Characteristic features of Mansi's appearance. The Mansi people: the embodiment of a myth
Siberian branch
MANSI PEOPLE: EMBODIMENT OF MYTH
(electronic version of the book)
I.N. Gemuev
To the one who sees the gods in the coming age,
We are now happy to tell you
about the origin of the gods.
Rig Veda, X, 72
© I.N. Gemuev
Institute of Archeology and Ethnography
Novosibirsk
1.1. Mansi…………………………………………………………….2
1.2. How the Lombovozh fortress came into being*………………………..15
1.3. Mansi and Nenets………………………………………….……………….15
1.4. About the war between the Sosvinsky and Kondinsky
heroes……………………………………………………….16
2. Mansi universe……………………………………………22
3. Mansi people: Gods and people
3.1. A man surveying the world……………………………..38
3.2. Mother goddesses……………………………………………………53
3.3. Bogatyrs, heroes, ancestors………………………………………63
3.4. Clawed old man…………………………………………….65
3.5. Family spirits……………………………………………………………..67
3.6. Spirits of the taiga………………………………………………………..79
3.7. Circulation of the soul……………………………………………………………..81
About unknown people...
Muncie
Not everyone knows about Mansi. Even in Siberia, not everyone can answer the question: where do these people live and what do they do? And not many people know that the Mansi are the closest relatives not only of their neighbors - the Khanty, but also of the Hungarians living on the Danube, thousands of kilometers from the Urals - the Siberian border.
And it was like this. Three thousand years ago in the south Western Siberia(in the forest-steppe zone), on the southern slopes of the Urals, in the steppes of North-Western Kazakhstan lived a large community of people united natural conditions habitat, nature of occupation, common language and self-name. These were the ancient Ugrians - farmers and cattle breeders (they, in particular, knew horse breeding). However, it was then, at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, or even 100 - 200 years earlier (as linguists who study the history of the development of languages say), 1 the demarcation of the Ugric community had already begun. It is unlikely that it will ever be possible to find out all the reasons that determined this process, but climate change in Eurasia played an important role in it - humidification in the north, in forests and aridization of steppes and forest-steppes, where the Ugrians lived 2. Under these conditions, one group of Ugrians (the ancestors of future Hungarians) began to move to pastoral nomadic cattle breeding, and the other, without which there would be no modern Mansi and Khanty, began to move to the North 3. This path, which ran on both sides of the Urals, apparently took more than a thousand years. Archaeological sites in the south of the forest zone of Western Siberia, which can be confidently compared with the traditional culture of the Mansi and Khanty, date back precisely to the first centuries of the new era 4. By the middle of the 1st millennium, the Ugrians penetrated into the European and Asian Urals, reached the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina and Pechora in Europe, and the mouth of the Ob in Asia.
Meanwhile, the group of Ugrians, which later formed the basis of the Hungarian people, also did not remain in place. During the era of the “great migration of peoples”, at the end of the 4th century. new era, these Ugrians migrated to the Kuban and the Black Sea region, and then (this was already at the end of the 9th century) ended up on the Danube. They included and assimilated the Slavic and other tribes that inhabited the local region, as a result of which the Hungarian people gradually emerged.
However, let's return to the ancestors of the Mansi and Khanty. Gradually moving north, they everywhere encountered tribes (they are usually called Ural) who lived here even earlier. The Urals, unlike the alien herders, were hunters and fishermen. Moreover, their language was different from that of the Ugrians. And so, due to historical circumstances, two such dissimilar ethnocultural communities were destined not only to come into contact, but also to interact for many centuries. This process included cultural exchange, linguistic interactions, and marriage contacts.
Over time, the Ugrians lost their former skills as cattle breeders and mastered hunting and fishing, which formed the basis of the economic activities of the Urals. This is not surprising, because with a low level of development of society, the ecological environment has a decisive influence on production activities of people. At the same time, the aliens managed to largely preserve their language.
It should be noted that on the new territory for the Ugrians, not one people was formed, but two - the Mansi (their territory included the Urals, the Urals, the Kama basin, the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina and Pechora, and beyond the Urals - Siberian rivers Tura and Tobol) 5 and Khanty (in the Middle and Lower Ob region). Subsequently, starting from the 11th century, under pressure from the Komi-Zyryans, the Mansi began to gradually retreat beyond the Urals. In the end, to XVII century they settled mainly on the left bank of the Ob along its tributaries, and the Khanty occupied the right bank basin of this great river 6 .
The traditional cultures of these Ugric, or more precisely, New Ugric peoples (they are also called Ob or Siberian Ugrians) are very close to each other. However, attention should be paid to the amazing persistence of the Mansi (as well as the Hungarian) language and identity. Despite such distant migrations... and mixing with the aboriginal population, speakers of the Mansi and Hungarian languages preserved them, passing them on to the local population.” In other words, the Mansi (and the Hungarians) retained more “genes of the Ugric ethnic group” * than the Khanty, whose ancestors dissolved to a much greater extent among the Ural tribes of the West Siberian taiga” 7 . An impressive, although far from the only, evidence of the peculiar conservation of the ancient Ugric heritage among the Mansi and Hungarians (Magyars) is the similarity of the self-names of these peoples. Researchers rightfully compare the modern ethnonyms * * “Magyar” and “Mansi” 8, which go back to the common ancestral form “Manse” 9.
It can be assumed with reasonable confidence that the Mansi as a people emerged around the 10th – 11th centuries. AD 10 This means that they now represented a community of people speaking the same language, engaged in the same crafts, and having the same (or close and understandable) customs. They had the same idea of the origins of their people and saw the world in the same way. At the same time, the emergence of the Mansi people from two heterogeneous parts (Ugrians and Uralians) was reflected in their mythology and social order. The entire Mansi (as well as the Khanty) society was divided into two halves - phratries * ** Por and Mos. People lived in small villages or individual families, but at the same time, the residents of each village (paula) clearly understood which phratry they belonged to. Such knowledge was necessary because marriages took place between representatives of opposite phratries: Mos men married Por women and vice versa. The Por phratry was made up of the descendants of the Ural aborigines, and the Mos phratry was made up of the descendants of the Ugrians. Of course, as a result of marriage contacts that lasted for thousands of years, representatives of various phratries turned out to be close in their anthropological type and others physical characteristics, had the same cultural skills. This precisely meant the emergence of a single people. At the same time, since historically conditioned marriage regulation was preserved in society, without which society physically could not exist and reproduce, people realized both the presence of two halves of society and the belonging of each to one of them.
In a traditional society * everything social institutions, like significant human actions, are always sanctified by myth. Nobody knows when and how the division of society into two halves appeared. But in order for each generation of people to take this for granted and follow these institutions, some kind of explanation accepted as an axiom is necessary. Myth plays the role of this axiom. In myth, first of all, we are talking about how this or that rule of behavior was established by certain, again mythical ancestors. In vital situations, such as the start of a war, the founding of a new village, marriage, people’s behavior seems to come down to repeating the actions of their ancestors, or rather, to simulating these actions. In such cases, people “return,” interrupting the natural course of life, to “how it was,” “how it happened,” “how it was done” in the mythical beginning. Numerous rituals and ceremonies serve precisely this goal - to achieve compliance of human affairs with a certain initially established norm, consecrated by myth. This is what keeps tradition alive.
There are many legends about the origin of the Mansi, or rather Ob-Ugric, phratries. It is believed that the ancestor of the Por phratry was a bear (or she-bear), and the ancestor of Mos was the woman Kaltash, who could appear in the form of a goose, a hare or a butterfly. Another Mansi legend says that the first marriage was between a man Mos and his sister. A son was born from this marriage. The brother killed his wife-sister and son (thereby the myth denies consanguineous marriages). From the blood of his sister-wife, the plant Porikh grew, which was eaten by a bear, who then gave birth to a daughter - the first woman Por 11. People killed the bear, but she, knowing about her impending death, ordered her daughter not to eat her meat, and for a long time the ban on eating bear meat, the meat of a mythical ancestor, remained mandatory for the people of the Porus phratry.
Later, the attitude towards the bear changed somewhat. They began to hunt it, or, in any case, get it if the hunter happened to encounter a bear in the taiga (discover a den). At the same time, people still had the idea that killing a bear was a crime, because it was an ancestor. Therefore, there were special rituals of “purification” - everyone taking part in the hunt threw snow at each other or (if it was summer) splashed water 12.
People greeted the news of the rare catch with joy - after all, it meant that a holiday had arrived. Residents of other villages were also invited to it; no one was out of place here. The hunter-preyer was surrounded with special respect and honor. It was in his house that the festive celebration was held. At the same time, the skin of the animal with its head was placed on a raised platform - a bunk (pal) near the wall opposite the entrance, in the place of honor. The bear seemed to be watching what was happening. His head lay on his paws (it was in this position that he was depicted on bronze plaques two thousand years ago). A treat was placed on a small table in front of the bear, and the walls were hung with sable and fox skins - the owner of the taiga thus appeared as an honored guest of the holiday.
In accordance with the information, songs, dances, and dramatic scenes were performed - all this corresponded to the developed ritual. In between, those present were treated to alcohol and meat (men were given the front part, and women were given the back, less honorable, part of the carcass). The bear was presented with gifts (pieces of fabric, and if a she-bear was a guest - scarves, beads, rings). These gifts were placed in a special box, and women were supposed to put them separately. The duration of the holiday was five days if the “guest” was a bear, and four days if the “guest” was a bear (according to other sources, 7 and 5 days, respectively) 13.
However, the special attitude towards the bear, characteristic of members of the Por phratry, was not always shared by people who were part of the other half of society - the Mos phratry, descendants of the ancient Ugrians. And although this circumstance is not recorded in any historical documents, folklore speaks eloquently about it. It is in fairy tales and songs, which seem to have a general Mansi affiliation, that sometimes echoes of the heterogeneity of this society, different perceptions of the same life situations, break through. If for the people of Por the killing of a bear is a misfortune that turns into a holiday, then the behavior of the Mos people is characterized differently in the legends. It would be a thankless task to retell these works of Mansi folklore; it would be better to cite one of them - the “Song of the City Hero” performed at the bear festival, which talks about the hero’s abuse of a killed bear and revenge for this. The narration comes from the bear's point of view.
An old man, a city hero, lives in a fortress,
Surrounded by iron walls
Surrounded by a wooden palisade.
From an early age he was a wonderful hunter:
He did not let a single animal pass by him,
Running on the ground
He did not let a single bird pass by him,
Flying in the air.
One day in a hot, long summer,
One day in a hot mosquito summer
It's coming good time for braking.
The old man goes to the torch river.
The river meanders like goose guts
The river meanders like duck guts.
He rides along it on his prowed boat with a bow:
Not a single animal has been encountered yet,
The wing of no bird is found.
Your narrow boat, like a knife blade,
I really wanted to turn back.
Me, a one-year-old mighty beast.
I walked along the bank of a river with banks.
The city hero threw an arrow at me
With a tip faceted like a raven's beak.
The tip is faceted, like the nose of a raven,
Pierced the sanctuary of the * mighty beast.
I fell to the ground
With the good mood of a quiet breeze.
A long-nosed boat approached the shore,
The city hero came ashore,
Hooked me to the bow
And he threw it behind his back.
Then he sits down in the middle of the boat with the middle
And returns home.
When I arrived at the pier of a city with a pier,
Then he roughly threw me ashore
And there he tore off my sacred clothes.
Head and skin chopped up with an ax
And threw it into a small tent,
Where do mothers live?
Where do women live during menstruation?
The rest of the meat was chopped into small pieces
And threw it out for the dogs
In the middle of the village with a median.
Daughters-in-law of the city hero
They wipe their dirty feet on my skin.
Daughters-in-law of the city hero
After washing your clothes
They pour dirty water on my skin.
Father Numi-Torum *,
If you allow such abuse?
Father Numi-Torum,
Have mercy on me
And punish this criminal
The evil city hero!
Angry Spirit of a Mighty Beast
Sent to dense forest with dark trees.
He finds seven of his lairs
And convenes the whole bear clan
To war with the city hero.
Seven angry bears are coming
Take in a bloody attack
Fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by iron walls,
Fortress of the city hero,
Even though they are approaching the fortress,
Even though they climb on her walls,
But the city hero is not a coward either.
With numerous sons.
They shower them with arrows,
Their spotted paws and toes are chopped off,
My angry spirit is running
In the form of a tailed mouse,
Runs into the dark corners of the dense forest.
He goes around all seven of its corners,
Finds all seven of his dens.
They're coming to the rescue
Seven more bears are my brothers.
But it was not there:
As soon as it gets through
So now it breaks through
Iron arrowhead.
The bear clan retreats with heavy losses.
I'm running again
IN beautiful image tailed mouse
Into a dense forest with dark trees.
Listen, Father Numi-Torum,
City hero
He insulted me, a forest animal,
He insulted me, a meadow animal.
If indeed
You called me a sacred beast
If indeed
Appointed as Oathkeeper,
Then take revenge for this insult!
Father Numi-Torum,
Put it down on the ground
My big brother with the crooked neck.
Only he can defeat the city hero.
Father Numi-Torum
Drops from the sky on an iron chain,
In a cradle woven from tree roots,
My older brother.
Besieged by big brother
Fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by iron walls,
He destroys the fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by a wooden palisade.
Even though the heroes rush
Arrows with iron tips,
Yes in vain:
Only the wool on his clothes is torn off;
Continue to fight with spears, but in vain:
Spears bounce off his clothes.
The old man, the hero of the city, got scared
And he ran away to the outskirts of the city with its backyards.
My older brother is also rushing
On the outskirts of a city with backyards.
The old man, the hero of the city, is hiding in a barn.
The older brother also drops in
With a curved neck.
The old man, the hero of the city, says:
If, however, I killed the sacred beast,
If, indeed, I am the keeper of the oath,
Then try to have a snack
The iron butt of my axe.
If you have a snack, I admit my guilt.
Big brother having a snack
Iron ax head,
Grinds iron
The grains are small, like sand,
The grains are small, like dust;
With a terrible roar,
Ready to devour the city
With a terrible roar,
Ready to devour the village,
Pounces on the hero
And tears him to shreds,
The size of shoe skins,
Tears him to shreds
The size of mitten skins.
Kai - I - Yu - them!
Thus, a continuous confrontation between the two halves, parts of Mansi society, passing through centuries, is gradually proclaimed. Ideology living its own own life, does not allow us to forget about the different origins of the components from which the people were formed. And at the same time, people included in each of the phratries have nowhere to escape from each other. In their limited space, they were doomed to interact. Moreover, they simply could not live without each other, because Mos men were supposed to take only Por women as wives and vice versa. No matter how mockingly Mos-Makhum (Mansi Mos) and Por-makhum (Mansi Por) spoke of each other, this could not in any way affect the predetermination of their relationship. Here's what the song says about it:
The eagle owl lives *.
A young woman sings powerfully * *,
Filin says:
“Young woman is powerful, compose a song for me.”
The powerful woman sings:
“An eagle owl has a crooked nose...”
Filin says:
“What kind of song are you singing!
You're not eating well!
Here I will fly
I'll ask for snow between the trees,
But you won’t be able to dig yourself out.”
The owl flew off.
He sank between the trees.
This is how the eagle owl screams:
“Poo-hoo! Poo-hoo!
My father, the highest Torum,
Cover with snow
Between the trees this night.”
It snowed.
Door of a young woman's house
Covered with snow.
She stood up and couldn’t open her door.
Somehow I got out and shoveled away the snow.
Owl thinks:
“The young woman is probably dead.”
Arrived there - and the door of the house
The young woman is powerful,
It turns out that it was dug up.
Filin says:
“The young woman is powerful,
Tell me a song and sing it well.”
“How to sing,” -
The young woman speaks powerfully.
She started singing again:
“An eagle owl has a crooked nose,
Eagle owl - furry shins,
Eagle owl - mottled eyes,
Eagle owl - big ears..."
Filin says:
“What kind of song are you singing!
You're not eating well!
I'll ask for snow again.
Let the snow fall to the top of the trees
And you won't be able to
Open the door of your house."
The eagle owl flew and landed on the top.
This is how the eagle owl screams:
“Poo-hoo! Poo-hoo!
My father, the highest Torum!
Fall with snow to the top of the trees.”
Snow fell to the top of the trees.
A powerful young woman stood up -
Turns out it's snowing
Up to the height of the house roof.
Even though she tried to go outside, she couldn’t.
The owl has arrived
He went down to the roof of the house.
Filin says:
“The young woman is powerful,
Compose me a song
And sing well.”
The young woman began to sing:
“Owl - motley eyes,
On the edge of these bunks where I sit.
Sit down, good husband,
Ordained by God."
The owl flew up and sank down.
He waved his wing here, waved there.
All the snow was brushed away.
A young woman powerfully went out into the street -
And they lived together.
And now 15 live happily and prosperously.
...And yet the spiritual life of each phratry took place largely independently. There were phratrial sanctuaries. On the right bank of the Ob in the village of Vezhakory until recently there was a cult center of the Por phratry. Here, in a public house, the occupant of which was a specially chosen custodian, in a special box there was an image of Kongseng-oyka (Clawed Old Man) - a rolled up bearskin with a head stuffed with hay and laid on its paws. Regularly, every 7 years, ritual ceremonies were held here, accompanied by large dances (yana-ekt). This ritual, close in form to the rituals of the bear festival, was, however, more complex. This place is still considered sacred and revered. Nowadays, periodic holidays, to which people from different villages came, have ceased. The last time they took place was in 1965. 16
The Mos phratria also had its own cult center. It was located in Belogorye, not far from the mouth of the Irtysh. The main fetish here was the famous copper goose *. The fact is that Kaltash-ekva, the phratrial ancestor of Mos, and her son Mir-Susne-Khum, the most significant character of the Mansi pantheon, could appear in the guise of a goose. However, we will talk about it later. The copper goose was known as a fortuneteller, therefore the priest-guardians of the sanctuary, in the words of the author of a 17th-century source, “talk and ask about all sorts of affairs with their fools, and in that shamanism those idiots and in Belogorye give a rebuke to the copper goose” 17 . The fame of the “copper goose” was so great that in 1704, in pursuance of the decree of Peter I, which demanded “to find the most knowledgeable shamans,” the Siberian governors M. Cherkasskikh and I. Obryutin sent “to the Belogorsk volost interpreter * * Alexei Rozhin, with him horse Cossack Stepan Murzintsev “by the devils by Kulanka Pykhleev and who has a copper goose by Pyanka Masterkova.” True, these “shaitans”, during interrogation in the executive chamber, made the excuse that “they don’t know anything to talk about with their idiots and don’t know how to tell fortunes, and they haven’t spoken to a copper goose and don’t know how to talk, and they don’t know how to talk to the devils.” they keep prayers from long ago and according to their faith” 18.
The copper goose must have had an impressive appearance; a special nest was made for it from cloth, canvas, and leather. In honor of this idol, animal sacrifices were made, especially horses. The Belogorsk sanctuary existed back in the tenth years of the 18th century, in any case, G. Novitsky in his “Brief Description of the Ostyak People” wrote: “The goose, their idolized idol, was sculptured from copper in the likeness of a goose; have a bad dwelling in the Belogorsk yurts during the great roar of the Oba” 19. It should be noted that this sanctuary was visited not only by the Mansi, but also by the Khanty who belonged to the Mos phratry * ** (in the same way, the cult center in Vezhakory was a place of peculiar pilgrimage for people who were part of the Por phratry, regardless of whether they were Mansi or Khanty ).
Let us note that the regulation of spiritual life and religious and ritual practice in accordance with the phratrial division of society did not at all mean the complete isolation of one phratry from another in these areas. After all, the Mansi formed into a single people, and the awareness of community was manifested in the existence of inter-phratrial places of worship that united people regardless of their belonging to one phratry or another.
One of these sanctuaries was called Torum-Kan (God's place) and was located near the village of Lombovozh on the river. Lyapin. Torum-kan operated back in the twenties of our century, now only a powerful support remained, against which the trunks of specially cut down trees were leaning - images of Mansi gods were attached to them. In their honor, animal sacrifices (deer) were made, and a fire was lit here, on which sacrificial food was cooked.
There were two paths leading to the sanctuary. Along each of them walked people from one of the phratries. This happened twice a year: at the beginning of August and shortly after the New Year. Residents of many villages located in the basins of the Sosva and Lyapina rivers gathered to visit Torum-kan. In addition to ritual actions, boat competitions were organized (if it happened in the summer). Each village fielded a team of 12 people. The boats were prepared in advance. 10 rowers sat in pairs and each worked with one oar; in addition, there was a helmsman at the stern, and a musician with a sangultap * at the bow. During the race, he played a rhythmic melody and in this way set the pace for the rowers.
One may get the impression that the phratrial structure of Mansi society, going back to the depths of time, which, by the way, permeated it until recently, was almost the only result social development Mansi people. Actually this is not true. Already in the 11th century. Novgorodians became aware of the Ugric, including Mansi, principalities. In the 17th century Ugra * * became dependent on Novgorod - its population paid tribute to the Novgorodians. However, Ugra’s dependence on Novgorod was limited to “trips of Novgorod danshiks to collect yasak” 21 . In parallel with this, however, there was trade, mutually beneficial exchange of goods, and this is what ensured the relative stability of ties.
Russian sources of that time contain practically no information about the social structure of the Ob-Ugric, and therefore Mansi, society. Only a few details mentioned in them allow us to assume with great caution what the character social organization Ugrians of that time. Thus, in the Novgorod chronicle the “Prince of Ugra” is mentioned. If we proceed from the fact that the Russians, when assessing a reality alien to them, used their own ideas and standards, then the prince of Ugra in the 12th century. - this is at least a military leader, because in Veliky Novgorod the prince performed precisely these functions 22.
The image of the prince was preserved in people's memory Ugric This is how the outstanding historian S.V. saw it through the prism of folklore. Bakhrushin: “The princes stand out for their splendor: epics speak about the luxury of their clothing, about the barns where their wealth is stored, about the silk curtains, woven and decorated with bells, separating the female half from the male half in their houses, about the treasures of their household gods. Among the poorly armed warriors, the prince again stands out, “wearing a ringing chain mail of shiny rings.” He is surrounded by servants who provide him with food and serve him. His wealth allows him the luxury of polygamy. The exceptional position of the princes has developed in them a refined psychology and refinement of manners; they are scrupulous in execution of this word, are delicate in food, when you need to give orders, they do it with gestures and eyes. Peculiar knights of the northern tundras, they fight over women, although in family and social life a woman occupies a humble position" 23.
The size of the principalities was small. In legends and epics we're talking about about an army of 50 - 300 people, but folklore is characterized by exaggeration and hyperbolization rather than vice versa. Social composition principalities was simple: prince, simple people and a few princely slaves. Note that the structure of society, especially traditional society, is often reflected in religious ideas people, because religion is a reflection in the minds of people of “those external forces that dominate them in everyday life.” (F. Engels). Gods and spirits live by the same rules as people. And how could it be otherwise - after all, from the point of view of people, it is the gods who are always credited with establishing existing order(“All authority is from God”). The Mansi have sanctuaries in which all categories and classes of society are represented with images of spirits, as it was long before the annexation of Siberia to Russia.
Not far from the village of Khozhlog there is a sanctuary of the hero Paipyn-oyka - the owner and protector of this village. According to local myth, the Khozlog hero is none other than the “assistant”, subordinate of Khont-Torum (god of war), a prince-hero of a higher status. In turn, Paipin-oyka also has subordinates, and even of different ranks. Among them is Mis-khum *, who appears as a warrior. The top of Mis-khum's head is tightly wrapped in a piece of white fabric, giving the impression of a military helmet, while his body is wrapped in pieces of white, variegated and red fabric. In addition, Mis-khum is wearing a white robe with a belt.
In the “service” of Paipyn-oyka was Kakyn-pungk-oyka (literally: lousy bald man) - a worker, or rather, a slave. Its extremely low social status emphasized by old worn out clothes. A good dozen old fur hats lie on the ground next to him. Unlike Mis-khum, to whom visitors to the cult place brought new scraps of fabric from time to time, Kakyn-pungk-oyke was not entitled to anything new. Moreover, visitors to the sanctuary awarded him derogatory epithets. It is difficult to imagine a more striking manifestation of the social inequality suffered by people from their real life to the world of the gods.
Kakyn-pungk-oyka personifies the lowest class of traditional Mansi society. Just look at his name: “lousy bald guy.” The definition of "lousy" speaks for itself, and the second epithet - bald - is not accidental. As V.N. found out Chernetsov, in the ideas of the Mansi and Khanty, a person’s hair is connected with one of his souls (a man has 5, a woman has 4). A person deprived of hair loses this so-called “little” soul. He becomes weak, timid, and loses his masculine strength. At the same time, the attributes of warrior heroes in heroic legends are braids. It was the “oblique heroes” who possessed special power and were surrounded by honor.
So, in the three figures of the rural sanctuary, the three classes of Mansi society turned out to be embodied - here we saw a prince (a vassal of the even more powerful Khont-Torum), a warrior and a slave. Only ordinary community members who made up the majority of society are not here. This, however, is understandable - after all, it was they who erected sanctuaries, populating them with characters of their religious and mythological ideas. They were also “subjects” of each “master” they created, which is why their own images are not on places of worship - living people do not need artificially created substitutes 24.
Studying the social system of the Khanty and Mansi, S.V. Bakhrushin discovered only in the Koda principality, which existed back in the 17th century, all four classes (princes, warriors, community members, slaves). This Khanty principality was distinguished by its unusually large size (its territory extended from the mouth of the Ob to its tributary in the middle reaches - the Vakh River). The attributes of religious places convince us that the Mansi principalities could have had no less developed social structure, according to which society turned out to be quite clearly stratified. True, not all Mansi associations have reached such a level, from which, it would seem, it is quite a short distance from a real state.
Here, perhaps, it is worth recalling that the state arises when the accumulation of wealth occurs in society and, in accordance with this, the property differentiation of the people who make it up, when the contradictions in it become antagonistic, and the need (and opportunity) arises for the emergence of a special a layer of people not engaged in production - professional military men, officials, police officers, etc. It is they who together make up what is commonly called the “apparatus,” without which there is no state. About the Mansi (as well as the Khanty) principalities * we can say that they reached the point of pre-state formations. By analogy, they can be compared with the ancient Kiev principality at the time of the arrival of the Varangians in Kievan Rus.
The center of the Mansi principality was a town fortified with a moat and tyn. The residence of the prince was located here, and the sanctuary was also located here - a place of worship for the entire population of the principality. Most of the prince’s “subjects” lived in small villages, scattered far from one another. The unification of principalities was a frequent occurrence. Thus, the Pelym principality, known for its power, also included the principalities of Kondinskoye and Tabarinskoye, each of which had its own prince.
Before talking about the relations between the principalities, it should be said that although the aborigines of the taiga improved the tools of labor, combined them within a single economic structure different types economic activity, they still have not moved to the level of producing economy. Their economy remained appropriative - it included hunting, fishing, collecting nuts and berries. In other words, the well-being of the Mansi, like other taiga peoples of Siberia, depended entirely on the wealth or scarcity of nature. And if we take into account that the taiga peoples had the opportunity to exchange furs for goods that were brought by merchants from Iran, and later Central Asia, then the orientation of the taiga population towards the production of fur-bearing animals becomes understandable. At the same time, the desire to expand the fur trade and increase the production of animals came into conflict with the biological resources of a particular hunting area. It was impossible to increase the amount of extracted products through even more intensive use of land. Therefore, the problem of territories has always existed and each time arose anew. All this created a situation of “war of all against all.”
The folklore of the indigenous population of Western Siberia has brought to us numerous and vivid descriptions of military clashes: the cruelty and mercilessness of the enemy, who kills all the inhabitants, not even leaving a “dog tied to a pole,” pictures of destroyed villages with squares dotted with victims. The attackers sought to exterminate the male population, starting with the leader, plundered property, captured and took away the surviving women and children (sometimes men), turning them into slaves. They fought with foreigners and with each other. During ethnographic expeditions to the Mansi, we often heard about how their ancestors fought in “heroic times.” Here are some of these legends.
The self-name of this people - Mianchi, Mansi - means “man”. IN scientific literature The Mansi are united with the Khanty under common name Ob Ugrians.
Mansi, Cherdynsky district of Perm province, beginning of the 20th century.
The Russians called them Yugra (i.e. Ugrians), and then - Voguls, from the name of the Vogulka River, the left tributary of the Ob.
Tools and weapons of the ancient Mansi: 1- spear; 2 - kochedyk; 3,4 - knives; 5 - ax; 6 - axe-adze;
7 - fishing hook; 8-10 - knife handles; 11 - spoon; 12 - seat; 1. 3-7, 12 - iron; 2 - bone; 8-11 - bronze.
In the old days the Mansi were warlike people. In the XIV-XVI centuries, the lands of Perm the Great were subjected to their systematic raids. The center and main base of these campaigns was the Pelym principality (a large Mansi association on the Pelym River). It got to the point that in 1483, the great sovereign Ivan III Vasilyevich had to equip a large army, which passed through the lands of the Pelym Mansi with fire and sword.
The eastern part of the map of Muscovy by S. Herberstein. Yugra - in the upper
right corner
However, the Pelym princes remained unconquered for a long time.
This is not Lenin, this is a Mansi prince or warrior.
Almost a century later, in 1572-73, the Pelym prince Bekhbeley waged a real war with the Stroganov merchants, rulers of the Upper Kama region, besieged Cherdyn and other Russian towns, but was defeated and died in captivity. Then the Mansi-Voguls took part in the campaigns against Chusovaya by the troops of the Siberian Khan Mametkul. Even after Ermak’s campaign through the Mansi lands, the Pelym prince made a last desperate attempt at resistance. In 1581, he besieged the Ural towns, but was defeated, captured and forced to take an oath of allegiance to the Moscow Tsar. The entry of the Mansi lands beyond the Urals into the Russian state was finally secured by the foundation of the cities of Tobolsk, Pelym, Berezov and Surgut at the end of the 16th century.
17th century engraving with a view of Tobolsk
With the cessation of wars, the military tribal elite of the Mansi gradually lost their power. The memory of the “heroic” time remained only in folklore.
By the end of the 17th century, the number of local Russians already exceeded the number of the indigenous population. In the next century, the Mansi were converted to Christianity.
The Soviet government showed attention to the national and cultural problems of Mansi. In 1940, the Khanty-Mansi National (and later Autonomous) Okrug was formed on the territory of the Tyumen Region.
Over the last century total number Mansi increased from seven thousand to eight thousand three hundred people. However, despite this, the process of assimilation has become threatening: today only 3,037 people recognize the Mansi language as their native language.
The traditional Mansi culture combines the culture of taiga hunters and fishermen with the culture of steppe nomadic pastoralists. This is most clearly manifested in the cult of the horse and the heavenly rider - Mir susne khuma.
And yet, the majority of Mansi are, in the true sense of the word, “river people.”
Their whole life flows in the rhythm of the breathing of the Ob and its tributaries, subject to the rise and fall of water, the freezing and clearing of ice from rivers and lakes, the movement of fish and the arrival of birds. The Mansi calendar looks like this: “The month of the opening of the Ob”, “the month of the flood”, “the month of the arrival of geese and ducks”, “the month of fish spawning”, “the month of sturgeon spawning”, “the month of burbot”, etc. According to Mansi beliefs, the Earth itself appeared among the primordial ocean from silt, which was taken out by a loon that dived after it three times.
Kurikov family, Pelym River.
From the archives of the research expedition "Mansi - Forest People"
travel company "Team of Adventure Seekers", www.adventurteam.ru.
Fishing techniques and gear were different. Mansi from the lower reaches of the rivers went to the Ob for seasonal fishing. During the fishing period, they lived in summer dwellings, catching fish and storing it for future use. Before the freeze-up they returned to their winter place of residence. Fish stocks far exceeded the needs of personal consumption, and most of the fish were sold.
Both Russian and foreign travelers deservedly called the Mansi “fish eaters.” One of them calculated that during the summer fish season, an adult man “can eat at least half a pound, or 8 kg, of fish per day only in its raw form, without bones and heads.”
Fish figurines cast for the purpose of obtaining a catch.
Particularly popular among the Mansi is the Sosva herring - a tugun fish from the salmon family, caught in the Sosva River (a tributary of the Ob). Fat is rendered from the entrails, which is consumed pure or mixed with berries. Meat is eaten boiled, raw, frozen, and also dried, dried and smoked.
Mansi consume fresh meat and blood from domestic reindeer mainly on holidays. Mushrooms used to be considered unclean food, but now this prohibition is not strictly adhered to. Bread has been popular for quite a long time; flour is used to make a thick mash called straw. The main drink of Mansi is tea, which is brewed very strongly.
Mansi, Suevatpaul camp. Oven for cooking.
True, it is quite difficult for Mansi to eat and drink to their heart’s content. After all, according to their ideas, a man has as many as five souls, and a woman has four.
Mansi (Mans, Mendsi, Moans, obsolete - Voguls, Vogulichs) - a small people in Russia, indigenous people Ugra - Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region. Closest relatives of the Khanty.
The self-name "Mansi" (in Mansi - "man") comes from the same ancient form as the self-name of the Hungarians - Magyars. Usually, the name of the self-name of the people is added to the name of the area where this group comes from, for example, Sakw Mansit - Sagvin Mansi. When dealing with other peoples, the Mansi call themselves “Mansi makhum” - Mansi people.
In scientific literature, the Mansi and the Khanty are united under the common name Ob Ugrians.
Population
According to the 2010 population census, the number of Mansi in the Russian Federation is 12,269 people.
The Mansi are settled in the Ob River basin, mainly along its left tributaries, the Konda and Northern Sosva rivers, as well as in the area of the city of Berezova. A small group of Mansi (about 200 people) lives among the Russian population in Sverdlovsk region on the Ivdel River near Tagil.
Language
The Mansi language (Mansi), along with Khanty and Hungarian, belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural-Yukaghir family of languages.
Among the Mansi, several ethnographic groups stand out: the northern with the Sosvinsky, Upper Lozvinsky and Tavdinsky dialects, the eastern with the Kondinsky dialect and the western with the Pelymsky, Vagilsky, Middle Lozvinsky and Lower Lozvinsky dialects. But the discrepancy between dialects is so great that it interferes with mutual understanding.
Writing, like the Khanty one, was created in 1931 based on the Latin alphabet. Since 1937, writing has been based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
The literary language is based on the Sosva dialect.
In modern Russia, many Mansi speak only Russian, and over 60% of Mansi consider it their native language.
Mansi ethnogenesis
The Mansi are representatives of the Ural contact race, but unlike the Khanty, to whom they are very close in many cultural parameters, including a common ethnonym - Ob Ugrians, they are more Caucasoid and, along with Finnish peoples The Volga region is included in the Urals group.
There is no consensus among scientists about the exact time of formation of the Mansi people in the Urals. It is believed that the Mansi and their related Khanty arose from the merger about 2-3 thousand years ago of the indigenous Neolithic tribes of the taiga Cis-Urals and the ancient Ugric tribes that were part of the Andronovo cultures of the forest-steppe of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia (about 2 thousand years BC).
At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. There was a collapse of the Ugric community and the separation of the ancestors of the Khanty, Mansi and Hungarians from it. The Hungarian tribes eventually moved far to the west, eventually reaching the Danube. Mansi were distributed to southern Urals and its western slopes, in the Kama region, Pripechorye, on the tributaries of the Kama and Pechora (Vishera, Kolva, etc.), on the Tavda and Tura. The Khanty lived to the northeast of them.
Starting from the end of the 1st millennium, under the influence of Turkic, including Tatar tribes, then Komi and Russians, the Mansi began to move to the north, assimilating and displacing the Ural aborigines, as well as the Khanty, who moved further to the northeast. As a result, by the 14th-15th centuries the Khanty reached the lower reaches of the Ob, and the Mansi bordered them from the southwest.
The appearance of a new (Ugric) ethnic element in the Ob region led to a clash of ideologies. The level of socio-economic development of the Urals was significantly lower than that of the Ugric people and did not allow the aborigines to fully accept the introduced cultural and religious ideas, largely gleaned from Iranian-speaking tribes. This became the rationale for the dual-fratrial organization, in which the established community consisted of two phratries. The descendants of the ancient Ugrians formed the basis of the Mos phratry, the mythical ancestor of which was Mir-susne-khum - younger son Numi-Torum, the supreme deity of the Khanty and Mansi. The ancestor of the second phratry - Por, more associated with the Ural aborigines, was another son of the supreme deity - Yalpus-oika, who was represented in the form of a bear, revered by the Urals since pre-Ugric times. It is noteworthy that wives could only belong to the half of society opposite to the husband’s phratry.
Along with the dual-fratrial one, there was also a military-potestary organization represented by the so-called “principalities”, some of which offered armed resistance to the Russians. After the annexation of Siberia to Russia, the tsarist administration put up with the existence of Ugric principalities for some time, but ultimately they were all transformed into volosts, the heads of which began to be called princes. As colonization intensified, the numerical ratio of Mansi and Russians changed, and by the end of the 17th century, the latter prevailed throughout the entire territory. The Mansi gradually moved to the North and East, some were assimilated.
Life and economy
The traditional Mansi economic complex included hunting, fishing and reindeer herding. On the Ob and in the lower reaches of Northern Sosva, fishing predominated. In the upper reaches of the rivers, the main source of subsistence was hunting deer and elk. Hunting for upland and waterfowl. Hunting for fur-bearing animals also has a long tradition among the Mansi. Mansi fish was caught all year round.
Reindeer husbandry, adopted by the Mansi from the Nenets, became widespread relatively late and became the main occupation of a very small part of the Mansi, mainly in the upper reaches of the Lozva, Severnaya Sosva and Lyapin rivers, where there were favorable conditions for maintaining large herds. In general, the number of deer among the Mansi was small; they were used mainly for transport purposes.
The traditional dwelling of the Mansi in the pre-Russian period was a half-dugout with various options roof fastenings. Later, the main permanent winter and sometimes summer dwelling of the Mansi became a log house made of logs or thick blocks with a gable roof. Such a house was built without a ceiling, with a very flat gable roof, covered along wooden slats with strips of selected birch bark, sewn into large panels. A row of thin poles was placed on top of the birch bark - a knurling rod. The roof along the façade protruded slightly forward, forming a canopy. Windows were made in one or both side walls of the house. Previously, in winter, ice floes were inserted into windows (instead of glass); in summer, window openings were covered with fish bladder. The entrance to the dwelling was usually located in the pediment wall and was facing south.
Mansi reindeer herders lived in a Samoyed-type tent. Mansi fishermen lived in the same tents, covered with birch bark, in the lower reaches of the Ob River in the summer. On the hunt, on a quick fix, they built temporary dwellings - barriers or huts made of poles. They made them from branches and bark, seeking only to obtain shelter from snow and rain.
Traditional Mansi women's clothing is a dress with a yoke, a cotton or cloth robe, and in winter a double Sakhi fur coat. The clothes were richly ornamented with beads, stripes made of colored fabric and multi-colored fur. The headdress was a large scarf with a wide border and fringe, folded diagonally into an unequal triangle. Men wore shirts similar in cut to women's dresses, pants, and belts from which hunting equipment was hung. Upper men's clothing- a goose, closed-cut, tunic-like, made of cloth or deer skins with a hood.
The main means of transportation in winter were skis lined with camus or foal skin. Hand sleds were used to transport cargo. If necessary, dogs helped pull them. Reindeer herders had reindeer teams with cargo and passenger sleds. In summer the main vehicle the Kaldanka boat served.
Traditional Mansi food is fish and meat. An essential addition to fish and meat dishes There were berries: blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, bird cherry, currants.
Religion and Beliefs
The traditional Mansi worldview is based on a three-part division of the external world: upper (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underground). All worlds, according to the Mansi, are inhabited by spirits, each of which performs a specific function. The balance between the world of people and the world of gods and spirits was maintained through sacrifices. Their main purpose is to ensure good luck in business and to protect themselves from the influence of evil forces.
The traditional Mansi worldview is also characterized by shamanism, mainly family-based, and a complex of totemic ideas. The bear was most revered. In honor of this animal, bear festivals were periodically held - a complex set of rituals associated with hunting a bear and eating its meat.
Since the 18th century, the Mansi have been formally converted to Christianity. However, like the Khanty, there is a presence of religious syncretism, expressed in the adaptation of a number of Christian dogmas, with a predominance cultural function traditional worldview system. Traditional rituals and holidays have survived to this day in a modified form, they were adapted to modern views and timed to coincide with certain events.
The peoples of Mansi and Khanty are related. Few people know, but these were once great peoples of hunters. In the 15th century, the fame of the skill and courage of these people reached from beyond the Urals to Moscow itself. Today, both of these peoples are represented by a small group of residents of the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug.
The basin of the Russian Ob River was considered the original Khanty territories. The Mansi tribes settled here only at the end of the 19th century. It was then that these tribes began to advance to the northern and eastern parts of the region.
Ethnological scientists believe that the basis for the emergence of this ethnic group was the merger of two cultures - the Ural Neolithic and the Ugric tribes. The reason was the resettlement of Ugric tribes from North Caucasus and southern regions of Western Siberia. The first Mansi settlements were located on the slopes of the Ural Mountains, as evidenced by the very rich archaeological finds in this region. Thus, in the caves of the Perm region, archaeologists managed to find ancient temples. In these places of sacred significance, fragments of pottery, jewelry, weapons were found, but what is really important are numerous bear skulls with jagged marks from blows from stone axes.
The birth of a people.
For modern history There was a strong tendency to believe that the cultures of the Khanty and Mansi peoples were united. This assumption was formed due to the fact that these languages belonged to the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic language family. For this reason, scientists have put forward the assumption that since there was a community of people speaking a similar language, then there must have been a common area of their residence - a place where they spoke the Uralic parent language. However, this issue remains unresolved to this day.
The level of development of the indigenous people was quite low. In the everyday life of the tribes there were only tools made of wood, bark, bone and stone. The dishes were wooden and ceramic. The main occupation of the tribes was fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. Only in the south of the region, where the climate was milder, did cattle breeding and farming become less widespread. The first meeting with local tribes took place only in the 10th-11th centuries, when Permyaks and Novgorodians visited these lands. The newcomers called the locals “voguls,” which meant “wild.” These same “Voguls” were described as bloodthirsty destroyers of peripheral lands and savages practicing sacrificial rituals. Later, already in the 16th century, the lands of the Ob-Irtysh region were annexed to the Moscow state, after which a long era of development of the conquered territories by the Russians began. First of all, the invaders built several forts on the annexed territory, which later grew into cities: Berezov, Narym, Surgut, Tomsk, Tyumen. Instead of the once existing Khanty principalities, volosts were formed. In the 17th century, active resettlement of Russian peasants began in new volosts, as a result of which by the beginning of the next century, the number of “locals” was significantly inferior to the newcomers. At the beginning of the 17th century there were about 7,800 Khanty people; by the end of the 19th century their number was 16 thousand people. According to the latest census in the Russian Federation there are already more than 31 thousand people, and throughout the world there are approximately 32 thousand representatives of this ethnic group. The number of the Mansi people from the beginning of the 17th century to our time has increased from 4.8 thousand people to almost 12.5 thousand.
Relations with Russian colonists were not easy. At the time of the Russian invasion, Khanty society was class-based, and all lands were divided into appanage principalities. After the start of Russian expansion, volosts were created, which helped manage the lands and population much more efficiently. It is noteworthy that the volosts were headed by representatives of the local tribal nobility. Also, all local accounting and management were given to the power of local residents.
Confrontation.
After the annexation of the Mansi lands to the Moscow state, the question of converting the pagans to Christian faith. There were more than enough reasons for this, according to historians. According to some historians, one of the reasons is the need to control local resources, in particular hunting grounds. The Mansi were known in the Russian land as excellent hunters who “wasted” precious reserves of deer and sable without permission. Bishop Pitirim was sent to these lands from Moscow, who was supposed to convert the pagans to Orthodox faith, but he accepted death from the Mansi prince Asyka.10 years after the death of the bishop, Muscovites organized a new campaign against the pagans, which became more successful for Christians. The campaign ended quite soon, and the winners brought with them several princes of the Vogul tribes. However, Prince Ivan III released the pagans in peace.
During the campaign of 1467, the Muscovites managed to capture even Prince Asyka himself, who, however, was able to escape on the way to Moscow. Most likely, this happened somewhere near Vyatka. The pagan prince appeared only in 1481, when he tried to besiege and take Cherdyn by storm. His campaign ended unsuccessfully, and although his army devastated the entire area around Cherdyn, they had to flee the battlefield from the experienced Moscow army, sent to help by Ivan Vasilyevich. The army was led by experienced governors Fyodor Kurbsky and Ivan Saltyk-Travin. A year after this event, an embassy from the Vorguls visited Moscow: Asyka’s son and son-in-law, whose names were Pytkey and Yushman, arrived to the prince. Later it became known that Asyka himself went to Siberia and disappeared somewhere there, taking his people with him.
100 years have passed, and new conquerors came to Siberia - Ermak’s squad. During one of the battles between the Vorguls and Muscovites, Prince Patlik, the owner of those lands, died. Then his entire squad died along with him. However, even this campaign was not successful for the Orthodox Church. The next attempt to baptize the Vorguls was made only under Peter I. The Mansi tribes had to accept the new faith on pain of death, but instead the whole people chose isolation and went even further to the north. Those who remained abandoned pagan symbols, but were in no hurry to wear crosses. Avoided by local tribes new faith until the beginning of the 20th century, when they began to formally consider the country’s Orthodox population. The dogmas of the new religion penetrated very hard into pagan society. And for a long time, tribal shamans played an important role in the life of society.
In accordance with nature.
Most of the Khanty are still at the border late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century they led an exclusively taiga lifestyle. The traditional occupation for the Khanty tribes was hunting and fishing. Those of the tribes that lived in the Ob basin were mainly engaged in fishing. The tribes living in the north and in the upper reaches of the river hunted. Deer not only served as a source of hides and meat, it also served as a tax force on the farm.The main types of food were meat and fish; practically no plant foods were consumed. The fish was most often eaten boiled in the form of a stew or dried, and it was often eaten completely raw. The sources of meat were large animals such as elk and deer. The entrails of hunted animals were also eaten, like meat; most often they were eaten directly raw. It is possible that the Khanty did not disdain to extract the remains of plant food from the stomachs of deer for their own consumption. The meat was subjected to heat treatment, most often it was boiled, like fish.
The culture of the Mansi and Khanty is a very interesting layer. According to folk traditions, both peoples did not have a strict distinction between animals and humans. Animals and nature were especially revered. The beliefs of the Khanty and Mansi forbade them to settle near places inhabited by animals, to hunt young or pregnant animals, or to make noise in the forest. In turn, the fishing unwritten laws of the tribes prohibited the installation of a net that was too narrow, so that young fish could not pass through it. Although almost the entire mining economy of the Mansi and Khanty was based on extreme economy, this did not interfere with the development of various fishing cults, when it was necessary to donate the first prey or catch to one of the wooden idols. From here came many different tribal holidays and ceremonies, most of which were religious in nature.
The bear occupied a special place in the Khanty tradition. According to beliefs, the first woman in the world was born from a bear. The Great Bear gave fire to people, as well as many other important knowledge. This animal was highly revered and was considered a fair judge in disputes and a divider of spoils. Many of these beliefs have survived to this day. The Khanty also had others. Otters and beavers were revered as exclusively sacred animals, the purpose of which only shamans could know. The elk was a symbol of reliability and prosperity, prosperity and strength. The Khanty believed that it was the beaver that led their tribe to the Vasyugan River. Many historians are seriously concerned today about oil developments in this area, which threaten the extinction of beavers, and perhaps an entire nation.
Important role Astronomical objects and phenomena played a role in the beliefs of the Khanty and Mansi. The sun was revered in the same way as in most other mythologies, and was personified with feminine. The moon was considered a symbol of a man. People, according to the Mansi, appeared thanks to the union of two luminaries. The moon, according to the beliefs of these tribes, informed people about the dangers in the future with the help of eclipses.
Plants, in particular trees, occupy a special place in the culture of the Khanty and Mansi. Each tree symbolizes its own part of existence. Some plants are sacred, and it is forbidden to be near them, some were forbidden even to step over without permission, while others, on the contrary, had a beneficial effect on mortals. Another symbol of the male gender was the bow, which was not only a hunting tool, but also served as a symbol of good luck and strength. They used the bow to tell fortunes, the bow was used to predict the future, and women were forbidden to touch prey struck by an arrow or step over this hunting weapon.
In all actions and customs, both Mansi and Khanty strictly adhere to the following rules: “The way you treat nature today is how your people will live tomorrow.”.
MANSI (obsolete - Voguls), people in the Russian Federation (8.3 thousand people), in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (6.6 thousand people). The Mansi language of the Ob-Ugric branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Believers are Orthodox.
Origin and history
As an ethnic group, the Mansi were formed as a result of the merger of local tribes of the Ural Neolithic culture and Ugric tribes moving from the south through the steppes and forest-steppes of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan. The two-component nature (a combination of the cultures of taiga hunters and fishermen and steppe nomadic herders) in the culture of the people persists to this day.
Initially, the Mansi lived in the Urals and its western slopes, but the Komi and Russians forced them out into the Trans-Urals in the 11th-14th centuries. The earliest contacts with Russians, primarily with Novgorodians, date back to the 11th century. With the annexation of Siberia to To the Russian state at the end of the 16th century, Russian colonization intensified, and already in late XVII century, the number of Russians exceeded the number of the indigenous population. The Mansi were gradually forced out to the north and east, partially assimilated [source not specified 390 days], and were converted to Christianity in the 18th century. The ethnic formation of Mansi was influenced by various peoples.
In the Chanwen (Vogul) cave, located near the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva in Perm region traces of the presence of Voguls were discovered. According to local historians, the cave was a temple (pagan sanctuary) of the Mansi, where ritual ceremonies were held. In the cave, bear skulls with traces of blows from stone axes and spears, shards of ceramic vessels, bone and iron arrowheads, bronze plaques of the Perm animal style with an image of a moose man standing on a lizard, silver and bronze jewelry were found.
Culture and traditions
Believers are Orthodox, but traditional shamanism, the cult of patron spirits, ancestors, and the bear (bear holidays) are preserved. Rich folklore, developed mythology.
Mansi are divided into two exogamous phratries: Por and Mos, historically differing in origin, as well as customs. Marriages were concluded only between representatives of opposite phratries: Mos men married Por women and vice versa. The Por phratry was made up of the descendants of the Ural aborigines, and the Mos phratry was made up of the descendants of the Ugrians. The ancestor of the Por phratry is considered to be a bear, and the Mos phratry is considered to be the woman Kaltashch, who could appear in the form of a goose, a hare or a butterfly. Judging by the archaeological finds, which will be discussed below, the Mansi actively participated in hostilities along with neighboring peoples and knew tactics. They also distinguished the classes of princes (voevoda), heroes, and warriors. All this is reflected in folklore.
IN folk art The main place is occupied by the ornament, the motifs of which are similar to those of the related Khanty and Selkup. This - geometric figures in the form of deer antlers, rhombuses, wavy lines, meander of the Greek type, zigzag lines, often arranged in the form of a strip. Among the bronze castings, images of animals, an eagle, and a bear are more often found.
Life
Traditional activities -hunting, fishing, reindeer husbandry, agriculture, cattle breeding. Fishing is widespread inObi and on Northern Sosva. In the upper reaches Lozva, Lyapina, Northern Sosva - reindeer husbandry, it was borrowed from the Khanty inXIII- XIV centuries. Agriculture was borrowed from the Russians inXVI- XVII centuries. Livestock includes horses, cows, sheep, and birds. Commercial fish caughtgrayling, ide, pike, roach, burbot, crucian carp, sturgeon, sterlet, nelmu, muksuna, shokura, pyzhyana, cheese, and in Northern Sosva there was also freshwaterherring, an exquisite delicacy. Fishing gear: spears, nets. They caught fish by blocking streams with dams. Was of great importance in everyday lifeSiberian cedar, from which a huge harvest of pine nuts was collected. In addition, household items were made from woven cedar roots,dishes, boxes, boxes, baskets (the so-calledrhizomes). Products frombirch bark, boxes, containers, wooden utensils, spoons, troughs,buckets, as well as the simplestfurniture. Pottery was used. In the Ob region, archaeologists also discovered a large number of arrowheads, spears,swords, axes, helmets, bronze casting. They also knew armor. Mansi and neighboring peoples They also achieved certain successes in iron processing, but their greatest skill was demonstrated in wood processing. From archaeological finds silver dishes are of great interestIranian And Byzantineorigin. For transportation, the Mansi already in ancient times used dugout boats,skis, sled(with dog, reindeer or horse sled). From weapons they knew bows and arrows, spears, and various types of blades. Various traps (chirkans) andcrossbows.
Settlements are permanent (winter) and seasonal (spring, summer, autumn) in fishing areas. The village was usually inhabited by several large or small, mostly related families. Traditional winter housing is rectangular log houses, often with an earthen roof, southern groups- huts of the Russian type, in the summer - conical birch bark tents or quadrangular frame buildings made of poles covered with birch bark, among reindeer herders - covered with reindeer skins. The dwelling was heated and lit by a chuval - an open hearth made of poles coated with clay. Bread was baked in separate ovens.
Women's clothing consisted of a dress, a robe, cloth or satin, a double reindeer coat (yagushka, sakh), a scarf and a large number of jewelry (rings, beaded beads, etc.). Men wore trousers and a shirt, closed clothes with a hood made of cloth, among reindeer herders - made of reindeer skin (malitsa, goose), or cloth clothes with a hood and unsewn sides (luzan).
Food - fish, meat (dried, dried, fried, ice cream), berries. They did not eat mushrooms, considering them unclean.
The life of the Mansi has changed noticeably during the years of Soviet power; 45% live in cities.
Cloth
Traditional women's clothing - a dress, a swinging robe (satin or cloth) and a double reindeer fur coat (yagushka, sakh), a scarf on the head, a large number of jewelry (rings, beaded necklaces, etc.); men's clothing - shirt, trousers, closed clothing with a hood made of cloth, among reindeer herders - made of reindeer skins (malitsa, goose), hunting cloth clothing with a hood and unsewn sides (luzan). Weaving from nettle and hemp fiber was widespread.
