The reflection of ethnocultural processes in the XVII century selkups' anthroponymy of the Narym territory of the river ob area (interdisciplinary research experience)
The article considers the 17 century Selkups' anthroponymy of the Narym territory of the River Ob area and the way a number of ethnical, socio-economical and worldview aspects of ethnocultural history were reflected in the anthroponymy. The research is based on interdisciplinary approach as the most prospective and efficient one for ethnocultural processes study. The work presents the first case when the research of this type resort to such extensive and verified use of archeological sources besides the wide range of materials on etymology and ethnonymics. The data gained from excavation of settlements and barrows in the region determined chronology and dynamics of the anthroponymy and important lines of its development, enhaced and made considerable corrections of historical and cultural reconstruction and significantly extended the Selkups history's cultural range which had been unknown before. Etymological analysis of the motivated names of the 17th century evinced their connection with the main elements of Selkups' culture and ecosystem: nature (flora and fauna), life supporting system, spiritual world, social environment, and the human's psychophysical activities. On the basis of the criterion of the root-etymon's thematical attribution the 11 groups of names were distinguished: the names of fish, birds, animals, insects, plants kingdom, artifacts, the human's properties (from natural to social ones), sacral symbols and phenomena. The analysis of Narym Selkups' proper names elicited their gender and age specificity. Male names form the main group. A significant part of them belong to the group of ecosystem. These names and names-averters are the most archaic ones. The rest of the names distributed among other groups. Children's names were changed thrice in the period from birth up to the coming-of-age, it was a part of the passage (initiation) rite. According to the materials on archeology and ethnography Selkups treated the child as the society's highest value - its continuation and future. To save a child from evil and death his or her names were changed, the child was supplied with averts, symbols of the good (rattles to frighten away evil spirits, an image of an arrow and knife at the bottom of the cradle, etc.). Even a dead child was buried with numerous decorations on his or her headwear and clothes, amulets supposed to save the child's soul which was meant to reincarnate. Selkup women of the 17 century as well other and Samoyed and Ugric women were not supposed to wear proper names. The woman was regarded as someone's daughter or wife. She was the mother and the mistress. The gender difference is emphasized by the burial rite of the 17 century barrows: women didn't have any weapons, axes, the horse's harness. They were the privilege of men as the heads of families and breadwinners. Among Selkups proper names were tabooed as they were considered sacred. Most probably it can be explained by that the names belonged to ancestors. The name was inherited within the family, patronomy and kin. Complex study of anthroponyims in volosts and archeological sources relying on written and ethnographical data made it possible to trace the important social and worldview processes: coexistence and struggle of the old kin and new territorial trends, adaptation and integration into the civilized state as its part. The nonrepeatability of the names from dialect groups, signing documents by chiefs (knyazetses) with kin seal (tamga) (elk, spider, etc.) evidence the existence of kin identity. We can suppose that in process of organizing the tribute volosts at the beginning of the 17th century Russian administration had made the ground for the real territories' borders those of the kin ones, which were quite clear and strictly guarded at that time.
Keywords
ethnic culture, archeology, anthroponymy, Narym Selkups, этническая культура, археология, антропонимика, нарымские селькупыAuthors
Name | Organization | |
Chindina Lyudmila A. | Tomsk State University | chindina37@mail.ru |
Malinovskaya Svetlana M. | Tomsk State Pedagogical University | malina-1949@mail.ru |
References

The reflection of ethnocultural processes in the XVII century selkups' anthroponymy of the Narym territory of the river ob area (interdisciplinary research experience) | Tomsk State University Journal of History. 2015. № 6 (38).