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Terms of the national gastronomic culture of the Yakuts in the records of Jacob Lindenau (first half of the 18th century)

https://doi.org/10.25587/2782-6627-2025-3-26-40

Abstract

The article analyzes the terms on gastronomic culture, recorded in the first half of the 18th century by the Russian traveler Jacob Lindenau for the first time. As a participant of the Second Kamchatka expedition (1739–1743), he recorded Yakut terms denoting the culinary culture and the culture of eating of the people along with invaluable ethnographic material. Lindenau wrote them down in a specific way according to his transcription due to the absence of the Yakut alphabet at that time.
The materials of Lindenau were not available for a long time. His book was published only in Soviet times, in 1983 and it represents invaluable and rich material for studying not only history and ethnography, but also the culture of the Sakha people. Lindenau was one of the first to record the terms of traditional Yakut food in his materials, left descriptions of products, types of food products and methods of their preparation. Still, there has not yet been conducted a separate monographic study of the national gastronomic culture of the Yakuts at the present stage in the cultural aspect. The author of the article substantiates the theoretical understanding of the gastronomic culture of the Yakuts, makes an attempt to transcribe the terms of the culinary culture of the Yakuts with the purpose of a detailed study of the culture of the people. The materials of the article are words not transcribed into the modern Yakut language, this article based on the materials of Lindenau. Most of the Yakut terms of gastronomic culture were introduced by him for the first time. The author included research methods terminological, lexical-semantic analysis, methods of defining concepts, and sampling. The results of the study are 44 terms of national gastronomic culture that have been transcribed and analyzed. Lindenau first described meat products, which included meat of large and small animals, various types of waterfowl, forest birds, wild and domestic animals, mentioned 11 types of different fish, and left notes on 12 different types of dairy products. Lindenau was one of the first to describe the culture of eating among the Yakuts. The researcher recorded several types (boiled, fried, dried, frozen, jerked) of preparation of meat and fish products, cited 5 Yakut names of fish dishes, 12 different types of dairy products, in total cited 12 types of plants as 7 names of roots, 2 names of herbs, 2 names of leaves and sapwood (bes uere), which the Yakuts used for food.

About the Author

L. S. EFIMOVA
M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University
Russian Federation

Ludmila S. EFIMOVA – Dr. Sci. (Philology), Head of Department of Cultural Studies

Yakutsk



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Review

For citations:


EFIMOVA L.S. Terms of the national gastronomic culture of the Yakuts in the records of Jacob Lindenau (first half of the 18th century). Altaistics. 2025;(3):26-40. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25587/2782-6627-2025-3-26-40

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