Nenets people: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Nenets people (Russian name: Ненцы - Nentsy (plural). Alternative names: Khasova, Samoyeds, Yuraks, Yurak Samoyeds) are an indigenous people in Russia. They are of Samoyedic peoples and related to Yenets people, Selkup people and Nganasan people. There are two distinct groups based on their economy: the Tundra Nenets (living far to the north) and the Khandeyar or Forest Nenets. The third group Komi Nenets has emerged as a result of intermarriages between Nenets and the Izhmi tribe of the Komi peoples.

Some belive that they split apart from the Finno-Ugric groups around 3,000 B.C. and migrated east where they mixed with Turkish-Altaic peoples around 200 B.C. Those who remained in Europe came under Russian control around 1200 A.D. but those who lived further east did not come in contact until 14th century. In the early 17th century, all Nenets were under Russian control. The Samoyedic languages form a minor branch of the Uralic language family, the major branch being the Finno-Ugric languages. It is of major importance for the basic comparision between the Uralic and Finno-Ugric languages. (Another consideration is that they moved (probably from farther south in Siberia) to the northernmost part of what later became Russia before the 12th century A.D. They ended up between the Kanin and Taymyr peninsulas, around the Ob' and Yenisey rivers, with some of them settling into small communities and taking up farming, while others continued hunting and reindeer herding.) They bred the Samoyed dog to help herd their reindeer and pull their sleds, and European explorers later used those dogs for polar expeditions, because they have adapted so well to the Arctic conditions.

The name Samoyed entered the Russian language as a deformation of the self-reference Saamod, Saamid (the Fennic suffix "-d" denotes plurality: Fennic Saami -> "Saamid"). Another version derives the name from the expression "same edne" , i.e., the land of sami. In Russian ethnographic literature of 19th century they were also called "Самоядь", "Самодь", (samoyad', samod', samodijtsy, samodijskie narody) which was often transliterated into English as Samodi.

The literal morphs samo and yed in Russian convey the meaning "self-eater" and sound very derogatory. Therefore the name Samoyed quickly went out of usage in the 20th century, and the people bear the name of Nenets, which actually refers to one of Samodi tribes.

When reading old Russian documents it is necessary to keep in mind that the term samoyad' was often applied indiscriminatively to different Finno-Ugric peoples of Northern Siberia: nentses, yukaghirs, nganasans, enetses, selkups (speakers of Samoyedic languages).

After the Russian Revolution, the government of the Soviet Union tried to force the nomad Samoyeds to settle down, and most of them became assimilated.

The Nenets shaman is termed Tadibya.

Samoyedes of Imperial Russia

The section is based on the text from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

The people may be subdivided into three main groups:

(a) The Yuraks in the coast-region from the Yenisei to the White Sea; (b) the Tavghi Samoyedes, between the Yenisei and the Khatanga; (c) the Ostiak Samoyedes, intermingled with Ostiaks, to the S. of the others, in the forest regions of Tobolsk and Yeniseisk. Their whole number may be estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000. The so-called Samoyedes inhabiting the S of the governments of Tomsk and Yeniseisk have been much under Tatar influence and appear to be of a different stock; their sub-groups are the Kamasin Tatars, the Kaibals, the Motors, the Beltirs, the Karagasses and the Samoyedes of the middle Ob.

The proper place of the Samoyedes among the Ural-Altaians is very difficult to determine. The names assumed by the Samoyedes themselves are Hazovo and Nyanyäz (Nenets). The Ostiaks know them under the names of Orghoy, or Workho, both of which recall the Ugrians; the name of Hui is also in use among the Ostiaks (Khants), and that of Yaron among the Syrgenians.

It is probable that formerly the Samoyedes occupied the Altai mountains, whence they were driven N by Turco-Tatars. Thus, the Kaibals left the Sayan mountains and took possession of the Abakan steppe (Minusinsk region), abandoned by the Kirghizes, in the earlier years of last century, and in NE Russia the Zyrians (Komi) are still driving the Samoyedes farther N., towards the Arctic coast. Since the researches of Schrenk it may be regarded as settled that in historical times the Samoyedes were inhabitants of the so-called Ugria in the northern Urals, while Radlov considers that the numberless graves containing remains of the Bronze Age which are scattered throughout W Siberia, on the Altai, and on the Yenisei in the Minusinsk region, are relics of Ugro-Samoyedes. According to his views this nation, very numerous at that epoch - which preceded the Iron Age civilization of the Turco-Tatars, - were pretty well acquainted with mining; the remains of their mines, sometimes 50 ft. deep, and of the furnaces where they melted copper, tin and gold, are very numerous; their weapoos of a hard bronze, their pots (one of which weighs 75 lb), and their melted and polished bronze and golden decorations testify to a high development of artistic feeling and industrial skill, strangely contrasting with the low level reached by their earthenware. They were not nomads, but husbandmen, and their irrigation canals are still to be seen. They kept horses (though in small numbers), sheep and goats, but no traces of their rearing horned cattle have yet been found. The Turkish invasion of S. Siberia, which took place in the 5th century, drove them farther N, and probably reduced most of them to slavery.

The Samoyedes, who now maintain themselves by hunting and fishing on the lower Ob, partly mixed in the S. with Otloy and Ostiaks (Khants), recall the condition of the inhabitants of France and Germany at the epoch of the reindeer. Clothed in skins, like the troglodytes of the Weser, they make use of the same implements in bone and stone, eat carnivorous animals - the wolf included - and cherish the same superstitions (of which those regarding the teeth of the bear are perhaps the most characteristic) as were current among the Stone Age inhabitants of W Europe. Their heaps of reindeer horns and skulls - memorials of religious ceremonies - are exactly similar to those dating from the similar period of civilization in N Germany. Their huts often resemble the well-known stone huts of the Eskimo; their graves are mere boxes left in the tundra. The religion is fetishism mixed with Shamanism, the shaman (tadji-bei) being a representative of the great divinity, the Num. The Yamal Peninsula, where they find great facilities for hunting, is especially venerated by the Ob Ostiak Samoyedes, and there they have one of their chief idols, Khese. They are more independent than the Ostiaks, less yielding in character, although as hospitable as their neighbours. They are said to be disappearing owing to the use of ardent spirits and the prevalence of smallpox. They still maintain the high standard of honesty mentioned by historical documents, and never will take anything left in the tundra or about the houses by their neighbours. The Yurak Samoyedes are courageous and warlike; they offered armed resistance to the Russian invaders, and it is only since the beginning of the century that they have paid tribute. The exact number of the Ostiak Samoyedes is not known; the Tavghi Samoyedes may number about 1000, and the Yuraks, mixed with the former, are estimated at 6000 in Obdorsk (about 150 settled), 5000 in European Russia in the tundras of the Mezefl, and about 350 in Yeniseisk.

Of the S Samoyedes, who are completely Tatarized, the Beltirs live by agriculture and cattle-breeding in the Abakan steppe. They profess Christianity, and speak a language closely resembling that of the Sagai Tatars. The Kaibals, or Koibals, can hardly be distinguished from the Minusinsk Tatars, and support themselves by rearing cattle. Castrén considers that three of their stems are of Ostiak origin, the remainder being Samoyedic. The Kamasins, in the Kama district of Yeniseisk, are either herdsmen or agriculturists. They speak a language with an admixture of Tatar words, and some of their stems contain a large Tatar clement. The interesting nomadic tribe of Karagasses, in the Sayan mountains, is disappearing; the few representatives are rapidly losing their anthropological features, their Turkish language and their distinctive dress. The Motors are now little more than a memory. One portion of the tribe emigrated to China and was there exterminated; the remainder have disappeared among the Tuba Tatars and the Soyotes. The Samoyedes on the Ob in Tomsk may number about 1000; they have adopted the Russian manner of life, but have difficulty in carrying on agriculture, and are a poverty-stricken population with little prospect of holding their own.

The works of M. A. Castrén are still the best authority on the Samoyedes. See Grammatik der samojedischen Sprachen (1854); Wörterverzeichnisse aus den samojedischen Sprachen (1855); Ethnologische Vorlesungen über die altaischen Völker (1857); Versuch der koibalischen und karagassischen Sprachlehre (1857). See also A. Middendorf, Reise in den düstersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens. (1875).