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The Evenk
General
Information
The Evenk are a people in the Russian Federation. They occupy a large
territory from the left bank of the Yenisei River in the west to the
Sea of Okhotsk in the east. The southern boundary of the Evenk distribution
range passes on the on the left-hand bank of the Amur and the Angara
rivers
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| Fig.1 The territory of the
distribution and agricultural activities of the Evenk |
(Fig. 1). They also live in the northeastern
China (20 thousand ) and in Mongolia. The number of the Evenk in the
Russian Federation is about 30 thousand. Administratively, they are
distributed within the boundaries of the Tymen and Tomsk regions, the
Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Irkutsk, Chita and Amur regions, the republics
of Yakutia and Buryatia, Khabarovsk Krai and Sakhalin. Nowhere on this
territory do they account for the majority of the population, living
in the same villages with the Russian, Yakut, and other peoples. The
native name is the Evenk, which became the official native name in 1931,
and the old name was the Tungus. Some individual Evenk groups were known
as the Orochen, Birar, Manegr, Solon. The Evenk language belongs to
the Tungus-Manchurain group of the Altai language family. Three groups
of dialects are distinguished as follows: the northern ("the khak"),
the southern ("the sek" and "shek") and eastern ("sek" - "khak"). Every
dialect is subdivided into sub-dialects. The Russian language is distributed
ubiquitously. Many of the Evenk living in Yakutia and Buryatia also
speak the Yakut and Buryat languages. Anthropologically, they present
a fairly motley picture, characteristic of the Baikal, Katank and central
Asiatic types.
Ethnogenesis
The Evenk were formed through a mixture of the local population of Eastern
Siberia with the Tungus tribes which came from the Cis-Baikal and the
Trans-Baikal region. There are grounds to regard the Trans-Baikal people
of Uvan as direct ancestors of the Evenk. The Chinese chronicles permit
determining their habitation fairly accurately - this is mountain taiga
northeast of Barguzinand Selenga, roughly between the upper reaches
of the rivers Oleksma and Upper Angara. The Uvan were not the indigenous
people of the Trans-Baika Region, but rather represented a group of
pastoralist nomads, who come there from a more southerly locaolity.
Most certainly, they separated from the Khi people, who had little in
common with the Syanbi and the Kidan, and also included the Khun components.
In this connection, one cannot help remembering the hypothesis of the
origin of the Tungus advancedby S.M. Shirokogorov, who believed that
the ancient native country of the Tungus ancestors, which was the interfluve
of the Hunag He and Yang Tze rivers, whence they were ousted to the
north. For a long time, the S. Shirokogorov hypothesis was criticized
in the USSR, but today it finds an increasing number of advocates. When
they found themselves in the Trans-Baika and the Cis-Amur regions, the
arital bonds and cultural interactions with the local population gave
rise to the ethnic ethnic evolution of the modern Evenk. In the course
of their distribution through the expanses of Siberia, the Tungus encountered
the local tribes to finally assimilate them. The features of ethnic
formation of the Tungus resulted in the development of three anthropological
types characteristic of them and also three different economic and cultural
groups as follows: reindeer herders, livestock breeders and fishermen.
Ethnic History
The Russians first familiarized themselves with the Evenk at the beginning
of the 17th century. After the forts were established in
the basin of the Ob River, the Cossacks reached the Yenisei River to
travel down its right tributaries, populated by the Evenk. By 1623,
almost all the Evenk of at the Angara, Nizhnya Tunguska, Vilyui and
Chon rivers became Russian subjects. With the establishment of the Yakut
fort (1632 ã.) the system of legal relations with the Russian state
involved the Evenk of the Lena basin, and by the middle of the 17th
century, in the Cis-Baikal and Trans-Baika regions. Several decades
after the formal joining of Russia, various Evenk groups repeatedly
rose in rebellion, killing officials and hunters. The conflict period
was shortly replaced by peace, since the Evenk were interested in the
expansion of trade links with the Russians. An important channel of
the Russian influence was Christianity. Christianization began as early
as the end of the 17th century. In 1987, according to the
National Census, 82 % of the all Evenk were recorded as Orthodox Christians,
but their Christianity was essentially formal. The important duty of
the Evenk who adopted the Russian citizenship was payment of the yasak
(tribute). Administratively, the Evenk were divided into clans and clan
administrations. The clan was headed by knyaztsy ("little princes")
or elders. They were elected by the population, but approved by the
governors. They were responsible for the collection of the yasak, execution
of instructions of the administration, and also tried the people of
their clan for various offenses, except serious crimes. The administrative
system established in this way was based on self-administration of the
Evenk as guided by their common law, observance of the traditions and
customs of the people. The administration interfered in the internal
life of Siberian indigenous people only when yasak collection was endangered.
By the time they joined Russia, the Evenk numbers were not known. Based
on the analysis of yasak records, B.O. Dolgikh estimated them at 36135
by the 17th century, but that was only a very rough estimate.
The most accurate evidence as to the number of the Evenk was provided
by the 1897 Census. The Census recorded 64500 Evenk, but the Tungus
as the native language was declared by 34471 people, the rest (31.8%)
said that their native language was Russian, Buryat and other languages.
Economy
In terms of economy, the Evenk notably differ from other hunting peoples
of the Siberia and Far East. They are primarily hunters and reindeer
herders (Fig. 2)
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| Fig. 2. Hunting Evenk |
The Evenk hunters spent a half of their
life of the reindeer back.
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| Fig. 3. Types of spears to
procure fish |
Some groups of the Evenk did not use the
reindeer, hunting on foot, but it was exactly the use of the reindeer
for riding which distinguishes the Evenk from other peoples. The hunt
played an important role in the majority of the Evenk territorial groups.
Some exception were the sedentary Evenk, living on the banks of rivers
and lake shore, for whom the most important occupation during summer
was fishing, and also the Orochon Evenk, who combined hunting and fishing.
Until the advent of the Russians, they mostly hunted the moose, wild
reindeer, the musk deer, the roe deer, the Siberian stag, the mountain
sheep, and also the bear. The most favorite was the driving hunt - chasing
the prey on skis. In some areas the moose was hunted from boats, at
river crossing. Widely used were shooting sets, loops, and also hole
traps. Hunting fur-bearing mammals was of primary importance. The role
of furbearer hunt increased with the advent of Russians, since yasak
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| Fig. 4. Fishing by means of
dams (the Evenk) |
was to be paid with pelts.
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| Fig. 5. Before migration (the
Evenk ) |
The hunting nature of the Evenk is clearly
manifested even in such an occupation as fishing, which is of minor
importance to him. To the Evenk, fishing is equal to hunting. The main
fishing tools used by the Evenk for many years were the hunting bow
with blunt arrows to stun the fish and a spear (Fig. 3 ). With the depletion
of the game fauna, the importance of fishing increased. There appeared
some new and more productive tools as the bottom gill nets, dams (Fig.
4), the seines, borrowed from the Russia, etc. In some groups fishing
became commercial. The Evenk are engaged in a peculiar type of reindeer
herding. Their reindeer are baggage and riding animals, used in the
taiga. The Evenk practiced an unrestricted grazing of reindeer, and
the milking of reindere cows is also a sepcific Evenk feature. Associated
with reindeer herding is specific feature of this people. The Evenk
are born nomads. Migration is the main thing in the Evenk life (Fig.
5). The length of migrations reached hundreds of kilometers per year.
Some families covered distances of thousands of kilometers.
Material Culture
The main type of Evenk settlement is the camp. There were temporary
camps (urikit) and constant camps (meneen). The constant camps (most
frequently winter) comprised 1-2 dwellings, the summer camps had more
dwellings (Fig. 6).
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| Fig. 6. The Evenk camp on the
shore of Lake Baikal, 1890 |
Evenk hunters, leading a mobile mode of
life, lived in light portable tents - chums (dyu).
The stationary winter type of dwelling, characteristic of semi-sedentary
Evenk hunters and fishermen is called golomo. It has the shape of a
pyramid or a truncated pyramid (Fig. 7)
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| Fig. 7. Golomo uten; the winter
dwelling of semi-sedentary Evenk |
The summer constant dwelling of hunters
and fishermen was a four-cornered structure of poles or logs with a
double-pitch rood. The southern Evenk, the stockbreeders and nomads
of the Trans-Baikal Region lived in portable tents of the Buryat and
Monglolian type. Today, the majority of the Evenk live in modern in
standard log houses. The traditional dwelling is only used on the hunting
grounds.
Service buildings are not typical of the Evenk. Those are
mostly various types of storehouses, (Fig. 8) where
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| Fig. 8. Evenk storehouse in
the exposition of the Taltsy Museum (Irkutsk Region) |
various articles were stored, and also
reindeer sheds. The traditional clothing of the Evenk is a caftan of
the reindeer hide, whose flaps were tied up on the chest with straps.
A compulsory supplement to the kaftan was a chest-bib, which was held
on a sling around the neck and covering the slit between the flaps.
In winter, the head and the neck were covered with a long scarf of the
tails of of fur-bearing mammals. The footwear were the olochi of the
skin, fabric, or rovduga (moose skin) in summer and the reindeer fur
in winter. The traditional diet was based on the meat of wild mammals
(the Evenk who had horses consumed the horse meat) and fish. The meat
of the moose and wild reindeer was sun-dried to be stored. The dry meat
was minced into meal, which was poured on with hot water or mixed up
with berries. The main beverage is the tea, occasionally drunk with
reindeer milk or salt. The meal was known before the arrival of the
Russians. They Evenk baked balls of sour dough, and in the east, unleavened
cakes. Baked bread came into use with the advent of the Russians. In
winter, the hunters moved on unlined skis on the rust, and on kamus-lined
skis if the snow was deep. The reindeer were used only when migrating
to a new place. The Evenk used the reindeer for riding and to carry
bags. A reindeer harness comprised a hackamore, the riding and the bag
saddles and a berllyband. When riding, they used a stick which served
as a support when straddling the deer. Sled riding is not characteristic
of the Evenk.
Spiritual Culture
By the early 20th century, the religious beliefs of the Evenk were a
bizarre combination of various stages
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| Fig. 9. Chum of an Evenk shaman
in the Taltsy Museum |
of the development of various beliefs.
The most ancient ones is the animation of all natural phenomena, and
the concepts of the soul,
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| Fig. 10. Chest-bib |
Evenk totemism. There existed various
magic rites associated with hunt guarding reindeer herds. Later, those
rites were administered by shamans (Fig. 9). In this connection, new
beliefs regarding guardian spirits developed, and new rites appeared
as follows: seeing off the soul of the deceased, the purging of the
hunters, dedication of the reindeer, etc. There existed elements of
the bear cult - the rites associated with the dressing of the carcass
of the killed bear, consumption of its meat, burial of the bear head
and the bones. The Evenk folklore is highly diversified. The following
genres are distinguished: improvisation songs, myths, animal stories,
riddles, domestic and historical tales. The favorite genre of the Evenk
was the folk tale and heroic epos. Different groups of the Evenk had
their own historical characters. The epos was performed in recital during
the night, and the listeners often took part in the performance. The
main musical instrument was metal (kennginkevun) or wooden (pennengipkevun)
harp.
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| Fig. 11. Bear hunt. A composition
by the Evenk artist S. Nadein. Carving in X-ray film |
They also used bilgau - the dried bird
throat and a hunting bow.
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| Fig. 12.Evenk writer Alitet
Nemtushkin |
The only Evenk dance is the kheir round-dance,
which was performed to a song improvisation. The fine arts are represented
by ornamentation of the metal, bone and wood carving, embroidery in
beads and silk, fur and fabric applique, birch bark stamping. The Evenk
chest-bibs are true works of art (Fig. 10). Traditionally, the ornamentation
of the chest-bib is executed in three layers: the central design compostion,
a long massif edge band, and a fringe of rovduga on the tail of the
chest-bib. Richly ornamented are also the flaps of the kaftans, footwear,
belts,and housewares. During the recent decades, professional art appeared
(Fig. 11), the Evenk have gifted writers (Fig. 12), and numerous creative
intellectuals.
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