National costume of the Kets. Kets - "Encyclopedia

Alexander Vladimirovich Dorozhkin (born 1958) ,
village Surgutikha (near the channel on the left bank of the Yenisei, near 64 ° N. latitude) ,
summer 2005. Photo: Research Computing Center MSU.lingsib.unesco.ru

Nina Kharlampyevna Tyganova (Baldina) (b. 1928) ,
village Kellogg (100 km west of the Yenisei, approx. 63 ° N. latitude) ,
summer 2005. Photo by the Research Computing Center of Moscow State University. lingsib.unesco.ru

Maria Baldina with her daughter Milana.
Kellogg village, Turukhansky district, Krasnoyarsk region,
summer 2003. Photo by Andrey Rudakov. agency.photographer.ru

Resident of the village of Surgutikha ,
summer 2001. Photo by Alexey Voevodin (Krasnoyarsk).
Photosight.ru

Area

The Kets live along the Yenisei, from about 61° north latitude. to the Arctic Circle. Along the Yenisei does not mean along the Yenisei. On the greatest river itself there are now very few Kets, whose life has long been based on Yenisei fishing. Three centuries ago, Russian colonization began to displace them from the “main” river, competing for the biological resources of the Yenisei. Those Kets who remained to live on the banks of the Yenisei are now very much Russified. “Real” Kets live in villages located mostly away from the Yenisei itself: in the lower reaches of its tributaries.

Natural environment of the Kets. Right bank of the Yenisei. Maduika River.
The area where the Yenisei River crosses the Arctic Circle .
Photo kureika-foto.narod.ru

Most of the Kets in Russia live in the Turukhansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The main Kets settlement is Kellogg (more than 200 Kets). There are chum salmon in the village. Maduika, Goroshikha, Baklanikha, Surgutikha, Vereshchagino, Verkhneimbatsk, Bakhta. In the early 90s, several dozen Kets moved to the regional center of Turukhansk (at the confluence of the Lower Tunguska with the Yenisei) and to a large village in the south of the Turukhansk region - Bor (near the confluence of the Podkamennaya Tunguska with the Yenisei).

Maduika is one of the northernmost habitats of the Kets, just north of the Arctic Circle, 50 km east of the Yenisei . On the Yenisei itself, at approximately this latitude, and by Siberian standards not far from here, is the famous Kureika, the place where in 1914-1916. J.V. Stalin was in exile.
Photo kureika-foto.narod.ru

The only village with a compactly living Ket population outside the Turukhansk district is Sulomai, located on the territory of the Evenki district on Podkamennaya Tunguska.

Some Kets live in Krasnoyarsk.

The majority of the chum salmon population is found only in the village. Kellogg, Maduika and Sulomai. These are “real” Ket villages.

The word comes from ket- Human. The name “chum salmon” has been established in the Russian language since the 20s of the twentieth century. Before this, the Kets were known under the names “Yenisei Ostyaks”, “Yenisei people”.

Fridtjof Nansen, who traveled along the Yenisei in 1913, in mid-September in the Russian village of Sumarokovo noted a mass of “Ostyaks” (Kets) with traditional, birch bark-covered ilimka boats. The natives stocked up on food and equipment here in preparation for the winter fishing season.

Modern Kets themselves more often call themselves keto, thereby solving the problem of forming a feminine ethnonym. Ethnographic dictionaries, however, the word keto interpreted as “local incorrect”.

Language

Ket language is isolated. It is not related to any language of neighboring peoples and, accordingly, is not included in any group of languages ​​of North Asia. This allows researchers and science fiction writers to build a wide variety of versions of the origin of the people.

The Ket language is taught in schools. Writing is based on Russian graphics. In the 80s, a primer and other manuals were created in Ket. In the early 90s, many teachers reacted to teaching the Ket language with great enthusiasm, hoping that the school would revive Ket children’s interest in their culture and help curb the process of ousting the Ket language from all spheres of communication. However, they were faced with harsh reality, and their enthusiasm gradually began to fade. ( indigenous.ru)

In fact, today no more than 150 people speak Ket. These are almost exclusively representatives of the older generation. The overwhelming majority of children and youth do not know the Ket language, except perhaps a few words. Moreover, all Kets speak Russian either as a native language or as a second language. Among the representatives of the older generation in the Yenisei villages, Kets-Selkup-Russian trilingualism is still common, and in the north you can also find Kets-Evenki-Russian trilingualism.

The village of Maduika, 130 km southeast of Igarka. North of the Ket range.
Photo kureika-foto.narod.ru

Some representatives of the middle generation use the Ket language when talking with older relatives and acquaintances, preferring to speak Russian among themselves; They switch to the Ket language only when they want to hide the content of the conversation from others, for example, from children. The Ket language is preserved somewhat better than in other places in Kellogg. However, the natural transmission of language within families from parents to children has been interrupted everywhere. This is not the first generation of parents, regardless of the degree of proficiency in the Ket language, who speak exclusively Russian with their children. (Laboratory of automated lexicographic systems of the Research Computing Center of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Boys speak Ket more willingly and more often than girls, and when hunting in the forest, chums of different ages communicate mainly in their native language.

Ket family. Sulomai. Photo: MSU Research Computing Center

In 1993, Ket-Russian and Russian-Ket dictionaries were published edited by Heinrich Kasparovich Werner, a Russian German from Taganrog, currently living in Bonn (Germany) and a leading expert on the Ket language. In 2000, textbooks by the same author for 2nd and 3rd grades were published in Ket. In the same year, a book for reading in the Ket language was published, edited by G.Kh. Nikolaeva, which included fairy tales, stories, and riddles of the Kets. ( L. Yu. Mayorova. Saint Petersburg)

According to the 2004 household register, 226 people live in Sulomai. Kets make up about 70% of the inhabitants, the rest of the population is predominantly Russian (at the same time, in mixed marriages, children are usually registered as Kets). 52% indicated Ket as their native language, and the answers were often accompanied by the following remarks: “So in general Ket, but I speak Russian”; “I don’t speak Russian, I speak Russian”; “I grew up here among the Ket people and consider myself a Ket, so my native language is Ket.” 39% of respondents consider Russian to be their native language: “I speak Russian more, my Russian is good”... (O.A. Kazakevich, I.V. Samarina and others. Ket project)

The Kets on the Yenisei and further south are almost Russian

The entire village of Bor is in a continuous birch forest on the left bank of the Yenisei. And on the right bank, three kilometers higher, at the confluence of the Podkamennaya Tunguska into the Yenisei, there is a village of the same name as the river - Podkamennaya Tunguska. There are seventeen Kets families (mixed marriages) in Bor. They look completely Russian, both anthropologically and ethnographically. Of course, they don’t know the language. “Grandmother knew” (from mother). (Hieromonk Arseny (Sokolov). Diary of a missionary. 1997//missia.orthodoxy.ru)

Capital

Kellogg is an almost purely Ket village, about 270 people, on the Eloguy River, more than 100 km from the mouth. The mouth of Eloguy is beyond Verkhneimbatsk. There is a Ket school in Kellogg. The delivery of food to Kellogg is now once a year, across high water, by boat. There is no air connection at all (previously, the Mi-8 flew on Thursdays), only there are flights from Turukhansk on medical calls. So it's almost impossible to get to Kellogg.

Sunflight to Kellogg in an hour. The helicopter is overloaded. Will they take it?

We took off from Turukhansk. An hour and a half - and a stop in Verkhneimbatsk. From Verkhneimbatsk - 35 minutes. We are in Kellogg, the “capital” of the Kets.

Through the porthole you could clearly see how the village was located. Log houses under slate and iron roofs along the calm Elogui River, framed by sandy banks. Children and adults flocked to the landing helicopter, most of them chum salmon.

Ket language teacher V.I. Bondareva is a mestizo, half Kette, half Russian. He takes us to the school director, a Ukrainian from Ternopil (her husband was a Ket). Warm welcome, tea with onion and dill.

School - junior high. There is a catastrophic shortage of teachers. Due to the conflict between visiting teachers from Ukraine and the local population, the former left. In addition, the school building itself burned down and was partially dismantled for firewood in the winter. Four workers came with us to finish building the school. Electricity (from local diesel) - several hours a day, from 18:00, many have televisions.

Like this. A German wrote a primer of the Ket language (co-authored with Ketka Nikolaeva). The Czechs come and study the Kets. Also Japanese. And we Russians only know how to sell vodka?

The dwellings of the Kets are generally very poor. They have two types of boats: ancient “branches”, like kayaks, and modern motor ones.

I recorded one girl on a tape recorder. She sang a Ket song about her homeland. Natasha, fair-haired, with gray eyes and covered in freckles. She sang long, mournfully. They say that in ancient times the chums were fair-haired and light-eyed and, in general, had a pronounced Caucasian racial type.

We met the so-called “leader,” Mikhail Mikhailovich Irikov, the grandson of the shaman. In the village everyone calls him Mishka the Shaman.

Ket Valentin (his Ket name is Pil) offered to ride on the national boat - the branch. The two-bladed oar and the dugout boat itself resemble a kayak. Unstable, but fast and very maneuverable.

The number 7 is sacred among the Kets. “Good,” as Valentina Ivanovna said. Perhaps this is due to mythological ideas about the seven stages of the universe.

Children from mixed marriages, as a rule, do not speak Ket and are averse to everything Ket. But they write Kets in their passports - for the sake of benefits. You can count purely Ket families on one hand. Although the Ket language is taught at school (grades 1-4), only ten percent of children speak Ket. Valentin-Pil said that his relatives kept what he called an “idol” wrapped “in a rag” that cannot be shown.

Ket language teacher V.I. Bondareva with students.
Photo mission.orthodoxy.ru

We went to the taiga to White Lake. There are a lot of mushrooms all around. The taiga is very rich in mushrooms, nuts, and berries. They say that the Kets have deer on Maduyka, and also near Igarka. The name "Igarka" comes from Igorka, this was allegedly the name of a certain chum who lived there with his family at the beginning of the century.

Keto woman. Photo mission.orthodoxy.ru

Currently, according to Valentina Ivanovna, there are about one hundred ketologists in the world. Soon there will be more than Kets... ( Hieromonk Arseny (Sokolov). Diary of a Missionary.1997)

Do Ket people need ketologists?

An electronic database on the Ket language is being created at Moscow State University. Its potential users are linguists, folklorists, ethnologists, cultural experts, and creators of textbooks for universities and schools.

Men of Sulomai . Photo: MSU Research Computing Center

But do Kets need a multimedia database? The most interesting thing is that it turns out that it is needed. In any case, this is the impression we got from communicating with the residents of Sulomai. The work of linguists in a linguistic community increases the prestige of the language among the majority of members of this community. To an even greater extent, increasing interest in the ethnic language, even among “languageless” youth, is facilitated by the combination of language with new, “fashionable” technologies - the computer and especially the Internet. Even if there is only one computer in the village, and there is no talk of any Internet access yet, the fact that the ethnic language is represented on the Internet becomes a source of positive emotions for young people, and there are not many such sources in the harsh life of northern villages . (O.A. Kazakevich, I.V. Samarina, etc.Ket project)

Neighbours

In the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska and along the lower reaches of the river. Bakhty was the border between the possessions of the Kets and Evenks. Legends about battles between them have been preserved. (SPNA of Russia)

Traditional farming

The main traditional activities of the Kets are hunting and fishing. The main object of hunting was the squirrel, less often the arctic fox.

Lower reaches of Podkamennaya Tunguska. The village of Sulomai. Descendants of the Kets, Russians, and perhaps even their former rivals - the Evenks. Photo: MSU Research Computing Center

Reindeer husbandry appeared late among the Kets; when the Russians arrived on the Yenisei, the bulk of them did not yet have reindeer. Deer were used exclusively for transport purposes and provided transportation during hunting, the main object of which was the squirrel. During a survey of the hunting and fishing industry of the Turukhansk region in 1973-1976. some groups of Kets still used reindeer sleds for hunting. By now, Ket reindeer husbandry has completely disappeared. The Kets lead a sedentary lifestyle and live among the Russian population. The differences in commercial environmental management between the Kets and the non-indigenous population are small, and the standard of living of Kets families is much lower. Subsistence farming, which is now an important support for residents of taiga villages, is poorly developed among the Kets.

During the years of reforms, there was a significant outflow of the non-indigenous population from Ket villages, and the disruption of transport links increased their isolation. This slowed down the pace of assimilation and created additional preconditions for the formation of national identity. However, in order for them to be realized, guarantees of the rights of the indigenous population to the territory they occupy and its resources are necessary. (K.B. Klokov, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Geography of Society and Regional Policy, Research Institute of Geography, St. Petersburg State University//rangifer.org)

I live in Goroshikha. There are six children in our family. My mother is Evenk, my father is keto. The village is located on the banks of the Yenisei, just south of the Arctic Circle. Only 140 people live, of which 57 are Kets - almost half. There are few representatives of other indigenous peoples: Evenks - four, Selkups - three.

I have many relatives in Goroshikha, but not all of them live in the forest, like our ancestors. Over the previous 50 years, almost all indigenous peoples were accustomed to living in the village, and even their children were raised in a boarding school rather than in a family. Therefore, parents did not pass on to their children what their mothers and fathers knew.

Some of my relatives, boarding school students, hunt, fish and live permanently in the taiga. Parents help their children with parcels of fish and sometimes money. Money in their family can only come from the amount of furs, fish, and berries sold. But children need a father and mother, alive and always nearby.

Yura Sutlin (keto) makes fishing tackle from twigs. Kellogg village. July 1, 2003. Photo by Andrey Rudakov.
agency.photographer.ru

In addition to my uncles, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Tyganov constantly lives in the forest. He comes to the village only for groceries. This is how chum salmon live in my village of Goroshikha. ( Nadezhda Peshkina. indigenous.ru)

Fish always accompanies chum salmon.
Photo kureika-foto.narod.ru

Nutrition problems

Two enemies of the Kets in Kellogg: alcoholism and hunger. One of the residents of Bor says: “We come to them, go into one of their houses. Several people with children are sitting. On the floor there is a bottle of alcohol and a pike. Everyone eats pike and drinks alcohol.” ( Hieromonk Arseny (Sokolov). Diary of a missionary. 1997)

April 17, 2001 Raw brown bear meat caused the poisoning of 13 residents of the village of Kellogg, Turukhansk district. All victims were taken by helicopter to the regional hospital. Everyone fell ill after eating stroganina made from the frozen meat of three bears killed in the taiga at the end of March. (newcanada.com)

I come from the Ket village of Maduika, where about a hundred people live. Children in unemployed national families are malnourished, sick, and cannot go to study outside the region. (Ekaterina Dibikova. indigenous.ru)

Natural resource holiday

On May 28, 2005, on the initiative of the regional Ket Association (president Oksana Sinnikova), the Eloguy River Festival was held in the Ket capital of Kellogg. In May, it opens, and among the Kets there is a belief that the way you greet the river during awakening from hibernation determines its favor towards its human neighbors.

Sulomai- a village in Evenkia, in the lower reaches of Podkamennaya Tunguska, practically rebuilt after the old Sulomai was demolished by the ice drift of 2001: ice floes rammed and crushed buildings .
Photo: MSU Research Computing Center
The simplest solution to Sulomai's problem would be to simply move the people to another place. However, Sulomai is a historical Keto settlement. On foreign territory, in unusual conditions, they would hardly be able to survive. A compromise decision was made: Sulomai would still exist, but now it would be located further away from the river.
Sulomai is apparently the second largest Kets settlement in Russia, Kets Petersburg (if Kellogg is the capital). The word “Sulomai” (in Ket Sulemkhai) means “red mountain”.

The holiday began with a greeting to the small river Eloguy, which at all times remains the breadwinner of the population of the village.

The shore is thin, like braid. The boats have a strong stern.
I throw nets into the water, the fish catches itself.
In my boat, every day, taimen glistens with scales
And there are whitefish in abundance. Choose if you are not too lazy!
The catch for lunch is rich, there are no words for delight,
The Yelogui River has become quiet and has no steep banks.
Oh, dear river, you must understand me.
Where can I find a net to catch the lucky ones?

During the greeting, elders Nina Kharlampyevna Tyganova, Ulyana Prokopyevna Kotusova, Klavdiya Kharlampyevna Baldina (born 1928-1929) “fed” Eloguy fish soup and bread. (News of RAIPON and Far East of the Russian Federation)

Connection

Having purchased a batch of American-made ground satellite communication stations, specialists from the Krasnoyarsk Design Bureau Iskra will complete the installation of telephones in 20 remote villages of the Krasnoyarsk Territory by the end of this year. The first such phones will appear in the villages of the Turukhansky district of Surgutikha, Bakhta and Kellogg, where representatives of the smallest indigenous Siberian Keto people live compactly. (SibFO. 11/13/2003)

On the territory of the former Baikitsky district of the former Evenki Autonomous Okrug, abolished in 2007.

The word "Ostyak", applied mainly to the Khanty, but sometimes extended to the Kets, is generally speaking somewhat offensive. It supposedly comes from the Tatar ushtyak- barbarian, wild. The Russians adopted this ethnonym from the Siberian Tatars without thinking about its meaning. In Soviet times, they tried to eradicate “offensive” ethnonyms and replace them with self-names of peoples. There is, however, evidence that some Kets themselves continue to call themselves and their fellow tribesmen Ostyaks ( cooled down).

Chum salmon- one of the smallest nationalities of the Siberian North. According to the 1959 census, there are 1017 people (Results of the All-Union Census, 1963, p. 302).

They are settled in the northern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (Fig. 1). Most of the Kets are concentrated in the Turukhansk region. There they are located in compact groups along the tributaries of the Yenisei - Elogaya, Surgutikha, Pakulikha and Kureyka. The center of the Eloguy Kets is the village. Kellogg, Surgutinsky - Surgutikha, Kureysky - Serkovo. Separate families of Kets also live among the Russian population in many Yenisei villages of the Turukhansky region (Vorogovo, Sumarokovo, Bakhta, Lebed, Mirnoye, Kangatovo, Alinskoye, Vereshchagino, etc.). The Iodkamenno-Tungus group (the central estate is the village of Sulomai), according to the modern administrative division, is part of the Baykitsky district of the Evenki National District. Several families live in the Yenisei (village of Yartsevo) and Igarsk districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Thus, individual ethnic groups are located at a considerable distance from each other; the northern Kets (Kurean) are located more than one and a half thousand kilometers from their southern fellow tribesmen.

Most of the territory where the chum salmon live is part of the taiga zone. The left bank areas and the southern part of the right bank are replete with mixed coniferous forests (cedar, spruce, larch), which are valuable hunting grounds. In the northern part of the region, the taiga gives way to forest-tundra and tundra. The Yenisei is the main connecting artery of the region, and the rivers Podkamennaya Tunguska, Elogui, Bakhta, Surgutikha, Pakulikha, along with large lakes (Nalimye, Munduyskoye, etc.) are the main fishing reservoirs.

The name "ket" comes from the word ket - "man". It has been established in the Russian language since the 20s of the current century. Before this, the Kets were known under the names “Ostyaks”, “Yenisei Ostyaks”, “Yeniseis”. The Kets were called Ostyaks by Russian servicemen in the 17th century. by analogy with the Ugric-speaking Ob Ostyaks - Khanty. The same name was given to the Samoyed-speaking Selkups (who were also called Ostyak-Samoyeds in the scientific literature). Such a spread of one ethnic term to three different peoples caused confusion in the scientific literature and interfered with practical work on the ground (Tugarinov, 1927, p. 5; Dolgikh, 1934, pp. 41, 42). Currently, the old ethnonym - Cooled - is preserved as a self-name among some older people, while the vast majority of them call themselves Kets.

Depending on their place of residence in relation to the flow of the Yenisei, the Kets call themselves “Nizovsky” (pgyuyrets) and “Verkhovsky” (Uterets). In addition, individual groups are called by their fellow tribesmen by the name of the river near which they live: kol'ldets (Stone Tunguska), tsymydets (Surgutinsky), elukdets (Eloguysky), etc. The first component in such names is the proper name of the river, the second - the word dets - “people”. The names could also reflect any natural features of the place of residence of this group: kas” dets - “living on the sand”, shbatsdets - “living on the ravine”. In addition, chum salmon at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. distinguished in their midst “coastal” (who lived permanently on the coast of the Yenisei) and “forest” (located mainly in remote areas).

The neighbors of the Kets in the territory of their modern settlement have long been the Russians, as well as the indigenous population of the Yenisei North - the Selkups, Entsy, Nenets, Evenks. The Kets have names for all of them. The Russian Kets are called kyn "s' and syran (the latter term is characteristic of the descendants of the Sym Kets), the Selkups - lak (singular), lagen, l"agyn (plural). The Evenks are known to the Kets under the names khsemgan (plural), fomban (symbolic); they were also called tshs"dets - "stone people".

For the Nenets there was the name dyuydets and dy (Dolgikh, 1934, p. 41), and the Kets, who lived in close proximity to the Selkups (modern Surgutin and Pakulinsky), borrowed from the latter their name for the Nenets: kselets (kylyk). There is reason to believe that the Kets also called the Entsy by their first name (duuyden). The similarity of the language and material culture of both peoples, as well as the nature of the relationship (both acted as enemies of the Kets) could have led to a common name for them. Modern Surgut and Eloguy Kets, who maintain contact with the indigenous population of the upper reaches of the Taz (Selkups, Evenks), are familiar with the neighbors of the latter - the Khanty. The name of the Khanty among the Kets is Latsa, apparently of Selkup origin.

The Ket language occupies an isolated position and is not included in any related group of languages ​​of North Asia.

It is of the agglutinative-affix type with a weak manifestation of internal inflection. The uniqueness of the language lies in the fact that word formation and form formation in it occur not through any one method of affixation (suffixes, prefixes or infixes), but almost equally in all three ways. Another feature of the Ket language, noted by linguists since M.A. Castren, but studied in detail only recently, is the way of expressing grammatical gender in the form of three nominal classes - masculine, feminine and the class of things. Finally, it is worth noting the third feature of the language: the exceptional variety of verbal forms (Dulzon, 1962d; Kreinovich, 1961, 1963a).

M.A. Castren identified two dialects in the Ket language (Imbat and Sym), which differ significantly from each other in the field of phonetics, morphology and vocabulary (Castren, 1858). This classification has not lost its meaning to this day. Modern linguistic studies claim that the vast majority of Kets currently speak the Imbat dialect, which is divided into dialects depending on the place of residence of their speakers (the dialect of the Kurey, Eloguy, Surgutin and other groups). The Sym dialect is preserved among a very small number of Kets (the villages of Yartsevo and Vorogovo). Linguists have noted the intense mixing of various dialects within territorial groups, caused by significant movements of families and individuals over recent decades (Dulzon, 1964b; Werner, 1966c).

According to the 1959 census, 786 people named the Ket language as their native language (Results of the All-Union Census, 1963, p. 302). Most Kets speak Russian well, many also know Selkup and Evenki.

Chums have long attracted the attention of a wide range of scientists. Interest in the Ket problem is primarily due to the peculiarities of the language and its isolated position. Many hypotheses have been put forward about the origin of the people. Initially, ethno-genetic theories were built exclusively on linguistic material. Much later, ethnographic data began to be analyzed. And only very recently have attempts been made to comprehensively study the problem with the involvement of anthropology, archeology, and toponymy. This process of gradual expansion of sources is clearly visible during a chronological comparison of scientific literature.

Below is a brief overview of the sources and history of the study of the Kets.

The earliest sources are official historical documents of the 17th century, the period of penetration and establishment of Russians in the territory inhabited by the ancestors of the Kets: replies from voivodeship offices, yasak statements, reports, letters, etc. With the appearance of churches in Russian villages and the beginning of the baptism of the indigenous population, church sources became such sources documents (parish books, etc.). These materials contain information about the settlement, numbers, generic and territorial names of individual groups, relationships with other peoples and ethnic groups. They are of great importance for the study of tribal culture, exogamy and other aspects of the social life of the people.

Siberian peoples have been the subject of special study since the beginning of the 18th century. Among the first travelers sent by Peter the Great for the natural history study of Siberia was D. G. Messerschmidt, who, in particular, traveled from Yeniseisk to Turukhansk and collected information (ethnographic and linguistic) about the Kets who lived in the early 20s of the XVIII century. V. in the area of ​​the Eloguya and Bakhta rivers, as well as about the southern Ket (Yenisei) groups. During the scientist’s lifetime, these materials did not see the light of day, but subsequently extracts from his diaries were included in the work of P. S. Pallas (Pallas, 1782) and published by I. Klaproth (1823) and V. V. Radlov (1888). Currently, the Academy of Sciences of the GDR is carrying out a complete publication of the materials of D. G. Messerschmidt (Messerschmidt, 1964). It is assumed, however, that some of his linguistic records, including those for Ket dialects, remain unidentified (Vdovin, 1954, p. 14; Dulzon, 1961a, p. 153).

Together with Messerschmidt as his assistant, F.I. Tabbert (Stralenberg) traveled to Siberia, who published information about the peoples of Siberia, including the southern Ket-speaking groups (Kotts, Arins), dating back to the early 20s of the 18th century. (Stralenberg, 1730).

Valuable ethnographic data about the Kotts, Arins and the Turkic-speaking Kachins, who are close to them in their cultural, everyday and economic way of life, contain “fairy tales” of service people of the Krasnoyarsk Voivodeship Office, compiled in response to the well-known questionnaire of V.N. Tatishchev. These materials are of exceptional comparative historical interest for the study of the Kets. 17

The most significant source of historical and ethnographic research of the Siberian peoples of the 18th century. (and among them the Kets) is numerous information collected by G. F. Miller, a participant in the 2nd Kamchatka expedition of Bering (1733-1743). 18 In addition to his own observations and survey information, Miller’s materials (his “portfolios”) include various documents extracted by the scientist from the archives of Siberian cities, including Krasnoyarsk, Yeniseisk, etc. A large place in Miller’s research was occupied by the work of compiling the so-called vocabulary , dictionaries of the Siberian peoples, among them Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak), Kott, Asanek and Arin. The comparative nature of the construction ensured the special significance of these sources for the study of a language whose speakers (South Siberian groups) had already dissolved in the foreign language environment by the beginning of the last century.

In the middle of the 18th century. In Germany, an essay by another participant in the 2nd Kamchatka expedition, I. G. Gmelin (Gmelin, 1751-1752), was published. Based on the similarity of the language of the latter with the dialects of the “Krasnoyarsk Tatars” - Asans, Kotovts Kotts) and Arins, Gmelin expresses a position about the kinship of these groups.

Historical and, most importantly, linguistic materials of G. F. Miller were used by his contemporary and accomplice in the expedition, historian I. Fischer. He is responsible, in particular, for the substantiation of the special ethnic place of the Kets among other peoples called Ostyaks (modern Khanty, Mansi, Selkups), and their kinship with the Ket-speaking Arins, Kotts, Asans, as well as the mixed Koibals (Fisher, 1774).

Sources of the second half and end of the 18th century. are the famous works of participants in the academic expedition of 1768-1774. P.-S. Dallas (1787, 1788) and I. G. Georgi (1799).

The comparative dictionaries of L.-S. have become widely known. Dallas. The Ket language proper (the language of the Inbak) is correctly combined in them with the language of the Asans, Kotovts, and Pumpokols (the Ket population of the upper Ket; see below), but is assigned to the Samoyed group. Georgi repeats Gmelin’s data on the similarity of the Kets language with the South Siberian groups, notes the similarity of the economic and cultural-lifestyle of the Yenisei and Ob Ostyaks (Ugrians - E.A.), speaks of the blacksmithing skills of the Kets, etc.

Thus, the early sources form extensive material for studying the past of the Kets.

The above material, which has largely already been identified and studied by Soviet scientists, is of great interest and awaits further comparative analysis with the data of modern Ket ethnography.

The beginning of the scientific study of the history and language of the Kets and the first ethnogenetic hypotheses was the 19th century. Already in the first half of the 18th century. (1823-1831) the governor of the newly formed Yenisei province A., P. Stepanov, carried out a detailed description of the province. In the second part of the essay, a special ethnographic section about the peoples inhabiting it is highlighted.

Using historical and linguistic data from his predecessors (Stralenberg, Fischer, Spassky), Stepanov emphasizes the linguistic specificity of the Yenisei Ostyak-Kets among the neighboring population of Western Siberia and puts forward a hypothesis about their Uyghur origin. To prove his theory, Stepanov cites a legend he recorded about the advance of the Kets from the west to the river. Taz: “from sunset to the east” (1835, p. 41). The work names four Kets volosts, as well as clan divisions of the Sym group. In addition, Stepanov (though in a very general form) speaks about the economic and everyday life of the Kets of that time, wedding rituals, clothing, etc. Despite the small number, these data are of undoubted historical interest. Some of them were later repeated in publications that appeared in the second half and end of the 19th century, in particular in the famous book by M. F. Krivoshapkin.

Before moving on to these works, let us dwell on the characteristics of the scientific activity and its role in studying the past of the Kets by the well-known Finnish scientist M.A. Kastrena.

For several years (1845-1849), Castrén collected materials on a number of northern and southern Siberian peoples. For about two years, the scientist was in close proximity to Turukhansk and worked among the Kets in the villages of Antsiferovo, Nazimovo, Bakhta and Verkhne-Imbatsky. In Southern Siberia, Castren's special attention was attracted by the population of the Agul ulus (on a tributary of the Kan), where he was able to identify several people who spoke Kott.

Extensive material allowed Castren to prepare the first (and for a long time - the only) grammar and dictionary of the Ket language, a dictionary and grammatical outline of the Kott language, as well as a comparative Ket-Kott dictionary, published posthumously by A. Schiffner (Castren, 1858).

Since the time of Castren, two main dialects of the Kets have become known - Sym and Imbat; Modern linguists adhere to the same classification. Castrén used linguistic material, supplemented by folklore and historical data, to substantiate the southern origin of the Turukhansk Kets and their relationship with the South Siberian Arins, Kotts, and Asans (1860, p. 362). For the first time, a clearly formulated hypothesis about the southern origin of the Kets became fundamental for subsequent researchers for many years and, in its general form, retains its significance to the present day. Castrén’s position on the inflectional nature of the Ket language also became famous (ibid., p. 361).

We can confidently admit that it was from the time of Castrén that the problem of genetic connections of the Ket language, as well as Ket ethnogenesis in general, began to attract special attention from scientists - historians and linguists. Moreover, Castren’s material has long remained the main source for constructing these hypotheses.

In the second half and end of the 19th century. Several works on the Yenisei North were published. Among them, noteworthy books by I. A. Kostrov (1857), A. Mordvinov (1860), M. F. Krivoshapkin (1865), P. I. Tretyakov (1869), A. F. Middendorf (1869), N. V. Latkina (1892). Of particular value are materials that are the result of personal observations of the authors. M. F. Krivoshapkin, for example, has interesting detailed descriptions of some Ket tools and processes for processing leather, birch bark, making a dugout boat, etc. Information about clothing, rituals (Krivoshapkin, Latkin, Tretyakov), family relationships ( Krivoshapkin, Tretyakov) are interesting, despite their brevity, for comparison with later ethnographic data. Publications by Kostrov, Tretyakov and Middendorf also include some language materials (records of Ket words and expressions, numerals). Middendorf, Krivoshapkin and Tretyakov write about appalling poverty, starvation and extinction of entire families, and the arbitrariness of local merchants towards them.

The beginning of a special ethnographic study of the Kets dates back to the first years of the 20th century. and is associated with the activities of the Russian Committee for the Study of Central and East Asia, formed in 1902. On behalf of the committee, V.I. Anuchin was sent to the Kets, who for several years (1905-1908) was engaged in collecting ethnographic, linguistic and anthropological material.

Anuchin also collected large in quantity and variety of artifacts and illustrative collections, which formed the basis of the Ket collections of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great (Leningrad). 2®

The most famous was the first special ethnographic work in literature - “Essay on shamanism among the Yenisei Ostyaks” (Anuchin, 1914). However, the extensive material published in the book goes far beyond the boundaries of not only shamanic ideas, but also religious ideology in general. To this day, Anuchin’s well-illustrated publication remains an important source for studying the Kets’ worldview and folk art; it also contains valuable information characterizing other aspects of the life of the people. The disadvantage of the work is a certain artificiality of the hierarchical placement of characters in the supernatural world; Anuchin's statements about the absence of a complex of ritual actions among the Kets on the occasion of the hunt for a bear ("bear-bear festival"), the birth of children, the veneration of deceased ancestors and some other points turned out to be erroneous.

The remaining ethnographic and anthropological materials of V. I. Anuchin are known from the essay by N. A. Sinelnikov (1911). In addition, Anuchin recorded over twenty rolls of phonograms of shamanic songs. Judging by the reports, he also collected significant textual and dictionary materials.

Interest in the problem of the origin of the Kets in connection with the peculiarities of their language, which arose since the time of Castrén, has not waned in the first decade of our century. In 1907, an article by G. Ramstedt appeared (Ramstedt, 1907), which talks about the relationship between the Ket language and the languages ​​of the peoples of Southeast Asia (Tibetan, Burmese). However, the hypothesis is based only on a small number of examples of vocabulary similarity without any comparison of grammatical structure.

The same point of view was shared by the Finnish researcher K. Donner (Donner, 1916-1920, 1930), who compared the Ket vocabulary material with the Tibetan and Indo-Chinese languages, as well as with languages ​​known from manuscripts discovered by P.K. Kozlov in the Tangut city of Khara -Khoto. During a trip to the Yenisei North (1911-1913), Donner collected significant material on Ket ethnography and linguistics. Ethnographic information is presented in a special work, prepared primarily from the report and drawings of the chum I.F. Dibikov (Kukushkin) and supplemented by the author’s personal observations (Donner, 1933).

It should be especially noted that Donner, characterizing one or another form of life, economic activity or customs of the Kets, provides comparative Selkup material.

K. Donner's research in the field of the Ket language (study of grammatical structure, phonetics, vocabulary) was a continuation and addition to the research of M. A. Castren.

The Kets were among those peoples who, immediately after the victory of the socialist revolution in the North, attracted the attention of Soviet scientists.

In 1921, an expedition led by A. Ya. Tugarinov worked on Podkamennaya Tunguska. Its goal is a comprehensive study of the river and the surrounding area. The expedition, in particular, discovered the first Neolithic site near the village. Podkamennaya Tunguska. 82 An anthropological examination of 54 Kets was also carried out (Tugarinov, 1924).

In 1925, G. N. Prokofiev studied the northern Selkups. Along the way, he also collected Ket material, which was included as comparative material in an article on the Selkups (Prokofiev, 1928; Bogoraz, 1928a). G. N. Prokofiev notes the great commonality in culture, economic and everyday life, social system and ideology of the Kets and Selkups. He also came up with a hypothesis about two groups of aboriginal tribes (Tyan and Kup), which the Sayan Samoyed tribes encountered in their advance to the north. The eastern group (chan), according to G.N. Prokofiev, is reflected in the Ket word dets - “people” (Prokofiev, 1940).

One of the first Soviet experts on chum salmon was N.K. Karger. In 1928, on instructions from the Academy of Sciences, he went to the Turukhansky region. The purpose of his trip was to study the ethnography, language, economic and cultural situation of the Kets. The collected linguistic material gave him the opportunity to compose a short outline of the grammar of the Ket language, as well as prepare an primer (Karger, 1934). N.K. Karger also produced significant phonographic recordings, including songs and shamanic rituals (Dulzon, 19646, p. 6). He also wrote a detailed article on Ket reindeer husbandry, in which, in addition to characterizing the system and the state of this sector of the economy, practical recommendations were given (Karger, 1930).

Unfortunately, N. C. Carter's other ethnographic materials remain unknown. But the fact that he was a deep and knowledgeable researcher is evidenced by his very complete artifact and illustrative collections stored in the MAE. 83 These collections are one of the main museum sources for everyone who studies the ethnography of the Kets.

Materials by N.K. Karger were used by V.G. Bogoraz and included in an article dedicated to the memory of M.A. Castren. Characterizing the significance of Castren's materials for identifying the South Siberian connections of the Kets, V. G. Bogoraz also names a possible path of advancement (the Ket River is a coincidence of the hydronym and the name of the people). V. G. Bogoraz connects the Kets with the Dinlins based on the self-name Deng (ding) - “people” (1927a, p. 94). The Dinlin theory of the origin of the Kets, known from earlier works (Deniker, 1902; Grum-Grzhimailo, 1909, 1926) and supported by V.G. Bogoraz, still appears in the studies of individual specialists (see below).

For a year and a half (1927-1928), the ethnographer X. Findeisen, sent by the Berlin Museum of Ethnic Studies, worked in the Turukhansk region. He collected mainly ethnographic and some dictionary material, which was subsequently published in a number of articles (Findeisen, 1929a, 19296, 1931, 1937 1938, 1940, 1941). Findeisen rightly raised the question of the need for complex (linguistic, ethnographic and anthropological) material for the study of Ket ethnogenesis (Findeisen, 1929, p. 126).

Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, G. M. Korsakov was engaged in an ethnographic survey of the Sub-Stone Tungus group. The result of his field work (summer and autumn 1938) was the article “Chum salmon of the Podkamennaya Tunguska”. Korsakov died during the siege of Leningrad, and his publication appeared in 1941 only in the advance copy of the magazine “Soviet North” and, thus, remained inaccessible to a wide range of readers. Meanwhile, Korsakov’s materials are of great interest, and the article represents the first attempt at an ethnographic essay on an isolated group. The most valuable is Korsakov's information on issues of the social system (tribal composition, remnants of clan relations in production and distribution) and especially the first data on the kinship system in Ket ethnography. It is also known that G. M. Korsakov had significant linguistic material at his disposal. Unfortunately, the scientist’s archive has not been found.

Some information about the Stone-Tungus Kets was incidentally collected in 1938 by the researcher of the Samoyed peoples G.D. Verbov.

The linguistic study of the Ket in the pre-war decade is represented by an article by E. Lewy, in which he develops the position of Sino-Tibetan and Ket language parallels (Lewy, 1933), as well as the first work by K. Bouda on the Ket language (Bouda, 1937). N. Ya. Marr brought the Ket language closer to the languages ​​of the Japhetic group (1926).

A major role in the study of Ket history and ethnography belongs to the Soviet researcher of the peoples of the North B. O. Dolgikh,

The beginning of his activities dates back to 1926-1927, when B. O. Dolgikh took part in the preparation and conduct of a census among the indigenous population of the Turukhansk region. Census materials and personal observations, supplemented by ethnographic and historical data, served as the basis for the first consolidated work on the Kets, published in 1934. The book presents a large amount of statistical material on individual groups, characterizing the economic and everyday situation of the people at the beginning of socialist reconstruction. This data is preceded by a historical sketch and some general information (names, numbers, clan composition, position among other peoples, etc.). During subsequent field work (late 40s), as well as many years of studying archival sources, Dolgikh collected very extensive and valuable material on the history and ethnography of the Kets. The result of the work was publications devoted to individual elements of the material culture, ideology and social structure of the people (Dolgikh, 1950, 1952a, 19526, 1961). All of them are distinguished by the wide use of comparative material and the ethnogenetic aspect of the study.

Ket material was also used by B. O. Dolgikh in a number of works on general problems of ethnography and history of the indigenous population of the North (1949a, 19496, 1952c, I960). Particularly noteworthy is the large role of the Dolgikhs in the development of one of the most difficult issues - the tribal structure and social history of the Ket people. B. O. Dolgikh continues to work on this topic to this day.

In 1948 and 1949 S. I. Vainshtein collected ethnographic material from the Stone-Tungus Kets. Subsequently, he published a number of articles on traditional and modern culture (Weinstein, 1951a, 19516, 1954), and also prepared an ethnographic essay about this group of people. Weinstein drew on Ket parallels during his historical and ethnographic research of other peoples, in particular the Tuvans (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964).

In an article on Kets ethnogenesis (19516), Weinstein clarifies the theory about the southern origin of the Kets, known since the time of Castren, and, just as G.N. Prokofiev did for the Samoyeds, identifies in the Kets, in addition to the southern, alien component (according to them, L.I. Vainshtein, there could be Tagar tribes of the middle Yenisei - Dinlins), an aboriginal layer of unknown ethnicity.

The last decade has been marked by a sharply increased scientific interest in the Ket problem in our country and abroad, as well as the accumulation of new materials on ethnography, language, and anthropology. For the first time, an archaeological survey of the territory of modern settlement of the Kets was started. New materials for studying the past of the Kets have also been introduced into scientific circulation - toponymic data.

A prominent role here belongs to the prominent Soviet scientist, linguist and archaeologist A.P. Dulzon. He has been studying the Ket language since the late 40s. As a result of many years of field work among all groups of Kets, Dulzon and the expedition members led by him collected a very large grammatical, lexical, vocabulary and text material. This allowed Dulzon to publish a number of articles (1957, 1962d) and prepare the first generalizing monograph in science - “Essays on the Grammar of the Ket Language”, the first part of which was published in 1964. 40

The publication of Ket fairy tales by A.P. Dulzon serves as the main source for the study of Ket folklore (1962zh, 1964a, 19646, 1966a, 19666).

The publication by A.P. Dulzon of dictionary materials on Ket dialects from sources of the 18th century is of great importance both for the linguistic and historical ethnographic study of the Ket. (1961a). The author supplements the historical records with data from modern dialects (Eloguy and Kurei). Dulzon also identified phonetic and morphological features and similarities of these adverbs (1962c).

With exhaustive completeness, A.P. Dulzon recorded the terminology of kinship and property among the Kets, which resulted in a special work on this topic (1959a).

Knowledge of the living Ket language allowed the scientist to use very important material - toponymic data. For the Kets, this is of particular importance, since all other sources about the distant past of this people are extremely scarce. Dulzon developed a convincing method for the etymological analysis of Ket hydronyms, which allowed him to identify Ket toponyms in a very wide area unknown from written sources (Tom basin, upper reaches of the Irtysh, Middle Ob, Khakassia Northern Tuva), as well as express a number of interesting considerations about the direction and possible chronology migrations.

A lot of work in the field of Ket linguistics has been done in recent years by the researcher of the Yukaghir language E.A. Kreinovich. The result of many months of work over several field seasons were articles by E. A. Kreinovich, where such features of the Ket language as “nominal classes” and “classes of things” (expression of the category inanimate, the structure of the Ket verb, etc.) were carefully studied (1961, 1963a, 19636, 19b5). Kreinovich also has extensive lexical and textual material. Currently, he has prepared a general monograph on the verb, the most complex and diverse element of Ket morphology.

In recent years, G. K. Werner (1965, 1966a-1966c) has been studying the sound system of the Sym dialect of the Ket language. Particular interest in the Sym dialect is due to the fact that it forms a kind of transitional stage from the modern language of the Ket (Imbat dialects) to the extinct dialects, as well as the fact that among its speakers, the Russified Sym Ket, there are only a few people left who speak the language.

V.V. Ivanov and V.N. Toporov (1964) made an attempt to restore elements of the ancient Proto-Yenisei language and culture of the Kets’ ancestors, as well as to identify their connections with other cultures. They also developed the reconstruction of the Ket epic and mythology using the method of semiotics (Ivanov and Toporov, 1962a, 1962b). These certainly very interesting undertakings, presented so far in the most general form, require further study.

The attention of foreign linguists has recently been especially attracted to the identification of vocabulary similarities between the language of the Kets and other groups of peoples. Here we should mention the study of K. Bouda, where, in addition to a grammatical sketch of the Ket language, vocabulary parallels from the Samoyed, Finno-Ugric, Evenki and Russian languages ​​are given (Bouda, 1957). K. Bouda also discovers 13 words related to Ket (Kott) in the Nivkh language

L. Ligeti (1950), A. Joki (1946), and P. Hajdu also studied the ancient Ket-Samoyedic language connections. The latter also tries to determine the place and time of interaction between peoples: the Irtysh and the territory to the east and southeast of it, II century. BC e.—II century n. e. (Hajdu, 1953).

Linguistic materials, and above all vocabulary similarities, continue to serve as the basis for theories about the ancient genetic and historical-cultural connections of the Kets. N. Collins sees in the Kets a remnant of the ancient Tibetan population, from which the North American Athabascan Indians descended (Collins, 1954). O. Thayer came up with a hypothesis about the relationship of the Ket language with Basque and Iberian-Caucasian (Tailleur, 1957). Finally, it was suggested that the language of the ancient Huns was close to Ket. The author of the theory, the English scientist E.I. Pulleyblank, builds it on the similarity of several Hunnic words known from Chinese sources with Ket ones (Pulleyblank, 1963).

Among the ethnographic works of modern foreign scientists, one should mention the publication of the researcher of ancient fishing beliefs N.-I. R. Paproth about the bear festival among the Kets (Paproth, 1962).

In recent years, anthropological surveys of the people have made dramatic progress. The peculiarity of the external appearance of the Kets in comparison with the neighboring indigenous population - greater Caucasianity, similarity with American Indians - has been repeatedly noted in the literature (Kastrain, 1860; Mordvinov, 1860; Prokofiev, 1928; Findeisen, 1929; Dolgikh, 1934). The same characteristic (Americanoid strongly mixed with Mongoloid and Caucasoid) was proposed by G. f. Debets, who examined 79 Eloguy Kets in 1941 (1947).

The study of the peoples of Siberia and the accumulation of new data on the Kets made it possible to clarify both the very concept of Americanoidness and the anthropological characteristics of the people being studied.

The first craniological material (4 skulls) was obtained in the late 40s by D. M. Kogan and S. I. Weinstein. Further accumulation of anthropological material dates back to the 60s. In 1960, I. I. Gokhman collected a craniological series of 20 skulls, as well as data on the distribution of blood groups among the Eloguy Kets according to the ABO and MN systems. I. I. Gokhman classifies the Kets as a Ural anthropological type, although he admits that their ancestors could have had a different set of characteristics (1963). The features of the Ural type may have developed over the course of two or three centuries in the process of mixing with the Samoyed peoples, and above all with the Selkups. A comparison of Ket, Selkup and Nenets skulls reveals great similarities between them. It should also be noted the craniological similarity of the Kets with the Khanty and Khakass-Beltirs (ibid., pp. 110-112).

In 1965, the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences organized a detachment for an anthropological survey of the Russian and indigenous (primarily Ket) population of the Yenisei and Turukhansk regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The program of work, in addition to anthropological characteristics, included the study of a number of blood groups and factors, measurement of blood pressure, collection of data on palm and finger patterns, etc. The expedition worked in almost all points where there is a Ket population (with the exception of the villages of Serkovo and Munduysky lakes), and examined 256 people. The collected materials are currently in the process of scientific processing. According to preliminary data, differences are emerging between the northern and southern chets. The latter form a local group that genetically gravitates towards some South Siberian peoples. The northern Kets are more similar to the Selkups. In 1967, the detachment examined the remaining groups.

In 1958, R.V. Nikolaev conducted the first special archaeological survey (route reconnaissance) of the Turukhansk region. Before that, only random objects came from the indicated territory (Nikolaev, 1960a).

The ancient settlement of the Lower Yenisei is evidenced by the discovery of a stone scraper of the Upper Paleolithic type (Sukhaya Tunguska). The Neolithic is represented by stone tools from the sites of Serkovo, Podkamennaya Tunguska and random finds from the city of Yeniseisk. According to R.V. Nikolaev (1960a), all these Neolithic tools from the Yenisei valley indicate a connection with the Neolithic of the Baikal region, studied by A.P. Okladnikov (1950). R.V. Nikolaev presumably dates the found ceramic fragments (Podkamennaya Tunguska; Surgutikha) to the Neolithic period. Finds from the Bronze Age - a knife (Sukhaya Tunguska), ceramics (Serkovo; Surgutikha, types I and II) - Nikolaev links with the Karasuk and Tagar cultures of the Khakass-Minusinsk south.

Samples of ceramics with caterpillar-comb ornamentation (type I from Surgutikha) find broad territorial analogies: from the Bolshezemelyoka tundra to Krasnoyarsk, from the Ob to the Angara and the Baikal region. The period of distribution of this ceramics is also very wide: from the end of the Neolithic to the Iron Age.

Nikolaev connects the Karasuk culture carriers with the Samoyed ethnic layer, and the Tagar culture with the Ket one (19606, p. 68). He develops the latter position in a special article, where he tries to substantiate the hypothesis about the Dinlin origin of the Tagarian-Kets (Nikolaev, 1962).

Despite their small numbers, these archaeological data are of absolute importance for the study of both the Docetian period of the Krasnoyarsk North and the ancient history of the ancestors of the Kets (in particular, the question of connections with the cultures of the Minusinsk Basin).

The active interest of a wide range of researchers of related sciences in the Ket problem brings the time closer when the mystery of Ket ethnogenesis will finally be solved.

Linguists play a big role here. The vocabulary parallels to the Ket language discovered by researchers are of great interest, but all of them are still very few or even isolated. They can be used to solve genetic problems only with the further accumulation of vocabulary material and taking into account the typology and grammatical structure of the languages ​​being compared. The intensive study of the Ket language by Soviet scientists allows us to hope that in the near future the issue of typological characteristics will be completely resolved. Further accumulation of vocabulary material, the study of the Ket verb (identification of ancient words - roots) will make it possible to begin a broad comparative historical study of the vocabulary of the Ket language and will make linguistic data one of the main sources on ethnogenesis.

New anthropological materials will soon enter scientific circulation. However, in order to resolve the question of the time and origin of the anthropological characteristics of modern Kets, it is necessary, firstly, to have sufficiently complete data on modern neighboring peoples, as well as South Siberian groups with which historical connections are found. Secondly, further accumulation of early craniological material is necessary, and primarily from the southern territory of settlement of the Kets in the past (pp. Ket, Sym, Dubches, etc.).

In archaeological terms, the territory of modern and former settlement of the Kets remains almost unexplored. It would be very important to establish the continuity of local cultures to the Kets proper. We have already mentioned above the need to survey Syma, Dubches, Keti, and the environs of modern Yeniseisk, where the Kets lived 3-4 centuries ago. In many places (pp. Ket, Sym) the memory of the former residence of the Ket has been preserved (toponymy, legends, remains of dugouts), as well as Ket traditions in the design of some elements of material culture.

The purpose of this work is to give an ethnographic description of the economy, culture and life of the Kets at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, and to introduce into scientific circulation the ethnographic material collected during 1956-1965. 40

A systematic description of the most important aspects of the culture of the people seems necessary due to the lack of generalizing work of this nature. Meanwhile, ethnographic data (along with linguistic, anthropological and archaeological) are a source for resolving the problem of ethnogenesis. On the other hand, the Kets, until recently, retained the most archaic forms of production, culture and social life, so Kets ethnographic materials may be of interest both in a broader, all-Siberian, sense, and in theoretical terms.

Based on this, the publication of new data on Ket ethnography is, to a certain extent, the goal of this work.

When describing individual cultural elements, an attempt was made to trace their history, as well as compare them with relevant materials obtained from other Siberian peoples.

The chronological framework is determined by the material itself and basically does not go beyond the boundaries of ethnographic reality, so the study of the earliest forms began with those that existed among the Kets at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Not all aspects of Ket culture can be covered evenly in the work. Material culture can be considered the most studied, although archaeological parallels are necessary to determine the genesis of its individual elements. Religious ideology is given in a more general form; new material is presented here to a lesser extent, which is explained by the difficulty of obtaining information in this area, as well as by the fact that every year there are fewer and fewer people who could explain the meaning of certain beliefs and rituals. Issues of social history are considered only in the most general form.

The work is dominated by materials related to the pre-revolutionary past. The final part focuses on the initial stage of socialist reconstruction, a period that has already become history.

KETS AT THE END OF THE 19TH - BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURIES.

BRIEF HISTORICAL INFORMATION

At the end of the 16th century. The eastern limit of the Siberian land annexed to the Moscow state was the Ob basin. A new stage in the advancement of Russians to the east - the development of the Yenisei and adjacent territories - dates back to the beginning of the 17th century. There were several ways of advancement, and they were marked by the appearance of strongholds - forts.

The first such point was the city of Mangazeya, built in 1601 in the lower reaches of the river. Taza. From there, Russian servicemen reached the river along river channels and portages. Turukhan, at the mouth of which in 1604 they formed the Turukhan winter quarters and reached the Yenisei. Another route from the Ob passed along the river. Keti, then drag to the Kasa or Kemi rivers, which flow into the Yenisei. The strongholds here were the forts of Ketsky (1602-1605, upper reaches of the Keti), Makovsky (1618, at the beginning of the transition from Ket to Kas, modern village of Makovskoye) and, finally, Yeniseisky (1619, modern. Yeniseisk). In addition, detachments of Russian Cossacks were transported by portages from the river. Tyma to Sym, from Vakha to Elogui, etc.

Among other peoples, the ancestors of the modern indigenous population of the Yenisei North (Ents, Nganasans, Evenks), the Russians also met the Kets, whom they called Ostyaks.

Simultaneously with the northern regions, the development of more southern territories, inhabited by numerous Turkic-speaking, Samoyed-speaking and Keto-speaking tribes and groups, took place. The advance there went from the Ket fort to the Yenisei and then up the Yenisei. At the mouth of the river Kachi in 1628 to collect yasak from the indigenous population and to protect Russian possessions! From the attack of the Yenisei Kirghiz, the Krasnoyarsk fort was erected.

The bulk of the ancestors of modern Kets became part of the Mangazeya district. Its territory by the middle of the 17th century. in the south it covered the Yenisei basin from the river. Dubchesa, in the east - the Podkamennaya and Nizhnyaya Tunguska basins, and in the north - the Pyasina, Taimyr and Khatanga basins. The western border ran along the watershed between Taza and Pura.

The Kets, like the entire indigenous population, were subject to yasak, fur supplies. To collect yasak, service people went to yasak winter huts, to which the tax-paying population was assigned. The ancestors of modern Kets within the Mangazeya district in the 17th century. were listed in the Inbatsky (modern Verkhne-Imbatskoye; mentioned in 1607) and Zakamenny winter quarters (according to the assumption of B.O. Dolgikh, the latter was located near the mouth of the Dubches River; known since 1626). Later, the Zakamennoye winter hut was moved above the mouth of the Podkamennaya Tunguska and began to be called Podkamennoe or Shaykhnnsky.

The western neighbors of the Kets at that time were the Selkups and Khanty (Vakha basin), the northern - the ancestors of the tundra and forest inhabitants (the Taza and Turukhan basin, the Yenisei valley), the northwestern (Pura basin) - the Nenets, and the eastern - Evenks. In the middle of the 17th century. as a result of the withdrawal of the Eits to the north, the upper reaches of the Taz were occupied by the Selkups (from the Surgut district); in the second half of the 17th century. They have already advanced along the Taz and reached the river. Turukhan, and then to Upper and Lower Baikha, where the Baishensky volost was subsequently formed. In the middle of the 17th century. The Nenets became part of the Mangazeya district.

The Kets who paid yasak in the Inbat winter quarters (Inbat Kets) were recorded by the Russians under three names: Inbaks, Zemgaaks and Bogdenets. The Inbaki occupied the Eloguy basin and the coast of the Yenisei in the Inbat winter quarters. This was apparently the northernmost compact Ket group of the 17th century. Up the Yenisei, near the mouth of its right tributary Bakhta and in the lower reaches of this river, the Bogdenians settled. The southernmost group assigned to the Inbat winter quarters were the Zemshakn, who lived in the lower reaches and area of ​​the mouth of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. In total, in these three groups, according to B. O. Dolgikh, there were up to 720 people, but the smallpox epidemic (1623) led to a reduction in their number to 480 people (Dolgikh, 1960, p. 144).

Sources of the second half of the 17th century. (1681) among the Inbaki, the following divisions are already distinguished: the Inbat clan itself, the Khoniget clan, the Bulvan clan and the Khentyan clan. The Bogdenians retain their name without change, and the Zemshaks are called the Zashat clan.

At the end of the 18th century. Several territorial groups of Inbat Kets are known, indicating their gradual movement down the Yenisei (from south to north): Shaikhinsky, Bakhtinsky, Eloguysky, Kangatovsky, Pigansky, Nizhne-Inbatsky, Cherno-Ostrovsky and “Ostyaks of the Surgut breed” (probably among them there were Selkups). 0 The last three groups settled in the territory occupied in the 17th century. vices (ibid., p. 145).

As a result of the movement, the composition of individual groups was mixed. Thus, people from the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska (Zemshaks) formed the basis of the Lower Inbat Kets, they also became part of the Kangatov group, where, in addition to them, there were descendants of the Inbaks of the 17th century; the latter were mainly formed in the 18th century. a group of Eloguy Kets. Descendants of the Bokdenians and Zemshaks of the 17th century. in the 18th century formed a group of Bakhtinians. On the contrary, part of the inbaks at the end of the 18th century. moved to more southern regions and found herself assigned to the Shaikinians, whose ancestors were the Zemshaks of the 17th century. The same group partially included the Kets, in the 17th century. listed in the Zakamenny winter quarters (ibid.).

The Ket population, who paid yasak in the Zakamenny winter quarters of the Mangazeya district, was united by the Russians under the common name “Zakamenny Ostyaks.” They occupied the Dubches basin and most of the Syma basin (except for the upper reaches). Among this group, according to documents of the 17th century, the clans Biskiev (Boksiev), Ilipcheev, and Bungulev stand out. In addition, the Sym-Kas Kets of the Yenisei district, the Dukans, sometimes paid yasak there. In the 18th century people from this group, called “Vorogovskys,” moved to the lower reaches of the river. Dubchesa.

The number of “zakamenny Ostyaks” (700 people in 1628) decreased sharply by the beginning of the 18th century. (up to 40 people). A particularly sharp reduction was observed in 1627-1628, as well as in the period from 1654 to 1682. The main reason was obviously epidemics (ibid.,

It is also known that part of the “Zakamenny Kets” descended along the Yenisei into the Inbat group and entered the neighboring Yenisei, Surgut and Narym districts as payers, and merged in the Taz basin with the Tym-Karakon Selkups (Dolgikh, I960, p. 147). On the empty territory in the basin of Syma, Kas, and partly Dubches, the Evenks settled here, moving here from the right bank of the Yenisei (Vasilevich, 1931, p. 134).

Outside the Mangazeya district, chum salmon from the 17th century. paid yasak in the Yenisei district. There were no yasak winter huts here; the tax-paying population was included in the so-called salary yasak volosts. There were several Ket volosts in the Yenisei district. The Sym-Kas volost (until 1623 there were separate Sym and Kas volosts) were made up of the Kets-Dyukans, who lived in the lower reaches of the Sym and Kas and on the coast of the Yenisei, in the area of ​​their mouth (as already mentioned, the ancestors of the Kets of the Sym-Kas volost in the 19th century. ).

The listed groups of the Mangazeya and Yenisei districts cover the population of the 17th century, in which one can see the direct ancestors of the modern Kets. The remaining Keto-speaking groups of that time, whose descendants were undoubtedly part of the above-mentioned ancestors of this nationality, over the subsequent time became part of other peoples and tribes and ceased to exist independently.

To the south of the Kets-Dyukans, in the area of ​​the Yenisei fort, lived the so-called Kuznetsk Kets, and at the confluence of the Angara and Yenisei lived the Kipans (Kinils), who were close to them, who made up in 1623-1628. a single Kuznetsk volost. In the same Yenisei district, the Kungopians and Kadians (Dolgikh, 1960, pp. 186-189), the Ket-speaking population of the Natsko-Pumpokol volost, located in the upper reaches of the Keti, paid yasak. In the upper reaches of the Keti and the sources of the Kem, there were three very small volosts (clans or large families): Yamyshskaya, Makutskaya and Kem peaks. Population of the middle and lower reaches of the Keti in the 18th century. was Selkup-speaking, but there were also surnames of Ket origin, for example Korget Kizin (ibid., p. 92). The majority of the Keto-speaking population of upper Keti forgot their language and switched to Selkup by the middle of the 19th century. However, some group from Ket moved to the Yenisei and merged with the Sym Kets (legends and the ethnonym Tymdyget speak about this, where there is the name Keti, get - “man”).

Among the many multilingual tribal groups and nationalities encountered by the Russians in the Middle Yenisei basin, the Kets are known as Arins, Kotts, Asans, Yastynts, Buklints (Baykotovtsev), Tints, Kaidins, etc. The Ket language of all these groups was established by scientists - travelers of the 18th century (D. G. Messerschmidt, P. I. Stralenberg, G. F. Miller, P.-S. Dallas, I. G. Georgi) and confirmed in the middle of the 19th century. research by M. A. Castren. However, historical documents of the first half of the 17th century. reflect the presence of a linguistic community and family ties between individual groups. This is evidenced by materials identified and published by L. P. Potapov and B. O. Dolgikh: the use of the Arins by the Russians as translators when going to the Kotts, the flight of the Kuznetsk Kets from the Evenks to the Arins near Krasnoyarsk, family relations between the Ket-speaking groups of the upper Keti and the Yenisei arinami, etc. (Potapov, 1957, pp. 74, 80; Dolgikh, 1960, p. 99).

This community was preserved by the 17th century, despite the extreme fragmentation of individual Ket groups caused by the difficult political situation that developed here. Before the arrival of the Russians, most of the southern Kets were in long-term political and economic dependence on the Yenisei Kyrgyz and other Turkic- and Mongol-speaking neighbors. Historical documents testify to significant movements of the Kets together with Turkic and Samoyed-speaking groups, their participation in general military operations, etc. A long joint historical life consolidated political relations by merging language and culture. All this led to the dissolution of small Ket groups in a foreign language environment, and above all the Turkic one (Potapov, 1957).

The indicated processes had already taken place by the time the Russians appeared, as evidenced, in particular, by the fact that some of the Keto-speaking groups in documents of the 17th century. were called “Ostyak volosts”, and others were called “Tatar uluses” (both in the meaning of a salary yasak unit).

Explorers of the 18th century recorded the completion of the processes of linguistic and cultural merging of the Kets with the neighboring population. Under G.F. Miller and I.G. Gmelin (30s of the 18th century), the Arins did not differ from the Turkic-speaking Kachins; at that time only a few old people remembered their language. By this time, the Asans had almost completely disappeared among the Evenks and the Russian peasantry. The Baykot people (Buklintsy, Buktintsy) still spoke Kott language, but by the 18th century. I. G. Georgi noted that the Bukta people do not differ from the Kachin people, and the Kotts, like the Keto-speaking Yarin people, became close to the Russian peasantry and the same Kachin people. The Kotts retained their language longer than others, until the second half of the 18th century, but in the middle of the 19th century. M.A. Castren met only 5 people who spoke Cotton.

Ket elements took part in the formation of the Khakass, Northern Altaians, Shors, and Tuvans, as evidenced by the existence of ethnonyms (mostly generic) of Ket origin among them. (Potapov, 1953, p. 155, 1957, pp. 180, 216, Dolgikh, I960, p. 236; Weinstein, 1958, pp. 92-93, 19ы, p. 22).

The study of these materials is of great independent interest. Here I would like to note that some names of the southern Kets, going back to generic self-names, reveal similarities with the generic ethnonyms of the northern Kets. So, for example, the name “Buklintsy” (Bokhtintsy and especially Vik-TjiH P.-S. Pallas) is possibly similar to the name Boedets (Bogdentsy) of the northern Kets.

The Buklinians (Bokhtinians), apparently, were clan groups that were part of both the Kotts and the Arins; Even under Miller, the residents of Buklin spoke Kott. The Bohtinsky volost was known as a neighbor of Asanam (Kottam) and was repeatedly included in the Arinsky land.

The name of the Ulegot ulus of the Kotts of the 17th-18th centuries. can be compared with the generic ethnonym Ul’gyt of the northern Kets.

The Kott name of the Arins - Tpappa "cheen (Dulzon, 1961a, p. 158) - is comparable with Ka-deai] (plural), Kanas-ket (singular), recorded by M. A. Kastren among the northern Kets in meaning “Yenisei Ostyaks" (Castren, 1858, p. 166). In both cases, obviously, there is not a self-name, but a generic ethnonym, similar to Den'tan of the northern Kets.

The presence of the same generic ethnonyms among the northern and southern Kets is another proof of their unity.

Let us, however, turn again to the Mangazeya district, the indigenous population of which (including the ancestors of modern Kets) in the 30s of the 17th century. was finally annexed to Russia.

In the annexation and economic development of new areas, the main role was played by the penetration of the Russian population here (mainly from Pomerania). At the first stage, this process had the character of spontaneous commercial entrepreneurship, but already from 1640 the majority of residents were immigrants. 28 The resettlement took place in accordance with the economic structure of the latter and the natural conditions of their residence. In the northern regions of the region, in the tundra and taiga zones, immigrants from the northern regions of Pomerania settled. And here they continued to conduct a commercial economy, the main industries of which were hunting and fishing. On the contrary, the agricultural population of the Yenisei region (the territory south of Yeniseisk) was made up of natives of the central regions of Russian Pomerania. In areas where an agricultural economy was developing, the process of formation of a Russian settled population proceeded faster than in the northern, fishing areas, where large settlements did not arise. Along the entire length of the modern Turukhansk region, postal stations (stations), initially consisting of one or two houses, were formed at a distance of 20-30 km from each other. Gradually, the Russian fishing population settled around them, but until the end of the 19th century, with the exception of a few villages (Vorogovo, Verkhne-Imbatskoye), the settlements were very few in number. 24

At the same time as servicemen and industrial people, merchants appeared in populated areas. Yenisei and Mangazeya merchants supplied the Kets and other indigenous inhabitants with copper cauldrons, axes, fabrics and ready-made clothing. From the end of the 17th century. The supply of the northern fishing areas almost entirely came from the more southern regions of the region.

Trade and exchange relations stimulated the development of those sectors of the economy of the indigenous population that became commercial, and above all the fur trade. The Kets learned from the Russians how to use new traps, and firearms were gradually introduced. However, these processes proceeded extremely slowly due to the particularly low economic level of the people (even in comparison with the neighboring indigenous population - Evenks, Nenets, etc.). One of the reasons for this situation could be that until the end of the 18th century. The main value in the market was sable, distributed mainly in the Evenki territory (Podkamennaya and Nizhnyaya Tunguska basins). Squirrels and other small fur-bearing animals caught by chum salmon were very cheap.

Part of the harvested chum salmon furs was handed over as yasak duty, the other was given to “traders” in exchange for food, ammunition and other goods. Payment of yasak until the beginning of the 20th century. remained natural. In trade among the Kets, exchange relations also prevailed over monetary ones until the very beginning of the socialist reorganization.

Cut off from the central regions, the Turukhansky region, a remote province, a place of exile, where poverty, illness, and ignorance reigned not only among the indigenous, but also the bulk of the Russian population, was an excellent arena for the tyranny of commercial capital. All administrative and judicial power in the region was concentrated in the hands of the bailiff; the machines were run by traders and caretakers of state-owned grain stores.

And the chum salmon suffered more than other inhabitants of the region. All those who visited at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. in the Turukhansk North their appalling poverty, deprivation and extinction were noted.

Administratively the Kets have been in charge since the 18th century. united into volosts (governments), headed by a foreman (“prince”). ’ In official documents and scientific literature of the late 19th and early 18th centuries. The volost (government) was usually called a clan, and its head - a clan elder, although each of the volosts united representatives of different exogamous clans and clan groups (Latkin, 1892, p. 130; Elenev, 1893, p. 75; Tugarinov, 1927, p. 2).

The foreman of the volost (kuy, kiya) was elected once every three years at general meetings (suglans); the latter were usually timed to coincide with spring and autumn fairs. However, the election was purely formal. As a rule, candidates were appointed by the Russian administration; the main condition is knowledge of the Russian language. The main responsibility of the chosen one was to collect yasak taxes and debts “to the treasury” for food and ammunition taken from grain stores. In case of non-payment, the debt is distributed among all members of the volost according to the principle of mutual responsibility.

The foreman was also required to carry out certain judicial functions (for example, punishment for disrespect for the elderly, resolution of territorial disputes). When resolving these and some other internal issues, the elder relied on the so-called clan council, which was composed of the heads of individual families and family-tribal groups.

At the meetings, people were also chosen to send furs to Yeniseisk and to deliver goods to spare stores.

Thus, the volost administration, which was an artificially created administrative unit, bore some features of tribal relations. This was facilitated by the fact that the volost was the administrative expression of a really existing territorial group, a significant part of the population of which was related by blood and tribal relations.

Issues of social structure (and primarily related to the problem of clan among the Kets) are touched upon only incidentally in this work. However, due to the fact that many features of the clan organization appear when considering certain socio-economic aspects of the life of the people (relations of production and distribution, use of land and tools, inheritance, etc.), family relations and especially ideology, it seems necessary here provide some general information on this issue.

The entire Ket population at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. lived in families, large (up to 40 people) and small (3-7 people). The Kets believe that their surnames come from the names (irozvishki) of their ancestors, for example: Lama - Lyamich, Imla - Imlyakovs, Kouet - Kogonovs, Ballna - Balnins (Baldins), etc. Some surnames were of a toponymic nature and reflected the previous settlement of the group: Ketskikh (Ketsk. Tymdets - “people from Keti”), the surname could also reflect the generic self-name (from the generic ethnonym Ul'gyt, Ol'gyt, apparently, the surname Uleneva, Olonov came from).

Several large and small families related by blood on the paternal side formed a clan group (patronymy). Members of such a patronymy could live together and scatteredly, sometimes they were part of different volosts. Members of related families living within the same territory (volost) were constantly connected by a common industrial life, relationships of collectivism and mutual assistance. Men of the same generation called each other bisebo - “brother” (vocal form), and all together they united under the name bis nimdets “bdatya”* They also called relatives who lived outside the famot territory. The latter were connected by a sense of consanguinity; economic relations were manifested only in periodic gifts and long stays as guests (the land was used jointly), but these relations were permanent, they could be interrupted for many years or were absent from the Ket population of Podkamenno-Tunguska, Verkhne -Inbat, Lower Inbat and Kara volosts, were part of one of two exogamous associations ("kus'huuotpyl"): Boede]get (Botsdedets) and Ben tan (En dj) or in one of the divisions of these associations. gaspelenie Bokde1get) and Ol'gyt (division n, en tan). at the beginning of the 20th century were more common among the northern groups (Nizhne-Inbatskaya and Karasinskaya as part of the southernmost volost (Symsko-Kasskoi) from the end of the 18th century the generic ethnonyms Kendeng and Uldeng can be traced, apparently unambiguous K, en'tan and U l dets , (Ul_gyt) northern groups of the late 19th century. (Dolgikh, 1950 p. 95 This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact noted by B. O Dolgikh that the Sym Kendeng did not marry the Inbat Kentadeng. Tsen'tan and Ul'dets, as already mentioned, constituted one exogamous division Apparently, representatives of the other exogamous half also lived on Syma: this is indicated by the self-name of the patronymic Buneevs (genus Bok tget or Tsonits) - Symden (Sym people). Independent exogamous groups were probably made up of the Kets who came from Keti, by surname Ketskys (Tymdydek;), as well as Imlyakovs,

The Savenkovs are Selkups assimilated by the Kets. The territorial name of this group is apparently Haibaden.

Thus, each territorial group included representatives of both exogamous halves. A common exogamous self-name was for them evidence of one origin and a sign of the impossibility of marriage. It gave the right to joint use of fishing grounds and collective traps (for example, catfish). But this right was exercised at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. practically only within each individual territorial group. The idea of ​​the common origin of all members of a given exogamous unit was reflected much more clearly in the ideological sphere. The territorial difference did not matter here. All K,en'tan, as well as Boade]get (regardless of whether they lived on Podkamennaya Tunguska or Kurenka), knew their legendary shamans; they were connected by faith in common family patrons (cults of fire and alels) and ancestors, as well as a forbidden alliance with families of the opposite frame, with whom they were united by property and production ties.” The number of families neighboring a camp was regulated by the nature of production activity in a particular fishing season.

The Kurei Peshkins lived in constant proximity to the Lambins. Among the Kurei Kets, the exception was the more isolated group of Serkovs (Ol’gyt). They remembered their belonging to Den'tan, but considered only the Serkovs to be blood relatives. This group was an expanded family, which, under conditions of territorial isolation, took on the character of an independent clan. This was also facilitated by the certain economic isolation of the Serkovs - a relatively large number of deer for the Kets, which required special migrations.

Thus, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. the main sphere of manifestation of former clan relations remained clan solidarity and religious beliefs. Permanent socio-economic and production ties between relatives were carried out almost exclusively within each individual territorial group. But here, too, tribal relations were closely intertwined with neighborly and territorial relations.

E.A. Alekseenko

From the monograph “Chum salmon. Historical and ethnographic essays", 1967

The Yenisei settlement recently became the center of the Pakulin group. Vaklanikha (instead of the village of Pakulikhi), but the main lands remain the river basin. Pakulihi.

During the 1959 census, a small group of Ket (Ket river, Makovskoe village) and Sym (Sym river, Sym village) Selkups were mistakenly recorded as “Kets”. The error occurred because the ethnonym Selkup (the self-name of the northern group) did not take root among the southern group of this nation, the local self-names were forgotten, and until 1959 the Selkups were called “Ostyaks”. And since the old name of the Kets was “Ostyaks,” the Selkups were written down as “Kets.”

In the Turukhai region, the incorrect name of the people is still used - keto (vocal form from the word ket). At one time this name entered the literature (Findeisen, 1929).

It must be emphasized that ethnonyms of this kind represent the name of one group of another and, as a rule, are not a self-name. This circumstance must be kept in mind when analyzing ethnonyms known from early sources and identifying generic self-names.

The Selkups called the Kets konak. Perhaps this ethnonym comes from the generic self-name of the Kets, Johhij. Representatives of the Onsh clan were direct neighbors of the northern (Baishen and Turukhan) Selkups. B. O. Dolgikh (oral communication) suggests that this name may be associated with the Selkup kashne - “coast” (cf. the name of part of the Kets - “coast”). In sources of the 18th century. The ethnonym kdnnschyynng is recorded as the self-name of the Kets (Dulzon, 1961a, p. 176).

Wed. with the legendary tystadg who attacked the Kets (Anuchin, 1914, p. 4). The common name of the Ostyaks among the Yenisei Evenks was dyandri (apparently, from the Ket dets - “people”), but individual groups also had independent names: Dyukun, Dyukundri (otter) - Sym Kets; nyumnyakan, numnyakil (geese) - Eloguy; ketpan, ketkar -. immigrants from Keti (Vasilevich, 1931, p. 134; Dolgikh, 1950, p. 92).

The Nenets called the Yenisei Kets "ensya'khabi" in contrast to the Tazov

Selkups (tasu "khabi) and Ob Ugrians (khabi). The term khabi also had an independent meaning - “slave”, “slave”, “dependent” (Khomich, 1966, p. 23). The commonality of the name for multilingual peoples indicates apparently, about the same historical destinies (the predominant subordination of their ancestors of modern Nenets during military clashes); the Nenets, apparently, also noticed a certain cultural community of these peoples (remember also the common Russian name - Ostyaks - for the Khanty, Selkups and Kets), caused historical connections and similar living conditions.

On the significance of G. F. Miller’s materials for Ket linguistics, see: Vdovin, 1954; Dulzon, 19646.

The scientist's handwritten travel notes, made by him during his move from Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk, are partially given in the book by L. P. Potapov (1957).

There is, however, reason to assume that the legend to A. Stepanov was told by a Selkup elder, as evidenced by the Selkup component kub (kup - E.A.) - “man” in the ethnonym Tshvotshibykuby pl. h.).

Three times, in 1894, 1895 and 1898, the geographer V. S. Peredolsky sailed across the entire Turukhansk region by boat. The trips were organized at his personal expense. Peredolsky wrote fictional essays about the life of the Kets (1908). In printed and public speeches, Peredolsky tried to draw attention to the extremely difficult situation of this people, their extinction. He organized trials against the most atrocious merchants in the region, and through the governor, obtained the allocation of bread from spare stores to several families. However, Peredolsky understood that under the existing regime, all these temporary measures could not change anything.

Currently, the expedition members have prepared a collection devoted to linguistic issues of Ket ethnogenesis.

The detachment included anthropologists Yu. D. Benevolenskaya, I. I. Gokhman, G. M. Davydova, V. K. Zhomova, and preparator V. I. Gokhman; photographer V.I. Platonov.

R.V. Nikolaev (1963a, p. 130) notes that, according to A.P. Okladnikov (1957, p. 54), the territory of distribution of this ceramics coincides with the territory of settlement of the ancestors of the Finno-Ugrians (in particular, the Samoyeds ). On cultural ties between the Ob and Yenisei populations in the 1st century. BC e. and the beginning of AD e. evidenced by a very interesting openwork copper image of a dosya, obtained by S.I. Weinstein from the local population of the village. Sulomai (19516, Fig. 2, pp. 5-6). It is of the same type as the characteristic Kulai finds of the Middle Ob region (Myagkov, 1927, 1929; Uraev,

MAE and GME (Leningrad), KKM, GAKK, EGA. Illustrative material (photos), not marked with links, was collected by participants of the Turukhansk Otrad and stored in the MAE; drawings and drawings were made by A. I. Krylov, T. L. Yuzepchuk, K. B. Kharitonova, L. L. Levizi, V. A. Bykov.

For information on the history of the development of the Yenisei region, see: Fisher, 1774; Pestov, 1833; Tretyakov, 1869; Latkin, 1892; Chudnovsky, 1885; Budyan-kiy, 1893; Tarasenkov, 1930; Potapov, 1957; Dolgikh, 1960; Serikov, 1962.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. the territory of the former Mangazeya district (the district was called Mangazeya in the 18th century, even after its center was moved to the site of the Turukhansk winter quarters in 1668) was usually called the Turukhansk region. Administratively, the Turukhansk region was part of the Yenisei province. At the beginning of the 20th century. the center of the region became the village of Monastyrskoye (at the confluence of the Lower Tunguska and the Yenisei), renamed Turukhansk (officially it was called Novo-Turukhansk, in contrast to the former center, which has since been called Staro-Turukhansk). Within its main borders, the territory of the former Mangazeya district existed until 1930, when the Taimyr and Evenki national districts separated from the Turukhansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: In the 40s, the river valley. Taza was included in the Tyumen region.

The Vaishen Selkups were connected with the Kets through constant neighborly and intermarital relations, which was noted back in the middle. XIX century Castren, and then other researchers.

5 B. O. Dolgikh considers the Inbaks, Bogdens and Zemshaks of the 17th century. tribal grouping (1950, p. 87; 1960, p. 182), which is also confirmed by their common (Imbat) dialect (Castren, 1860; Dulzon, 1964b). According to B.O. Dolgikh, the Inbaki made up one exogamous half, and the Zemshaks and Bogdenians made up the other. The name of the Khentyanskii genus can be traced in the modern generic ethnonym K, en’tai (see page of this work). Descendants of the Vulvan family of the 18th century. there were, apparently, the surnames Bulapengit (Tyganovs; Dolgikh, 1934), Bulengit (Korsakov, 1941, p. 108). The ethnonym* Bogden goes back to the generic self-name Bokdadech, which has survived to this day. Zemshaks of the 19th century, apparently, were the name given to the ancestors of the future clan K,onsh5, which separated from Bok;-de]get.

The descendants of these Kets were the main territorial groups and the volosts (governments) formed in accordance with them, which existed before the beginning of the 20th century: Podkamenno-Tungusskaya, Verkhne-Inbatskaya, Nizhne-Inbatskaya

B. O. Dolgikh considers the “Zakamenny Ostyaks” to be a tribal group along with the Inbat and Sym-Kas Dukans (1950, p. 87; 1960, pp. 148, 149), and their name is Kaivoyadyn, which goes back to Xaiea^-Ket (unit . h.) M. A. Castrena (Dolgikh, 1958, p. 171). The ethnonym Xaj6ai|, Xaj6aip;ei5 remains to this day. In nerevod it means “people of the mountainous (xaj, i)aj - “yar”) land.” So, in particular, the Kets are called Imlyakovs and Savenkovs, but this is not their self-name. Perhaps this term united the territorial group of Kets and Selkups who lived on the river. Dubchese.

The descendants of these Kets in the 18th-19th centuries. were part of the Symsko-Kass volost of the Yenisei district, and currently live in the villages of Yartsevo (Yenisei district) and Vorogovo (Turukhansky district). The northern Kets distinguish them under the special name yugi (dyugun). The Sym Evenks (their ancestors settled on Syma after the Kets) call them Dyukun, Dyukundri (the Evenki’s common name for the Kets is Dyandri). Apparently, the ethnonym Yug, Yugi (Yokhon, Dyugun, Dyukan) comes from the tribal self-name of the speakers of the Sym dialect of the Ket language.

The Sym Evenks have preserved to this day the memory of the terrible sea among the Kets, when not a single living person remained in the dugouts, and the boats on which people tried to escape floated from the tributaries to the Yenisei, uncontrolled by anyone, full of corpses.

It is very important for studying the social structure of the Ket people in the past to reveal the content of one or another name of the Ket volosts and other ethnonyms known from early sources. They were given according to the place of residence of the group, the name of its head, self-name or the name of its neighboring population, etc. Behind these terms there could be tribal, territorial and family groups, the exact definition of which is possible only in each individual case. B. O. Dolgikh (1950, 1960) and L. P. Potapov (1957) devoted much attention to the study of these issues, but further special research is still required here.

A small group of Kets from the upper reaches of the Syma paid yasak in the Surgut district. Among this group was, for example, Lefiyaket Danshyan (Dolgakh, 1960, p. 86). Perhaps his descendants were the Kets of Leshshshva, who were part of the Symsko-Kasskaya volost from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century. GAKK, f. 198, on. I, d. 2; f. 427, on. I, d. 1, l. 18; f. 725, on. I, D. 2). The ket Lovenk Tapaev is also known among the Kuznetsk kets (Dolgikh, labu, p. 188). Part of the Upper Sym Ket, apparently, went to the Taz, where they merged with the Selkup, which, as noted by B. O. Dolgikh, is evidenced by the Selkup surname of Ket origin: Dedegit (ibid., p. oo). As early as 1828, the Ostyak Molgets were listed as part of the Tym volost of the Surgut district (GAKK, f. 182, on. I, d. 19, l. 1).

The study of materials related to these once Ket-speaking groups is of great interest both for identifying early ethnic processes and directly for Ket ethnogenesis and should become the topic of special research. Within the framework of this work, information about them is provided only in comparative terms.

Perhaps the Chipkan Kets (Chipkanovs), whom Kastren met among the Sym group, came from the Kipans (Dolgikh, 1950, p. 95).

Traces of Ket influence are found in some elements of the material culture of the modern Russian population of the village of Makovskoye (in the vicinity of the former fort, according to historical documents, the Kungop people lived; Potapov, 1957, p. 74; Dolgikh, 1960, p. 188): they still have Since then, there have been hand sledges of a characteristic Ket design, as well as huts made of bent rods. Old-timers call the pre-Russian population of Keti “chud” and associate toponymy with it (modern Pirovsky district), old burials (Tarkhovsky pine forest) and the remains of dugouts. Legends persist that the Chud, not wanting to submit to the Russians (in other versions, to the Tatars), cut down the supporting pillars of their dugouts and found themselves buried alive. The same thing is said in the Sukhobuzimsky district near Krasnoyarsk (the territory of the former settlement of the Keto-speaking Arins). There, numerous large mounds (probably Tatar) are associated with the miracle, mistaking them for buried dwellings. The basis for the legends may have been the burial features of the Tagarians: log burial chambers with a large number of skeletons (Nikolaev, 19636).

In contrast to the above-mentioned groups of the Mangazeya and Yenisei districts, the closest ancestors of the modern Kets, they can conditionally be called southern. The Kotts and Asans settled to the east of the Yenisei, above the mouth of the Angara (pp. Usolka, Ona, Kan), the Arins - in the Yenisei valley, mainly north of the Krasnoyarsk fort. On the right bank, opposite the fort, lived the Yastyntsy, in the upper reaches of the Yenisei - the Yarintsy and Baykotovtsy (Buklintsy), etc. (Dolgikh, 1960, map).

The descendants of the Evenks, which included the Asans, were the Evenks. Poda Kim, who moved in the second decade of the 18th century. on Sym (Dolgikh, 1960, p. 206). Modern Sym Evenks show some similarities with the Kets (see below).

The names Bokchetaev ulus, Pogurskaya volost, whose population were Brtlshds, apparently go back to the same ethnonym (Dolgikh, 1960 pp. 233, 236). It is interesting that the southern Bokhtins of the 17th century. retained their "name in the name of the village of Bakhty, located above Krasno-Yarsk. The northern Bokdenians of the 17th century gave the same name to the tributary of the Yenisei / Bakhta River), subsequently the Bakhta machine appeared at the mouth of the river (see also Potapov, 1957, p. 92-93).

B. O. Dolgikh already wrote about the unity of kotts and asans (1960, p. 296).

This is also evidenced by the common self-name Kottuen (Dulzon, 1961a, p. 158, 170), as well as information from 18th century scientists that the Arins and Evenks called asanas of Kottuens (Klaproth, 1823, p. 158; see also: Potapov, 1957 , page 136). Apparently, one of the Kott groups had the self-name as (az), and it was transferred (by the Evenks, Kets-Arins and Russians) to part of the Kotts. Perhaps the so-called Ashshtyms (Azkishtyms), whose Keto-lingualism was established by Pallas (1788, p. 523) and who back in the 19th century, also go back to the As group. were identified as a special group among the neighboring Turkic-speaking population (Patkanov, 1912, p. 65). It is interesting to note that among the old residents of the village. Ostyatskaya (below the city of Yeniseisk) there are Kishtymov families. To this day they have preserved the memory of the former residence of the Ostyaks here. Archival materials indicate marriages of the Kishtymovs with the Kets (GAKK, f. 394, on. I, d. 17, l. 118). As part of the Kirghiz, the clan divisions Asan and RSBN are noted (Abramzon, 1946, p. 3; see also: Hajdu, 1953, p. 93).

The Ulegot ulus (Ulyugut clan) was known from the beginning of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. among the so-called Korchunov Kotts who underwent Buryatization (Dolgikh, 1960, p. 256).

in 1623, the “Ara man” Tap (Tap) paid yasak to the Yenisei district. His relatives, the Tapaevs, were recorded in 1629 and 1631. as part of the Kuznetsk volost. The Tapkovs were known among the descendants of the Zemshaks (Konin clan) as part of the Upper Inbat volost (Dolgikh, 1950, p. 95). The group of Tanks who moved to Dubches were already subjected to violence in the 19th century. influence of the Sym Evenks; Her descendants are currently called the “Dubches Evenki” and now also live as part of the Surgutin group.

In 1629, more than 100 thousand sables were hunted on the territory of Mangazeya, Yenisei and Krasnoyarsk districts (more than half of them in Mangazeya), in the same year the Mangazeya customs registered only 20 squirrel skins. From the end of the 17th century. the number of sables mined in Mangazeya district was reduced to 1000, and in 1897 12,480 pieces of squirrel skins were sold. From this time on, squirrel becomes the main

a game animal, but its value remained insignificant (Numerov and Pavlov, 1962, pp. 141-142, 144-145).

According to data dating back to 1890, yasak was equal to 5 rubles. or 40 squirrel skins (Elenev, 1893, p. 77).

As already noted, the volosts corresponded to territorial groups (which, however, did not mean the permanent residence of all those in the volost within this particular territorial group). At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. there were four Ket volosts: Symsko-Kasskaya (Dubchesskaya), Podkamenno-Tungusskaya, Verkhne-Inbatskaya and Nizhne-Inbatskaya. Some of the northern Kets were part of the Karasinskaya (mainly Selkup) volost.

GAKK, f. 117, on. I, d. 20, 133, 231, 235, 245, 261, 401, 402. The stores contained stocks of flour, as well as other products (tea, tobacco) and ammunition in case of lean fishing years or insufficient supply by traders. The Kets were listed as permanent debtors of the central stores - Verkhne-Inbatsky and Turukhansky, as well as their branches - Podkamenno-Tungussky, Vaishensky, Ust-Kureysky and others.

"28 GAKK, f. 400, od. I, d. 78, pp. 2, 6.

Extensive material on this topic has been collected by B. O. Dolgikh. He is preparing for publication a special study devoted to the tribal past of the Kets (see also: Dolgikh, 1934, 1950, 1960).

The growth of families (according to B. O. Dolgikh - clans) and the emergence of new ones from them can be clearly traced from the 17th century. (Dolgikh, 1950).

Chum salmon(self-name keto, ket - “person”, plural deng - “people”, “people”; previously the ethnonyms Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks, Yeniseians were used) - a small indigenous people of Siberia living in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. They use the Ket language, which belongs to the group of Yenisei languages.

Widely distributed in the lower reaches of the river. Yenisei. The majority of the Kets live in the Turukhansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, settling in compact groups along the tributaries of the Yenisei, the Eloguya, Surgutikha, Pakulikha, and Kureika. The Podkamenno-Tunguska group settles on the territory of the Evenki Autonomous Okrug. Thus, the ethnic territory of the Kets in the Yenisei basin extends from south to north for more than 1,500 km.

According to the 2002 census, the population is 1,494 people. They live mainly in rural areas of three districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory (1189 people): Turukhansky (866 Kets in the villages of Kellogg, Turukhansk, Surgutikha, Maduika and other settlements), Evenkisky (211 Kets in the village of Sulomai, etc.) and Yenisei (Sym). In the villages of Kellogg, Sulomai and Maduika, the Ket population is predominant. In the early 2000s, several dozen representatives of this ethnic group lived in Krasnoyarsk.

The anthropological assessment of the Kets is ambiguous. In the general racial classification, chum salmon belong to the Yenisei anthropological type, which is part of the Ural race. According to the entire complex of anthropological characteristics, chum salmon are Mongoloids with a somewhat weakened degree of expression of Mongoloid features. Possessing a number of common characteristics, their territory of residence shows similarities with neighboring peoples. Thus, the northern groups of Kets, in anthropological terms, gravitate towards the Selkups, partly Khanty and Nenets, and the southern, sub-Stone Tungus, towards the Khakass and Shors. Currently, the position has been formulated that the chum salmon acquired the Ural traits quite late, therefore, the Yenisei anthropological type is not genetically related to the Ural race and can be allocated to an independent systematic rank. But this position is debatable.

The Ket language occupies an isolated position in the linguistic classification. It is part of the Yenisei language family, which, along with Ket, includes languages ​​recorded in the 18th century. in the upper reaches of the river Yenisei, and now assimilated, Arins, Asans, Kots and some other peoples. Linguistic connections of the Yeniseis can be traced in relation to the Turkic and Samoyed languages. The modern Ket language is divided into two dialects: Imbatsky, which unites a number of dialects of the territorial groupings of the Ket (Kureysky, Eloguysky, etc.) and Symsky, preserved by a small number of Ket.

Modern Kets are descendants of one of the so-called Yenisei-speaking peoples, or even a single Yenisei-speaking people, who in the past lived in Southern Siberia. These are the Arins, Asans, Yarins, Baykots and Kotts, who during the 18th – 19th centuries. were assimilated by the peoples around them. Thus, the Yenisei components took part in the formation of separate groups of Khakass (Kachins), Tuvinians, Shors, and Buryats. Migration processes, which in Southern Siberia were associated with the ethnopolitical history of the Turks, also affected the Yenisei peoples. The beginning of the migration of the Ket ancestors is associated with the 9th – 13th centuries, which led to the settlement of a few groups of Ket-speaking population along the banks of the Yenisei and its tributaries. It was here, in contact with the Khanty and Selkup, and then with the Evenki, that a distinctive Ket culture was formed.

The ethnic culture of the Kets was formed on the basis of the economic and cultural type of taiga hunters and fishermen of Southern and Western Siberia and has many analogies with the appearance of the culture of the Selkups, Khanty, Northern Altaians, and Shors. This is a dugout with a specific heating device - a chuval, swinging clothes cut from one skin, skis and a hand sled. Many techniques and technologies for processing various materials and methods of harvesting animals are similar. In the culture of the Kets, who settle along the tributaries of the Yenisei, fishing plays an important role, which is the main economic activity in the summer. In the Yenisei North, the Kets mastered transport reindeer husbandry, along with which a number of elements of reindeer herding life penetrated into their culture: clothing, reindeer transport. The southern, sub-Stone Tungus group of Kets did not know reindeer husbandry. Along with the above-mentioned features of the Ket culture, which dates back to the northern hunting and fishing tradition, it contains phenomena related to the range of pastoral cultures. These are swinging, long-skirted robe-like clothing, trousers similar in cut to the South Siberian types, some types of shoes, elements of the chum design, and a number of food traditions.

There are several types of dwellings in the Ket culture. A semi-dugout is the main type of permanent dwelling. It was square in plan and had a wooden frame, which was covered on top with split logs, branches and turf. It was heated using a type of hearth - the Chuvash. Food is also prepared on it.

Chum is a universal dwelling. A feature of the Ket chum is the set and nature of the connection of the main poles. There are two of them, one is inserted into the fork of the second. Then 5 more poles were placed. This structure was fastened from the inside with a wooden hoop. Covered with a vice made of birch bark or reindeer skins.

For temporary purposes, frame buildings made of bent rods were used. The covering of such buildings was birch bark branches.

In the summer, a plank boat-ilimka with a carrying capacity of up to 4 tons could be used as a dwelling on fishing grounds. On the ilimka, a cabin covered with birch bark was made from bent rods.

Sources: www.ethnos.nw.ru, ru.wikipedia.org

It seems natural to most Russians that Siberia is an integral part of our country. However, just four centuries ago, the Russians were strangers to this territory, and it was inhabited by indigenous people (Kets, Nenets, Evenks and others), who lived by fishing and hunting. Unfortunately, many of them are currently on the verge of extinction and have long lost their cultural traditions, language and history. The Kets people are among the smallest and least studied indigenous groups in Siberia. Therefore, our article is dedicated to this people, shedding light on their life and origin.

Kets: who are they?

The Kets are a people who lived on the territory of modern Siberia back in the first millennium AD. They appeared, according to scientists, as a result of the mixing of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races. Anthropologists have long attributed them to the Ural type, but recently they are inclined to the version that the Kets can be considered an independent Yenisei type.

How did the name "chum salmon" come about?

• Chickens.
• Pakulihi.
• Surgutikha.

It is worth noting that not all Kets live in ethnic groups. The people are distinguished by some isolation and isolation, therefore, even before the arrival of Russian discoverers in Siberia, representatives of the tribe could live in families, located thousands of kilometers from the main settlements of their people. Currently, a small part of the Kets live in Russian villages of the Turukhansk region. Kum usually avoid large cities, but several groups are known to have settled in Krasnoyarsk.

Kets (people): numbers

Unfortunately, scientists do not have reliable data on what the number of Kets was in the seventeenth century. Therefore, it is now quite difficult to track the dynamics of their development. The population census, conducted once every few years, allows us to draw conclusions about how harmful modern living conditions are to the preservation of the numbers of this ethnic group.

According to data for 2010, the Kets are a people whose number does not exceed 1,200 people. Although back in 2002, the population census showed 300 more people identifying themselves as belonging to this nationality. Scientists attribute this fact to the fact that most Kets are moving away from the traditions of their ancestors, gradually losing themselves. After all, even the language of this Siberian people is already dying.

Ket language

At the moment, the Ket language is the last of the rich Yenisei language family. The Kets are its only speakers; other peoples speaking similar dialects finally lost their native language back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Already fifteen years ago, scientists argued that only 30 percent of the Kets could speak their own language, and the rest of the people (mainly young people) preferred to communicate in Russian.

Linguists study it with great pleasure, although it is complex and has three dialects. However, the difference between them is not too noticeable. Unfortunately, scientists' forecasts are disappointing - within a few years there will not be a single person left on Earth who can pronounce at least one word in Ket.

Kets national costume

Even at the end of the 18th century, the Kets were distinguished by the fact that they sewed clothes from purchased materials. But skins of wild and domestic animals were also often used. Deer, hares and squirrels were ideal for this purpose.

Thick and comfortable wrap-around robes and wide trousers were made from chum cloth. A mandatory attribute of the costume were woolen stockings; they reached to the knee and tightly fitted the shin. Shoes were mainly made of leather and painted in different shades of red.

In winter, the costume was complemented by outerwear made of skins and mandatory hunting skis. They were always glued with kamus and lubricated with animal fat.

Religion of the vanishing Siberian people

The religious beliefs of the Kets were very primitive. The basis of the religion was animalism, which is characteristic of all peoples engaged in hunting and fishing. At the same time, the Kets had some ideas about the afterlife; they divided the whole world into three components. The upper reaches were ruled by a good deity in male form, the middle world was inhabited by people, and the lower underground kingdom was dominated by an evil and cruel goddess.

Life of the Kets

Since the people almost always lived in the taiga, their life was extremely simple and convenient for hunters. The most common types of housing were:

1. Chum

It was built from long poles and covered with birch bark. In cases where it was necessary to urgently change place of residence, the tent could be easily disassembled and transported.

2. Dugout

Such structures were rarely moved, because equipping a new home was very time-consuming. The dugout was usually small and lined with birch bark with fresh fir branches. Inside the chum salmon, several tables made of birch were installed, at which family members ate.

Almost everything was made of birch or horn; these were mainly cups, ladle and some kind of bowl for broth. Chum salmon went fishing in light boats made from hollowed out wood. Sometimes large ships were used that could take on board up to four tons of cargo.

For winter, hunters made drags and sleds, using wood and reindeer skins. This method made it possible to deliver sometimes up to five animal carcasses to the village at the same time.

Currently, historians and linguists are actively studying the Kets, but even old people cannot reveal many of their traditions to scientists due to ignorance. Many years ago, the people actually lost their roots and in the near future may completely disappear as a separate ethnographic group.

Self-name "keto", "ket" ("person"), in the plural "deng" ("people", "people"). Previously, the ethnonyms Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks and Yeniseis were used.

According to the 2002 census, the population was 1,494 people. They live mainly in rural areas of the Turukhansky, Evenkiy and Yenisei districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

During the period of Soviet power, the traditional way of life was destroyed. Economic reorganizations (collective farms and industrial farms, the organization of settlements with a transfer to settled life and the subsequent liquidation of some of them) led to a reduction in the role of the Kets in hunting and fishing, and reindeer husbandry was lost. The reduction of unique production, the experience of ancestors, material and spiritual values ​​led to a deformation of national identity. Currently, the Kets' interest in their historical past and national culture is growing. The teaching of the Ket language in schools, interrupted in the 1930s, has been restored. An ABC book and other manuals have been created in the Ket language. Measures are being taken to organize rural museums and cultural centers.

Language

The Ket language is the last living representative of the Yenisei language family. Other related languages ​​(Pumpokol, Arin, Assan) disappeared in the 18th-19th centuries along with their speakers.

It has been suggested that the Yenisei languages ​​are distantly related to the Adyghe-Abkhaz, Nakh (Chechen, Ingush) and Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Tibetan) languages.

The Ket language has three dialects: northern, central and southern, the latter in turn being subdivided into the Eloguy and Podkamenno-Tungus dialects. The actual differences between them are small.

In the 1930s, the Kets used a Latin-based alphabet, which was replaced in the 1980s by a new alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been a process of people losing their language. Currently, less than 20% of Ket people in the age group of 50 years and older consider Ket as their native language. The number of carriers, according to experts, does not exceed 150 people. At the same time, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, according to the 2002 census, out of 1,189 Ket people, only 365 people (30.7%) speak the Ket language.

The Ket language has been and remains an extremely popular object of linguistic research, primarily due to the complexity of its verbal morphology.

Origin and history

The ancestors of modern Kets were formed, according to some assumptions, during the Bronze Age in the south between the Ob and Yenisei rivers as a result of the mixing of Caucasians of Southern Siberia with the ancient Mongoloids. Anthropologically, the Kets were classified as the Ural type, combining Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. However, subsequent study made it possible to distinguish the Kets into an independent Yenisei type. It is curious that haplogroup Q is rare, indicating kinship with North American Indians.

The ancestors of the Kets supposedly lived in the territory of Southern Siberia along with other representatives of the so-called Yenisei-speaking peoples (Arins, Assans, Yarins, Tints, Bakhtins, Kotts, etc.). In the 1st millennium AD. they came into contact with the Turkic-Samoyed-Ugric-speaking population, as a result of which they were forced to migrate to the Yenisei North. In particular, the Kotts settled along the Kanu River (the right tributary of the Yenisei), the Asans - along the Usolka and Ona rivers (the left bank of the lower Angara), the Arins - on the Yenisei in the Krasnoyarsk region, above them along the right bank of the Yenisei to the mouth of the Tuba River - the Yarintsy and Baykotovtsy. The ancestors of the modern Kets turned out to be settled lower along the Yenisei and its tributaries Kas, Sym, Dubches, Elogui, Bakhta and along the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. Some Keto-speaking groups went north in the 9th-13th centuries, settling on the middle Yenisei and its tributaries. It was here, in contact with the Khanty and Selkup, and then with the Evenki, that a distinctive Ket culture was formed. Subsequently, the Kets moved north up to the Turukhan and Kureyka rivers and Lake Maduiskoye, displacing or assimilating the Entsy from there. At the beginning of the 17th century, three tribal local groups were known - the Zemshaks in the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska, the Bogdens at the mouth of the Bakhta, and the Inbaki in the Eloguya basin.

Some researchers associate representatives of the Okunev and Karasuk cultures (2 thousand years BC) of Southern Siberia with the Kets.

Before the arrival of the Russians, the Kets had already mastered metallurgy, but lived in a tribal system.

The Kets became part of Russia in 1607.

Life

The main occupation of most Kets was and still is hunting and fishing. Squirrel, as the main object of the fur trade, accounted for 80-90% of the cost of all furs produced. The squirrel fishery was most strongly developed among the southern Kets. In addition to chum squirrels, weeds, ermine, fox, sable, wild deer, elk, and, in the north, arctic fox were caught. All furs were sold in chets. Only hare and bear skins, as well as the skins and most of the meat obtained from wild deer and elk, were kept for themselves.

The mining tools were primarily bows and arrows, which also served as military weapons. Sharp arrow tips, and later rifle bullets, were coated with poison from decomposed fish oil. With the advent of guns, bows almost went out of use. Transport reindeer herding, borrowed from the Samoyeds (Nenets, Enets) in the 2nd half of the 17th-18th centuries, did not spread among all Kets. Some Kets, including the entire sub-Stone Tungus group, remained deerless.

The traditional dwelling of the Kets is a conical tent made of poles and birch bark tires (kus). Another common type of dwelling is a dugout (ban, nus). Inside the chum, birch bark bedding and fir branches were laid on the earthen floor. An indispensable part of the decoration was several low tables made of birch (lamas), at which 2-3 people ate. Ladles and cups for tea and broth were made from birch and horn.

Even before the revolution, chum salmon clothes were made mainly from purchased fabrics and cloth (zipuna) and from the skins of domestic and wild deer. Hare and squirrel skins were also used as clothing material.

The summer men's suit consisted of a short, knee-length cloth robe ("kotlyam", from "kotl" - "cloth"), wrapped from right to left, with characteristic braid stripes on the shoulders and along the sides, from fabric trousers, cloth or woolen stockings to the knees and leather shoes - teal, often colored reddish with alder decoction.

The means of transportation in winter were wide skis glued with camus. Single-tree dugouts and large plank ilimka boats with a carrying capacity of up to four tons with a mast and sail, a living part covered with birch bark, were used as water transport. When hunting, hunters used hand sleds and elk skin drags.

Religion

The religious beliefs of the Kets were based on animism. The world, divided into three spheres (the upper heavenly world, the middle world of people and the lower underground world) was inhabited by many good and evil spirits. Shamanism among the Kets was not professional. The main function of shamans was healing and prediction.

The highest good principle in Ket mythology was the heavenly deity Yes. The wife of this deity, Khosedem, cast down to earth, personified evil.

With the arrival of Russian explorers and missionaries in Siberia, the Kets, along with other Siberian peoples, began to accept Orthodox baptism.