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The Selkup
General
Information
The Selkup is the people of the Samoyedic language family. They live
in the Krasnoselkupsky District, Tamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Tyumen
Region), in the Kargasoksky, Parabelsky, Verkhne-Ketsky districts, and
in the rural territory of the city of Kolpashevo, Tomsk Region. Some
small groups of the Selkup are found in the Turukhansk District, Krasnoyarsk
Krai (Fig. 1).
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| Fig. 1. Territory of the Selkup
distribution and economic activity |
According to the 1989 Census, the total
number of the Selkup is 3564. Historically, the Selkup fall into two
territorially isolated groups: the northern and the southern. The native
names of the northern Selkup are the Solkup and Sholkup
(taiga man). In the pre-Revolutionary literature the were referred to
as the Ostyak or Samoyed Ostyak. The southern Selkup,
including several ethno-territorial groups, had other native names.
The Selkup of the basin of the Tym and Parabel rivers referred to themselves
as Chumyl Kup (earth man); the residents of the Ket basin, Susse
Kum, or Shosh Kum (taiga man). The modern ethnonym was introduced
in the 1930s and was adopted only by the northern group. In the southern
Selkup, was established during the two last decades. The Selkup language
belongs to the Samoyedic branch of the Uralic language family. It has
6 dialects and 2 sub-dialects. Repeated attempts to develop a single
Selkup literary language on the basis of the northern dialect have ended
in failure. According to the 1989 Census, 50.6% Selkup consider the
Russian to be their mother tongue.
Ethnogenesis
The southern Selkup are direct descendants of the carriers of the Kuloi
archeological culture in the Middle Cis-Ob Region. (5th century
B.C. - 5th century A. D.). This historical and cultural entity
is associated with the origin of the all the peoples of the Samoyedic
language group. According to archeological evidence, the direct successors
of the Kuloi people in the Middle Cis-Ob Region was the population that
created the Relkinskaya archeological culture (6th - 8th
century A.D.). Their artifacts are the remnants of ancient karamo
subterranean dwellings, one can see in many places along the Tym, Ket,
Parabel, and Narym rivers (Fig. 2).
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| Fig. 2. Karamo: “house
in a mountain”, Selkup |
The Narym Selkup considered those subterranean
houses the dwellings of their ancestors. In fact, numerous features
of the economy, labor, and life of the Relkin people were similar to
those of the Selkup as indicated by ethnographic evidence. The northern
Selkup were established as a result of the migration in the 17th
century of some of the Samoyedic people from the middle reaches of the
Ob River to the basins of the upper reaches of the Taz and the Turukhan,
the left-hand tributary of the Yenisei River. The final ethnic establishment
of this group was accomplished in the 19th century. Along
with the Selkup features proper, the northern Selkup acquired the Enets,
Ket, and Khanty ethnic elements.
Ethnic History
The Russians settled down in the middle reaches of the Ob River at the
end of the 16th century. By that time there existed a Selkup
community known as the Dappled Horde, headed by the Knyazets
(little prince) Vonya, which for a long time refused to acknowledge
the authority of the Russian Tzar. The Russians managed to impose a
tribute on the Selkup as late as the establishment of the Narym Fort.
In the early 18th century the Tom Selkup were baptized. During
the second half of the 19th century the Russian migration
flow to the areas of the Selkup residence intensified. Under the Russian
influence, the Selkup began living in villages, raising livestock, and
vegetable gardening. The economic and cultural relations of the Selkup
and the Russians began to be often sealed with marital bonds. Since
the late 19th century, all the Selkup developed a neighbor
community, which became the basic social entity. The neighbor community
united members of various ethno-territorial groups unrelated by kinship
bonds.
Economy
The Selkup were engaged in integrated economy, whose main branches were
hunting and fishing. Transport reindeer herding was practiced only by
the northern Selkup. In the meantime, in the Selkup burial sites before
the 17th century there occur
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| Fig. 3. Equipment of a Selkup
hunter |
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| Fig. 4. Fishing dam in a taiga
river , Selkup |
farming tools crocks with vegetable food.
The Selkup linguistic evidence also provides agricultural terms. In
the past, the Selkup also were engaged in ceramics, weaving, and metallurgy.
The economic regress of the Selkup by the beginning of the 17th
century is explained by the abundance of fur-bearing mammals characteristic
of Western Siberia, which became one of the major centers of the concentration
of fur traders from various civilized countries of that time. By the
middle Cis-Ob Region the sable became extinct at the end of the 17th
century, and, the squirrel became the main object of fur-bearing harvest
by the Selkup. The distribution of squirrel harvest in the 19th
century is testified by the Selkup exchange entity sarum, which
was a bunch if 10 squirrel pelts. For the Narym Selkup of great importance
was the harvest of forest game birds the capercaillie, black cock, hazel
hen, which were the main source of meat (Fig. 3). Ranking second in
importance for the Selkup economy was fishery. The basic objects of
fishery were the sturgeon, nelma, omul, broad whitefish, muksun. Of
the traditional fishery craft, the fixed gill net became common, and
dam fishery also practiced (Fig. 4). Reindeer herding was the occupation
of the northern Selkup. The Selkup reindeer herding is of the taiga
type. The size of herds and routes of seasonal displacements are fairly
small. In contrast to the Nenets, the Selkup used no shepherd dog. Grazing
was practiced rarely, even in winter.
Material Culture
The Selkup had several types of dwelling. All year round the constant
dwelling of reindeer herders was the chum (tent). In the taiga
zone it was mainly used in summer, while the winter dwelling were semi-subterranean
houses, varying in structure and size.
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| Fig. 5. Winter dwelling of
fisherman Selkup. |
A semi-subterranean house poi-mot.(Fig.
5). The winter clothes in northern Selkup (both males and females) was
the parka - a coat of reindeer hides, fur outside. Under the parka,
the men wore shirts of purchased fabric and trousers of rovduga;
and women, hone-made dresses.
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| Fig. 6. Skis lined with kamus,
Selkup. |
In heavy frosts, the Selkup wore the parks
over the sokui, a shirt-like garment without a front slit, with
a hood of reindeer hide, fur outside. In the south of the Selkup distribution
range, very common was the Russian-type clothing. They ubiquitously
wore the Russian shirts and trousers, dresses and sarafans. The
traditional staple food of the southern Selkup is fish. The common diet
item in winter was fermented fish. It was fermented together with berries
(blueberry, cranberry, cloudberry). In northern Selkup, venison was
an important item of the diet. The meat and fish dishes were seasoned
with the wild onion or sarana tubers collected by women. Instead of
tea, they drank a juniper beverage with young fly agarics. In winter,
the main means of transportation were the skis tangysh, lined
with kamus or otter skin. (Fig. 6). Used as draft animals were
reindeer and dogs by the reindeer herder Selkup, and dogs and horses
by the Narym Selkup. In the taiga, the hunter pulled his cargo on his
own, occasionally harnessing a dog. The most common means of water transport
was the dugout boat.
Spiritual Culture
The Selkup are characterized by the animist concepts of the environment.
Nom, personifying the sky, was considered to be the Demiurge,
the good principle. The evil spirit guardian Kyzy resided under
the earth. In the Selkup shamanism, an important role to play was that
by the sex element
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| Fig. 7. Design on birch bark
articles, Selkup |
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| Fig. 8. Playing the vargan.
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The Selkup believed that a shaman had
sexual intercourse with the daughter of the forest guardian spirit.
One of the peculiar rites in the Selkup shamanism was the “reviving”
of the drum and other shaman accessories. Every Selkup clan had its
own sacral sites with the images of the clan guardian spirit, a shaman
of their own, and a cemetery of their own. In case of death in a strange
land, the clan members were obliged to take the deceased back and bury
him in the clan cemetery. The Selkup art is represented by designs on
birch bark dishes (Fig. 7), the bone details of the reindeer harness,
knife sheathes and other domestic articles. The ornamentation of clothing
characteristic of numerous Siberian peoples, was not common in the Selkup.
Central in the traditional folklore is the description of numerous adventures
of the protagonist, his struggle with evil spirits who were conquered.
The musical instruments comprised the vargan, a plate of the
deer antler bone with a vibrating tongue (Fig. 8), a semi-string harp
called lebed (swan) In the northern Selkup, the only instrument
was the shaman drum.
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