Enets

The name "Enets" was proposed by the Soviet ethnographer G. N. Prokofiev in the 1930s and was formed by him from " enneche ", which literally means a person . The tundra Enets called themselves “ somatu ” - from the Ngan. samatu (originally the designation of the Enets clan Soet ); forest Enets - “ pe-bai ” ( forest Bai - from the name of the Bai genus), or by the name of the genera ^{[4] [5]} .

In the ethnogenesis of the Enets, both local North Siberian tribes participated, as did the Samoyeds , who were assimilating the local population, moving from the middle Yenisei and from the Tomsk basin. In the Novgorod monument at the end of the 15th century, the Enets were first mentioned under the name “ Mongols ” - from the name of the Enets genus Mongkasi, Muggadi or Moggadi (from this name comes the name of the Russian prison of the Mangazeya founded in 1601 in the lands of the Enets) ^[6] . The name of this genus comes from the enets word Mogga - "forest", since its representatives lived in the forest and loved the forest ^[7] . Earlier, the Enets consisted of patrilineal genera: Moggadi, Bai, Ased, Lodosed, Chor, Yuchi, Solda and Sado, etc. Currently, the names of these genera are translated into Russian ^[7] . Moggadi, for example - Bolins (since the name of this genus was translated as 'log, forest') ^[7] . Representatives of the Bai clan bear the surname Silkins, as they possessed “power”, power and had many deer ^[7] .

In the XVII century, the Enets wandered in the basin of the Taz and Turukhan and the forest-tundra between the lower reaches of the Taza and the Yenisei, but at the end of this century, under the pressure of the Nenets from the west and the Selkups from the south, they retreat to the east coast of the lower Yenisei ^[8] .

West-Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups (Н, Н2, НЗ, Н8, U2, U4, U5, U7, J2, W) were found in 33.4% of the Enets / Nganasans, while the “paleolithic” haplogroup U4 of the Enets / Nganasans reaches 20 ,eight %. East Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups (A, C, D, Z) in the Enets / Nganasans account for 62.5% ^[9] . In enets, the Y-chromosome haplogroup N1a2b-P43 (formerly N1b) reaches 78% ^[10] .

In the XVIII century, according to B.O. Dolgikh , the number of Ents exceeded 3 thousand people. According to the 1926 census of the USSR, the Enets totaled 376 people ^[11] . According to the 1989 census , 209 Enets lived in the USSR , and 198 Enets lived in the RSFSR , of which only 46% considered the Enets to be their native language (however, in the census data, some of the Enets were recorded by the Nenets and Nganasans; according to survey ethnographic data, the number enets was 340 people.). Most of the Ents (103 people) in 1989 lived in the Taimyr (Dolgan-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug ^{[6] [12]} .

In 2002, according to the census , the number of Ents in the Russian Federation was 237 people, including 213 people. - in the Krasnoyarsk Territory , mainly in the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets District (197 people, of which 66 people (33.5%) spoke the Enets language ) ^{[1] [13]} .

The largest number of Enets (86 people) in 2002 lived in the village of Potapovo ^[14] , where forest Enets live. The tundra enets mainly live in the village of Vorontsovo ; the population of both villages is multinational ^[15] .

In addition, the Enets live in the area of ​​the city of Dudinka , the village of Ust-Avam and others in the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory . Several Enets live in the city of Dudinka ( Taimyr ), some - together with the Nganasans in other places of Taimyr .

The tundra Enets (Khantai Samoyeds), who paid yasak in the Khantai winter hut , accounted for approximately two-thirds of the population. In summer, they wandered in the tundra between the Yenisei and the Pura River, in winter they migrated south to the forest-tundra between the Malaya Kheta River and Lake Pyasino . This group consisted of several large clan associations (Somatu, Bai, Muggadi or Mogadi) and had the self-name somatu-oneyennache . Other Enets called them Mada (relatives by wife).

Forest Enets (Karasin Samoyeds) paid yasak to the Karasin winter hut and constantly wandered in the forest zone between Igarka and Dudinka . They included the clan groups of Yuchi, Muggadi (the smaller part) and a number of families of the Bai group. The ethnographic specificity of these groups has been largely lost and they are considered as purely territorial units.

Until the middle of the 20th century, the Enets language was considered a dialect of Nenets ; in the censuses of 1959 and 1979, the Enets were not considered a separate ethnic group, and they were recorded by the Nenets or Nganasans . The Enets language belongs to the Samoyedic group of the Uralic languages , and it is closest to the Nenets language, from which it separated 1.5 - 1 thousand years ago; after this there was a secondary contact rapprochement with the Nganasan language ^[12] . Among the Northern Samoyedic languages, the Enets language is the most archaic in terms of vocabulary , but its phonetics underwent a radical restructuring ^[16] . The Enets language is divided into two dialects: tundra and forest , which differ significantly from each other at most levels of the linguistic structure ^[17] .

For a long time, the Enets language remained unwritten . In 1986, N. M. Tereshchenko published a draft of the Enets alphabet (the forest dialect served as a support); this alphabet is used in the Enets publications of the Taimyr newspaper and in the publications of folklore texts. In 1995, D. S. Bolin, using this alphabet, published the first book in the Enets language - the translation of “The Gospel of Luke” ^[17] .

According to the 1989 census , the Enets language was owned by slightly less than half of all Enets. In fact, according to field studies, there were full-fledged native speakers among the tundra Enets and a few dozen people among the Forest Enets, most of whom were older people (the Enets aged 30–40 still owned some Enets, to some extent, but in everyday life preferred to speak Russian). The bulk of the Enets are multilingual: almost everyone speaks Russian and / or Nenets, many understand the speech of the Dolgans , Nganasans , Evenks . A part of the Enets passed to the Nenets language, some tundra Enets - to the Nganasan ^{[11] [15]} .

According to the 2002 census , 116 people spoke the Enets language in Russia. (both among the Enets and among other nationalities of the country - conditionally 49% of the Enets in the Russian Federation ) ^[18] , and in Ukraine, according to the 2001 census, out of 26 Enets, 18 people recognized their language as their native language. (69%) ^[2] .

The basis of the economic structure of the Enets is made up of domestic reindeer husbandry , wild deer hunting, fur trade and fishing ^[15] . When hunting deer, the Enets used bow and traps with nets, while hunting for fur animals they used “ jaws ” - pressure-type traps ^[8] .

The main dwelling of the Enets is a conical plague , close to the Nenets, but characterized by a smaller cover- nuke (so the Enets needed four nukes to cover the plague, and not two, as in the Nenets plague). A winter plague served as a winter dwelling - close in construction to the Dolgan , but with a door on the left side. The traditional clothing complex of the Enets in the two ethno-territorial groups is different: among the Forest Enets, the Nenets clothing was more widespread, and among the tundra Enets, the clothing complex was more similar to the Nganasan one: it was based on a park (deaf for men and oar for women), which consisted of two fur coats - lower (with fur outward, reaching to the knees) and upper (with fur inward and longer); both fur coats were sewn from deer skins, and a hem from dog fur was made along the hem. The men's park was supplemented with pants, and the women's one - with overalls. At present, the Enets clothing is completely out of use ^[8] .

The comprehensive reindeer-herding and fishing economy of the Ents required a flexible system of organization of society, the foundations of which were based both on the principles of kinship and on territorial ties. The leading role in society is played by a man. Women's activity was limited to domestic production. The quantitative composition of small families among the Enets was small, due to high infant mortality. Preferred was the birth of a boy. At the birth of a child, he was given a nickname associated with his appearance or situation of birth. In everyday life, Enets usually do not use names, but nicknames that every person has. One person may have several. For example, a man with a short neck is given the nickname Byaksha 'without a neck'. There are also nicknames Nibi 'spider', Nike 'bald', Tatako 'rich' ^[7] .

The folklore of the Enets consisted of two genres: Derichu and Syudbich. “Derichu” has a root from which words such as “speak, tell, news, news” are formed, and this genre includes stories about the past, myths , tales , legends , historical legends, and stories about the life of the first semi-sedentary deer hunters. “Sudbichu” is a great epic piece about the heroes of reindeer herders who wander in search of wealth and a wife, fight with enemies, including cannibalistic giants.

Although the forest Enets were officially converted to Orthodoxy , both groups of the Enets preserved a cult of natural phenomena and worship of the local host spirits, which were sacrificed (deer meat, pieces of cloth, money). In the pantheon, the dominant place was occupied by Duba nga (who gave deer to people) and his mother, Dya-menu (“mother of the earth”) ^[8] .

According to ethnographic studies, in ancient times the Enets practiced the rite of air burial ^[19] .

• Peoples of the Arctic

• Bolina D.S., Khelimsky E.A. Enets language // Languages ​​of the peoples of Russia. Red Book / Ch. ed. V.P. Neroznak . - M .: Academia, 2002 .-- 378 p. - ISBN 5-87444-149-2 . - S. 281-285.
• Vasiliev V.I.Entsi // Peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. V.A. Tishkov . - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia , 1994 .-- 479 p. - ISBN 5-85270-082-7 . - S. 420-421.
• Legends and myths of the North / Compiled by V. S. Sangi. - M .: Sovremennik , 1985 .-- 400 p.
• Entsy / Pluzhnikov N.V. // Sherwood - Yaya. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 2017. - S. 401-402. - (The Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 35). - ISBN 978-5-85270-373-6 .
• Siberia. Atlas of Asian Russia / A.P. Derevyanko (project supervisor). - Theory, 2008 .-- S. 481.
• Stateynov A.P. Small Indigenous Peoples of the North (Indigenous Small Nations of the Krasnoyarsk Territory). - Krasnoyarsk: The letter "C", 2008.
• Entsy // Ethnoatlas of the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Council of the Administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Public Relations Office; ch. ed. R. G. Rafikov ; editorial: V.P. Krivonogov , R.D. Tsokaev. - 2nd ed., Revised. and add. - Krasnoyarsk: Platinum (PLATINA), 2008 .-- 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-98624-092-3 . Archived November 29, 2014 on Wayback Machine

• Official site of the Taimyr Administration