Nenets, Nenets or Khasova (self-name - "man"), Samoyeds, Yuraks (obsolete), people in Russia, the indigenous population of the European North and the north of Western and Central Siberia. They live in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (6.4 thousand people), Leshukonsky, Mezensky and Primorsky districts of the Arkhangelsk region (0.8 thousand people), the northern regions of the Komi Republic, Yamalo-Nenets (20.9 thousand people) and Khanty- Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Region, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenetsky) Autonomous Okrug of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (3.5 thousand people). The number in the Russian Federation is 34.5 thousand people. There are two ethnographic groups: tundra and forest Nenets. Related peoples: Nganasans, Enets, Selkups.

They speak the Nenets language of the Samoyedic group of the Ural family, which is divided into 2 dialects: tundra, which is spoken by the majority of the Nenets, and forest (it is spoken by about 2 thousand Nenets, settled mainly in the taiga zone, along the upper and middle reaches of the Pur River, and also in the sources of the Nadym River and along some tributaries of the Middle Ob). The Russian language is also widespread. Writing based on Russian graphics.

Like other North Samoyedic peoples, the Nenets formed from several ethnic components. During the 1st millennium AD, under the pressure of the Huns, Turks and other warlike nomads, the Samoyedic-speaking ancestors of the Nenets, who inhabited the forest-steppe regions of the Irtysh and Tobol, the taiga of the Middle Ob, moved north into the taiga and tundra regions of the Arctic and the Arctic and assimilated the aboriginal population - hunters for wild deer and sea hunters. Later, the Nenets also included Ugric and Enets groups.

Traditional occupations are hunting for fur-bearing animals, wild deer, upland and waterfowl, fishing. Since the middle of the 18th century, domestic reindeer breeding has become the leading branch of the economy.

In the former USSR, the economy, life and culture of the Nenets have undergone significant changes. Most of the Nenets worked at the enterprises of the fishing industry, led a settled way of life. Some of the Nenets graze reindeer on individual farms. Families of reindeer herders wander. A significant number of families live in the cities of Naryan-Mar, Salekhard, Pechora, and others and work in industry and the service sector. The Nenets intelligentsia grew up.

Most of the Nenets led a nomadic lifestyle. The traditional dwelling is a collapsible pole tent covered with reindeer skins in winter and birch bark in summer.

Outerwear (malitsa, sokui) and shoes (pima) were made from reindeer skins. They traveled on light wooden sleds.

Food - deer meat, fish.

The main social unit of the Nenets at the end of the 19th century was the patrilineal clan (erkar). The Siberian Tundra Nenets retained 2 exogamous phratries.

Religious beliefs were dominated by belief in spirits - the masters of heaven, earth, fire, rivers, and natural phenomena. Orthodoxy became widespread among a part of the Nenets of the European North in the middle of the 19th century.

V. I. Vasiliev

Peoples and religions of the world. Encyclopedia. M., 2000, p. 375-377.

Nenets

Auto-ethnonym (self-name)

nenets: Self-designation ne nts - "man".

Main settlement area

See: Ethnic and ethnographic groups

population

According to the 1897 census, they were counted together with other Samoyed peoples, 1926 - 16.4 thousand, 1959 - 23.0 thousand, 1970 - 28.7 thousand, 1979 - 29.4 thousand, 1989 - 34.4 thousand.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

They are divided into two ethnoterritorial groups - tundra, settled in the tundra zone from the Kola Peninsula (from the end of the 19th century) to the right bank of the lower reaches of the river. Yenisei (the territories of the Murmansk region, the Arkhangelsk region - the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Tyumen region - the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Krasnoyarsk Territory - the Dolgano-Nenets (Taimyr) Autonomous Region), forest (self-name n e shch and ang "man") are settled in taiga zone between the Ob and Yenisei rivers. The main part of the Forest Nenets lives in the Pur river basin, as well as in the upper reaches of the river. Nadym and along the northern tributaries of the Lyamin, Tromegan and Agan rivers. Differences between these groups, which were formed historically, are noted for all ethnic characteristics.

Anthropological characteristics

In anthropological terms, the Nenets belong to the Ural contact. a small race, whose representatives are characterized by a combination of anthropological features inherent in both Caucasoids and Mongoloids. In connection with the wide settlement, the Nenets are anthropologically divided into a number of groups, demonstrating the main trend of decreasing the share of Mongoloidness from east to west. A small degree of expression of the Mongoloid complex is recorded among the Forest Nenets. The overall picture is accompanied by a discrete, focal localization of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features, which is explained both by interethnic contacts and the relative isolation of certain territorial groups of the Nenets.

Language

Nenets: The Nenets language belongs to the Samoyedic (Samoyedic) group of the Ural language family and is divided into two dialects - tundra, which breaks up into western and eastern dialects, communication between speakers of which does not interfere with mutual understanding, and forest, which is distinguished by its peculiar phonetic composition, which makes it difficult to communicate with native speakers tundra dialect. The forest dialect is also divided into a number of dialects.

writing

In 1932, on the basis of the Latin graphics, G.N. Prokofiev prepared the first Nenets primer "New Word". The dialect of the tundra Nenets was taken as the basis of the primer. Grammar, grammar guides, textbooks and books for reading in the Nenets language were subsequently developed. In 1936, Nenets writing was transferred to the Russian graphic basis.

Religion

Orthodoxy: Orthodox. The beginning of the Christianization of the European Nenets dates back to the 20s of the 19th century. The mission of Archimandrite Veniamin began the conversion of the Tundra Nenets to Christianity in 1926/27. The sermon was conducted in the Nenets language. With a tolerant attitude towards the sacraments, contemporaries noted the poor assimilation of the foundations of Christian dogmas by the Nenets. Along with educational activities, the missionaries were actively engaged in the destruction of sacred places. In 1826, the mission burned 420 wooden "idols" on Vaygach Island and placed a cross. By 1830, 3,303 Nenets had been baptized. Subsequently, a spiritual construction commission was created, which was engaged in the construction of churches, on the basis of which it was supposed to spread the Christian faith in the territories inhabited by the tundra Nenets. Subsequently, missionary schools were opened at church parishes. Priests began to prepare from "foreigners".
The first attempts to Christianize the Siberian Nenets date back to the 18th century, but they met with active resistance. Systematic missionary activity begins with the establishment in 1832 in the Obdorskaya mission, but, as in the previous period, no significant results were achieved. Subsequently, a Russian-native school was created at the Obdorsk church, but only the children of the Russified Khanty and Nenets studied in it. Among the Siberian Nenets, missionary activities did not cover almost the entire tundra population - Yamal, Nizovaya tundra.
As a result of the process of introducing Christianity into the Nenets culture, a syncretic state of their religion is observed. So, under the influence of Christianity, Num, the supreme deity of the Nenets, acquires the features of a Christian god. St. Nikolay. The Nenets celebrated a number of Christian holidays, wore Orthodox crosses, and icons became common in the interior of their dwellings. Elements of everyday Orthodoxy became widespread due to the various contacts of the Nenets with the Russian population.
Nevertheless, in a general assessment of the state of syncretism in the religion of the Nenets, it is noted that "the influence of the Christian faith was mainly superficial and did not deeply affect the traditional religious ideas of the Nenets."

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

The formation of the Nenets culture in its local variants, as well as the specificity of the Nenets in relation to other Samoyedic peoples, can be explained from the idea of ​​a two-component nature of the North Samoyedic ethnogenesis. According to the general scheme, in the formation of the Nenets, on the one hand, the South Samoyedic groups took part, which, under the onslaught of the nomads of the Huns and Turks, during the III - XIII centuries. AD migrated from the Sayan, on the other hand, the aboriginal population of the tundra, forest-tundra and northern regions of the taiga of Western Siberia, known in the folklore of the Nenets under the name of s and kh and rtya. An analysis of the ethno-component composition of the Nenets, which is based on accounting for modern clans, in connection with the history of their formation, makes it possible to identify in different territorial groups the approximate percentage of ethnic components that took part in their formation. Thus, in the composition of the European Nenets, 78.2% of the genera are South Siberian and 21.8% native components, in the Siberian tundra Nenets, the South Siberian component is 53.4%, native 26.4%, Khanty 15.0% and "mixed" (Forest Nenets and Enets - 5.2%) The Siberian Forest Nenets comprise 63.2% of the South Siberian component, 35.4% of the aboriginal and 2.6% of the Tundra Nenets.
This scheme reflects not only the initial stages of the formation of the Nenets culture in the interaction of the autochthonous and alien population, but also the subsequent, starting from the 17th century, the processes of interaction, primarily the tundra Nenets, in the course of their development of new territories to the east, up to the right bank of the Yenisei, with the Enets , the inclusion of clans of Khanty origin in their composition, as well as their close interaction in the field of reindeer breeding with the Komi-Izhma people.

economy

The specificity of the selected groups is also fixed in the sphere of ethnic culture. Tundra Nenets are large-scale reindeer herders (the northern version of the pastoral economy). They lead a nomadic lifestyle, carrying out annual migrations with reindeer herds according to the system: summer - northern tundra, winter - forest tundra. Material culture is adapted to a nomadic way of life (mobile housing, highly specialized reindeer transport, a minimum set of household items). All human needs are provided by products of domestic reindeer breeding. Fishing, waterfowl hunting, and fur trade are of seasonal economic importance.
In contrast to the tundra, in the culture of the Forest Nenets, the following are noted: poor development of reindeer husbandry, which is represented by the taiga, its transport variant, which provides commercial orientation traditional economy; hunting and fishing as the main economic components; there are numerous differences in the sphere of material culture - housing, clothing, transport, food, utensils, etc.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

The settlement of nomadic reindeer herders is a year-round mobile camp, consisting of several tents (1-5), the camps of the Forest Nenets are seasonal.
A universal type of dwelling is a tent, the so-called "Samoyed type" - two main poles are connected by a belt ring, the number of poles of the frame is 25-50, a special design of the overhead device, covering the winter tent with double "nukes" - tires sewn from deer skins, the summer one with single old nukes or vise. All parts of the plague were transported on special reindeer sleds.

Bibliography and sources

General works

• Nenets. Historical and ethnographic essays. M., L, 1966, 2nd ed. SPb., 1995 / Khomich L.V.
• Speaking cultures: traditions of the Samoyeds and Ugric peoples. Yekaterinburg, 1995./Golovnev A.V.

Selected aspects

• Problems of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Nenets. L., 1976 / Khomich L.V.
• The influence of Christianization on the religious ideas and cults of the Nenets // Christianity and Lamaism among the indigenous population of Siberia (the second half of the 19th-20th centuries). Leningrad, 1979. S. 12-28./Khomich L.V.
• In the extreme northwest of Siberia. Essays on the Obdorsky Territory./Bartenev V.//SPb.,-1896
• Problems of the formation of the North Samoyedic peoples./Vasiliev V.I.//M.-1979
• Historical typology of the economy of the peoples of Northwestern Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1993./Golovnev A.V.
• Essays on the ethnic history of the Nenets and Enets. M., L., 1970 / Dolgikh B.O.

Separate regional groups

• Samoyeds in home and public life. SPb., 1847 / Islavin V.
• Along the Bolshezemelskaya tundra with nomads. Arkhangelsk, 1911/Kertselli S.V.
• The Nenets of European Russia at the end of the 17th-beginning of the 18th century. // SE. 1956. No. 2 / Kolycheva E.I.
• The North Pole and the land of Yamal. SPb., 1868 / Kushelevsky Yu.I.
• Description of the heterodox peoples of the Ostyaks and Samoyeds living in the Siberian province in the Berezovsky district // Materials on the ethnography of Siberia in the 18th century. TIE. 1947. V. 5 / Zuev V.F.
• Forest Nenets / Verbov G.D. / / SE, No. 2-1936
• Kaninsky Samoyeds // SS. 1930. Nos. 4-5./Heidenreich L.N.
• Traditional dwelling of the Forest Nenets in the Pur river basin // SE. 1971. No. 4 / Long T.B.
• Food culture of the Gydan Nenets (interpretation and social adaptation). M., 1997 / Yoshida Atsushi.
• Yamal Peninsula // Zap. IRGO in general. geogr. SPb., 1913. V.49 / Zhitkov B.M.

Faces of Russia. "Living Together, Being Different"

The Faces of Russia multimedia project has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together, remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for countries around the world. post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, as part of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of various Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and songs of the peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs have been released to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a picture that will allow the inhabitants of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a picture of what they were like for posterity.

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"Faces of Russia". Nenets. “My homeland is Taimyr”, 2006

General information

N'ENTS, Nenets or Khasova (self-name - "man"), Samoyeds, Yuraks (obsolete), Samoyedic people inhabiting the Eurasian coast of the Arctic Ocean from the Kola Peninsula to Taimyr. The Nenets live in the north of the European part of Russia and in the north of Western and Central Siberia. They live in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (6.4 thousand people), Leshukonsky, Mezensky and Primorsky districts of the Arkhangelsk region (0.8 thousand people), the northern regions of the Komi Republic, Yamalo-Nenets (20.9 thousand people) and Khanty- Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Region, Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenetsky) Autonomous Okrug of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (3.5 thousand people). The number in the Russian Federation is 34.5 thousand people.

Of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North, the Nenets are one of the most numerous. According to the results of the 2010 census, there are 44 thousand 640 Nenets in Russia, of which about 27 thousand live in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. According to the 2002 population census, the number of Nenets living in Russia is 41 thousand people.

The Nenets are divided into two groups: tundra and forest. Tundra Nenets are the majority. They live in two autonomous regions. The Forest Nenets (there are 1,500 of them) live in the basin of the Pur and Taz rivers in the southeast of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. Also, a sufficient number of Nenets live in the Taimyr municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Related peoples: Nganasans, Enets, Selkups.

They speak the Nenets language of the Samoyedic group of the Ural family, which is subdivided into 2 dialects: tundra, which breaks up into Western and Eastern dialects, communication between the speakers of which does not interfere with mutual understanding, which is spoken by the majority of the Nenets, and Forest, which is distinguished by its peculiar phonetic composition, which makes it difficult to speak contact with speakers of the tundra dialect (it is spoken by about 2,000 Nenets, settled mainly in the taiga zone, along the upper and middle reaches of the Pur River, as well as in the sources of the Nadym River and along some tributaries of the Middle Ob). The forest dialect is also divided into a number of dialects. Nenets - translated from Nenets means "man". The Russian language is also widespread. Writing based on Russian graphics.

A series of audio lectures "Peoples of Russia" - Nenets

Like other North Samoyedic peoples, the Nenets formed from several ethnic components. During the 1st millennium of our era, under the pressure of the Huns, Turks and other militant nomads, the Samoyedic-speaking ancestors of the Nenets, who inhabited the forest-steppe regions of the Irtysh and Tobol, the taiga of the Middle Ob, moved north into the taiga and tundra regions of the Arctic and the Arctic and assimilated the aboriginal population - hunters for wild deer and sea hunters. Later, Ugric and Enets groups also became part of the Nenets.

Traditional occupations are hunting for fur-bearing animals, wild deer, upland and waterfowl, fishing. Since the middle of the 18th century, reindeer breeding has become the leading branch of the economy.

In the former USSR, the economy, life and culture of the Nenets have undergone significant changes. Most of the Nenets worked at the enterprises of the fishing industry, led a settled way of life. Part of the Nenets grazes deer in individual farms. Families of reindeer herders wander. A significant number of families live in the cities of Naryan-Mar, Salekhard, Pechora, and others and work in industry and the service sector. The Nenets intelligentsia grew up.

Most of the Nenets led a nomadic lifestyle. The traditional dwelling is a collapsible pole tent covered with reindeer skins in winter and birch bark in summer.

Outerwear (malitsa, sokui) and shoes (pima) were made from reindeer skins. They traveled on light wooden sleds.

Food - deer meat, fish. The need to survive in the harsh conditions of the Far North taught the Nenets inhabitants to eat raw meat with blood. This is not only a delicacy, but also the body's need for vitamins, especially C and B2, and there are enough of them in venison. Therefore, the Nenets do not suffer from scurvy.

The world, according to the Nenets, was created by the loon bird. She took out a lump of earth from under the water, which gradually turned into the earth's surface with its numerous mountains, forests, rivers and lakes. The Nenets represent the land in the form of several layers. Above the earth where people live, there are seven heavens. They form a single whole and turn over the earth along with the moon and the sun.

The sky is convex. Its edges rest on the ground, resembling an overturned bowl. There are deer-owning people in heaven. When it rains, the reason for its appearance is easily explained by the Nenets. Snow melts in the lower sky, and it naturally flows down to the earth. The earth seems flat to the Nenets. Slightly crooked in the middle. There are mountains, rivers flow from them. And including the river Ob. The whole earth is surrounded by the sea.

The main social unit of the Nenets at the end of the 19th century was the patrilineal clan (erkar). The Siberian tundra Nenets retained 2 exogamous phratries.

Religious beliefs were dominated by belief in spirits - the masters of heaven, earth, fire, rivers, and natural phenomena. Orthodoxy became widespread among part of the Nenets of the European North in the middle of the 19th century.

V. I. Vasiliev

Essays

Sun and moon shine for everyone

The Nenets live in the north of the European part of Russia and in the north of Western and Central Siberia. In the territories that are part of the Nenets Autonomous District, Leshukonsky, Mezensky and Primorsky districts of the Arkhangelsk region, the northern regions of the Komi Republic, the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous districts, as well as the Tyumen region and the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) autonomous districts. According to the 2002 census, there are 41,302 Nenets in the Russian Federation.

Seven earths and seven heavens

The world, according to the Nenets, was created by the loon bird. She took out a lump of earth from under the water, which gradually turned into the earth's surface with its numerous mountains, forests, rivers and lakes. The Nenets represent the land in the form of several layers. Above the earth where people live, there are seven heavens. They form a single whole and rotate above the earth along with the moon and the sun. The sky has a convex shape. Its edges rest on the ground, resembling an overturned bowl. There are deer-owning people in heaven. Interestingly, when it rains, the reason for its appearance is easily explained by the Nenets. Snow melts in the lower sky, and it naturally flows down to the earth. The earth seems flat to the Nenets. Slightly crooked in the middle. There are mountains, rivers flow from them. And including (the exact detail of the myth) Ob. The whole earth is surrounded by the sea. It would be useful to say that the stars (numgas) are also perceived by the Nenets as quite specific lakes. The land where the Nenets live is not alone. Under it are seven more lands. The first of them is inhabited by sihirtya (sirtya) - small people. The Nenets believe that the sun and moon are the same for all worlds - lower and upper. The Nenets represent the sun itself in the form of a beautiful woman. It is she who decides whether trees, grasses, mosses grow or not. If the sun hides, then frosts begin. According to the Nenets, the moon (iriy, iriy) is flat and round. It is known that there are dark spots on the moon. These are the legs of the moon man (Iriy Khasava). We humans only see from the ground lower limbs this creature. His torso and head are on the other side of the moon.

A seven-winged bird is flying

No less interesting and paradoxical are the ideas of the Nenets about natural phenomena. For example, the wind (flickering) is caused by the mythical bird Minley. She has seven pairs of wings. Lightning (hehe tu’ - sacred fire) is the sparks that fly from under the sledge runners of the inhabitants of the upper world. The rainbow (nuv' pan) seemed to the Nenets to be a living being. And its very name comes from the colored horizontal stripes on the hem of men's or women's clothing. With the emergence of animistic ideas (that is, belief in spirits and the soul), the views of the Nenets on the world around them changed, and they began to distinguish between "good and evil principles in nature itself." It was then that ideas arose about "master spirits" that controlled certain areas of life and were in charge of specific territories. A cult of these spirits arose. They tried to propitiate the spirits, to attract them to their side. Every year, a white deer was sacrificed to the spirit of heaven (Numa). The ritual itself (killing the beast) took place on an open elevated place. The process was accompanied by ritual eating of meat. The head of a deer with antlers was put on a stake and turned to the east.

Let's feed the sky

There was another form of veneration for the spirit of the sky - its feeding: in Nenets - nuv hanguronta. On a sunny day in late July - early August, the inhabitants of the Nenets camp gathered on an elevated place. The food was laid out in bowls, but at first no one touched it. The steam from the food rose. It was believed that in such a simple way (only weightless steam) the sky is treated. At the beginning of the 19th century, the first attempts were made to introduce the Nenets to the Christian faith. A special mission of Archimandrite Veniamin, Archangelsk City, carried out the baptism of the Nenets in the continental tundra of the European North and on the island of Vaygach. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the missionaries of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory tried to introduce the Nenets of the Ob North to Christianity. But still, a significant part of the Nenets reindeer herders in the north of Western Siberia, as well as the Forest Nenets, retained animistic ideas.

There is no bad weather for hunting

Hunting was of great importance in the life of the Nenets. To meet the need for food, they hunted wild deer and waterfowl. Fur-bearing animals (ermine, arctic fox, fox and squirrel) were hunted by the Nenets because of fur for trimming clothes, and later to pay tribute to the Russian state, which included Western Siberia in the 17th century. Incidentally, the first written evidence of the Nenets dates back to the 11th century. It is found in the story of the Novgorodian Gyuryata Rogovich, which is included in The Tale of Bygone Years. In the 13th century, the papal ambassador Plano Carpini traveled through Russia, he learned about the Nenets (Samoyeds), and then told about them in Western Europe. It should be noted that the Nenets care for the animal world and the environment in general. The hunt was, if I may say so, dosed. Production, as a rule, did not exceed the vital needs.

It is easier for a left-handed reindeer breeder

And yet the main occupation of the Nenets is reindeer herding. The nomadic lifestyle associated with it naturally determined the nature of the dwelling. This is a chum - a kind of cone-shaped tent made of poles, covered in winter with panels of deer skins, and in summer with birch bark. If reindeer herding, hunting and fishing are predominantly men's activities, then the installation of the plague is traditionally considered a women's business. The place for the plague is chosen specially - depending on the time of year. In winter, they try to shelter the dwelling from the winds. In summer, on the contrary, the airiness of the plague is valued, so it is placed on open elevated places. To install one plague, from 25 to 40 poles are required. Nukes - tires are pulled onto the finished frame with the help of poles. In winter, these are four panels of reindeer skins. Summer tires are sewn from boiled birch bark. There are usually a lot of them, but they cover the chum in one layer. Nenets reindeer herders roam with several families - together with the families of brothers and married sons. In summer, reindeer herders specially unite, because it is easier to keep reindeer in a herd in a large group. It is especially difficult to restrain deer during mosquito season. Gadflies and midges are also a great danger. To destroy these insects or at least partially neutralize them, reindeer herders use special bait skins, as well as smokers.

Life with and among reindeer is very difficult, but if a Nenets has principles and correct methods, then he can become a good reindeer herder. Our contemporary Nenets Yuri Vella outlined them in a special "Reindeer herding alphabet" and published in one of the issues of the journal "Northern open spaces". Dressing deer skins and sewing clothes are traditionally women's occupations. When making clothes, the age of the deer is taken into account, as well as from which part of the body this or that part of the skin was removed. If, as a result of some unfavorable conditions, newborn calves die, then their skins (pawn, fawn) are used to make hoods of malitsa and women's hats. The skin of a calf at the age of two and a half - three months, taken at the end of summer, is especially valued among the Nenets. Outerwear is sewn from these skins. Interestingly, the skin of a large deer is also found in the riddles of the Nenets people. But only all of it is in holes. Guess what it is? The first thing that comes to mind: the gadflies messed up. No, the correct answer is: stars in the sky. And here is a riddle that is very similar to a poem: On a starless night before the plague Who will help you get there? Who will find the way in the wind, If there is no road in the tundra? The answer suggests itself. Of course, deer. King and ship of the tundra.

The self-name of the majority of the tundra Nenets (for the division of the Nenets into tundra and forest, see below) - ?enej ?ene??, where Russian. Nenets, Nenets, literally means “a real person”, and similarly to the self-names of Enets and Nganasans formed from the same northern Samoyedic roots (see below). The eastern tundra (mouth of the Ob and to the east) Nenets also use the word ??sawa"Man". The Forest Nenets call themselves (plural) ?ak?(by genus name) ?ak associated, possibly, with n. ?a"tree, forest"), and the tundra Nenets call them ?an??sawa?"forest people"

The external name of the Nenets, which serves in European languages ​​and today also as the name of all Samoyeds, is German. (plural) Samojeden etc. - comes from Russian samoyeds, which served until the 1930s as the name of the Nenets, as well as - with clarifying definitions - other Samoyeds (see). Other Russian Samoyed for the first time it is found already in the initial Russian chronicle under 1096 in the story of the Novgorodian Gyuryata Rogovich, as the name of the people living further north (and east -?) from Ugra(see sections on Mansi and Khanty, see also below). The form Samoyed coincides with church-glory. Samoyed"cannibals". The use of the word "cannibal" to name the population of remote and poorly known regions in ancient Russian monuments may be due to the medieval literary tradition (dating back to the "Roman about Alexander") stories about mythical peoples inhabiting the outskirts of the ecumene (such as "psoglavtsy", "mouthless", etc. . P.). It is in this context that we first encounter samoyeds(in the shape of Samogedi) in Western European sources - in the work of the papal ambassador to the court of the Mongol Khan br. John de Plano Carpini (mid-13th century): between the steam-eating mouthless parosites And psoglavtsy. It is important that information about these peoples br. John received, obviously, from a Russian informant or translator (cf., for example, the name "mouthless": Parosity- apparently, distorted (other?) Rus. steam-fed(version of A. N. Anfertiev), as well as Samogedi- from Russian samoyeds). Perhaps the correlation of the mythical "cannibals" ( Samoyeds) the outskirts of the ecumene with the real ancestors of the Nenets contributed to the military customs that existed in the Middle Ages among the peoples of Western Siberia and, in particular, among the Nenets, associated with the dismemberment of the body of a killed enemy and eating his heart or brain, in connection with which the Pelym Mansi (according to the dictionary of B. Munkachi) called the Nenets kh?l?s-t?p?r?nt"cannibals", lit. "human food of the Nenets". Perhaps it was the stories of the Mansi or their other neighbors (Komi, yugra) about the military customs of the Nenets and served as the basis for the application of the Russian church-glory to them. words Samoyed.

In the literature, a version is widespread (since the time of M. A. Kastren), according to which the word samoyed(other Russian Samoyed) comes from a certain derivative of the common Sami * s?m?-??ne?m"Sami land" From a historical point of view, such a hypothesis has a right to exist: according to Russian sources and place names, in the Middle Ages, the Saami or a population close to them in terms of language really lived in the modern Russian North - almost to the western border of today's Komi Republic in the east (see the section on the Saami) and hence the type name * s?m?-??ne?m, as all Sami today call their lands, could indeed be used in relation to the territories of the northeast of Eastern Europe, could be known to Russians and subsequently transferred to the inhabitants of the extreme Northeast - the Nenets. Phonetically, however, other Russian. Samoyed hardly derivable from * s?m?-??ne?m. The assumption about the (para?) Saami protoform of the Russian word like * s?m?-(j)???ne?(m) also unlikely, since in those Sámi dialects where the *? n? > *??n?, a similar development occurs *? m? > ??m?(While we are talking about southern dialects: cf. Saami (Umeo) submee"Sami", e?dnama"earth", (Lulea) sapm?"Sami", ?tnam"earth" - at (Inari) s??mi"Sami", ??nnam"Earth").

Even less reliable is the assumption about the connection of other Russian. Samoyed with the name of the tundra Enets somatu(see etymology in the section on Enets) - both for phonetic and historical-geographical reasons. Perhaps the existence of ethnicons in the north-east of Eastern Europe and in the north of Western Siberia * s?m?-??ne?m And somatu contributed transfer to the native population consonant with them church-glory. Samoyed"cannibals", but it is impossible to derive the old Russian name of the Nenets from these ethnicons.

Eastern (from the Yamal peninsula and to the east) Nenets appear in Russian documents of the 17th-19th centuries also under the name yuraki, whence their (and often Nenets in general) Western European names like German. Jurak-Samojeden. Rus. yuraki contains a suffix? ak, and its basis is a borrowing from the Ob-Ugric (most likely Khanty) languages: Mans. (FROM) j??r?n"Nenets", (Pel.) ?r?n, (Con.) j?r??n / jor??n"tzh", Khant. (FROM) j?rn??"Nenets, Nenets", (Wah) j?r?an?, (You.) j?rk?an?, (YU) j?r?n"tzh". From the Ob-Ugric languages, the Komi name of the Nenets is borrowed jaran. The further etymology of this word remains obscure. However, attention is drawn to the closeness of the reconstructed Mansi protoform * jo?ren(at the same time, one should assume metathesis in the Kondinsky dialect of Mansi and borrowing a form like Mans. (Kond.) jor??n into Khanty - otherwise it would be difficult to explain the reduced vowel in the Khanty word with a long one in most Mansi dialects) to the Komi name of the Ob Ugrians * jegra (< общеперм. *j?gra, see sections on Mansi and Khanty). It is possible, therefore, that the Ob-Ugric name of the Nenets comes from the name of the ancient population of the extreme north-east of Europe and the north of Western Siberia - the chronicle Ugra.

Apart from Samoyeds And Ugra Russian sources of the 11th-15th centuries mention Pechera(in the story of Gyuryata Rogovich of 1096 they are placed in the following order - obviously, from (south?) west to (north?) east - Pechera, Yugra, Samoyed). The ethnicity of this group remains unclear. Regarding the etymology of the word Pechera There are two noteworthy hypotheses. According to the first of them (M. Vasmer), it comes from the name of the river Pechory(other Russian Pechera), which, in turn, is purely Russian in origin and is associated with other Russian. cave"cave" - ​​there are really many caves in the lower reaches of the Pechora. According to the second version (L.V. Khomich), the name of a certain people is primary cave, after which the river is named, and which comes from the Nenets p?-t?er"mountain dwellers" (n. p?- letters. "stone", used in the names of the Ural Mountains, the mountain range on the Kanin peninsula, the Chernaya River in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, etc.). Nen. p?-t?er really used as the name of the Nenets groups living on the Siberian side of the Polar Urals and in the Lower Ob (hence the name of the Nenets of the Polar Urals in Russian sources " stone samoyeds”, from the 15th century - as opposed to“ grassroots Samoyeds", who lived in the tundra of the right bank of the Lower Ob and to the east). If the second of these hypotheses is correct, then under the chronicle Pecheroi some group of Nenets may be hiding, inhabiting the foothills of the Urals or the spurs of the Timan Ridge, and the presence of Nenets in the Pechora basin as early as the 11th century is evidenced by the Nenets origin of the name of the people who lived here. If such an assumption is incorrect, then the presence in the Russian monuments of the XI-XV centuries in the extreme north-east of Europe of two peoples of unknown ethno-linguistic affiliation - Pechery And Ugra- leaves little room for the Nenets, and the confidence of some researchers regarding localization Samoyeds XI century (who lived, according to the unambiguous data of Russian sources, behindPecheroi And Yugra , that is - further east and / or north) west of the Urals and, consequently, the conclusion about the penetration of the ancestors of the Nenets into the north of Eastern Europe already at the very beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. e. are quite controversial.

The first contacts of the Nenets with the Russians in the 11th-14th centuries are replaced by the gradual subordination of their power to the latter - especially from the 15th century, when the Novgorod lands, including the North, came under the control of Moscow. In 1499, in the lower reaches of the Pechora, Pustozersk was founded (near the modern city of Naryan-Mar) - a stronghold of the Russian state in the extreme northeast of Europe. Documents of the 16th century are already called Kaninsky, Timan, Pupuszero Samoyeds- apparently, it is necessary to speak with confidence about the Nenets presence in the tundra and forest-tundra of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Kanin peninsula only since that time.

At the end of the 16th century, in addition to Pustozersk, where up to two thousand Nenets gathered in winter to trade and pay yasak, Russians founded new settlements in the European North: Mezen on the river of the same name, Ust-Tsilma and Izhma in the middle reaches of the Pechora, to which they are attributed to pay yasak most European Nenets. During the 17th century, an influx of Russians and (in the Pechora basin, primarily Ust-Tsilma) Komi was growing into the northern lands, which, along with the tightening of yasak taxation, led to conflicts with the Nenets, who in the winter of 1662/1663. burned Pustozersk.

The military activity of the Nenets, however, increased in the 17th century not only in the northeast of Europe, but also in Western Siberia; apparently, it was during this period that the Nenets "take revenge" in wars with the Ob Ugrians who had advanced earlier in the lower reaches of the Ob (in the tundra Nenets, clans descended from the Khanty are formed) and begin their expansion in the tundra zone to the east, to the lands of the Enets (see below). This circumstance is explained, in addition to the increasing pressure on the Nenets from the west, by an important shift in the system of economic life of the tundra Nenets.

Apparently, until about the 16th-17th centuries, their economic structure was basically similar to the way of other northern Samoyeds, Enets and Nganasans that remained until the 20th century, that is, the basis of the economy was fishing and hunting, in particular hunting for wild reindeer with using its seasonal migrations. Reindeer breeding should have been known to the ancestors of the Nenets since the general Samoyed era, as evidenced by the reconstructed vocabulary of the Samoyed proto-language, but until the 16th century it had a purely transport and auxiliary (decoy deer, etc.) meaning, people's lives did not depend on the number and movements domestic herd. In the XVI-XVII centuries, as a result of Russian colonization, the increasing flow of Russian and Komi settlers, the spread of firearms, the development of market relations and the growth of yasak taxation, a sharp intensification of traditional hunting took place, which quickly led to a reduction in the number of wild reindeer. In the north of Eastern Europe, in the Polar Urals, and somewhat later in the north of Western Siberia, traditional methods of battue and driven hunting become unproductive and fall into decay. On the other hand, due to the need to pay yasak and the development of the fur trade, the fur trade is developing, associated with the need to catch large areas, which increased the role of transport reindeer husbandry.

Under these conditions, the Nenets of the European and Ural-Ob tundras switched in the 16th-17th centuries to large-herd reindeer husbandry and the nomadic lifestyle associated with it (this hypothesis was best substantiated in the works of A.V. Golovnev). A sharp increase in the number of deer herds associated with this (for the normal reproduction of the herd and the maintenance of the economic minimum of one farm, 400 or more deer heads were required - for comparison, I will point out that the herds of European Nenets in the 16th century, according to Russian documents, did not exceed 100 heads), led to an active search for new pastures, and high mobility and relative independence from natural conditions ensured a clear superiority of the tundra Nenets over other peoples who retained a more archaic way of life.

The initial impulse of the Nenets movement in the tundra was directed to the east - from the Polar Urals and the lower reaches of the Ob to Gydan, to the Taz and further to the Yenisei. As early as the beginning of the 17th century, there were apparently no Nenets on the Gydan and in the lower reaches of the Taz, these territories were inhabited " Khantai», « Taz», « thin» samoyeds who paid yasak in Mangazeya (see below), in which researchers see the ancestors of the Enets (B. O. Dolgikh, V. I. Vasiliev). Nenets (" stone" And " obdorsky» samoyeds) paid yasak at that time in Obdorsk (see below), their appearance as yasak payers in the lower reaches of the Taz and to the east begins to be recorded from the 30s of the 17th century. It is in connection with the movement of the Nenets to the east in Russian documents that the term yuraki(see above). In the XVIII century, in the extreme east of the Nenets territory, on the left bank of the Lower Yenisei, G.F. Miller recorded a special dialect of the Nenets language, called " Yuratsky”(now disappeared), which in a number of ways was a transitional dialect from the tundra Nenets to the Enets language (according to E. A. Khelimsky). Perhaps it was the last remnant of the chain of transitional dialects that existed before the Nenets expansion, connecting the North Samoyedic languages. However, in the lower reaches of the Taz and on the Gydan, there was also a simple inclusion of the Enets and entire Enets groups into the Nenets clans (at the same time, the descendants of these Enets, until recently, called themselves Nenets, and the rest of the Nenets - yurakami).

Gradually, during the XVII-XVIII centuries, the Nenets pushed back the Enets to the Yenisei. The decisive clash occurred (according to the reconstruction of V.I. Vasiliev) in the winter of 1849/1850. on Lake Turuchedo, located in the lower reaches of the Yenisei on the right bank of the river. Judging by the legends, on the side of the Enets, the Nganasans and Tungus (Evenks) participated in the battle besides them. In assessing the outcome of the battle, the Enets and Nenets legends diverge, it is only clear that after it the border between the Enets and Nenets lands along the Yenisei, which has been preserved to this day, was established. However, this did not prevent the Nenets from making further military expeditions to the east, to the Nganasan and Ket lands.

The development of the tundra by the nomadic Nenets reindeer herders was directed not only to the east, they penetrate into the northern tundras of Yamal, Gydan, the Polar Urals, in the 19th century the tundra Nenets also advanced to the islands of Kolguev, Vaygach, and Malaya Zemlya. There they encountered the local population who lived in the Far North, as can be judged by archaeological data, from ancient times. The main occupations of these natives of the Arctic were river fishing, hunting and fishing for sea animals. Some information about the culture of this population - the inhabitants of the coast of the Barents Sea, the Yamal Peninsula and the islands of Vaigach, Malaya Zemlya, etc. - was left by Western European travelers of the 16th-17th centuries: Stephen Barrow, Jan G. van Linschoten, in particular - Pierre-Martin de Lamartinere ( middle of the 17th century). The most interesting in their reports are descriptions of dugouts with ceilings made of whale bones, comparable to the dwellings of the Koryaks, Itelmens and Eskimos and to the remains of the dwellings of the natives of the Yamal peninsula discovered by archaeologists, and frame boats covered with leather like Eskimo kayaks. In Nenets folklore, the natives of the Arctic are called sihirtya(Nen. ?i?irt??) and are described as people of short stature, speaking a special language, but also understanding Nenets, who lived in dugouts, did not have deer, with whom the Nenets traded, sometimes married, sometimes fought. In the end everything sihirtya“went underground”, although some Nenets families and clans traced their genealogy from them. Judging by the archaeological finds (primarily the excavations by V.N. Chernetsov on the Yamal peninsula) and according to Nenets folklore, assimilation sihirtya the Nenets ended in some areas (in particular, on Yamal) only in the 19th century.

Regarding ethnicity and language sihirtya there is no reliable data (except for indications of Nenets folklore about the difference between their language and Nenets). In Russian ethnography (V. N. Chernetsov, V. I. Vasiliev, Yu. B. Simchenko, and others), it is customary to see them as a remnant of the most ancient population of the Arctic and subarctic zone of Eurasia (or, at least, Western and Central Siberia), linguistically belonging to the Uralic language family in a broad sense (“Paraurals”). At the same time, the participation of Arctic natives in the genesis of not only the Nenets, but also the northern Samoyeds in general is assumed.

In the lower reaches of the Pechora, the Nenets have been clashing with the Komi since the end of the 15th century, and Russian documents of the 16th-18th centuries reflect the struggle of the European Nenets for their land on the Pechora. Already in the 17th century, the Lower Pechora (Izhma) Komi borrowed domestic reindeer breeding from the Nenets. In the 19th century, after the suppression of the militant actions of the Nenets and in connection with the formation of the capitalist market, the expansion of the Komi-Izhma into the tundra began - first trading, and then reindeer herding. For several decades, by the end of the 19th century, the Komi-Izhma reindeer herders entrenched themselves in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, while their reindeer husbandry had a clearly expressed commercial character and surpassed the Nenets in terms of economic efficiency. This, naturally, led to the fact that the Nenets often turned out to be shepherds of rich Izhma reindeer herders, adopted the Komi way of life and language, mixed marriages arose (the custom of marrying Komi-Izhem women was common even among the Kanin Nenets, due to which the language of intra-family communication they became the Komi language in the first half of the 20th century).

As a result, in the middle of the 19th century, a special ethnographic group was formed here. Kolvinsky Nenets(after the name of the Kolva River and the village of the same name), who speak a special dialect of the Komi language, but are descended from the Nenets, retain mainly the Nenets traditional culture and call themselves Kolva jaran- "Kolvinsky Nenets" (in the Komi language). At the end of the 19th century, part of the Kolvinsky Nenets even switched to a settled way of life, completely adopting the Komi-Izhma traditions of material culture and economy.

In 1887, four Komi-Izhma families with their herds, fleeing the epizootic, crossed the ice from the Bolshezemelskaya tundra to the Kola Peninsula. Then, in the 90s of the XIX century, other Komi-Izhma people joined them. Together with the Komi, their Nenets shepherds also moved to the Kola Peninsula.

The turbulent events of the 17th-19th centuries, which took place in the tundra from the Kanin Peninsula to the Yenisei, almost did not touch only one group of Nenets - Forest Nenets(nen. (L) ?ak?, (T) ?an??sawa?- see above), living in the West Siberian taiga of the upper reaches of the Pur, Nadym, Poluy and Kazym rivers, on Lake Num-Tor. Until the 20th century, they retained the old economic structure, the basis of which was hunting, including wild reindeer, and shut-off and seine (the latter, obviously, after acquaintance with Russian factory-made nets) fishing. Reindeer herding was not a large herd, and therefore it was possible, for example, such unthinkable for the tundra Nenets methods of grazing as fumigating the herd with smoke from midges; seasonal nomad camps were more subject to the rhythm of hunting and fishing life than to the needs of reindeer herding. In general, the economy of the Forest Nenets until the 20th century was mainly of a subsistence nature, which led to their significant isolation, secrecy and isolation from external influences, in contrast to their active and mobile tundra tribesmen. Due to this, the forest dialect of the Nenets language differs significantly from the tundra one and retains some archaic features.

In Russian documents, the Forest Nenets have been known since the 17th century under the name kunny(before the beginning of the 18th century) or Kazym Samoyeds(used until the 20th century). During the 17th-20th centuries, the area of ​​settlement of the Forest Nenets changed slightly (they penetrated into the upper reaches of the Agan River, some groups, possibly, went out into the tundra, moved east, into the Taz basin, to the Yenisei). It is unlikely that their numbers have ever exceeded 10% of the total number of Nenets. At present, it is estimated at about 2 thousand people.

Since the 16th century, after the conquest of Western Siberia by Yermak (see sections on the Komi, Mansi and Khanty), Russian colonization also covered the lands of the Siberian tundra Nenets. Obdorsk, founded at the end of the 16th century, becomes its stronghold here, to which the tundra Nenets of the Polar Urals, the Lower Ob, Yamal, and then the lower reaches of the Nadym, Pur, and Taz are attributed to collect yasak - Obdorsky Samoyeds. Separately, the Nenets were taken into account, who lived in the basins of the Ob tributaries of the Synya and Lyapin rivers, and assigned to the Voikar town, which stood on the Ob a hundred miles above Obdorsk - Voikar Samoyeds.

However, nomadic reindeer husbandry ensured economic independence, militarily and politically important mobility and a high level of self-consciousness of the tundra Nenets, which, even after the establishment of nominal Russian rule, allowed them to maintain relative independence. This circumstance was very clearly marked at the beginning of the 18th century, when the mass Christianization of the population of Western Siberia began: the Nenets (together with the Obdorsk reindeer herders) not only did not accept the new faith themselves, but also cruelly persecuted the newly baptized Khanty and Mansi on the Lower Ob, Lyapin, Kunovat , Kazyme. The independence of the Nenets, their desire to completely get rid of foreign domination, was undoubtedly reflected in the rebel movement of the Obdorsk Nenets and Khanty under the leadership of Vauli Piettomin in 1839-1841, although social and personal motives were apparently of no small importance here.

By the end of the 19th century, be that as it may, a relative balance had been established between the Tundra Nenets and the Russian authorities, which was largely facilitated by the fact that the national policy of the Russian state at least did not contradict the interests of the social elite of the Nenets society, and the gradual development of capitalist commodity relations did their job in the tundra. The 1897 census recorded more than 6 thousand European tundra Nenets, about 5 thousand Siberian tundra and about 0.5 thousand Siberian forest. V. I. Vasiliev justifiably considered these figures to be incomplete. The total number of the Nenets at the end of the 19th century can thus be estimated at no less than 12 thousand people. According to the Soviet census of 1926, there were 17,000 of them.

The establishment of Soviet power and the first Soviet years did not greatly affect the life of the Nenets. In 1929-1931, during the creation of national-territorial administrative units (national districts), the Nenets lands were divided into three parts: Nenets (with a center in Naryan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (Salekhard) and Dolgano-Nenets (Dudinka) were formed national districts. In addition, part of the European Nenets turned out to be assigned to the Komi Republic, and part of the Siberian Forest Nenets - to the Khanty-Mansiysk National District. The transformations that began in the thirties (collectivization, “dispossession of kulaks”, “cultural revolution”, which meant for the natives of the North, first of all, the forcible removal of children from their parents and their placement in boarding schools) could not but lead to protest, the most striking manifestations of which were the uprising on Kazym in 1931-1934, in which, together with the Khanty, both the Forest Nenets took part (see the section on the Khanty), and the uprising of the Nenets of Yamal (" mandalada» - not. m?nd?l??a"assembly, riot") in 1934. Open speeches of the Nenets continued throughout the 30s, the last " mandalada”was provoked by the OGPU in 1943. Despite the brutal suppression of protests, the destruction of the most active representatives of the people, the Soviet "transformations" had only external success in the tundra, the Nenets managed to sufficiently preserve their traditional way of life, culture and language. The preservation of the language, of course, was also facilitated by the fact that since the 1930s Nenets writing was created and a single language norm was gradually introduced for the tundra dialect, which, in turn, was ensured by the proximity of Nenets dialects from Kanin to Taimyr.

Only in the 80-90s of the 20th century did the Nenets begin to feel the growing negative tendencies of the loss of cultural traditions and language - primarily in connection with the "successes" of the organization of boarding school education (see above, also in the section on the Khanty) and with the promotion in the Nenets tundra oil? and gas production. Nevertheless, today the Nenets remain the most numerous of the small peoples of Siberia (in 1989 there were 34.2 thousand people in Russia) with almost the highest level of knowledge of their language (26.5 thousand - about 78% - the Nenets called the Nenets language relatives in 1989).

; 8326 (2002)

• Nenets Autonomous Okrug Nenets Autonomous Okrug :
  7504 (2010) ; 7754 (2002)

The traditional occupation is large-scale reindeer herding. On the Yamal Peninsula, several thousand Nenets reindeer herders, with about 500,000 reindeer, lead a nomadic lifestyle. The home of the Nenets is a conical tent (mya).

The names of two autonomous okrugs of Russia (Nenets, Yamal-Nenets) mention the Nenets as the titular people of the okrug; one more such district (Taimyrsky (Dolgano-Nenets) autonomous okrug) was abolished in 2007 and transformed into Taimyrsky Dolgano-Nenets district of Krasnoyarsk krai.

The Nenets are divided into two groups: tundra and forest. Tundra Nenets are the majority. They live in two autonomous regions. Forest Nenets - about 1500 people. They live in the basin of the Pur and Taz rivers in the southeast of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

The number of Nenets in Russia:

generic structure

They consist of two phratries: Kharyuchi and Vanuita.

According to the “Book of the Obdor Samoyed” of 1695, Kharyuchi includes the following clans: Kharyuchi, Ngano-Kharyuchi, Syuhuney, Ngadsr and Ladukai, and the Vanuyta phratry includes Vanuyta, Lutsa-Vanuyta, Sol-Vanuyta, Vengo, Yar, Saby and Yaptik, Snotliy Yapti .

On Gydan, the Kharyuchi phratry clans include Ader, Evay, Lapsui, Nenyang, Nyaruy, Okotetto, Susoy, Serotetto, Syugney, Togoy, Tesida, Khabdyu, Kharyuchi, Khorolya, Khudi, Heno, Yadne, Yando, Yaptunay. The Vanuito phratry includes the clans - Vanuito, Vengo, Lamdo, Puiko, Saby, Yar, Yaptik, Yaungad.

Theories of ethnogenesis

According to geneticists, the Y-chromosomal haplogroups N1a2b-P43 (56.8%), N1a1-Tat (40.5%), R1a1 (5%), (3%), (1.4%) are the most common among the Nenets.

Strahlenberg's theory

In view of the presence on the territory of the Sayan Highlands of tribes whose language in the recent past belonged to the Samoyeds (see Sayan Highlands), Stralenberg suggested that the Samoyeds of the Sayan Highlands are descendants of the Samoyeds of the polar zone, where they were natives, that from the north part of the Samoyeds were influenced by For some reason, it moved south, populating the Sayan Highlands.

Theory of Fisher - Castren

The opposite point of view was expressed by the historian Fisher, who suggested that the northern Samoyeds (ancestors of the modern Nenets, Nganasans, Enets and Selkups) are descendants of the Samoyed tribes of the Sayan Highlands, who advanced from Southern Siberia to more northern regions. This is Fisher's suggestion in the 19th century. was supported by a huge linguistic material and substantiated by Castren, who suggested that in the first millennium AD. e., in connection with the so-called great  movement of peoples, the Samoyed tribes were forced out by the Turks from the limits of the Sayan Highlands to the north. In 1919, the explorer of the Arkhangelsk north, A. A. Zhilinsky, spoke out sharply against this theory. The main argument is that such a resettlement would require a sharp change in the type of nature management, which is impossible in short time. Modern Nenets are reindeer herders, and the peoples living on the Sayan highlands are farmers (about 97.2%)

Theory of G. N. Prokofiev

Lamartinere also reports on what he observed on south island archipelago Novaya Zemlya rite of worship of the Nenets to wooden idols.

Anthropological type

In anthropological terms, the Nenets belong to the Ural contact minor race, whose representatives are characterized by a combination of anthropological features inherent in both Caucasoids and Mongoloids. In connection with the wide settlement, the Nenets are anthropologically divided into a number of groups, demonstrating the main trend of decreasing the share of Mongoloidness from east to west. A small degree of expression of the Mongoloid complex is recorded among the Forest Nenets. The overall picture is accompanied by a discrete, focal localization of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features, which is explained both by interethnic contacts and the relative isolation of certain territorial groups of the Nenets.

Language

The need to survive in the harsh conditions of the Far North taught its inhabitants to eat raw meat with blood. This is not only a delicacy, but also the body's need for vitamins, especially B2, and there are enough of them in venison. Therefore, the Nenets never suffer from scurvy.

In addition to venison, beef and pork, sea animal meat, as well as freshwater fish are used here: whitefish, pike, nelma. It is mainly boiled or stewed.

The inhabitants of the deer camps are very fond of deer meat, fried over a closed fire - something like a shish kebab, but not pickled. The favorite dishes of the Nenets are stroganina from whitefish, venison, liver, soup with flour, pancakes with blood, stewed meat with pasta.

They prefer pasta or rice as a side dish, vegetables are consumed extremely rarely.

The favorite drink of the population of the North is tea, as well as compotes and fruit drinks from cranberries, cloudberries, blueberries, jelly from starch and berry juice.

Bread is preferred over rye.

Economic culture

The main occupations of the Nenets are reindeer herding, fishing, and hunting.

reindeer breeding. Since ancient times, the Nenets have called themselves "children of the deer". Their whole life is connected with the deer. The leader stands out in the herd, which is the most beautiful and largest deer. The Nenets call him "menarue". The leader is never used in a team. Other trained reindeer are destined for sleigh rides and hauling loads. Three to four reindeer are used in winter, and four to five in summer. The advanced deer is distinguished by growth, strength and understands the command of the late. In Nenets, the advanced deer is called "nenzamindya". Deer are also distinguished by age and sex. Bull - "chorus", and the calf - "yahadei". Calves begin to be taught to harness from six months. Young deer - females and males - are separated by the end of the first year of their life. The fastest and most enduring deer are used for sledding. Deer live up to twenty-three years. Interestingly, only single reindeer are used for riding. They differ greatly in running speed and endurance. In just one day, these deer can overcome up to three hundred kilometers with light sleds. But a break is made every twenty-five kilometers to rest, quench their thirst with water and feed the deer. Large herd reindeer breeding of the Nenets is impossible without the Nenets laika.

Fishing. Children use hooks, harpoons and fences for fishing. Adults, in the summer, fished with nets and seines from boats - koldanok. Nets are woven from hemp or willow bast. While fishing, the Nenets eat raw fish. In winter, they break through the ice and fish with the help of snouts, vazhany and wicks. Small wooden fish are used for bait. When the fish swims up, it is stabbed with spears.

Clothing and footwear

The natural conditions of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug are harsh. Therefore, for the inhabitants of the district, good clothes have always been of great value. In winter, it should protect from severe frosts, in summer - from midges. For example, malitsa- underwear fur shirt with a hood sewn to it and mittens. It is very warm and well protects the body and head from the cold, leaving only the face exposed. It is sewn and put on with fur inside, to the body. Malitsa is decorated with fur piping. In summer they wear old malitsas with the hood thrown back, and in winter they wear new malitsas. They even travel short distances. Malitsa has a hood - sava. From the front, the hood is pulled together with straps. Mittens must be sewn to the malitsa - ngoba. They are made from frontal skins with the fur on the outside. Malitsa is certainly girded with a belt - neither. It is made from leather. Outside, they are sheathed with red cloth and two or three rows of copper buttons. The belt is decorated with pendants made of copper chains and openwork plaques. A sheath with a knife is sewn to the belt on a chain. In a cold, in a blizzard and on long trips over long distances, a fur coat is put on over the malitsa. owl. Its hood is framed by fox tails. Sovik is usually white, but sometimes it is made in a checkerboard pattern. Women's clothing was more complex. This is a fur coat gentlemen. The upper part of the fur coat is made from skins from the upper part of deer legs - skins of black and white color with fur outside. The lower part is sewn from arctic fox fur pile down. Mittens are sewn to the sleeves. Pans are decorated with fur mosaics, tassels and edgings made of colored cloth. The floors of the fur coat are tied with rovduk laces. Over the pan is a cloth cover with an ornament. Outerwear is girded with long fabric belts, richly decorated with copper and tassels. Women's headdress - sava fur bonnet is sewn separately. Unlike men's clothing, it is not fastened to a fur coat.

Working tools and traditional transport

Tools. Each plague had a set of tools: knives, an ax, an awl, and others. Every man was a joiner, carpenter, leather worker, net maker, sculptor and jeweler. Of the tools, only axes and saws were bought from the Russians. Everything else was self made.

Sled. Sledges are the most necessary means of transportation in the tundra. They drive fast enough. Sledges are used both in winter and summer. Reindeer are harnessed to the sled and the trochee is driven. Chorey- This is a pole up to five meters long, with a bone ball at the end or an iron tip. The trochee is clasped in the left hand, and the reins are held in the right. The harness is decorated with copper rings, bells and tassels. From the outside it looks very nice and unusual.

Plague among the Nenets

All Nenets have been living in tents since ancient times. For the Nenets, this is the center of all family life, which is perceived as the whole world. The plague has a hole at the top, it corresponds to the location of the sun during the day and the moon at night. The inclined poles covered with skins correspond to the airy sphere that envelops the Earth. The richer the family was, the larger the chum was. The poor have a pointed chum, while the blunt one, on the contrary, is among the Nenets with a good income. Chum is built from poles. This requires forty poles. Then the poles are covered with reindeer skins, which the Nenets call " nukes". Deer skins are sewn together into continuous panels, and then the poles are covered. It takes sixty-five to seventy-five deer to cover the plague in winter. From June to September there is a transition from winter to summer nukes. The diameter of the plague reaches up to eight meters, it can contain up to twenty people.

Inside the plague, every object and every place has its own purpose since antiquity. The central axis of the plague is a pole, which the Nenets consider sacred and call " sims". Seven heads of family and tribal spirits are placed on it. For a shaman in a chum, the simza was always decorated with the image of the sacred minle bird. Along the simza, the smoke from the hearth rises to the upper opening of the plague. According to the legends, heroes used the sacred pole to fly to battles and military exploits.

Behind the sims is a sacred place - "si". Only older men are allowed to step on it. For children and women, this place is forbidden. At this place is a sacred chest. It stores the patron spirits of the hearth, family and clan. Also, all family savings and relics, weapons and a chest with tools are stored there. These things are available only to the head of the house, and are inviolable for other members. A place "not"- for a woman, it is opposite the si, at the entrance. Here she does all the household chores. In the middle, between not and si, is a sleeping place. A belt with amulets and a knife is placed at the head. Going to bed, the man takes cover with a female egg. In summer, the sleeping place is fenced off with a calico canopy. The canopy is used only at night, during the day it is carefully rolled up and secured with pillows. Children lie next to their parents. The unmarried older sons went further from the Simza, then the old people and other family members, as well as guests. It is very smoky in the chum, but in summer the smoke is a good escape from mosquitoes.

Chum often moved with its owners from place to place. Therefore, there are no beds or wardrobes in the tents. Of the furniture, there is only a small table - roofing felt and a chest. Before the advent of mobile power plants, lamps were used to illuminate the chum. They were made from bowls and filled with fish oil, into which the wick was immersed. Later, kerosene lamps appeared. There is a mallet at the entrance to the chum to shake off snow from shoes and the hem of outerwear.

There is a cradle for small children in the chum. Previously, the baby was placed in the cradle immediately after birth, and taken out only when he began to walk. At the bottom of the cradle, wood shavings and dry moss were poured. The skins of deer and polar fox served as diapers. The child was attached to the cradle with special straps. When breastfeeding, the mother took the child along with the cradle. Such cradles are still used today.

In the place where a person died, special grave chumis are placed. The tent, in which a person died during an epidemic, becomes a grave. In this case, a bench iron hoop is removed from the top of this plague.

Rules of life in the plague .

For women. The hearth is in charge of the woman. Only a woman can touch the hearth sticks and the hearth hook. She also collects firewood for the hearth, splits it, dries it at the entrance and kindles a fire. She talks to the flame, makes prophecies on the crackle of firewood, smoke, strength and color of the flame. All space, except for the entrance hall of the plague, is under her auspices.

For men. At the entrance to the tent, a man beats snow from shoes and clothes with a mallet. He takes off his outer clothing and leaves it on the sled. Entering the room, the man puts on domestic kitties and domestic malitsa.

For guests. Male guests are placed for the night from the middle of the chum to the simza. Female guests are placed from the middle to the exit. The place that a guest occupies depends on respect for him.

Gallery

• see also

  • Nenets language

   population- 34,665 people (as of 2001).
   Language- Samoyedic group of the Ural-Yukaghir family of languages.
   resettlement– Krasnoyarsk Territory, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Regions, Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets, Khanty-Mansiysk and Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Districts.

They occupy a vast territory of the North of the European part of Russia and Western Siberia from the river. Mezen in the west to the lower reaches of the Yenisei in the east. The Nenets language is recognized as native by 77.1% of the Nenets. Writing has existed since 1932 on the basis of Latin, and since 1937 - on the basis of Russian graphics.

The self-name nenets - “man”, neney nenets - “real person” was introduced into official use in 1930. Initially, the Nenets were called Samoyeds or Samoyeds-Yuraks. There is a mention of this in the ancient Russian chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", dating back to the beginning of the 12th century. The origin of the term "Samoyed" is interpreted in different ways. Its origin from saam-jedna - "land of the Saami" seems to be the most probable. There are self-names Khasava - among the Western Nenets of Yamal, Nenei Nenets - among the Eastern Nenets of Yamal and Gyda, Nenets - in many other territories.

Reindeer herder family

According to the economic and cultural type of life, the Nenets are divided into three groups. The first and main (90%) are the tundra Nenets, whose main occupation is reindeer herding in a productive direction. They have mastered the most northern regions. The second group - the Forest Nenets - inhabits the taiga parts of the Ob-Yenisei watershed, mainly along the river. Pur, Taz and Agan, trades in transport reindeer breeding, hunting, and fishing. They are the link between the Samoyedic tribes of the Sayan Highlands and the tundra Nenets, they speak a special dialect of the Nenets language. The third group - Kolvintsy - was formed in the European North in the region of the river. Kolva in the 19th century as a result of intermarriage between Nenets and Komi. They speak the Izhma dialect of the Komi language. According to the most common hypothesis, the Samoyed community developed in southern Siberia. In the first centuries A.D. part of the Samoyeds moved north, while others became part of the Turkic peoples of southern Siberia. During the first millennium AD. a significant number of Samoyeds moved along the Ob, Yenisei and their interfluves to the zone of the northern taiga, and then the tundra, assimilating the aboriginal population. Then the ancestors of the modern Nenets spread from the lower reaches of the Ob to the west to the White Sea, and by the 17th century. - to the east to the Yenisei.

Already in the XI-XII centuries. the inhabitants of the Pechora region paid tribute to Novgorod. From the end of the XV century. the Moscow government sent military expeditions here. So, during the campaign of 1499-1500. the city of Pustozersk on the Pechora was founded, which became an important trade center and military center beyond the Urals. In 1535, Tsar Ivan IV granted the “Samoyads” a charter confirming their right to own fishing grounds.

The runners of the sledges are bent, preheating them over the fire

In 1545, the Solvychegodsk industrialists Stroganovs received from Ivan IV a letter of commendation for possession of a vast territory along the river. Kame. After Yermak's campaign (1581) and the construction of the Tyumen (1586), Tobolsk (1587), Berezov (1593), Surgut (1594), Obdorsk (1595) and Mangazeya (1601) forts, Western Siberia was firmly secured to the Muscovite state. Special sections of documents developed by the M.M. Speransky, - "The Charter on the management of foreigners" (1822) and "On foreigners of the Arkhangelsk province, called Samoyeds" - gave the Nenets the right to land and internal self-government. Accession to the Russian state reduced the severity of intertribal conflicts among local residents and introduced them to Russian culture.

In 1825-1830. Orthodoxy spread in the European North through the efforts of the mission of Archimandrite Benjamin, and in the Ob North, Christianization began as early as the 18th century. In the 1840s missionary schools began to open at churches. By 1869, there are references to "natives" studying at the Obdorsk missionary school, in which the children of shamans later studied. In Obdorsk, the first Christian church St. Nicholas.

A Nenets reindeer herder on skis catches a reindeer with a lasso. Yamal

The traditional occupation of the Nenets is reindeer herding. National features of this industry: year-round grazing of animals under the supervision of shepherds and reindeer dogs, a sleigh ride on reindeer. Cargo and cargo sleds are used. Straight-dust Nenets (khan) consist of a body attached to runners bent in front. For stability, the spears are slightly separated downwards, so that the distance between the runners is greater than the width of the seat. Men's passenger sleds have only a back seat, while women's sleds also have a front and side back, so that it is convenient to ride with children. From three to seven deer are harnessed to the passenger cars in a "fan". They sit on them from the left side, control with the help of a rein attached to the halter (bridle without a bit, with a rein) of the left deer, and a chorea pole with a bone button at the end. Sometimes a metal spear-shaped tip is put on the other end of the trochee (in the past, the trochee served as a weapon along with the bow). The harness is made from the skin of a deer or a bearded seal. Two deer are harnessed to the cargo sledges, and a caravan (argish) is made up of five or six cargo sledges, tying the reindeer with chains or straps to the front sled. Each argish is led by a rider on a light sledge, often they are teenage girls, and next to it are men on light sleds driving a herd. In order to catch the necessary animals with the help of a lasso, they make a special pen (koral), using sleds for this. The deer eats moss - reindeer moss. As forage reserves are depleted, pastures have to be changed. Shepherds with their families also roam with the reindeer herd.

In the center of the plague, they used to kindle a fire, now there is an iron stove

A collapsible dwelling is adapted to the conditions of a nomadic way of life - chum (mya') - a cone-shaped structure, the skeleton of which consists of 25-30 poles. In winter, the tent is covered in two layers with nyuk tires made of deer skins, in summer - with specially dressed birch bark. In the center of the plague, a fire was lit earlier, now an iron stove is being lit. A bar with a hook for a teapot or cauldron was strengthened over the hearth, on both sides of it were sleeping places, and opposite the entrance were objects of pagan worship, later icons, as well as clean dishes. At each migration, the tents are dismantled, tires, beds, poles, dishes are put on special sledges.

In addition to grazing deer in winter, they hunted arctic fox, fox, wolverine, ermine, and wild reindeer. The fur-bearing animal was hunted with the help of wooden mouth traps and iron traps. Most of the furs went to pay yasak. White partridges and geese were caught during the molting period, capercaillie. Fish were caught mainly in the summer.

The Arkhangelsk Nenets wear a men's fur hat with long ears.

Dressing of skins of deer and fur-bearing animals, tailoring of clothes, bags, tires is done by women. Clothes and utensils were richly decorated with fur mosaics (made of white and dark skins), beaded ornaments were woven, embroidered with reindeer neck hair, and carved on wood. The set of traditional men's clothing includes a malitsa with a hood (a deaf spacious shirt made of deer skins with fur on the inside), trousers, kamus-pima boots with fur on the outside and stockings with fur on the inside. To protect the mezdra, a chintz shirt is put on over the malitsa and girded with a rawhide belt, decorated with copper openwork plaques or buttons. A knife in a sheath, a grindstone, and a bear's tooth are attached to the belt on chains. In cold weather, a sovik is put on over the malitsa - clothes with a hood, similar in cut to the malitsa, but sewn with fur on the outside.

Women's bonnet of the Yamal Nenets made of reindeer fur with an edge of fox tails

Women's clothing, unlike men's, swing. In the old days, it was made from the skins of forest animals with a dog fur trim along the hem. Later, they began to sew from deer skins, with a collar made of arctic fox or red fox fur. The floors of the clothes are not wrapped, but tied with suede straps or ribbons and decorated with ornamented inserts of white and dark fur. A needle case and a small bag for a thimble are attached to a bag for sewing supplies, cut from skins from the foreheads of deer and richly decorated with ornaments. Belts woven from colored woolen threads were complemented by round buckles up to 20 cm in diameter. Women's hats have local differences. The most common bonnets are made of reindeer fur trimmed with fox tails, to which copper openwork plaques are hung on chains at the back. Women's shoes are different from men's cut. For small children, clothes like overalls were sewn from soft deer skins.

The main food is deer meat (raw and boiled), fish, bread. Favorite drink is tea. It, like metal utensils, was exchanged with Russian merchants in the old days. Wooden utensils - bowls, cups, spoons - were made by ourselves. The Nenets are characterized by a paternal (patriarchal) clan (erkar). With the collective methods of hunting and cattle breeding, the camp (nesy) played an important role - the union of families in which men belonged to the same clan, and women to different ones. Under the conditions of tribal exogamy, a young man had to look for a future wife in a different kind. Usually the question of the son's marriage was decided by the father. Having outlined the bride, they sent matchmakers, agreed on the size of the ransom and dowry. The wedding ceremony included an imitation of the kidnapping (kidnapping) of the bride.

Religious beliefs were based on animistic ideas, according to which the supreme heavenly deity - the demiurge Num - ruled the world with the help of other deities and spirits, and his wife I-heaven - Mother Earth - an old patroness who gives birth and preserves all living things, protected the house, family and hearth. The antagonist of Numa is Nga - the embodiment of world evil, the spirit of the underworld, a deity that sends illness and death. Each lake, fishing tract had its master spirits. Deer were sacrificed to them, offerings were made (pieces of cloth, coins, tobacco, etc.) so that the spirits would bestow health, good luck in reindeer breeding and fishing. On sacred places, which could be stones, cliffs, groves, they placed idols in the form of anthropomorphic figures. Larch was considered a sacred tree.

Nenets children on holiday

According to popular ideas, the vital essence of a person (soul) manifested itself in the form of blood, breath, shadow, image. Death is the loss of one of these substances or the result of the introduction of harmful spirits (ngylek) into the human body. The underworld was on the surface of the earth or underground. Ground burials were typical for the Nenets. The coffin was placed on the ground between vertical posts connected by wooden planks, or, protecting from predators, in a box and a log was placed on it. His tools, dishes, etc. were placed next to the deceased. At the burial place they killed a deer, left sleds, trochees. However, since the 19th century under the influence of Christianization, the dead began to be buried in the ground.

Shamanism is closely connected with the ancient religious beliefs of the Nenets. Usually the title of shaman was inherited by a man or a woman. The ritual took place in the shaman's plague. At present, his clothes with pendants and an iron “crown” on his head have been preserved only on the Yenisei. Each shaman had a special set of cult items: images of helper spirits (tadebtso) and mounts, as well as a tambourine with a handle on the inside and a mallet. He kept his attributes on special sacred sleds.

The Nenets used the cradle both at night and during the day

Nenets folklore is characterized by personification (personification, from Latin persona - person, person, facere - to do) presentations, when along with the characters, the tale itself (myneko) is the protagonist. This technique is widespread in fairy tales, where an animated creature is called lakhanako - a word.

Among the Nenets fairy tales (lahanako, vadako) there are fairy tales about animals, magical, legendary and everyday. Often their characters are deities, spirits are the masters of the localities. They are also the main characters in other genres of folklore - legends, conspiracy prayers, shamanic songs.

Ritual music is closely connected with the place of the shaman in the ancient hierarchy: “seeing prophetic dreams”, “accompanying the soul of the deceased to the underworld”, “possessing the gift of hypnosis”. The tambourine of the eastern tundra Nenets is a penzer (corresponds to the Yakut type), of the forest Nenets - p’en’shal (Ugrian type), of the western tundra Nenets - a penzyar (the shell is of the Yakut type, and the handle is of the Ugric type).

The noisy musical instrument vyvko (a plank on a tendon thread) became a child's toy. Rattle pendants in the form of a ring with stringed tubes are sewn to children's clothes as a sound amulet. In an arc above the cradle (captysi) they scrape with a stick or a tube, calming the child and at the same time accompanying the lullaby. The buzzer and spinner, which are now known as children's toys, were ritualistic in the past.

The development of gas and oil fields in the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs worsened the ecological situation, negatively affected the employment of natives in traditional economic sectors, polluted dozens of rivers and lakes, destroyed thousands of hectares of spawning grounds, feeding grounds, forests and pastures. More than a thousand tons of valuable whitefish and sturgeon die every year from water pollution.

Tundra - a legacy to his son

The reindeer farms of the district are also in a difficult economic situation. And yet some of them continue to develop. For example, at the Baidaratsky state farm in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, an antler processing plant was built. Some reindeer herders are starting to run their own business.

In district schools, children learn their native language. Publishers are preparing new textbooks in the Nenets language for publication. In the ethno-cultural center of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, there is a department of Nenets culture, a literary and creative group, an amateur theatre, a national workshop for the production of products from bone, leather, deer fur. In the village Indiga, the House of Culture, a library were opened, an amateur art circle was organized.

In Novy Urengoy, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, a Center for National Cultures was created, in Salekhard - a House of Culture of the Peoples of the North, in the village. Yar-Sale, Tazovsky, Samburg drama circles work.

National writers A. Nerkagi, I. Istomin, L. Laptsui, teacher E. Susoy, artists I. Khudi and L. Lar, composer S. Nyaruy, the first professional Nenets singer G. Lagey enjoy well-deserved popularity and fame.

The newspaper "Naryan Vynder" of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug publishes the page "Yalumbd" in the Nenets language. The newspaper "Naryana ngerm" is published in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Programs in the Nenets language are prepared by the State Television and Radio Company "Zapolyarye" and "Yamal".

The Association of the Nenets people "Yasavey" ("Going ahead") and the Association "Yamal for descendants" were created. In 1995, the community of the Nenets Okrug was established in the city of Arkhangelsk.

article from the encyclopedia "The Arctic is my home"

   BOOKS ABOUT THE NENETS
Alekseenko E.A. Musical Instruments of the Peoples of the North of Western Siberia: Sat. MAE. L., 1988. T. 42.
Vasiliev V.I., Gendenreikh L.N. Kaninsky tundra. M., 1977.
Dobrovolsky B.M. On the tunes of the Nenets epic songs: Epic songs of the Nenets / Comp. Z.N. Kupriyanov. M., 1965.
Yoshida A. Food culture of the Gydan Nenets (interpretation and social adaptation). M., 1997.
Prokofiev G.N. Ethnogony of the peoples of the Ob-Yenisei basin //SE. 1940. No. 3.
Tereshchenko N.M. Nenets epic. Materials and research on the Samoyedic languages. L., 1990.
Folklore of the peoples of Taimyr. Nenets folklore. Dudinka, 1992. Issue. 2.
Khomich L.V. Nenets: Historical and ethnographic essays. L., 1966.
Khomich L.V. Problems of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the Nenets. L., 1976.
Epic songs of the Nenets / Comp. Z.N. Kupriyanov. M., 1965.