Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the issue of death and care as two interrelated realms. In the native communities of Chukotka, care is recalled through the old-time voluntary death, while contemporary suicide is associated with non-care. The notion of "return" reveals the need for constant care.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the issue of death and care as two interrelated realms. In the communities of Yupik- and Chukchi people (Chukotka, Russia), care is recalled through the old-time voluntary death, while contemporary suicide is associated with non-care, isolation. Death-oriented behavior in the region has diverse forms. Voluntary death has received much scholarly attention (Bogoras, 1904 - 9; Hamayon, 1990; Vaté, 2003; Willerslev, 2009 etc.). Not restricted to but mostly related to senilicide, it is viewed as a necessary precondition of life continuity and the circular conception of the universe (Kan 1989; Hamayon 1990; Bodenhorn 2000; Vaté, 2003, 2007). Voluntary death, often ritualized and committed upon an individual's request and approval of the relatives, shall not be conflated with the non-ritualized act of suicide. Today, high suicide rates exist among all indigenous peoples of the circumpolar region (ADHR, 2004). I shall argue that it is not the confusion between voluntary death and the non-ritualized suicide that causes the methodological problem. It is rather the ethnocentric view, which frames the phenomenon of the "regular" suicide as a societal problem, predicament of culture, or the result of crisis. It is rarely examined within the same context as voluntary death, that is, in relation to the notion of life circulation. In particularly, the belief in "return" - a person's name may come back five times after his death - allows a better understanding of the constant care dedicated to the deceased relatives and of hope for life to be continued.