Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Yakutsk
Song for Protection from Bears in the Tundra
Aleksandra Trifonovna Urkachan sings and explains a song often sung by women while they are out in the tundra. By swaying branches and flowers as if in the wind, it is meant to be called forth. When the women joyfully pick berries and wear their beautiful headscarves, they like to sing this song to invite a cooling breeze – also so that the bear can hear it from afar.



