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Shulgina O. New Life of Soviet Chukotka in Engraved Walrus Tusks: From the Collection of Chukotka and Asiatic Eskimo (Yupik) Collections at MAE RAS

O. Shulgina
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-5449-0258
E-mail: shulgina@kunstkamera.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. Apart from its high artistic value, the collection of engraved tusks made in the first postwar years is of particular research interest from the ethnographic point of view. The engraved images represent the environment and folklore, everyday life and holidays, significant historical events, and events of the recent past of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of that time to the smallest detail. The article identifies a range of themes and main subjects depicted by Chukchi artisans on whole walrus tusks, such as sea-farming, reindeer herding, hunting birds and fur-bearing animals, trade and exchange, collectivization, holidays, and industrialization of Chukotka. Held in the collections of the MAE RAS, these artifacts make it possible to imagine the everyday life of the indigenous population of the Chukchi Peninsula in the first half of the twentieth century. The author draws attention to the parallel unfolding of scenes about the old, traditional life in the Far North and the new elements introduced with the Sovietization of Chukotka. Due to this technique, the changes in the material and spiritual life of the Chukchi and Eskimos show especially vividly. Based on historical facts and archival papers, the article attempts to analyze how accurate the presented image of Chukchi and Eskimo life in the first half of the twentieth century was and to discuss the possible reasons for the discrepancies between real life and its artistic representation.

 

KEYWORDS: collections of the MAE RAS, visual ethnography, Chukotka, Soviet modernization, Chukchi and Asiatic Eskimo (Yupik) engraved walrus ivory tusks, art of the peoples of the Far North

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-2(24)-138-161
UDC 069.5:39 

 

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