The traditional culture of the esquimau

The origin of the Eskimos, their culture, social and political life are both scientific and educational interest, are of the practical importance for the future experts in the regional studies.

Eskimos (Inuit – Eskimos, from the ancient indeyskogo with "one who eats raw fish") –the northern people, who are living in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland and Russia. Eastern Eskimos call themselves Inuit, Western - Yupik. They speak the languages of the Eskimo branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family. It includes the Inuit languages (or inupik), distributed in Canada, Greenland and Alaska in the north, four Yupik language in Alaska and Chukotka and extinct Sireniki language1.

In the modern Russia, the Eskimos live in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and in the Ka m-chatka region. The census of 2010 they numbered 1,738 people, including 835 men and 903 women, 628 cities and 1,110 in the rural areas2. Trends in the Eskimos for the years 1926-2010 represented in the diagram from Wikipedia.

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Anthropologically Arctic Eskimos are the type of Mongoloids. The ancestors of the Eskimos originally anchored on the coast of Alaska and in the part on the Chukchi coast. Here they laid the foundation of a special civilization Arctic hunters for deer and sea animals, which over the cent uries has spread from the Bering Strait across the Arctic coast of North America as far as Greenland. [3] Eckimosy remarkably adapted to life in the Arctic, creating a turning harpoon for hunting sea mammals, kayak boat, snow igloo home, dead of fur clothing3.But Toynbee attributedEskimos to the company of the frozen, undeveloped civilizations.

From the pagan religious beliefs of the Eskimos was most clearly expressed animism. Faith in the permeability of the spirit –is the basis and feature Inuit mythological structure. According to an Eskimo proverb, "The great danger of our being that our food consists entirely of souls," all things have a soul, human-like. Therefore, the killing of an animal is little different from killing a man. At the same time hunting was not considered murder because the animal itself comes to a man in guests only need to bring it with a harpoon or spear. After being eaten part of the animal thrown back into the sea or into the tundra, so he could recover. The motif of the resurrection eaten animal is used in many fairy tales. [3] As soon as the soul of a dead animal or person is released from the body, it is free to take revenge. It was believed that the spirit of a dead man can be appeased only observance of customs, taboos, rituals. Northern Lights were interpreted as the soul of the dead children playing ball in the sky, the rain - the tears of the dead souls who have moved to the upper world. Although the spirit of each of your own, formed the life and the body in which it lives, and it is part of a larger whole. This makes it possible to hold the energy or properties bearing his name4.

Currently, the traditional belief system was retained only in the underdeveloped and sparsely populated areas, where the Eskimos still live in communities (Chukotka). In the XVIII century. in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, begins the process of the Christianization of the Inuit, who easily adopted that due to the specific worldview of the people, namely the worship of the inevitability of fate. [2]

Inuit folklore is rich in the mythological genres, as well as stories of the legends and fairy tales. The most common genre of the oral narrative art - magical and mythological tales of the wonderful adventures of the characters in the different worlds, their encounters with the giants, dwarfs, giant birds, evil spirits, with friendly and hostile to human and animal characters, a collaboration of man and animal, on marital alliances between them. At the heart of this genre are ideas about the unity of man and beast. These tales include stories about the personification of the animal characters, animals - wonderful helpers and protectors of man, woman marriage union with the animal, the transformations into an animal and vice versa.

A special place is occupied by a cycle of the tales about a crow. This character in the oral narratives enforcement work distributed throughout the region. Since ancient times, the raven was a swarm of helium-not only of the myths and fairy tales, but also ritual dances, songs, shamanistic spells and games. In the Inuit of Alaska, he made a man out of the bean pods and animals sculpted out of clay and breathed life into them. Raven has taught people how to live on earth as it is to find food. At the same time Raven creates and destroys the universe, in the Asian region played the role of trickster, buffoon, simpleton. [4]

The music of Eskimos is primarily vocal music, although the musical instruments perform in Inuit culture important acoustic etaloniruyuschuyu (tambourine), simulation and an accompanying (chordophones) and signal sound (rattles) function. In music, the Eskimos should be made of song and narrative (poetry, epic), and ritual dance (dance, mime, play) of the sphere. The songs are divided into public hymns and songs are "small" intimate "the song of the soul." Public songs are sung, accompanied by a drum ensemble, leads the melody sang - "angutarak." Melodies inherent rigid structure: intonation, the initial popevki, popevki-antithesis, developed melodic and tonal formula opinion is characterized by the principle of symmetry, the tone of proportionality5.

Arts and crafts: sewing clothes from deer and seal skins. Traditional dress trimmed with embroidery or applique pieces of fur. The Huskies face decorated with walrus teeth, bone and glass beads, rings, piercing the septum of the nose or lip. Men's tattoo - circles in the corners of the mouth (perhaps a relic of wearing lip plugs), women - straight or concave parallel lines on the forehead, nose and chin. Applied on the cheeks more complex geometric patterns. Also tattooed arms, hands, forearms. Traditional women hairstyle Eskimos - two braids parted in the middle, the men cut their hair, leaving long strands at the crown or top of the head cuts out smoothly with a circle around her hair6.

Today, many foundations of the traditional culture alive. The Huskies continue to observe the festivals and rituals of the economic cycles: the whale festival, the festival of the first lamb, etc. are preserved and revived the basis of arts and crafts, music and folklore. In Chukotka popular folk bands, "Whalen" (village Whalen), "Sun" (village Novochaplino), "Atasikun" ("Friendship", the city of Anadyr), "Kegugyak" ("Northern Lights", a settlement Sireniki), "White sail "(village of Lawrence). The repertoire of the state ensembles "Ergyron" ("Dawn", the city of Anadyr) and Dance Ensemble of the North (Magadan) are Eskimo dancing miniatures and games7.

Analyzing the current state of education Eskimos should be noted that it is difficult to name a uniform. Public policy of the leading European countries, including Canada and the United States regarding indigenous education, passed a series of the phases: a period of complete disregard of tradition and Aboriginal education, the period of assimilation, or that their absorption of European society (since 1948), the period of the integration into European society, providing Aboriginal civil rights, including the right to receive education in their native language (end of 1960-1980-ies.) [1].

However, the policy of the assimilation has produced results. In 2010 the Inuit of Alaska proportion of speaking their native language does not exceed 31%. Was practically lost the traditional system of acquiring knowledge. 94.5% of the indigenous population had primary education. Situation was somewhat better situation in the Arctic regions of Canada. Here, 66.4% owned by the Inuit native language. Due to the remoteness and sparsely populated areas to a large extent still maintained the traditional system of acquiring knowledge and established way of the life. In particular, the process of the assimilation of the modern schools has 80% of them. The vast majority of Canada's Inuit (62%) had only primary education. [1]

A special case is Greenland, where 88% of the population is Aboriginal8. Education is available to the public. Currently, the number of schools and boarding meets the need of the population for secondary education. A total of 100 schools around the island on 13 thousand students and four boarding school for senior high school students. For a long time the majority of teachers were Danes who do not know or know little Eskimo. For example, in 1974, 500 of the 900 teachers spoke only in Danish. Today, the situation is changing thanks to the teachers of seminaries and Nuuk Pedagogical Institute. However, wishing to pursue higher education have to travel to Den-mark9.

Similar trends are, with few exceptions, are typical of the Inuit of Chukotka. According to the 1897 census, the Inuit and Chukchi was not literate. The modern written language based on the Latin alphabet was created in 1932, the same year came the first Eskimo ABC. In 1937, the writing has been translated into Russian graphical basis. According to the 2002 census, the mother tongue of 51.6% owned Russian Eskimos, 99.9% had primary education. In Chukotka in three schools 113 students are studying Eskimo (2011). Issued a "Russian-Chukchi-Eskimo-Even Phrase"10.

The analysis of the socio-political self Eskimos suggests that there is a communal way of the life of the Eskimos of Chukotka, tribal, Alaska. Although the number of communities in Chukotka is traditionally high, gradually the process of integration - the Eskimos live with Russian, Chukchi and other nations. The predominant part of the population, they are the only two villages - New Chaplin and Sireniki. Quite large Inuit communities are also found in the village of Providence in the vi l-lages of Lawrence, Lorino Uelkal and Whalen. 63.8% of Russian Inuit - the villagers (WH, 2010). In Alaska, there are currently 566 federally recognized tribes, and more than 100 state-recognized tribes11.The prevailing part of Canada’s Inuit lives in urban and rural settlements.

In the 80-90s the twentieth century extended process of the political self-organization at the regional and national level. In Canada, there is an organization Inuit of Canada «Inuit Tapirisat of Canada», which works in close collaboration with the regional Inuit associations and represent- atives of the Inuit Association "Pauktuutit." Through its activities April 1, 1999 Inuit got their state autonomy. Arctic islands and part of the continental tundra, where they live, have an independent territory of Nunavut (the language of the Inuit word meaning "Our Land"). The new federal territory of Nunavut has taken 1.9 million square meters. km - about 1/5 of the entire area of Canada c a population of only 30 million people (2003), of which 85% - 12. According to the results of the referendum, the rest of the Inuit prefer to remain the part of the Northwest Territories. Eskimos Labrador also now have their own autonomy: in the Quebec part of the peninsula district Nunavik Inuit (Nunavik) gradually increases their level of autonomy. In 2005, the part of the peninsula, part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, was also formed autonomous region Nunatsiavut Inuit (Nunatsiavut)13.

In Alaska, the Inuit were first elected to the legislature of the Board in 1940, is an ongoing endless discussions about granting them the right of ownership unaccountable for its territorial lands. However, in the USA Constitution states that all citizens have equal rights. For this reason, self-determination of indigenous people can not be solved at the state level. The basic organizations of the Inuit are the public nature of the environmental sense. Among them: the Council Inuit Arctic Slope of Alaska, the North Slope area, the Fish and Wildlife, Eskimo Walrus Commission14.

Chukotka Autonomous District, created in 1930 in the Soviet Far East, is now a full-fledged subject of the Russian Federation. The executive and legislative districts as national-territorial formation called, first of all, to defend the interests of the indigenous population. Unfortunately, in the everyday economic and political practice, this is not always true. The Huskies due to its small size, the characteristics of their business activities are not a priority for the local authorities of the population.

In the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous District, in its executive structures of the Eskimos are negligible, their voice is barely audible. The decisions of the executive power, local laws cater for all people. Functions of the self-government of the indigenous population are currently performing Association of Indigenous People of Chukotka, which includes Eskimos. Also established inter-district public Eskimos "Yupik" Chukotka Association of Traditional Marine Mammal

Hunters (ATMMHC). In communities operate local branches of the association who are engaged mainly concerns the development of the national culture, ecology, and traditional crafts15.

Thus, the analysis of the role of the socio-political organizations of Eskimos in the different parts of the world shows a different attitude to the study of the problem. Inuit interests in protecting their rights and interests are most in Canada.Summing up, it should be noted that the foundations of the traditional culture and language to a greater extent were preserved by the Eskimos in the remote regions, in particular Canada, and particularly in Chukotka, where a high concentration of Aboriginal people.