Art of Siberia. Valentina Gorbatcheva

Small woman’s bag, 1909–1910.

      Grass-wrack, woolen yarn, fabric, 27 × 24 cm. Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg. Aleutian Islands, Unalaska Island.

      Among all the natives of Siberia the cattle breeding Buryats have best preserved the ancient custom of the community of goods. A poor Buryat, for example, has the right to receive food or shelter from his well-to-do brethren. When a Buryat kills game, his neighbours first receive their share of the meat, and the host gets only what is left. In like manner the Buryat girl simply goes to the village smith and selects metal ornaments for her hair and dress without paying; and the crops on the fields are gathered in by the community, each member of which has the right to take what he needs from the common store. This principle of communism also finds expression in the large communal hunting-parties which at certain periods take place and are accompanied by great festivities.

      The town of Kiakhta, in the Selenga valley, near the frontier, was the great international market where the Russians and indigenous groups would meet and trade. A major industry in the area near Lake Baikal was the catching and domesticating the maral, or wild deer, for the sake of its horns, which were once considered a very valuable medicine by the Chinese.The maral sheds its horns once a year, and they were collected and sold at high prices to the Chinese merchants, who shipped them south to China. In a similar manner, the Siberian found ready purchasers among Chinese merchants for the bones, claws, and other parts of the northern tiger, which was once in abundance in Ussuri on the Pacific Coast. These parts, when ground up and administered to a patient, were supposed to have wonderful effects and the Chinese are said to have given this medicine to their soldiers to keep up their courage.

      Chukchi, Tusk with coloured engraving (1st side), 1930s.

      Walrus tusk ivory, 62 × 6 cm. Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg. Chukchi Peninsular.

      The following description of a traditional Yakut wedding demonstrates customs of the northern Yakuts that differ from those of the people in the southern parts of the province. The process of marriage in indigenous Siberia usually goes as follows: When a father wants a wife for his son, he either goes himself or sends some one of his trusted friends to find a suitable girl. When one is found, the price to be paid for her must be settled with her father. When the parties have agreed as to the price, the first instalment is paid. The second instalment is paid at the wedding, and the full payment is concluded when the married couple live together. In spite of the mercantile character of marriage among the tribal cultures, there are, of course, many instances of real and warm affection between man and wife, and still more so between parents and children.