Kets and their homeland: an anthropological response

Kets are indigenous peoples, compactly living in the lower reaches of the Yenisei; the number of people in Russia is 1494 (2002). The Ket is now the only representative of the Yenisei language family. The article deals with the problem of Kets' origin according to physical anthropological data. We consider the historiography of the issue, including the theme of «Americanoid» Kets. Racial characteristics is provided from the literature of early and mid-XX century (materials by V. Anuchin and Sinelnikov, Debets, Gokhman); viewpoints are expressed in terms of the literature on the taxonomic status of the Yeniseisky anthropological type - specific to that people. The results of three independent research episodes, made by the author are analyzed: 1) the development of archival materials on the racial morphology of male Kets of Podkamennaya Tunguska River in comparison with Evenks (expedition of 1921 by F. Dush), and 2) multivariate statistical comparison of the external appearance of the same group of the Ket (exstract from Gokhman, 1982) with the peoples of Siberia, the Chinese, Tibetans, Viet, Dungan and Uighur, and 3) a discussion on a broad comparative background data on the dental morphology in the Ket's cranial collection of XIX-XX centuries. (the size of the permanent molars and descriptive traits). All materials are presented in tables and graphs. For the dental system of Kets there are characteristic: mikrodontiya, shovel-shaped incisors (33.3 I and 60.0% I ), high frequency of distal crest of trigonid and deflecting wrinkle (23.1 and 38.9%), moderately elevated frequency of Carabelli cusp and tami (33.4 and 6.7%), high levels of differentiation in lower molars (M 6 tubercles 42.9%, M 4 tubercle 0.0%). The originality of the Kets (descendants of homogenous marriages) is confirmed by both programs (race somatology and odontology). Yenisei anthropological type of the Ket is characterized by low growth, brahikefaliya, dark hair and eyes, poor development of the beard, medium-high frequency of epicanthus, moderately flat face, prominent nose with a concave back, but there are also convex shape, sloping forehead and evolved frontal bone. This complex is a kind of European-Mongoloid variants present in the majority of aborigines of Western Siberia. In classifications it belongs mainly to the Ural group of types («race»), which in the south of its range goes to the South Siberian race complex. There is an opinion about the independent status of the Yenisei type in this transition zone. Author of the article proposes to use the term «Ural-Altaic group of types (race)» for the entire set of intermediate complexes, localized in space from the Urals to the Yenisei River and the foothills of Altai to Yamal. The Kets ancestral home according to anthropological data is safely connected with the mountain taiga of South Siberia. The biological affinity with the Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic peoples in this study have been not identified except for dental parallels with Austronesian group Tyuru from southern Vietnam.

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