The Koryak. Material Culture and social organization

• Main Author: Jochelson Waldemar
• Other Authors: Boas Franz
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: E.J. Brill LTD 1908
• Subjects: 39.15.19 Историческая экономическая и социальная география; Okhotsk; Pacific; Chukchee; Kamchatka; Koryak
• Online Access: http://repo.kscnet.ru/3167/; http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/bibl/kor/cont.htm

In the winter of 1900-01 I carried on ethnological studies among the Koryak, my work being part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. The present publication contains the results of my inquiries. In working up my collections, I have treated religion and the myths first for the followino- reasons When I returned from my field-work to New York, I found my friend, Mr. W. G. Bogoras, who had taken part in the Siberian Expedition, at work on the material culture of the Chukchee, whom he had studied for several years. The Chukchee are related to the Koryak, and the conditions of life amono-these two tribes are very much alike. To avoid unnecessary repetition, it seemed desirable to defer the detailed description of the material culture of the Koryak until after the completion of Mr. Bogoras's work, and to restrict my description to features in regard to which the Koryak differ from the Chukchee. There is also a considerable similarity in the religion and mythology of both tribes, who are not only in the same stage of development ofreligious thought, but, with few exceptions, believe in the same supernatural powers, have the same kinds of festivals, religious ceremonies, and sacrifices, and possess similar myths. Since a considerable number of myths and some material relating to the beliefs of the Chukchee have been published by Mr. Bogoras,1 I have been able to treat from a comparative point of view the beliefs and myths of the Koryak. It may be in place to point out here that the material relating to the Koryak was gathered by me among the Maritime Koryak along the bays of Penshina and Gishiga on the Sea of Okhotsk, and among the Reindeer Koryak of the peninsula of Taigonos, and throughout the interior of the Gishiga district. I did not visit the Koryak of northern Kamchatka and of the coast of the Pacific Ocean, since I had only one winter at my disposal to make a study of this tribe, with which I first came in contact on the Jesup Expedition. Since I had to leave the Koryak country in the latter half of the summer ...