Chelkans. Material culture

Chelkans’ clothing was specialized. Felt clothes were worn to hunt. They included a semi-spherical hat, a “robe” ( kiis ), a vest (nengzhok), and stockings (uuk ). Additionally, the hunting costume always included boots (ӧdӧk) made from well-processed horse skin and consisting of fabric or leather bootlegs and separately cut toes and soles.

A felt robe was the main part of the hunting clothes. It was particularly well-suited for the harsh climate of the northern foothills of the Altai Mountains and for hunters’ mobile way of life. These attributes of felt must have made such clothing widespread as an element of nomadic livestock breeders’ way of life in the northern foothills of the Altai Mountains.

Men’s clothing includes a sheepskin coat ( tere ton ), a shirt ( chamcha ), a robe ( kognot ), a vest, and pants. The shirt was typically cut in the tunic style. Men’s clothing also included pants, a shirt, a robe, shoes, and headgear.

Women’s clothes consist of a dress, a robe, a vest, and a skirt. Chelkans’ clothes typically have a longer rear hem. The skirt of the dress is pleated at the waist. If the top and skirt of the dress are cut separately, then the skirt is gored, and the hem is usually wide. Sleeves are sewn in without a gusset, but with a large in-lay at the armhole. Hem, sleeves, and collar are decorated with different embroideries such as colored threads, lozenge-shaped ornaments, and also with flounces, and frills. In some dresses, the deep V-neck buttons up.

Of particular importance for Chelkans were various means of transportation with sled runners and also various means of moving cargo such as a travois made of a pelt or of silver fir branches, a box carried on one’s back ( komdo ). Chana , or skis fitted with ski skins were a crucially important and ancient element of the hunting lifestyle. In the Altai Mountains, they served as basis for developing other useful transportation means, primarily a temporary sled and a specialized sled ( kol chanak, chanach ). A ski staff ( kayok ) was an integral element of hunting gear that was used in different way during hunting. It was used steering and braking when going downhill, and to shovel snow off camping grounds. The staff’s shovel blade was used to get water out of streams; talgan (barley meal) would be stirred into it and eaten to allay their hunger.

Traditionally, Chelkans were also fishermen. Along with hunting and livestock breeding, it was a source of meat. Fish was used to make fish soup. Most likely (according to folklore data), the origins of dugout boats and birch-bark boats are linked with fishing in the Lebed’s catchment area. However, the most important elements of fishing are connected with all kinds of gear and traps used by Chelkans.

Processing their crop harvests gave Chelkans such important food stuffs as flour, cereals, and meal that formed their basic homegrown plant diet. Flour was mostly used to make unleavened dough for baking bread, pies, and some other baked goods. Unleavened dough, grains, and meal were used to make tutpash (noodles), ürge (pearl barley kasha ), and motko (pearl barley kasha mixed with meal). Talgan mentioned above was Chelkans’ universal flour food that was stirred into water and other liquids. Grain processing was closely tied to a very specific set of houseware such as a cauldron, a mortar, a hand mill, and a sieve.

An important place in Chelkans’ diet was held by bulbs, roots, and stems of wild plants such as peonies, common hogweed, bear leek, and some others. For instance, the bulbs of adder’s tongue and tawny daylily were used to make thin gruel called tire . Pine nuts were a less important part of Chelkans’ diet. Chelkans used a roller, a cauldron, and a mealing stone to process them. Fried and ground pine nuts were used to make fatty thick mass called tokshok/tokchok .

Chelkans’ livestock breeding was reflected in their diet giving them homemade meats, first horse meat, and later beef and mutton. Livestock was usually slaughtered in October-November. Well-washed innards of a cow or a horse and a mixture of milk and blood were used to make kan (literally “blood”), or black pudding, for the winter. Additionally, in the 20 th century, dairy production became widespread.