Sirenik Eskimos - Cultural Identity

Cultural Identity

The total language death of Sireniki Eskimo language means that now the cultural identity of Sireniki Eskimos is maintained through other aspects:

• Some of these factors are still of linguistic nature. Although during the language shift the language of Ungazigmit (one of Siberian Yupik languages) has been adopted, but they speak it with some variation, making a dialect.
• Younger generations do not speak any Eskimo language (neither that of Ungazigmit), they speak Russian. But the cultural identity is maintained not only through linguistic factors, there is also a "sense of place" concerning their village. Sireniki is the only Eskimo settlement in Siberia that has not been relocated, thus it has preserved its 2500 year long anciency.

The cultural identity of other ethnic groups living in Sireniki settlement has been researched as well.