Nenets (Nenetses; Nentsi; Nentsy; Samoyeds; Samoyedes; Yurak-Samoyeds; Yuraks; Hasaba)

The Nenets are a partly sedentary, partly nomadic people living across a vast area of northern Russia, generally north of the Arctic Circle, stretching from the Kola Peninsula on the White Sea in the west to the base of the Taymyr Peninsula. In Siberian Asia they are centered in the basin of the Ob and Yenisey Rivers. Nenets also inhabit some Arctic Ocean islands, such as Novaya Zemlya. The Nenets were originally known to the Europeans as Samoyeds, but since the 1920s the name of a particular tribe (from the native n’enay nenyts, meaning genuine man), the Nenets, has been applied to all of them. Subgroups include the Enets (Entsy; Yenisey), Nganasans (Tavgi), and Selkup. Most of the Nenets’ homeland is the treeless plain known as the tundra. In the Ob region their domain extends to forested taiga. The Nenets are one of the many ethnic groups of the modern-day Russians (see Russians: nationality).

ORIGINS

It is thought that sometime before the 12th century C. E. the Nenets moved to northern and western Russia from somewhere to the south in siberia, perhaps eventually assimilating indigenous inhabitants of the region. On the basis of linguistic studies it is thought that the Nenets are distant relatives of the Finno-Ugrians.

LANGUAGE

The Nenets’ language, known as Samoyedic, is a branch of the Uralic language family; the other major branch is the Finno-Ugric. There are numerous samoyedic dialects. That of the Nenet proper, rich in ways of describing nature—such as weather conditions, properties of snow, as well as hunting, fishing, and reindeer breeding—has become a kind of lingua franca for northern peoples of Russia. (This is one possible mechanism for the emergence of the ancestral Uralic language: that it emerged as a lingua franca among peoples from Europe and Asia who had migrated north after the last Ice Age and mingled in the Ural region.) West of the Ural Mountains in the European north all the Nenets are bilingual, speaking Russian as well. The Nenets have traditionally used pic-tographic writing. In 1932 the Nenets written form, using the Bolshaya Zemlya dialect and the Latin alphabet, was established.

HISTORY

Established in their homeland by the 12th century the Nenets in northern Europe were forced to pay tribute to the Rus principality of Novgorod from the 13th to the 15th century Those in Asia also were forced to pay tribute to the Mongols and Tatars. By the end of the 16th century the Russians were expanding their domain, and by 1628 and the building of the Krasnoyarsk fortress on the Upper Yenisey River the various samoyed tribes were under Russian rule. The Nenets resisted outside control and attacked tax collectors traveling to the north country as well as Russian posts, including Pustozersk, the last time in 1746.

Early attempts by Russian Slavs to assimilate the Nenets had minimal success. Russian Orthodox Christianity was introduced in the 18th century In 1824 a Russian Orthodox Christian mission was built at Arkhangelsk at the mouth of the Dvina River on the White sea. some assimilation resulted from a growing dependency on Russian merchants for such goods as flour, sugar, tea, tobacco, gunpowder, and liquor. Some merchants, through exorbitant prices, made fortunes in furs, and Nenet families were sometimes ruined. In the 1870s the Russian government relocated Nenets for political reasons, for example, to Novaya Zemlya to prevent Norwegians from settling there.

During the soviet era collective farms were established among the Nenets, the first in 1929, to dispossess them of their traditional culture. In some areas the Soviets went so far as

Nenets time line

NENETS

Location:

Northern Russia

Time period:

12th century c. E. to present

Ancestry:

Samoyedic

Language:

Samoyedic (Uralic)

C. E.

12th century Nenets have settled in Russian north.

1628 Nenets under Russian rule

1824 Christian mission at Arkhangelsk

1929 First Soviet collective farm among Nenets

1957 Soviets institute program forcing education of Nenets youth at government-run boarding schools.

1991 Dissolution of Soviet Union (USSR) means greater independence for Nenets.

NERVII

Location:

Netherlands; Belgium; northern France

Time period:

First century b. c.e. to fifth century c. e.

Ancestry:

Celtic and Germanic

Language:

Gaulish (Celtic)

To murder shamans and destroy sacred sites. Some Nenets rebelled, attacking Russian settlements, such as Vorkuta in the northern Ural Mountains. Starting in the 1950s the Soviet government began merging the small collective farms and relocated many families, making it harder for the Nenets to maintain their traditional nomadic way of life. In 1957 the Soviets instituted a program of state-controlled sustenance, in which Nenets youth were in state custody from birth until the end of schooling. They were educated at government-run boarding schools and provided with food, clothing, schoolbooks, and transportation, thus weakening family ties and the ability to earn a traditional living. Reindeer herding was not discouraged, but it was regulated.

Another disruption to the Nenets’ way of life has been the industrialization of the north, especially by oil and gas companies, which has resulted in population increases among nonnatives and pollution of their homeland. The Russian north suffers from acid rain, which pollutes the moss and contaminates the human diet through reindeer meat. Nuclear testing on Novaya Zemlya has also created great health risk.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991 and creation of the Russian Federation meant greater independence for the Nenets and freedom of religion, yet their way of life is still under siege as their homelands are transformed. Unemployment has been a growing problem. The life expectancy of Nenets is only 45 to 50 years; alcoholism and suicide have taken their toll.

CULTURE

Economy

Traditional Nenets’ economy has revolved around reindeer herds, with a migratory pattern of traveling from coastal regions to the taiga in springtime, then returning in the autumn. Hunting and fishing supplement their diet. A typical herd for a family is 70 to 100 animals. Reindeers provide meat, lard, and blood for food; skins and leather for clothing, tents, harnesses, and lassos; tendons for thread; and horn for tools. In addition to breeding reindeer the Nenets have bred the Samoyed dog to help herd reindeer and pull sleds.

Government and Society

The family unit is the focus of Nenet society, with descent traced through the paternal line and women subordinate. Clans of related families maintain territories, which include common sacred grounds. Special family and clan signs called tamga are used to mark property Individuals must marry outside their clan.

Religion

The Nenets’ religion is shamanistic. There are several classes of shamans, with specialized abilities.

The total Nenets population is some 40,000 (with the Nenets proper making up about 80 percent). It is estimated that more than half of them still speak their native language, although it is in decline among young people. Reindeer herding is still central to the life of many Nenets. Nenets have one newspaper in their native language, Nyaryana Ngyrm (The Red North), published in Salekhard, the capital of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region in Asia.

Further Reading

P. Hajdu. The Samoyed Peoples and Languages (London: Taylor & Francis, 1997).

Gail Osherenko, and Andrei V Golonev. Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999).