Archival Data as a Source for the Ethnogenesis of the Sym-Ket Evenks

The Sym-Ket (Sym, West-Siberian) Evenks is the local group formed in the mid-1930s from the Milit and Pit-Varagon clans. These clans roamed the left and right banks of the Yenisei River within the Antsifer Volost in the 19th - early 20th centuries. From the perspective of the Evenks themselves, this group included representatives of the following clans: Bayaki-Boyariny, Bayaki-Samarovy, Kemu, Kiltyno, Kima, Tanimo, Turumbi, Chemba, and Egdyre. The purposeful anthropological study of this group as a research problem was firstly initiated by N. S. Rozov in the late 1940s. Later, V. A. Dremov took an active interest in the possibility to study the Sym-Ket Evenks from an anthropological point of view. However, he could not begin this study. By the 1980s, the research in this direction was stopped. The data collected by N. S. Rozov remained the unique source, but they were scattered among different archives. Due to the research efforts undertaken in the last years, the integrity of the data collected by N. S. Rozov was restored. They were supplemented by anthropological records by F. Dush, census data (so called revision lists) of the late 18th century, parish registers (about 300 units), and a significant number of photographs. The clans whose descendants would form the Sym-Ket group in the mid-20th century were found to be divided into three branches in their localized habitation sites in the 17th - early 20th centuries: 1. The clans who roamed the interfluve area between the Yenisei and Chulym rivers, in the headwaters of the Keti River, on the Sym and Peta rivers. 2. The clans who moved from the Podkamennaya Tunguska River to the north and migrated to the Ket River in the 19th - the early 20th centuries. 3. The clans who came from Turukhansk and the Ilimpei River in the 18th-19th centuries. Due to the restoration of kinships, some genealogies can be traced to the late 17th century. A number of families whose representatives identified themselves as the Evenks in the early 20th century had been registered as "Ostyaks". Other families whose representatives had been registered as the "Tungus" in the 18th century identified themselves as the Selkups in the 20th centuries. Therefore, the Sym-Ket Evenks are of a more complex ethnocultural composition than previously thought. The findings obtained from the analysis of the archival data, in combination with the restored findings by N. S. Rozov, make it possible to continue with his efforts and to further study the ethnogenesis of the Sym-Ket Evenks.

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