The rite of cremation in contemporary burial practices of the Chukchi reindeer herders

Abstract

In the Reindeer Chukchi and Koryak cultures, cremation practices did not interrupt for centuries. In contem-porary Chukchi culture, burial practices include cremation, leaving the body in the open space, and burial in “Rus-sian style”. Cremation is still practiced among Reindeer Chukchi nowadays, although with some modifications and simplifications. The article is based on the fieldwork materials assembled by authors in 2000–2021 from the vil-lages of Vaegi, Khatyrka, Meinypylgino, Omolon, Kaiettyn, and Ilirney of the Anadyr and Bilibino municipal dis-tricts, as well as on published materials. For the comparative analysis, the ethnographic materials from Kam-chatka and Magadan regions were used. The informants’ answers suggest that contemporary burial rites in Vaegi, Khatyrka, Meinypylgino, and Omolon villages are the closest to the traditional cremation ritual. The pur-pose of this article is the reconstruction of the rite of cremation of Chukchi peoples and compare the traditional ceremony with the contemporary rituals of Reindeer Chukchi from Vaegi, Khatyrka, Meinypylgino, and Omolon localities. This paper described the full cremation ceremonial cycle: the preparation for the burial, sewing the bur-ial clothing, crafting specific tools, distribution of the ceremonial roles, activities on the day before, during and after the cremation. The rite of asking the dead, preserved virtually with no changes till modern days, is described in detailed; the actions of main participants on every stage have been reconstructed. The local differences in the burial ceremony be-tween various Chukchi groups have been specified. Special consideration has been given to the local Chukchi termi-nology, formulas, and spells, which were in use in the burial rite until 1970–1980s. Currently, informants practice simpli-fied elements of the rite, the Chukchi language is not routinely used for the ceremonies, some words being spelled in Russian. Nevertheless, the burial practices have kept the mythological elements such as crossing the border into the other world, dividing of the worlds, creatures-guardians, evil spirits, guardian spirits.