Sireniks
Sirenik or Sireniki are an Eskaleut-speaking ethnic group of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and former speakers of a divergent Eskimo-Aleut language in Siberia, before its extinction in 1997. The total language death of this language means that now the cultural identity of Sirenik Yupik is maintained through other aspects: slight dialectal difference in the adopted [Central Central Siberian Yupik language|Siberian Yupik language|Siberian Yupik] language; sense of place, including appreciation of the antiquity of their settlement Sirenik.
Location
At the beginning of the 20th century, speakers of the Sirenik language inhabited the settlements of Sirenik, Imtuk, and some small villages stretching to the west from Sirenik along south-eastern coasts of the Chukchi Peninsula. As early as in 1895, Imtuk was already a settlement with mixed population of Sirenik Yupik and Ungazigmit.Language
The Yupik population of settlement of Сиреники formerly spoke an Eskaleut language with several unique traits. For example, dual number is not known in Sirenik, while most Eskimo–Aleut languages have dual, including the neighboring Siberian Yupik relatives. These differences amounted to mutual unintelligibility with Siberian Yupik and the Sirenik language's nearest language relatives. The language is now extinct.Language differences meant Sirenik Yupik had to speak either Siberian Yupik or Chukchi, an unrelated language, to communicate with the neighboring Siberian Yupik. These were distinct, mutually unintelligible languages.
The linguistic classification of Sirenik language is still under debate. It is sometimes regarded as a third branch of Eskimo, but is also sometimes classified as a Yupik language.
The last native speaker of Sirenik, Vyie died in January 1997. Thus, the language is extinct, and today Sirenik Yupik speak Siberian Yupik language and/or Russian.
History
Little is known about Sirineki history, besides some conjectures based on linguistical consideration. Sirenik Yupik culture has been influenced by that of Chukchi.Location
Sireniki is an old settlement; it has existed at least for 2500 years. It is the only Yupik village in Siberia that has not been relocated, even during the assimilation policy. This fact is a part of establishing recent cultural identity of Sireniki Yupik.Diachronic linguistics
Little is known about the history of the Sirenik language. The uniqueness of the Sirenik language may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Inuit and Yupik groups, and contact with speakers of unrelated languages for many centuries. Influence by Chukchi language is clear.There are evidences that this small language had at least two territorial dialects in the past, although the number of its speakers was very few even at the end of the nineteenth century.
Cultural identity
The total language death of the Sirenik language means that now the cultural identity of Sirenik Yupik is maintained through other aspects:- Some of these factors are still of linguistic nature. Although during the language shift the language of Ungazigmit has been adopted, they speak it with some variation, making a dialect.
- Younger generations do not speak any Eskaleut language, they speak Russian. But the cultural identity is maintained not only through linguistic factors, there is also a "sense of place" concerning their village. Sirenik is the only Eskaleut settlement in Siberia that has not been relocated, thus it has preserved its 2500-year-long anciency.
Spiritual culture
At one time, traditional spiritual practices were prohibited by authorities, still, some knowledge about these ways survived. The last shaman in Sireniki died around 1990. Since then there has been no shaman in the village. Scholars observed shamanic practices among the Sireniki in the early 20th century. A folklore tale text mentions a feast that could possibly include shamanic features.Folklore
Animals
In their folklore, we can find the motif of the benevolent spider:- In many tales, the spider saves the protagonist from peril with its cobweb, capable of lifting the endangered hero up to the sky. The same motif is present also in Siberian Yupik folklore.
- The spider is a benevolent creature also in another Sirenik tale, where she desires the gift of eternal life for people: old age followed by rejuvenation. In this question, the spider is standing in debate with the beetle: the latter proposes, that human life should end in death.
Space and time
Mythology of this culture can reveal some beliefs about time and space.Temporal dilation motif
There is a motif in some Paleoasiatic cultures: wandering people, after a long absence, observe that they have remained young compared to their children who remained at home. Sirenik people have such a tale as well: the protagonist, returning home after a long travel, must face with the fact that his son has become an old man.More familiar examples of folklore from the world presenting such kind of temporal dilation motifs: Urashima Taro and Rip Van Winkle.
Celestial motifs
Another tale presents the sky as an upper world where people can get to and return from, and experience adventures there: communicate with people living there, kill a big worm, observe the earth from up there through a hole, descend back to the earth.Magic
Several Inuit and Yupik peoples had beliefs in usage of amulets, formulae. Furthermore, several peoples living in more or less isolated groups understand natural phenomena on a personal level: there are imagined beings resembling to human but differing as well. As for Sirenik people, in one of their tales, we find the motif of the effective calling of natural phenomena for help in danger: an eagle is pursuing people on the ice, and a woman begins to talk about calling wind and frost, then at once the river freezes in, and the eagle freezes onto the ice.Some tale examples
Only their short summaries follow. Quotation marks refer not to literate citation, they just separate remarks from tale summaries.Cormorants
An animal tale, taking place on a cliff near the so-called fast-ice edge, narrating a conflict between a cormorant and a raven family. The raven wants to steal and eat a child of the a cormorant pair by deceit, but one of the cormorants notices the trick and turns it against the raven so that the robber eats its own child unknowing.Yari
This tale shows Chukchi people influence, moreover, it may be a direct borrowing. It is an example of the " reindeer" genre, presenting conflicts among different groups for seizing reindeer herds. The tale features also magical animal helpers.Cousins
A Chukchi tale contains almost the same series of motifs. The Chukchi tale begins with the girl's finding a skull incidentally. Besides that, in the Chukchi tale, the girl, just after having been abandoned by her parents, begins to accuse the skull and push it with her feet rudely. And on the visit of her returning parents, she seemingly forgives them, but kills them by deceit.A related tale has been collected also among Ungazighmiit. Like the Sirenik variant, also the Ungazighmii one begins with the incest of cousins and the following infanticide, but it is the father of the girl who wants to kill his own daughter, and the father of the boy persuades him to kill the boy instead. At the end of the tale, the girl shows no sign of revenge, and it is the boy who initiates something that petrifies the parents.
Man with two wives
The author mentions the time dilation motif, present among several Paleoasian peoples. The text of the tale itself does not contain a direct mentioning of time dilation caused by travel or absence: the protagonist's remaining young seems to be rather the result of a bless, spoken by the old man the protagonist has saved.Man
The same or similar motifs can be found also among Ungazigmit, moreover, an Ungazigmi tale extends the story with the further life of the girl after having been pulled up to the sky by the benevolent spider.Taboo
Like several other Inuit and Yupik groups, the inhabitants of Sirenik had beliefs prohibiting certain activities, that were thought to be disadvantageous in a magical way. Carrying an uncovered drum on the street was thought to trigger stormy weather. Bad weather was the supposed effect of burning seaweed on campfire, too. A great deal of the taboos were thought to serve chances of survival and sustenance, securing abundance of game. Several of them restricted the exploitation of resources.Shamanism
Like Yupik and Inuit cultures themselves, examples of shamanism among Inuit and Yupik peoples can be diverse.During the Stalinist and post-Stalinist periods, shamanism was prohibited by authorities. Nevertheless, some knowledge about shamanistic practices survived. The last shaman in Sirenik died before 2000, and since then there has been no shaman in the village. Earlier in the 20th century, shamanistic practices could be observed by scholars in Sirenik, and also a folklore text mentions a feast that could include shamanistic features.
Recent history and today
The Sirenik people maintain traditional subsistence skills, such as building large skin boats similar to the angyapik among Siberian Yupik, and umiak among many other Inuit and Yupik peoples.Poverty, unemployment, and alcoholism challenge their community. Medical care and supplies to the settlement can be inadequate.
Latin
- Note that term "Inuit" is used here in an extended sense.
Cyrillic
- The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English:
- The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English:
- The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: