Reconstruction of the early ethnic history of the Yakut tribe "Jarkhan" on the basis of ethnonymy, oral tradition and totemic ideas

Abstract

The article is devoted to the early history of the Yakut tribe "Jarkhan", which was one of the main ethnic components involved in the formation of the Vilyui group of Yakuts. Previously, historical and genealogical information was transmitted orally with help of historical legends. The end of the XIX – the middle of the XX centuries marks a qualitatively new period in the formation of the written tradition of the genealogy of the Yakut people associated with the painstaking source studies, collecting and research work of G.V. Ksenofontov, S.I. Bolo, A.A. Savvin, G.U. Ergis, etc. We have made an attempt to show the process of segmentation of the Jarkhan clans and the formation of new tribal groups by compiling a nomenclature of the generic composition. The study of the generic composition allows us to imagine the processes of movement and settlement of genera, renaming, merging and formation of new ones. The purpose and objectives of the research are to systematize and interpret the materials of the oral genealogical tradition, legends and archival documents. The methodological basis of the research is based on the basic principles of historical science - the principle of historicism and the principle of objectivity. The principle of historicism is important for conducting genealogical research, as it allows us to trace the segmentation of large tribal groups into small ones. General scientific and historical methods (historical-comparative, historical-typological, source analysis) were used as additional research methods. The novelty of the research lies in the systematization of the tribal composition and the introduction into scientific circulation of previously unpublished documents of the National Archive of the RS(Ya) revealing the tribal composition. Based on the studied material, it is concluded that oral historical traditions and pedigrees represented the central core in the structure of historical knowledge among the Yakuts. Conceptually, genealogical traditions were formed from real genealogy and unreal, which is basically a structure-forming fictional genealogy (within the boundaries of tribal communities). The result of the work performed is the preparation of the nomenclature of the Yakut generic composition. We also found that the Yakuts had common, group and individual totems. Along with this, the practice of changing the historical totem to a new one associated with a new habitat has been revealed.