The current situation of the Khanty people. Khanty who

Kondiho, kandayahi: Modern ethnonym from kondiho, kandaiyakhi, khandoho - “man”, “people”. Available a large number of self-names of territorial groups of Khanty.

Main area of ​​settlement

They live in the Tyumen and Tomsk regions, in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in the Ob River basin and along its tributaries.

Number

Number according to censuses: 1897 - 17221, 1926 - 17334, 1959 -19410, 1970 - 2II38, 1979 - 20934, 1989 - 22521.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

Ethnic culture Khanty is heterogeneous. Geographically there are three ethnographic groups, corresponding to the dialect division of the Khanty language. These groups, in turn, are divided into territorial ones, whose representatives, as a rule, settle in the basin of one river.

Anthropological characteristics

The anthropological features of the Khanty allow us to classify them as a Ural contact race, which is internally heterogeneous in the territorial correlation of Mongoloid and Caucasian features. The Khanty, along with the Selkups and Nenets, are part of the West Siberian group of populations, which is characterized by an increased proportion of Mongoloidity, compared to other representatives of the Ural race.

Language

Khanty: Khanty language is included in Ugric group Ural language family and is divided into three groups of dialects - northern, with four dialects, southern, with three dialects and eastern, with three dialects. Within dialects, adverbs are distinguished.

Writing

Dialectal fragmentation made the creation of writing difficult. In 1879, a primer in one of the dialects of the Khanty language was published by N. Grigorovsky. Subsequently, priest I. Egorov created a primer of the Khanty language in the Obdor dialect, which was then translated into the Vakhov-Vasyugan dialect. In the beginning, 1930s. the basis of the Khanty alphabet was the Kazym dialect, since 1940 literary language The Middle Ob dialect was established. Currently, writing exists on the basis of five dialects of the Khanty language: Kazym, Surgut, Vakhovsk, Surgut, Sredneobok.

Religion

Orthodoxy: After the Russians came to Siberia, the Khanty were Christianized. This process was uneven and affected primarily those groups of Khanty who experienced the diverse influence of Russian settlers (southern Khanty). Other groups note the presence of religious syncretism, expressed in the adaptation of a number of Christian dogmas, with a predominance cultural function traditional worldview system.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

Northern Khanty. Archaeologists associate the genesis of their culture with the Ust-Poluy culture (end of the 1st millennium BC - beginning of the 1st millennium AD), localized in the river basin. Ob from the mouth of the Irtysh to the Ob Bay. This is a northern taiga fishing culture, many of whose traditions are followed by modern northern Khanty.
From the middle of the 2nd millennium AD. The northern Khanty were strongly influenced by the Nenets reindeer herding culture. In the zone of direct territorial contacts, the Khanty were partially assimilated by the tundra Nenets (the so-called seven Nenets clans of Khanty origin).
Southern Khanty. They spread upward from the mouth of the Irtysh. This is the territory of the southern taiga, forest-steppe and steppe and culturally it gravitates more to the south. In their formation and subsequent ethnocultural development, the southern forest-steppe population played a significant role, layering on the general Khanty base. The Turks and later the Russians had a significant influence on the southern Khanty.
Eastern Khanty. They settle in the Middle Ob region and along the tributaries: Salym, Pim, Tromyegan, Agan, Vakh, Yugan, Vasyugan. This group in to a greater extent, than others, retains North Siberian cultural features dating back to the Ural population - draft dog breeding, dugout boats, the predominance of swing clothing, birch bark utensils, and a fishing economy. Another significant component of the culture of the Eastern Khanty is the Sayan-Altai component, which dates back to the formation of the West - South Siberian fishing tradition. The influence of the Sayan-Altai Turks on the culture of the Eastern Khanty can be traced in more late time. Within the modern territory of their habitat, the Eastern Khanty interacted quite actively with the Kets and Selkups, which was facilitated by belonging to the same economic and cultural type.
Thus, if there is common features culture characteristic of the Khanty ethnic group, which is associated with the early stages of their ethnogenesis and the formation of the Ural community, which, along with the mornings, included the ancestors of the Kets and Samoyed peoples, the subsequent cultural “divergence”, the formation of ethnographic groups, was largely determined by the processes of ethnocultural interaction with neighboring peoples .

Farm

The northern Khanty are characterized by hunting and fishing, dwellings such as dugouts and tents, sled dog breeding (probably before the 16th century), galley skis, swinging clothing made of skins and fish skins, a composite dugout boat, wooden and birch bark utensils.
Among the northern Khanty, Samoyed reindeer husbandry spreads south to Berezov and the river basin. Kazym. In the Khanty culture it is presented in the taiga, transport version, with a set of elements common to the reindeer herding tradition cultural elements- reindeer transport, partly housing, a set of winter “deaf” clothing, utensils, changes in some norms public life(ownership of deer and their inheritance, property meta), worldviews (deer in funeral rite). In the field of reindeer husbandry, the Northern Khanty interacted quite actively with the Komi-Izhemtsy.
Southern Khanty. Given the presence of a fishing complex, they know cattle breeding and agriculture.

Traditional settlements and dwellings

The Khanty led a semi-sedentary lifestyle. In this regard, they had permanent and temporary spring/summer/autumn settlements (yurts). Winter settlements were more crowded. The settlements had an open plan and were located in fishing areas.
Based on the fact that the economy influences the nature of settlement, and the type of settlement influences the structure of the dwelling, the Ob Ugrians distinguish five types of settlement with the corresponding features of the settlements.
- nomadic camps with portable dwellings of nomadic reindeer herders (lower reaches of the Ob and its tributaries);
- permanent winter settlements of reindeer herders in combination with summer nomadic and portable summer dwellings (Sev. Sosva, Lozva, Kazym, Vogulka, Lower Ob);
- permanent winter settlements of hunters and fishermen in combination with temporary and seasonal settlements with portable or seasonal dwellings(Verkhnyaya Sosva, Lozva);
- permanent winter fishing villages in combination with seasonal spring, summer and autumn (Ob tributaries);
- permanent settlements of fishermen and hunters (with auxiliary importance of agriculture and animal husbandry) in combination with fishing huts (Ob, Irtysh, Konda).
Khanty dwellings are very diverse. Winter - dugouts and half-dugouts with a wooden post frame, which was covered on top with poles, branches, turf and earth. Heating using a furnace. Along the perimeter of the bunk walls. Local design options are possible. Log buildings were built as winter homes.
Seasonal buildings are more varied in shape (conical, gable, single-pitch, spherical, etc.). They were built from poles and covered with birch bark.

Bibliography and sources

General work

• Fishermen and hunters of the Ob basin: problems of the formation of the culture of the Khanty and Mansi. St. Petersburg, 2000./Fedorova E.G.
• Fishermen and hunters of the Ob basin: problems of the formation of the Khanty and Magnsi culture. St. Petersburg, 2000./Fedorova E.G.
• Meet the Khanty. Novosibirsk, 1992./Kulemzin V.M., Lukina N.V.

Selected aspects

• Ob Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi). Series "Peoples and Cultures". Vol. 7. M., 1992.
• Dwelling of the peoples of Siberia. (Typology experience). M., 1998./Sokolova Z.P.
• Man and nature in Khanty beliefs. Tomsk, 1984./Kulemzin V.M.

Selected regional groups

• Formation material culture Khanty (Eastern ethnographic group). Tomsk, 1985./Lukina N.V.
• Description of the heterodox peoples of Ostyaks and Samoyeds living in the Siberian province in the Berezovsky district // Materials on the ethnography of Siberia in the 18th century. TIE. 1947. T. 5/Zuev V.F.
• Vasyugan-Vakh Khanty at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Ethnographic essays. Tomsk, 1977/Kulemzin V.M., Lukina N.V.

Khanty

KHANTS-s; pl. The people who, together with the Mansi, make up indigenous people Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs of Russia; representatives of this people. Kh. and Mansi inhabit the center of Siberia. Cult of the bear among the Khanty. The Khanty have interesting customs.

◁ Hunt, unchanged; m. and f. Khanty, -aya, -oe. X. tongue. X customs. Xth clothes.

(self-name - Khande, outdated name - Ostyaks), people in Russia, in the Khanty-Mansi (11.9 thousand people) and Yamalo-Nenets (7.2 thousand people) autonomous okrugs and Tomsk region Total in Russia 22.3 thousand people (1998). Khanty language. Believers are Orthodox.

KHANTY (obsolete name - Ostyaks), people in Russian Federation, live along the Ob and Irtysh in the Khanty-Mansi (11.2 thousand people) and Yamalo-Nenets (6.5 thousand people) districts of the Tomsk region. In total there are 22.3 thousand Khanty in the Russian Federation. They speak the Khanty language of the Ugric group. Believers - Orthodox
There are three ethnographic groups of Khanty: northern, southern and eastern. The southern (Irtysh) Khanty mixed with the Russian and Tatar populations. The eastern and especially northern Khanty preserved the features of traditional culture (dwelling, clothing, means of transportation, art). The ethnogenesis of the people began from the end of the first millennium BC on the basis of a mixture of aborigines and alien Ugric tribes (Ust-Poluy culture). The Khanty are related to the Mansi, their common name is Ob Ugrians.
In the 19th-20th centuries, the Khanty lived in the Irtysh and Ob basin with the tributaries of the Demyanka, Konda, Vasyugan, Vakh, Agan with Tromyegan, Yugan, Pim, Salym, Kazym, Nazim, Synya, Kunovat, Sob rivers. In the 16th century, the Khanty also lived to the west, along Northern Sosva, Tura, Chusovaya, where Mansi later began to predominate. The northern neighbors of the Khanty were the Nenets, the southern - the Siberian Tatars and the Tomsk-Narym Selkups, the eastern - the Kets, the Selkups who moved to Turukhan and Taz, as well as the nomadic Evenks. By occupation the Khanty are fishermen, hunters, and reindeer herders.
The Northern Khanty spoke three dialects: Obdor, Priob and Irtysh, the latter has practically disappeared. The Eastern Khanty speak Surgut and Vakh-Vasyugan dialects. Writing was created in six dialects and dialects: Obdorsky, Kazym, Middle Ob, Shuryshkar, Vakhovsky and Surgut. Fiction is mainly published in three dialects - Shuryshkar, Surgut and Kazym.

encyclopedic Dictionary . 2009 .

See what “Khanty” are in other dictionaries:

Khanty ... Wikipedia

1. Khanty, ov, units. Khanty, uncl., male and wives People living in the Tyumen region (in the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets districts) and in the Tomsk region ( former name Ostyaks). 2. unchangeable Relating to this people, to their language, national character … Dictionary Ozhegova

- (outdated name Ostyaks) people in Khanty-Mansiysk (11.2 thousand people) and Yamalo-Nenets (6.5 thousand people) a. O. and Tomsk region In total, the Russian Federation has 22.3 thousand inhabitants. Khanty language. Orthodox believers... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (self-names Khanti, Khan De, Kantek, outdated name Ostyaks), people in the Russian Federation (22.3 thousand people), in the Khanty-Mansiysk (11.9 thousand) and Yamalo-Nenets (7.2 thousand) autonomous okrugs and Tomsk region. Khanty language Ob-Ugric... ...Russian history

- (self-name Khante, Hanti, Kantek) a nationality with a total number of 23 thousand people, living mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation (22 thousand people). Khanty language. Religious affiliation of believers: Orthodox... Modern encyclopedia

Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

KHANTY, KHANTY. see hante, hantei. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Noun, number of synonyms: 2 Ostyak (2) Ugra (4) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

Khanty- (self-name Khante, Hanti, Kantek) a nationality with a total number of 23 thousand people, living mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation (22 thousand people). Khanty language. Religious affiliation of believers: Orthodox. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Khanty- KHANTY, ov, pl (ed Khanty, uncl., m and f) and ((stl 8)) Khanty ((/stl 8)), ev (ed Khanty, tytsa, m). The people living mainly along the lower reaches of the Ob in the Tyumen region, in the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets districts, in the Tomsk region; People,… … Explanatory dictionary of Russian nouns

Books

• Khanty and Mansi. A view from the 21st century, Z. P. Sokolova. The monograph summarizes for the first time materials on the culture of the Ob Ugrians (Khanty and Mansi). The issues of the origin of the Ugrians, their ethnic history in the 17th-19th centuries, material culture are considered...

Many people believe that in order to uncover the unknown secrets of civilization, it is necessary to go to other continents: to plow the seas, cross deserts and climb through the jungle. Meanwhile, in Russia there are peoples whose way of life, traditions and views on life can surprise or even shock. For example, the Mansi and Khanty, who have lived in the vast expanses of Ugra since ancient times, have posed many questions to historians and ethnographers, the answers to which have not yet been found.

These are two different peoples

Despite the unconditional kinship, which is expressed in the similarity of languages ​​and many rituals, the Khanty and Mansi are different peoples. But it just so happened that the colonialists of Western Siberia, who represented the interests Russian Empire, there was no time to identify ethnographic differences. Residents of Ugra were mentioned en masse both in official documents and in scientific research. This approach led to the emergence of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.

The common name that scientists came up with to justify the unification of the two peoples sounds like “Ob Ugrians.” Since these people live in the Ob basin and belong to the Finno-Ugric peoples. By the way, their closest relatives, according to linguists, are the Hungarians (Magyars). Khanty, Mansi and Hungarian are part of the Ugric group of the Uralic language family.

It is believed that the ethnogenesis of the two indigenous peoples of Western Siberia occurred in the Urals as a result of the mixing of local residents who lived on these lands since the Neolithic era and Finno-Ugric tribes that came from the south. Then both the Khanty and the Mansi were forced out to the northeast by their warlike neighbors.

The main difference between the two above-mentioned peoples is their way of life. Mansi (Voguls) are nomadic reindeer herders inhabiting the tundra. Their life corresponds to their main occupation. Although they also hunt, the production of fur-bearing animals has never been their main source of income.

The Khanty (Ostyaks) live in the taiga and along the banks of the Ob, Irtysh, and their tributaries. They are skilled hunters and fishermen. Initially, these people lived only by fishing, and also collected what the forest provided. Therefore, among the Khanty, the cult of worshiping the spirits of trees is no less developed than the veneration of totem animals. However, starting from the 19th century, many Khanty took up reindeer herding.

The habitat and main activity of the Voguls and Ostyaks, as they were called before, are different, and therefore lifestyle- another.

According to the 2010 Russian population census, the number of the Khanty people exceeds 30 thousand people, the Mansi are much smaller - only about 12 thousand representatives.

Sacrifices to icons

Traditionally, the Khanty and Mansi adhered to pagan beliefs. They worshiped gods, nature spirits, totem animals, trees, and deceased ancestors. The shaman was the indisputable authority for them. And although the Ob Ugrians officially adopted Christianity, in their worldview amazingly Animism, zoomorphism and Orthodoxy are combined.

These people continue to follow their traditions. True, with the massive settlement of Siberia by Russian colonists, they began to practice their cults secretly, moving idols to special places that serve the pagans as sanctuaries. There they bring various offerings to their gods and spirits, which they worship.

Sometimes the Khanty and Mansi smear the blood of sacrificial animals on the lips of the saints depicted on Orthodox icons, which are found in almost every home, because they perceive these faces as pagan gods. So, supreme god, called Num-Torum, is associated here with Nicholas the Pleasant, because it is to him that believers turn if they need help in a specific matter. For example, in moose hunting. And the earth goddess Kaltas-ekva is perceived by local believers as the Mother of God. So far, Orthodox priests cannot do anything about such religious syncretism, because in words the Mansi and Khanty are Christians.

Celebrating the killing of a bear

Many peoples of Siberia consider the bear to be their ancestor, including the Khanty and Mansi. But religious worship does not prevent them from killing this animal, skinning it and eating the meat. On the contrary, every “master of the taiga” caught by taiga hunters is a reason to organize a holiday for all residents of the settlement. Moreover, if the victim is a bear, then the general fun lasts 4 days, and the killing of the bear is celebrated a day longer.

Ritual actions accompany the cutting of the animal carcass. They skin him solemnly, with large cluster people. The head is placed between the front paws, they are left untouched. Silver coins are placed on the nose and eyes of the killed male, and a muzzle made of birch bark is placed on the mouth. The female is decorated in a different way: a woman's scarf is thrown over her head, and beads are placed around her.

If we consider that every local family has a bear skin, and even more than one, then we can assume that the hunt for the “masters of the taiga” in Western Siberia was carried out regularly. At the festival, people not only treat themselves to fresh bear meat and other dishes of national cuisine, they sing ritual songs, dance, and stage comic performances. Moreover, the actors are exclusively men who perform female roles, dressed in the clothes of their relatives.

The Bear Festival is an alternative reality, a kind of looking glass where the world of spirits intertwines with reality.

Allows adultery

Representatives of the indigenous peoples of Ugra do not strictly monitor the behavior of their daughters, because premarital relations are not considered something reprehensible among them. Having a child from another man does not in any way prevent a girl from deciding to get married. From the groom’s point of view, this is a positive thing, because his chosen one has proven that she is able to bear and give birth to healthy offspring.

But infertility is a real tragedy in the eyes of the Khanty and Mansi. They even allow adultery if a woman cannot get pregnant from her husband. In case of infertility of the first chosen one, the man is allowed bigamy.

These people believe that a difficult birth indicates the lady’s infidelity, because this is how the gods themselves punish her - when she gives birth to a child not from her official spouse, she experiences much more suffering and pain than a decent woman. And the affairs of the gods do not concern mere mortals. And every child is greeted with joy.

Castrating deer with teeth

Muncie, as a rule, keep large herds of deer. The meat of these animals is eaten, traditional clothing is made from the skins, and the horns and bones are used to make various tools and household utensils. Sometimes deer are used to pay with each other.

In a large herd, one (less often two) male breeder is left. He inseminates females during the rutting period. Most grown-up male animals are castrated: otherwise they will begin to fight fiercely for the fawns, which is fraught with losses for the owners. In addition, after castration, former males gain weight better.

In the old days, without having necessary tools and fearing infection of animals, the Mansi bit the eggs of young deer to be castrated... with their own teeth. This became a tradition that some livestock farmers still follow today.

They eat the contents of deer stomachs

Many peoples of the world can surprise with their national dishes. And the indigenous people of Siberia are no exception. They eat not only the insides of deer, but also the contents of their stomachs. This delicacy is called “kanyga”; in winter it usually consists of semi-digested reindeer moss, and in summer - from the leaves of shrubs, grass, lichens and mushrooms exposed to the gastric juices of a deer.

It is believed that kanyga is very useful; it promotes the digestion of animal food. To enrich it with vitamins and microelements, this dish is consumed together with northern berries: lingonberries, blueberries and others.

In addition, Mansi and Khanty drink the blood of a freshly slaughtered deer, and also eat bone marrow from the legs of the animal, breaking them with the butt of an ax. Raw meat, while it is still warm, according to the natives of Ugra, helps against many diseases, strengthens a person’s immune system, gives him strength and warms him from the inside, which is important during severe frosts.

Blood feud

The tradition of blood feud is widespread among the Khanty. Sometimes families have been at odds with each other for generations. For the murder of a relative, it is customary here to take revenge on the family of the perpetrator of the crime.

Interestingly, this custom also applies to bears. If the “owner of the taiga” takes the life of a hunter who came to the forest for prey, then the relative of the deceased must go to the taiga and punish the clubfooted criminal. Moreover, the corpse of such a killer bear is supposed to be burned, and no holiday should be held in his honor.

Play 27 instruments

The musical culture of the Ob Ugrians is much richer and more diverse than that of most of their neighbors. Thus, the Khanty and Mansi have long learned to make a variety of stringed instruments. Researchers have counted 27 species, each of which is associated with some kind of totem animal or pagan ritual. For example, a seven-string harp is a swan. And there is also the tumran, nars-yuh, nonryp, kugel-yuh, nin-yuh and many other musical instruments.

Air burial rite

One of the oldest funeral traditions is air burial. Although the word “burial” is clearly not suitable here, because during the funeral the body of the deceased is hung on a special crossbar or left on a high platform in a special place. Some peoples who adhere to pagan beliefs do this so that a person’s soul can fly through the air to another world for the next incarnation.

Not only individual Khanty and Mansi people bury their dead in this way, but also some Nenets, Nganasans, Itelmens, Yakuts, Tuvinians, Altaians and others, including the Iroquois of North America.

The Khanty are a people who have lived in the north of the Russian Federation since ancient times, mainly in the territories of the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs. Khanty is not the only name for this people; in the West it is known as Ostyaks or Yugras, but the more accurate self-name “Khanty” (from the Khanty “kantakh” - person, people) was established as official in Soviet times.

In historical chronicles, the first written mentions of the Khanty people are found in Russian and Arabic sources of the 10th century AD, but it is known for certain that the ancestors of the Khanty lived in the Urals and Western Siberia already in the 6-5 millennium BC; subsequently they were displaced nomads to the lands of Northern Siberia.

Usually Khanty are people of short stature, about 1.5-1.6 m, with straight black or dark brown hair, dark skin, dark eyes. The type of face can be described as Mongolian, but with the eye shape of the correct shape - a slightly flat face, cheekbones noticeably protruding, lips thick, but not full.

The culture of the people, language and spiritual world are not homogeneous. This is explained by the fact that the Khanty settled quite widely and formed under different climatic conditions. various cultures. The southern Khanty were mainly engaged in fishing, but they were also known for farming and cattle breeding. The main occupations of the northern Khanty were reindeer herding and hunting, and less often fishing.

The Khanty, who were engaged in hunting and fishing, had 3-4 dwellings in different seasonal settlements, which changed depending on the season. Such dwellings were made of logs and placed directly on the ground, sometimes a hole was first dug (like a dugout). Khanty reindeer herders lived in tents - a portable dwelling consisting of poles placed in a circle, fastened in the center, covered with birch bark (in summer) or skins (in winter).

Since ancient times, the Khanty have revered the elements of nature: the sun, moon, fire, water, wind. The Khanty also had totemic patrons, family deities and ancestor patrons. Each clan had its own totem animal, it was revered, considered one of the distant relatives. This animal could not be killed or eaten.

The bear was revered everywhere, he was considered a protector, he helped hunters, protected against diseases, and resolved disputes. At the same time, the bear, unlike other totem animals, could be hunted. In order to reconcile the spirit of the bear and the hunter who killed it, the Khanty organized a bear festival. The frog was revered as the guardian of family happiness and an assistant to women in labor. There were also sacred places, the place where the patron lives. Hunting and fishing were prohibited in such places, since the animals were protected by the patron himself.

To the present day traditional rituals and the holidays arrived in a changed form, they were adapted to modern views and timed to coincide with certain events (for example, a bear festival is held before the issuance of licenses to shoot bears).

general information

The Khanty are an indigenous people in Western Siberia. Self-name - hanshi, hande, kantpek. There are local self-names: kazym ekh (people of Kazym), sonnya ekh (people of Synya) and others. Among the Khanty, there are three ethnographic groups (northern, southern and eastern), distinguished by dialects, self-names, and economic and cultural characteristics. Within each of them, in turn, there are territorial associations, usually distinguished by the names of the Ob and Irtysh tributaries: Vasyugan, Salym, Kazym, etc. scientific literature Khanty and Mansi unite common name Ob Ugrians. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Russians called the Khanty Ostyaks.

They speak the Khanty language, which, together with Mansi and Hungarian, makes up the Ugric group of Finno-Ugric languages. There are three groups of dialects: northern (Obdorsky, Shurushkar-Berezovsky, Kazymsky, Sherkalsky), southern (Atlymsky, Leushinsky, Irtysh-Kondinsky) and eastern (Surgut, Salymsky, Vakho-Vasyugansky). The vocabulary of the Khanty language reflects close ties with its neighbors - the Nenets, Tatars, and Komi-Zyryans.

The formation of the Khanty is based on the culture of the ancient aboriginal Ural tribes who were engaged in hunting and fishing. Later they were influenced by the pastoral Andronovo tribes. The process of merging these ethnic elements took long time- until the middle of the 1st millennium AD, when the Ob-Ugric tribes basically formed. By the end of the 1st millennium AD. Samoyed tribes came from the east and southeast to northwestern Siberia. As a result, part of the Ob Ugrians adopted elements of Samoyed culture. In the Middle Ages, the Turkic ethnic component had a significant influence on them. There are traces of Tungus and Ket influence.

Territory of settlement and number

In ancient times, the settlement of the Khanty was very wide - from the lower reaches of the Ob in the North to the Baraba steppes in the South and from the Yenisei in the East to the Trans-Urals, including the basins of the Northern Sosva, Lyapin, Pelym and Konda rivers. Subsequently, part of the Western Khanty moved to the East and North. In the North, the Khanty came into contact with the Nenets and were partially assimilated by them. IN southern regions Intensive processes of Turkization were underway. By the 20th century, the southern Khanty were almost completely assimilated by the Siberian Tatars and Russians.

Over the three centuries (XVII-XIX centuries) of being part of Russia, the number of Khanty increased from 6.3 thousand people. up to 16.2 thousand. The growth in numbers continued in the 20th century. According to the 2002 census in the Russian Federation - 28,678. In terms of numbers, they continue to remain one of the largest indigenous peoples of the North. More than half of the Khanty are concentrated in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - 17,128 people, in the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug there are 8,760 people, in the Tomsk Region - 873 people.

On the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug there are more than 70 villages in which the Khanty live. Most of them are small settlements, the number of inhabitants in which does not exceed several dozen people. About 2 thousand Khanty live in the cities of the district - Khanty-Mansiysk, Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut and others.

Lifestyle and support system

The traditional occupations of the Khanty are fishing, taiga hunting and reindeer herding. The ratio of activities varies depending on local conditions. For the Khanty living on large rivers, the main source of livelihood is fishing. On the Ob tributaries, the importance of fishing and hunting is approximately the same. For residents of the upper reaches of rivers, fishing plays a role minor role. Hunting brought the greatest income until 1990. Currently, due to low purchase prices, lack of a sales market and a decrease in the number of animals, hunting is losing its former importance.

Reindeer husbandry is widespread throughout most of the Khanty territory. In the tundra and forest-tundra it can be classified as the Samoyed type. In the forest zone, reindeer husbandry is primarily for transport purposes. The total number of deer in the district is 39 thousand, incl. in the public sector 27 thousand. Number of deer in last years decreases. This is especially true for the public sector; in the private sector, on the contrary, growth is observed.

Fishing is most developed on the Ob, Irtysh, lake-river systems of the Khanty-Mansiysk and other regions. Here for years Soviet power Quite powerful fish processing plants have been formed, which have now broken up into many small joint-stock companies. As a result, many Khanty fishermen lost their jobs. In this situation, indigenous people began to create communities and national enterprises specializing in fishing. In the Berezovsky and Beloyarsky districts, where this form of management is most widespread, there are 17 communities and enterprises. Their annual total catch is 900-1100 tons of fish.

Ethno-social situation

The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug is one of the most urbanized territories of the Russian North. The district is one of the donors of the Russian Federation, thanks to its huge oil and gas reserves. Today there are 15 cities here. The total population of the district in 1989 was 1,282,396 people. To date, it is increasing, unlike other northern regions, thanks to the development of the oil and gas complex. Although the share of Khanty in the total population is still low - less than 1%. Urbanization also affects the indigenous population. Currently, almost a third of all Khanty live in urban and rural areas. Migration to cities is most often forced and caused by job opportunities and hopes of obtaining comfortable housing.

Common to all northern regions in conditions market reforms Ethno-social problems (unemployment, declining living standards, rising morbidity rates in the population, deteriorating demographic characteristics) are also characteristic of the Khanty population, but they are not so painfully acute. The average monetary income of the indigenous population in the district ensures the cost of food provided for in the subsistence level budget. The overall incidence in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug (1095 per 1 thousand people) is not much higher than the average incidence in Russia (983 per 1 thousand people). Social and living conditions are more favorable here. With a slight decrease in the birth rate, due mainly to urbanization processes, the Khanty maintain a stable natural increase.

The main thing that worries the indigenous population of the district is ethno-ecological problems. They made themselves felt most acutely in the early 90s. The destruction of the natural environment by enterprises of the fuel, energy and timber industry complexes has become a powerful factor in the consolidation of indigenous small peoples, growth of ethnic self-awareness. In the struggle for their rights, for the opportunity to independently determine the parameters of their national life, the Khanty and other indigenous peoples achieved certain results. A certain compromise has been reached in the development of industrial production and traditional sectors of the economy, and a whole set of legal acts has been adopted that significantly expand the rights of the indigenous population.

Ethno-cultural situation

The ethno-cultural appearance of the Khanty today is not homogeneous. Three main groups can be distinguished: the Khanty, who are employed in traditional sectors of the economy and partly preserve their traditional settlement, way of life and culture (in the area they are usually called “encampment people”); Khanty, not employed in traditional industries and permanently living in villages (hence their local name - “settlement”), subject to assimilation, and in some cases, lumpenized; urban Khanty living in Khanty-Mansiysk and other cities of the Autonomous Okrug, in their lifestyle and standard of living, little or almost no different from representatives of other peoples. The attitude of these groups towards the preservation and revival of traditional culture is also not the same. Ritual holidays are held, places of worship of patron spirits are restored, and folk arts and crafts are developed.

Interest in traditional culture is growing. This is largely facilitated by the activities of the Center for Culture and Art of the Peoples of the North, which has a network of local branches. Its employees create folklore ensembles, hold exhibitions and competitions. The district newspaper “Khanty Yasang” is published in the Khanty language once a week, and there are radio (40 minutes a week) and television (25 minutes) broadcasts.

In 2002, the Khanty language was considered native by 36.4% of the Khanty. Khanty writing was created in 1932 on the basis of the Kazym dialect. Deep dialect differences, reaching the point of mutual misunderstanding, led to the fact that in the 60s. writing was developed in 5 dialects. Textbooks were published on them. In the future, the writing of the Kazym and Shuryshkar Khanty turned out to be more viable. Textbooks and dictionaries have been created in these dialects, and children's literature is published. Children learn the Khanty language in primary school, in high school - as an elective. Teachers are trained by Khanty-Mansiysk (Kazym dialect) and Salekhard (Shuryshkar dialect) pedagogical schools, Russian State Pedagogical University named after. Herzen.

The district has established its own research institutions dealing with the problems of reviving the traditional culture of the Khanty and other indigenous peoples - the research institute for the revival of the Ob-Ugric peoples, the folklore archive of the northern Khanty, the district ethnographic museum-reserve "Torum Maa", etc. The Khanty have formed professional painting, literature. Khanty writers E. Aipin, R. Rugin, and artist G. Raishev are famous.

Management and self-government bodies

The Khanty have their own national-territorial entity - an autonomous district, in which special norms for the representation of indigenous peoples in government structures have been established. Elections for 6 out of 23 deputies of the District Duma are held in a single electoral district, which is the entire territory of the Autonomous Okrug. The right to nominate it is vested in public associations indigenous peoples, and the deputies elected from this district constitute the Assembly of Representatives of Indigenous Peoples of the North. Its chairman automatically occupies the post of Deputy Chairman of the District Duma. Although, in connection with the new federal law on elections, there is a danger of eliminating such quotas at the regional level.

The region is pursuing a targeted policy of training national personnel from among the indigenous peoples of the North, many of whose representatives occupy responsible positions in the district leadership.

The Department for the Affairs of Minority Peoples of the North has been created within the structure of the district executive power. Important role Khanty play a role in governance and self-government public organizations- District Association “Saving Ugra”, Union of Private Reindeer Herders, Union of Masters of Traditional Folk Crafts” and other organizations.

Legal documents and laws

In the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, where the majority of the Khanty live, an extensive regulatory and legislative framework has been created that establishes the legal status of the indigenous population. There is a whole block of laws in force in the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug, starting with the Regulations on non-competitive admission to state universities of persons from among minority peoples, the Program “Ensuring employment of the population from among indigenous minorities for 1997-2000”, and the Program “Housing for Aboriginal Peoples”. The Northern Fund of the Okrug was established, a procedure was established for the acquisition and provision of reindeer to residents leading a traditional lifestyle, preferential payments for the use of forest resources, subsidies for hunting products. Laws “On general principles of organization” were adopted local government", "About the subsoil" and a number of others. A decision was made to create a regional corporation of indigenous peoples of the North.

Contemporary issues environment

The state of the environment in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is regarded by ecologists as critical. The bulk of air pollutants come from enterprises in the fuel and energy complex. In the Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and Nefteyugansk regions, 20 tons of pollutants fall from the atmosphere for every square kilometer. More than 3.5 million tons of industrial waste have accumulated at the district's landfills. About 130 thousand hectares of territory were withdrawn from the economic turnover of the indigenous population. The waters of the rivers Vakh, Tromyegan, Bolshoi Yugan, and Pim are currently classified as extremely dirty. The average annual concentration of petroleum products in them is 9-11 MPC. Housing and communal services have an equally detrimental impact on water bodies. 84% of household wastewater is discharged into the district's rivers without any treatment. The impact of the timber industry has led to extremely negative consequences for the environment. In large areas, the soil cover has been disturbed, erosion is increasing, and rivers are becoming shallow and drying out.

Irreversible changes in the natural environment as a result of anthropogenic impact undermine the foundations traditional farming small peoples, threatens people's health and their very existence. The problem of preserving the natural environment has become one of the most pressing not only for the peoples of the North, but also for all residents of the district. Public protests against consumerism towards nature are prompting the authorities to expand the network of protected areas. The territory of the Malaya Sosva state reserve has been expanded, and the Yugansky nature reserve has been created in the Surgut region. To the 4 reserves that existed in the district at the beginning of the 90s, new ones were added: “Sorumsky” (1995), “Elizarovsky” (1992), “Kulumansky”, “Verkhne-Vakhsky”, “Vogulka” (1993) and etc. Many natural monuments were taken under protection: “Khanty-Mansi Hills”, “Cedar Grove”, “Barsova Gora”, etc. The first historical and cultural monument in Russia was created natural Park"Kondinskie Lakes" An important environmental role is played by ancestral lands and territories of priority environmental management, created in order to preserve the traditional types of economic activities of the peoples of the North. Industrial activity there is significantly limited or completely prohibited. The total area of ​​priority environmental management territories currently occupies 33% of the territory of the Autonomous Okrug. Ancestral lands do not belong to specially protected natural areas, but are a kind of ethno-ecological reserve. 454 ancestral lands with a total area of ​​about 15 million hectares have been identified.

Prospects for preserving the Khanty as an ethnic group

Despite the decrease in fertility and increase in mortality in the first half of the 90s. The Khanty, unlike some other peoples of the North, are not in danger of extinction. A fairly favorable gender and age structure (in the coming years the number of women of childbearing age will increase noticeably) will make it possible to compensate for the decline in the birth rate and have a positive population growth. The Khanty leaders are concerned about the strengthening of assimilation processes (in multinational villages, up to half of the Khanty families are ethnically mixed), the decline in the socially significant functions of the Khanty language, and the disappearance of many elements of traditional culture. It seems, however, that any nation faces similar threats to the existence of an ethnic group. The culture of a people is never static; it is constantly changing in time and space, supplemented by new elements borrowed or those that meet changing living conditions. This is what is observed among the Khanty. In the fight against industrial expansion of various companies, ministries and departments, their ethnic identity, further ethnic consolidation is taking place, and this is the most important thing for a full ethnic life.