Le mouvement de conservation d’une ethnie en voie d’extinction, les Youkaguirs

• Published in: Cahiers du monde russe
• Main Author: Le Berre-Semenov, Marine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Éditions de l’EHESS 2000
• Subjects: hist; phil; Kolyma; Yukagir; Chukchi; Evenks; Youkaguir*; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4000/monderusse.53; http://journals.openedition.org/monderusse/53

The defense movement in favor of a nearly extinct ethnic group, the Yukagirs. – In this article we analyze the defense movement in favor of a nearly extinct Siberian ethnic group, the Yukagirs. The predicament of these natives of the Kolyma is very similar to that of the other peoples of northeastern Siberia, Chukchi, Evens, Evenks, etc., with the exception that the Yukagirs, who underwent a genuine demographic hecatomb under the tsarist regime, were the most deeply hurt by sovietization as far as their sense of identity is concerned. With a population reduced to only a few hundred, the Yukagirs are by this time almost completely assimilated with neighboring groups, Russians, Sakhas and Evens. Since perestroika the Yukagir intellectual elite have endeavored to preserve a cultural heritage whose extinction they refuse to admit. Their members, particularly the Kurilov brothers (writers, poets and scientists) have authored statements on Yukagir ethnicity which lay a foundation, albeit rather removed from reality, for the reconstruction of neotraditional Yukagir culture and identity: identity reconstruction strategies have been developed, based on transmission of knowledge by the elders, the last depositaries of the Yukagir culture, to the younger generations, the europeanized offsprings of intercultural marriages, on education (at Nelemnoe), and on setting up a type of ethnoterritorial autonomy (the Suktuul). This movement must cope with countless problems of a financial, administrative and juridical nature. It also has to contend with the passive attitude of a population in low spirits and subjected to socio-economic precariousness. Even though the reforms introduced by the intellectual elite present positive aspects educationally and psychologically, they may come in too late to make the rebirth of an identity which vanished two generations ago possible and real. Cet article analyse le mouvement de conservation d’une ethnie sibérienne en voie d’extinction, les Youkaguirs. Les problèmes auxquels se trouvent ...