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The 'Nenets people' (autonym: ненёця; Russian name: ненцы) are an indigenous people in Russia. According to the latest census in 2002, there are 41,302 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Nenets Autonomous Okrug. They speak the Nenets language.

Contents

Name

History and way of life

References

External links

Name

The name ''Samoyed'' entered the Russian language as a corruption of the self-reference ''Saamod'', ''Saamid'' (the Fennic suffix "-d" denotes plurality: 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", which appears as derogatory. Therefore the name ''Samoyed'' quickly went out of usage in the 20th century, and the people bear the name of ''Nenets'', which means "man".
When reading old Russian documents it is necessary to keep in mind that the term ''samoyed' '' was often applied indiscriminately to different peoples of Northern Siberia who speak different Uralic languages: Nenets, Nganasans, Enets, Selkups (speakers of Samoyedic languages). Currently, the term "Samoyedic peoples" applies to the whole group of different peoples. It is the general term which includes Nenets, Enets people, Selkup people and Nganasan people.
Nenets are just a part of the Samoyedic peoples. Sometimes their name is spelled as ''Nenet'', probably because of the erroneous assumption that the terminal 's' is for the plural number.

History and way of life

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 Kominized Nenets (Yaran people) has emerged as a result of intermarriages between Nenets and the Izhma tribe of the Komi peoples.
Some believe that they split apart from the Finno-Ugric speaking groups around 3000 BCE and migrated east where they mixed with Turkic and Altaic speaking peoples around 200 BCE. Those who remained in Europe came under Russian control around 1200 CE but those who lived further east did not come in contact until 14^th century. In the early 17^th 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 comparison 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 12^th century.
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, travelling great distances over the Kanin peninsula. 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. Fish was also a major component of their diet.
They had a shamanistic and animistic belief system which stressed respect for the land and its resources. They had a clan-based social structure. The Nenets shaman is called a Tadibya.
After the Russian Revolution, their culture suffered due to Soviet collectivisation policy. The government of the Soviet Union tried to force the nomad Samoyeds to settle down, and most of them became assimilated. They were forced to settle on permanent farms and their children were educated in state boarding schools, which resulted in erosion of their cultural identity. On the other hand, a wide range of new professions and activities were made available to the Nenets; Konstantin Pankov, for instance, became a well-known painter. Environmental damage due to the industrialisation of their land and overgrazing of the tundra migration routes in some regions (Yamal Peninsula) have further endangered their way of life.

References

External links

★ UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages: Northeast Asia

★ Endangered Uralic Peoples

★ Jarkko Niemi: The types of the Nenets songs. 1997

★ Minority languages of Russia on the Net

★ The Red Book of the peoples of the Russian Empire

★ Historic-demographic note on the Nenets of the Komi Republic