As domestic and foreign ethnographers believed, the custom of representatives of some northern peoples to offer a guest their wife pursued two main goals - to strengthen friendly ties with the right person in this way, or simply to enrich themselves. In some cases, the northerners were inferior to the newcomers, simply due to a rapidly emerging sympathy.
Ethnographer Sternberg: "Sometimes things went without words"
Examples of such "impetuous love" of residents of the Far North with guests from other villages were described by the Russian and Soviet ethnographer, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the Department of Paleo-Asian Peoples, Professor of Petrograd University Lev Yakovlevich Sternberg in his monograph "Gilyaks, Orochi, Golds, Negidal, Ainu" (it was published in 1933 in Khabarovsk, after the death of the researcher).
Lev Yakovlevich personally got acquainted with the life of the Gilyaks (Nivkhs) and wrote about the sexual relations of women of this small nation (including married ones) with foreign men: “… The inaccessibility of [women] is external, hiding internal lust. … And if the guest made a proper impression, then the case is completed very quickly. … The man will track her down at the well, on the berry, otherwise he will simply catch her in the entryway and then, after a short symbolic dialogue … the issue is solved very simply. Sometimes the case goes without words, limiting itself to silent symbolism, touch … and if this symbolism does not meet with resistance, the woman's consent is guaranteed."
An unusual way of "fraternizing"
According to another Russian ethnographer, director of the Museum of Nomadic Culture, full member of the Russian Geographical Society Konstantin Valerievich Kuksin, the exchange of wives among the Chukchi was a way to strengthen kinship, and only the "named brothers" had the right to participate in this process, and then only representatives of different "professions" - sea hunters and reindeer herders. Such "fraternization" was beneficial in terms of the exchange of the extracted goods in the harsh northern conditions, which were strengthened by close relations with the spouses of the "brothers". According to Kuksin's research, at the beginning of the twentieth century this custom came to naught, since reindeer husbandry in the Far North began to develop more intensively than the sea trade - the exchange of wives became unequal.
By the way, if ethnographers talk about the tradition of the northern peoples to share their wives, then they often talk about the Chukchi people. Faina Matveevna Likhanova, a researcher at the Research Institute of National Schools of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), cites an example when one of the ethnographers who visited an Evenk camp in the 17th century witnessed a "run through the ranks" of a man whose wife was on a spree. The Evenks lined up in a row thrashed their fellow tribesman with sticks, because the Evenki believed that if a wife cheated with another, then her husband was to blame - he allowed it.
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For a pack of tobacco
Interesting in their own way are the notes in which, in particular, the exchange of wives with the Chukchi is also mentioned, made by the Russian physician and naturalist of German origin Karl Merck. Merck took part in an expedition to the Far North at the end of the 18th century, having managed to get acquainted with the life of six peoples living in this area.
The scientist wrote that the Chukchi wives were changed for "friendly-kindred" reasons, and the women themselves were not against it. It happened that in this way several families "became related" at the same time. At the same time, Merck noticed the absence of such a tradition among the Koryaks. Sedentary Chukchi, judging by the observations of a naturalist, often offered their wives to foreigners. In return, they received a pack of tobacco or some kind of trinket like beads for the wife, less often earrings.
Wife mates
Russian ethnographer and northern scholar Vladimir Germanovich Bogoraz in his fundamental research "Chukchi" (1934) wrote that up to a dozen married couples could participate in the process of exchanging wives among the Chukchi. Bogoraz called the heads of families in this group marriage "wives." Vladimir Germanovich believed that the Chukchi strengthened family ties in this way, because cousins and second cousins (but never relatives) were often involved in this process. Chukchi youths strove to enter into group marriages, where the families included richer men.
The ethnographer confirmed that in a group marriage, where husbands exchange wives, interfamily ties were very strong, which is very important in the conditions of the Far North. The scientist, finishing this chapter in his book, did not fail to notice that he himself did not take advantage of offers to enter into a group marriage during ethnographic expeditions, although he was repeatedly offered.
Nikolay Syromyatnikov