In search for ‘erym’: views on leaders and leadership in rural communities of Chukotka

In social anthropology, the problem of leadership lies in the complexity of defining, analysing and studying this phenomenon in different societies, each understanding power in their own unique way. A researcher’s conception of ‘leadership’ and ‘leaders’ may not coincide with ethnographic reality and may hinder the search for leaders in local communities. This article proposes a method for finding leaders by studying perceptions of ‘erym’, which translates from the Chukot language as ‘chief’, ‘master’, ‘rapist’, or ‘strongest’. Based on field ethnographic material obtained in ten national villages in Chukotka, the article examines how residents of remote Arctic settlements assemble the image of a leader in their specific location, what criteria should be used to search for a leader in a settlement, and how the Chukchi language and beliefs system have influenced the contemporary understanding of what a modern leader is. We have identified two aspects which can be used to pinpoint a leader in a specific Chukotka community, namely, a person’s social position and qualities such as strength and the ability to command. We have arrived at the conclusion that a person holding a leadership position in a village had already had certain leadership traits or had developed them in order to it the image of a ‘leader’ formed in that specific rural community. Local traits of a leader were expressed mainly through a description of a person’s activities, i.e. through certain actions that were important for that particular territory and community. The unchanging universal characteristics of a leader were strength (physical and psychological) and the ability to defend and exercise violence. Most often, when searching for leaders, these characteristics have consistently produced results, leading to people who turned out to be the most important and influential in a specific community