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A History of the Yakut People of Siberia
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By Lian Slayford
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A History of the Yakut People of Siberia
The Yakut are an ethnic group belonging to the Turkic Eurasian people who live in the part of Siberia known as the Sakha Republic or Yakutia. Like many ethnic groups across the world, the Yakut are a distinct people, with their own history, culture and identity.
We owe much of the definitive work done on the Yakut to Waclaw Sieroszewski, a Polish scholar who was a political exile. He undertook this study on the largest Siberian ethnic group as an alternative to madness, and began to the empathy he felt for a group who, like himself, had suffered under the Tsarist regime.
Ironically, the Yakut had often been overshadowed by the smaller ethnic groups in Siberia, such as the Chukchi, Koryak, Yukaghir, and more recently, the Gilyak. These less-populated groups attracted the attention of American and European scholars and for the majority of the time, the Yakut were ignored despite the fact that they occupy the largest territory in northern Asia and are the most populated group (it has been estimated that their numbers range around 300,000). It has been suggested that the reason for this is due to the fact that much of the literary sources regarding the Yakut are rarely found outside of the Soviet Union and the works that are found are of extremely poor quality.
The Yakut moved from the southern Siberian steppes and into the Lena River basin around 1000 to 800 years ago. Even when the Russians came into this area around 1630, the Yakut were still the largest ethnic group in the area. After 1630, the Yakut expanded their territorial base significantly at the expensive of their neighb
ours. One scholars states "to ignore them is analogous to disregarding the Navajo as part of the complex ethnic pattern of the American Southwest - a position which no one seems willing to take in the area of Native American studies".
In Sieroszewski's works on the Yakut, he describes how the people were able to adapt to a northern boreal forest setting after their migration from a south Siberian steppe environment as well as the significance of their practice of burning over pasture and meadowlands in early springtime.
He also notes the significance of horses. Among the Yakut, horses were a respected animal that one could measure their wealth against. Bride prices (kalym) were paid with horses and horses were regularly sacrificed to the gods; cows and bulls were considered not good enough for the gods. Sieroszewski wrote that "the Yakut love horses passionately, if their horses have been taken away from them they mourn for them ... their eyes always rest with delight on the beloved form of horses, and their tongues gladly sing their praises. I have never seen a Yakut scold a horse. 'Horses are as intelligent as people: one cannot insult them. Just see how they walk through the meadows; they never trample on anything uselessly, the way cows do; they never spoil ricks of hay; they respect man's labour'".
The work that Sieroszewski undertook on the Yakut during his exile, not only provided him with a political pardon and a way back home, but has enabled the rest of the world to understand a little more about the different ethnic group known as the Yakut.
Bibliography:
Theodoratus, Robert J. (1977) Waclaw Sieroszewski and the Yakut of Siberia, Ethnohistory, Duke University Press.
We owe much of the definitive work done on the Yakut to Waclaw Sieroszewski, a Polish scholar who was a political exile. He undertook this study on the largest Siberian ethnic group as an alternative to madness, and began to the empathy he felt for a group who, like himself, had suffered under the Tsarist regime.
Ironically, the Yakut had often been overshadowed by the smaller ethnic groups in Siberia, such as the Chukchi, Koryak, Yukaghir, and more recently, the Gilyak. These less-populated groups attracted the attention of American and European scholars and for the majority of the time, the Yakut were ignored despite the fact that they occupy the largest territory in northern Asia and are the most populated group (it has been estimated that their numbers range around 300,000). It has been suggested that the reason for this is due to the fact that much of the literary sources regarding the Yakut are rarely found outside of the Soviet Union and the works that are found are of extremely poor quality.
The Yakut moved from the southern Siberian steppes and into the Lena River basin around 1000 to 800 years ago. Even when the Russians came into this area around 1630, the Yakut were still the largest ethnic group in the area. After 1630, the Yakut expanded their territorial base significantly at the expensive of their neighb
In Sieroszewski's works on the Yakut, he describes how the people were able to adapt to a northern boreal forest setting after their migration from a south Siberian steppe environment as well as the significance of their practice of burning over pasture and meadowlands in early springtime.
He also notes the significance of horses. Among the Yakut, horses were a respected animal that one could measure their wealth against. Bride prices (kalym) were paid with horses and horses were regularly sacrificed to the gods; cows and bulls were considered not good enough for the gods. Sieroszewski wrote that "the Yakut love horses passionately, if their horses have been taken away from them they mourn for them ... their eyes always rest with delight on the beloved form of horses, and their tongues gladly sing their praises. I have never seen a Yakut scold a horse. 'Horses are as intelligent as people: one cannot insult them. Just see how they walk through the meadows; they never trample on anything uselessly, the way cows do; they never spoil ricks of hay; they respect man's labour'".
The work that Sieroszewski undertook on the Yakut during his exile, not only provided him with a political pardon and a way back home, but has enabled the rest of the world to understand a little more about the different ethnic group known as the Yakut.
Bibliography:
Theodoratus, Robert J. (1977) Waclaw Sieroszewski and the Yakut of Siberia, Ethnohistory, Duke University Press.
Tags & Keywords : Soviet Union, Yakutia, Sakha Republic, Lena River, Native American, Siberia, Indigenous peoples of the Americas,