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Vasyugan
is the western tributary of the Ob river
in the middle of the western Siberian Plain east of
the Ural mountain range, in the Kargasok
district of Tomsk region. The
low-lying local landscape consists of a multitude of rivers and lakes,
which drain the world’s largest bog lands – the Vasyuganskie Bolota (Vasyugan
swamp). The general climate and ecosystem of the Vasyugan basin is
typical for western Siberia, characterised by an
extreme continental climate, with temperatures ranging from +30C'
in the short summer (May-August) to -40C' in the long
winter
(October-March). Local fauna include bear,
elk (moose), deer, wolves and a range of
other fur-bearers and wildfowl. Traditionally, much of the Vasyugan
Khanty diet consisted of fish. Such species as pike, bream, perch, starlet among other species are a frequent catch locally. In contrast to other Khanty groups, the Vasyugan
Khanty had no local tradition of
reindeer husbandry due to the specifics of local ecology, dense mixed forests lacking reindeer pasture, numerous streams, rivers, lakes and vast bogs.
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Traditionally the Vasyugan Khanty were subsistence hunters and fishermen. Their low scale seasonal migration were motivated primarily by
the main
occupations, hunting and fishing, and consisted of repeated trips from the permanent riverside
village out to the clan hunting
territories in October-December and January-March, followed by downstream migrations to family-owned
fishing locations. The hunting grounds are traditionally equipped with
one or more small hunting cabins with storage huts elevated above the
ground on poles; whilst at summer fishing locations families would build
makeshift tents and shelters using birch bark and poles. The routines of
seasonal mobility were also reflected in the traditional calendaric
terms. These names do not equate directly
to European notions of months, and may vary in length, both from one
period to the next, but also from one year to the next depending of
climatic, ecological or other practical factors. As a result, these concepts map sequences of behaviours, rather than purely temporal notions. Each season had a common lexical component of iki 'loose equivalent of ‘moon’': körek-iki ‘time
of eagles’ (~March); urn-iki
‘time of crows’ (~April); lontwäsek-iki
‘time of geese and ducks’ (~May); pojaltew-iki ‘time of the snow crust’ (~December), etc (Filtchenko, 2000-2005; Tereskin, 1961; Gulya, 1965; Sirelius, 2001;
Lukina 2005; ).
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The prevailing majority of the
traditional Vasyugan Khanty permanent settlements (yurt (local topology term of Turkic etymology), puɣol (native
Khanty term) are located along the Vasyugan River, in widely-spaced pattern, often several hours and days by
boat from one another. Exceptions to this pattern include occasional
settlements on the shores of the region’s major lakes. This settlement pattern of extended family villages reflected the structure of traditional
social organization which was based on patrilocal, patrilineal exogamous
lineages.
The native reference term used for
this social grouping is aj puɣol jaɣ 'same village people'. The word
puɣol "village" normally refers the typical Khanty settlement of 2-3 huts at the river or
lake edge, and housing a small community of 10-15 people. Besides more localised clan and lineage identities, historical accounts (Haruzin, 1905; Sokolova,
1983) suggest that the Vasyugan
Khanty were aware of larger social, localised
‘ethnic’ groupings, mainly on the grounds of linguistic affinity. These groupings referred to the major rivers the group occupied, äs’ jaɣ 'Ob-river people', waɣa jaɣ Vakh-river people', wat’ joɣen jaɣ 'Vasyugan-river people, and at a larger level yet, eastern Khanty groups describe themselves as qanteɣ jaɣ 'Khanty people' - a compound term combining the ethnonym for eastern Khanty qanteɣ ‘Khanty’ (distinct phonetically from the western Khanty self reference
term xanti 'Khanty') and the term jaɣ with the general sense 'people' (Tereskin, 1961).
More detailed descriptions of Vasyugan Khanty kinship and social organisation can be found in (Kulemzin and Lukina 1976; Filchenko -
forthcoming).
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The Khanty of Vasyugan are confident
that their ancestors have long resided on these territories and refer to
them as äreŋ jaɣ meaning 'ancient people', who, according to folklore, were in frequent conflict with Tatars (qatan’ jaɣ), which is evident, in folk
interpretations, from archaeological sites in the landscape, including the remains of
fortified settlements, scatters of metal arrow heads and occasional swords and pieces of body armour.
The ancestors,
occupants of these sites were the warrior-hero progenitors of the Vasyugan
clans, who lived in the region and defended it from attacks and
occupations by Tatars from the South and Nenets (joren jaɣ) from the North (Lukina, 1976).
The rich spiritual life of these
communities was the object of description by late XVIII - early XX century travelers and ethnographers (Sirelius 2001; Karjalainen 1921, 1922).
The life of all Khanty and animals was created and predestined
by torem, a chief deity. Another
ultimately powerful deity is the female mother-spirit puɣos äŋki, the giver of life and soul (il), and judge of its length
and quality (Karjalainen, 1927). There are also numerous powerful masters of elements: the water/river
deity äs’ iki, the master of fish and a multitude of water spirits
and demons; the forest deity wont iki, the master of animals and
birds and of the forest spirits.
The Vasyugan Khanty also used to keep images of
so-called home or family spirits (juŋk) which were linked to
the welfare
of individuals and families, success
of hunting and fishing. Dated accounts
describe the events when the spirits were sat at a table
and offered food, typically by a man, before hunting and fishing seasons,
to give luck and rich spoils. Various locations along the Vasyugan river were known as homes of a variety of local spirits, mostly of anthropomorphic nature, in the shape of a
woman or a man, and in having wooden
figures representing their image.
The sacred sites, “homes” of the spirits continue to be distinct and
known to local families and regularly attended for offerings and paying
respects. For Vasyugan Khanty, it was also typical to have anthroponymic
group-names (Vertesh 1961, Lukina 1978) typically corresponding to the names of the clan progenitors: kotʃet
'badger', kötʃerki
'chipmunk', köraɣ 'sack' (Filtchenko, 1998-2005).
The sacred rituals were typically performed by the hunters themselves, however, often
the shamans (jolta qu) were invited to make offerings to the spirits
and ask for rich spoils in hunting/fishing, but more typically to act in the role of
medicine men and fortune-tellers (Dmitriev-Sadovnikov, 1911; Karjalainen,
1922; Zuev, 1947; Kulemzin, 1976). The unique role of shamans was their
ability in the process of shaman rituals to part with their body and
‘walk the worlds’ (lower or upper) and to communicate and interact with
spirits and deities, act on other people’s souls/spirits, and foresee the
future and help build the strategies for successful hunting, as well as
to foresee
the individual hunters' fate. In case of
illness treatment, the shaman’s spirit was typically expected to travel
to the lower world to find and return the stolen spirit of the ill
person. Alternatively, the shaman was understood to heal the person by
expelling the spirit of illness from the body of the ill, fighting it in
the spiritual realm, often in alliance with either the family/clan spirit
or the local patron spirit (Kulemzin, 1984). Shaman’s skills were combined the intimate experience with the whole pantheon
of spirits and deities, as well as general close knowledge of the local landscape, flora and both behaviour of
and towards animals.
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The first Russian contacts with Vasyugan Khanty date back to XVI
century at which time they had resided at this location for at least 3 to
10 centuries based on archeological research. Before the Russian contact, Vasyugan Khanty are assumed to
have been in contact with Siberian Tatars, as the area was under
administrative control of Siberian Tatar Khan. Based
on available folk data, language/culture contact with Tatars and among
other local ethnic groups was fairly limited, with inter-ethnic relations
generally described as hostile.
Early Russian colonial policies were conservationist with
minimal Russian language contact and assimilative pressures, with the
exposure to Russian growing considerably in the end of the XIX century and
increasing radically in 1930-1960s as a result of the soviet
collectivization and forced migration (exile) policies. Since 1960s-1980s
most of the area was heavily assimilated due to policies of social
engineering, mandatory secondary schooling (Russian media boarding schools)
and particularly by the mineral resource exploration programs resulting in
considerable influx of non-native population from European Russia, Ukraine and
central-Asian regions.
The language of Vasyugan
Khanty was much lesser described in occasional sketches and word
lists (Karjalainen 1913). For the Vasyugan
Khanty language the situation of neglect and discrimination has been
a reality. Speakers are ridiculed by the mainstream majority, children are
not taught, and in some cases persecuted for speaking Khanty at schools. The
common ethnonym ostyak is perceived as pejorative, while the
stereotypes about Khanty in general public
remain uninformed. All Khanty speakers are bilingual
with Russian being the language of daily communication across ethnic
groups. Khanty
language undergoes a steady decrease of the functional sphere,
reserved primarily for occasional family use, rare peer communications and
extremely rare traditional religion (shamanism) contexts.
The majority of Vasyugan Khanty are currently
linguistically assimilated Russian monolinguals numbering under 150 pers.
The numbers of Vasyugan Khanty officially
registered vary from source to source, however, based on the original research
there are around 20 Khanty who permanently reside on Vasyugan
river and have practical knowledge of traditional language and culture.
They are bilingual minority native language speakers, all over the age of
50. The number of semi-fluent speakers, capable of maintaining restricted
basic conversations in Khanty does not exceed
50, principally placing these dialects in the group of languages in the
imminent danger of extinction within a single generation.
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