Research reading: Hopping
I discovered recently, to my great joy, that I can still use my grad school credentials to log in to Project Muse and access a wide variety of academic publications. I spent a happy evening going down the rabbit holes of different search queries – ‘salmon anthropology’, ‘mongol horde history’, ‘transvestite shaman’.
The last, of course, is when my taller half looked over my shoulder. His query: What are you doing?
Research. I’m doing research for Isobel the Bear-Eater, because her story is set in a place not so different from Siberia and the Russian Far East, although I am adding in a healthy dose of my own knowledge and experiences from Alaska, and taking a great many liberties in mixing my own imagination in with true cultures described in historical and anthropological accounts. The more I know about these places, the richer my writing will be.
One article which fired my imagination with a sentence from the introduction.
Finally, Sakha have a diverse number of traditional games, the most popular of which include mas tardyhyy (the stick pull), kylyy, ystanga, and kuobakh (three forms of hopping), khapsaghai (traditional wrestling), khaamiska (a game of dexterity with small wooden blocks played somewhat like jacks), and oibonton uulaahyn (a game of individual balance).
Three forms of hopping! My taller half and I have a thing about hopping. It’s like bacon or honey badgers – it’s a meme in our household, maybe because it’s the only trick, other than shedding, that we can pretend the cat does on command. Anyway.
My first thought was that Sakha hopping would be like the sort of hopping I’ve seen at the Eskimo Olympics while visiting my parents in Fairbanks, Alaska. My favorite is the seal hop, or knuckle hop, which I expect to sweep Crossfit gyms across the nation any day now. (For reference, video of an actual seal.)
Then there’s the kneel hop, which I have a vague memory of from junior high when my family briefly lived in the Alaskan bush.
And the toe kick, which is totally hopping.
But, of course, I was totally wrong and the Sakha hopping is totally different. In Russian it is referred to as Якутские национальные прыжки [Yakutskie natsional’nye pryzhki], or Yakut national jumps, and I’ll give you my translation of the description.
«Кылыы» — выполняются одиннадцать безостановочных прыжков с разбега на одной ноге с приземлением на обе ноги.
[kylyy] – with a running start, complete eleven consecutive hops on one leg, finish by landing on both feet.
«Ыстанга» — выполняются одиннадцать попеременных прыжков с разбега с ноги на ногу с приземлением на обе ноги.
[ystanga] – with a running start, complete eleven consecutive hops, alternating legs, and finish by landing on both feet.
«Куобах» — выполняются одиннадцать безостановочных прыжков одновременно, отталкиваясь двумя ногами с места или с разбега с приземлением на обе ноги.
Куобах [kuobakh] – from standing or running start, complete eleven consecutive hops, pushing off with both legs simultaneously and landing on both feet at the end.
Alas, I cannot find a video of kuobakh.
So the hops? Not similar at all. Stick pull, though, that’s almost identical, although maybe more of a serious competition in Central Asia.
(Yes, that is a young participant from Pakistan named Mohammed Ali. You’re not hearing things.)
Oh, if you’ve noticed that all the Children of Asia games are happening in Yakutsk, Yakutia, while the World Eskimo International Olympics are in Fairbanks, Alaska—Fairbanks and Yakutsk are sister cities.