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CHANKTUS CHUKCHI ( Men ")

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 323 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHANKTUS See also:

CHUKCHI ( Men ")  or TusKi (" See also:Brothers " or " Confederates "), a Mongoloid See also:people inhabiting the See also:north-easternmost portion of See also:Siberia on the shores of the See also:Arctic Ocean and See also:Bering See also:Sea . They are settled in small See also:groups along the Arctic See also:coast between the Bering Straits and the Kolyma See also:river, or wander as far inland as the See also:Anadyr See also:basin . Though their territory embraces some 300,000 See also:odd sq. m., the most See also:trust-worthy estimates put their See also:numbers at but a few thousands . They were first carefully studied by the members of the Nordenskjold expedition (1878-79), who describe them as tall, lean, with somewhat irregular features—hence de Quatrefages classes them as " Allophylian Whites." The accounts of their See also:physical characteristics are somewhat confused owing to the presence of the true See also:Eskimo in the See also:Chukchi domain . The typical Chukchi is See also:round-headed, and thus distinct from the See also:long-headed Eskimo, with broad, See also:flat features and high cheek-bones . The See also:nose is often so buried between the puffed cheeks that a ruler might be laid across the See also:face without touching it . The lips are thick, and the brow See also:low . The See also:hair is coarse, lank and See also:black . The See also:general See also:muscular development is See also:good, though usually the See also:body is stunted . It has been suggested that they emigrated from the See also:south, possibly from the See also:Amur basin . In their arctic homes they long carried on See also:war with the Ongkilon (Ang-See also:kali) See also:aborigines, gradually merging with the survivors and also mixing both with the Kasmen See also:Koryaks (q.v.) and the Chuklukmuit Eskimo settled on the See also:Asiatic See also:side of Bering Strait . Their racial characteristics make them an ethnological See also:link between the See also:Mongols of central See also:Asia and the See also:Indians of See also:America .

Some authorities affiliate them to the Eskimo because they are believed to speak an Eskimo See also:

dialect . But this is merely a See also:trade See also:jargon, a hotchpotch of Eskimo, Chukchi, Koryak, See also:English and even Hawaiian . The true Chukchi See also:language, of which Nordenskjold collected a thousand words, is distinct from Eskimo and akin to Koryak, and Nordenskjold sums the problem up with the remark—" this See also:race settled on the primeval route between the Old and New See also:World bears an unmistakable See also:stamp of the Mongols of Asia and the Eskimo and Indians of America." The Chukchi are divided into the " Fishing Chukchi," who have settled homes on the coast, and the " See also:Reindeer Chukchi," who are nomads . The latter breed reindeer (herds of more than Io,000 are not uncommon), live on the flesh and See also:milk, and are generally fairly prosperous; while the fishing folk are very poor, begging from their richer kinsfolk hides to make tents and clothes . The Chukchi were formerly warlike and vigorously resisted the Russians, but to-See also:day they are the most peaceable of folks, amiable in their See also:manners, affectionate in See also:family See also:life and good-humoured . But this gentleness does not prevent them from killing off the old and infirm . They believe in a future life, but only for those who See also:die a violent See also:death . Thus it is regarded as an See also:act of filial piety for a son to kill his See also:parent or a See also:nephew his See also:uncle . This tribal See also:custom is known as kamitok; and of it Mr Harry de Windt writes (Through the See also:Gold See also:Fields of See also:Alaska to Bering Strait, 1898), " The doomed one takes a lively See also:interest in the proceedings, and often assists in the preparation for his own death . The See also:execution is always preceded by a feast, where See also:seal and See also:walrus See also:meat are greedily devoured, and See also:whisky consumed till all are intoxicated . A spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled See also:roll of walrus-hide drums then See also:herald the fatal moment . At a given See also:signal a See also:ring is formed by the relations and See also:friends, the entire See also:settlement looking on from the background .

The executioner (usually the victim's son or See also:

brother) then steps forward, and placing his right See also:foot behind the back of the condemned, slowly strangles him to death with a walrus thong . A kamitok took See also:place during the latter See also:part of our stay." The Chukchi are nominally Christians, but See also:sacrifice animals to the See also:spirits of the See also:rivers and mountains, and also practise See also:Shamanism . In See also:personal habits the people are indescribably filthy . They are polygamous, but the See also:women are treated kindly . The See also:children are speciallypetted, and are so wrapped up to protect them from the See also:cold that they have been described as resembling huge balls crossed by a See also:bar, their arms having to remain outstretched owing to the bulk of their wrappings . Chukchi women are often tattooed with two black-See also:blue See also:convex lines See also:running from the See also:eye to the See also:chin . Since their See also:adoption of See also:Christianity the men sometimes have a Latin See also:cross tattooed on their chins . The Chukchi See also:burn their dead or expose them on platforms to be devoured by ravens . See Harry de Windt, Through the Gold Fields of Alaska to Bering Strait (1898) ; Dittmar, " Ober die Koriaken u. ihnen See also:nahe verwandten Tchouktchen," in Bul . Acad . Sc . (St See also:Petersburg), xii. p .

99; See also:

Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski ; W . H . Dail, Contributions to North See also:American See also:Ethnology, vol. i . (1877) .

End of Article: CHANKTUS CHUKCHI ( Men ")
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