We used to go in search of some strange nationalities in overseas countries. But it is worth remembering that many unusual small indigenous peoples live in Russia. For example, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, the ancient Nenets people live. Traditional occupations, religious beliefs, life, culture of this people sometimes seem distant and incomprehensible to us, reminiscent of aliens. Still, they keep headless dolls in memory of their ancestors, live in small plagues, their children can be seen sleeping in the snow. Nevertheless, such a people of Russia as the Nenets are an integral part of the country, its pride. It is worth describing these northern people in more detail, understanding their main activities and historical traditions.
Territory of residence and number
Nenets belong to the Samoyed people living on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, on the Kola Peninsula and Taimyr. The outdated names of this people are "Samoyads", "Juraki". They arrived at the place of modern habitat from the territory of southern Siberia in the 1st millennium A.D. e. Nenets of the North is the largest group among other peoples of this region. In Russia, there are 41 302 Nenets. Half of them live in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
The territory of the Nenets is quite extensive. They are divided into two groups:
- Tundra. There are most of them. They live in the tundra zone of the Kola Peninsula, on the right bank of the lower reaches of the Yenisei River. This is the modern territory of the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, which makes up the Nenets district, also the Tyumen region (Yamalo-Nenets district), Krasnoyarsk Territory (Taimyr or Dolgan-Nenets Autonomous Okrug).
- Forest. Their number is small - 1, 500 people. Some settled in the taiga (between the Yenisei and Ob rivers). Others live in the Pur Basin. Forest Nenets are also found near the upper reaches of the Nadym River, namely, at its tributaries - Agan, Tromegan, Lyamin.
From the history of the Nenets people
What is the history of this people? Even in the annals of the monk Nestor mentions the northern tribes - the Nenets. The photos presented in the article prove that they are a very distinctive people. It is believed that its representatives are very well versed in people. And the word "Nenets" itself has the meaning of "real man." Although in ancient times they had the unsightly name "samoyad", meaning "eat themselves." After all, among the Nenets ancestors it was commonplace to engage in the rites of cannibalism. In this they did not see anything bad and chose the body of a weak tribeman as a victim for their needy inhabitants. A man who sacrificed himself was considered truly happy. His descendants did not need to care for the sick, and they had something to profit from. For many, such a ritual may seem barbaric, because the children were engaged in patricide under shaman spells. After the end of the sacrifice, the body was divided among all the tribesmen.
Some historians have a different point of view and believe that the Nenets were called "raw-eaters" because they ate raw meat. Both of these versions are just guesses about the history of distant northern tribes. The development of the peoples of the Arctic was greatly influenced by the Russian Empire. In the 16th century, the construction of towns and jails for the Nenets was noted. These are today's Surgut, Berezov, Obdorsk. The Russians began to trade with reindeer herders, which benefited both. Nenets tribes got the opportunity to have fabrics, weapons, metal products.
What anthropological type are they?
In terms of anthropology, the Nenets people belong to the Ural contact minor race. Its representatives combine Caucasoid and Mongoloid characters. Since the Nenets live in a rather vast territory, they can be anthropologically divided into several groups that demonstrate a decrease in the degree of Mongoloidity from eastern to western regions. The smallest Mongoloid features were recorded among forest representatives of the nationality.
Traditional occupations of the Nenets and everyday life
What does this northern people live with? Large-scale reindeer herding is considered the traditional occupation of the Nenets people. Pursuing this industry, shepherds have to graze animals with reindeer herding dogs all year round. They also take reindeer in teams and ride in a sleigh. For male passenger sledges there is only a rear backrest for the seat, while for female sledges there is an anterior and lateral backrest for the convenience of transporting children. Three to seven deer can be in the harness.
It is necessary to control the sled and sit in them on the left side, because one reins is attached to the deer’s bridle on the left, to coordinate movement. Often in a sled put a metal spear for hunting. The harness is covered with the skin of a deer or sea hare.
Cargo sledges are called sledges; two deer are harnessed in them. Sometimes from several sledges make up one argisch, when deer are tied with chains to previous sledges. Often, teenage girls become cab drivers, and older men drive car teams near the herd.
Sledges are also used to create special pens for catching animals by the lasso. Reindeers eat reindeer moss. When fodder reserves are depleted, the herd is distilled to another place. Families of shepherds roam with reindeer herds. Adapting to the nomadic way of life, the Nenets came up with a special collapsible dwelling - the plague. They make it in the form of a cone-shaped structure, consisting of 25-30 poles. Photos of the Nenets in the article demonstrate their housing and main occupations. You will read about life in the plague below.
In addition to grazing deer, this people catches arctic foxes, foxes, wolverines, ermines, wild reindeers. Fur animals are hunted with special wooden mouth traps, iron traps, loops. The prey of the northern people are often partridges, geese, capercaillie. In the summer, they also catch fish. Women make animal skins, sew clothes, bags, covers for the plague.
National clothes
Residents of the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug are accustomed to harsh environmental conditions. Great value for Nenets men and women is considered warm clothing. In winter, it helps to cope with severe frosts, in the summer - with the vulture. The Nenets came up with a special wearable fur shirt - malitsa. A hood and mittens are sewn to it. In a very warm malitsa, the body and head are protected from the cold, wind. Only the face remains open. The fur is tight to the body, because they sew the malitsa with the fur inside. Nenets decorate such clothes with special fur patterns, which are sewn with needles. It turns out a kind of fur edging.
In winter, they use new malits, in the summer they go in old ones. They are even worn when traveling at short distances. The hood at Malitsa is called the Savoy. From below the hood is pulled together by straps. The mittens sewn to the clothes are called ngoba. Malitsa must be belted with a special belt - no. The belt is still used to sew a sheath for weapons on it. For very severe frosts, in addition to malitsa, a fur owl is put on top. Often his hood is decorated with arctic fox tails.
Women's clothing is more complex. This is a swing coat - pans. The upper part of such a fur coat consists of skins of kamus (upper parts of the legs of a deer). Sew such a fur coat with the fur up, the bottom trimmed with fox fur. Mittens are sewn near the sleeves. Fans mosaic, brushes, colored cloth edgings decorate the pans. A cloth cover with patterns is put on top of the fur coat. Outerwear is fixed with a long belt with tassels. In addition to a luxurious fur coat for a woman, a special fur hood is made - sava. It is no longer attached to a fur coat.
Delicious Nenets dishes
Thanks to natural ingenuity and courage, the Nenets people are opposed to ruthless nature. These people take from her everything necessary for existence. One of the first necessities is food. Nenets women cook and procure something for the future. Men bring meat and fish. They eat very little plant food. In winter, the main delicacy is deer meat.
Nenets are very fond of fresh venison. Eating fresh meat is a holiday for them. Especially often they eat the horns of young deer. To do this, they cut off the ends of the horns and throw them into the fire. Toasted cartilaginous endings seem very tasty to them. In autumn, the Nenets massively slaughter deer. Then the meat is buried in the frozen ground, which serves as a kind of cellar. Some people smoke meat from the back of a deer at the stake. Sometimes it is dried in the sun or salted.
With the advent of winter, the Nenets gladly eat their meat reserves and drink frozen deer blood. Some also manage to cook a partridge. In the spring begins the season of catching birds: loons, ducks, geese. Seagulls are considered sacred birds for this people, they never catch them. But during molting geese very often regale them with meat. It is also sometimes sluggish. Still eat goose and duck eggs in a boiled form.
Although the bear of the northern people is a sacred animal, but sometimes they are not averse to trying its meat. Nenets living near the sea often melt the fat of marine inhabitants. In the course are sea hares, walruses, seals. Sometimes the meat of these animals is also used as food.
In summer, the Nenets eat fish. Especially those who have few deer catch it. Raw fish is consumed, they are just slightly salted or dipped in salt water. In winter, they cook stroganin from fish - fresh frozen fish, which is cut with a sharp knife. In the summer, fish is harvested for future use. Very often, special drying of fish is used - yukola (pehe). Nenets also like caviar obtained from lake or river fish.
Another invention of the Western Nenets was unleavened bread. From plant foods, cloudberries, blueberries, and lingonberries are used. From porridge bear liquid porridge is prepared. But the berries and mushrooms of the Nenets are not harvested for the winter. The fact is that deer love to eat mushrooms, and there are not so many in those parts.
Tea is the favorite Nenets drink; they drink it at least three times a day. Only make a very strong drink. In the summer, willow-herb tea or cloudberry leaves are used as tea leaves. Also, the Nenets learned to be treated with many medicinal herbs.
Writing and Language
Nenets is part of the Samoyedic language group. It is spoken by about 27, 000 people. Some Nenets switched to Russian. In addition to him, the influence of the Khanty and Komizyryan languages is felt. There is a forest and tundra dialect.
In 1932 they created the Nenets script based on the Latin script. Later, Russian graphics were used. The tundra dialect influenced the formation of the literary language. In the Nenets national school, the mother tongue is an obligatory subject. In many schools it is studied on the electives.
Religious views
The religion of the Nenets is associated with animistic representations. The term "animism" comes from the word "Anima" with the meaning of "soul". The Nenets endow the whole world with living spirits. They see spirits in rivers, lakes, natural phenomena. The Nenets divide all spirits into good and evil. The good help people, and the evil send trouble and misfortune. To appease the spirits, the Nenets offer sacrifices. The contents of the deer's stomach, collected in seven pieces, are presented to evil spirits.
The Nenets have patron spirits of the surrounding world. They consider the owner and donor of fur, beast, game, the keeper of the herds of deer Ilebi Perth. The water of the Nenets is owned by the Eid Herv, the lord of the winds is Yah Herv. The grandmother of fire is Tu Hada.
The meaning of the plague for the Nenets
Since ancient times, the housing of the Nenets is the plague. This people considers the plague the center of all family life. At the top of the plague, a hole is made corresponding to the daytime location of the sun and the nighttime location of the month. 30 tall poles covered with skins resemble the air sphere enveloping the Earth. Rich families established huge plagues, poor families - very pointed. For the construction of the plague, some take up to 40 poles. The deer skins that cover the plague are called nukes. To cover the winter plague, it takes up to 70 deer skins. The diameter of the plague is 8 m. There you can put up to 20 people.
In the center of the plague is a pole, a place near which is considered sacred. It is called sism. The plague also has sectors for men, women and the bedroom. Children can play in the sleeping area.
Moving from place to place, the owners take the plague with them. This does not provide any particular inconvenience, because the Nenets do not start massive furniture. For a small child, the cradle in which he is in the plague is placed until he begins to walk.
Women are breeding the hearth, they chop wood, dry them and make fire. Before entering the room, a man must sweep the snow from his shoes. He leaves his clothes on sledges. In the plague, he changes into home clothes. Guests in the plague also have a special place.
