Comments on: Chukchis In Russian Jokes and In History

By: Indigenous Languages of Siberia: An Overview « Linguistic Geography « Cultural Geography « GeoCurrents

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 02:19:40 +0000

[...] the Chukchis, portraying them as unsophisticated if not simply retarded. (A separate GeoCurrents post will consider these jokes more [...]

By: Asya Pereltsvaig

Asya Pereltsvaig — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Thank you for your fascinating comments, Igor!

Regarding your point about the timing, I agree that these jokes originated in the 1970s. As I say in the post, they became especially popular in the 1990s and 2000s. And I like your interpretation of them as mocking the Soviet propaganda from the point of view of a “naive man who is true to nature”. There has been, however, this view that Chukchis are “naive”, wasn’t there? That’s in part why they were chosen as the characters of the joke. I don’t know if the film “The Chief of Chukotka” really had that much impact as it wasn’t immensely popular, was it?

Thank you for your comments on Chukchi warrior skills and the joke! Stay tuned, however!

By: Asya Pereltsvaig

Asya Pereltsvaig — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:48:00 +0000

It is absolutely true that most Russians never meet a Chukchi in their lifetime. I actually met a Chukchi, who was a lecturer at my college. But when this man introduced himself and mentioned that he is a Chukchi, he could have said he’s a Martian — we were about as likely to ever meet one…

More to the point, Russians do tell ethnic jokes about many other groups: Ukrainians, Jews, Georgians, Armenians, Estonians, Poles, etc. Curiously, many of these groups are characterized in jokes as “stupid”, in different ways: Ukrainians as provincial peasants, Estonians as slow, etc. But whereas other groups are described as having other qualities as well, it is the Chukchis who — in the jokes, but as I show in the post, not in reality — are just plain stupid.

If you are interested in this subject, the book by Draitser that I refer to in the post is a fascinating resource.

By: Igor Solunskiy

Igor Solunskiy — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:26:00 +0000

I am glad that interesting topic of anqallyt and luoravetlan people have been brought on GeoCurrent, however. Nevertheless, there are some moments in the article which may be still worked upon — starting from the whole “Chukchi” “jokelore”. These “anecdotes” appeared and gained the popularity not in 90th and 2000th, but in 70th and early 80th.   They were, obviously, circulating underground (as the most true Soviet “jokelore”) and could not be published. In 90th and 2000th, however, they were commercialized by television and press to fill the void of humor — and because they were considered “politically safe” (unlike, say, some jokes from the TV shows “The Dolls” or “Turn the light off!!!” — which ultimately were silenced by government).
   These pop utilization inevitable changed the tone of the jokes — and add some translated once (like the one about penguins which is originally Australian) from different subsets of “jokelore”
   Original jokes about “Chukchi” were not so much about denigrating them — but rather mocking Soviet propaganda and the certain stupidity of the Soviet life — from the standpoint of the person “naive and true to nature”… More often then not Russian in these jokes looks pretty stupid — like in the original one about SS-20 test.
   “The Chief of Chukotka” is the probable culprit for the originating Chukchi “jokes” and distorting their image — because in Siberia there not much jokes about them: rather very cautious mentioning like “The pit-fires of warrior Chukochi* were staring in his eyes”**
   And, indeed, they were ferocious warriors.
   Only tuberculosis, alcohol and syphilis were able to decrees their population and weakened the tribes to the level they agreed to the armistice (but not the peace) with the “White Tzar”.
   Nothing clumsy about armors shown on the photograph — they are very advance form of Asian lamellar armor — similar to ones of Mongols, Kyrgyz or Tibetan. The peculiar “shells” on the backs of the warriors are, in fact, shields strapped for carrying.
   And their individual skills were not less impressive: I saw a rare film shot in early 70th in anthropological expedition were louravetlan worrier trained in traditional manner (one of the last I presume) was parring arrows shot by about 20 archers from about 25-30 yards…

I am not defending the Russian “jokelore” which was (and still is) ANYTHING but “politically correct”, but to bring one more dimension to the understanding of the nature of these jokes I have to bring one more (from the original 70th “set”):

“The Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in order to reflect growing brotherhood among the nations in the Soviet Union and to ward off the false and blatant claims of racism in capitalist propaganda have decreed:
From now on in all jokes about Chukchi word “Chukchi” has to be replaced by “one Jewish reindeer herder”!”***
___________________________________
* — the XVII — XVIII cc form of the ethnonim
** — Oleg Medvedev “The Cossack”
*** — this joke is not so much about Chukchi and Jewish but rather about insensitive, stupid and bigoted nature of some aspect of “national policies” of Soviet Union.

By: Peter Rosa

Peter Rosa — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:04:00 +0000

Not that this has much to do with the main point of the post, but I was surprised to see that there are penguins in Australia.

By: how are some more certain of everything than i am of anything?…. » Blog Archive

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:30:41 +0000

[...] http://geocurrents.info/place/russia-ukraine-and-caucasus/siberia/chukchis-in-russian-jokes-and-in-h… [...]

By: Tell me who you laugh at… and I will tell you who you are! « Cultural Geography « GeoCurrents

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:35:43 +0000

[...] recent GeoCurrents post discussed Russian jokes about the Chukchis. But why is this specific indigenous group among so many [...]