Tradition
Nganasan people
Overview
The Nganasans ( əng-GAN-ə-san; Nganasan: ӈәнә"са(нә") ŋənəhsa(nəh), ня(") ńæh) are a people native to the Taymyr Peninsula in north Siberia. In the Russian Federation, they are recognized as one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They reside primarily in the settlements of Ust-Avam, Volochanka, and Novaya in the Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, with smaller populations residing in the towns of Dudinka and Norilsk as well.
The Nganasans are thought to be the direct descendants of proto-Uralic peoples. However there is some evidence that they absorbed a local Paleo-Siberian population. The Nganasans were traditionally a semi-nomadic people whose main form of subsistence was wild reindeer hunting, in contrast to the Nenets, who herded reindeer. Beginning in the early 17th century, the Nganasans were subjected to the yasak system of Tsarist Russia. They lived relatively independently, until the 1970s, when they were settled in the villages they live in today, which are at the southern edges of the Nganasans' historical nomadic routes.
There is no certainty as to the exact number of Nganasans living in Russia today. The 2002 Russian census counted 862 Nganasans living in Russia, 766 of whom lived in the former Taymyr Autonomous Okrug. However, those who study the Nganasan estimate their population to comprise approximately 1,000 people. Historically, the Nganasan language and a Taymyr Pidgin Russian were the only languages spoken among the Nganasan, but with increased education and village settlement, Russian has become the first language of many Nganasans. Some Nganasans live in villages with a Dolgan majority, such as Ust-Avam. The Nganasan language is considered seriously endangered and it is estimated that at most 500 of the Nganasan can still speak it, with very limited proficiency among those 18 and younger.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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It is particularly stones and pieces of wood that are held to be the abode of these totemic spirits and that are represented by legend as having at one time been entrusted to the custody of the forefathers. These ideas abound particularly in northern Australia, where the magical objects are called churingas (or tjurungas). Churingas play an important rôle in the ceremonies of the totem festivals. For the most part…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
States what Nganasan people is.
Contiguous to these, in the same regions, dwell those who are called Iyrcæ, who also live by hunting in the following manner: the huntsman, having climbed a tree, lies in ambush (and the whole country is thickly wooded), and each man has a horse ready taught to lie on his belly, that he may not be much above the ground, and a dog besides. When he sees any game from the tree, having let fly an arrow, he mounts his…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
States what Nganasan people is.
Above these in a direction towards the East dwell other Scythians, who have revolted from the Royal Scythians and so have come to this region.
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Nganasan people is.
Related ideas
- Animism
- Smallpox
- Indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Russia
- Russian language
- Russian Revolution
- Soviet Union
- Shamanism
- Siberia
- Economy of the Soviet Union
- Standard of living
- Education
Place in the tradition
Part of Shamanism.