Hunting Folklore in Contemporary Yakut Culture: An Anchor in the Traditionality of Post-Industrial Society

In traditional Yakut culture, hunting has always occupied an important place in the subsistence system. This complex process was surrounded by a series of sacred practices and representations preserved in a somewhat modified form in modern Yakutia. Hunting is still a very popular seasonal activity in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and is practiced even in urban areas. Today, it is accompanied by modern technical means and methods and is shrouded in a series of bureaucratic procedures. However, the ritual remains an unchanging element of this process. The whole algorithm of hunting is linked to a series of conventions, beliefs, and rituals that seem anachronistic in modern reality. Nevertheless, the ritual still plays an important role in hunting, as it is a binding rule and a criterion for the success of the hunt. In this context, it is interesting to examine the preservation of traditions in modern society: How and why do they coexist in the reality of the XXI century, and on what principle are such stable artifacts of traditionality based? The relevance of this topic arises from the rapid modernization processes that many indigenous ethnic groups of the Russian North have undergone. They were decisive for the formation of some mechanisms of resistance to these processes and the emergence of ‘zones’ in which ethnicity was condensed and concentrated. Hunting is an example of such a zone in modern Yakut culture. This study examines hunting from the perspective of anthropological discourse, analyzes its functional role in social processes related to globalization and traditionalization, and considers hunting folklore as a means of expressing public messages, using both published and field ethnographic material. Finally, the authors conclude that in highly traditional societies, the ‘anchors’ of ethnic culture are those areas of traditional life associated with the categories of ‘fear’ and ideas about the mystical. Thus, hunting is seen as a socio-cultural phenomenon that preserves traditions because traditional ideas about interaction with nature and closeness to the irrational are preserved in this area.

Yakutia, modern hunting, hunting folklore, modern folklore, horror stories, traditionalism