The population of eastern Siberia. Slavic and other peoples who since ancient times inhabited the vast expanses of Siberia: attempts at fraud
The population of Siberia is about 24 million people. The largest cities in Siberia are Novosibirsk 1 million 390 thousand, Omsk 1 million 131 thousand, Krasnoyarsk 936.4 thousand, Barnaul 597 thousand, Irkutsk 575.8 thousand, Novokuznetsk 562 thousand people, Tyumen 538 thousand people. Ethnically, the main part of the population is Russian, however, many other ethnic groups and nationalities live in this territory, such as Buryats, Dolgans, Nenets, Komi, Khakasses, Chukchi, Evenks, Yakuts, etc.
The peoples of Siberia differed greatly in language, economic structure and social development. Yukaghirs, Chukchis, Koryaks, Itelmens, Nivkhs, as well as Asian Eskimos were at the earliest stage of social organization. Their development went in the direction of patriarchal-tribal orders, and some features were already evident (patriarchal family, slavery), but elements of matriarchy were still preserved: there was no division into clans and tribal exogamy.
Most of the peoples of Siberia were at various levels of the patriarchal-tribal system. These are Evenks, Kuznetsk and Chulym Tatars, Kotts, Kachintsy and other tribes of Southern Siberia. Remnants of patriarchal-clan relations were also preserved among many tribes that embarked on the path of class formation. These are the Yakuts, the ancestors of the Buryats, the Daurs, the Duchers, the Khanty-Mansiysk tribes. Only the Siberian Tatars, defeated by Yermak, had their own statehood.
Population of Eastern Siberia
The total urban population is 71.5%. The most urbanized Irkutsk region. and Krasnoyarsk Territory. The rural population predominates in the autonomous okrugs: in the Buryat Ust-Orda okrug there is no urban population at all, in the Buryat Aginskiy okrug it is only 32%, and in the Evenki okrug - 29%.
The current migration growth of the population of the AFER is negative (-2.5 people per 1000 inhabitants), which leads to depopulation of the population of the region. Moreover, negative migration from the Taimyr and Evenk Autonomous Regions is an order of magnitude higher than the average and creates the prospect of complete depopulation of these regions.
The population density in the region is extremely low, four times lower than the Russian average. In the Evenki district, it is three people per 100 km 2 - a record low level in the country. And only in the south - in the forest-steppe Khakassia, the population density is close to the average Russian one.
The economically active population of Eastern Siberia was 50%, which is close to the national average. About 23% of the working population was employed in industry (in Russia, respectively, 22.4% and 13.3%). The level of general unemployment is very high (in the Republics of Buryatia and Tyva, as well as in the Chita region.
The level of unemployment in the EMEA is quite high, and the proportion of hidden unemployment is high in its composition.
The ethnic composition of the population of Eastern Siberia was formed as a result of centuries-old mixing of the indigenous Turkic-Mongolian and Russian Slavic population with the participation of small small peoples of Siberia, including those living in the taiga regions and in the Far North.
The peoples of the Turkic group live in the upper reaches of the Yenisei - Tuvans, Khakasses. Representatives of the Mongolian group, the Buryats, live in the mountains and steppes of the Cis-Baikal and Transbaikalia, and Evenks belonging to the Tungus-Manzhur language group live in the taiga regions of the central part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The Taimyr Peninsula is inhabited by the Nenets, Nganasans, and the Yurk-speaking Dolgans (related to the Yakuts). In the lower reaches of the Yenisei, a small people lives, the Kets, who have an isolated language that does not belong to any of the groups. All these peoples, with the exception of the extremely small Kets and Nganasans, have their own national-territorial formations - republics or districts.
Most of the population of Eastern Siberia adheres to the Orthodox faith, with the exception of the Buryats and Tuvans, who are Buddhists (Lamaists). The small peoples of the North and the Evenks retain traditional pagan beliefs.
Population of the West Siberian region
The total urban population is 71%. The most urbanized are the Kemerovo region, where the number of urban residents reaches 87%, and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - 91%. At the same time, in the Republic of Altai, 75% of the population are rural residents.
The area varies in population density. Very high population density in the Kemerovo region. - about 32 people / km 2. The minimum density in the polar Yamal-Nenets district is 0.7 people / km 2.
The economically active population of Western Siberia was 50%, slightly above the national average. About 21% of the working population was employed in industry, and about 13.2% in agriculture.
The level of general unemployment in Western Siberia was below the Russian average only in the Tyumen region. In other regions, it exceeded the national average. In terms of the level of registered unemployment, all regions were in the worst position relative to the average Russian indicator (1.4%), except for the Novosibirsk region. Most registered unemployed in the Tomsk region - 2.1% of the economically active population. In the oil-producing Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, their number is 1.5 times higher than the average for Russia.
The ethnic composition of the population of Western Siberia is represented by Slavic (mainly Russians), Ugric and Samoyedic (Khanty, Mansi, Nenets) and Turkic (Tatars, Kazakhs, Altaians, Shors) peoples. The Russian population numerically predominates in all regions of the ZSER. The Nenets, who are part of the Samoyedic language group of the Uralic family, live mainly in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and are its indigenous people. The Khanty and Mansi, who are part of the Ugric group of the Ural family, live in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. Turkic peoples - Kazakhs and Tatars live in the steppe and forest-steppe zones, and Altaians and Shors - in the mountainous regions of Altai and Mountain Shoria in the Kemerovo region.
The Russian population of Western Siberia is mainly Orthodox, believing Tatars and Kazakhs are Muslims, Altaians and Shors are partly Orthodox, some adhere to traditional pagan beliefs.
Since ancient times, numerous peoples lived on the territory of Siberia. They were called differently: Scythians, Sarmatians, Seres, Issedons, Samariks, Russ, Ruthenians, etc. Due to cataclysms, climate change and other reasons, many have moved, mixed with other races or died.
Those who survived in these harsh conditions and have survived to this day, scientists present to us as indigenous people - but these are mainly Mongoloids and Turks, and the Slavic peoples appeared in Siberia, as it were, after Yermak. But is it really so?
The most famous definition of the names of ancient peoples is the Aryans and Scythians, their artifacts, burials in mounds, leave no doubt that they are Caucasoids. But science divides us into two camps, those artifacts that are found in Europe from the Scythians and Aryans are classified as European peoples, and those outside Europe are classified as Turks and Mongoloids. But the new science of genetics has dotted the "and", although there are attempts at fraud. Let's look at the Slavic and other peoples who from ancient times inhabited the vast expanses of Siberia, which have come down to our times.
Many cannot understand who are the Ostyaks? Here are disparate concepts from various sources.
Ostyaks - the old name of the Ob Ugrians - Khanty and Mansi. It comes from the self-name As-yah - "man from the Big River". As-ya - this is how the Ugrians called the river Ob. Samoyeds were called Samoyedic tribes - for example, the Nenets. Ostyako-Samoyeds - Selkups.
And what "Wiki" tells us: "Ostyaks are an outdated name for the peoples living in Siberia: Khanty, Kets (also Yenisei Ostyaks), Yugrs (also Sym Ostyaks), Selkups (also Ostyak Samoyeds)".
And here is what the Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron:
"The Ostyaks are a Finno-Ugric tribe living along the Ob, Irtysh and their tributaries (Konda, Vasyugan, etc.), in the Tobolsk province and in the Narym district of the province. It is divided into three groups: northern - in the Berezovsky district, eastern - in Surgut, in Narymsky (along the Vasyugan River) and southwestern or Irtysh - in the northern part of the Tobolsk district, along the banks of the Ob, Irtysh, Konda, etc. The name Ostyak is also given to the so-called Yenisei, living in the Tomsk province, on the left bank of the Yenisei and the upper Keti But this small, dying people has nothing to do with the real Ostyaks and should be considered related to the Kotts, Koibals and other South Samoyedic, now Tatarized peoples "...
And here is what the ancient chronicle says: “The Piebald Horde, the Ostyaks and Samoyeds do not have a law, but they worship idols and offer sacrifices like God” ... This raises the question, what kind of Piebald Horde and some of its representatives are the Ostyaks and Samoyeds with haplogroup N, today they are known as the Finno-Ugric peoples.
If you remember, the armed forces of the Great Russian Medieval Empire were divided into Hordes. The most famous of them are the Golden Horde - Great Russia, the White Horde - Belarus and the Blue Horde - Little Russia (modern Ukraine). These three main old Russian Hordes have come down to our times and are recognizable. Remember the colors: red, white and blue. The Blue Horde betrayed us more than once, many times it was under the yoke of conquerors from Western countries, so the capital from Kievan Rus finally moved to Moscow.
But there was another Horde, in Siberia, and it was called the Piebald Horde, its native color is green. The piebald Horde of Siberia was multinational, one of its tribes, the Turks, gave the color of the banner to many Muslim countries. We find mention of it, for example, in the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the 11th-17th centuries, from which it is clear that the Piebald Horde existed in Siberia, to the borders of China, even in the 17th century: Ob River up the Ob Obdorskaya and Yugorskaya and Siberian land to the Narym, to the Skewbald Horde" (790), p. 64.
The piebald Horde in Siberia is hushed up or data about it is distorted, in the testimonies of the past of this Horde, many of its military detachments served in Russia-Horde. These some tribes appear under the names MADYARS, MADZHARS, MOGOLS, MONGOLS, UGRs, BASHKIRS, YASES, YAZYGS, HUNGARYS, KHUNS, KUNS, HUNS, PECHENEGS. For example, there was such a military tribe among them, which had a dog on its banner, for them it was a cult animal. From that in Europe they were called dog heads, from the dog's head. The last time the Czech Cossacks were called "moves", i.e. foot soldiers. The Cossack moves lived along the border of the Czech Republic and Bavaria. They maintained a typical Cossack way of life, at least until the middle of the seventeenth century. The last time the Psoglav Cossacks carried out their military service was in 1620, when the Czech Republic lost its national independence. But they should not be confused with dogheads - in the Middle Ages they were rare wild people, presumably Neanderthals.
All these peoples listed above, in the past Scythians, Sarmatians, Aryans ... This is in the Piebald Horde of Siberia, the scattered troops of Razin, and then Pugachev, recruited replenishment into their ranks and left for China, where they joined with the Manchus, which indicates that that the manchurs were their own for the Volga, Yaik and Siberian Cossacks, as well as for the Kalmyks. By the way, the Kalmyks, who lived in the Don region in Russia until 1917, were in the rank of Cossacks.
In their culture, religion, lifestyle and appearance, the members of the skewbald hordes were radically different from the peoples of Central Europe. Therefore, contemporaries perceived their appearance in the region as a bright event and reflected it in their testimonies. Men of the piebald hordes were mainly carriers of the haplogroup R1a1. Therefore, their descendants do not stand out among modern Europeans and Hungarians. Among the latter, according to some data, 60% (sample of 45 people) are carriers of the haplogroup R1a1 (Semino, 2000, The genetic), according to others (sample of 113 people) - 20.4% (Tambets, 2004).
In the 15th century, the descendants of the piebald hordes of Hungary took part in the Balkan wars and the conquest of Byzantium by the Turks. Most likely, the word TURKI was one of their names. Some of the already Hungarian participants in these wars remained in the Balkans and Anatolia. After the separation from Russia-Horde of the Attoman Empire, the territory of the Middle Danube Plain became part of it. After the defeat of the Turkish army near Vienna in 1683, the gradual transition of the plain territory under the rule of Vienna began. Some people from the tribes of the Piebald Horde have retained their colors on the flags of now different countries, here are some of them.
A significant part of the Russian people is infected with the centuries-old Turkophobia brought from Byzantium by the Greek missionaries, who gradually imposed their revanchism on the Russians for its loss. Therefore, a Russian person, instead of recognizing part of his Turkic roots, is more pleasant to consider all the Scythians and Sarmatians as Slavs, separating them from the Turks, and in fact from himself too. The influence of Byzantine revanchism on the course of Russian history and the Russian spirit is another big topic, by the way, an unexplored topic, but what does genetics tell us about this.
Let's take a look at the fossil haplotypes of the Scythians of the haplogroup R1a (3800-3400 years ago):
13 25 16 11 11 14 10 14 11 32 15 14 20 12 16 11 23 (Scythians, Andronovo culture).
In the same work, excavations were carried out dating back 2800-1900 years ago, in the burials of the Tagar culture, in the same territory, and again only haplotypes of the R1a group were found. Although a thousand - one and a half thousand years have passed, the haplotypes have remained almost the same:
13 24/25 16 11 11 14 10 13/14 11 31 15 14 20 12/13 16 11 23 (Tagars, R1a).
There are a couple of variants of mutations, alleles (as these numbers are called) began to diverge a little, but even then not for everyone. Double values are variants of different haplotypes from excavations, or uncertainties in identification. So, indeed, the haplotypes are very similar, despite the rather large time distance, 1000-1500 years. In this, the reliability of haplotypes varies slightly over time. If several markers have changed, it means that millennia have passed. It is also important here that even after more than a thousand years, Scythians of the same kind, R1a, continue to live in the same places. Dozens of generations have passed, and the Scythians in Altai have the same DNA genealogical lines. Time: I millennium BC - the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, "official" Scythian times. And here:
13/14 25 16 11 11 14 10 12/13 X 30 14/15 14 19 13 15/16 11 23 (Germany, R1a, 4600 years old).
They turned out to be very similar to the haplotype of the common ancestor of the R1a haplogroup among ethnic Russians, that is, the Eastern Slavs, to which modern haplotypes converge:
13 25 16 11 11 14 10 13 11 30 15 14 20 12 16 11 23 (ethnic Russians R1a).
Only two alleles (as these numbers are called) in fossil haplotypes differ from ethnic Russian haplotypes, and they are highlighted in bold.
Two mutations between haplotypes mean that the common ancestor of the "proto-Slavic" and "proto-German" haplotypes lived about 575 years before them, that is, about 5000 years ago. This is determined quite simply - the mutation rate constant for the given haplotypes is 0.044 mutations per haplotype per conditional generation of 25 years. Therefore, we get that their common ancestor lived 2/2/0.044 = 23 generations, that is, 23x25 = 575 years before them. This places their common ancestor at (4600+4800+575)/2 = 5000 years ago, which agrees (within the calculation error) with the "age" of the common ancestor of the genus R1a on the Russian Plain, determined independently.
We look above at the haplotype from Germany and at the haplotypes of the Eastern Slavs, for comparison with the haplotypes of the Scythians from the Minusinsk Basin:
13 25 16 11 11 14 10 14 11 32 15 14 20 12 16 11 23 (Scythians, R1a)
The difference between the haplotype of the Scythians and the haplotype of the common ancestor of the Slavs is only in a pair of 14-32 for fossil haplotypes (noted) and 13-30 for the ancestors of the Russian Slavs.
In other words, the Eastern Slavs and the Scythians of the Minusinsk Basin are not only one genus, R1a, but also a direct and fairly close relationship at the level of haplotypes.
Below are examples of modern haplotypes of their direct descendants:
13 25 15 11 11 14 12 12 10 14 11 32 - India
13 25 15 10 11 14 12 13 10 14 11 32 - Iran
13 25 16 11 11 13 12 12 11 14 11 32 - UAE
13 24 15 10 11 14 12 12 10 14 11 32 - Saudi Arabia
13 25 16 11 11 14 X X 10 14 11 32 - Fossil haplotype of the Scythians, 3800-3400 years old.
And among the Kyrgyz, this haplotype is ancestral for the entire Kyrgyz population of the haplogroup R1a-L342.2:
13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 14 11 32 - 15 9 11 11 11 23 14 21 31 12 15 15 16 with a common ancestor who lived 2100, give or take 250 years ago. "Classical" times of the Scythians, the end of the past era. It turns out that the Kirghiz of the haplogroup R1a (of which they have a lot) are direct descendants of the ancient Scythians.
So we come to the conclusion that in relation to the origin of clans and tribes, haplogroups and subclades in DNA genealogy, the concepts of Aryans, Scythians, Eastern Slavs in a number of contexts are interconnected and interchangeable. We simply attribute them to different time periods, and sometimes to different territories. This is precisely what we attribute, to simplify consideration, but rather, on the basis of established traditions of historical science. It is clear that the Kirghiz are not Slavs, just as they are not Slavs and Arabs. But they are all descendants of common Aryan ancestors. These are branches of the same tree, Slavs and Scythians are descendants of the same common ancestors, Aryans, carriers of the haplogroup R1a.
Below is a table of the frequency of key haplogroups of the Y-chromosome of the peoples of Eurasia (Tambets, 2004)
Let's continue.
It is surprising that in Russian cartography and historical science the name of the country or locality on the territory of Siberia - Lukomoria, was not known. Consequently, Western cartographers used earlier, long before Yermak, information about Lukomoria.
On the map of 1683 by G. Cantelli, south of Lucomoria, an inscription of Samariki (Samaricgui, or Samariegui) was made. Who or what are Samariks, was recently found out by the Tomsk Doctor of Historical Sciences, Galina Ivanovna Pelikh (1922 - 1999). She published a detailed article about the first Russian settlers, who were called Samars and who, according to legend, came to Siberia from the Samara River, which flows into the Dnieper on the left. But was it really so? Galina Pelikh began to deal with this issue and suggested that the departure of the Samars in the troubled XIII-XIV centuries because of the Don to Siberia could be caused by the fact that "terrible wars" had begun there. Perhaps that is why the name of these people took root in Siberia as cheldons-chaldons (a man from the Don). But Don in Old Russian means a river, and wherever rivers flowed, they were commonly called Don (water). From here: to the bottom, bottom, ship, etc. Along with the generalized name, the rivers were given a name.
When studying these names on world maps, both known and unknown authors from the collection of Count Vorontsov, the localization of Grustina is less certain on them and changes along the Ob from Lake Zaisan to the mouth of the Irtysh. In addition to Grustina, all these maps indicate the city of Cambalech (Khanbalyk), located in the upper reaches of the Ob and Serponov, changing its localization from the upper reaches of the Keti to the upper reaches of the Poluy.
The indigenous population of Siberia clearly distinguished between the post-Yermakov settlers, who were considered colonizers, and local Russians, both who lived here and who came "beyond the Stone" (the Ural Mountains) much earlier than their compatriots, who did not resemble their European counterparts either in dialect or mentality.
After Yermak, Russian settlers, having met their co-bloods in Siberia, called them chaldons and kerzhaks. They differed from each other as follows: Kerzhaks are Old Believers who fled to Siberia from religious oppression, Chaldons are old-timers of Siberia who have lived here for centuries, mixed with immigrants from the Don, Dnieper and Samara, who were also forced to leave their homes due to religious wars associated with the Christianization of Russia. Therefore, in Siberia it is customary to call chaldons old-timers and descendants of the first Russian settlers, who distinguish themselves from Siberian Cossacks and indigenous people.
Galina Ivanovna Pelikh worked successfully in the city of Tomsk for a long time, she was a wonderful ethnographer, professor of the Department of Archeology and Local History of Tomsk University. She specialized in studying the life, language, history and culture of the Selkups, a small people of the North.
For a long time, this people of the Samoyedic language group has lived in two isolated enclaves. One part - in the upper reaches of the Taz River and in the subpolar Yenisei, and the other - in the middle reaches of the Ob, or rather in the Tomsk region.
During her scientific life, Galina Ivanovna traveled through many remote places in Western Siberia. Among her respondents and casual acquaintances during the expeditions, there were also Russian old-timers chaldons.
She also met those who had nothing to do with the peoples who fled to Siberia because of religious oppression. Also, they had nothing to do with the Cherdyns, Mezens and Ustyuzhans, etc.
But what kind of people are these, chaldons?
Galina Ivanovna, in her scientific expeditions, along the way wrote down the stories, legends and legends of the Chaldon old-timers. Shortly before her death, she finally found time to digress from the Selkup subject and pay attention to the materials on chaldons accumulated over decades. She wrote: “For 30 years (starting from the 40s) I had to visit various villages of the Middle Ob region several times, collecting material on the ethnography of the Narym Selkups. The Russian population of those places interested me little. numerous references to certain Kayalovs and a number of stories recorded from their words, both about the Selkups and about the Siberian old-timers themselves Kayalovs and about their distant ancestral home on the Kayal River.
For specialists studying the history of Siberia, her article "The Ob Kayalovs on the Kayal River" had the effect of an exploding bomb. True, most scientists have not expressed their assessment of this powerful in its significance, but small in volume, material. Maybe they never read it, or maybe they didn't want to read it. Although not all. Professor of Tomsk and Altai State Universities, Aleksey Mikhailovich Maloletko, did a lot to popularize the discoveries of Galina Ivanovna, and was also able to offer his vision on the history of the origin of chaldons. His article "The First Russian Colony in Siberia" found a great response from readers. Long before these authors, Mikhail Fedorovich Rosen, an Altai scientist and local historian, drew attention to the reports of many pre-Yermakov sources about ancient geographical names familiar to European Russia, common in Siberia: "Lukomorye", "Samara", "Grustina", etc.
So what is this people? For hundreds of centuries, the Chaldons lived in Siberia in closed communities, having managed to preserve the Russian language in its original version, which allows them to be firmly identified as a people of Russian origin. Many obsolete forms of sounding Russian words, terms that have fallen out of our language, original turns of phrase and much more, even with a cursory acquaintance with the speech patterns of chaldons, allow linguists to draw a definite conclusion about the long-standing separation of representatives of this people from the main Russian-speaking array.
The Stolypin reform and the events of the Soviet period completely destroyed the habitual way of the Chaldon villages. At present, there are practically no such settlements on the territory of Siberia. Some of the settlers who joined the Siberian old-timers have preserved legends about their past. Galina Ivanovna had the happy opportunity to write down the legends and stories of some of the chaldons who had preserved a stable oral tradition of their own history.
According to their stories, chaldons came to Siberia 10-15 generations before Yermak, i.e. no later than the thirteenth century. The narrators gave Galina Pelikh oral information about only a few families (kinds), referring at the same time that they came to Siberia to places that had long been mastered by other families of chaldons. Prior to that, they lived in the Black Sea steppes between the Don and the Dnieper. There they were called "samaras" and called "pajos".
According to the Kayalovs, in their old homeland around them lived the same as them, Russian people who called themselves "Samars": "There were Samaras there!" The Kayalovs themselves lived on a tributary of the Samara River, which flows into the Dnieper. She had a name - Kayala. They took their surname from the name of this river. Its name in this form has not been preserved to this day.
The Chaldons were mostly pagans, only some of them, being settlers, were Christianized in ancient times. But due to the lack of connection with religious centers, their Christian faith degenerated, creating a kind of simplified symbiosis of paganism with elements of Christianity.
The official church could not allow this, considering them pagans and apostates, and therefore the word "chaldon" in the mouths of the Cossacks and other Siberian new settlers began to deliberately bear a mocking, derogatory character: narrow-minded, stubborn, underdeveloped.
These factors influenced not only the negative attitude towards chaldons, but also the hushing up of their merits in the development of Siberia. Not a single chronicle, not a single document of the Moscow kingdom, speaks directly about the early Chaldoon population of Siberia, just like about other Russian peoples and about the Cossacks of Siberia, even before Yermakov's times. Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov has some information about chaldons and samaras in his "History of Siberia" and in some other Russian documents of the 16th-17th centuries.
On the map of the Dutch cartographer Abraham Ortelius, published eleven years before Yermak's campaign, the settlement of Tsingolo (chaldons) was shown in the Middle Ob region.
Galina Pelikh noted that some of the chaldons divide themselves into two groups. Those that came from the Don called themselves chaldons. And those that came "because of the Don" - Samara. Both groups make fun of each other for their way of speaking, habits, etc. But among the newcomers, there were also indigenous people, those who were joined by the settlers. These indigenous people, who had not previously had a name, in even more ancient times were called Sindons, Issedons, they are also gray with localization of residence in the country of Serik (Siberia) - the direct ancestors of the Serbs.
If you recall, in the Scythian times, on the territory of present-day Siberia, they lived, as scientists call them, the Andronovites. Some of them moved to the territory of present-day India, and it was there that their language, called Sanskrit, was preserved, and in fact this is the Old Russian language. But no matter how they are called, this is, those ancient pra-Russian peoples, a small part of which have survived to our times. This is a good example of the same language group, when our ancestors settled in India (Dravidia), Old Russian and Sanskrit will be clear to you without translation. Another indicative example is the migration of peoples and the exchange of cultures, when some part of the Proto-Slavic peoples from India moved back, bypassing the territory of Central Asia, passing the Caspian, crossing the Volga, they settled in the territory of the Kuban, they were Sinds. After they formed the basis of the Azov Cossack army. Approximately in the XIII century, some of them went to the mouth of the Dnieper, where they began to be called Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. But the Proto-Slavic peoples of Siberia, who made a long transition to India, and then to the Kuban, for a long time among the rest of the Cossacks of Russia were called Tartars, and then Tatars.
Continuation
Features of the peoples of Siberia
In addition to anthropological and linguistic features, the peoples of Siberia have a number of specific, traditionally stable cultural and economic features that characterize the historical and ethnographic diversity of Siberia. In cultural and economic terms, the territory of Siberia can be divided into two large historically developed regions: the southern one is the region of ancient cattle breeding and agriculture; and northern - the area of commercial hunting and fishing economy. The boundaries of these areas do not coincide with the boundaries of landscape zones. Stable economic and cultural types of Siberia developed in antiquity as a result of historical and cultural processes of different time and nature, which took place in a homogeneous natural and economic environment and under the influence of external foreign cultural traditions.
By the 17th century among the indigenous population of Siberia, according to the predominant type of economic activity, the following economic and cultural types have developed: 1) foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga zone and forest-tundra; 2) sedentary fishermen in the basins of large and small rivers and lakes; 3) sedentary hunters for sea animals on the coast of the Arctic seas; 4) nomadic taiga reindeer herders-hunters and fishermen; 5) nomadic reindeer herders of the tundra and forest-tundra; 6) pastoralists of the steppes and forest-steppes.
In the past, some groups of foot Evenks, Orochs, Udeges, separate groups of Yukagirs, Kets, Selkups, partly Khanty and Mansi, and Shors belonged to the foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga in the past. For these peoples, hunting for meat animals (elk, deer) and fishing were of great importance. A characteristic element of their culture was a hand sled.
The settled-fishing type of economy was widespread in the past among the peoples living in the basins of the river. Amur and Ob: Nivkhs, Nanais, Ulchis, Itelmens, Khanty, part of the Selkups and the Ob Mansi. For these peoples, fishing was the main source of livelihood throughout the year. The hunt had an auxiliary character.
The type of sedentary hunters for sea animals is represented among the settled Chukchi, Eskimos, and partly settled Koryaks. The economy of these peoples is based on the extraction of sea animals (walrus, seal, whale). Arctic hunters settled on the coasts of the Arctic seas. The products of the marine fur trade, in addition to meeting personal needs for meat, fat and skins, also served as a subject of exchange with neighboring related groups.
Nomadic taiga reindeer breeders, hunters and fishermen were the most common type of economy among the peoples of Siberia in the past. He was represented among the Evenks, Evens, Dolgans, Tofalars, Forest Nenets, Northern Selkups, and Reindeer Kets. Geographically, it covered mainly the forests and forest-tundra of Eastern Siberia, from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk, and also extended west of the Yenisei. The basis of the economy was hunting and keeping deer, as well as fishing.
The nomadic reindeer herders of the tundra and forest-tundra include the Nenets, reindeer Chukchi and reindeer Koryaks. These peoples have developed a special type of economy, the basis of which is reindeer husbandry. Hunting and fishing, as well as sea fishing, are of secondary importance or are completely absent. The main food product for this group of peoples is deer meat. The deer also serves as a reliable vehicle.
Cattle breeding in the steppes and forest-steppes in the past was widely represented among the Yakuts, the world's northernmost pastoral people, among the Altaians, Khakasses, Tuvans, Buryats, and Siberian Tatars. Cattle breeding was of a commercial nature, the products almost completely satisfied the needs of the population in meat, milk and dairy products. Agriculture among pastoral peoples (except for the Yakuts) existed as an auxiliary branch of the economy. Some of these peoples were engaged in hunting and fishing.
Along with the indicated types of economy, a number of peoples also had transitional types. For example, the Shors and Northern Altaians combined sedentary cattle breeding with hunting; The Yukaghirs, Nganasans, Enets combined reindeer herding with hunting as their main occupation.
The diversity of cultural and economic types of Siberia determines the specifics of the development of the natural environment by indigenous peoples, on the one hand, and the level of their socio-economic development, on the other. Prior to the arrival of the Russians, economic and cultural specialization did not go beyond the framework of the appropriating economy and primitive (hoe) agriculture and cattle breeding. A variety of natural conditions contributed to the formation of various local variants of economic types, the oldest of which were hunting and fishing.
At the same time, it must be taken into account that "culture" is an extra-biological adaptation, which entails the need for activity. This explains such a multitude of economic and cultural types. Their peculiarity is a sparing attitude to natural resources. And in this all economic and cultural types are similar to each other. However, culture is, at the same time, a system of signs, a semiotic model of a particular society (ethnos). Therefore, a single cultural and economic type is not yet a community of culture. The common thing is that the existence of many traditional cultures is based on a certain way of managing the economy (fishing, hunting, sea hunting, cattle breeding). However, cultures can be different in terms of customs, rituals, traditions, and beliefs.
General characteristics of the peoples of Siberia
The number of the indigenous population of Siberia before the beginning of Russian colonization was about 200 thousand people. The northern (tundra) part of Siberia was inhabited by tribes of Samoyeds, in Russian sources called Samoyeds: Nenets, Enets and Nganasans.
The main economic occupation of these tribes was reindeer herding and hunting, and in the lower reaches of the Ob, Taz and Yenisei - fishing. The main objects of fishing were arctic fox, sable, ermine. Furs served as the main commodity in the payment of yasak and in trade. Furs were also paid as bride price for the girls who were chosen as their wives. The number of Siberian Samoyeds, including the tribes of the southern Samoyeds, reached about 8 thousand people.
To the south of the Nenets lived the Ugrian-speaking tribes of the Khanty (Ostyaks) and Mansi (Voguls). The Khanty were engaged in fishing and hunting; in the region of the Gulf of Ob they had reindeer herds. The main occupation of the Mansi was hunting. Before the arrival of the Russian Mansi on the river. Toure and Tavde were engaged in primitive agriculture, cattle breeding, and beekeeping. The area of settlement of the Khanty and Mansi included the regions of the Middle and Lower Ob with tributaries, pp. Irtysh, Demyanka and Konda, as well as the western and eastern slopes of the Middle Urals. The total number of the Ugric-speaking tribes of Siberia in the 17th century. reached 15-18 thousand people.
To the east of the settlement area of the Khanty and Mansi lay the lands of the southern Samoyeds, the southern or Narym Selkups. For a long time, the Russians called the Narym Selkups Ostyaks because of the similarity of their material culture with the Khanty. The Selkups lived along the middle reaches of the river. Ob and its tributaries. The main economic activity was seasonal fishing and hunting. They hunted fur-bearing animals, elk, wild deer, upland and waterfowl. Before the arrival of the Russians, the southern Samoyeds were united in a military alliance, which was called the Pegoy Horde in Russian sources, led by Prince Voni.
To the east of the Narym Selkups lived tribes of the Ket-speaking population of Siberia: the Kets (Yenisei Ostyaks), Arins, Kotts, Yastyns (4-6 thousand people), who settled in the Middle and Upper Yenisei. Their main occupations were hunting and fishing. Some groups of the population extracted iron from ore, products from which were sold to neighbors or used on the farm.
The upper reaches of the Ob and its tributaries, the upper reaches of the Yenisei, the Altai were inhabited by numerous Turkic tribes that differed greatly in their economic structure - the ancestors of the modern Shors, Altaians, Khakasses: Tomsk, Chulym and "Kuznetsk" Tatars (about 5-6 thousand people), Teleuts ( white Kalmyks) (about 7-8 thousand people), the Yenisei Kirghiz with their subordinate tribes (8-9 thousand people). The main occupation of most of these peoples was nomadic cattle breeding. In some places of this vast territory, hoe farming and hunting were developed. The "Kuznetsk" Tatars had developed blacksmithing.
The Sayan Highlands were occupied by the Samoyed and Turkic tribes of Mators, Karagas, Kamasin, Kachin, Kaysot, and others, with a total number of about 2 thousand people. They were engaged in cattle breeding, breeding horses, hunting, they knew the skills of agriculture.
To the south of the habitats of the Mansi, Selkups and Kets, Turkic-speaking ethno-territorial groups were widespread - the ethnic predecessors of the Siberian Tatars: the Baraba, Terenin, Irtysh, Tobol, Ishim and Tyumen Tatars. By the middle of the XVI century. a significant part of the Turks of Western Siberia (from Tura in the west to Baraba in the east) was under the rule of the Siberian Khanate. The main occupation of the Siberian Tatars was hunting, fishing, cattle breeding was developed in the Baraba steppe. Before the arrival of the Russians, the Tatars were already engaged in agriculture. There was a home production of leather, felt, edged weapons, fur dressing. Tatars acted as intermediaries in transit trade between Moscow and Central Asia.
To the west and east of Baikal there were Mongolian-speaking Buryats (about 25 thousand people), known in Russian sources under the name of “brothers” or “brotherly people”. The basis of their economy was nomadic cattle breeding. Farming and gathering were ancillary occupations. The iron-making craft has received a rather high development.
A significant territory from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk, from the northern tundra to the Amur region was inhabited by the Tungus tribes of the Evenks and Evens (about 30 thousand people). They were divided into "deer" (bred deer), which were the majority, and "foot". The "foot" Evenks and Evens were sedentary fishermen and hunted sea animals on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. One of the main occupations of both groups was hunting. The main game animals were moose, wild deer, and bears. Domestic deer were used by the Evenks as pack and riding animals.
The territory of the Amur region and Primorye was inhabited by peoples who spoke the Tungus-Manchurian languages - the ancestors of modern Nanais, Ulchis, Udeges. The Paleo-Asiatic group of peoples inhabiting this territory also included small groups of Nivkhs (Gilyaks), who lived in the neighborhood of the Tungus-Manchurian peoples of the Amur region. They were also the main inhabitants of Sakhalin. The Nivkhs were the only people of the Amur region who widely used sled dogs in their economic activities.
The middle course of the river. Lena, Upper Yana, Olenyok, Aldan, Amga, Indigirka and Kolyma were occupied by Yakuts (about 38 thousand people). It was the most numerous people among the Turks of Siberia. They raised cattle and horses. Animal and bird hunting and fishing were considered auxiliary trades. Home production of metal was widely developed: copper, iron, silver. They made weapons in large numbers, skillfully dressed leather, wove belts, carved wooden household items and utensils.
The northern part of Eastern Siberia was inhabited by the Yukaghir tribes (about 5 thousand people). The boundaries of their lands stretched from the tundra of Chukotka in the east to the lower reaches of the Lena and Olenek in the west. The north-east of Siberia was inhabited by peoples belonging to the Paleo-Asiatic linguistic family: the Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens. The Chukchi occupied a significant part of the continental Chukotka. Their number was approximately 2.5 thousand people. The southern neighbors of the Chukchi were the Koryaks (9-10 thousand people), very close in language and culture to the Chukchi. They occupied the entire northwestern part of the Okhotsk coast and the part of Kamchatka adjacent to the mainland. The Chukchi and Koryaks were divided, like the Tungus, into "deer" and "foot".
Eskimos (about 4 thousand people) were settled throughout the coastal strip of the Chukotka Peninsula. The main population of Kamchatka in the XVII century. were Itelmens (12 thousand people). A few Ainu tribes lived in the south of the peninsula. The Ainu were also settled on the islands of the Kuril chain and in the southern tip of Sakhalin.
The economic occupations of these peoples were hunting for sea animals, reindeer herding, fishing and gathering. Before the arrival of the Russians, the peoples of northeastern Siberia and Kamchatka were still at a fairly low stage of socio-economic development. Stone and bone tools and weapons were widely used in everyday life.
An important place in the life of almost all Siberian peoples before the arrival of the Russians was occupied by hunting and fishing. A special role was assigned to the extraction of furs, which was the main subject of trade exchange with neighbors and was used as the main payment of tribute - yasak.
Most of the Siberian peoples in the XVII century. Russians were caught at various stages of patriarchal-tribal relations. The most backward forms of social organization were noted among the tribes of northeastern Siberia (Yukaghirs, Chukchis, Koryaks, Itelmens, and Eskimos). In the field of social relations, some of them showed features of domestic slavery, the dominant position of women, etc.
The most developed socio-economically were the Buryats and Yakuts, who at the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. patriarchal-feudal relations developed. The only people who had their own statehood at the time of the arrival of the Russians were the Tatars, united under the rule of the Siberian khans. Siberian Khanate by the middle of the 16th century. covered an area stretching from the Tura basin in the west to Baraba in the east. However, this state formation was not monolithic, torn apart by internecine clashes between various dynastic groups. Incorporation in the 17th century Siberia in the Russian state has fundamentally changed the natural course of the historical process in the region and the fate of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. The beginning of the deformation of traditional culture was associated with the arrival in the region of a population with a productive type of economy, which suggested a different type of human relationship to nature, cultural values and traditions.
Religiously, the peoples of Siberia belonged to different belief systems. The most common form of beliefs was shamanism, based on animism - the spiritualization of the forces and phenomena of nature. A distinctive feature of shamanism is the belief that certain people - shamans - have the ability to enter into direct communication with spirits - patrons and helpers of the shaman in the fight against diseases.
Since the 17th century Orthodox Christianity spread widely in Siberia, Buddhism penetrated in the form of Lamaism. Even earlier, Islam penetrated among the Siberian Tatars. Among the peoples of Siberia, shamanism acquired complicated forms under the influence of Christianity and Buddhism (Tuvans, Buryats). In the XX century. this whole system of beliefs coexisted with an atheistic (materialistic) worldview, which was the official state ideology. Currently, a number of Siberian peoples are experiencing a revival of shamanism.
The peoples of Siberia on the eve of Russian colonization
Itelmens
Self-name - itelmen, itenmy, itelmen, itelmen - "local resident", "resident", "one who exists", "existing", "living". Indigenous people of Kamchatka. The traditional occupation of the Itelmens was fishing. The main fishing season was the time of salmon run. Fishing tools were constipation, nets, hooks. Nets were woven from nettle threads. With the advent of imported yarn, seines began to be made. The fish was harvested for future use in dried form, fermented in special pits, and frozen in winter. The second most important occupation of the Itelmens was sea hunting and hunting. They hunted seals, fur seals, sea beavers, bears, wild sheep, and deer. Fur-bearing animals were hunted mainly for meat. Bows and arrows, traps, various traps, nooses, nets, and spears served as the main fishing tools. Southern Itelmen hunted whales with the help of arrows poisoned with plant poison. The Itelmens had the widest distribution of gathering among the northern peoples. All edible plants, berries, herbs, roots were used as food. Sarana tubers, mutton leaves, wild garlic, and fireweed had the greatest importance in the diet. Gathering products were stored for the winter in dried, dried, sometimes smoked form. Like many Siberian peoples, gathering was the lot of women. From plants, women made mats, bags, baskets, protective shells. Itelmens made tools and weapons from stone, bone and wood. Rock crystal was used to make knives and harpoon tips. Fire was produced using a special device in the form of a wooden drill. The only pet of the Itelmens was a dog. On the water they moved on bats - dugout deck-shaped boats. The settlements of the Itelmens (“ostrogki” – atynum) were located along the banks of the rivers and consisted of one to four winter dwellings and four to forty-four summer dwellings. The layout of the villages was distinguished by its disorderliness. Wood was the main building material. The hearth was located near one of the walls of the dwelling. A large (up to 100 people) family lived in such a dwelling. In the fields, the Itelmens also lived in light frame buildings - bazhabazh - gable, single-slope and pyramidal dwellings. Such dwellings were covered with tree branches, grass, and heated by a fire. They wore deaf fur clothes from the skins of deer, dogs, marine animals and birds. The set of everyday clothes for men and women included trousers, a kukhlyanka with a hood and a bib, and soft reindeer boots. The traditional food of the Itelmens was fish. The most common fish dishes were yukola, dried salmon caviar, chupriki - fish baked in a special way. In winter they ate frozen fish. Pickled fish heads were considered a delicacy. Boiled fish was also used. Meat and fat of marine animals, vegetable products, poultry meat were used as additional food. The predominant form of social organization of the Itelmens was the patriarchal family. In winter, all its members lived in one dwelling, in summer they broke up into separate families. Family members were connected by ties of kinship. Communal property dominated, early forms of slavery existed. Large family communities and associations were constantly at enmity with each other, waged numerous wars. Marriage was characterized by polygamy - polygamy. All aspects of life and life of the Itelmens were regulated by beliefs and signs. There were ritual festivities associated with the annual economic cycle. The main holiday of the year, which lasted about a month, took place in November, after the completion of the fishery. It was dedicated to the owner of the sea Mitgu. In the past, the Itelmens left the corpses of dead people unburied or gave them to be eaten by dogs, children were buried in hollows of trees.
Yukagirs
Self-name - odul, vadul ("mighty", "strong"). The obsolete Russian name is omoki. Number of 1112 people. The main traditional occupation of the Yukagirs was semi-nomadic and nomadic hunting for wild deer, elk and mountain sheep. Deer were hunted with bows and arrows, crossbows were placed on deer paths, loops were alerted, decoy deer were used, and deer were stabbed at river crossings. In the spring, deer were hunted by paddock. A significant role in the economy of the Yukaghirs was played by hunting for fur-bearing animals: sable, white and blue fox. Tundra Yukaghirs caught geese and ducks during the molting of birds. The hunt for them was of a collective nature: one group of people stretched nets on the lake, the other drove birds deprived of the opportunity to fly into them. Partridges were hunted with the help of loops, during the hunting of sea birds they used throwing darts and a special throwing weapon - bolas, consisting of belts with stones at the ends. The collection of bird eggs was practiced. Along with hunting, fishing played a significant role in the life of the Yukagirs. The main object of the fishery was nelma, muksun, and omul. Fish were caught with nets and traps. Dog and reindeer sleds served as traditional means of transportation for the Yukagirs. On the snow they moved on skis lined with skins. An ancient means of transportation on the river was a raft in the shape of a triangle, the top of which formed the prow. The settlements of the Yukaghirs were permanent and temporary, seasonal. They had five types of dwellings: chum, golomo, booth, yurt, log house. The Yukagir tent (odun-nime) is a conical building of the Tungus type with a frame of 3–4 poles fastened with willow hoops. Deer skins serve as a covering in winter, larch bark in summer. They usually lived in it from spring to autumn. As a summer dwelling, the plague has been preserved to this day. The winter dwelling was golomo (kandele nime) - a pyramidal shape. The winter dwelling of the Yukagirs was also a booth (yanakh-nime). The log roof was insulated with a layer of bark and earth. The Yukagir yurt is a portable cylindrical-conical dwelling. The settled Yukagirs lived in log cabins (in winter and summer) with flat or conical roofs. The main garment was a knee-length swinging robe, made of rovduga in summer and reindeer skins in winter. Seal skin tails were sewn on from below. A bib and short trousers were worn under the caftan, made of leather in summer and fur in winter. Winter clothing made of rovduga was widespread, similar in cut to the Chukchi kamleika and kukhlyanka. Shoes were made of rovduga, hare fur and reindeer skins. Women's clothing was lighter than men's, sewn from the fur of young deer or females. In the 19th century Among the Yukagirs, purchased cloth clothing spread: men's shirts, women's dresses, scarves. Iron, copper and silver ornaments were common. The main food was animal meat and fish. The meat was consumed boiled, dried, raw and frozen. Fat was rendered from fish offal, offal was fried, cakes were baked from caviar. The berry was used with fish. They also ate wild onions, sarana roots, nuts, berries, and, which was rare for the Siberian peoples, mushrooms. A feature of the family and marriage relations of the taiga Yukagirs was a matrilocal marriage - after the wedding, the husband moved to his wife's house. The families of the Yukaghirs were large, patriarchal. The custom of levirate was practiced - the duty of a man to marry the widow of his older brother. Shamanism existed in the form of tribal shamanism. The dead shamans could become objects of worship. The shaman's body was dismembered, and its parts were kept as relics, sacrifices were made to them. The customs associated with fire played an important role. It was forbidden to pass the fire to outsiders, to pass between the hearth and the head of the family, to swear at the fire, etc.
Nivkhs
Self-name - Nivkhgu - "people" or "Nivkh people"; nivkh - "man". The outdated naming of the Nivkhs is Gilyaks. The traditional occupations of the Nivkhs were fishing, sea fishing, hunting and gathering. An important role was played by the fishing of migratory salmon fish - chum salmon and pink salmon. Fish were caught with the help of nets, seines, harpoons, and rides. Among the Sakhalin Nivkhs, marine hunting was developed. They hunted sea lions and seals. Sea lions were caught with large nets, seals were beaten with harpoons and clubs (clubs) when they crawled out onto ice floes. Hunting played a smaller role in the economy of the Nivkhs. The hunting season began in autumn, after the end of the course of the fish. They hunted a bear that went out to the rivers to eat fish. The bear was killed with a bow or a gun. Another object of hunting for the Nivkhs was sable. In addition to sable, they also hunted lynx, column, otter, squirrel and fox. The fur was sold to Chinese and Russian purveyors. Dog breeding was widespread among the Nivkhs. The number of dogs in the Nivkh household was an indicator of prosperity and material well-being. On the sea coast, shellfish and seaweed were collected for food. Blacksmithing was developed among the Nivkhs. Metal objects of Chinese, Japanese and Russian origin were used as raw materials. They were reforged to fit their needs. They made knives, arrowheads, harpoons, spears, and other household items. Silver was used to decorate copies. Other crafts were also widespread - the manufacture of skis, boats, sleds, wooden utensils, dishes, bone and leather processing, weaving of mats, baskets. In the economy of the Nivkhs there was a sexual division of labor. Men were engaged in fishing, hunting, making tools, gear, vehicles, harvesting and transporting firewood, and blacksmithing. The duties of women included processing fish, seal and dog skins, sewing clothes, preparing birch bark dishes, collecting plant products, housekeeping and caring for dogs. Nivkh settlements were usually located near the mouths of spawning rivers, on the sea coast and rarely had more than 20 dwellings. There were winter and summer permanent dwellings. Dugouts belonged to winter types of dwelling. The summer type of dwelling was the so-called. letniki - buildings on piles 1.5 m high, with a gable roof covered with birch bark. The main food of the Nivkhs was fish. It was consumed raw, boiled and frozen. They prepared yukola, it was often used as bread. Meat was rarely eaten. Nivkh food was seasoned with fish oil or seal oil. Edible plants and berries were also used as seasoning. Mos was considered a favorite dish - a decoction (jelly) made from fish skins, seal oil, berries, rice, with the addition of crumbled yukola. Other dainty dishes were talkk - raw fish salad dressed with wild garlic, and struganina. The Nivkhs got acquainted with rice, millet and tea while still trading with China. After the arrival of the Russians, the Nivkhs began to consume bread, sugar and salt. Currently, national dishes are prepared as holiday treats. The basis of the social structure of the Nivkhs was an exogamous * clan, which included blood relatives in the male line. Each clan had its own generic name, fixing the place of settlement of this clan, for example: Chombing - “living on the Chom River. The classic form of marriage among the Nivkhs was marriage to the mother's brother's daughter. However, it was forbidden to marry the daughter of the father's sister. Each clan was connected by marriage with two more clans. Wives were taken from only one specific clan and given only to a certain clan, but not to the one from which the wives were taken. In the past, the Nivkhs had an institution of blood feud. For the murder of a member of the clan, all the men of this clan had to take revenge on all the men of the murderer's clan. Later, blood feud began to be replaced by ransom. Valuable items served as ransom: chain mail, spears, silk fabrics. Also in the past, wealthy Nivkhs developed slavery, which was patriarchal in nature. Slaves did only household chores. They could start their own household and marry a free woman. The offspring of slaves in the fifth generation became free. The basis of the Nivkh worldview was animistic ideas. In each individual object, they saw a living principle, endowed with a soul. Nature was full of intelligent inhabitants. The killer whale was the owner of all animals. The sky, according to the ideas of the Nivkhs, was inhabited by "heavenly people" - the sun and the moon. The cult associated with the "masters" of nature was generic in nature. A tribal holiday was considered a bear holiday (chkhyf-lekhard - a bear game). It was associated with the cult of the dead, as it was arranged in memory of the deceased relative. It included a complex ceremony of killing a bear with a bow, ritual treatment of bear meat, sacrifice of dogs, and other actions. After the holiday, the head, bones of the bear, ritual utensils and things were put into a special ancestral barn, which was constantly visited regardless of where the Nivkhs lived. A characteristic feature of the funeral rite of the Nivkhs was the burning of the dead. There was also the custom of burial in the ground. During the burning, they broke the sled on which the deceased was brought, and killed the dogs, whose meat was boiled and eaten on the spot. Only members of his family buried the deceased. The Nivkhs had prohibitions associated with the cult of fire. Shamanism was not developed, but there were shamans in every village. The duty of shamans was to treat people and fight evil spirits. Shamans did not take part in the tribal cults of the Nivkhs.
Tuvans
Self-name - tyva kizhi, tyvalar; an outdated name - Soyots, Soyons, Uriankhians, Tannu Tuvans. Indigenous population of Tuva. The number in Russia is 206.2 thousand people. They also live in Mongolia and China. They are divided into western Tuvans of central and southern Tuva and eastern Tuvans (Tuvans-Todzhans) of the northeastern and southeastern parts of Tuva. They speak Tuvan. They have four dialects: central, western, northeastern and southeastern. In the past, the Tuvan language was influenced by the neighboring Mongolian language. Tuvan writing began to be created in the 1930s, based on the Latin alphabet. The beginning of the formation of the Tuvan literary language also belongs to this time. In 1941, Tuvan writing was translated into Russian graphics
The main branch of the economy of the Tuvans was and remains cattle breeding. Western Tuvans, whose economy was based on nomadic cattle breeding, bred small and large cattle, horses, yaks and camels. Pastures were predominantly located in river valleys. During the year, Tuvans made 3–4 migrations. The length of each migration ranged from 5 to 17 km. The herds had several dozen different heads of cattle. Part of the herd was raised annually to provide the family with meat. Animal husbandry fully covered the needs of the population in dairy products. However, the conditions of keeping livestock (grazing throughout the year, constant migrations, the habit of keeping young animals on a leash, etc.) adversely affected the quality of young animals and caused their death. The very technique of cattle breeding led to the frequent death of the entire herd from exhaustion, starvation, disease, and from the attack of wolves. The loss of livestock was estimated at tens of thousands of heads annually.
Reindeer breeding was developed in the eastern regions of Tuva, but Tuvans used reindeer only for riding. Throughout the year, deer grazed on natural pastures. In the summer, the herds were taken to the mountains, in September the squirrels hunted on the reindeer. Deer were kept openly, without any fences. At night, the calves, along with the queens, were released to pasture, in the morning they returned on their own. They milked deer, like other animals, by suckling, with young animals being let in.
An auxiliary occupation of the Tuvans was irrigation farming with gravity irrigation. The only type of land cultivation was spring plowing. They plowed with a wooden plow (andazin), which was tied to a horse's saddle. They harrowed with drags from the branches of a karagannik (kalagar-iliir). The ears were cut with a knife or pulled out by hand. Russian sickles appeared among the Tuvans only at the beginning of the 20th century. Millet and barley were sown from grain crops. The site was used for three to four years, then it was abandoned to restore fertility.
From home industries, the manufacture of felt, wood processing, dressing of birch bark, processing of skins and dressing of leather, blacksmithing were developed. Felt was made by every Tuvan family. It was needed to cover a portable dwelling, for beds, rugs, bedding, etc. Blacksmiths specialized in the manufacture of bits, girths and buckles, stirrups, iron carts, flint, adzes, axes, etc. By the beginning of the 20th century. in Tuva, there were more than 500 blacksmiths-jewelers, who worked mainly to order. The range of wood products was limited mainly to household items: details of the yurt, dishes, furniture, toys, chess. Women were engaged in processing and dressing the skins of wild and domestic animals. The main means of transportation for the Tuvans was a saddle and pack horse, and in some areas - a deer. They also rode bulls and yaks. Of the other means of transportation, the Tuvans used skis and rafts.
The Tuvans had five types of dwellings. The main type of dwelling of nomadic pastoralists is a lattice felt yurta of the Mongolian type (terbe-Og). This is a cylindrical-conical frame building with a smoke hole in the roof. In Tuva, a version of the yurt without a smoke hole is also known. The yurt was covered with 3–7 felt tires, which were tied to the frame with woolen ribbons. The diameter of the yurt is 4.3 m, the height is 1.3 m. The entrance to the dwelling was usually oriented to the east, south or southeast. The door to the yurt was made of felt or plank. In the center was a hearth or an iron stove with a chimney. The floor was covered with felt. To the right and left of the entrance there were kitchen utensils, a bed, chests, leather bags with property, saddles, harness, weapons, etc. They ate and sat on the floor. They lived in a yurt in winter and summer, transporting it from place to place during wanderings.
The dwelling of the Tuvan-Todzhans, hunters-reindeer herders, was a conical tent (alachykh, alazhi-Og). The design of the plague was made of poles covered with deer or elk skins in winter, and birch bark or larch bark in summer. Sometimes the design of the plague consisted of several felled young tree trunks attached to each other with branches left at the top, to which poles were attached. The plague frame was not transported, only tires. The diameter of the chum was 4–5.8 m, and the height was 3–4 m. 12–18 deer skins sewn with reindeer tendon threads were used to make tires for the chum. In summer, the tent was covered with leather or birch bark tires. The entrance to the chum was carried out from the south side. The hearth was located in the center of the dwelling in the form of an inclined pole with a loop of hair rope, to which a chain with a boiler was tied. In winter, tree branches lay on the floor.
The plague of Todzha cattle breeders (alachog) was somewhat different from the plague of hunters-reindeer herders. It was larger, did not have a pole for hanging the boiler over the fire, larch bark was used as tires: 30-40 pieces. It was laid like a tile, covered with earth.
Western Tuvans covered the tent with felt tires fastened with hair ropes. In the center they put a stove or made a fire. A hook for a cauldron or teapot was hung from the top of the tent. The door was felt in a wooden frame. The layout is the same as in the yurt: the right side is female, the left side is male. The place behind the hearth opposite the entrance was considered honorable. Religious objects were also kept there. Chum could be portable and stationary.
Settled Tuvans had four-walled and five-six-coal frame-pillar buildings made of poles, covered with elk skins or bark (borbak-Og). The area of such dwellings was 8–10 m, height - 2 m. The roofs of the dwellings were four-pitched vaulted-domed, sometimes flat. From the end of the 19th century settled Tuvans began to build rectangular single-chamber log cabins with a flat earthen roof, without windows, with a hearth-fire on the floor. The area of dwellings was 3.5x3.5 m. Tuvans borrowed from the Russian population at the beginning of the 20th century. technique for constructing dugouts with a flat log roof. Wealthy Tuvans built five or six coal log houses-yurts of the Buryat type with a pyramid-shaped roof covered with larch bark with a smoke hole in the center.
Hunters and shepherds built temporary shed or gable frame dwellings-shelters from poles and bark in the form of a hut (chadyr, chavyg, chavyt). The skeleton of the dwelling was covered with branches, branches, grass. In a gable dwelling, a fire was lit at the entrance, in a single-slope dwelling, in the center. Tuvans used log-built above-ground barns, sometimes sprinkled with earth, as economic buildings.
Currently, nomadic pastoralists live in felt or log polygonal yurts. In the fields, conical, gable frame buildings and shelters are sometimes used. Many Tuvans live in settlements in modern standard houses.
The clothes of the Tuvans (khep) were adapted to nomadic life until the 20th century. carried stable traditional features. She was sewn, including shoes, from dressed skins of domestic and wild animals, as well as from purchased fabrics purchased from Russian and Chinese merchants. According to its purpose, it was divided into spring-summer and autumn-winter and consisted of everyday, festive, commercial, cult and sports.
Shoulder outerwear-robe (mon) was a tunic-shaped swing. There were no significant differences between men's, women's and children's clothing in terms of cut. She wrapped herself to the right (left floor over right) and was always girded with a long sash. Only Tuvan shamans did not gird their ritual costumes during the ritual. A characteristic feature of the outerwear-robe was long sleeves with cuffs that fell below the hands. Such a cut saved the hands from spring and autumn frosts and winter frosts, and made it possible not to use mittens. A similar phenomenon was noted among the Mongols and Buryats. The dressing gown was sewn almost to the ankles. In spring and summer, they wore a dressing gown made of colored (blue or cherry) fabric. Wealthy Western Tuvan herdsmen wore robes made of colored Chinese silk in the warm season. In summer, silk sleeveless jackets (kandaaz) were worn over the robe. Khashton, which was sewn from worn deer skins or autumn roe deer rovduga, served as a common type of summer clothing among Tuvan reindeer herders.
Various trade cults and mythological representations played a significant role in the beliefs of the Tuvans. The cult of the bear stands out among the most ancient representations and rituals. Hunting him was considered a sin. The killing of a bear was accompanied by certain rituals and spells. In the bear, the Tuvans, like all Siberian peoples, saw the master spirit of the fishing grounds, the ancestor and relative of people. He was considered a totem. He was never called by his real name (Adyg), but allegorical nicknames were used, for example: khaiyrakan (lord), irey (grandfather), daai (uncle), etc. The cult of the bear manifested itself in the most vivid form in the ritual of the “bear holiday”.
Siberian Tatars
Self-name - sibirtar (inhabitants of Siberia), sibirtatarlar (Siberian Tatars). In the literature there is a name - West Siberian Tatars. Settled in the middle and southern parts of Western Siberia from the Urals to the Yenisei: in the Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk and Tyumen regions. The number is about 190 thousand people. In the past, Siberian Tatars called themselves yasakly (yasak foreigners), top-yerly-khalk (old-timers), chuvalshchiks (from the name of the chuval oven). Local self-names have been preserved: Tobolik (Tobolsk Tatars), Tarlik (Tara Tatars), Tyumenik (Tyumen Tatars), Baraba / Paraba Tomtatarlar (Tomsk Tatars), etc. They include several ethnic groups: Tobol-Irtysh (Kurdak-Sargat, Tara, Tobolsk, Tyumen and Yaskolba Tatars), Baraba (Baraba-Turazh, Lyubey-Tunus and Tereninsky-Cheya Tatars) and Tomsk (Kalmaks, Chats and Eushta). They speak the Siberian-Tatar language, which has several local dialects. The Siberian-Tatar language belongs to the Kypchak-Bulgar subgroup of the Kypchak group of the Altaic language family.
The ethnogenesis of the Siberian Tatars is presented as a process of mixing of the Ugric, Samoyedic, Turkic and partly Mongolian groups of the population of Western Siberia. So, for example, in the material culture of the Baraba Tatars, features of similarity of the Baraba people with the Khanty, Mansi and Selkups, and to a small extent with the Evenks and Kets were revealed. The Turin Tatars have local Mansi components. Regarding the Tomsk Tatars, the point of view is maintained that they are an aboriginal Samoyed population, which experienced a strong influence from the nomadic Turks.
The Mongolian ethnic component began to be part of the Siberian Tatars from the 13th century. The Mongol-speaking tribes had the most recent influence on the Barabans, who in the 17th century. were in close contact with the Kalmyks.
Meanwhile, the main core of the Siberian Tatars were the ancient Turkic tribes, who began to penetrate the territory of Western Siberia in the 5th-7th centuries. n. e. from the east from the Minusinsk basin and from the south from Central Asia and Altai. In the XI-XII centuries. the most significant influence on the formation of the Siberian-Tatar ethnos was exerted by the Kipchaks. As part of the Siberian Tatars, tribes and clans of Khatans, Kara-Kypchaks, Nugays are also recorded. Later, the Siberian-Tatar ethnic community included the yellow Uighurs, Bukharians-Uzbeks, Teleuts, Kazan Tatars, Mishars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs. With the exception of the yellow Uighurs, they strengthened the Kipchak component among the Siberian Tatars.
The main traditional occupations for all groups of Siberian Tatars were agriculture and cattle breeding. For some groups of Tatars living in the forest zone, a significant place in economic activity was occupied by hunting and fishing. Among the Baraba Tatars, lake fishing played a significant role. The northern groups of the Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba Tatars were engaged in river fishing and hunting. Some groups of Tatars had a combination of different economic and cultural types. Fishing was often accompanied by grazing or caring for plots of land sown in fishing grounds. Foot hunting on skis was often combined with hunting on horseback.
Siberian Tatars were familiar with agriculture even before the arrival of Russian settlers in Siberia. Most groups of Tatars were engaged in hoe farming. Barley, oats, spelt were grown from the main grain crops. By the beginning of the XX century. Siberian Tatars were already sowing rye, wheat, buckwheat, millet, as well as barley and oats. In the 19th century the Tatars borrowed the main arable implements from the Russians: a single-horse wooden plow with an iron coulter, “vilachukha” - a plow without a limber, harnessed to one horse; "wheel" and "saban" - front (on wheels) plow harnessed to two horses. When harrowing, the Tatars used a harrow with wooden or iron teeth. Most of the Tatars used plows and harrows of their own manufacture. Sowing was done by hand. Sometimes the arable land was weeded with a ketmen or by hand. During the collection and processing of grain, sickles (urak, urgish), a Lithuanian scythe (tsalgy, sama), a flail (mulatto - from the Russian “threshed”), pitchforks (agats, sinek, sospak), rakes (ternauts, tyrnauts), a wooden shovel (korek) or a bucket (chilyak) for winnowing grain in the wind, as well as wooden mortars with a pestle (keel), wooden or stone hand mills (kul tirmen, tygyrmen, chartashe).
Cattle breeding was developed among all groups of Siberian Tatars. However, in the XIX century. nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralism has lost its economic importance. At the same time, at that time, the role of domestic stationary cattle breeding increased. More favorable conditions for the development of this type of cattle breeding existed in the southern regions of the Tara, Kainsky and Tomsk districts. Tatars bred horses, large and small cattle.
Cattle breeding was predominantly commercial in nature: cattle were raised for sale. They also sold meat, milk, skins, horsehair, sheep's wool, and other livestock products. Horses were bred for sale.
Livestock grazing in the warm season was carried out near the settlements in specially designated areas (pastures) or on communal lands. For young animals, notches (calves) were arranged in the form of a fence inside the pasture, or cattle. Cattle were usually grazed without supervision, only wealthy Tatar families resorted to the help of shepherds. In winter, cattle were kept in log flocks, thatched baskets or in a covered yard under a canopy. Men took care of the cattle in winter - they brought hay, removed manure, fed. Women were engaged in milking cows. Many farms kept chickens, geese, ducks, sometimes turkeys. Some Tatar families were engaged in beekeeping. At the beginning of the XX century. gardening began to spread among the Tatars.
Hunting played an important role in the structure of the traditional occupations of the Siberian Tatars. They hunted mainly fur-bearing animals: fox, column, ermine, squirrel, hare. The object of hunting was also a bear, lynx, roe deer, wolf, elk. Moles were hunted in the summer. Geese, ducks, partridges, capercaillie and hazel grouse were harvested from birds. The hunting season began with the first snow. Hunted on foot, skiing in winter. Among the Tatar hunters of the Baraba steppe, horse hunting was widespread, especially for wolves.
Various traps, crossbows, baits served as hunting tools, guns and purchased iron traps were used. The bear was hunted with a horn, raising it from the den in winter. Moose and deer were hunted with the help of crossbows, which were installed on elk and deer trails. When hunting for wolves, the Tatars used clubs made of wood with a thickened end, upholstered in an iron plate (checkmers), sometimes hunters used long bladed knives. On the column, ermine or capercaillie they put bags, in which meat, offal or fish served as bait. On the squirrel they put cherkany. When hunting for a hare, loops were used. Many hunters used dogs. The skins of fur animals and the skins of elk were sold to buyers, the meat was eaten. Pillows and feather beds were made from feathers and fluff of birds.
Fishing was a profitable occupation for many Siberian Tatars. They were everywhere engaged in both rivers and lakes. Fish were caught all year round. Fishing was especially developed among the Baraba, Tyumen and Tomsk Tatars. They caught pike, ide, chebak, crucian carp, perch, burbot, taimen, muksun, cheese, nelma, sterlet, etc. Most of the catch, especially in winter, was sold frozen at city bazaars or fairs. Tomsk Tatars (Eushtintsy) sold fish in the summer, bringing it to Tomsk alive in specially equipped large boats with bars.
Nets (au) and nets (scarlet) served as traditional fishing tools, which the Tatars often wove themselves. Seines were divided according to their purpose: yaz seine (opta au), cheese seine (yesht au), crucian (yazy balyk au), muksun (chryndy au). Fish were also caught with the help of fishing rods (karmak), traps, various basket-type tools: muzzles, tops and korchags. They also used wicks and nonsense. Practiced night fishing for large fish. It was mined by the light of torches sharp (sapak, tsatsky) from three to five teeth. Sometimes dams were arranged on the rivers, and the accumulated fish were scooped out with scoops. At present, fishing in many Tatar farms has disappeared. It retained some significance among the Tomsk, Baraba, Tobol-Irtysh and Yaskolba Tatars.
The secondary occupations of the Siberian Tatars included the gathering of wild-growing edible plants, as well as the collection of pine nuts and mushrooms, against which the Tatars had no prejudice. Berries and nuts were taken out for sale. In some villages, hops growing in willows were collected, which was also sold. A significant role in the economy of the Tomsk and Tyumen Tatars was played by carting. They transported various cargoes on horseback to the major cities of Siberia: Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk; carried goods to Moscow, Semipalatinsk, Irbit and other cities. Livestock products and fishery products were transported as cargo, in winter they transported firewood from cutting areas, timber.
Of the crafts, the Siberian Tatars developed leatherwork, the manufacture of ropes, sacks; knitting nets, weaving baskets and baskets from wicker, making birch bark and wooden utensils, carts, sledges, boats, skis, blacksmithing, jewelry art. Tatars supplied tal bark and leather to tanneries, firewood, straw and aspen ash to glass factories.
Natural waterways played an important role as means of communication for the Siberian Tatars. In spring and autumn the dirt roads were impassable. They traveled along the rivers in dugout boats (kama, keme, kima) of pointed type. Dugouts were made from aspen, nutcrackers - from cedar boards. The Tomsk Tatars knew boats made of birch bark. In the past, the Tomsk Tatars (Eushtintsy) used rafts (sal) to move along rivers and lakes. On dirt roads in summer, goods were transported on carts, in winter - on sledges or firewood. To transport cargo, the Baraba and Tomsk Tatars used hand-held straight-dust sleds, which the hunters pulled with a strap. The traditional means of transportation of the Siberian Tatars were skis of a sliding type: ceilings (lined with fur) for moving in deep snow and naked ones - when walking on hard snow in spring. Horse riding was also widespread among the Siberian Tatars.
The traditional settlements of the Siberian Tatars - yurts, auls, uluses, aimaks - were located mainly along river floodplains, lake shores, along roads. The villages were small (5–10 houses) and located at a considerable distance from each other. Characteristic features of the Tatar villages were the lack of a specific layout, crooked narrow streets, the presence of dead ends, and the scattered residential buildings. Each village had a mosque with a minaret, a fence and a grove with a clearing for public prayers. There could be a cemetery near the mosque. Wattle, adobe, brick, log and stone houses (s) served as dwellings. In the past, dugouts were also known.
Tomsk and Baraba Tatars lived in rectangular frame houses, woven from twigs and smeared with clay - mud huts (utou, ode). The basis of this type of dwelling was made up of corner posts with transverse poles, which were intertwined with rods. The dwellings were backfilled: earth was covered between two parallel walls, the walls outside and inside were coated with clay mixed with manure. The roof was flat, it was made on sleds and mats. It was covered with turf, overgrown with grass over time. The smoke hole in the roof also served as lighting. The Tomsk Tatars also had mud huts, round in plan, slightly deepened into the ground.
Of the outbuildings, the Siberian Tatars had cattle pens made of poles, wooden barns for storing food, fishing tackle and agricultural equipment, baths arranged in black, without a pipe; stables, cellars, bread ovens. The yard with outbuildings was surrounded by a high fence made of boards, logs or wattle. A gate and a gate were arranged in the fence. Often the yard was fenced with a fence made of willow or willow poles.
In the past, Tatar women ate food after men. At weddings and holidays, men and women ate separately from each other. Nowadays, many traditional food-related customs have disappeared. Foods that were previously forbidden to be eaten for religious or other reasons, in particular pork products, have come into use. At the same time, some national dishes from meat, flour, and milk are still preserved.
The main form of the family among the Siberian Tatars was a small family (5-6 people). The head of the family was the eldest man in the house - grandfather, father or older brother. The position of women in the family was humiliated. Girls were given in marriage at an early age - at 13 years old. His parents were looking for a bride for their son. She was not supposed to see her fiancé before the wedding. Marriages were concluded through matchmaking, voluntary departure and forced kidnapping of the bride. Practiced payment for the bride kalym. It was forbidden to marry and marry relatives. The property of the deceased head of the family was divided into equal parts among the sons of the deceased. If there were no sons, then half of the property was received by the daughters, and the other part was divided among relatives.
Of the folk holidays of the Siberian Tatars, the most popular was and remains Sabantuy - the holiday of the plow. It is celebrated after the completion of sowing work. On Sabantuy, horse races, races, competitions in long jumps, tug-of-war, sack fights on a log, etc. are arranged.
The folk art of the Siberian Tatars in the past was represented mainly by oral folk art. The main types of folklore were fairy tales, songs (lyrical, dance), proverbs and riddles, heroic songs, legends about heroes, historical epics. The performance of songs was accompanied by playing folk musical instruments: kurai (wooden pipe), kobyz (reed instrument made of a metal plate), harmonica, tambourine.
Fine art existed mainly in the form of embroidery on clothes. Plots of embroidery - flowers, plants. Of the Muslim holidays, Uraza and Kurban Bayram were widely distributed and exist now.
Selkups
The basis of the Nivkh worldview was animistic ideas. In each individual object, they saw a living principle, endowed with a soul. Nature was full of intelligent inhabitants. Sakhalin Island was presented as a humanoid creature. The Nivkhs endowed trees, mountains, rivers, land, water, cliffs, etc. with the same properties. The killer whale was the owner of all animals. The sky, according to the ideas of the Nivkhs, was inhabited by "heavenly people" - the sun and the moon. The cult associated with the "masters" of nature was generic in nature. A tribal holiday was considered a bear holiday (chkhyf-lekhard - a bear game). It was associated with the cult of the dead, as it was arranged in memory of the deceased relative. For this holiday, a bear was hunted in the taiga or a bear cub was bought, which was fed for several years. The honorable duty to kill the bear was given to the narkhs - people from the "son-in-law family" of the organizer of the holiday. By the holiday, all members of the family gave supplies and money to the owner of the bear. The owner's family prepared treats for the guests.
The holiday usually took place in February and lasted several days. It included a complex ceremony of killing a bear with a bow, ritual treatment of bear meat, sacrifice of dogs, and other actions. After the holiday, the head, bones of the bear, ritual utensils and things were put into a special ancestral barn, which was constantly visited regardless of where the Nivkhs lived.
A characteristic feature of the funeral rite of the Nivkhs was the burning of the dead. There was also the custom of burial in the ground. During the burning, they broke the sled on which the deceased was brought, and killed the dogs, whose meat was boiled and eaten on the spot. Only members of his family buried the deceased. The Nivkhs had prohibitions associated with the cult of fire. Shamanism was not developed, but there were shamans in every village. The duty of shamans was to treat people and fight evil spirits. Shamans did not take part in the tribal cults of the Nivkhs.
In ethnographic literature until the 1930s. The Selkups were called Ostyak-Samoyeds. This ethnonym was introduced in the middle of the 19th century. Finnish scientist M.A. Castren, who proved that the Selkups are a special community, which in terms of conditions and way of life is close to the Ostyaks (Khanty), and in language is related to the Samoyeds (Nenets). Another obsolete name for the Selkups, the Ostyaks, coincides with the name of the Khanty (and Kets) and probably goes back to the language of the Siberian Tatars. The first contacts of the Selkups with the Russians date back to the end of the 16th century. There are several dialects in the Selkup language. An attempt made in the 1930s to create a single literary language (based on the northern dialect) failed.
The main occupations of all Selkup groups were hunting and fishing. The southern Selkups led a mostly semi-sedentary way of life. Based on a certain difference in the ratio of fishing and hunting, they had a division into forest inhabitants - majilkup, who lived on the Ob channels, and Ob - koltakup. The economy of the Ob Selkups (Koltakups) was focused mainly on mining in the river. Obi fish of valuable breeds. The life support system of the forest Selkups (majilkups) was based on hunting. The main game animals were elk, squirrel, ermine, Siberian weasel, sable. Moose were hunted for meat. When hunting for him, they used crossbows installed on the trails, guns. Other animals were hunted with bows and arrows, as well as various traps and devices: mouths, sacks, jags, cherkans, snares, dies, traps. We also hunted bears
Hunting for upland game was of great importance for the southern Selkups, as well as for many peoples of Siberia. In the autumn they hunted capercaillie, black grouse and hazel grouse. Upland game meat was usually harvested for future use. In summer, moulting geese were hunted on the lakes. Hunting for them was carried out collectively. Geese were driven into one of the bays and caught with nets.
In the Tazovskaya tundra, fox hunting occupied a significant place in hunting. Modern hunting is developed mainly among the northern Selkups. There are practically no professional hunters among the southern Selkups.
For all groups of the southern Selkups, fishing was the most significant in the economy. The objects of fishing were sturgeon, nelma, muksun, sterlet, burbot, pike, ide, crucian carp, perch, etc. Fish was caught year-round on rivers and floodplain lakes. She was caught both with nets and traps: cats, snouts, snares, wicks. Large fish were also caught by spear and archery. The fishing season was divided into "small fishing" before the water decline and exposure of the sands, and "big fishing" after the exposure of the sands, when almost the entire population switched to the "sands" and fished with nets. Various traps were set on the lakes. Ice fishing was practiced. In certain places at the mouths of tributaries, spring constipation from stakes was arranged annually.
Under the influence of the Russians, the southern Selkups began to breed domestic animals: horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry. At the beginning of the XX century. The Selkups began to engage in gardening. The skills of cattle breeding (horse breeding) were known to the ancestors of the southern Selkups at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. The problem of reindeer breeding among the southern groups of the Selkups remains debatable.
The traditional means of transportation among the southern Selkups are a dugout boat - an oblos, in winter - skis lined with fur or golitsy. They went skiing with the help of a stick-staff, which had a ring below, and a bone hook on top to remove snow from under the foot. In the taiga, a hand-held sledge, narrow and long, was widely used. The hunter usually dragged it himself with the help of a belt loop. Sometimes the sled was pulled by a dog.
The northern Selkups developed reindeer husbandry, which had a transport direction. Reindeer herds in the past rarely numbered 200 to 300 deer. Most northern Selkups had from one to 20 heads. The Turukhansk Selkups were without deer. Deer have never been herded. In winter, in order for the deer not to go far from the village, wooden “shoes” (mokta) were put on the feet of several deer in the herd. Reindeer were released in the summer. With the onset of the mosquito season, the deer gathered in herds and went into the forest. Only after the end of fishing, the owners began to look for their deer. They hunted them down in the same way as they hunted down a wild beast on a hunt.
Northern Selkups borrowed reindeer in a sleigh from the Nenets. The sledge-free (Turukhansk) Selkups, like the southern Selkups, used a hand-held sledge (kanji) when walking to hunt, on which the hunter carried ammunition and food. In winter, they moved on skis, which were made of spruce wood and glued with fur. On the water they moved on dugout boats - oblaskas. Rowing with one oar, sitting, kneeling and sometimes standing.
The Selkups distinguish several types of settlements: year-round stationary, supplemented seasonal ones for hunters without families, stationary winter combined with portable ones for other seasons, stationary winter and stationary summer. In Russian, Selkup settlements were called yurts. Northern Selkup reindeer herders live in camps consisting of two or three, sometimes five portable dwellings. Taiga Selkups settled along the rivers, on the banks of lakes. The villages are small, from two or three to 10 houses.
The Selkups knew six types of dwellings (tent, truncated-pyramidal frame underground and log underground, log house with a flat roof, underground made of beams, boat-ilimka).
The permanent dwelling of the Selkup reindeer herders was a portable tent of the Samoyed type (korel-mat) - a conical frame structure made of poles, covered with tree bark or skins. The diameter of the chum varies from 2.5–3 to 8–9 m. The door was either the edge of one of the chum tires (24–28 reindeer skins were sewn together for tires) or a piece of birch bark hung on a stick. In the center of the plague, a hearth-bonfire was arranged on the ground. The hearth hook was attached to the top of the plague. Sometimes they put a stove with a pipe. Smoke escaped through a hole between the tops of the frame poles. The floor in the chum was earthen or covered with boards to the right and left of the hearth. Two families or married couples (parents with married children) lived in the chum. The place opposite the entrance behind the hearth was considered honorable and sacred. They slept on deerskins or mats. In the summer they put mosquito nets.
The winter dwellings of the taiga sedentary and semi-sedentary fishermen and hunters were dugouts and semi-dugouts of various designs. One of the ancient forms of dugouts - karamo - one and a half to two meters deep, with an area of 7-8 m. The walls of the dugout were lined with logs. The roof (single or gable) was covered with birch bark and covered with earth. The entrance to the dugout was built in the direction of the river. The karamo was heated by a central hearth-fire or chuval. Another type of dwelling was a semi-dugout "karamushka" 0.8 m deep, with unreinforced earthen walls and a gable roof made of slabs and birch bark. The basis of the roof was a central beam resting on a vertical post mounted against the rear wall and two posts with a crossbar mounted against the front wall. The door was wooden, the hearth was outside. There was also another type of semi-dugout (tai-mat, poi-mat), similar to the Khanty semi-dugout. In dugouts and semi-dugouts, they slept on bunks arranged along two walls opposite the hearth.
Buildings in the form of a shed barrier (booth) are well known among the Selkups as a temporary commercial dwelling. Such a barrier was placed during a stay in the forest for rest or overnight stay. A common temporary dwelling of the Selkups (especially among the northern ones) is a kumar - a hut made of semi-cylindrical willow with birch bark. Among the southern (Narym) Selkups, covered birch-bark boats (alago, koraguand, mass andu) were common as a summer dwelling. The frame was made of bird cherry rods. They were inserted into the edges of the sides of the boat, and they formed a half-cylinder vault. From above, the frame was covered with birch bark panels. This type of boat was widespread in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Narym Selkups and Vasyugan Khanty.
In the 19th century many Selkups (southern Selkups) began to build Russian-type log cabins with gable and four-slope roofs. At present, the Selkups live in modern log houses. Traditional dwellings (semi-dugouts) are used only as commercial outbuildings.
Among the traditional farm buildings, the Selkups had pile barns, sheds for livestock, sheds, hangers for drying fish, and adobe bread ovens.
The traditional winter outerwear of the northern Selkups was a fur parka (porge) - a fur coat open in front made of deer skins sewn with fur on the outside. In severe frosts, sakui was worn over the parkas - deaf clothes made of deer skins, with fur outside with a sewn hood. Sakui was only for men. The parka was worn by both men and women. Underwear men's clothing consisted of a shirt and trousers sewn from a purchased fabric, women wore a dress. The winter footwear of the northern Selkups was pim (pem), sewn from kamus and cloth. Instead of a stocking (sock), combed grass (sedge) was used, which was wrapped around the foot. In the summer they wore rovduga shoes and Russian boots. Hats were sewn in the form of a hood from a "pawn" - the skins of a newborn calf, fox and squirrel legs, from the skins and neck of a loon. The ubiquitous headdress for both women and men was a scarf, which was worn in the form of a headscarf. Northern Selkups sewed mittens from kamus with fur outside.
Among the southern Selkups, fur coats made of "combined fur" - pongzhel-porg, were known as outerwear. These coats were worn by men and women. A characteristic feature of these fur coats was the presence of a fur lining, collected from skins of small fur-bearing animals - paws of a sable, squirrel, ermine, column, lynx. Combined fur was sewn together in vertical stripes. The color selection was done in such a way that the color shades passed one into another. From above, the fur coat was sheathed with cloth - cloth or plush. Women's coats were longer than men's. A long women's coat made of combined fur was a significant family value.
Men wore short fur coats with fur outside - karnya - made of deer or hare skins as trade clothes. In the XIX-XX centuries. sheepskin coats and dog fur coats - winter road clothes, as well as cloth zipuns - were widely used. In the middle of the XX century. this type of clothing was replaced by a quilted sweatshirt. The lower shoulder clothing of the southern Selkups - shirts and dresses (kaborg - for shirts and dresses) - came into use in the 19th century. They girded shoulder clothing with a soft woven belt or a leather belt.
The traditional food of the Selkups consisted mainly of fishery products. Fish were harvested in large quantities for future use. It was boiled (fish soup - kai, with the addition of cereals - armagay), fried over a fire on a stick-spindle (chapsa), salted, dried, dried, prepared yukola, made fish meal - porsa. Fish for the future was harvested in the summer, during the "big catch". From fish entrails, fish oil was boiled, which was stored in birch bark vessels and used for food. As a seasoning and addition to the diet, the Selkups used wild-growing edible plants: wild onions, wild garlic, saran roots, etc. They ate berries and pine nuts in large quantities. The meat of elk and upland game was also eaten. Purchased products were widely used: flour, butter, sugar, tea, cereals.
There were food prohibitions on eating the meat of some animals and birds. For example, some Selkup groups did not eat the meat of a bear, a swan, considering them to be close in “breed” to humans. Hare, partridge, wild geese, etc. could also be taboo animals. In the 20th century. The diet of the Selkups was replenished with livestock products. With the development of gardening - potatoes, cabbage, beets and other vegetables.
The Selkups, although they were considered baptized, retained, like many peoples of Siberia, their ancient religious beliefs. They were characterized by ideas about the spirits-masters of places. They believed in the master spirit of the forest (machil vines), the spirit master of water (utkyl vines), etc. Various sacrifices were made to the spirits in order to enlist their support during the hunt.
The Selkups considered the god Num, who personified the sky, to be the creator of the whole world, the demiurge. In the Selkup mythology, the underground spirit Kyzy acted as an inhabitant of the underworld, the ruler of evil. This spirit had numerous helper spirits - vines that penetrated the human body and caused illness. To fight diseases, the Selkups turned to the shaman, who, together with his helper spirits, fought evil spirits and tried to expel them from the human body. If the shaman succeeded, then the person would recover.
The land of habitation seemed to the Selkups initially flat and flat, covered with grass-moss and forest - the hair of mother earth. Water and clay were her ancient primary state. All earthly heights and natural depressions were interpreted by the Selkups as evidence of past events, both earthly (“battles of heroes”) and heavenly (for example, lightning stones dropped from the sky gave rise to swamps and lakes). The earth (chvech) for the Selkups was the substance that gave birth to everything. The Milky Way in the sky was represented by a stone river, which passes to the earth and flows r. Ob, closing the world into a single whole (southern Selkups). Stones that are placed on the ground to give it stability also have a heavenly nature. They also store and give heat, generate fire and iron.
The Selkups had special sacrificial places associated with religious rituals. They were a kind of sanctuary in the form of small log barns (lozyl sessan, lot kele) on one leg-rack, with wooden spirits installed inside - vines. In these barns, the Selkups brought various “sacrifices” in the form of copper and silver coins, dishes, household items, etc. The Selkups revered the bear, elk, eagle, and swan.
The traditional poetry of the Selkups is represented by legends, the heroic epic about the cunning hero of the Selkup people Itta, various types of fairy tales (chapte), songs, everyday stories. Even in the recent past, the genre of song-improvisation of the type “what I see, I sing” was widely represented. However, with the loss of the Selkup speaking skills in the Selkup language, this type of oral art has practically disappeared. Selkup folklore contains many references to old beliefs and related cults. The legends of the Selkups tell about the wars waged by the ancestors of the Selkups with the Nenets, Evenks, Tatars.
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Indigenous peoples of Siberia in the modern world. Municipal budgetary educational institution "Gymnasium No. 17", Kemerovo Compiled by: teacher of history and social studies Kapustyanskaya T.N.
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The largest peoples before Russian colonization include the following peoples: Itelmens (indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka), Yukaghirs (inhabited the main territory of the tundra), Nivkhs (inhabitants of Sakhalin), Tuvans (the indigenous population of the Republic of Tuva), Siberian Tatars (located on the territory of Southern Siberia from Ural to the Yenisei) and the Selkups (inhabitants of Western Siberia).
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The Yakuts are the most numerous of the Siberian peoples. According to the latest data, the number of Yakuts is 478,100 people. In modern Russia, the Yakuts are one of the few nationalities that have their own republic, and its area is comparable to the area of an average European state. The Republic of Yakutia (Sakha) is territorially located in the Far Eastern Federal District, but the ethnic group "Yakuts" has always been considered an indigenous Siberian people. The Yakuts have an interesting culture and traditions. This is one of the few peoples of Siberia that has its own epic.
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The Buryats are another Siberian people with their own republic. The capital of Buryatia is the city of Ulan-Ude, located to the east of Lake Baikal. The number of Buryats is 461,389 people. In Siberia, Buryat cuisine is widely known, rightfully considered one of the best among ethnic ones. The history of this people, its legends and traditions is quite interesting. By the way, the Republic of Buryatia is one of the main centers of Buddhism in Russia.
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Tuvans. According to the latest census, 263,934 identified themselves as representatives of the Tuvan people. The Tyva Republic is one of the four ethnic republics of the Siberian Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kyzyl with a population of 110 thousand people. The total population of the republic is approaching 300 thousand. Buddhism also flourishes here, and the traditions of the Tuvans also speak of shamanism.
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The Khakass are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, numbering 72,959 people. Today they have their own republic as part of the Siberian Federal District and with the capital in the city of Abakan. This ancient people has long lived on the lands to the west of the Great Lake (Baikal). It has never been numerous, which did not prevent it from carrying its identity, culture and traditions through the centuries.
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Altaians. Their place of residence is quite compact - this is the Altai mountain system. Today Altaians live in two constituent entities of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Altai and the Altai Territory. The number of the ethnos "Altaians" is about 71 thousand people, which allows us to talk about them as a fairly large people. Religion - Shamanism and Buddhism. The Altaians have their own epic and a pronounced national identity, which does not allow them to be confused with other Siberian peoples. This mountain people has a long history and interesting legends.
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The Nenets are one of the small Siberian peoples living compactly in the area of the Kola Peninsula. Its number of 44,640 people makes it possible to attribute it to small nations, whose traditions and culture are protected by the state. The Nenets are nomadic reindeer herders. They belong to the so-called Samoyedic folk group. Over the years of the 20th century, the number of Nenets has approximately doubled, which indicates the effectiveness of state policy in the field of preserving the small peoples of the North. The Nenets have their own language and oral epic.
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Evenks are a people predominantly living on the territory of the Republic of Sakha. The number of this people in Russia is 38,396 people, some of whom live in areas adjacent to Yakutia. It is worth saying that this is about half of the total ethnic group - about the same number of Evenks live in China and Mongolia. Evenks are the people of the Manchu group, which do not have their own language and epic. Tungus is considered the native language of the Evenks. Evenks are born hunters and trackers.
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The Khanty are the indigenous people of Siberia, belonging to the Ugric group. Most of the Khanty live in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which is part of the Ural Federal District of Russia. The total number of Khanty is 30,943 people. About 35% of the Khanty live on the territory of the Siberian Federal District, and their lion's share falls on the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The traditional occupations of the Khanty are fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. The religion of their ancestors is shamanism, but recently more and more Khanty consider themselves Orthodox Christians.
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The Evens are a people related to the Evenks. According to one version, they represent an Evenk group, which was cut off from the main halo of residence by the Yakuts moving south. For a long time away from the main ethnic group, the Evens made a separate people. Today their number is 21,830 people. The language is Tungus. Places of residence - Kamchatka, Magadan region, Republic of Sakha.
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The Chukchi are a nomadic Siberian people who are mainly engaged in reindeer herding and live on the territory of the Chukchi Peninsula. Their number is about 16 thousand people. The Chukchi belong to the Mongoloid race and, according to many anthropologists, are the indigenous aborigines of the Far North. The main religion is animism. Indigenous trades are hunting and reindeer herding.
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The Shors are a Turkic-speaking people living in the southeastern part of Western Siberia, mainly in the south of the Kemerovo region (in the Tashtagol, Novokuznetsk, Mezhdurechensk, Myskovsky, Osinnikovsky and other regions). Their number is about 13 thousand people. The main religion is shamanism. The Shor epic is of scientific interest primarily for its originality and antiquity. The history of the people dates back to the VI century. Today, the traditions of the Shors have been preserved only in Sheregesh, since most of the ethnic group moved to the cities and largely assimilated.
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Mansi. This people has been known to Russians since the foundation of Siberia. Even Ivan the Terrible sent an army against the Mansi, which suggests that they were quite numerous and strong. The self-name of this people is Voguls. They have their own language, a fairly developed epic. Today, their place of residence is the territory of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. According to the latest census, 12,269 people identified themselves as belonging to the Mansi ethnic group.
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Nanais are a small people living along the banks of the Amur River in the Far East of Russia. Relating to the Baikal ethnotype, the Nanais are rightfully considered one of the most ancient indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East. To date, the number of Nanais in Russia is 12,160 people. The Nanais have their own language, rooted in Tungus. Writing exists only among the Russian Nanais and is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
The average number of peoples - West Siberian Tatars, Khakasses, Altaians. The rest of the peoples, due to their small number and similar features of their fishing life, are assigned to the group of “small peoples of the North”. Among them are the Nenets, Evenki, Khanty, noticeable in terms of numbers and the preservation of the traditional way of life of the Chukchi, Evens, Nanais, Mansi, Koryaks.
The peoples of Siberia belong to different language families and groups. In terms of the number of speakers of related languages, the first place is occupied by the peoples of the Altai language family, at least from the turn of our era, which began to spread from the Sayano-Altai and the Baikal region to the deep regions of Western and Eastern Siberia.
The Altaic language family within Siberia is divided into three branches: Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus. The first branch - Turkic - is very extensive. In Siberia, it includes: the Altai-Sayan peoples - Altaians, Tuvans, Khakasses, Shors, Chulyms, Karagas, or Tofalars; West Siberian (Tobolsk, Tara, Baraba, Tomsk, etc.) Tatars; in the Far North - Yakuts and Dolgans (the latter live in the east of Taimyr, in the basin of the Khatanga River). Only the Buryats, settled in groups in the western and eastern Baikal region, belong to the Mongolian peoples in Siberia.
The Tungus branch of the Altai peoples includes the Evenki (“Tungus”), who live in scattered groups over a vast territory from the right tributaries of the Upper Ob to the Okhotsk coast and from the Baikal region to the Arctic Ocean; Evens (Lamuts), settled in a number of regions of northern Yakutia, on the coast of Okhotsk and Kamchatka; also a number of small peoples of the Lower Amur - Nanais (Golds), Ulchis, or Olchis, Negidals; Ussuri region - Orochi and Ude (Udege); Sakhalin - Oroks.
In Western Siberia, ethnic communities of the Uralic language family have been formed since ancient times. These were Ugrian-speaking and Samoyedic-speaking tribes of the forest-steppe and taiga zone from the Urals to the Upper Ob. At present, the Ugric peoples - Khanty and Mansi - live in the Ob-Irtysh basin. The Samoyedic (Samoyed-speaking) include the Selkups in the Middle Ob, the Enets in the lower reaches of the Yenisei, the Nganasans, or Tavgians, in Taimyr, the Nenets, who inhabit the forest-tundra and tundra of Eurasia from Taimyr to the White Sea. Once upon a time, small Samoyedic peoples also lived in Southern Siberia, in the Altai-Sayan Highlands, but their remnants - Karagas, Koibals, Kamasins, etc. - were Turkified in the 18th - 19th centuries.
The indigenous peoples of Eastern Siberia and the Far East are Mongoloid according to the main features of their anthropological types. The Mongoloid type of the Siberian population could genetically originate only in Central Asia. Archaeologists prove that the Paleolithic culture of Siberia developed in the same direction and in similar forms as the Paleolithic of Mongolia. Based on this, archaeologists believe that it was the Upper Paleolithic era with its highly developed hunting culture that was the most suitable historical time for the widespread settlement of Siberia and the Far East by “Asian” - Mongoloid in appearance - ancient man.
Mongoloid types of ancient “Baikal” origin are well represented among modern Tungus-speaking populations from the Yenisei to the Okhotsk coast, also among the Kolyma Yukaghirs, whose distant ancestors may have preceded the Evenks and Evens in a significant area of Eastern Siberia.
Among a significant part of the Altaic-speaking population of Siberia - Altaians, Tuvans, Yakuts, Buryats, etc. - the most Mongoloid Central Asian type is widespread, which is a complex racial-genetic formation, the origins of which date back to Mongoloid groups of early times mixed with each other (from ancient times until the late Middle Ages).
Sustainable economic and cultural types of the indigenous peoples of Siberia:
- foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga zone;
- wild deer hunters in the Subarctic;
- sedentary fishermen in the lower reaches of large rivers (Ob, Amur, and also in Kamchatka);
- taiga hunter-reindeer breeders of Eastern Siberia;
- reindeer herders of the tundra from the Northern Urals to Chukotka;
- sea animal hunters on the Pacific coast and islands;
- pastoralists and farmers of Southern and Western Siberia, the Baikal region, etc.
Historical and ethnographic areas:
- West Siberian (with the southern, approximately to the latitude of Tobolsk and the mouth of the Chulym on the Upper Ob, and the northern, taiga and subarctic regions);
- Altai-Sayan (mountain-taiga and forest-steppe mixed zone);
- East Siberian (with internal differentiation of commercial and agricultural types of tundra, taiga and forest-steppe);
- Amur (or Amur-Sakhalin);
- northeastern (Chukotka-Kamchatka).
The Altaic language family was formed at first among the very mobile steppe population of Central Asia, outside the southern outskirts of Siberia. The demarcation of this community into proto-Turks and proto-Mongols occurred on the territory of Mongolia within the 1st millennium BC. Later, the ancient Turks (ancestors of the Sayan-Altai peoples and Yakuts) and the ancient Mongols (ancestors of the Buryats and Oirats-Kalmyks) settled in Siberia later. The area of origin of the primary Tungus-speaking tribes was also in Eastern Transbaikalia, from where, around the turn of our era, the movement of foot hunters of the Proto-Evenki began to the north, to the Yenisei-Lena interfluve, and later to the Lower Amur.
The era of early metal (2-1 millennium BC) in Siberia is characterized by many flows of southern cultural influences, reaching the lower reaches of the Ob and the Yamal Peninsula, to the lower reaches of the Yenisei and Lena, to Kamchatka and the Bering Sea coast of the Chukotka Peninsula. The most significant, accompanied by ethnic inclusions in the aboriginal environment, these phenomena were in Southern Siberia, the Amur Region and Primorye of the Far East. At the turn of 2-1 millennia BC. there was a penetration into southern Siberia, into the Minusinsk basin and the Tomsk Ob region by steppe pastoralists of Central Asian origin, who left monuments of the Karasuk-Irmen culture. According to a convincing hypothesis, these were the ancestors of the Kets, who later, under the pressure of the early Turks, moved further to the Middle Yenisei, and partially mixed with them. These Turks are the carriers of the Tashtyk culture of the 1st century. BC. - 5 in. AD - located in the Altai-Sayan Mountains, in the Mariinsky-Achinsk and Khakass-Minusinsk forest-steppe. They were engaged in semi-nomadic cattle breeding, knew agriculture, widely used iron tools, built rectangular log dwellings, had draft horses and riding domestic deer. It is possible that it was through them that domestic reindeer breeding began to spread in Northern Siberia. But the time of the really wide distribution of the early Turks along the southern strip of Siberia, north of the Sayano-Altai and in the Western Baikal region, is, most likely, the 6th-10th centuries. AD Between the 10th and 13th centuries the movement of the Baikal Turks to the Upper and Middle Lena begins, which marked the beginning of the formation of an ethnic community of the northernmost Turks - the Yakuts and the obligated Dolgans.
The Iron Age, the most developed and expressive in Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Amur Region and Primorye in the Far East, was marked by a noticeable rise in productive forces, population growth and an increase in the diversity of cultural means not only in the shores of large river communications (Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur ), but also in deep taiga regions. Possession of good vehicles (boats, skis, hand sleds, draft dogs and deer), metal tools and weapons, fishing gear, good clothes and portable dwellings, as well as perfect methods of housekeeping and food preparation for the future, i.e. The most important economic and cultural inventions and the labor experience of many generations allowed a number of aboriginal groups to widely settle in the hard-to-reach, but rich in animals and fish taiga areas of Northern Siberia, master the forest-tundra and reach the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
The largest migrations with extensive development of the taiga and assimilation intrusion into the “Paleo-Asiatic-Yukaghir” population of Eastern Siberia were made by Tungus-speaking groups of foot and deer hunters of elk and wild deer. Moving in various directions between the Yenisei and the Okhotsk coast, penetrating from the northern taiga to the Amur and Primorye, making contacts and mixing with foreign-speaking inhabitants of these places, these “Tungus explorers” eventually formed numerous groups of Evenks and Evens and Amur-Primorye peoples . The medieval Tungus, who themselves mastered domestic deer, contributed to the spread of these useful transport animals among the Yukagirs, Koryaks and Chukchi, which had important consequences for the development of their economy, cultural communication and changes in the social system.
Development of socio-economic relations
By the time the Russians arrived in Siberia, the indigenous peoples, not only of the forest-steppe zone, but also of the taiga and tundra, were by no means at that stage of socio-historical development that could be considered deeply primitive. Socio-economic relations in the leading sphere of production of conditions and forms of social life among many peoples of Siberia reached a fairly high level of development already in the 17th-18th centuries. Ethnographic materials of the XIX century. state the predominance among the peoples of Siberia of relations of the patriarchal-communal system associated with subsistence farming, the simplest forms of neighborly kinship cooperation, the communal tradition of owning land, organizing internal affairs and relations with the outside world, with a fairly strict account of “blood” genealogical ties in marriage and family and everyday (primarily religious, ritual and direct communication) spheres. The main social and production (including all aspects and processes of production and reproduction of human life), a socially significant unit of social structure among the peoples of Siberia was a territorial-neighbor community, within which they reproduced, passed on from generation to generation and accumulated everything necessary for existence and production communication material means and skills, social and ideological relations and properties. As a territorial-economic association, it could be a separate settled settlement, a group of interconnected fishing camps, a local community of semi-nomads.
But ethnographers are also right in that in the everyday life of the peoples of Siberia, in their genealogical ideas and connections, for a long time, living remnants of the former relations of the patriarchal-clan system were preserved. Among such persistent phenomena should be attributed generic exogamy, extended to a fairly wide circle of relatives in several generations. There were many traditions emphasizing the holiness and inviolability of the tribal principle in the social self-determination of the individual, his behavior and attitude towards people around him. Kindred mutual assistance and solidarity, even to the detriment of personal interests and deeds, was considered the highest virtue. The focus of this tribal ideology was the overgrown paternal family and its lateral patronymic lines. A wider circle of relatives of the paternal “root” or “bone” was also taken into account, if, of course, they were known. Based on this, ethnographers believe that in the history of the peoples of Siberia, the paternal-clan system was an independent, very long stage in the development of primitive communal relations.
Industrial and domestic relations between men and women in the family and the local community were built on the basis of the division of labor by sex and age. The significant role of women in the household was reflected in the ideology of many Siberian peoples in the form of the cult of the mythological “mistress of the hearth” and the associated custom of “keeping fire” by the real mistress of the house.
The Siberian material of the past centuries, used by ethnographers, along with the archaic, also shows obvious signs of the ancient decline and decay of tribal relations. Even in those local societies where social class stratification did not receive any noticeable development, features were found that overcame tribal equality and democracy, namely: individualization of the methods of appropriation of material goods, private ownership of craft products and objects of exchange, property inequality between families , in some places patriarchal slavery and bondage, the separation and exaltation of the ruling tribal nobility, etc. These phenomena in one form or another are noted in documents of the 17th-18th centuries. among the Ob Ugrians and Nenets, the Sayano-Altai peoples and the Evenks.
The Turkic-speaking peoples of Southern Siberia, the Buryats and Yakuts at that time were characterized by a specific ulus-tribal organization that combined the orders and customary law of the patriarchal (neighborly-kindred) community with the dominant institutions of the military-hierarchical system and the despotic power of the tribal nobility. The tsarist government could not but take into account such a difficult socio-political situation, and, recognizing the influence and strength of the local ulus nobility, practically entrusted the fiscal and police administration to the ordinary mass of accomplices.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that Russian tsarism was not limited only to the collection of tribute - from the indigenous population of Siberia. If this was the case in the 17th century, then in subsequent centuries the state-feudal system sought to maximize the use of the productive forces of this population, imposing on it ever greater payments and duties in kind and depriving it of the right to supreme ownership of all lands, lands and riches of the subsoil. An integral part of the economic policy of the autocracy in Siberia was the encouragement of the commercial and industrial activities of Russian capitalism and the treasury. In the post-reform period, the flow of agrarian migration to Siberia of peasants from European Russia intensified. Centers of an economically active newcomer population began to quickly form along the most important transport routes, which entered into versatile economic and cultural contacts with the indigenous inhabitants of the newly developed areas of Siberia. Naturally, under this generally progressive influence, the peoples of Siberia lost their patriarchal identity (“the identity of backwardness”) and joined the new conditions of life, although before the revolution this happened in contradictory and not painless forms.
Economic and cultural types
By the time the Russians arrived, cattle breeding had developed much more than agriculture. But since the 18th century agricultural economy is increasingly taking place among the West Siberian Tatars, it is also spreading among the traditional pastoralists of the southern Altai, Tuva and Buryatia. Accordingly, material and everyday forms also changed: stable settled settlements arose, nomadic yurts and semi-dugouts were replaced by log houses. However, the Altaians, Buryats and Yakuts for a long time had polygonal log yurts with a conical roof, which in appearance imitated the felt yurt of nomads.
The traditional clothing of the pastoral population of Siberia was similar to the Central Asian (for example, Mongolian) and belonged to the swing type (fur and cloth robe). The characteristic clothing of the South Altai pastoralists was a long-skinned sheepskin coat. Married Altai women (like the Buryats) put on a kind of long sleeveless jacket with a slit in front - “chegedek” over a fur coat.
The lower reaches of large rivers, as well as a number of small rivers of North-Eastern Siberia, are characterized by a complex of sedentary fishermen. In the vast taiga zone of Siberia, on the basis of the ancient hunting way, a specialized economic and cultural complex of hunters-reindeer herders was formed, which included Evenks, Evens, Yukaghirs, Oroks, and Negidals. The fishing of these peoples consisted in catching wild elk and deer, small ungulates and fur-bearing animals. Fishing was almost universally a subsidiary occupation. Unlike sedentary fishermen, the taiga reindeer hunters led a nomadic lifestyle. Taiga transport reindeer breeding is exclusively pack and riding.
The material culture of the hunting peoples of the taiga was fully adapted to constant movement. A typical example of this is the Evenks. Their dwelling was a conical tent, covered with deer skins and dressed skins (“rovduga”), also sewn into wide strips of birch bark boiled in boiling water. With frequent migrations, these tires were transported in packs on domestic deer. To move along the rivers, the Evenks used birch bark boats, so light that one person could easily carry them on their backs. Evenk skis are excellent: wide, long, but very light, glued with the skin from the legs of an elk. Evenki ancient clothing was adapted for frequent skiing and reindeer riding. These clothes, made of thin but warm deer skins, were swinging, with floors that did not converge in front, the chest and stomach were covered with a kind of fur bib.
The general course of the historical process in various regions of Siberia was drastically changed by the events of the 16th-17th centuries, associated with the appearance of Russian explorers and, in the end, the inclusion of all of Siberia into the Russian state. The lively Russian trade and the progressive influence of Russian settlers made significant changes in the economy and life of not only the cattle-breeding and agricultural, but also the fishing indigenous population of Siberia. Already by the end of the XVIII century. Evenks, Evens, Yukaghirs and other fishing groups of the North began to widely use firearms. This facilitated and quantitatively increased the production of large animals (wild deer, elk) and fur-bearing animals, especially squirrels - the main object of fur trade in the 18th-early 20th centuries. New occupations began to be added to the original crafts - a more developed reindeer husbandry, the use of the draft power of horses, agricultural experiments, the beginnings of a craft based on a local raw material base, etc. As a result of all this, the material and everyday culture of the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia also changed.
Spiritual life
The area of religious and mythological ideas and various religious cults succumbed to progressive cultural influence least of all. The most common form of belief among the peoples of Siberia was.
A distinctive feature of shamanism is the belief that certain people - shamans - have the ability, having brought themselves into a frenzied state, to enter into direct communication with the spirits - patrons and helpers of the shaman in the fight against diseases, hunger, loss and other misfortunes. The shaman was obliged to take care of the success of the craft, the successful birth of a child, etc. Shamanism had several varieties corresponding to different stages of social development of the Siberian peoples themselves. Among the most backward peoples, for example, among the Itelmens, everyone could shaman, and especially old women. The remnants of such "total" shamanism have been preserved among other peoples.
For some peoples, the functions of a shaman were already a specialty, but the shamans themselves served a tribal cult, in which all adult members of the clan took part. Such “tribal shamanism” was noted among the Yukagirs, Khanty and Mansi, among the Evenks and Buryats.
Professional shamanism flourishes during the period of the collapse of the patriarchal tribal system. The shaman becomes a special person in the community, opposing himself to uninitiated relatives, lives on income from his profession, which becomes hereditary. It is this form of shamanism that has been observed in the recent past among many peoples of Siberia, especially among the Evenks and the Tungus-speaking population of the Amur, among the Nenets, Selkups, and Yakuts.
It acquired complicated forms from the Buryats under the influence, and from the end of the 17th century. generally began to be replaced by this religion.
The tsarist government, starting from the 18th century, diligently supported the missionary activity of the Orthodox Church in Siberia, and Christianization was often carried out by coercive measures. By the end of the XIX century. most of the Siberian peoples were formally baptized, but their own beliefs did not disappear and continued to have a significant impact on the worldview and behavior of the indigenous population.
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Literature
- Ethnography: textbook / ed. Yu.V. Bromley, G.E. Markov. - M.: Higher school, 1982. - S. 320. Chapter 10. "Peoples of Siberia".
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