s possible to spoil the venter.”
During the first spring fishing... the first more or less large fish caught is hit with a stick and at the same time they say, hitting the fish, “I got it, but it’s not the right one, send mother and father, grandmother and grandfather.”
It is advisable to steal something from someone on the day of sowing, at least, for example, a seryanka [match]. The harvest and sowing will be successful.
While planting potato [tubers], you cannot eat them, otherwise the mole will carry them away and spoil them.
About natural phenomena
How, how, soaring, this is true - a fire from a thunderstorm, this is certainly not “God’s mercy.” That’s what they say - “burn with God’s grace.” No, there is no way to extinguish such a fire with water. Then you can clear away [the ashes].
During hail and thunderstorms, they throw a shovel out into the street through a window (village of Yarki) or through a gate (village of Boguchany, village of Karabula), which they use to put bread in the oven... or an oven stick, so that both stop as soon as possible.
In the spring, when the river opens, everyone rushes to wash themselves with fresh water - in order to be healthy.
About pets
Peasant dwelling at night.
Engraving from a book published
in Paris in 1768
It happens that the dog loses its appetite. In the village of Pinchug, so that she can eat, they chop off the tip of her tail, and in the village. The Boguchans put a headband made of a bird cherry twig coated with tar, or simply a “tar rope” around her neck.
Cows are released shortly after Easter. The eldest member of the family goes out into the yard and there smears resin like a cross on the doors of the stables, flocks and gates, while saying a prayer. Along the gate through which the cows are let out, he spreads a belt on the ground, which he takes off himself. Having put down the belt and said the prayer again, he makes several half-bows. Then, standing in front of the gate, he will block (cross) it “three times.” Then the housewife [takes] a loaf of bread in her hands, goes out the gate and, breaking off piece by piece, beckons to the cow - “tprushi, tprushi, prayer, tprushi, Ivanovna, tprushi,” etc. She gives a piece of bread to a passing cow. So all the cows cross one after another, stepping over the belt, which is spread out so that they know their home, their gate. And the owner, following the leaving cows, whispers: “Christ is with you, Christ is with you!” - and baptizes one after another. This day is considered a semi-holiday and during it you are not supposed to swear.
When building a new house
When choosing a construction site, lots are cast. The housewife bakes 3 small “kolobushka” loaves of bread from rye flour. These latter are baked before the rest of the concoction. The next day, before sunrise, the owner takes these loaves of bread and puts them in his bosom, having previously girdled himself. Having arrived at the intended place, the owner ... reads a prayer; then he unties himself and monitors the number of loaves of bread that fall out of his bosom. If all three loaves fall out, the place is considered successful and happy for settlement; if two come up, it’s “this way and that”, and one is completely bad - you shouldn’t settle.
When they lift the “matitsa” onto the newly erected walls of a house under construction, they do this. On the “matitsa”, which lies at one end on the wall, they put a loaf of bread, a little salt and an icon; everything is tied to the mat with a new rukoternik [towel]. After raising the matitsa, the rest of the day is considered festive.
In the old days, when building a hut, a small amount of money was always placed under the lining [the lower crown of log walls], and a third of what was put under the lining was placed under the matnya [matitsa].
You cannot cut a window or door in a residential building - the owner will die or there will be a major loss.
Bread is the head of everything
Eh! Soaring, you are not the same, don’t bite off a piece of mine and don’t drink from my cup. You'll ruin it, go and soar. You will take all my power through your mouth. You'll make me weak.
The cut or broken side of the bread should be placed inside the table. In the same way, you definitely can’t put the kovriga or kalach with the “underneath” [bottom] crust facing up. In the first case, there will be little bread, and in the second, in the next world [the devils] will be held upside down.
When dividing the family [family division], the eldest cuts the loaf of rye bread into slices according to the number of men sharing or existing in the family. The person separating takes his part and moves away from the table. The women pour the kneading mixture and take away their parts.
In the old days, there was a custom not to destroy a whole loaf of bread in the evening. They said that “the carpet is sleeping.”
You can’t poke bread with a fork - in the next world [the devils] will lift it with a fork.
In family life
You cannot put the child down or sit him on the table - he will become capricious.
You can’t grab a child by the legs - it could be bad for him - he won’t be able to walk soon.
When the bride walks down the aisle, she must place a silver coin under her left heel, which means she will not need money when she gets married.
During an illness, you should not take off the shirt you were wearing when you fell ill, otherwise the illness will not go away soon.
For the deceased, a tow is placed in the coffin, and sometimes even pure flax fiber, so that it lies softer in the ground.
Religion and church holidays
The people of Russia are prayerful.
But we, the Cheldons, don’t know them [prayer]. There are seven people in our family, and Ivan is the only one who knows “Father” and “Virgin Mary”.
After Easter until Trinity, you cannot throw anything out of the window - Christ is standing there - “so as not to hurt him.”
On the evening before the holidays, you should not sweep the hut and throw away the rubbish from it. The owners will not have wealth.
You cannot stretch out on the bench with your feet towards the shrine - God will take away the power.
Every holiday necessarily begins the day before at sunset and ends with sunset. The eve of the holiday is called "suppers".
Folklore of the Angara region of the early 20th century // Living Antiquity:
Magazine about Russian folklore and traditional culture.
2000. No. 2. P. 45-46.
Notes
1 According to other sources, it was supposed to sow not with one’s own, but with someone else’s (donated or even “stolen”) seeds.
2 Half holiday- a day when only light work is allowed or work only until noon.
3 Matica- a log beam across the entire hut on which the ceiling is laid.
4 Tow- a combed bunch of flax, hemp, made for spinning.
5 "Our Father" and "Virgin Mother of God"- the most common prayers among peasants.
6 Goddess- a cabinet or shelf in the front corner of a clean room, where icons and other religious objects are placed, and the Gospel is placed.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. What features of the peasant mentality do the described beliefs and customs indicate?
2. What self-assessment of peasant religiosity does the source contain?
3. Why were the first pasture of cows and the raising of the “matitsa”, as well as the beginning of plowing and sowing, considered special days among the peasants?
4. What beliefs and customs have been preserved in Siberia to this day? What do your parents and grandparents know about them?
Siberian poet V.D. Fedorov
about your ancestors
Vasily Dmitrievich Fedorov (1918-1984) - Russian poet. Born in the Kemerovo region. He lived in Siberia for a long time.
Siberia, my land,
Eclipsed all the edges,
Oh, my golden penal servitude,
Shelter of the harsh forefathers
disenfranchised,
Where there were no lordly-royal whips,
But we don’t know washed bast shoes
With the iron of shackles gone
equally.
The people have not forgotten anything,
What in life of generations
It was everyday life.
The Siberian himself is a living given
Inspired both severity and hum annost.
In almost every Siberian family
For fugitives it was considered a matter of
honor
In the most visible and accessible place
Leave a glass of milk overnight.
And, touched by sinful lips,
They baptized with calloused fingers.
Vasily Fedorov. From the poem “The Marriage of Don Juan.”
THINK AND ANSWER
1. How to understand - from a historical point of view - the words: “There were no lordly-royal whips”; “The bare hands of unknown bast shoes and the iron of shackles passed on equal terms”?
2. Why does the poet call helping escaped convicts a “matter of honor” for a Siberian?
F.K. Zobnin
Before Easter, my brother and I don’t leave church...
Maundy Thursday - on the seventh, last,
week of Lent
Village Church
in Transbaikalia. Engraving from the book
G. Lansdell, published
in London in 1883
My brother and I were told the day before that we should get up earlier tomorrow: whoever gets up before the sun and puts on his shoes on Maundy Thursday will find many duck nests this year.
On Thursday morning, as soon as we get up, we see that on the shrine, near the icons, there is a loaf of bread and a large carved wooden salt shaker: this is quadruple bread and quadruple salt. This is a custom that has been established for centuries. After mass at the table, four quarters of bread with salt are eaten, but not all of it: part of it goes to livestock - horses, cows and sheep. From this bread God better preserves both livestock and people for a whole year.
Holy Saturday - last day
Lenten Eve on the eve of Easter
On the morning of this day, the eggs were painted and divided. We guys suffered as much as everyone else. But this is just the beginning. Soon your mother or father will add some from their share. After the division, everyone takes away their share until tomorrow, and tomorrow they can spend it as they please. We, complete and uncontrollable owners of our shares, of course, had no idea of using them the day before: we fasted for seven weeks and didn’t make it for several hours - that’s shameful.
Before Easter, my brother and I don’t leave church. It’s good in the church, and everything reminds us that the holidays are not far away: they clean the candlesticks, pour the bowls, insert new candles, transport the spruce tree and the puffer for the church - all this is done only for Easter. All this delights our young hearts, we rejoice and rejoice in everything.
Spring wood cutting
The woodcutter is the same suffering. If you don’t chop it down to plowing, you’ll be drowning the winter with cheesecake. Those who are older and stronger go to chop wood away from the settlement, to get started, i.e. nights for three - four, or even a week. The guys will chop some wood somewhere nearby: “it’ll still be useful for heating in the fall.” Chopping wood is fun. In the forest, even though there is no green grass or flowers, you can still eat: the birch tree [birch sap] has started running. You take a thuja tree, put it under a birch tree, and suddenly the day is full of thuja tree drippings. Of the small birch trees, the birch tree is not sweet, and not enough; it is necessary to pick birch trees from large birch trees. Mom didn’t let us drink a lot of birch: she says it’s “unhealthy.”
Sowing flax
Sowing flax is the most interesting for us. Feeding a family is a man's job, but clothing men is a woman's job. Therefore, when sowing flax, it became a custom to appease the peasants by placing boiled eggs in the flax seeds. That's why we love to sow flax. The father pours seeds into the basket, and egg after egg flies out with the seeds: “Boys, take them.” You can’t just take and eat an egg, you must first throw it up and say: “Grow flax higher than a standing forest.”
They also say that in order for flax to grow well, you need to sow it naked, but we have never tried this: it’s a shame, everyone talks, but if you take off your clothes, they’ll laugh at you.
Holy Trinity - Sunday in the seventh week
after Easter
![](https://i1.wp.com/bsk.nios.ru/sites/bsk.nios.ru/files/hrest7.png)
Old Believers woman
from Altai on holiday
clothes.
Rice. N. Nagorskaya.
1926
On the evening of Trinity Day, young people of both sexes gather for clearing- this is the name of the festive gathering taking place on the banks of the Nitsa River. In the clearing, girls and boys, holding hands and forming several rows, walk one row after another, singing songs. It is called walk in a circle.
They're playing in the clearing on guard. The players are divided into pairs and become one pair after another. One or one of the players stands guard. The game consists of pairs running forward one by one, and the person standing guard while running tries to catch them. If he succeeds, then he and the caught player form a pair, and the remaining player stands guard.
One of the most necessary accessories of the clearing is wrestling. Usually wrestlers from the upper end [of the village] fight alternately with wrestlers from the lower end. Only two fight, while the rest, as curious people, surround the place of fight with a thick living ring.
The fight is always started by small fighters.
Each wrestler, entering the circle, must be tied over one shoulder and around himself with a girdle. The goal of the fight is to knock the opponent to the ground 3 times. Whoever manages to do this before the other is considered the winner. During the fight, lowering your hands from the girdle is strictly prohibited.
From the little ones the struggle gradually moves on to the big ones. In the end there remains the most skilled fighter, whom no one could defeat, and he, as they say, carries away the circle. To carry the circle means to win such a victory that serves as a source of pride not only for the wrestler himself, but also for the entire “end” or village to which he belongs.
Zobnin F.K. From year to year: (Description of the cycle
peasant life in the village Ust-Nitsinsky Tyumen district) //
Living antiquity. 1894. Issue. 1. pp. 40-54.
THINK AND ANSWER
A.A. Makarenko
Parties and masquerades continue with extraordinary excitement until Epiphany...
Alexey Alekseevich Makarenko (1860-1942) - ethnographer scientist. He collected materials about the life of Siberians in the Yenisei province (in particular, in the Pinchug volost of the Yenisei district) during the period of exile 1886-1899. and during scientific expeditions in 1904-1910. The book “The Siberian Folk Calendar in Ethnographic Relation” was published in its first edition in 1913. The fragments published here are dated according to the Julian calendar (old style).
|
|
|
Christmas masks of mummers of Siberians and Russian northerners,
|
1st [January].“New Goth” (year), aka “Vasiliev’s Day”.
On the eve of December 31st in the evening, Siberian village youth of both sexes... are busy with divination on their favorite topics - who will get married and where, who will get married, what kind of wife he will take, etc. In the Pinchug volost... fortune telling “on the New Goth” is accompanied by the singing of “podblyudnye” songs with the participation of girls and “bachelors” (guys), who gather for this in one of the suitable residential huts. In this case, the Pinchu residents support the custom of the inhabitants of the Great Russian provinces of European Russia.
More than ten people (girls and boys) do not sit at one table, so that there is one song for each person. The table is covered with a white tablecloth; each of the participants, taking a piece of bread, places it under the tablecloth in front of him; ten rings are placed on the served plate (you need to know your rings well or put “marks” on them). The plate is covered “tightly” with a scarf; then they sing a song; before the end of it, one of those not participating in the game... shakes the plate, takes out the first ring he comes across through a crack in the scarf: whose it turns out to be, he “bequeaths” it to himself (makes a wish). They sing to him (lingering motive):
This song is used to determine who is getting married. [According to other songs, it becomes clear whether you are going to find your betrothed in your own village or in someone else’s; whether he will be rich or poor, whether he will love; the girl will end up in a friendly or “disagreeing” family; will she soon become a widow, etc.]
Having finished the “sub-bowl” songs, they begin to perform divination. Here I will note the most characteristic forms of Siberian divination...
After putting a ring on the ring toe of the right foot, this bare foot is bathed in the “hole” (ice hole). A fortuneteller, for example, places one stick across an ice hole, and with the other she “closes” the ice hole; therefore, one stick means “lock”, the other “key”; this key is turned into the hole three times “against the sun” and taken home; the lock remains in place. The “zapetki” return from the ice hole, saying: “Betrothed, come to me to ask for the key to the ice hole, to water the horse, to ask for a ring!” Whichever good guy comes in a dream on cue, he will be the groom. Guys also bewitch their brides.
Girls alone go to the threshing floor or to the bathhouse, so that the “threshing floor” or “bathhouse” person strokes the naked part of the body that has been placed on purpose for this purpose: if he strokes it with a shaggy hand, it means a rich marriage, and vice versa.
Girls and boys, gathered in one circle, steal a “white mare” or horse for a while, take her to the “split” of roads, blindfold her with a bag; and when a girl or a guy sits on it, they circle it up to three times and set it free: whichever direction the horse goes, the girl will marry there, and the guy from there will take his wife.
IN New Year, at dawn, “servants” (children) run around the huts alone or in groups and “sow” oats, as is done in Russia. The grains are thrown into the “front” or “red corner” (where the image is “God”), and they themselves sing:
Little “sowers”, who are seen as harbingers of the future “bread” harvest and new happiness for people, are given everything they can.
In the evening, persons of both sexes, from young to old, “mashkaruyuttsa”, i.e. They disguise themselves in whatever way they can, and visit the huts or “run to the farmhands” in order to amuse the owners. In the “farm” (hired) huts, “evenings” or “parties” are started with “games”, i.e. singing, dancing and various games.
But on Vasilyev’s Day (January 1) on the Angara, they try to end the “parties” before midnight (the first rooster) in order to avoid visits from the so-called shilikuns (evil spirits).
It happened once, according to Pinchu people’s belief... that at a party that lasted long after midnight, devils came running in the form of little people on horse legs, in “naked parkas” (Tungus clothing), with sharp heads, and broke up the party.
In the following days, normal work is carried out; but parties and masquerades continue with extraordinary animation until Epiphany. This custom is not local, Siberian, but also inherent in the peasants of European Russia.
Makarenko A.A. Siberian folk calendar.
Novosibirsk, 1993. pp. 36-37, 39-41.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. Why did young people in the old days attach such serious importance to various fortune-telling?
2. What role did song play in the life of peasant youth?
N.P. Protasov
After talking about this and that, I switched to song...
Having recognized all the singers of a given village, I usually asked the owner to invite them to me, as a lover of antiquity and songs, to talk. When the invitees appeared, I started a conversation with them about their farm, land plots, family life etc., then imperceptibly moved on to ancient rituals and song.
At first our conversation was monosyllabic and strained, and then gradually became livelier; when I explained that I myself was a Siberian peasant [by origin], we quickly became close and after an hour of such a frank conversation we became our own people. I was helped a lot by my knowledge of places, villages and people, which I acquired over many years, wandering around Siberia on foot and on horseback and covering up to forty-five thousand miles.
During the conversation, the hosts treated us to tea and snacks, and if there were girls there, then sweets - sweets and gingerbread, which I stocked up in Verkhneudinsk. After talking about this and that, I switched to song, and began to sing old songs myself and prove their charm, with which everyone present usually agreed, especially the old women.
If there were girls here, the old men began to reproach them for not memorizing old songs, but for singing some kind of “magpie tongue twisters.” Taking advantage of this, I tried to challenge them to competition, and the song flowed like a river, calmly, not forced, but pure, bright, performed from an excess of feelings. Having praised one of the songs, I asked him to repeat it in order to learn it myself. At the same time, my hand, holding a pencil, sketched the song on paper, and with subsequent repetitions the song was completely corrected.
On the phonograph I recorded as follows. When the singers gather, you will take a phonograph and place it in a visible place. The singers, seeing it, will become interested and begin to ask what kind of car it is. When you say that this machine listens to people and sings and speaks in human voices, then they begin to prove the impossibility of this. Then you invite them to sing a song, they readily agree, and the phonograph writes.
After each recording, I usually changed the diaphragm, the phonograph sang, the girls recognized each other’s voices, and often one of the singers said to her friend in surprise:
- Listen, Anyukha: Dunyashka is amazing!
After two or three hours, I already enjoyed special trust in this village, and then they sang whatever I wanted at my request. I gave silver rubles to all the singers, and to one old woman who sang six spiritual verses to me, I gave two gold rubles.
For this trip I recorded 145 melodies, of which 9 are spiritual verses, 8 are parables, 15 are wedding songs, 3 are songs of honor, 1 are ritual songs: Pomochan songs, 3 are Easter songs, 3 are Trinity songs, are 9 round dances, are 12 dance songs, comic - 2, voice - 60, recruit - 5, prisoner - 5, soldier - 10.
Protasov N.P.. How I recorded folk songs: Report on a trip to Transbaikalia /
News of the East Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society.
1903. T. 34. No. 2. P. 134-135.
Notes
1 Spiritual Poems- works folk poetry and music of a religious nature, performed in the home.
2 Pricheti- lamentations of the bride at the wedding about her “maiden will”, as well as crying over the deceased during the funeral. Next: songs Pomochanskie- performances performed by participants; Trinity- sounded during the celebration of the Holy Trinity; provocal- lingering; recruiting- intended for seeing off new recruits to the army, etc.
THINK AND ANSWER
Historical traditions and legends of Siberians
About the “royal envoy” on the Chuna River
Recorded by I.A. Chekaninsky in 1914 in the village of Vydrina (Savvina) of the Nizhneudinsky district of the Irkutsk province from an old-timer Nikolai Mikhailovich Smolin. The Smolins considered a certain Savva, a long-time immigrant from European Russia, to be their ancestor and the first Russian resident of Prichunye. When recording the legend, I. Chekaninsky sought to convey the features of the language of the “chunars”.
And it was almost two hundred years ago, or even two hundred years ago... In Chuna, there lived only a few Assans and a little Yasashna (Tungus), and the Russians were afraid of her; no one went to Chuna. And the rassar [king] will send an envoy from the city of Tumen*. Here is a messenger swimming (and he was sailing from Udinsk**), near his tray with windows, and an assistant was sailing with him. They swam, and they swam to the [river] rapids.
The royal messenger says: “I,” he says, “are afraid to swim, because it’s dangerous, but I’d rather go along the shore!” He walked along the shore, and he himself was in armor and shackled with iron, and his assistant was sitting and swimming. Just then the royal messenger went along the shore, a little (Chud, Tungus) evo and let’s treat him to tamara*** from the lukof, fsevo and killed. Well, they took the beast from their arrows.
And the assistant of the Tsar’s messenger looks through the window and says: “You remember our sara, for the Tsar’s messenger you will have it!” Let's treat him and him with tamara and kill him****.
Apostle this and let us crush ourselves: with which the labas will cut down, put earth there, cut the pillars, the labas will fall and crush it. So they translated themselves a lot. Nowadays there are very few miracles, they used to come out to us [from the taiga], but now they come out less [less]. After that, the vice [threshold] became known as Tyumenets, as if he were a messenger from the city of Tumen.
And Savva swam after Etov, but oh well he swam, he didn’t even touch him at all. He also sailed from Udinsk to look for good places. He swam to this place (to Savvina), and settled here, built a hut, but this anbarushka remains from him. (M[ikandra] M[ichalich] pointed with his hand at the old, but not collapsed "anbarushka".) Then look (in) circle around the Russian villagers.
* City of Tyumen, Tobolsk province.
** City of Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk province.
*** “Tamara” or “tamaruk” is the Tungus name for the arrow.
**** This legend is similar to numerous Siberian versions of the legend about the death of Ermak.
Chekaninsky I.A. Yenisei antiquities and historical songs:
Ethnographic materials and observations on the river. Chune. - M., 1915. - P. 86-88.
Notes from the compilers of the anthology
1 Assans and a little yasashna- the people of the Assan (now disappeared) and Evenki, related to the Kets, whom Smolin calls the yasak miracle, and Chekaninsky in his explanations - the Tungus.
2 Labas(storage) - an outbuilding on wooden pillars-piles.
About the discovery of the Baikal “sea”
The legend was recorded in 1926 by folklorist I.I. Veselov from N.D. Strekalovsky, a 78-year-old fisherman from the village of Bolshoye Goloustnoye, Olkhonsky district, Irkutsk region.
When the Russians went to war in Siberia, they had no idea about our sea. They made their way to Mongolia for gold and, in order to get a shorter route, they went straight. They walked and walked and came out to the sea. They were amazed and asked the Buryats:
- Where did the sea come from? What's your name?
But the Buryats in those days didn’t know how or what to say in Russian, and they didn’t have an “interpreter” for that. They wave at the sea and shout one thing:
- There was a gal. Was-gal.
This means he wants to say that there was a fire here, and after the fire everything fell through and became the sea. And the Russian again realized that this is what they call the sea, and let’s write it in the book: “Baikal.” So it remained [with this name].
Gurevich A.V., Eliasov L.E. Old folklore of the Baikal region.
Ulan-Ude, 1939. T. 1. P. 451.
Note
1 After the fire everything failed... The legends of the Buryats and Russians reflected the emergence of Lake Baikal as a result of a catastrophic fracture of the earth's crust.
THINK AND ANSWER
1. How deep historical memory Siberian peasants?
2. What methods of formation of geographical names (toponyms) are recorded in folk memory?
3. How do folk legends explain the reasons for the disappearance of the Chud people?
4. What peoples can hide behind this name?
5. Do you know of other, more scientifically correct explanations for the name of Lake Baikal?
From the folk dictionary of Western Siberia
Folk metrology
|
Tools of labor of peasants of the Narym region: |
Harness- the time that a horse can go out in a plow without feeding and harnessing.
Gon, moving- part of a strip of arable land of 10-20 fathoms, which is passed by a plow at once, without turning it (Tobolsk district).
Del- 1) a measure of a [fishing] net of 1 arshin in width, 1 fathom in length; 2-3 weeks form pillar(Tyumen district); 2) part of the network that falls on the share of each shareholder in the sewing net.
Corral- 1) part of the field between two large furrows; 2) A small longitudinal plot of land approximately 75-125 square meters. fathoms (5 x 15-25 fathoms). This is not a completely defined measure; it is used to determine the approximate size of areas sown with flax, hemp, and turnips.
Flood- time until the stove is heated.
Istoplyo- the amount of firewood sufficient to light the stove once.
Kad- a measure of bulk solids, equal to four poods [see. below] or half a quarter.
Deck- a set of salary fees (capitation taxes, private volost duties and land survey fees) paid by peasants. In addition to salary taxes, they, as you know, also pay volost, secular or rural taxes and others. In the Tobolsk province, the size of the deck varies, depending on the area, between 4 1/2 and 5 rubles per head per year.
Kopna- a pile of hay of 5-7 pounds; in the north of the Tobolsk province it is used as a measure of meadow: plots are allocated per capita from which approximately an equal number of copens can be obtained.
Hand mop in the Tobolsk north is equal to 3-4 poods, women's when women do the cleaning - 3-3 1/2 pounds.
Peasant tithe- a measure of land of 2700 square meters. fathoms, less often 3200 square meters. fathoms or 2500 sq. fathoms, in contrast to the government tithe of 2400 square meters. fathoms.
Peasant fathom- hand-made fathom, as opposed to printed. There are two types of peasant fathom: 1) it is equal to the distance between the ends of two horizontally outstretched arms; 2) the distance from the top surface of the foot to the end of the fingers of an outstretched hand.
Nazhin- the number of sheaves that can be pressed from a certain measure of land.
Barn- 1) a bread dryer, in which a pit plays the role of an oven; in the latter they burn wood. With a two-row cage, the barn includes about 200 sheaves of spring and
180-190 sheaves of winter bread, with single row - about 150 sheaves; 2) a measure of grain bread in sheaves; a winter barn of 150-200 sheaves and a spring barn of 200-300 sheaves.
Plyoso- the visible space of a river between its two bends, which obscure its further flow from view. Pleso serves as a measure of length in the Tobolsk district. For example, if they are traveling along a river and do not know the number of miles left to travel, they often say that there are two reaches left to travel, three reaches, etc.
Pudovka- a measure for bread (usually wooden, less often iron), containing about 1 pood. Previously, grain bread was measured mainly with this pood; Now they are switching to a more accurate weight pud. That is why they distinguish - bulk pood(pudovka) and a hell of a lot, or weight.
Sieve- a measure of vegetable seedlings of 50-60 plants.
Sheaf- 1) a bunch of grain bread; a sheaf of hemp consists of four handfuls; 2) a measure of arable land in the northern part of the Tobolsk district; for example, they say: “We have land worth 300 sheaves.”
Stack- a measure of hay in the Tobolsk district is approximately 20 kopecks; for example, they say: “We mow 20 haystacks.”
Pillar- in addition to the usual meaning, it also means: a measure of the length of the canvas, equal to 2 arshins. Five pillars make up wall canvas.
Folk theology
Andili-arhandili(angels and archangels) - good spirits sent from God. One spiritual passage says about them:
God- 1) a supreme being, mostly invisible; 2) any icon, no matter who it depicts.
Sky- a solid stone vault above our heads. God and the Pleasant live in heaven. The sky sometimes opens or opens up for an instant, and at that moment people see a reddish light.
Rainbow- ends up drinking water from rivers and lakes and raising it to the sky for rain. Swimming when a rainbow appears is considered dangerous: it will drag you into the sky.
Last Judgment- it will be in Jerusalem, the navel (center) of the earth, all the nations of the earth will gather there, both living and long dead. “At the Last Judgment, Father True Christ orders that all sinners be covered with turf, so that neither a voice nor the gnashing of teeth can be heard.”
Cloud- the origin of thunder is attributed to Elijah the prophet. At every clap of thunder, it is customary to cross yourself and say: “Holy, holy, holy! Send, Lord, the quiet dew.” It is also believed that from time to time stone arrows fall from clouds to the ground, splitting trees. This action of the arrow is explained by the pursuit of the devil, who hides from it behind various objects.
Kingdom of heaven- eternal life after death, which is awarded to... those who, during earthly life, were diligent in visiting the temple of God, read or listened to the word of God, observed fasts, and honored father, mother, old men and women. In addition to a righteous life, the Kingdom of Heaven is awarded to the one who, at the time “the sky opens,” manages to say: “Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom.”
Naming and assessing human qualities
Wetness- a general term for three qualities: friendliness, courtesy and talkativeness. Vetlyanui the person is lively, talkative, and friendly.
Vyzhiga- a lost man, who has squandered everything and become capable of all sorts of dirty tricks. Expletive.
Gomoyun- a man who is diligent about housework and family. “Uncle Ivan keeps busy and tries, [see] how nicely he has set up his farm!”
Gorlopan(or loudmouth) - a loud, noisy person who tries to gain the upper hand in an argument by shouting. A contemptuous term.
Doshly- quick-witted, inventive, resourceful, intelligent (who can “get to everything”). “Our long-serving sexton is a jack-of-all-trades, lo and behold, he’ll rise to the rank of bishop!”
Durnichka- stupidity, savagery, ignorance, lack of education, bad manners, habits. “He looks good, [yes] with a fool in his head: suddenly, for no reason, no reason, he barks [curses].”
Serviceable- prosperous.
Self-interest- 1) benefit, profit, benefit; 2) thirst for profit, greed for money. “His self-interest has eaten up: everything is not enough for him, even if you sprinkle it with gold!”
Mighty(And can) - 1) powerful, hefty, strong, mighty (physically). “[Here’s a man like a man: wide with meat and bone, but God didn’t hurt him with his strength... Look for such capable men now"; 2) economically strong, serviceable, independent. “This powerful owner doesn’t care about taxes [i.e. easy to pay].”
Daily life- neatness, economic improvement. “She has golden hands: look at the way she lives in her hut!”
Everyday life- a diligent, clean housewife.
Exchange- an abusive epithet addressed to children, especially infants. Means: substituted (by the devil) child. It is based on the following belief, which is no longer accepted by many: the devil kidnaps children from some mothers who show good inclinations, and in return he palms them off with his own damn children.
Holy shit- dirty, unclean.
Ocheslivy- polite, knowledgeable and follows the rules of treating people well.
Posumimanny- obedient, submissive. “They have a nice guy: so quiet and submissive.”
Prosecutor's office- a person who makes you laugh wittily, cheerful, joker, quick-tongued. “Well, this Vaska is the procurator,” they laughed all dinner long because of him, “they just tore the bolognese [i.e. my stomach hurts].”
Uglan- a shy person; literally - hiding in a corner from strangers. Ironic term.
Luck- luck; lucky girls- dexterous and lucky. These words were probably brought to Siberia by exiles.
Firth- literally: a person standing in the form of a letter fert. In general, it means: what is important is a pompous, pretentious person (both internally and externally: by posture, speech, look). “The new clerk came out to the girls on the street and became a jerk. Feet and nuts, the sleigh is bent... Know, they say, that we are urban!”
Frya(does not bow) - a person who thinks too much about herself, is arrogant, touchy, turns up her nose. A contemptuous epithet applied to men and women. They also say “Frya Ivanovna”.
Sharomyzhnik- a slacker with vicious tendencies. A contemptuous term.
Patkanov S.K., Zobnin F.K. List of Tobolsk words and expressions,
recorded in Tobolsk, Tyumen, Kurgan and Surgut districts //
Living antiquity. 1899. Issue. 4.
pp. 487-515;
Molotilov A. The dialect of the Russian old-timers
Northern Baraba (Kainsky district, Tomsk province):
Materials for Siberian dialectology //
Proceedings of the Tomsk Society for the Study of Siberia.
Tomsk, 1912. T. 2. Issue. 1. pp. 128-215.
Notes
1 Standard fathom was approximately 2.1 m.
2 One arshin corresponded to approximately 0.7 m.
3 Bishop(correctly - bishop) - the highest Orthodox clergyman (bishop, archbishop, metropolitan).
THINK AND ANSWER
1. How does folk metrology differ from scientific metrology? What are the reasons for the appearance of the first and its existence in traditional society?
2. Determine the features of the worldview of Siberian peasants. What features of Christian and pagan consciousness were present in it?
3. What human qualities did the Siberian peasants value? What personality traits were perceived by them as negative? Why?
Let's smile together
So much for “conversation”!
Do you know what was called “Siberian conversation” in Russia? The habit of Siberians is to crack pine nuts for hours in complete silence when they come to visit or gather for a gathering in the evening.
Siberian joke
In the fall, gold miners leave the gold mines. Many have a lot of money. By the time they get home, they are greeted everywhere like dear guests, treated to food, drunk, and robbed in every possible way. And they even hunt them like wild animals.
And such a prospector, still a young guy, stopped for the night in one village. The owners - an old man and an old woman - greeted him like family: they fed him, gave him something to drink and put him to bed. In the morning the prospector went out to smoke yes fresh air breathe. He looks - the old owner is sitting on the porch and sharpening a large knife.
- Who are you, grandpa, sharpening such a knife for? - the guy asked him.
- I'm pointing at you, my dear. At you. I'll direct him properly and kill him.
Then the guy sees that things are bad for him. The yard is large, the dam is high and dense, the gates are firmly locked. House on the outskirts. Start screaming and you won't get through to anyone.
Meanwhile, the old man sharpened a knife - and on the guy. And that one, of course, is from him. From the porch to the yard. The old man is behind him. The guy is from him. The old man is behind him. An old woman watches from the porch as an old man chases a guy across the yard. We made one circle. Second. On the fourth lap, the old man collapsed in complete exhaustion.
The old woman sees this and begins to scold the guy. And he is like this, and like this:
- They accepted you like family! They gave you something to drink, feed you and put you to bed. Instead of gratitude, what are you doing? You son of a bitch! Look what you brought the old man to...
Rostovtsev I. At the end of the world: Notes of an eyewitness. M., 1985. S. 426-427.
Publisher:
Publishing House "First of September"
Description of the presentation by individual slides:
1 slide
Slide description:
Presentation on the topic: “Culture and traditions of the peoples of Siberia” Author of the work: Zabelnikova L.V., class teacher of the Bolokhov Education Center No. 1 Contact phone: 8-903-421-81-01 2015-2016 academic year
2 slide
Slide description:
Nothing holds a people together like traditions. It is on them that cultural conformity rests. The richer the traditions, the spiritually richer the people and the higher their national pride and human dignity. G.N.Volkov
3 slide
Slide description:
Relevance of the research topic. Modern world increasingly exposed to globalization processes. This means that the features and originality of national cultures are being erased. Many unique national cultures are on the verge of extinction. The problems of preserving these crops are relevant today.
4 slide
Slide description:
Purpose of the study. Study the traditional culture and life of the Buryats. Research objectives: 1. To trace the history of the peoples of Russia. 2. Introduce children to the system of cultural values of the Buryat people: to national culture and art. 3. To cultivate respect, understanding, and tolerance for people of other nations and nationalities living in Russia. 4. To instill in the younger generation a sense of internationalism and tolerance. 5. Conduct a survey among students.
5 slide
Slide description:
The Buryats are the largest indigenous people in Siberia, numbering almost half a million. They live in the very south of Siberia - in Buryatia, Irkutsk and Chita regions. Archaeological research has established that the earliest traces of human presence on the territory of the Baikal region and Transbaikalia date back to the end of the Ice Age - to the late period of the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic), i.e. by the time the culture of people began to develop, their physical structure no longer differed much from modern ones.
6 slide
Slide description:
The main social and economic unit of the community was a large patriarchal family, representing a single economic and social collective. The father was always considered the head of the family. For all family members, his will and desire were law. Even his older sons did not dare to object to him. The main commandment of moral education was to instill in children respectful obedience to their elders. The mother in the family enjoyed great respect and honor from the children. Disobedience and disrespect towards her were considered completely unacceptable.
7 slide
Slide description:
Traditional housing Buryat is a yurt. The round yurt is an original, historically established example of a dwelling, ideally suited for a nomadic lifestyle. One of the important features of a yurt is the rational and expedient organization of its internal space. An important part of the yurt is the door, and especially the threshold. The door separates the yurt from the surrounding undeveloped, “wild” space; the door is the border between the external and internal, mastered and unmastered worlds. Crossing this border, both in one direction and the other, was associated with the observance of a number of rules that became part of folk etiquette.
8 slide
Slide description:
When entering a Buryat yurt, you must not step on its threshold; this is considered impolite. In the old days, a guest who deliberately stepped on the threshold was considered an enemy announcing his evil intentions to the owner. You cannot enter the yurt with any burden. It is believed that the person who did this has the bad inclinations of a thief, a robber.
Slide 9
Slide description:
Buryat National Costume- This is part of the centuries-old culture of the Buryat people. It reflects its culture, aesthetics, pride and spirit. National clothing consists of degel - a kind of caftan made of dressed sheepskin, which has a triangular cutout on the top of the chest, trimmed, as well as the sleeves, tightly clasping the hand, with fur, sometimes very valuable.
10 slide
Slide description:
Footwear Footwear - in winter, high boots made from the skin of foals' feet, or boots with a pointed toe. In summer they wore shoes knitted from horsehair with leather soles. Headdresses Men and women wore round hats with small brims and a red tassel (zalaa) at the top. All the details and the color of the headdress have their own symbolism, their own meaning. The pointed top of the hat symbolizes prosperity and well-being.
11 slide
Slide description:
Every year in our country the traditional national holiday of the Buryats is held - Sagaalgan - the arrival of the White Moon. In national everyday life, preparation for the New Year begins long before its onset - with preparation national dishes, putting order and cleanliness in the house, purchasing updates and numerous gifts for all relatives and friends.
12 slide
Slide description:
Surkharban - a holiday - a rite of honoring the Earth - took place in the summer and was considered the second most important holiday of the year among the Buryats. It included archery, Buryat wrestling and horse racing.
Slide 13
Slide description:
One of the most interesting layers of the culture of Buryatia is the culture of its indigenous people - the Buryats. A huge layer of culture belongs to Buddhism and the Buddhist tradition brought to Buryatia from Tibet and Mongolia. The culture of Russians in Buryatia has retained its traditional features thanks, first of all, to one of the most prominent groups of representatives of the Russian population - the Semeis (Old Believers). The language of the Buryat people, having undergone influences from other languages, nevertheless, did not lose its structure. Nowadays it is the second state language of the republic. The culture of the Buryat people is gradually becoming known in Russia and in other countries.
Slide 14
Slide description:
The musical folklore, songs, dances, and throat singing are also very interesting. The famous Buryat circular dance Yohor is danced with pleasure by people different nationalities, because it contains universal human motives of friendship, love, unity and general fun. Yokhor is an ancient Buryat circular dance with chants. Each Yohor tribe had its own specifics. The rest of the Mongolian peoples do not have such a dance.
15 slide
Slide description:
Religion plays an important role in the life of the peoples of Russia. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism are especially widespread in our country.
16 slide
Slide description:
Nomadic farming also determined the nature of food. Meat and various dairy products were the basis of the Buryat diet. It should be emphasized that meat and especially dairy foods had ancient origin and were very diverse. Meat food occupied an extremely important place in the diet of the Buryats. Horse meat was considered the most satisfying and best-tasting meat, followed by lamb.
Slide 17
Slide description:
The Buryats had a reverence for iron and objects made from it; it was believed that if an ax or knife was placed near a sick or sleeping person, they would be the best amulet against evil forces. Among the crafts, blacksmithing should be noted first of all. The blacksmith's profession was hereditary. Blacksmiths made hunting tools, military equipment (arrowheads, knives, spears, axes, helmets, armor), household items and tools, in particular, cooking pots, knives, axes, etc. In addition to blacksmiths and jewelers, there were also coopers, saddlers, turners, shoemakers, and saddlers.
18 slide
For many centuries, the peoples of Siberia lived in small settlements. Each individual settlement had its own clan. The inhabitants of Siberia were friends with each other, ran a joint household, were often relatives to each other and led an active lifestyle. But due to the vast territory of the Siberian region, these villages were far from each other. So, for example, the inhabitants of one village already led their own way of life and spoke a language incomprehensible to their neighbors. Over time, some settlements disappeared, while others became larger and actively developed.
History of population in Siberia.
The Samoyed tribes are considered to be the first indigenous inhabitants of Siberia. They inhabited the northern part. Their main occupations include reindeer herding and fishing. To the south lived the Mansi tribes, who lived by hunting. Their main trade was the extraction of furs, with which they paid for their future wives and bought goods necessary for life.
The upper reaches of the Ob were inhabited by Turkic tribes. Their main occupation was nomadic cattle breeding and blacksmithing. To the west of Baikal lived the Buryats, who became famous for their iron-making craft.
The largest territory from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk was inhabited by Tungus tribes. Among them were many hunters, fishermen, reindeer herders, some were engaged in crafts.
Along the shore of the Chukchi Sea, the Eskimos (about 4 thousand people) settled down. Compared to other peoples of the time, the Eskimos had the slowest social development. The tool was made of stone or wood. The main economic activities include gathering and hunting.
The main way of survival of the first settlers of the Siberian region was hunting, reindeer herding and extraction of furs, which was the currency of that time.
By the end of the 17th century, the most developed peoples of Siberia were the Buryats and Yakuts. The Tatars were the only people who, before the arrival of the Russians, managed to organize state power.
The largest peoples before Russian colonization include the following peoples: Itelmens (indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka), Yukagirs (inhabited the main territory of the tundra), Nivkhs (inhabitants of Sakhalin), Tuvinians (indigenous population of the Republic of Tuva), Siberian Tatars (located in the territory of Southern Siberia from Ural to Yenisei) and Selkups (residents of Western Siberia).
Indigenous peoples of Siberia in the modern world.
According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, every people of Russia received the right to national self-determination and identification. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has officially turned into a multinational state and the preservation of the culture of small and endangered nationalities has become one of the state priorities. The Siberian indigenous peoples were not left out here either: some of them received the right to self-government in autonomous okrugs, while others formed their own republics within new Russia. Very small and endangered nationalities enjoy full support from the state, and the efforts of many people are aimed at preserving their culture and traditions.
In this review we will give brief description to every Siberian people whose number is more than or approaching 7 thousand people. Smaller peoples are difficult to characterize, so we will limit ourselves to their name and number. So, let's begin.
- Yakuts- the most numerous of the Siberian peoples. According to the latest data, the number of Yakuts is 478,100 people. IN modern Russia The Yakuts are one of the few nationalities that have their own republic, and its area is comparable to the area of the average European state. The Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) is geographically located in the Far Eastern Federal District, but the Yakut ethnic group has always been considered an indigenous Siberian people. The Yakuts have an interesting culture and traditions. This is one of the few peoples of Siberia that has its own epic.
- Buryats- this is another Siberian people with their own republic. The capital of Buryatia is the city of Ulan-Ude, located east of Lake Baikal. The number of Buryats is 461,389 people. Buryat cuisine is widely known in Siberia and is rightfully considered one of the best among ethnic cuisines. The history of this people, its legends and traditions is quite interesting. By the way, the Republic of Buryatia is one of the main centers of Buddhism in Russia.
- Tuvans. According to the latest census, 263,934 identified themselves as representatives of the Tuvan people. The Republic of Tyva is one of the four ethnic republics of the Siberian Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kyzyl with a population of 110 thousand people. The total population of the republic is approaching 300 thousand. Buddhism also flourishes here, and the Tuvan traditions also speak of shamanism.
- Khakassians- one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia numbering 72,959 people. Today they have their own republic within the Siberian Federal District and with its capital in the city of Abakan. This ancient people has long lived on the lands west of the Great Lake (Baikal). It was never numerous, but that did not prevent it from carrying its identity, culture and traditions through the centuries.
- Altaians. Their place of residence is quite compact - the Altai mountain system. Today Altaians live in two regions Russian Federation- The Altai Republic and the Altai Territory. The number of the Altai ethnic group is about 71 thousand people, which allows us to speak of them as a fairly large people. Religion - shamanism and Buddhism. The Altaians have their own epic and a clearly defined national identity, which does not allow them to be confused with other Siberian peoples. This mountain people has a centuries-old history and interesting legends.
- Nenets- one of the small Siberian peoples living compactly in the area of the Kola Peninsula. Its population of 44,640 people allows it to be classified as a small nation whose traditions and culture are protected by the state. The Nenets are nomadic reindeer herders. They belong to the so-called Samoyed people's group. Over the years of the 20th century, the number of Nenets approximately doubled, which indicates the effectiveness of public policy in the field of conservation of small peoples of the North. The Nenets have their own language and oral epic.
- Evenks- people predominantly living on the territory of the Republic of Sakha. The number of this people in Russia is 38,396 people, some of whom live in the regions adjacent to Yakutia. It is worth saying that this is approximately half of the total number of the ethnic group - approximately the same number of Evenks live in China and Mongolia. The Evenks are a people of the Manchu group who do not have their own language and epic. Tungusic is considered the native language of the Evenks. Evenks are born hunters and trackers.
- Khanty- the indigenous people of Siberia, belonging to the Ugric group. Most of the Khanty live on the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, located in the Ural Federal District of Russia. The total number of Khanty is 30,943 people. About 35% of the Khanty live in the Siberian Federal District, with the lion's share of them in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The traditional occupations of the Khanty are fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. The religion of their ancestors is shamanism, but recently more and more Khanty people consider themselves Orthodox Christians.
- Evens- people related to the Evenks. According to one version, they represent an Evenki group that was cut off from the main halo of residence by the Yakuts moving south. A long time away from the main ethnic group made the Evens a separate people. Today their number is 21,830 people. Language - Tungusic. Places of residence: Kamchatka, Magadan region, Republic of Sakha.
- Chukchi- nomadic Siberian people who are mainly engaged in reindeer herding and live on the territory of the Chukotka Peninsula. Their number is about 16 thousand people. Chukchi belong to Mongoloid race and according to many anthropologists they are the indigenous aborigines of the Far North. The main religion is animism. Indigenous industries are hunting and reindeer herding.
- Shors- a Turkic-speaking people living in the southeastern part of Western Siberia, mainly in the south of the Kemerovo region (in Tashtagol, Novokuznetsk, Mezhdurechensky, Myskovsky, Osinnikovsky and other regions). Their number is about 13 thousand people. The main religion is shamanism. The Shor epic is of scientific interest primarily for its originality and antiquity. The history of the people dates back to the 6th century. Today, the traditions of the Shors have been preserved only in Sheregesh, since most of the ethnic group moved to the cities and were largely assimilated.
- Muncie. This people has been known to Russians since the beginning of the founding of Siberia. Ivan the Terrible also sent an army against the Mansi, which suggests that they were quite numerous and strong. The self-name of this people is Voguls. They have their own language, a fairly developed epic. Today, their place of residence is the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. According to the latest census, 12,269 people identified themselves as belonging to the Mansi ethnic group.
- Nanai people- a small people living along the banks of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. Belonging to the Baikal ethnotype, the Nanais are rightfully considered one of the most ancient indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East. Today the number of Nanais in Russia is 12,160 people. The Nanais have their own language, rooted in Tungusic. Writing exists only among the Russian Nanais and is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
- Koryaks- indigenous people of the Kamchatka Territory. There are coastal and tundra Koryaks. The Koryaks are mainly reindeer herders and fishermen. The religion of this ethnic group is shamanism. Number of people: 8,743 people.
- Dolgans- people living in the Dolgan-Nenets municipal area Krasnoyarsk Territory. Number of employees: 7,885 people.
- Siberian Tatars- perhaps the most famous, but today not numerous Siberian people. According to the latest census, 6,779 people self-identified as Siberian Tatars. However, scientists say that in fact their number is much larger - according to some estimates, up to 100,000 people.
- Soyots- an indigenous people of Siberia, a descendant of the Sayan Samoyeds. Lives compactly on the territory of modern Buryatia. The number of Soyots is 5,579 people.
- Nivkhi- indigenous people of Sakhalin Island. Now they live on the continental part at the mouth of the Amur River. As of 2010, the number of Nivkhs is 5,162 people.
- Selkups live in the northern parts of the Tyumen and Tomsk regions and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The number of this ethnic group is about 4 thousand people.
- Itelmens- This is another indigenous people of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Today, almost all representatives of the ethnic group live in the west of Kamchatka and in Magadan Region. The number of Itelmens is 3,180 people.
- Teleuts- Turkic-speaking small Siberian people living in the south of the Kemerovo Region. The ethnos is very closely related to the Altaians. Its population is approaching 2 and a half thousand.
- Among other small peoples of Siberia, such ethnic groups are often distinguished as “Kets”, “Chuvans”, “Nganasans”, “Tofalgars”, “Orochs”, “Negidals”, “Aleuts”, “Chulyms”, “Oroks”, “Tazis”, “Enets”, “Alutors” and “Kereks”. It is worth saying that the number of each of them is less than 1 thousand people, so their culture and traditions have practically not been preserved.
You like?
yes | No
If you find a typo, error or inaccuracy, please let us know - select it and press Ctrl + Enter
This is a historical and geographical area within the Asian part of Russia, which was inhabited in the Stone Age. Siberia first mentioned in " Secret story Mongols", which talks about the "forest peoples", including the Shibir or Sibir people. Since the 16th century, Russian explorers have been flocking to Siberia, rapidly exploring the harsh unexplored lands. The beginning of a systematic scientific study Siberia was founded in 1696 by a decree of Peter I, who ordered the son of Tobolsk boyar Semyon Remezov to compile a geographical atlas of Siberia.
In natural terms, and stands out. Eastern Siberia occupies the territory from the Yenisei to the ridges of the Pacific watershed. The climate of Siberia is mostly harsh, sharply continental. Temperatures in January can drop to -30°, -40°C.
Historically, the ethnic population of Siberia is mixed; the indigenous people call themselves Siberians. Life among the harsh nature has left its mark on the Siberians, “What frightens others in Siberia is not only familiar to us (native Siberians), but also necessary; we breathe easier if there is frost in winter, not drops; we feel peace, not fear in the untouched, wild; immeasurable expanses and mighty rivers have shaped our free, restive soul" - V. Rasputin. Distinctive feature Siberians are peaceful, honest, goodwill and hospitality. According to the law of the taiga, they are always ready to help; most Siberians, especially hunters and fishermen, in comparison with their European compatriots, have greater endurance and resistance to disease. The Siberians also distinguished themselves in the historical battle near Moscow in the Great Patriotic War, showing examples of courage and heroism on the battlefields. Paul Carell in “The History of the German Defeat in the East” considers one of the reasons for the defeat of the Germans near Moscow to be the entry of Siberian divisions into the battle.
Siberian cuisine
For a long time, local Siberians fed on the gifts of the taiga and lake. The prepared dishes did not differ in variety, but were nutritious and practical. Hunters and fishermen know many exotic recipes for cooking over a fire, using hot stones and coals. Siberians smoked, dried and salted the meat and fish they caught, and made supplies for the winter from berries and mushrooms. The combination of fish, game and taiga seasonings distinguish the Siberian table from European cuisine. These differences are more pronounced when eating in Siberia on the shore of a lake, but some dishes can also be tried in a restaurant.
The local highlight of Lake Baikal is the lightly salted Baikal omul, the fame of its delicate taste is known far beyond the borders of Siberia. Exist different ways salting Baikal omul in gutted and ungutted form, depending on the cooking recipe and the time that has passed since the day of salting, the taste of the fish changes greatly. Freshly salted Baikal omul is so tender that even those who usually avoid fish eat several tails of it at a time. Among gourmets it is valued as an ideal snack for chilled vodka. Many tourists try to take away Baikal omul as gifts for family and friends.
Siberian dumplings and Siberian-style meat are also widely known. In the old days, hunters Siberia When going to the taiga in winter, they took with them frozen dumplings in canvas bags, which they just had to throw into boiling water, and after they surfaced, a dish with large and fragrant dumplings was ready. In most restaurants you can order dumplings prepared according to a more complex recipe: in bone broth with liver, in pots covered with freshly baked flatbread. Fried dumplings are also very tasty.
A special feature of cooking meat in the Siberian and taiga style are taiga seasonings made from fern and wild garlic, which are rolled into the meat. The meat is served with oven-baked potatoes and frozen berries, usually lingonberries or cranberries. Hunters in Siberia, according to one of the recipes, cut wild meat into thin long pieces, sprinkle it with salt, mix it in a pot and string it on wooden splinters or branches. Sticks of meat are stuck around the coals of the fire and dried in the smoke. Meat prepared in this way can be stored for a long time in the summer. While moving, it is good to gnaw on slices of meat to maintain strength and restore the lack of salts in the body.
The home cooking of Siberians is very different from restaurant menus. As a rule, a lot of pickles are prepared at home for the winter. If you visit Siberians, the table will definitely have tomatoes in their own juice, cucumbers, cabbage, salted milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps, pickled boletus, homemade zucchini caviar, taiga berry jam. Sauerkraut is sometimes prepared together with lingonberries or cranberries. Less commonly you can find a salad made from fern and wild garlic.
And, of course, a table is unthinkable without homemade pies. They can be of the most intricate shapes and with various fillings: with lingonberries, fish, wild garlic, rice, mushrooms and eggs.
Traditionally, lingonberry drink or fruit drink is placed on the table. Add frozen sea buckthorn or lingonberries to tea.
Buryat food, as a rule, is easy to prepare and nutritious; meat and dairy dishes predominate. Popular in, especially widespread in, Buryat poses. To prepare them, minced minced meat is made from pork, lamb, and beef. The minced meat is rolled into the dough so that there is a hole at the top for steam. The poses are quickly prepared by steaming boiling fat in a covered pan. Rarely, you can still find in villages tarasun - an alcoholic tonic drink made from milk, which has a specific smell, and salamat - milk product, prepared from high-quality sour cream on fire with the addition of salt, flour and cold water.
Authentic Baikal fish soup with smoke, grilled fish, and fresh wild garlic salad can only be truly appreciated by a taiga fire during a trip to Lake Baikal. An exotic Baikal-style dinner includes a weak firelight, several old newspapers on which a simple table is set, a blackened pot with boiled potatoes, a bunch of wild garlic and lots and lots of lightly salted omul.
And such exotic things as stroganina (raw frozen roe deer meat) or raskolok (raw frozen Baikal fish), which are eaten raw with spices, can only be tasted in winter on the lake Baikal while hunting or fishing. You should avoid trying bear meat, even heat-treated, unless it has been veterinary examined.
The local population values salted omul most of all. In the summer, they prefer omul on rods.
Siberian bath
From the Tale of Bygone Years, 12th century - “I saw an amazing thing in the Slavic land on my way here. I saw wooden bathhouses, and they would burn them red hot, and they would undress, and they would be naked, and they would douse themselves with leather kvass, and they would lift up young rods on themselves, and They beat themselves, and they finish themselves off so much that they barely come out alive, and they douse themselves with cold water, and that’s the only way they will come to life. And they do this every day, not tormented by anyone, but they torture themselves, and then they perform ablution for themselves, and not torment ".
The Baikal bathhouse on the shore of Lake Baikal is a must-have exotic attribute for those who come to Lake Baikal. Many are tempted by the opportunity to plunge into the clear, icy water of Lake Baikal, running straight out of the steam room. Where else in the world do baths have such a huge natural pool! Particularly strong impressions remain from swimming after a steam room on Lake Baikal in an ice hole in winter. Most of the existing bathhouses on the coast of Lake Baikal are heated in white, but in the old days many of them were heated in black, i.e. the smoke remained inside the bathhouse, saturating the air with heat and smell.
If you go to a bathhouse with Siberians, get ready for intense heat, a steam room with a birch broom and mandatory periodic swimming in the icy water of Lake Baikal or in the snow.
Siberian customs
The customs and traditions of Siberians go back to cultural heritage ancient peoples who in the past inhabited the territory of modern Lake Baikal. Some of the customs are, in fact, echoes of ancient shamanic and Buddhist rituals, the religious content and purpose of which were lost over time, but some ritual actions are observed and still exist among the local population.
Many beliefs and prohibitions have common roots of Central Asian origin, and therefore are the same among the Mongols and Buryats. These include the developed cult of obo, the cult of mountains, and the worship of the Eternal Blue Sky (Huhe Munhe Tengri). Heaven, according to the Mongols, sees all the actions and thoughts of a person who can never hide from heavenly justice: that is why the Mongols, feeling right, exclaimed: “Heaven, you be the judge.” You must stop near the obo and respectfully present gifts to the spirits. If you don’t stop at the obo and don’t make a sacrifice, there will be no luck. According to Buryat belief, every mountain and valley has its own spirit. A person without spirits is nothing. It is necessary to appease the spirits that are everywhere so that they do not harm and provide assistance. The Buryats have a custom of “sprinkling” the spirits of the area. As a rule, before drinking alcohol, drop a little drop of alcohol onto the table from a glass or with one finger, usually the ring finger, lightly touch the alcohol and splash upwards. Accept that you will have to stop and “splash” alcohol in the most unexpected places during your trip.
Among the main traditions is the sacred veneration of nature; one must not harm nature, catch or kill young birds, cut down young trees near springs, or unnecessarily tear up plants and flowers. You cannot throw garbage or spit into the sacred waters of the lake. Baikal, leave behind traces of presence, for example, overturned turf, garbage, fire. Near the Arshan water source you cannot wash dirty clothes, you cannot break them, dig them up, touch the serge - hitching post, or light a fire nearby. One should not desecrate a sacred place with bad actions, thoughts or words, one should not shout loudly or get very drunk.
Particular respect must be shown to elders; one must not offend the elderly. Offending elders is the same sin as depriving a living creature of life.
The ancient customs of the Siberians have preserved their respectful attitude towards the fire of their hearth. Fire is credited with a magical cleansing effect; cleansing by fire was considered a necessary ritual so that guests would not create or bring any evil. There is a known case from the history of Siberia when the Mongols mercilessly executed Russian ambassadors simply for refusing to pass between two fires in front of the khan’s headquarters; purification by fire is still widely used today in Siberian shamanic practices. You must not thrust a knife into the fire, or touch the fire in any way with a knife or sharp object, or remove meat from the cauldron with a knife. It is considered a great sin to splash milk into the fire of the hearth; you cannot throw garbage or rags into the fire of the hearth. It is forbidden to give fire from the hearth to another house or yurt.
There are certain rules when visiting Buryat yurts. When entering, you cannot step on the threshold of the yurt - this is considered impolite; in the old days, a guest who deliberately stepped on the threshold was considered an enemy, announcing his evil intentions to the owner. Weapons and luggage, as a sign of your good intentions, must be left outside; you cannot enter the yurt with any burden; it is believed that the person who did this has the bad inclinations of a thief, a robber. The northern half of the yurt is more honorable; guests are received here; you cannot sit down without permission, without an invitation, on the northern, honorable side. The eastern half of the yurt (usually to the right of the door, the entrance of the yurt is always facing south) is female, the western half (usually to the left of the door) is male, this division continues to this day.
The local population is hospitable and always treats its guests when they come to the house, it is customary to take off their shoes at the doorstep. Usually a table is set for guests with hot dishes, a variety of pickles and snacks, and vodka will be present on the table. During a feast, guests do not have the right to change their places, you cannot leave without trying the hosts' treats. When bringing tea to the guest, the hostess gives the bowl with both hands as a sign of respect, the guest must also accept it with both hands - by this he shows respect for the house. In Mongolia, there is a custom of using the right hand; during the greeting ceremony, the bowl is passed only with the right hand. And naturally, you need to accept any offering with your right hand or both hands.
To emphasize special respect, as a sign of greeting, the guest is presented with two hands folded with palms, as in a Buddhist bow; shaking hands in this case is also done with both hands simultaneously.
When visiting Buddhist datsans, you need to move clockwise inside the temple and before visiting, walk around the temple area in the direction of the sun, rotating all the prayer wheels. You cannot go into the center of the temple during services and take photographs without permission. Inside the temple, you should avoid moving and fussy activities, talk loudly, and you should not enter the temple in shorts.
At tailagans, or shamanic rituals, one should not try to touch shamanic clothing, a tambourine, and especially not to put on any of the shamanic attributes on oneself in order to take a photo. Even a shaman will rarely put on something belonging to someone else’s shaman, and if he does so, it is only after an appropriate cleansing ritual. There is a belief that certain objects, especially those associated with magic, carry a certain amount of power. Strictly prohibited to the common man For fun, saying shamanic prayers out loud is called durdalga.
And Ulan-Ude organizes various tours around Siberia and Lake Baikal.
1 of 13
Presentation on the topic: Peoples of Siberia: culture, traditions, customs
Slide no. 1
Slide description:
Slide no. 2
Slide description:
Marriage customs KALYM - the price for the bride, one of the types of compensation for the wife. Among the forest Yukaghirs and the Chukchi and other peoples of the extreme Northeast, initially there were no-kalom marriages. The size of the dowry and the procedure for its payment were determined during negotiations during matchmaking. Most often, bride price was paid in the form of deer, copper or iron cauldrons, fabrics, and animal skins. With the development of commodity-money relations, part of the dowry could be paid in money. The size of the bride price depended on the property status of the families of the bride and groom.
Slide no. 3
Slide description:
Marriage customs Levirate is a marriage custom in which a widow was obliged or had the right to marry the brother of her deceased husband. It was common among most peoples of the North. The right to the wife of a deceased older brother belonged to the younger brother, and not vice versa. Sororate is a marriage custom according to which a widower is obliged to marry the younger sister or niece of his deceased wife.
Slide no. 4
Slide description:
Dwellings Dwellings of peoples are classified based on different criteria: according to the materials of manufacture - wooden (from logs, boards, hewn posts, poles, chopped blocks, branches), bark (birch bark and from the bark of other trees - spruce, fir, larch), felt, from bones of sea animals, earthen, adobe, with wicker walls, and also covered with deer skins; in relation to the ground level - above-ground, underground (semi-dugouts and dugouts) and piles; according to the layout - quadrangular, round and polygonal; in shape - conical, gable, single-pitched, spherical, hemispherical, pyramidal and truncated pyramidal; by design - frame (made of vertical or inclined pillars, covered with skins, bark, felt).
Slide no. 5
Slide description:
Slide no. 6
Slide description:
How the Evens kept track of time in the past. August - September MONTELSE (autumn) October - November BOLANI ( late fall) December - January TUGENI (winter) February - March NELKYSNEN (early spring) April - May NELKY (spring) June - NEGNI ( early summer) July - DUGANI (summer) BEGINNING OF THE YEAR September - oichiri unmy (literally: rising back of the hand). October - oychiri bilen (literally: rising wrist). November - oychiri echen (literally: rising elbow). December - oychiri mir (literally: rising shoulder). January - Tugeni Hee - the crown of winter (literally; the crown of the head).
Slide no. 7
Slide description:
How in the past the Evens kept track of time. THEN THE COUNTING OF THE MONTHS WENT TO THE LEFT HAND AND WALKED ALONG IT IN DESCENDING ORDER: February - evri mir (literally: descending shoulder) March - evri echen (literally: descending elbow) April - evri bilen (literally: descending wrist) May - evri unma (literally: descending back of the hand) June - evri chon (literally: descending fist) July - dugani heen (literally: top of summer) August - oychiri chor (literally: rising fist)
Slide no. 8
Slide description:
Cult of Fire Fire, the main family shrine, was widely used in family rituals. They tried to constantly maintain the home. During migrations, the Evenks transported him in a bowler hat. The rules for handling fire were passed down from generation to generation. The fire of the hearth was protected from desecration, it was forbidden to throw garbage or pine cones into it (“so as not to cover my grandmother’s eyes with tar” - Evenks), to touch the fire with anything sharp, or to pour water into it. The veneration of fire also extended to objects that had long-term contact with it.
Slide no. 9
Slide description:
Folk signs Evens 1. You can’t walk on fire. 2. The fire of the fire cannot be stabbed or cut with sharp objects. If you do not observe and contradict these signs, then the fire will lose the power of its spirit. 3. You cannot throw away your old clothes and things and leave them on the ground, but you must destroy things by burning them. If you do not follow these rules, then a person will always hear the crying of his things and clothes. 4. If you take eggs from partridges, geese and ducks from a nest, be sure to leave two or three eggs in the nest. 5. The remains of the spoils should not be scattered in the place where you walk and live. 6. In the family, you should not swear and argue often, because the fire of your hearth may be offended and you will be unhappy.
Slide no. 10
Slide description:
Even folk signs 7. Your bad deed in life is the biggest sin. This act may affect the fate of your children. 8. Don’t talk too much out loud, otherwise your tongue will develop a callus. 9. Don’t laugh without any reason, otherwise you will cry in the evening. 10. Look at yourself first and then judge others. 11. Wherever you live, wherever you are, you cannot speak badly about the climate, since the land on which you live may become angry. 12. After cutting your hair and nails, do not throw them anywhere, otherwise after death you will wander around in the hope of finding them. 13. You cannot be angry and hate people without a reason. This is considered a sin in old age and can result in your loneliness.
Slide no. 11
Slide description:
Clothing The clothing of the peoples of the North is adapted to local climatic conditions and lifestyle. For its manufacture, local materials were used: skins of deer, seals, wild animals, dogs, birds (loons, swans, ducks), fish skins, and among the Yakuts also skins of cows and horses. Rovduga, a suede made from deer or elk skins, was widely used. They insulated their clothes with the fur of squirrels, foxes, arctic foxes, hares, lynxes, the Yakuts used beavers, and the Shors used sheep fur. The skins of domestic and wild reindeer, hunted in the taiga and tundra, played an extremely important role. In winter they wore double-layer or single-layer clothing made from deer skins, less often dog skins, in the summer they wore worn-out winter fur coats, parkas, malitsas, as well as clothes made from rovduga and fabrics.
Slide no. 12
Slide description:
Slide no. 13
Slide description: