Archeology of Folklore: Ancient inhabitants of the East Siberian Arctic

Abstract

The subject of the study is the aboriginal tribes of the Yakut Arctic based on the folklore of the indigenous peoples of Northeast Asia. Mythological plots and folklore texts include images from mythical characters – the host spirits of ichchi and kuchun of peripheral border territories and wild "half-human, half-animal" chuchun/suchun, to representatives of alien Omuk tribes with their unusual appearance and habits: "hairy" giants, tiny men and people "falling asleep for the winter". The purpose and objectives of the article are to generalize, systematize and analyze folklore texts about the ancient inhabitants of the Yakut Arctic using materials from mythology, toponymy, ethnography and archeology. In the genres of Yakut folklore, although a cycle of legends and legends about non-Yakut tribes stands out, nevertheless there is no special article dedicated to the ancient inhabitants of the Arctic coast and the islands of the northern seas of Yakutia. Folklore texts contain diverse, including deeply archaic layers of mythological ideas and folk knowledge inherent in both Yakuts and Tungus-Manchurian, Paleoasiatic, Samoyed and Finno-Ugric peoples. At the same time, the plots of legends and legends were constantly developing, absorbing both mythological representations and real features of the life of Arctic hunters and reindeer herders, as well as fragments of Early Russian folklore. Such a wide areal distribution can be explained by a single historical and cultural heritage, including folklore traditions, of Northern Eurasia.