Khanty and Mansi peoples: owners of rivers, taiga and tundra worshiped bears and elks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Mansi and Khanty peoples are kindred. Few people know, however, they were once great peoples of hunters. In XV the fame of the skill and courage of these people reached from beyond the Urals to Moscow itself. Today, both of these peoples are represented by a small group of residents of the Khanty-Mansiysk District.

The basin of the Russian Ob River was considered to be the original Khanty territories. The Mansi tribes settled here only at the end of the 19th century. It was then that the advancement of these tribes to the northern and eastern parts of the region began.

Scientists-ethnologists believe that the emergence of this ethnos was based on the fusion of two cultures - the Ural Neolithic and the Ugric tribes. The reason was the resettlement of the Ugric tribes from the North Caucasus and southern regions of Western Siberia. The first Mansi settlements were located on the slopes of the Ural Mountains, as evidenced by the very rich archaeological finds in this region. So, in the caves of the Perm Territory, archaeologists managed to find ancient temples. In these places of sacred significance, fragments of pottery, jewelry, weapons were found, but what is really important - numerous bear skulls with notches from blows with stone axes.

The birth of the people

For modern history, a stable tendency has developed to believe that the cultures of the Khanty and Mansi peoples were united. This assumption was formed due to the fact that these languages belonged to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. For this reason, scientists have put forward the assumption that since there was a community of people speaking a similar language, then there must have been a common area of their residence - a place where they spoke the Uralic proto-language. However, this question remains unresolved to this day.

Development level of indigenous Siberian tribes was low enough. In the everyday life of the tribes, there were only tools made of wood, bark, bone and stone. The dishes were wooden and ceramic. The main occupation of the tribes was fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. Only in the south of the region, where the climate was milder, did cattle breeding and agriculture become insignificant. The first meeting with local tribes took place only in the X-XI centuries, when these lands were visited by the Permians and Novgorodians. Local newcomers were called "Voguls", which meant "wild." These same "Voguls" were described as bloodthirsty devastators of the roundabout lands and savages practicing sacrificial rites. Later, in the 16th century, the Ob-Irtysh lands were annexed to the Moscow state, after which a long era of the development of the conquered territories by the Russians began. First of all, the invaders erected several forts on the annexed territory, which later grew into cities: Berezov, Narym, Surgut, Tomsk, Tyumen,. Instead of the once existing Khanty principalities, volosts were formed. In the 17th century, the active resettlement of Russian peasants began in the new volosts, from which by the beginning of the next century, the number of "local" was significantly inferior to the newcomers. At the beginning of the 17th century there were about 7,800 Khanty people, by the end of the 19th century their number was 16 thousand people. According to the latest census, there are already more than 31 thousand of them in the Russian Federation, and around the world there are about 32 thousand representatives of this ethnic group. The number of the Mansi people from the beginning of the 17th century to our time has increased from 4.8 thousand people to almost 12, 5 thousand.

Relations with the Russian colonists among the Siberian peoples were not easy. At the time of the invasion of the Russians, the Khanty society was class, and all lands were divided into specific principalities. After the beginning of the Russian expansion, volosts were created, which helped to manage the lands and population much more efficiently. It is noteworthy that representatives of the local tribal nobility were at the head of the volosts. Also, all local accounting and management was given to the power of local residents.

Confrontation

After the annexation of the Mansi lands to the Moscow state, the question of converting the pagans to the Christian faith soon arose. There were more than enough reasons for that, according to historians. According to the arguments of some historians, one of the reasons is the need to control local resources, in particular, hunting grounds. The Mansi were known in the Russian land as excellent hunters who "squandered" precious reserves of deer and sables without asking. Bishop Pitirim was sent to these lands from Moscow, who was supposed to convert the pagans to the Orthodox faith, but he accepted death from the Mansi prince Asyka.

10 years after the death of the bishop, Muscovites gathered a new campaign against the pagans, which became more successful for Christians. The campaign ended pretty soon, and the victors brought with them several princes of the Vogul tribes. However, Prince Ivan III dismissed the pagans in peace.

During the campaign in 1467, the Muscovites managed to capture even Prince Asyka himself, who, however, was able to escape on the way to Moscow. Most likely, this happened somewhere near Vyatka. The pagan prince appeared only in 1481, when he tried to besiege and take the Cher-melons by attack. His campaign ended unsuccessfully, and although his army ruined the entire area around Cher-melon, they had to flee from the battlefield from the experienced Moscow army sent to help by Ivan Vasilyevich. The army was led by experienced commanders Fyodor Kurbsky and Ivan Saltyk-Travin. A year after this event, an embassy from the Vorguls visited Moscow: the son and son-in-law of Asyka, whose names were Pytkei and Yushman, came to the prince. Later it became known that Asyka himself went to Siberia, and disappeared somewhere there, taking his people with him.

100 years passed, and new conquerors appeared in Siberia - Ermak's squad. During one of the battles between the Vorguls and the Muscovites, Prince Patlik, the owner of those lands, was killed. Then his whole squad fell with him. However, even this campaign did not become successful for the Orthodox Church. Another attempt to baptize the Vorguls was accepted only under Peter I. The Mansi tribes were supposed to accept the new faith on pain of death, but instead the whole people chose isolation and went even further north. Those who remained abandoned pagan symbols, but were in no hurry to put on crosses. The local tribes avoided the new faith until the beginning of the 20th century, when they began to formally be considered the Orthodox population of the country. The dogmas of the new religion very hard penetrated the pagan society. And for a long time, tribal shamans played an important role in the life of society.

In harmony with nature

Most of the Khanty still at the turn of the late 19th - early 20th centuries led an exclusively taiga lifestyle. The traditional occupation for the Khanty tribes was hunting and fishing. Those of the tribes that lived in the Ob basin were mainly engaged in fishing. The tribes living in the north and in the upper reaches of the river hunted. The deer served as a source of not only skins and meat, but also served as a draft force in the economy.

The main types of food were meat and fish; plant foods were practically not consumed. Fish was most often eaten boiled in the form of a stew or dried, often it was eaten completely raw. Sources of meat were large animals such as elk and deer. The insides of the hunted animals were also eaten, like meat, most often they were eaten directly raw. It is possible that the Khanty did not disdain to extract the remnants of plant food from the stomachs of deer for their own consumption. The meat was subjected to heat treatment, most often it was cooked, like fish.

The culture of the Mansi and Khanty is a very interesting layer. According to folk traditions, both peoples did not have a strict distinction between animals and humans. Animals and nature were especially revered. The beliefs of the Khanty and Mansi forbade them to settle near places inhabited by animals, hunt a young or pregnant animal, and make noise in the forest. In turn, the fishing unwritten laws of the tribes forbade putting a net too narrow so that young fish could not go through it. Although almost the entire mining economy of the Mansi and Khanty rested on the maximum economy, this did not interfere with the development of various fishing cults, when it was required to donate the first prey or catch from one of the wooden idols. Many different tribal festivals and ceremonies took place from here, most of which were of a religious nature.

The bear held a special place in the Khanty tradition. According to beliefs, the first woman in the world was born from a she-bear. Fire to people, as well as many other important knowledge, was presented by the Great Bear. This animal was highly revered, was considered a fair judge in disputes and a divider of prey. Many of these beliefs have survived to this day. The Khanty also had other sacred animals. Otters and beavers were revered as exclusively sacred animals, the purpose of which only shamans could know. The elk was a symbol of reliability and well-being, wealth and strength. The Khanty believed that it was the beaver who led their tribe to the Vasyugan River. Many historians are seriously concerned today by oil developments in this area, which threaten the extinction of beavers, and perhaps an entire nation.

Astronomical objects and phenomena played an important role in the beliefs of the Khanty and Mansi. The sun was revered in the same way as in most other mythologies, and was personified with the feminine principle. The moon was considered a symbol of a man. People, in the opinion of Mansi, appeared thanks to the union of two luminaries. The moon, according to the beliefs of these tribes, informed people about the dangers in the future with the help of eclipses.

Plants, in particular trees, occupy a special place in the culture of the Khanty and Mansi. Each of the trees symbolizes its own part of being. Some plants are sacred, and it is forbidden to be near them, it was forbidden even to step through some without permission, while others, on the contrary, had a beneficial effect on mortals. Another male symbol was the bow, which was not only a hunting tool, but also served as a symbol of good luck and strength. With the help of a bow, fortune-telling was used, the bow was used to predict the future, and women were forbidden to touch the prey hit by the arrow and step over this hunting weapon.

In all actions and customs, both the Mansi and the Khanty strictly adhere to the rule:.