Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Notions of Time amongst Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North

 

 

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perception amongst indigenous peoples, particularly in the context of their 

perceptions of the environment, has been insufficiently studied in the 

ethnographic literature.

4

  

Consider the following illustrative example. In industrial society, 

“time equals money” while, for example, the Sami people have a so-called 

Sami hour, a regulated mandatory delay of one hour before the start of any 

meeting. Such tardiness is not dictated by a lack of respect for others; most 

likely, it is one of the stable ethno-cultural features of the Sami, once again 

confirming the regularity of existence and slow pace of life of the 

representatives of this nation. But how did this kind of regular, “legalised” 

lateness come about? A solution was found - to meet one hour after the 

stipulated time - and thus the “Sami hour” unofficially settled into local 

consciousness and “temporal” conflict was avoided. This is one of the 

clearest examples of real accounting of the mental time perception of 

representatives of minority ethnic groups.

5

 

It is well known that through use of language an ethnic group 

captures and broadcasts the mental stereotypes of its perception of the 

world and, along with this, hidden subconscious attitudes (including time-

related ones).

6

 In order to understand the cultural chronotope of peoples of 

northern Russia, it is necessary to study the phenomenon of time and space 

from an ethnocultural and cultural philosophy perspective. To this end, the 

spatiotemporal vocabulary of certain northern peoples, in particular Evens, 

Yukagirs and Alyutors, have been analysed in this study. 

 

Methodology  

The linguistic material used in this article is the result of conversations with 

native Even and Yukaghir speakers, in particular, representatives of 

Allaikhovsky and Nizhnekolymskiy districts of the Republic of Sakha 

(Yakutia), as well as samples of corresponding vocabulary from dictionaries 

and from research on folklore and language.

7

 Interviews and analyses of the 

meaning of words and what they represent in national idiomatic expressions 

were also used.  

 

 

 

                                                 

4

 Ingold 2000, p. 465; Forsyth 1992, p. 455; Sirina 2004, p. 89-101; Vakhtin 1992, p. 38; 

Vansina 1973, p. 165-195.  

5

 Yershova 1996, p. 56. 

6

 Guirenko 1991, p. 135; Iarskaya 1989, p. 106; Kurilov 2001, p. 586. 

7

 Kibrik et al. 2000, p. 345; Yershova 2002, p. 392. 

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Y. G. Khazankovich 

 

 

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Study results 

“Small” genres of folklore such as riddles, proverbs and sayings are of 

particular interest to this study since they reflect ethnic concepts of space-

time and their correlation with that society’s code of conduct. For example, 

the regulation of the category of time is reflected in Even idiomatic 

expressions. In particular, Evens have prohibition against shouting in the 

evening because, as explained by respondents, “the spirit-master will hear” 

(“hisechin edilre irkagrakilra - muran dolchidik”). It is also forbidden to 

shout at night because “the dead may hear” (“dolba edilre irkagrakilra - bul 

dolchidikal”); also, “to sew at night is a sin.” Evens’ particular attitude 

towards the past should be noted. In particular, in the Even idiom “you 

cannot respond to an old man rudely - it is very bad” there is a temporal 

tag: the old man is the past that must be respected. 

In the lexicon of these nations, spatial values are well-represented. 

For example, the vocabulary listed in Language and Folklore of the Alyutors

8

 

includes specific terms to describe generic spaces that are not usually named 

in other languages, such as the word “kapta” which specifically defines the 

farthest place in the tent. Descriptions of concepts often have a spatial tag 

(e.g. “Yern”) such as “eavesdrop,” “Yit. Yern” in Alyutor, which literally 

means “the place where water flows down,” or a joint, “Yetne. Yern” - “the 

place where bones are connected.”  

However, collected language materials show that the majority of the 

indigenous peoples of the North have mastered concepts of time to a 

significantly lesser degree than the category of space. This is common to 

almost all primary cultures. Temporal lexemes also often inclue a spatial tag, 

such as “Yivi. Yern” (“anniversary”) literally translated as “the space of the 

year.” This may be due to the fact that the concept of time, due to certain 

neuropsychological characteristics of minor nations, was inaccessible to 

specific sensory perception for a long time and was instead mastered 

through spatial perceptions.

9

 There are no such concepts of day (24 hours), 

calendar year, minute or hour in the languages of indigenous peoples of 

northern Russia, as illustrated by the time-related vocabulary in the Alyutor 

and Yukagir languages. 

Using the method of continuous sampling, the words “time” and 

“space” were identified and processed using the quantitative calculations 

specified by this method. From this it was seen that amongst 3100 Alyutor 

lexemes presented in Kibrik et al.’s root Alyutor-Russian dictionary,

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 33 

                                                 

8

 Kibrik et al. 2000. 

9

 Melnikova 2003, p. 132. 

10

 Kibrik et al. 2000. 

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