Koryaks are one of the ethnic subdivisions of the northeastern PaleoAsians, whose ethnogenetic roots go back to ancient times. According to archaeological materials, man appeared here about 30 thousand years ago, however, the first human communities, with the existence of which, to a greater or lesser extent, can be really associated with the initial stages of ethnogenesis of northeast PaleoAsians, were formed only in the Mesolithic era. They were few collectives of itinerant hunters and fishermen who penetrated to the northeast from the deep regions of Asia. Anthropologically, they were so-called undifferentiated Mongoloids with weakly expressed Mongoloid features. As the data of molecular anthropology show, the Koryaks are their descendants. The Mesolithic hunting and fishing culture of the ancient Mongoloids seems to be associated with elements of material and spiritual culture characteristic of the northeastern PaleoAsians, such as fire-making, preservation of meat and fish, the cult of the dying and resurrecting beast, bone and stone tools used in the northeast in the 17th century, and others.
Undoubtedly, ethnic differentiation of the PaleoAsians of the northeast at this stage of their history has not yet occurred. The formation of specific features characteristic of the Koryaks occurred much later, when local cultures began to form in the North Pacific. One of them, the Tokarev culture, which has become known only in recent years, emerged in the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. in the northern Priokhotye (northern side of the Sea of Okhotsk). It was formed by continental tribes that came to the coast, as well as ancient cultures of the Amur, Primorye and Baikal regions. The economy of the Tokarev culture had a continental-coastal orientation: land hunting was supplemented by sea animal hunting and fishing. Specialized sea fishing tools appeared from the second half of the 1st millennium B.C. under the influence of more developed North-Eastern fur-trading cultures - Old Eskimo, Old Kerek, and Tarya. Ethnically, the bearers of the Tokarev culture appear to have been two related groups - the ancestors of the “foot Tungus”, who were caught by the Russians on the Okhotsk coast in the 17th century, and the Paleokoryaks. Situated between the northern and southern cultures of the Pacific coast, the ancient Koryaks perceived from them economic traditions, various elements of material and spiritual culture; Neolithic hunters gradually adapted to new economic activities and developed appropriate skills of sedentary life. By the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. this transitional period was largely completed. A new Old Koryak culture developed in the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk. In contrast to the Tokarev culture, its economy is clearly oriented towards sea fishing and coastal gathering. The ancient Koryaks gradually advanced deep into Kamchatka. By about the 10th century A.D. they became direct neighbors of the Itelmens. ительменов.
The transition to sea fishing and sedentarization contributed to the isolation of separate groups of ancient Koryaks. This period saw the fragmentation of the ancient Koryak language into dialects and the formation of specific features of the coastal Koryaks and their modern physical appearance. The final stage of Koryak ethnogenesis is the formation of reindeer herding groups of the Chavchuven. The Koryaks adopted reindeer husbandry relatively late, presumably in the 16th century, as a result of the adoption of reindeer husbandry from the Tungus by some groups of sedentary zooherders. This most likely occurred in the Penzhinskaya Bay area, as well as on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula adjacent to Chukotka. This can be evidenced, in particular, by the proximity of the dialects of the reindeer herding Koryaks and Chukchi with the Penzhin and Apukin coastal Koryaks. Initially, reindeer herding only supplemented the already established economic complex of the coastal inhabitants; later, as reindeer hunters moved northward, it transformed into specialized pasture reindeer herding. The transition of some of the coastal inhabitants to a new occupation caused significant changes in the cultural appearance of the ethnos, and the Koryak nation was finally formed, as the Russian people found it.
The first references to the Koryaks in Russian documents date back to the 30-40s. For several decades contacts with them were very sporadic, but even then the Cossacks were well aware of the ethnic and economic diversity of the Koryaks. Two cultural and economic groups were clearly distinguished from the general environment: coastal (nymylany) and reindeer herders (chavchuveny). The total number of Koryaks at the end of the 17th century was about 10,000-11,000, including 2,500 Chavchuvans. Reindeer herders' camps stretched at some distance from the coast along the Sea of Okhotsk from the Ola River to the Tigil River on the western coast of Kamchatka, and from the Apuka River to the Pankarina River on the eastern coast. Despite the vast dispersion, all reindeer herders have maintained a strong cultural and linguistic unity.
Literature
- History and Culture of the Koryaks. Under the general editorship of Academician A.N. Krushanov. St. Petersburg. “Nauka”. 1993
- V.I. Iokhelson. Koryaks. Material culture and social organization. St. Petersburg. “Nauka”. 1997
