Itelmen

ETHNONYM: Kamchadals

Orientation

Identification. The Itelmen are an aboriginal people of Kamchatka Peninsula, an area in Russia with the status of an oblast (the center is Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii). In the north the Kamchatka Oblast borders the Magadan Oblast. The territory that is today inhabited by the Itelmen is a part of the Koryak Autonomous District (okrug ), with its center at Palana); it is administratively a part of the Kamchatka Oblast. Itelmen have never had political autonomy.

Location. Until the arrival of Russians, Itelmen occupied the greater part of Kamchatka, on the western coast (Sea of Okhotsk) as well as on the eastern coast (Pacific Ocean) down to Cape Lopatka (the southern extremity of the peninsula). The northern boundary of Itelmen settlement was the 58th parallel. The neighbors of the Itelmen were Koryaks to the north and Ainu to the south. The modern territory of Itelmen settlement is bounded on the north by the Tigil' River and on the south by the Khairuzovo River. Two-thirds of the territory of Kamchatka is covered by mountains, among which are active volcanoes. The area is rich in rivers, most no more than 10 kilometers long. The largest river, the Kamchatka (Ujkoal), drains into the Pacific Ocean. The climate of the peninsula is maritime, monsoonal, and very cold, with frequent storms, winds, and snowstorms. The summer is short. The average annual temperature is below 0° C.

Demography. The number of Itelmen at the end of the seventeenth century was 12,000 or 13,000. At present the number of Itelmen is about 1,500, although less than 20 percent (the older generation) speak the Itelmen language, which was displaced by Russian about fifty years ago. Nearly the entire Itelmen population is rural.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Itelmen language is classified in the Chukotsko-Kamchatsky Group of Paleoasiatic languages. The term "Paleoasiatic languages" is understood geographically, not linguistically. In the same way, the Itelmen language is classified as one of the languages in the Chukotsko-Kamchatsky Group areally and not historically. Relative to surrounding languages of northeastern Asia, the Itelmen language is historically isolated. The Itelmen language probably originated on the North American continent.

In the eighteenth century, when Itelmen occupied the greater part of Kamchatka, there were three distinctly marked linguistic communities: Eastern (Pacific coast), Southern (Petropavlovsk-Bol'sheretsk region), and Western (Okhotsk coast). The Eastern and Southern languages disappeared around the beginning of the twentieth century, supplanted by the Russian language. The Western language has been preserved until the present, but it is on the verge of disappearance. A written language with a Latin-based alphabet was introduced in the 1930s, but its development was interrupted soon afterward. A written language with a Cyrillic-based alphabet was introduced in the 1980s.

History and Cultural Relations

Archaeological research indicates that the Itelmen settled in Kamchatka before the Koryaks and the Ainu; their presence on the peninsula dates from the end of the Paleolithic period. The traditional occupations of the Itelmen are fishing, hunting, gathering, and, to a lesser degree, hunting of sea animals. The economy had a foraging character that precluded specialization and did not offer opportunities for the development of regular exchange. Before the arrival of the Russians, the Itelmen had no knowledge of metallurgy.

Itelmen were nomads and this quickened the processes of assimilation. In the eighteenth century all Itelmen were brought into the Russian Orthodox church. The hunters paid tribute in furs. The rulers' tyranny caused a riot (1730-1731). But the most tragic events in Itelmen history were epidemics: of smallpox (1768-1769) and then of "rotten fever" (probably influenza, 1799-1800 and 1819). As a result of these epidemics the population of Kamchatka decreased by two-thirds. The census of 1827 recorded only 1,800 or 1,900 Itelmen. Since then, their numbers have not increased.

After these epidemics, a growing number of Russian-speaking settlers increased the population on the peninsula. A creolized population (Kamchadals) began to form in the southern part of Kamchatka, where the administrative centers were located (Bol'sheretsk on the western coast and Petropavlovsk on the eastern coast, on Avachi Bay). Later, creolization spread to the valley of the Kamchatka River (eastern coast). At the beginning of the twentieth century the Itelmen language disappeared completely in these regions. The modern Russian-speaking Kamchadals are a minority, outnumbered by newcomers. The portion of the Itelmen population that still speaks the native language inhabits only a small area between the Tigil' and the Icha rivers. Today this area has narrowed in the south to the Khairuzovo River.

In the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries Itelmen were officially called "Kamchadals." After the Revolution their own name was reestablished. The Itelmen did not resist collectivization. Traditional productive activities—fishing and hunting—developed on the collective farms, as did dairy and gardening activities that had been adopted in the nineteenth century (cereal grains do not grow in Kamchatka). In the period after World War II, local authorities conducted a policy of "enlargement" of the small Itelmen villages that caused the destruction of many traditional economic relations and "lumpenization" of a part of the population. Education (including higher education) that the Itelmen received fueled the assimilation process and the loss of their native language. In the 1980s the teaching of the Itelmen language began again. Textbooks and dictionaries are being published, but for Itelmen children today this language is essentially foreign. In 1989, under the influence of democratization in the former USSR, Itelmen by their own initiative organized a union for revival of the Itelmen people, Tkhsanom (Dawn), founded with ethnocultural aims.

Settlements

The traditional dwellings were semisubterranean earth huts (kist ) with an upper entrance for winter habitation and a hut on stilts (mem ) for summer. The earth huts were built for the whole community, with a capacity of up to 100 people. The summer huts were built for single families. The villages (atno?n ) were composed of one or several earth huts surrounded by a great number of summer huts and were situated on river banks. Itelmen settled also on the tops of small, even hills. They watered the slopes of the hills in winter to ice them so as to hinder access by their enemies. Beginning in the second half of the eighteenth century, Itelmen began to switch to the Russian type of dwelling (izba). The summer huts remained until the 1960s and 1970s. Modern Itelmen villages have electricity and radio, but no water supply or sewer system. After resettlement and enlargements, only Kovran and Upper Khairuzovo can be considered as real Itelmen villages (with a predominant Itelmen population). There are hospitals, kindergartens, and secondary schools in both villages.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The traditional Itelmen productive activities, fishing and hunting for furbearing animals, have retained their importance. Until the 1960s sea-animal hunting had material significance, but it has now ceased because of a catastrophic decrease in the total number of ringed seals (nerpy ) in the Sea of Okhotsk. Dairy farming and gardening are relatively new economic activities. The Itelmen used sledge dogs for transport, later also packhorses, and now tractors and Land Rovers. Water transport included boats that were hollowed from whole trunks of poplar trees (txtum ). The Itelmen used oars to go down river, punt-poles to go upstream. There are as yet no modern roads on the west coast. There is air transport between the settlements (airplanes and helicopters).

Industrial Arts. Today the majority of Itelmen are collective farmers engaged in fishing and laying in of hay in the summer, harvesting of vegetables in the autumn, and hunting for furbearing animals in winter. There are no industrial workers or, for example, pilots among the Itelmen. Those who have received higher and secondary special education have become teachers, political functionaries at the lowest level, workers in kindergartens, mechanics, and tractor drivers. There is one scholar among the Itelmen, ethnographer Nadezhda Starkova; she is employed in Vladivostok.

Trade. Except for primitive exchange, Itelmen were not traditionally engaged in trade.

Division of Labor. Formerly as well as now, men's tasks were fishing and hunting. "Women's" work was traditionally gathering, laying in of berries and edible plants, and housekeeping. Itelmen knew edible tundra roots and grasses well and used them widely. Today the practice of gathering is almost completely obliterated, replaced in some ways by the growing of vegetables.

Land Tenure. The concept of "owning land" has always been alien to the Itelmen. Places for hunting and fishing also have never been considered the property of anyone.

Kinship

Kinship Groups and Descent. No exact information about the character of Itelmen social structure has been preserved. Marriages were exogamous, but in ancient times they were endogamous as well. The mythological ancestors of the Itelmen were a brother and sister who had married. Prior to the introduction of Christianity by the Russians, polygamy was widespread. There was no ancestor cult among the Itelmen.

Kinship Terminology. In Itelmen kin terms, gender distinctions are sometimes ignored: mitx is "grandfather" and also "grandmother"; sillatumx is "brother" and "sister." The latter is for addressing persons of the same gender: "sister for a brother" is lilixl, and "brother for a sister" is qitkindn. In the same way p'ec is "child" irrespective of the child's gender (ixlx? in p'ec is "son, male child"; mimsx? in p'ec is "daughter, female child").

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Traditional marriage included working for the bride in her father's home and the ceremony of "grabbing the bride" (the groom would try to touch the bride's genitals while she and her family tried to thwart him), which had also spread to the Koryaks. After Christianization, Itelmen married in the church. Itelmen have never avoided mixed marriages. Modern marriages are carried out in accordance with the laws of Russia.

Domestic Unit. Apparently the primary economic unit was the patrilineal community, corresponding to the "large family" of the Koryaks (i.e., population of one kist). It is possible that the word knalos (family) earlier meant exactly this kind of community. The modern Itelmen family is the same as the rural Russian family.

Inheritance. Not having property in land, the Itelmen did not have the problems associated with bequeathal. Utensils, instruments, and buildings were also not inherited because the Itelmen avoided using objects that were left by the dead. In later times inheritance did not become a significant problem.

Socialization. Punishable acts were theft and murder. The latter led to blood feuds. Attitudes toward infidelity were dispassionate; a husband divorced his wife by ceasing sexual intercourse. Parents loved their children, but the children did not respect their parents. In this regard Itelmen are similar to Kereks.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Lacking autonomy, the Itelmen are in the Russian administrative system and occupy the lowest level in this complex hierarchy.

Political Organization. Itelmen are too few to have developed their own political structures. Moreover, until recent times there has been no opportunity for political activity of any kind in the USSR. Itelmen were not, however, excluded from the Communist party, and there were a number of members among them. Rather often Itelmen have held leading positions at the level of their region and district. The party and soviet bodies of the Koryak Autonomous District have often been headed by Itelmen and not Koryaks. Althought these Itelmen spoke their own language poorly, they spoke Koryak fluently. The Itelmen have privileges that are established for the native population of the North.

Conflict. There is no word for "war" in the modern Itelmen language, but there is the word "enemy" (xagelan ). No traces of intertribal conflicts and unavoidable encounters with the Koryaks (and apparently with the Ainu) remain in the folklore. Legends about wars with the Koryaks were written down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (in Russian retellings), but by the twentieth century no one remembered these legends. The absorption of Kamchatka by Russia did not occur without disturbances and revolts, but they have not remained in the people's memory, perhaps because those who remembered died during the epidemics. Subsequent cohabitation of Russians and Itelmen (who were turned into Russian-speaking Kamchadals in the south and east) was peaceful. In the nineteenth century life in the Itelmen-Koryak contact zone on the west coast was also peaceful. After the Revolution the Itelmen unreservedly took the side of Soviet authorities.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. As with all other northeastern Paleoasiatic peoples, the cult of the Raven (Kutx), demiurge and creator of life on Kamchatka, spread among the Itelmen. Sacrifices were not made to him, however, but to local spirits (gods), to good ones as well as to evil ones. There were special sites for sacrifices not far from the villages. In their earth huts Itelmen had also "household gods," hollowed from wood. Apparently there was also a certain supreme spirit, Nustaxcax, strictly speaking, "God." This word was fixed in the eighteenth century, but was not associated with the Raven-Kutx in any way. The religiosity of Christianized Itelmen was not deep. After 1917 they readily became atheists.

Religious Practitioners. The shamans were mainly elderly women, rarely men. In contrast to the practice of the shamans of the Koryaks, the Itelmen shamans did not use a tambourine. The priests of the Orthodox church were exclusively Russians; the service was also performed in Russian. There are no translations of the Bible in the Itelmen language.

Ceremonies. No traditional Itelmen holidays have been preserved. The most important one was the autumn thanksgiving holiday that lasted many days and was accompanied by various ceremonies. The settled Koryaks adopted this holiday; it is known among them as Hololo (see Krasheninnikov 1949, 413-427).

Arts. Ancient Itelmen mythology exists only in Russian and German renderings (Krasheninnikov 1949; Steller 1774). Only in the twentieth century has the amnel (the Itlemen genre of folktales) been recorded in the original language. Modern musical folklore is represented by songs, performed almost exclusively in Russian. The newly founded society Tkhsanom (see "History and Cultural Relations") has set revival of Itelmen songs and dances as its goal.

Medicine. Healing was done by shamans, who existed into the 1920s and 1930s. At present, there is a sufficiently developed system of health maintenance in the territories of the district.

Death and Afterlife. According to Itelmen mythology the world beyond the grave is organized exactly in the same way as our world is except that it is better in every respect. Thus death was imagined as a second life, moreover an eternal one. Itelmen carried seriously ill and dying people out of the house to the tundra or mountains and left them there. Often such people went away themselves. If someone died in a house, it had to be abandoned. The deceased were neither buried nor cremated. Stillborn infants were hidden in the hollow of a tree trunk. After Christianization Itelmen started to bury their dead in the ground. According to Russian custom, a funeral feast in memory of the deceased takes place on the ninth or fortieth day after death.

Bibliography

Dikov, N. N. (1979). Drevnie kul'tury Severo-Vostochnoi Azii: Azii: na styke s Amerikoi v drevnosti (Ancient cultures of North-East Asia: Asia in connection with America in antiquity). Moscow: Nauka.

Krasheninnikov, S. P. (1949). Opisanie zemli Kamchatki (A description of the land of Kamchatka). 4th ed. Moscow and Leningrad: Izd-vo Glavsevmorputi. Translated as Explorations of Kamchatka, 1735 -1741. 1972. Portland: Oregon Historical Society.

Starkova, N. S. (1976). "Itel'men." In Material'naiia kul'tura XVII-60-e godi XX veka (Material culture from the 17th century through the 1960s). Moscow: Nauka.

Steller, G. W. (1774). Beschreibung von den Lande Kamtchatka, dessen Einwohnern, dessen Sitten, Nahmen, Lebensart und verschiedenen Gewohnheiten, herausgegeben von J.B.S. Frankfurt and Leipzig.

Volodin, A. P. (1976). Itel'menskii yazik (Itelmen language). Leningrad: Nauka.

ALEXANDR P. VOLODIN (Translated by Ann Kremer and David C. Koester)