Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples of the north, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation

The indigenous population of Siberia before the start of Russian colonization was about 200 thousand people. The northern (tundra) part of Siberia was inhabited by tribes of Samoyeds, called Samoyeds in Russian sources: 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 fish species were arctic fox, sable, and ermine. Furs served as the main product for paying yasak and for trade. Furs were also paid as dowry for the girls they chose as wives. The number of Siberian Samoyeds, including the Southern Samoyed tribes, reached about 8 thousand people.

To the south of the Nenets lived the Ugric-speaking tribes of the Khanty (Ostyaks) and Mansi (Voguls). The Khanty were engaged in fishing and hunting, and had reindeer herds in the area of the Ob Bay. The main occupation of the Mansi was hunting. Before the arrival of the Russian Mansi on the river. Ture and Tavde were engaged in primitive agriculture, cattle breeding, and beekeeping. The settlement area of the Khanty and Mansi included the areas of the Middle and Lower Ob with its tributaries, the river. Irtysh, Demyanka and Konda, as well as the western and eastern slopes of the Middle Urals. The total number of Ugric-speaking tribes in 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, southern or Narym Selkups. For a long time, 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, called the Piebald Horde in Russian sources, led by Prince Voni.

To the east of the Narym Selkups lived tribes of the Keto-speaking population of Siberia: Ket (Yenisei Ostyaks), Arins, Kotta, Yastyntsy (4-6 thousand people), settled along the Middle and Upper Yenisei. Their main activities were hunting and fishing. Some groups of the population extracted iron from ore, the 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 modern Shors, Altaians, Khakassians: Tomsk, Chulym and “Kuznetsk” Tatars (about 5-6 thousand people), Teleuts ( White Kalmyks) (about 7-8 thousand people), 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 developed blacksmithing.

The Sayan Highlands were occupied by Samoyed and Turkic tribes of Mators, Karagas, Kamasins, Kachins, Kaysots, etc., with a total number of about 2 thousand people. They were engaged in cattle breeding, horse breeding, hunting, and knew farming skills.

To the south of the areas inhabited by the Mansi, Selkups and Kets, Turkic-speaking ethnoterritorial groups were widespread - the ethnic predecessors of the Siberian Tatars: Barabinsky, Tereninsky, Irtysh, Tobolsk, Ishim and Tyumen Tatars. By the middle of the 16th 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 and fishing; cattle breeding was developed in the Barabinsk steppe. Before the arrival of the Russians, the Tatars were already engaged in agriculture. There was home production of leather, felt, bladed weapons, and fur dressing. The Tatars acted as intermediaries in transit trade between Moscow and Central Asia.

To the west and east of Baikal were the Mongol-speaking Buryats (about 25 thousand people), known in Russian sources as “brothers” or “brotherly people”. The basis of their economy was nomadic cattle breeding. The secondary occupations were farming and gathering. The iron-making craft was quite highly developed.

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 “reindeer” (reindeer breeders), which were the majority, and “on foot”. “On foot” Evenks and Evens were sedentary fishermen and hunted sea animals on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. One of the main activities 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 and Primorye was inhabited by peoples who spoke Tungus-Manchu languages - the ancestors of the modern Nanai, Ulchi, and Udege. The Paleo-Asian group of peoples inhabiting this territory also included small groups of Nivkhs (Gilyaks), who lived in the vicinity 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 The Lena, upper Yana, Olenek, Aldan, Amga, Indigirka and Kolyma were occupied by the Yakuts (about 38 thousand people). This was the most numerous people among the Turks of Siberia. They raised cattle and horses. Hunting for animals and birds and fishing were considered auxiliary industries. Home production of metals was widely developed: copper, iron, silver. They made weapons in large quantities, skillfully tanned leather, wove belts, and carved wooden household items and utensils.

The northern part of Eastern Siberia was inhabited by Yukaghir tribes (about 5 thousand people). The borders of their lands extended from the tundra of Chukotka in the east to the lower reaches of the Lena and Olenek in the west. The northeast of Siberia was inhabited by peoples belonging to the Paleo-Asian linguistic family: Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens. The Chukchi occupied a significant part of 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, like the Tungus, were divided into “reindeer” and “foot.”

Eskimos (about 4 thousand people) were settled along the entire coastal strip of the Chukotka Peninsula. The main population of Kamchatka in the 17th 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 activities of these peoples were hunting sea animals, reindeer herding, fishing and gathering. Before the arrival of the Russians, the peoples of northeastern Siberia and Kamchatka were still at a rather low stage of socio-economic development. Stone and bone tools and weapons were widely used in everyday life.

Before the arrival of the Russians, hunting and fishing occupied an important place in the life of almost all Siberian peoples. A special role was given to the extraction of furs, which was the main subject of trade exchange with neighbors and was used as the main payment for tribute - yasak.

Most of the Siberian peoples in the 17th century. The Russians were found at various stages of patriarchal-tribal relations. The most backward forms of social organization were noted among the tribes of northeastern Siberia (Yukaghirs, Chukchi, Koryaks, Itelmens and Eskimos). In the field of social relations, some of them noted the features of domestic slavery, the dominant position of women, etc.

The most developed in socio-economic terms were the Buryats and Yakuts, who at the turn of the 16th-17th 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 factions. Incorporation in the 17th century Siberia's inclusion into the Russian state radically 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 producing type of economy, which presupposed a different type of human relationship to nature, to cultural values and traditions.

Religiously, the peoples of Siberia belonged to different belief systems. The most common form of belief was shamanism, based on animism - the spiritualization of forces and natural phenomena. A distinctive feature of shamanism is the belief that certain people - shamans - have the ability to enter into direct communication with spirits - the shaman's patrons and assistants in the fight against disease.

Since the 17th century Orthodox Christianity spread widely in Siberia, and Buddhism in the form of Lamaism penetrated. Even earlier, Islam penetrated among the Siberian Tatars. Among a number of peoples of Siberia, shamanism acquired complex forms under the influence of Christianity and Buddhism (Tuvians, Buryats). In the 20th century this entire system of beliefs coexisted with the atheistic (materialistic) worldview, which was the official state ideology. Currently, a number of Siberian peoples are experiencing a revival of shamanism.

For 9 years, photographer Alexander Khimushin traveled around the world, visiting 84 countries. Inspired by the idea of capturing disappearing cultures, he started his project called The World in Faces. This is how a series of portraits of representatives of ethnic minorities appeared.

It took him 6 months to travel around Siberia and photograph the indigenous inhabitants of this frozen land.

At the moment, in Russia there are 40 nationalities living in Siberia. Many of them have almost disappeared from the face of the Earth. Moreover, according to the photographer himself, statistics embellish reality. And in fact, the number of these peoples is much smaller.

Below are the photographer's works

A resident of the Sakha Republic wearing a traditional wedding mask. Sakha belongs to the coldest region of the planet. An absolute world record was recorded here: minus 96 degrees Fahrenheit. The first snow here, as a rule, falls in October and lasts until July.

Nivkhi. Khabarovsk Territory, Sea of Okhotsk, Siberia. The Nivkha language is not related to any other language in the world. And it is not yet known at all how the Nivkhs appeared in the Far East. Some of these people live on Sakhalin, others live where the Amur flows into the Sea of Okhotsk. Overall there are very few of them left. Moreover, official statistics do not reflect the true state of affairs.

Evenks. South Yakutia/Amur region, Siberia. In the photo is a hunter, local elder, former reindeer herder. He spent his entire life nomadic, living in a tent and caring for his reindeer. He doesn’t like living in a house in the village, it’s too difficult.

And in this photo there is a little girl of the Evenki people. Republic of Sakha, Siberia. She lives in one of the coldest regions of Yakutia. Some locals there speak Russian.

Tofalar. Sayan Mountains, Irkutsk region, Siberia. These people can only be reached by helicopter and there are very few of them left.

Representative of the Evens. Do not confuse with Evenks.

Representative of the Chinese Evenks

Girl from Buryatia. Republic of Buryatia, Siberia. Buryats are ethnic Mongols with a similar language and traditions. They practice Buddhism.

Dolgan girl. Republic of Sakha, Siberia. The Dolgans are the northernmost Turkic-speaking ethnic group. Some of them live in Yakutia, some in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Tuvinian. Altai region. Most Tuvinians live in the territory of the Republic of Tyva, but a small part of them also lives in Mongolia. This person is one of the last. His home is a yurt.
It is interesting that the 40 different nationalities of Siberia number only 50 thousand people or less.

Wilta's little representative. This people lives in the north of Sakhalin. They used to call themselves "Oroks". Some modern representatives of this nation were born back when Sakhalin was part of Japan and have Japanese names.

A girl from the Sakha Republic. Speaks the language of the Turkic group. There are many shamans in this nation.

Representative Udej. A rare people. They live in the Primorsky Territory, Far East, Siberia. Their neighbors are Ussuri tigers, sometimes they look into the windows of their homes or kill dogs in the backyard. Many people still make money by selling ginseng.

Evenki, Sakha Republic, Siberia.

Semeyskie, Republic of Buryatia.

Tazi. Primorsky Krai, Far East.

Evenki, Buryatia, Siberia.

Nanayka, Nanaysky district, Khabarovsk region

More than 125 nationalities live today, of which 26 are indigenous peoples. The largest in terms of population among these small peoples are the Khanty, Nenets, Mansi, Siberian Tatars, Shors, Altaians. The Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees to every small nation the inalienable right of self-identification and self-determination.

The Khanty are a small indigenous Ugric West Siberian people living along the lower reaches of the Irtysh and Ob. Their total number is 30,943 people, with most of them 61% living in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and 30% in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The Khanty are engaged in fishing, herd reindeer husbandry and taiga hunting.

The ancient names of the Khanty, “Ostyaks” or “Ugras,” are still widely used today. The word "Khanty" comes from the ancient local word "kantakh", which simply means "man", and it appeared in documents during the Soviet years. The Khanty are ethnographically close to the Mansi people, and are often united with them under the single name Ob Ugrians.

The Khanty are heterogeneous in their composition, among them there are separate ethnographic territorial groups that differ in dialects and names, methods of farming and original culture - Kazym, Vasyugan, Salym Khanty. The Khanty language belongs to the Ob-Ugric languages of the Ural group; it is divided into many territorial dialects.

Since 1937, modern Khanty writing has been developing on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. Today, 38.5% of the Khanty speak Russian fluently. The Khanty adhere to the religion of their ancestors - shamanism, but many of them consider themselves Orthodox Christians.

Externally, the Khanty are between 150 and 160 cm tall with black straight hair, a dark complexion and brown eyes. Their face is flat with widely prominent cheekbones, a wide nose and thick lips, reminiscent of a Mongoloid. But the Khanty, unlike the Mongoloid peoples, have regular eyes and a narrower skull.

In historical chronicles, the first mentions of the Khanty appear in the 10th century. Modern research has shown that the Khanty lived in this territory already in 5-6 thousand years BC. Later they were seriously pushed north by nomads.

The Khanty inherited numerous traditions of the Ust-Polui culture of taiga hunters, which developed at the end of the 1st millennium BC. – beginning of the 1st millennium AD In the 2nd millennium AD. The northern Khanty tribes came under the influence of the Nenets reindeer herders and assimilated with them. In the south, the Khanty tribes felt the influence of the Turkic peoples, and later the Russians.

The traditional cults of the Khanty people include the cult of the deer; it became the basis of the entire life of the people, a means of transport, a source of food and skins. The worldview and many norms of life of the people (inheritance of the herd) are associated with the deer.

The Khanty live in the north of the plain along the lower reaches of the Ob in nomadic temporary camps with temporary reindeer herding dwellings. To the south, on the banks of Northern Sosva, Lozva, Vogulka, Kazym, Nizhnyaya they have winter settlements and summer nomads.

The Khanty have long worshiped the elements and spirits of nature: fire, sun, moon, wind, water. Each clan has a totem, an animal that cannot be killed or used for food, family deities and patron ancestors. Everywhere the Khanty revere the bear, the owner of the taiga, and even hold a traditional holiday in his honor. The frog is the revered patroness of the hearth, happiness in the family and women in labor. In the taiga there are always sacred places where shamanic rituals are performed, appeasing their patron.

Muncie

Mansi (the ancient name is Voguls, Vogulichs), numbering 12,269 people, live mostly in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. This very numerous people has been known to Russians since the discovery of Siberia. Even Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible ordered that archers be sent to pacify the numerous and powerful Mansi.

The word “Mansi” comes from the ancient Proto-Finnish-Ugric word “mansz”, meaning “man, person”. The Mansi have their own language, which belongs to the Ob-Ugric separate group of the Ural language family and a fairly developed national epic. The Mansi are linguistically close relatives of the Khanty. Today, up to 60% use Russian in everyday life.

The Mansi successfully combine in their social life the cultures of northern hunters and southern nomadic pastoralists. Novgorodians had contact with Mansi back in the 11th century. With the advent of the Russians in the 16th century, some of the Vogul tribes went north, others lived next door to the Russians and assimilated with them, adopting the language and the Orthodox faith.

The beliefs of the Mansi are the worship of the elements and spirits of nature - shamanism, they are characterized by the cult of elders and ancestors, the totem bear. Mansi have a rich folklore and mythology. The Mansi are divided into two separate ethnographic groups of the descendants of the Uralians Por and the descendants of the Ugrians Mos, differing in origin and customs. In order to enrich the genetic material, marriages have long been concluded only between these groups.

The Mansi are engaged in taiga hunting, reindeer breeding, fishing, agriculture and cattle breeding. Reindeer husbandry on the banks of Northern Sosva and Lozva was adopted from the Khanty. To the south, with the arrival of the Russians, agriculture, breeding of horses, cattle and small cattle, pigs and poultry were adopted.

In everyday life and the original creativity of the Mansi, ornaments similar in motifs to the drawings of the Selkups and Khanty are of particular importance. Regular geometric patterns clearly predominate in Mansi ornaments. Often with elements of deer antlers, diamonds and wavy lines, similar to the Greek meander and zigzags, images of eagles and bears.

Nenets

The Nenets, in ancient times Yuracs or Samoyeds, a total of 44,640 people live in the north of the Khanty-Mansiysk and, accordingly, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The self-name of the Samoyed people “Nenets” literally means “man, person.” They are the most numerous of the northern indigenous peoples.

The Nenets are engaged in large herd nomadic reindeer herding in. In Yamal, the Nenets keep up to 500 thousand reindeer. The traditional dwelling of the Nenets is a conical tent. Up to one and a half thousand Nenets living south of the tundra on the Pur and Taz rivers are considered forest Nenets. In addition to reindeer husbandry, they are actively involved in tundra and taiga hunting and fishing, and collecting taiga gifts. The Nenets eat rye bread, venison, meat of sea animals, fish, and gifts from the taiga and tundra.

The Nenets language belongs to the Ural Samoyed languages; it is divided into two dialects, tundra and forest, which in turn are divided into dialects. The Nenets people have a rich folklore, legends, fairy tales, and epic stories. In 1937, learned linguists created a writing system for the Nenets based on the Cyrillic alphabet. Ethnographers describe the Nenets as stocky people with a large head, a flat, sallow face, devoid of any vegetation.

Altaians

The territory of residence of the Turkic-speaking indigenous people of the Altaians became. They live in numbers of up to 71 thousand people, which allows them to be considered a large people, in the Altai Republic, partly in the Altai Territory. Among the Altaians, there are separate ethnic groups of Kumandins (2892 people), Telengits or Teles (3712 people), Tubalars (1965 people), Teleuts (2643 people), Chelkans (1181 people).

Altaians have long worshiped the spirits and elements of nature; they adhere to traditional shamanism, Burkhanism and Buddhism. They live in clan seoks, kinship is considered through the male line. Altaians have a centuries-old rich history and folklore, tales and legends, their own heroic epic.

Shors

The Shors are a small Turkic-speaking people, mainly living in remote mountainous areas of Kuzbass. The total number of Shors today is up to 14 thousand people. The Shors have long worshiped the spirits of nature and the elements; their main religion was shamanism, which had developed over centuries.

The Shors ethnic group was formed in the 6th-9th centuries by mixing Keto-speaking and Turkic-speaking tribes that came from the south. The Shor language is a Turkic language; today more than 60% of Shors speak Russian. The epic of the Shors is ancient and very original. The traditions of the indigenous Shors are well preserved today; most Shors now live in cities.

Siberian Tatars

In the Middle Ages, it was the Siberian Tatars who were the main population of the Siberian Khanate. Nowadays the subethnic group of Siberian Tatars, as they call themselves “Seber Tatarlar”, consisting, according to various estimates, from 190 thousand to 210 thousand people lives in the south of Western Siberia. By anthropological type, the Tatars of Siberia are close to the Kazakhs and Bashkirs. Today, Chulyms, Shors, Khakassians, and Teleuts can call themselves “Tadar”.

Scientists consider the ancestors of the Siberian Tatars to be the medieval Kipchaks, who had contact for a long time with the Samoyeds, Kets, and Ugric peoples. The process of development and mixing of peoples took place in the south of Western Siberia from the 6th-4th millennium BC. before the emergence of the Tyumen kingdom in the 14th century, and later with the emergence of the powerful Siberian Khanate in the 16th century.

Most Siberian Tatars use the literary Tatar language, but in some remote uluses the Siberian-Tatar language from the Kipchak-Nogai group of Western Hunnic Turkic languages has been preserved. It is divided into Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba dialects and many dialects.

The holidays of the Siberian Tatars contain features of pre-Islamic ancient Turkic beliefs. This is, first of all, amal, when the new year is celebrated during the spring equinox. The arrival of the rooks and the beginning of field work, the Siberian Tatars celebrate the hag putka. Some Muslim holidays, rituals and prayers for the sending of rain have also taken root here, and the Muslim burial places of Sufi sheikhs are revered.

Buryats
this is another Siberian people with their own republic. The capital of Buryatia is the city of Ulan-Ude, located east of Lake Baikal. The number of Buryats is 461,389 people. Buryat cuisine is widely known in Siberia and is rightfully considered one of the best among ethnic cuisines. 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.
National home
The traditional dwelling of the Buryats, like all nomadic pastoralists, is the yurt, called ger (literally dwelling, house) among the Mongolian peoples.

Yurts were installed both portable felt and stationary in the form of a frame made of timber or logs. Wooden yurts of 6 or 8 corners, without windows. There is a large hole in the roof for smoke and lighting to escape. The roof was installed on four pillars - tengi. Sometimes there was a ceiling. The door to the yurt is oriented to the south. The room was divided into the right, male, and left, female half. There was a fireplace in the center of the dwelling. There were benches along the walls. On the right side of the entrance to the yurt there are shelves with household utensils. On the left side there are chests and a table for guests. Opposite the entrance is a shelf with burkhans or ongons.

In front of the yurt there was a hitching post (serge) in the form of a pillar with an ornament.

Thanks to the design of the yurt, it can be quickly assembled and disassembled and is lightweight - all this is important when migrating to other pastures. In winter, the fire in the hearth provides warmth; in summer, with an additional configuration, it is even used instead of a refrigerator. The right side of the yurt is the men's side. On the wall hung a bow, arrows, a saber, a gun, a saddle and harness. The left one is for women; here were household and kitchen utensils. In the northern part there was an altar. The door of the yurt was always on the south side. The lattice frame of the yurt was covered with felt, soaked in a mixture of sour milk, tobacco and salt for disinfection. They sat on quilted felt - sherdeg - around the hearth. Among the Buryats living on the western side of Lake Baikal, wooden yurts with eight walls were used. The walls were built mainly from larch logs, while the inside of the walls had a flat surface. The roof has four large slopes (in the form of a hexagon) and four small slopes (in the form of a triangle). Inside the yurt there are four pillars on which the inner part of the roof - the ceiling - rests. Large pieces of coniferous bark are laid on the ceiling (inside down). The final covering is carried out with even pieces of turf.

In the 19th century, wealthy Buryats began to build huts borrowed from Russian settlers, preserving elements of the national home in the interior decoration.
Traditional cuisine
Since ancient times, products of animal and combined animal-plant origin have occupied a large place in the food of the Buryats: (b helyor, sh len, buuza, khushuur, hileeme, sharbin, shuhan, hiime, oreomog, hoshkhonog, z hey-salamat, x sh en - milk foam, rme, arbin, s mge, z heitey zedgene, goghan, as well as drinks hen, zutaraan sai, aarsa, x renge, tarag, horzo, togonoy arkhi (tarasun) - an alcoholic drink obtained by distilling kurunga). Sour milk of a special leaven (kurunga) and dried compressed curdled mass - huruud - were prepared for future use.

Like the Mongols, the Buryats drank green tea, into which they poured milk and added salt, butter or lard.

Unlike Mongolian cuisine, a significant place in Buryat cuisine is occupied by fish, berries (bird cherry, strawberries), herbs and spices. Baikal omul, smoked according to the Buryat recipe, is popular.

The symbol of Buryat cuisine is buuza (traditional name buuza), a steamed dish. Corresponds to Chinese baozi.(dumplings)
National clothes
Outerwear
Each Buryat clan (obsolete - tribe) has its own national clothing, which is extremely diverse (mainly for women). The national clothing of the Transbaikal Buryats consists of degel - a kind of caftan made of dressed sheepskin, which has a triangular cutout on the top of the chest, trimmed, as well as the sleeves, tightly clasping the hand, with fur, sometimes very valuable. In summer, the degel could be replaced by a cloth caftan of a similar cut. In Transbaikalia, robes were often used in the summer, the poor had paper ones, and the rich had silk ones. In inclement times, in addition to the degel in Transbaikalia, a saba, a type of overcoat with a long kragen, was worn. In the cold season, especially on the road - dakha, a type of wide robe made from tanned skins, with the wool facing out.

Degel (degil) is tied at the waist with a belt on which a knife and smoking accessories were hung: a flint, a hansa (a small copper pipe with a short chibouk) and a tobacco pouch. A distinctive feature from the Mongolian cut is the chest part of the degel - enger, where three multi-colored stripes are sewn into the upper part. At the bottom there is a yellow-red color - hua ungee, in the middle there is a black color - hara ungee, at the top there are various; white - sagan ungee, green - nogon ungee or blue - huhe ungee. The original version was yellow-red, black, white. The history of introducing these colors as insignia goes back to ancient times towards the end of the 4th century AD. e., when the proto-Buryats - Xiongnu (Huns) before the Sea of Azov divided into two directions; the northern ones adopted the black color and became the black Huns (hara hunud), and the southern ones adopted the white color and became the white Huns (sagan hunud). Part of the Western (northern) Xiongnu remained under the rule of the Xianbei (proto-Mongols) and adopted hua ungee - yellow-red color. This division by color later formed the basis for the formation of clans (omog) - Huasei, Khargana, Sagangud.

1. Features of the peoples of Siberia

2. General characteristics of the peoples of Siberia

3. Peoples of Siberia on the eve of Russian colonization

1. 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 characteristics that characterize the historical and ethnographic diversity of Siberia. In cultural and economic terms, the territory of Siberia can be divided into two large historical regions: 1) southern - the region of ancient cattle breeding and agriculture; and 2) northern – the area of commercial hunting and fishing. The boundaries of these areas do not coincide with the boundaries of landscape zones. Stable economic and cultural types of Siberia developed in ancient times as a result of historical and cultural processes that were different in time and nature, occurring in conditions of 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 of 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) cattle breeders of steppes and forest-steppes.

In the past, foot hunters and fishermen of the taiga mainly included some groups of foot Evenks, Orochs, Udeges, separate groups of Yukaghirs, Kets, Selkups, partly Khanty and Mansi, Shors. For these peoples, hunting for meat animals (elk, deer) and fishing were of great importance. A characteristic element of their culture was the hand sledge.

The settled-fishing type of economy was widespread in the past among the peoples living in the river basins. Amur and Ob: Nivkhs, Nanais, Ulchis, Itelmens, Khanty, among some Selkups and Ob Mansi. For these peoples, fishing was the main source of livelihood throughout the year. Hunting was of an auxiliary nature.

The type of sedentary hunters of sea animals is represented among the sedentary Chukchi, Eskimos, and partly sedentary Koryaks. The economy of these peoples is based on the production of sea animals (walrus, seal, whale). Arctic hunters settled on the coasts of the Arctic seas. The products of marine hunting, in addition to satisfying personal needs for meat, fat and skins, also served as an object of exchange with neighboring related groups.

Nomadic taiga reindeer herders, 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-tundras of Eastern Siberia, from the Yenisei to the Sea of Okhotsk, and also extended to the 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 marine 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 means of transportation.

Cattle breeding of the steppes and forest-steppes in the past was widely represented among the Yakuts, the world's northernmost pastoral people, among the Altaians, Khakassians, Tuvinians, Buryats, and Siberian Tatars. Cattle breeding was of a commercial nature; the products almost completely satisfied the population's needs for meat, milk and dairy products. Agriculture among pastoral peoples (except for the Yakuts) existed as an auxiliary branch of the economy. These peoples were partly 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, and Enets combined reindeer herding with hunting as their main occupation.

The diversity of cultural and economic types of Siberia determines the specifics of indigenous peoples' development of the natural environment, on the one hand, and the level of their socio-economic development, on the other. Before the arrival of the Russians, economic and cultural specialization did not go beyond the framework of the appropriating economy and primitive (hoe) farming and cattle breeding. The diversity 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 that entails the need for activity. This explains so many economic and cultural types. Their peculiarity is their sparing attitude towards 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 (ethnic group). Therefore, a single cultural and economic type is not yet a community of culture. What is common is that the existence of many traditional cultures is based on a certain method of farming (fishing, hunting, sea hunting, cattle breeding). However, cultures can be different in terms of customs, rituals, traditions, and beliefs.

2. General characteristics of the peoples of Siberia

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 modern Shors, Altaians, Khakassians: Tomsk, Chulym and “Kuznetsk” Tatars (about 5-6 thousand people), Teleuts ( White Kalmyks) (about 7–8 thousand people), 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 developed blacksmithing.