1
Climate Change Adaptation: Traditional Knowledge of
Indigenous Peoples Inhabiting the Arctic and Far North
Marine Hunters of Chukotka
Marine Hunters of Chukotka
Introduction
.................................................................................................................. 2
Description of the Region of the Bering Strait and Eastern Chukotka
..................................... 2
General Information .................................................................................................................... 2
Natural Complexes ..................................................................................................................... 3
Terrestrial Landscapes ................................................................................................................ 4
Ice Scapes ................................................................................................................................... 4
Local Cultures of Eastern Chukotka
................................................................................. 5
Indigenous Peoples and Marine Hunting Сulture
................................................................ 6
Yupik/Asiatic Eskimo ................................................................................................................. 7
Coastal (Maritime) Chukchi ....................................................................................................... 7
Hunters and reindeer herders ...................................................................................................... 7
The People Who Live Facing the Sea ......................................................................................... 8
Wildlife and Traditional Use of Resources
....................................................................... 10
Sea mammals ............................................................................................................................ 10
The Polar Bear .......................................................................................................................... 12
Land Animals ............................................................................................................................ 12
Sacred Animals ......................................................................................................................... 13
Fish and the Invertebrates ......................................................................................................... 13
Birds .......................................................................................................................................... 14
Plants ......................................................................................................................................... 14
Hunting Gear
.............................................................................................................. 14
Traditional Weapons and Personal Gear .................................................................................. 14
Clothing .................................................................................................................................... 15
Means of Transportation
............................................................................................... 15
Boats and Dog Sleds ................................................................................................................. 15
Skin-boat ................................................................................................................................... 15
Whaleboats and Aluminum Boats ............................................................................................ 16
Sled Dogs .................................................................................................................................. 16
Walrus Hunting
........................................................................................................... 16
Whaling
..................................................................................................................... 17
Spiritual and Cultural Traditions
.................................................................................... 17
Sacred Bones and Rocks ........................................................................................................... 17
Traditions in the Modern Life
........................................................................................ 18
Chukotka Residents Talk about Climate Change
............................................................... 20
Sources
...................................................................................................................... 23
About Authors
............................................................................................................ 25
2
Climate Change Adaptation: Traditional Knowledge of
Indigenous Peoples Inhabiting the Arctic and Far North
Marine Hunters of Chukotka
Introduction
More than four thousand years ago, two maritime cultures of the Arctic, the
Scandinavian coastal hunters (Pomors, in Russian) of the northern Atlantic and the
Eskimo of the northern Pacific, were formed and began to successfully develop at
the places where those two great oceans joined the Arctic Ocean. They emerged
almost simultaneously but developed independently of one another.
Both cultures eventually spread along the Arctic shores. The Scandinavian hunters
spread to the west, all the way to Iceland, and later, as far as Greenland. Their
Russian branch (the Pomors) spread to the east, along the Arctic shore of Eurasia,
where it mixed with the coastal cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Russian
Arctic and northwest Siberia. The Eskimo culture from the Bering Strait region
primarily spread to the east and gradually occupied all of the Arctic regions of
North America (including the Canadian Arctic Archipelago) and Greenland,
replacing and partly merging with the sea culture of the Scandinavians. The Asian
branch of the sea mammal hunting culture of the Bering Strait is a fairly distinctive
part of the general whale-, walrus-, and seal hunting culture, the most northern
aboriginal culture of the world.
Over many centuries both cultures created their own unique subsistence systems. It
is important to note that each of these sea cultures was formed by people of
different origin (ethnogenesis), speaking languages that belong to different
language families.
Both Arctic cultures exist in present-day Russia. The western sector of the Arctic
hosts the complex sea culture of the Barents and White Sea Pomors. The eastern
sector is the region hosting the sea mammal hunting culture of the Asiatic Eskimo
(Yupik) and coastal Chukchi of Chukotka. We shall discuss this particular culture
further.
Description of the Region of the Bering Strait and Eastern Chukotka
General Information
Today the place where the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans meet at the Bering Strait
that divides the continents of Asia and North America looks as shown in the
picture. However, it was not always this way. Over the last one million years
northeast Asia and North America were repeatedly joined at this point by a land
bridge. This peculiar territory, now partially covered by sea, was given the