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Diachenko V. The Issue of the Traditional Technology of Leather Production among the Peoples of Siberia: the Use of Tannins in Tanning and Coloring Skins

Vladimir Diachenko
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RussianAcademy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-4423-1359
E-mail: vid@kunstkamera.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. Tanning is the final stage of turning the animal skin into tanned leather. In the distant past, tanners known exclusively the vegetable tanning substances, the main of which was tannin. In different quantities it is found in almost all plants and trees. A century and a half ago, chemists invented a method of tanning using chromium, which quickly displaced tannin tanning from the production process due to cheapness and short time frame of its implementation. The use of urine and deer droppings in the skin dressing of Chukchi and Koryak only seems exotic among the many ways to soften the dermis among Siberian aborigines. Back in ancient Rome, there was a tax on the collection of urine by tanners for this purpose, and manure treatment (the use of rotten dog excrement and bird droppings) was widely practiced in the manufacture of soft and thin morocco in the East. The relevance of the traditional method of leather tanning is beyond doubt. The method of tanning with chromium and its derivatives used in modern production facilities is highly toxic, and the production of such leather is accompanied by pollution of the environment and waste of water. Leather products, produced by traditional methods are becoming more and more popular.

The article is written based on field materials collected during the expeditionary work among the Chukchi and Koryaks in the village Achayvayam (Olyutorsky District of the Kamchatka Krai) at the end of the last century.

 

KEYWORDS: production of leather, Kamchatka, vegetable tanning and dyeing, Chukchi and Koryaks, stone and metal scrapers, softening of skins

 

FOR CITATION: Diachenko V.  the issue of the traditional technology of leather production among the peoples of Siberia: the use of tannins in tanning and coloring skins. Kunstkamera. 2023. 1(19): 75–86. doi 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-75-86  

 

DOI: 10.31250/2618-8619-2023-1(19)-75-86
УДК 391 

 

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