Nenets

Nenets
A Nenets child.
Total population	41,000
Regions with significant populations	Russia
Language	Nenets, Russian
Religion	Russian Orthodox, Shamanism

Nenets is the singlar noun for the Nentsy people, Ненцы (n'enyts, pl. n'enytsja) in Russian, one group of the Samoyeds that inhabit the Russian tundra, which includes the Enets, Selkup and Nganasan people. The term Samoyeds comes from indiscriminate Russian usage throughout the centuries, deriving from the literal morphs of samo and yed, which translates to "self-eater". Since the 20th century, the traditional self-determined, translated as "man", Nenets became politically correct although Samoyeds is still used to define the entire indigendous populations of the area.

History

Due to the similarities in languages, historians believe that the N'enyts split apart from the Finno-Ugric speaking groups around 3000 B.C.E. and migrated east where they mixed with Turkic and Altaic speaking peoples around 200 B.C.E. They ended up between the Kanin and Taymyr peninsulas, around the Ob and Yenisey rivers, with some of them settling into small communities and taking up farming, while others continued hunting and reindeer herding, travelling great distances over the Kanin peninsula.Those who remained in Europe came under Russian control around 1200 C.E. while those who lived further east intermixed with the Ugains, the Novgo, and Tartars until they too came under Russian control in the 16th century. Since the 17th century unification, Russian rulers had difficulty maintaining control over the Sameyods, the N'enyts in particular. Resenting their oppressors, N'enyts attacked government officials and out-posts, having the advantage of superior knowledge of the terrain coupled with the incoporation of firearms intitially supplied by the Russians. . A new approach of assimilation was attempted in the 18th century with a Russian-Orthodox missionary movement to convert and educate that failed to directly engage the N'enyts. However, by the 19th century life for the N'enyts had grown difficult. Alcoholism, explotation by tradesman and merchants, and forced re-locations by the government threatened to destroy the traditional life-style of the Nenets. Communism in the 20th century furthered the decline in Nenet culture with the creation of collective farms that stopped the longstanding nomadic traditions and the regulating of child raising by spending all children government run schools, disrupting the flow of passing down culture from one generation to the next. Industrial complexes also caused mass polluting in the Nenet region, furthering their displacement..

File:Nenets Region.jpg

Extent of the traditional homeland of the Nenets.

Contemporary Life

Nenets family in their tent.

Today, there are two distinct groups based on the Nenet economy: the Tundra Nenets (living far to the north) and the Khandeyar or Forest Nenets. A third group Kominized Nenets (Yaran people) has emerged as a result of intermarriages between Nenets and the Izhma tribe of the Komi peoples. The N'enyts still continue to bare mongoloid characteristics: commonly short and stocky, dark skin pigmentation epicanthic eye folds, flat faces and poor beards. A group of N'enyts from the Arkhangelsk region have more European features. .

With the collapse of communism in the early '90s, the N'enyts continue to struggle with the lingering effects of centuries of oppression. The last census in 2002 showed that there are 41,302 N'enyts in the Russian Federation currently, making them by far the majority in the Samoyed group. However, due to the loss of tradition, the N'enyts language is nearly extinct, along with much of their culture. There are high rates of suicide and alcoholism within their society, along with low life expectancy rates are difficulties that still face the N'enyts. The N'enyts struggle is comparable to the plight of Native Americans in the U.S.A..

Culture

Traditionally, the N'enyts lived in a nomadic, clan-based social structure. Their shamanistic and animistic belief system which stressed respect for the land and its resources, and incoporated shamans called Tadibya. They held the reindeer and Samoyed dog up in the highest esteem, breeding the dog to help herd the reindeer and pull sleds across the snow. Later, European explorers used the dogs for artic explorations since they were so well adapted to the environment. The N'enyts migrated seasonally along the natural routes of the reindeer, and were excellent hunters and fishers.

The N'enyts langauge is called n'enytsia vada, and has numerous dialects. The language reflects the traditional n'enyts culture, with many descriptions and words for nature, animals, hunting and reindeer references. A rise in bil-lingualism of the N'enyts made Russian the largest influence on the language. The language was based loosely on pictographs for centuries, until an effort to create a written paradigm was created in the 1930's, using the latin alphabet and Russian orthography. .

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The works of M. A. Castrén are still of authority on the Samoyedes. See Grammatik der samojedischen Sprachen (1854); Wörterverzeichnisse aus den samojedischen Sprachen (1855); Ethnologische Vorlesungen über die altaischen Völker (1857); Versuch der koibalischen und karagassischen Sprachlehre (1857).
• A. Middendorf, Reise in den düstersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens. (1875).
• Janhunen, Juha: Glottal stop in Nenets. - Helsinki : Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1986. - 202 p. - (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran toimituksia ; 196). - ISBN 951-9403-03-5
• Salminen, Tapani: Tundra Nenets inflection. - Helsinki : Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1997. - 154 S. - (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran toimituksia ; 227). - ISBN 952-5150-02-X
• Sammallahti, Pekka: Material from Forest Nenets. - Helsinki, 1974. - 140 p. - (Castrenianumin Toimitteita ; 2). - ISBN 951-45-0282-5

External links

• UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages: Northeast Asia
• Endangered Uralic Peoples
• Jarkko Niemi: The types of the Nenets songs. 1997
• Minority languages of Russia on the Net
• The Red Book of the peoples of the Russian Empire

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Nenets_people  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Nenets"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.