All about the Mansi people. Aborigines of the northern Urals - Mansi people
Muncie- one of the small peoples of the Siberian North. Their number in 1989 was 8459 people. Today the Mansi live mainly in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region and a number of districts of the Sverdlovsk Region along the Lower Ob and the Northern Sosva, Lyapin, Konda, Lozva rivers. Previously, the territory of their settlement was much wider and was located to a significant extent to the west and south of the present day. According to toponymy data, until the 16th century. Mansi lived in the middle Urals and west of the Urals, in the Perm Kama region (on the tributaries of the Kama - Vishera, Chusovaya), in the upper and middle reaches of the Pechora. In the south, the boundaries of their settlement reached the upper reaches of the river. Ufa and almost to the lower reaches of the Tura, Tavda, Sosva, Pelym and Lozva.
In the XVI century. in Russian documents the Mansi are listed along the Chusovaya, Tagil, Neiva, Kokuy, Barancha, Vishera, Pechora, middle and lower Lozva, Sosva, Lyalya and Konda rivers. By the 17th century. this territory has significantly decreased, including in the west only Vishera, in the north - the middle course of the Lozva, in the east - the middle and lower reaches of the Pelym and Sosva, in the south - the upper reaches of the Tura and the middle reaches of the Tavda. In the XVIII century. it shrank slightly in the west, expanded in the south to include the entire Tura basin, and in the east, including the upper and middle course of the Konda, and also in the north, the upper reaches of the Lozva. In the XIX - early XX centuries. the boundaries of settlement of the Mansi shifted further to the east and north, approaching the modern ones: the Mansi disappeared on Tura and Tavda, appeared on Northern Sosva and Lyapin; at the beginning of the XX century. a few still remained on Vishera, small groups along Pelym, Sosva, Ivdel.
Until the 1930s. (in foreign literature and now) Mansi was called Voguls... This name, like the Khanty (northern) name of the Mansi vogal, apparently, comes from the names of the rivers that flowed on the lands of the Pelym principality: mans. (sowing) will-i, (hunt. (sowing) Vogal-yogan) letters. "River with streams". This ethnonym began to be used in Russian documents from the XIV century (Sofia Chronicle, 1396), primarily in relation to the Mansi, who lived on the western slopes of the Urals; later (XVI - XVIII centuries) the Mansi population of Konda, Tura, Tavda, Pelym, Sosva, Chusovoy, Tagil, Ufa was called Voguls.
In the XI - XVI centuries. to the population of the Northern Trans-Urals and Lower Ob - territories where the Nenets, Khanty and Mansi later used the name ugra... Russians met yugra through the Komi-Zyryan of Pechora and Vychegda. Since the XII century. Novgorodians began to conduct a constant exchange of their goods for sable and marten furs with the Trans-Ural tribes. In the XVII century. term ugra disappears, terms are used Voguls(vogulichi), and for territories - Siberia.
Mansi speak the language of the Ugric subgroup of the Finno-Ugric group, the Uralic family of languages. The Mansi language is divided into groups of dialects, the differences between which are very significant - according to a number of linguists, at the level of independent languages. The northern group of dialects includes the Severo-Sosvinsky and Upper Lozvinsky dialects with four dialects (Verkhsosvinsky, Sosvinsky, Lyapinsky and Obskoy). The Tavda dialects belonged to the southern group, the Kondinsky (Upper, Middle and Lower Kondinsky) and Karyms (according to Yukonda) belong to the eastern group. V western group most of the dialects, like the Tavdin (southern) ones, have been lost. These are Pelym, Middle Lozvinsky, Lower Lozvinsky, Vagilian, Kungur, Verkhotursky, Cherdyn and Ust-Ulsu dialects.
Anthropological type of Mansi - special Ural a race, the origin of which is interpreted by scientists in two ways. Some consider it to be the result of between Caucasoid and Mongoloid types, others - raise its origin to protomorphic ancient Ural race. In the addition of the anthropological types of Mansi, apparently, both Caucasoid elements (of southern origin) and Mongoloid (Siberian, apparently katanga type), and Old Ural.
Thus, according to language and economic and cultural type, Mansi can be conditionally divided into several ethnographic groups. At present, two have survived - the northern and eastern, as well as a small part of the western, Lower Lozvinsky. The northern group - the north-Sosvinskaya, consists of five territorial (dialectal) groups (Verkhsosvinskaya, Sosvinskaya, Lyapinskaya, Obskaya, Verkhnelozvinskaya). The eastern group consists of the Karymskaya, Verkhkondinskaya and Srednekondinskaya territorial groups. Since these groups settled along the tributaries of the Ob and Irtysh, the Mansi often called themselves along the rivers: Sakv mahum(Sack- Lyapin, mahum - people, people), Half mahum(Half- Pelym), etc.
The history of the study of Mansi began in the 18th century. The first information about them came from travelers, monks and priests, officials G. Novitsky, I.I. Lepekhina, I. G. Georgi, P.S. Pallas, P. Lyubarskikh. In the XIX - early XX centuries. S. Melnikov, M. Kovalsky, hieromonk Macarius, N.V. Sorokin, K. D. Nosilov, N.L. Gondatti, I.N. Glushkov, I. G. Ostroumov, V.G. Pavlovsky, P.A. Infantiev and others.
In the XIX - early XX centuries. Mansi was studied by Hungarian and Finnish scientists - A. Reguli (1843 - 1844), A. Alqvist (1854 - 1858), B. Munkachi (1888 - 1889), A. Kannisto (1901, 1904 - 1906) .), NS. Sirelius (1898 - 1900), K.F. Karjalainen and others.
In Soviet times, the history and culture of the Mansi were studied by S.I. Rudenko, V.N. Chernetsov, S.V. Bakhrushin, I.I. Avdeev, M.P. Vakhrusheva, A.N. Balandin, E.A. Kuzakova, E.I. Rombandeev, 3.P. Sokolova, P. Veresh, G.M. Davydova, E.G. Fedorova, N.I. Novikova, I.N. Gemuev, A.M. Sagalaev, A.I. Pika, A.V. Golovnev, E.A. Pivneva.
The oldest substrate in the Mansi composition is the creators of the Uralic cultures of the Mesolithic-Neolithic period - the distant ancestors of the Finno-Ugric and Samoyed peoples. In the Bronze Age (II millennium BC), the creators of the andronoid cultures of the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia included the Ugric tribes of cattle breeders, who were in close contact with the Iranian-speaking world of the steppe. With climate change, moving the border of the taiga and steppe to the north, they moved to the north, where they partially merged with the aborigines of the Urals and Western Siberia (descendants of the ancient Uralians). The taiga natives, hunters and fishermen, led a sedentary and semi-sedentary lifestyle, lived in dugouts, used wooden, bone and copper tools. Ugric herders bred horses, rode them, led a complex economy and a semi-nomadic lifestyle, made bronze tools, weapons, ornaments. That is why the Mansi culture has many features of the southern cattle-breeding culture, traces of the Iranian-speaking influence, on the one hand, and even more features of the northern taiga culture. Probably at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. the Ugric community disintegrated, the ancestors of the Mansi, Hungarians and Khanty emerged from it.
In their original territory of settlement to the west of the Urals, in the Urals and to the east of it, the ancestors of the Mansi contacted in the east with the Khanty, in the west with the Permians, the ancestors of the Komi, who formed in the Kama region, and at the end of the 1st millennium AD. began to move to the north. Aboriginal people, incl. ancestors of the present Mansi, they partially assimilated, partially displaced to the east and northeast.
Vychegodskaya land lay on the roads in the Trans-Urals, where the Novgorod "eager people", merchants and industrialists aspired. Following the Novgorodians, the Rostov-Suzdal people also moved here. By the XI - XII centuries. they mastered the lands of the river basins. South and Sukhona. At the beginning of the XIV century. the Moscow state also began to show interest in these lands, sending its squads there. Having subjugated Perm to Vychegodskaya, the Moscow principality drew attention to the Great Perm - lands stretching from the upper reaches of the Kama in the west to the Urals in the east, from Lake Chusovskoye in the north to the river. Chusovoy in the south. Through these lands, the roads went to the Trans-Urals - from the western slopes of the Urals from the Vym and Vishera rivers, along the Vishera, through the Urals, to Pelym, Lozva and Tavda. It was the southern route. The northern road went through the so-called. Ugra crossing. These paths have long been known to the Mansi, the Komi, and the Russians. The lands inhabited by the Komi were finally annexed to the Moscow state after the campaign against Perm the Great in I472 by the detachment of Fyodor the Pestroi. Under pressure from the Russians, the Komi moved to the north and east, the Mansi, in turn, to the east under pressure from both the Komi and the Russians.
In the XV - XVI centuries. the influx of the Russian population into the Kama and Ural regions increased, especially after the conquest of the Kazan Khanate. Russian industrialists, the Stroganovs, settled in Prikamye, who received letters from the tsar for the development of local areas along Chusovaya and Sylva.
As a result of the military campaigns of the military troops of Ivan III (1465, 1483, 1499), the Ugra, Mansi and Khanty princes recognized vassal dependence on him. These were the territories along Lozva, Pelym, Northern Sosva, Lyapin, Tavda, Tobol. The fortresses built on the lands of the Stroganovs were outposts for further campaigns to the east and protected the Stroganov lands from the raids of the Mansi, Khanty and Tatars.
In the 15th century, the Mansi, judging by folklore and archaeological data, lived in Western Siberia in small, small villages ( paul), grouped around fortified towns ( mustache). The southern Mansi groups (along Tura and Tavda) early entered into contacts with the Turkic tribes, apparently already in the 7th - 8th centuries, when the ancestors of the present Siberian Tatars appeared here, the socio-economic level of development of which was higher than that of the Mansi. At the beginning of the XVI century. the lands of Tyumen became part of the Siberian Khanate created by the Tatars with the center in Kashlyk. The Mansi were taxed with yasak, they also developed trade and exchange relations with the Tatars (they received weapons, bread, fabrics and other goods for furs). The assimilation of the southern Mansi groups by the Tatars was on a large scale, especially later, in the 16th - 17th centuries. The Siberian Khanate gained great influence under Khan Kuchum (1563-1581), who collected tribute from the Mansi and Khanty of Western Siberia and constantly sought to advance north from Tobol, up to the Kama region. Naturally, the interests of the Moscow State and the Siberian Khanate collided in this region. In 1572, Kuchum recognized his vassal dependence on the Moscow prince, but the next year he invaded the Stroganovs' estates and killed the Tsar's envoy Chubukov in Kashlyk.
In 1574 the Stroganovs received a new certificate of honor for lands on the eastern slopes of the Urals, r. Tobol and its tributaries. Fortresses were also built here. The Mansi and Khanty princes raided the possessions of the Stroganovs, plundered and burned Russian villages along Chusovaya, incl. Solikamsk. The Stroganovs responded in kind. At the end of the 1570s. they hired the ataman of the Cossacks Yermak for a campaign to the east (1582), as a result of which Kuchum was defeated, and by 1585 the Siberian lands became part of the Moscow principality.
Back in the 17th - 18th centuries. the population in Northern Sosva and Yukonda was called Ostyaks, not Voguls. Apparently, the processes of the formation of modern Mansi took place here on the basis of the merger of the Mansi (newcomers from the south and west), local aboriginal and Khanty groups. Mansi moved here from the Kama and Ural regions, as well as from Tura and Tavda, where in the XVI-XVII centuries. the processes of Tatarization of the Ugric population took place. By the middle of the XX century. the Mansi remained only on the territory of Northern Sosva and Lyapin (the newly formed northern group), Konda, Lozva. In the east, they advanced to the Ob, mixing with the Khanty in the lower reaches of this river.
The main occupations of the Mansi are hunting, fishing and reindeer herding. Gathering of nuts, berries, roots and herbs was of no small importance for all Mansi groups. According to the economic and cultural type, most of the Mansi in the 19th century. belonged to the semi-sedentary taiga hunters and fishermen, however, small groups of northern Mansi were nomadic reindeer herders of the forest-tundra and tundra (in their reindeer husbandry there are many features borrowed from the Nenets and Komi), and the southern and eastern (Kondinsky, Pelym, Turin) combined hunting activities in their economy and fishing with agriculture and animal husbandry. In addition, the proportion of fishing activities among different territorial groups of the Mansi was different. Hunting was more developed in the upper reaches of the rivers, tributaries of the Ob and Irtysh, and fishing in their lower reaches.
In hunting, a large role was played by driven hunting for elk and deer, hunting with a bow and arrow, with a dog (from the 19th century - with a gun), catching animals and birds with various traps, loops, overweight nets, and sweeps. Fur hunting, which intensified in connection with the payment of yasak, was carried out for sable, fox, squirrel, ermine, wolverine, marten, and Siberian weasel. For nutrition, hunting for game was of great importance - upland (black grouse, capercaillie hazel grouse) and waterfowl (ducks, geese). The hunting season was divided into two periods - from November to New Year's and from February to March. In January, when there was a lot of snow and frost, the hunters rested at home, handed over furs, bought a new supply of food, ammunition, and repaired tackle. They hunted on lands that traditionally belonged to the inhabitants of the village or to individual families. There they set up hunting huts, from which they went out on reindeer or on skis, harnessing a dog to a hand sled, to hunt, returning for the night back. They hunted individually, in related groups, driven hunting was conducted by artels. In fishing, an important role was played by locking fishing, which was widespread in the past among all Finno-Ugric peoples. The region inhabited by the Mansi is rich in large and especially small rivers, which are convenient to block off with a fence with traps in its holes. Due to the fact that fish go to spawn, going down or up the river (anadromous and semi-anadromous fish), fishermen have to change the place of fishing and the methods of catching it - from shut-off to net, etc. Part of the Severo-Sosva Mansi descended in the summer down to the Ob, where they caught fish of high-value species (sturgeon, sterlet, nelma, muksun, cheese). In p. In Northern Sosva, freshwater herring was found, which the fishermen even harvested for export.
Hunting and fishing have determined the types of settlement of the Mansi - dispersed, small groups scattered in the taiga, developing close to villages and distant lands. In addition to permanent winter settlements, they always had seasonal settlements in which they lived in spring, summer and autumn, fishing fishing grounds and bypassing hunting grounds.
Traditional means of transport are sled dog breeding and reindeer herding (in winter), in the southern regions - horseback riding. In the summer, water transport is developed, now they mainly ride motorboats, but they check the nets on nearby lands on traditional dugout boats, do not lead them on large planks, which have long been made under the influence of the Russians. In winter, they go on skis: tails and cushions glued with kamus, fur from a deer's leg.
According to folklore data, the Mansi lived in villages (sometimes from the same house) and in towns. Their appearance emerges from folklore and archaeological sources. They were fortified with ramparts and ditches, and were located on high, inaccessible wooded headlands. Inside there were underground and above-ground houses in which "heroes", warriors lived; in them sacrifices were made to the spirits, there were hitching posts near the houses. The villages of hunters and fishermen were located around the towns.
In the XVIII - XIX centuries. Mansi villages were small, from 3 to 20 houses, in which from 10 to 90 people lived. Most often they were located along the banks of rivers, the layout was scattered. Winter permanent dwellings were log, ground, single-chamber, low, with gable (sometimes flattened earthen) roofs on rafters and a ridge girder (the stump and side slopes were sometimes carved in the form of the heads of animals, for example, a hare), with small windows, low doors, often with a porch. In winter, the windows were covered with ice, in summer they were tightened by the belly of a deer. The house was heated and illuminated by a chuval - an open hearth like a fireplace, woven from twigs and coated with clay.
A small house was also set up separately from the main house - man-col(log house or small chum), where women lived during childbirth and menstruation.
Property, clothing, footwear, skins of fur animals, stocks of fish, meat were stored in barns, ground or (more often) pile barns. The barns were logs or planks, with a gable roof. There could be several such barns in the family, they stood in the deep taiga next to the hunting huts or separately, they also kept the meat of the hunted animal. Sleds and boats were kept under the barns in the villages. The bread was baked in street adobe stoves with a frame of poles, without a pipe, installed on the platform.
The seasonal villages of the Mansi on the fishing grounds consisted of several light frame buildings with a frame of poles covered with birch bark, less often with larch bark. There was no hearth in them, they cooked on the street on a fire.
One Mansi family could have several - up to 4 - 6 such seasonal villages and several hunting huts. During the year they moved from one place to another to fish.
These types of settlement, settlements and dwellings, as well as the way of life, persisted until the 1960s. on Northern Sosva, Lozva, on the tributaries of the Konda, they are preserved even now in remote taiga places. However, most of the small villages were liquidated due to the enlargement of farms, the transfer of the population to a sedentary lifestyle, while the Mansi were considered as a nomadic people (reindeer herders), both the specifics of their economy and the presence of permanent villages were ignored. For them, new settlements for 200-500 people were built (less often reconstructed from old ones). They were built according to standard projects with street planning, boarding schools, hospitals or first-aid posts, clubs, shops, post offices; here were the boards of collective farms or state farms, the buildings of village councils. Landing pads for helicopters or small airfields, marinas for motor ships are set up near large settlements. The attempt of the state to improve the life of the Mansi, however, tore them away from their fishing grounds, caused underemployment of the population, curtailment of traditional sectors of the economy, and lowered the standard of living of the population.
The Mansi sewed clothes from animal skins (winter), rovduga, leather (demi-season and footwear), cloth and cotton fabrics (summer). Men's clothing - deaf, women's - swing. Winter deaf clothing of local origin (park) and borrowed from the Nenets (from the Mansi reindeer herders) - malitsa, sokuy (or sovik). Western and eastern Mansi wore sheepskin fur coats and woolen caftans in winter.
Demi-season (spring-autumn) clothes of Mansi were sewn from cloth, as well as winter ones, men's - deaf, women's - swing. Underwear - shirts and pants for men, shirt-dresses for women - were made of fabrics, chintz, satin. Back at the beginning of the XX century. Mansi women collected nettle, knew how to process it, spin thread from nettle fiber and weave canvas on simple looms. Already in the XIX century. men's clothing it was often purchased (especially from the southern and western Mansi). Men's clothes were girded with a wide leather belt decorated with bone and metal plaques, bags, sheaths and cases for a knife, ammunition, etc. were hung from the belt. Hunters wore a cloth cape luzan blank cut with non-sewn sides, with a hood, pockets and loops for an ax, food, ammunition, etc.
Clothes and shoes made of skins were decorated with fur mosaics, appliqués made of colored cloth, clothes made of fabrics were decorated with appliqués made of fabrics, beaded sewing, and cast tin plaques. Ancient ornaments still live (their origin is associated with andronoid cultures) - ribbon, geometric, zoomorphic with the appropriate names ("hare ears", "antlers", "birch branches", "sable footprint", etc.). The head was covered with hoods (men), fur hats (women), in summer men covered their heads and neck with a scarf against mosquitoes. Women always walked around with their heads covered with a scarf. Large colorful woolen or silk scarves with tassels or fringes were worn over the head so that the two ends of the scarf descended on the sides of the head. In the presence of her husband's older relatives, the woman covered her face with one end of the scarf or sliding both ends of it on her face. Previously, both women and men wore braids, wrapping them with colored (red) woolen cord. By the XX century. short hair replaced braids in men. Women wore special adornments - false braids woven from woolen laces and ribbons entwined with chains with rings and plaques.
All these types of clothing, footwear, hats, ornaments (except for those made from nettle fiber) were preserved in the 1950s and 60s. However, they are gradually being replaced by purchased clothing and footwear, especially summer and demi-season clothing, and mainly men's and youth clothing and footwear. The traditional clothing and footwear of reindeer breeders is preserved, as well as for hunting and traveling.
The food ration has also undergone many changes, although in the families of reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen, it retains its traditions - fish and meat of deer and wild animals, game. In these families, they still eat fish and meat raw, drink fresh deer blood. Meat and fish are boiled, dried, smoked, fried. Fish and ducks are also salted for the winter. Fishermen drink and store fish oil for future use, boiling it from the insides of the fish. Berries (blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries, blueberries, cloudberries, cranberries) are eaten raw, jam is made from them, lingonberries and cranberries are frozen or soaked. In a bread oven, bread is baked in frying pans, and cakes are baked on a fire (in the taiga). Deer blood, crushed berries, bird cherry, fish oil are added to the flour. They drink a lot of tea, each meal is accompanied by a tea party.
In the past, Mansi's utensils were made of wood and birch bark; copper kettles and kettles were bought or exchanged. From the 17th - 18th centuries. glass, porcelain, and metal dishes began to spread from the Russians. In the XX century. almost all the dishes were purchased. Only fishermen keep a certain amount of wooden and birch bark dishes - bowls, dishes, troughs, spoons, tues. Women sew bags from reindeer skins for storing handicrafts, decorating them with mosaics, make birch bark boxes for storing sewing, handicrafts, boxes are decorated with ornaments, scraping them on birch bark.
Russians no longer found clans among the Mansi, although a number of travelers and scientists back in the 19th century. noted the division of northern Mansi into two phratries Por and Mos... The dual-phratrial division is especially typical for the northern Mansi, but the conclusion of marriages according to the rules of dual exogamy, judging by the marriage relations (according to the metric church books), was recorded in all Mansi groups at the end of the 18th - 19th centuries. and even at the beginning of the XX century. A smaller subdivision of phratry, a genealogical group of blood relatives, descending from one (often mythological zoomorphic) ancestor, is very similar to the genus, but does not have such a feature as generic exogamy. Already by the 19th century. a territorial-neighboring community began to take shape, members of not only several genealogical groups, but also of both phratries lived in one village (which is associated with strong migration processes in the Mansi during the 18th - 19th centuries). The functions of the territorial community were to regulate land relations when the land was in the possession of individual families or family groups (the Mansi did not have a traditional institution of land ownership).
The Mansi, like other peoples of Siberia, were taxed with yasak. Yasak was calculated from every man from 16 to 59 years old. This fiscal order, as well as Christianization, finally consolidated patriarchal relations in Mansi society, although in folklore and even in everyday life in late XIX- early XX centuries. one could find traces of the former high status of women in Mansi society (images of women-heroes, victorious men-heroes, independence of women in everyday life, traces of the matrilocal settlement of a man in his wife's family, the special role of a maternal uncle, etc.).
Until the 15th - 16th centuries, judging by folklore data, Mansi society was at the stage of the so-called. " military democracy"Or potestary society. Local groups (inhabitants of a village or a group of villages) were headed by elders ("gray-headed elders"), as well as "heroes" - military leaders who headed local and tribal associations, especially during military operations. Intertribal clashes, wars with the Nenets, Khanty, Tatars, Komi, Russians were frequent in the 2nd millennium AD. Faced with the military leaders and detachments of the armed Mansi, with their potestary society, the Russian administration transferred its feudal terminology to them (heroes, military leaders - "princes", tribal and territorial groupings and unification - "princedoms"). However, at that time, the Mansi did not yet have feudal relations, as S.V. Bakhrushin, although property differentiation had already been established ("the best", "poor" and other people).
The family became the main economic and social unit among the Mansi already in the 18th century. This process was completed by the 20th century, although in public and religious life of great importance were the dual-phratrial division, the idea of origin from a single ancestor, his cult, awareness of oneself as part of a certain territorial group.
The Mansi's marriage was concluded by conspiracy and matchmaking, with the payment of kalym and dowry, marriage-exchange of women from different families and marriage-abduction were practiced. In the past, before the Christianization of Mansi (and even back in the 18th - 19th centuries), they had polygamy (two or three wives). This was due to the fact that child marriages were widespread, and besides, often the wife was much older than her husband. Often they married a boy-husband a grown girl- as a worker on the farm, since in the hunting and fishing economy, female labor was of great importance.
In the XVIII - XIX centuries. there were many large families, incl. and brotherly. By the XX century. the small family became dominant. However, the Mansi family is peculiar: the term "family" in Mansi means "house collective" ( stake takhyt), not only relatives, close and distant ones, but often strangers (orphans, invalids, “housemates”) lived in it.
The Mansi were converted to Christianity in the 18th century. The methods of conversion to the Christian faith were both peaceful and violent. The converts received not only a cross and a shirt as a gift, but also an exemption from paying yasak for a year. At the same time, the destruction of sacred places and images of spirits that accompanied Christianization caused performances, incl. and armed, the Mansi against missionaries, priests and the military units accompanying them at first.
Although, in general, Christianity was formally adopted by the Mansi and they retained their faith and rituals, nevertheless, it was reflected in the Mansi's worldview, their rituals, in everyday life. Some wore crosses, had icons, put crosses on their graves. In the yasak books, the Mansi are rewritten under their own names (sometimes with the mention of the father's name). When the Mansi were converted to Christianity, they were given Orthodox names and Russified surnames: the ending in -ev, -ov, -in was added to the father's name (Artanzei - Artanzeev, Kynlabaz - Kynlabazov, etc.).
Today, the rural population of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is still employed in traditional sectors of the economy, which have changed a lot during the Soviet era. In the regional centers (Berezovo, Oktyabrskoye), factories and combines were created that process fish for canned food. Fishermen on collective farms handed over the bulk of the fish caught to fish plots and received a salary. The Mansi had widespread forms of collective farming - the fishing artel. Collectivization took place in the pre-war period, when part of the Mansi was concentrated in the villages and villages in which the centers of collective farms and village councils were located. In the 1960s. farms and settlements were enlarged, the population was even more concentrated in new large settlements, the traditional settlement system inherent in the traditional hunting and fishing economy was finally disrupted. Then the reorganization of the farms was carried out, on the basis of the former fishing and agricultural artels, state and cooperative fishing farms (industrial farms), state farms, and fishing grounds of fish factories were formed.
The policy of transferring the population to a sedentary lifestyle was carried out in violation of all traditions. It was public policy, for its implementation (construction of villages, houses) were released large funds... In order to occupy the population living in settlements and cut off from the land, they began to introduce cellular fur farming, animal husbandry, and vegetable growing. They were unusual and unprofitable occupations for the peoples of the North; only part of the population of the village was employed in them. Nevertheless, under the influence of these measures, part of the Mansi, even the northern ones, began to keep livestock on their own household and have vegetable gardens (especially on the Ob and Konda).
The industrial development of the region caused great damage to the Mansi traditional economy. Back in the 1930s. on the lands of the Mansi (Konda, between the Konda and Northern Sosva rivers), the development of the timber industry began. Since the 1960s. development began oil fields(Konda, Shaim), the construction of cities and towns of oil workers, timber workers. The fishing grounds of the Mansi were reduced, the processes of pollution of rivers and soils began, their destruction by the ruts of all-terrain vehicles, and poaching.
V last years the situation has worsened even more in connection with Russia's transition to economic reforms. From collective farms and industrial farms, family and community groups began to stand out, leading the economy on their own. In the Tyumen Oblast and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, resolutions were adopted, according to which Mansi farms began to be endowed with lands (the so-called "ancestral lands"), transferred to them for permanent use. These farms began to organize something like farms, only with a commercial rather than agricultural character. However, there were many obstacles on their way, incl. and new ones: the high cost of gasoline, means of transport (boats, motors for boats, snowmobiles, etc.), the onset of industry on the traditional economy, deterioration of supplies, poaching on land, fires, etc. The traditional economy, although it remains the main means of livelihood, is in dire condition.
Modern Mansi are overwhelmingly urban or rural residents who have lost many features of their national culture, as well as their language: in 1989, only 36.7% of the Mansi considered the Mansi language their native language. In the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, the territory of their most compact settlement, they, together with the Khants, Nenets and Selkups, constituted only 1.6% of the total population of the Okrug in 1989. Among the intelligentsia of the Mansi, residents of taiga villages, where you can still do traditional farming, in the last 5-7 years there is a strong mood to revive their culture and language. Certain activities in this direction are carried out by members of the "Salvation of Yugra" association, which, along with the Mansi, includes the Khanty. This is also facilitated by the activities of the research institute for the revival of the Ob-Ugric peoples, created several years ago in Khanty-Mansiysk. However, many obstacles stand in the way of this revival - the small number of people, its dispersed settlement, large percentage urban and rural population, cut off from the traditional economy and way of life, fast pace industrial development of the region, lack of funds.
Mansi is a people in the Russian Federation since ancient times inhabiting the Ob river basin. According to the 2002 census, about twelve thousand representatives of this ethnic group live on the territory of Russia. Most of the Mansi speak Russian, but there are still entire villages that have not forgotten their native, Mansi language.
As an isolated people, the Mansi were formed in the middle of the first millennium of our era. The nation was formed from several tribes that settled on the territory of the basins of the Kama, Ural, Ob, and so on. Some of these tribes came from Northern and Western Siberia. Around the first half of the second millennium, the Mansi had frequent conflicts with the Russian tribes and the Komi people.
In Russian chronicle sources, the first mention of Mansi dates back to the second half of the eleventh century. At this time, the Russians called them "Yugra", less often "Vogulichi" or "Voguls". Close contact between the Mansi and the Russians began after the conquest of Siberia. During this period, the development of the Mansi was at a very low level. They lived in a tribal system, the main occupation was hunting for forest animals, catching fish. Rare tribes bred deer and worked the land.
Until the end of the eighteenth century, the Mansi did not know transport, except for reindeer or dog sleds, horses and skis. Only with the arrival of the Soviet power beyond the Urals, the active development of the northern peoples began. Many Mansi started raising livestock (horses, sheep, cows) and reindeer herding.
Mansi traditional dwelling
The traditional home of the Mansi is a wooden hut, where the family spent the whole winter. In the summer, autumn and spring, the Mansi left their permanent homes for the places of fishing. Temporary huts were assembled from poles covered with birch bark. Reindeer breeders in the steppe built plagues from poles and reindeer skins. Among the Mansi living in the south and west of the Trans-Urals, permanent (winter) huts were very similar to Russian log cabins. In the northern regions, winter huts often had an earthen or birch bark roof. Mansi settlements consisted of close and distant relatives.
As a rule, permanent huts were heated with the help of some kind of fireplace, assembled from poles and plastered with clay. This hearth was also used for cooking. Mansi bread was baked in special ovens, which were specially built not far from the house. The favorite food of the Mansi was jerky deer meat, fish baked over a fire. Sometimes fish and meat were fried or dried. In the fall, they ate forest gifts, with the exception of mushrooms, which were considered unfit for food.
Mansi folk costume
Mansi men dressed in a shirt, wide and warm pants. Outerwear was made of broadcloth and always had a hood and wide sleeves. Reindeer breeders wore "luzan" - a cape made of reindeer skins with a hole for the head and arms and unsewn sides.
Women dressed in a dress or a robe, richly decorated with embroidery. A headscarf was an obligatory attribute. Women paid special attention to jewelry: rings made of precious metals, beaded embroidery on clothes, necklaces, earrings, and the like.
In the eighteenth century, the Russians converted the Mansi to the Orthodox faith. Until this moment, the northern people had a developed mythology, believed in ancestor spirits and patron spirits. Each settlement had its own shaman. Currently, the overwhelming majority of Mansi are Orthodox Christians, but still distant echoes of the former faith have survived.
Mansi believed that all the world is divided into three kingdoms: heaven, earth and the underworld, and each of them was ruled by a separate deity. For example, the sky was ruled by the god Torum (translated as “sky”, “weather” or “supreme being”), who created the earth and governs it. Khul-otyr is a god underworld who harms people, creates dangerous creatures and takes people to his domain. Ma-ankva is the goddess of the earth, who saves a person from diseases, gives offspring ...
In addition to the three main deities, the Mansi believed in the existence of human-like gods living among people. For example, Menkeva's deities are divine beings created by Torum. According to legend, the heavenly god created them from wood, but the Menkevs hid from the creator in the forest and live there, hunting predatory animals. The Mansi believed that the Menkevs brought good luck on the hunt. Forest deities have families and children.
Some forest dwellers were also endowed with divine qualities. For example, the cult of the bear has survived to this day. The Mansi wolf was feared and considered the creation of an underground god. Dogs, according to beliefs, were a kind of mediator between the living and the dead.
The Bear Festival is one of the few surviving remnants of today. old faith people. The bear among the Mansi people has always been a particularly revered divine creature, but it was also the main object of the hunt, providing clothing and food.
A bear holiday or bear games is a kind of ritual aimed at calming the soul of the killed animal and the soul of the person who killed him. The Mansi held bear festivals once every seven years, in addition, every time the hunters returned home with a killed animal, a ritual was performed.
The ritual itself begins in the forest, at the place of death of the animal. The hunters had to clean the skin of the bear by wiping it with water, snow, grass, or just earth. Then the carcass was placed on a special stretcher, so that the head lay between the front paws. In this form, the prey was carried to the settlement. Approaching their relatives, the hunters notified them with a shout. If a female bear was killed, then the hunters shouted four times, and if a male, then five times. The villagers came out to meet the hunters and fumigated them with smoke, sprinkled them with water or snow.
Depending on the sex of the animal, the holiday lasted five days (if the male was killed) or four days (if the female was killed). First, the bear's head was placed in the “holy corner” of the house, and hunting weapons were laid out next to it. Then they asked permission from the head before starting the holiday. After obtaining consent, the Mansi chose an animal to be sacrificed to the bear. Only the hunter who killed the animal could set the day when the holiday would begin. A lavish feast was arranged in the house, treats were placed in front of the bear's head.
Siberian branch
THE MANSY PEOPLE: A MYTH INCLUDED
(electronic version of the book)
I.N. Gemuev
To the one who will see the gods in the coming century,
We gladly narrate now
about the origin of the gods.
Rigveda, X, 72
© I.N. Gemuev
Institute of Archeology and Ethnography
Novosibirsk
1.1. Mansi …………………………………………………………… .2
1.2. How the fortress of Lombovorz came into being * ……………………… ..15
1.3. Mansi and Nenets ……………………………………. …………… .15
1.4. About the war between the Sosvinsky and the Kondinsky
heroes …………………………………………………… .16
2. Mansi Universe …………………………………………… 22
3. Mansi people: Gods and people
3.1. A man looking around the world …………………………… ..38
3.2. Mother Goddess …………………………………………………… 53
3.3. Bogatyrs, heroes, ancestors ……………………………………… 63
3.4. Old clawed man …………………………………………… .65
3.5. Family spirits ……………………………………………… ..67
3.6. Taiga spirits ………………………………………………… ..79
3.7. The cycle of the soul …………………………………………… ..81
About unknown people ...
Muncie
Not everyone knows about Mansi. Even in Siberia, not everyone will answer the question: where does this people live and what do they do? And not many people know at all that the Mansi are the closest relatives not only of their neighbors - the Khanty, but also of the Hungarians living on the Danube, thousands of kilometers from the Urals - the Siberian border.
And it was like this. Three thousand years ago, in the south of Western Siberia (in the forest-steppe zone), on the southern slopes of the Urals, in the steppes of North-Western Kazakhstan, lived a large community of people united by natural habitat, nature of occupation, common language and self-name. These were the ancient Ugrians - farmers and cattle breeders (they, in particular, knew about horse breeding). However, it was then, at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, or even 100 - 200 years earlier (as linguists studying the history of the development of languages say) 1 the demarcation of the Ugric community began. It is unlikely that it will ever be possible to find out all the reasons that caused this process, but the climate change in Eurasia played an important role in it - humidification in the north, in the forests and aridization of the steppes and forest-steppes, where the Ugrians lived 2. Under these conditions, one group of Ugrians (the ancestors of the future Hungarians) began to switch to pasture nomadic cattle breeding, and the other, without which there would be no modern Mansi and Khanty, began to move to the North 3. This path, which ran on both sides of the Urals, apparently took more than a thousand years. Archaeological sites in the south of the forest zone of Western Siberia, which can be confidently compared with the traditional culture of the Mansi and Khanty, date back precisely to the first centuries of the new era 4. By the middle of the 1st millennium, the Ugrians penetrated the European and Asian Urals, reached the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina and Pechora in Europe, and the mouth of the Ob in Asia.
Meanwhile, the group of Ugrians, which later formed the basis of the Hungarian people, also did not remain in place. In the era of the "great migration of peoples", at the end of the IV century. new era, these Ugrians migrated to the Kuban and the Black Sea region, and then (this was already at the end of the 9th century) ended up on the Danube. They included in their composition and assimilated the Slavic and other tribes inhabiting the local area, as a result of which the Hungarian people gradually took shape.
However, let's return to the ancestors of the Mansi and Khanty. Gradually moving to the North, they encountered everywhere the tribes (they are usually called the Ural), who lived here even earlier. The Urals, in contrast to the newcomer herders, were hunters and fishermen. Moreover, their language was different from that of the Ugrians. And so, due to historical circumstances, two so dissimilar ethnocultural communities were destined not only to come into contact, but also to interact for many centuries. This process included culture Exchange, linguistic interactions, marriage contacts.
Over time, the Ugrians lost their former skills of pastoralists and mastered the hunting and fishing industries, which formed the basis of the economic activities of the Urals. This is not surprising, because with a low level of development of society, the ecological environment has a decisive influence on the production activities of people. At the same time, the aliens managed to preserve their language in the main.
It should be noted that on the new territory for the Ugrians, not one people were formed, but two - the Mansi (their territory included the Urals, the Urals, the Kama basin, the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina and Pechora, and beyond the Urals - the Siberian rivers Turu and Tobol) 5 and the Khanty (in Middle and Lower Ob region). Later, starting from the 11th century, under the pressure of the Komi-Zyryans, the Mansi began to gradually withdraw beyond the Urals. In the end, by the 17th century they settled mainly in the left bank of the Ob along its tributaries, and the Khanty occupied the right-bank basin of this great river 6.
Traditional cultures These Ugric, or rather, the Novy Ugric peoples (they are also called the Ob or Siberian Ugrians) are very close to each other. However, one should pay attention to the amazing resilience of the “Mansi” (as well as Hungarian) language and self-awareness. Despite such distant migrations ... and mixing with the aboriginal population, the speakers of the Mansi and Hungarian languages preserved them, passing them on to the local population ”. In other words, the Mansi (and the Hungarians) retained more “genes Ugric ethnic group"* Than the Khanty, whose ancestors were much more dissolved among the Ural tribes of the West Siberian taiga" 7. An impressive, although far from the only, evidence of a kind of conservation of the ancient Ugric heritage among the Mansi and Hungarians (Magyars) is the proximity of the self-names of these peoples. Researchers have good reason to compare modern ethnonyms* * “Magyar” and “Mansi” 8, ascending to the general pro-form “Manse” 9.
It can be assumed with sufficient confidence that the Mansi as a people took shape approximately by the 10th - 11th centuries. AD 10 This means that they now represented a community of people speaking the same language, engaged in the same trades, having the same (or close and understandable) customs. They equally imagined the origin of their people, they saw the world in the same way. At the same time, the emergence of the Mansi people from two heterogeneous parts (Ugrians and Urals) was reflected in their mythology and social structure. The entire Mansi (as well as the Khanty) society was divided into two halves - the phratries * ** Por and Mos. People lived in small villages or separate families, but at the same time, the inhabitants of each village (Paul) had a clear idea of which phratry they belonged to. Such knowledge was necessary, since marriages were concluded between representatives of opposite phratries: the Mos men married the Por women and vice versa. The Por phratry was composed of the descendants of the Ural aborigines, and the Mos phratry were the descendants of the Ugrians. Of course, as a result of marriage contacts that lasted for millennia, the representatives of various phratries turned out to be close in their anthropological type and other physical characteristics share the same cultural skills. This just meant the emergence of a single people. At the same time, since the historically conditioned marriage regulation remained in society, without which society could not physically exist and reproduce, people realized both the presence of two halves of society and the belonging of each to one of them.
In a traditional society * everything social institutions, like the significant actions of people, are always sanctified by myth. Nobody knows when and how the division of society into two halves appeared. But in order for every generation of people to take this for granted and to follow these principles, some kind of explanation is needed that is accepted as an axiom. The myth is in the role of this axiom. In the myth, first of all, we are talking about how this or that rule of behavior was established by some, again, mythical ancestors. In vital situations, such as the beginning of a war, the founding of a new settlement, the conclusion of a marriage, the behavior of people seems to be reduced to repeating the actions of their ancestors, or rather, to imitation of these actions. People similar cases“Return”, interrupting the natural course of life, to “how it was,” “how it happened,” “how it was done,” in the mythical beginning. Numerous rituals and ceremonies serve precisely this purpose - to achieve the correspondence of human affairs to a certain originally established norm sanctified by the myth. It is thanks to this that the tradition lives on.
There are many legends about the origin of the Mansi, or rather the Ob-Ugric, phratries. It is believed that the ancestor of the Por phratry was a bear (or she-bear), and the ancestor of Mos was the woman Kaltash, who could appear in the form of a goose, a hare or a butterfly. In another Mansi legend, it is said that the first marriage was concluded between the man Mos and his sister. From this marriage a son was born. The brother killed his wife-sister and son (thereby the myth denies consanguineous marriages). From the blood of his sister-wife, the Porikh plant grew, which was eaten by a bear, who then gave birth to a daughter, the first woman of Por 11. People killed the bear, but she, knowing about her impending death, told her daughter not to eat her meat, and for a long time the ban on eating bear meat - the meat of the mythical ancestor - remained mandatory for the people of the Por phratry.
Later, the attitude towards the bear changed somewhat. They began to hunt for him, or, in any case, hunt, if the hunter happened to meet a bear in the taiga (to find a den). At the same time, people still had the idea that killing a bear was a crime, because it is an ancestor. Therefore, there were special rituals of "cleansing" - everyone who took part in the hunt threw snow at each other or (if it was in the summer) splashed with water 12.
People were gladly greeted by the news of a rare prey - after all, it meant that a holiday had come. Residents of other villages were also invited to it, here no one was superfluous. The hunter-hunter was surrounded by special respect and honor. It was in his house that the festive celebration was held. At the same time, the skin of the beast was laid with its head on a dais - bunks (fell) against the wall opposite the entrance, in the most honorable place. The bear seemed to be watching what was happening. His head lay on his paws (it was in this position that he was depicted on bronze plaques two thousand years ago). In front of the bear, a treat was set on a small table, and the walls were hung with sable and fox skins - the owner of the taiga appeared, thus, in the form of an honored guest of the holiday.
In accordance with the information, songs, dances, dramatic scenes were performed - all this corresponded to the developed ritual. In between, those present were treated to alcohol, meat (men were entitled to the front, and women - the back, less honorable, part of the carcass). The bear was presented with gifts (pieces of fabric, and if the bear was a guest - scarves, beads, rings). These gifts were put in a special box, and women were supposed to put them separately. The duration of the holiday was five days if a bear was a “guest”, and four - if a bear was “visiting” (according to other sources, 7 and 5 days, respectively) 13.
However, the special attitude towards the bear, characteristic of the members of the Por phratry, was by no means always shared by the people who were part of the other half of society - the Mos phratry, the descendants of the ancient Ugrians. And although this circumstance is not recorded in any historical documents, folklore speaks eloquently about it. It is in fairy tales and songs, which seemingly have a general membership, that sometimes echoes of the heterogeneity of this society, different perceptions of the same life situations break through. If for the people of Por, killing a bear is a misfortune that turns into a holiday, then the behavior of the people of Mos' legends is characterized differently. It would be an ungrateful task to retell these works of Mansi folklore, it would be better to cite one of them - the “Song of the City Bogatyr” performed at the bear festival, which speaks of the bogatyr's desecration of a killed bear and revenge for this. The narration comes from the face of a bear.
An old man lives - a city hero in a fortress,
Surrounded by iron walls
Surrounded by a wooden palisade.
Since childhood, he was a wonderful hunter:
He did not let a single animal pass by,
Running on the ground
He did not let a single bird pass by,
Flying in the air.
One hot long summer
Once upon a hot mosquito summer
It's a good time to slow down.
The old man goes to the brake river.
The river meanders like goose guts
The river meanders like duck guts.
He rides along it on his bow boat with a bow:
Not a single beast has yet been found,
Not a single bird's wing is found.
Your boat is narrow, like the edge of a knife,
I wanted to turn back.
Me, a one-year-old mighty beast.
I walked along the banks of the river with the banks.
The city hero threw an arrow at me
With a tip, faceted like a crow's beak.
The tip is faceted like a crow's nose,
Pierced the shrine * of the mighty beast.
I sank to the ground
WITH good mood quiet breeze.
A bow boat drove up with a bow to the shore,
The city hero came ashore,
Hook me to the bow
And he threw it behind his back.
Then he sits in the middle of the boat with the middle
And he returns home.
When I drove up to the pier of the city with the pier,
Then rudely threw me ashore
And there he tore off my sacred clothes.
He chopped his head and skin with an ax
And threw it into a little chum,
Where do women in childbirth live,
Where do women live during their periods?
The rest of the meat was chopped into small pieces
And threw it out for the dogs
In the middle of the village with the middle.
Daughters-in-law of the city hero
Wipe their dirty feet on my skin.
Daughters-in-law of the city hero
After washing your clothes
They pour dirty water on my skin.
Father Numi-Torum *,
If you allow such abuse?
Father Numi-Torum,
Have mercy on me
And punish this criminal
Evil urban hero!
Enraged Spirit of the Mighty Beast
Goes to a dense forest with dark trees.
He finds seven of his den
And calls the whole bear race
To the war with the city hero.
Seven angry bears are walking
Take a bloody attack
The fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by iron walls
The fortress of the city hero,
Although they are approaching the fortress,
Although they climb on its walls,
But the city hero is not afraid either
With numerous sons.
They shower them with arrows,
They chop off their spotted paws with toes,
My angry spirit is running
In the form of a tailed mouse
Runs into the dark corners of a dense forest.
He goes around all seven of its corners,
Finds all seven of his dens.
Go to the rescue
Seven more bears are my brothers.
But it was not there:
As soon as it slips in
So now it breaks her
Iron arrowhead.
The bearish race is retreating with great losses.
I'm running again
V beautiful image tailed mouse
Into a dense forest with dark trees.
Listen, father Numi-Torum,
City hero
Insulted me, forest beast,
He insulted me, a meadow beast.
If really
You called me a sacred beast
If really
Appointed as the keeper of the oath,
Then avenge this insult!
Father Numi-Torum,
Drop to the ground
My older brother with a bowed neck.
Only he can defeat the city hero.
Father Numi-Torum
Drops from the sky on an iron chain
In a cradle woven from tree roots,
My older brother.
Big brother besieges
The fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by iron walls
He destroys the fortress of the city hero,
Surrounded by a wooden palisade.
Although the heroes dream
Arrows with iron tips
Yes in vain:
Only the wool on his clothes is torn off;
Continue the fight with spears, but in vain:
Spears bounce off his clothes.
The old man, the hero of the city, chickened out
And fled to the outskirts of the city with the backyards.
My older brother is racing too
To the outskirts of the city with the backyards.
An old man, a hero of the city, is hiding in a barn.
The older brother drops in there too
With a curved neck.
The old man, the hero of the city, says:
If, really, I killed the sacred beast,
If it is true that I am the oath-keeper,
Then try to have a snack
The iron butt of my ax.
Have a snack - I admit my guilt.
Big Brother Snacks
Iron butt of an ax,
Rubs the iron
In grains as small as sand,
The grains are small, like dust;
With a terrible roar
Ready to devour the city
With a terrible roar
Ready to devour the village
Pounces on the hero
And tears it to shreds
The size of shoe skins,
Tears it to shreds
The size of mitten skins.
Kai - I - yu - them!
Thus, a continuous confrontation between the two halves, parts of the Mansi society, is gradually proclaimed. Ideology, living its own life, does not allow one to forget about the different origins of the components that made up the people. And at the same time, people entering each of the phratries have nowhere to go from each other. In their limited space, they were doomed to interact. Moreover, they simply could not live without each other, for the Mos men were supposed to marry only Por women and vice versa. No matter how mockingly Mos-Makhum (Mansi Mos) and Por-Makhum (Mansi Por) spoke about each other, this could not affect the predetermination of their relationship. Here's how the song says:
An owl lives *.
A young woman sings might * *,
Owl says:
"Young woman mighty, put me a song."
The woman might sing:
"Owl - crooked nose ..."
Owl says:
“What a song you are singing!
You don't eat well!
Here I will fly
I will beg for snow between the trees,
But you can't dig it. "
The owl flew away.
Sank down between the trees.
This is how the owl shouts:
“Poo-oo-gu! Poo-oo-gu!
My father, the highest Torum,
Snow covered with snow
Between the trees this night. ”
Snow fell.
Door of the house of a young woman
Covered with snow.
She got up - she could not open her door.
Somehow I got out and shoveled the snow.
The owl thinks:
"The young woman might have died."
Flew there - and the door of the house
Young women are powerful,
It turns out that it has been dug up.
Owl says:
“The young woman is powerful,
Tell me a song and sing it well. ”
"How will it sing?"
The young woman is speaking.
She began to sing again:
“Owl - crooked nose,
Owl - shaggy legs,
Owl - variegated eyes,
Owl - big ears ... "
Owl says:
“What a song you are singing!
You don't eat well!
I'll ask for snow again.
Let the snow fall to the top of the trees
And you can't
Open the door of your house. "
The owl flew and sank to the top.
This is how the owl shouts:
“Poo-oo-gu! Poo-oo-gu!
My father, the highest Torum!
Fall in snow to the top of the trees ”.
Snow fell to the top of the trees.
A young woman stood up powerfully -
Turns out to be snow
Up to the height of the house roof.
Although she tried to go outside, she could not.
An owl arrived,
I went down to the roof of the house.
Owl says:
“The young woman is powerful,
Lay me a song
And sing it well. ”
The young woman might have begun to sing:
“Owl - variegated eyes,
On the edge of these bunks where I sit.
Sit down as a kind spouse
From God appointed ”.
The owl fluttered and sank down.
He waved his wing here, waved there.
All the snow was brushed aside.
A young woman might have gone out into the street -
And they healed together.
And now 15 people live happily and happily.
… And yet the spiritual life of each phratry took place to a large extent independently. There were phratrial sanctuaries. Until recently, the cult center of the Por phratry was located on the right bank of the Ob in the village of Vezhakora. Here, in a public house, the inhabitant of which was a specially chosen guardian, in a special box there was an image of Konseng-oyka (Clawed old man) - a rolled bearskin with a head stuffed with hay and laid on its paws. Regularly, every 7 years, ritual ceremonies were held here, accompanied by big dances (yany-ect). This ritual, close in form to the rituals of the bear holiday, was, however, more complicated. This place is still considered sacred and revered. In our time, the periodic holidays, which were attended by people from different villages, have ceased. Last time they took place in 1965 16
Phratry Mos also had its own cult center. He was in Belogorie, not far from the mouth of the Irtysh. The main fetish here was the famous copper goose *. The fact is that Kaltash-ekwa, the phratrial ancestor of Mos, and her son Mir-Susne-Khum, the most significant character of the Mansi pantheon, could have appeared in the guise of a goose. However, there is a conversation about him ahead. The brazen goose was known as a fortuneteller, therefore the priests-guardians of the sanctuary, according to the author of the 17th century source, “they speak and ask about all things with their idiots, and in that shamanism those idiots and in Belogorie reprimand the brass goose” 17. The popularity of the "copper goose" was so great that in 1704, in pursuance of the decree of Peter I, demanding "to find the most knowledgeable shamans," the Siberian governors M. Cherkassky and I. Obryutin sent "to the Belogorsk volost the interpreter * * Alexei Rozhin, with him the equestrian Cossack Stepan Murzintsev "by the shaitans along Kulanka Pykhleev and who has a copper goose according to Pyanka Masterkova." True, these "shaitans" during interrogation in the order chamber dissuaded that "they have nothing to talk about with their idiots and do not know what to do with a brass goose, and they didn’t speak with a copper goose and cannot speak, and they do not know how to talk about shaitans. they keep a prayer from ancient times and according to their faith ”18.
The brass goose must have had an imposing appearance; a special nest was made for it from cloth, canvas, and leather. In honor of this idol, animal sacrifices were made, most of all horses. The Belogorsk sanctuary existed in the 10s of the 18th century, at least G. Novitsky in his “ Short description about the Ostyak people ”wrote:“ The goose is their idol byash, sculpted from copper in the likeness of a goose; I have a nasty dwelling in the yurts of the Belogorskys at the great roar of Oba ”19. It should be noted that this sanctuary was visited not only by the Mansi, but also by the Khants who belonged to the Mos phratry * ** (in the same way, the cult center in Vezhakory was a place of a kind of pilgrimage for people who were part of the Por phratry, regardless of whether they were Mansi or Khanty ).
Note that the regulation of spiritual life and religious and ritual practice in accordance with the phratrial division of society did not at all mean the complete isolation of one phratry from another in these areas. After all, the Mansi formed into a single people, and the awareness of community was also manifested in the existence of interphratrial cult places that united people regardless of their belonging to one or another phratry.
One of these sanctuaries was called Torum-Kan (God's place) and was located near the village of Lombovozh on the river. Lyapin. Torum-kan operated back in the twenties of our century, now there is only a powerful support against which the trunks of specially cut trees leaned against them - images of the Mansi gods were attached to them. In their honor, animal sacrifices (deer) were performed, and a fire was made here, on which sacrificial food was cooked.
Two paths led to the sanctuary. Each of them was followed by people from one of the phratries. This happened twice a year: at the beginning of August and shortly after the New Year. To visit Torum-kan, residents of many villages gathered in the basins of the Sosva and Lyapina rivers. In addition to ritual activities, boat competitions were organized (if it took place in the summer). Each village fielded a team of 12 people. The boats were prepared in advance. 10 oarsmen sat in pairs and each worked with one oar, in addition, there was the helmsman at the stern, and a musician with a sangultap * at the bow. During the race, he played a rhythmic melody and in this way set the pace for the rowers.
One might get the impression that the phratrial structure of Mansi society, which, by the way, permeated it until recently, was almost the only result. social development of the Mansi people. In fact, this is not the case. Already in the XI century. Novgorodians became aware of the Ugric, including Mansi, principalities. In the XVII century. Yugra * * became dependent on Novgorod - its population paid tribute to the Novgorodians. However, Ugra's dependence on Novgorod was limited to “trips of Novgorod danshiks to collect yasak” 21. Parallel to this, however, there was trade, mutually beneficial exchange of goods, and this was what ensured the relative stability of relations.
Russian sources of that time practically do not contain information about social structure Ob-Ugric, therefore, and Mansi, society. Only a few of the details mentioned in them allow us to assume with great caution what the nature of social organization the Ugrians of that time. Thus, in the Novgorod chronicle, the “prince of Yugorsk” is mentioned. If we proceed from the fact that the Russians, when assessing a reality alien to them, used their own ideas and standards, then the prince of Ugra of the 12th century. - this is at least a military leader, because in Veliky Novgorod the prince performed precisely these functions 22.
The image of the prince has survived in the Ugrians' national memory. This is how the outstanding historian S.V. Bakhrushin: “The princes stand out for their splendor: the epics speak of the luxury of their clothes, of the barns where their riches are kept, of the silk curtains, unwoven and decorated with bells, separating the female half from the male in their homes, and the treasures of their home gods. Among the poorly armed warriors, the prince again stands out, "wearing a bogatyr wearing a ringing chain mail made of shiny rings." He is surrounded by servants who supply him with food and serve him. His wealth allows him the luxury of polygamy. The exceptional position of the princes has developed in them an exquisite psychology and sophistication of manners, they are scrupulous in the execution of the given word, delicate in food, when it is necessary to order, they do it with gestures and eyes. A kind of knights of the northern tundra, they fight for women, although in the family and public life the woman is in a humiliated position "23.
The sizes of the principalities were small. In legends and epics, we are talking about an army of 50 - 300 people, and in fact, folklore is characterized by exaggeration, exaggeration, rather than vice versa. The social composition of the principalities was simple: the prince, simple people and a few princely slaves. Note that the structure of society, especially a traditional society, is often reflected in religious beliefs people, because religion is a reflection in the minds of people of "those external forces that dominate them in everyday life." (F. Engels). Gods and spirits live by the same rules as people. And how else - after all, from the point of view of people, the establishment of the existing order is always attributed to the gods ("All power is from God"). The Mansi have sanctuaries in which images of spirits represent all categories, estates of society, as it was long before the annexation of Siberia to Russia.
Not far from the village of Khozhlog is the sanctuary of the hero Payyn-oyka - the owner and protector of this village. According to the local myth, the Khozhlog hero is nothing more than a "helper" subordinate to Khont-Torum (the god of war), a prince-hero of a higher status. In turn, Paypyn-oyka also has subordinates, and even of different ranks. Among them is Mis-khum *, who appears as a warrior. The crown of Mis-khum's head is tightly wrapped with a piece of white fabric, giving the impression of a military helmet, while his body is wrapped in pieces of white, motley and red fabric. In addition, Mis-khum is wearing a white robe with a belt.
Paipyn-oyka had Kakyn-pungk-oyka (literally: a lousy bald man), a worker, or rather a slave, in "service". His extremely low social status is emphasized by old, worn out clothes. A dozen old fur hats lie on the ground beside him. Unlike Mis-khum, to whom visitors of the cult place from time to time brought new scraps of fabric, Kakyn-pungk-oika was not supposed to do anything new. Moreover, visitors to the sanctuary rewarded him with derogatory epithets. It is difficult to imagine a more vivid manifestation of social inequality, transferred by people from their real life to the world of the gods.
Kakyn-pungk-oyka personifies the lowest class of traditional Mansi society. What is his name alone: "lousy bald man". The definition of "lousy" speaks for itself, and the second epithet - bald is not accidental. As V.N. Chernetsov, in the representations of the Mansi and Khanty, a person's hair is connected with one of his souls (a man has 5, a woman has 4). A person who is deprived of hair loses this so-called "little" soul. He becomes weak, timid, loses his masculine strength. At the same time, braids are the attributes of heroic warriors in heroic legends. It was the "braided heroes" who possessed special power and were surrounded by honor.
So, in the three figures of the rural sanctuary, the three estates of the Mansi society turned out to be embodied - here we saw the prince (vassal of the even more powerful Khont-Torum), a warrior and a slave. There are only ordinary members of the community who made up the majority of society. This, however, is understandable, since it was they who erected the sanctuaries, inhabiting them with the characters of their religious and mythological ideas. They were also "subjects" of each "owner" they created, so their own images are not in places of worship - living people do not need artificially created substitutes 24.
Studying social order Khanty and Mansi, S.V. Bakhrushin discovered only in the Kod principality, which existed in the 17th century, all four estates (princes, soldiers, community members, slaves). This Khanty principality was distinguished by its unusually large size (its territory stretched from the mouth of the Ob to its tributary in the middle reaches, the Vakh river). Attributes of cult places convinces us that the Mansi principalities could have no less developed social structure, according to which the society turned out to be quite clearly stratified. True, not all Mansi associations have reached such a level, from which, it would seem, quite a bit to a real state.
Here, it may be worth recalling that the state arises when the accumulation of wealth occurs in society and, in accordance with this, the property differentiation of the people who make up it, when the contradictions in it become antagonistic, and there is a need (and opportunity) for the emergence of a special the stratum of people not employed in the sphere of production - professional military men, officials, policemen, etc. It is they who make up together what is commonly called the "apparatus", without which there is no state. About the Mansi (as well as the Khanty) principalities * we can say that they have reached the border of the pre-state formations. By analogy, they can be compared with the ancient Kiev principality at the time of the arrival of the Varangians in Kievan Rus.
The center of the Mansi principality was a town fortified by a moat and a tynom. Here was the residence of the prince, and there was also a sanctuary - a place of worship for the entire population of the principality. Most of the "subjects" of the prince lived in small, scattered far from one another villages, Pauls. The unification of principalities was not uncommon. So, the Pelymskoe principality, known for its power, also included the princedoms of Kondinskoe and Tabarinskoe, each of which had its own prince.
Before talking about relations between the principalities, it should be said that although the aborigines of the taiga improved the tools of labor, combined different types of economic activity within the framework of a single economic structure, they still did not move to the level of a producing economy. Their economy remained appropriating - it included hunting, fishing, picking nuts and berries. In other words, the well-being of the Mansi, like other taiga peoples of Siberia, depended entirely on the wealth or scarcity of nature. And if we take into account that the taiga peoples had the opportunity to exchange furs for goods brought by merchants from Iran, and later from Central Asia, then the orientation of the taiga population towards hunting for fur animals becomes clear. At the same time, the desire to expand the fur trade, increase the production of animals came into conflict with biological resources specific hunting territory. It was impossible to increase the amount of extracted products due to an even more intensive use of the land. Therefore, the problem of territories has always existed and arose anew each time. All this created an atmosphere of "war of all against all."
The folklore of the indigenous population of Western Siberia has brought to us numerous and vivid descriptions of military clashes: the cruelty and ruthlessness of the enemy, who kills all the inhabitants, not even leaving a "dog tied to a pole", pictures of destroyed villages with squares strewn with victims. The attackers sought to exterminate the male population, starting with the leader, robbing property, taking prisoners and taking with them the surviving women and children (sometimes men), turning them into slaves. They fought with foreigners and with each other. During ethnographic expeditions to the Mansi, I often heard about how their ancestors fought in the "heroic times". Here are some of these stories.
Mansi (mans, mendsi, moans, obsolete - voguls, vogulichi) - small people in Russia, the indigenous population of Ugra - the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen region. The closest relatives of the Khanty.
The self-name "Mansi" (in Mansi - "man") comes from the same ancient form as the self-name of the Hungarians - Magyars. Usually the name of the locality is added to the self-name of the name of the people, where it comes from this group, for example, Sakv Mansit - Sagvin Mansi. In dealing with other peoples, the Mansi call themselves "Mansi mahum" - the Mansi people.
In the scientific literature, the Mansi, together with the Khanty, are united by the common name Ob Ugrians.
Population
According to the 2010 census, the number of Mansi in the Russian Federation is 12269 people.
The Mansi are settled in the Ob river basin, mainly along its left tributaries, the Konda and Northern Sosva rivers, as well as in the area of the city of Berezov. A small group of Mansi (about 200 people) lives among the Russian population in the Sverdlovsk region on the Ivdel River near Tagil.
Language
The Mansi language (Mansi), along with Khanty and Hungarian, belongs to the Finno-Ugric group of the Ural-Yukagir family of languages.
Among the Mansi, several ethnographic groups stand out: the northern one with the Sosvinsky, Verkhnelozvinsky and Tavdinsky dialects, the eastern one with the Kondinsky dialect, and the western one with the Pelym, Vagilian, Middle Lozvinsky and Lower Lozvinsky dialects. But the divergence between dialects is so great that it interferes with mutual understanding.
The writing system, like the Khanty language, was created in 1931 on the basis of the Latin alphabet. Since 1937, the writing has been based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
The literary language is based on the Sosva dialect.
In modern Russia, many Mansi speak only Russian, and over 60% of Mansi consider it their native language.
Ethnogenesis of Mansi
The Mansi are representatives of the Ural contact race, but unlike the Khanty, to whom they are very close in many cultural parameters, including the common ethnonym - the Ob Ugrians, they are more Caucasoid and, along with the Finnish peoples of the Volga region, are included in the Ural group.
There is no consensus among scientists about the exact time of the formation of the Mansi people in the Urals. It is believed that the Mansi and the Khanty related to them, arose when the indigenous Neolithic tribes of the taiga Urals and the ancient Ugric tribes that were part of the Andronovo cultures of the forest-steppe of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia (about 2 thousand years BC) merged about 2-3 thousand years ago.
At the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. the Ugric community disintegrated and the ancestors of the Khanty, Mansi and Hungarians were separated from it. The Hungarian tribes eventually moved far to the west, eventually reaching the Danube. Muncie were extended to southern Urals and its western slopes, in Prikamye, Pripechorye, on the tributaries of the Kama and Pechora (Vishera, Kolva, etc.), on Tavda and Tura. The Khanty lived to the northeast of them.
Starting from the end of the 1st millennium, under the influence of the Turkic, including the Tatar tribes, then the Komi and the Russians, the Mansi began to move to the north, assimilating and displacing the Ural aborigines, as well as the Khanty, who moved further to the northeast. As a result, by the XIV-XV centuries, the Khanty reached the lower reaches of the Ob, the Mansi bordered them from the south-west.
The emergence of a new (Ugric) ethnic element in the Ob region led to a clash of ideologies. The level of socio-economic development of the Urals was significantly lower than the Ugric and did not allow the aborigines to fully perceive the cultural and religious ideas introduced in many respects from the Iranian-speaking tribes. This became the rationale for the dual-phratrial organization, in which the established community consisted of two phratries. The descendants of the ancient Ugrians formed the basis of the Mos phratry, whose mythical ancestor was Mir-susne-hum - the youngest son of Numi-Torum, the supreme deity of the Khanty and Mansi. The ancestor of the second phratry - Por, more associated with the Ural aborigines, was another son of the supreme deity - Yalpus-oyka, who was represented in the form of a bear, revered by the Urals since pre-Ugrian times. It is noteworthy that wives could only belong to the half of society opposite to the husband's phratry.
Along with the dual-phratrial, there was also a military-potestary organization represented by the so-called "principalities", some of which offered armed resistance to the Russians. After the annexation of Siberia to Russia, the tsarist administration for some time put up with the existence of the Ugric principalities, but ultimately they were all transformed into volosts, the heads of which began to be called princes. As colonization intensified, the numerical ratio of Mansi and Russians changed, and by the end of the 17th century, the latter prevailed throughout the entire territory. The Mansi gradually moved to the North and East, some were assimilated.
Life and economy
The traditional economic complex of the Mansi included hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry. Fishing prevailed on the Ob and in the lower reaches of the Northern Sosva. In the upper reaches of the rivers, the main source of livelihood was hunting for deer and elk. Hunting for upland and waterfowl was essential. Hunting for fur-bearing animals also has a long tradition among the Mansi. Mansi fish was caught all year round.
Reindeer husbandry, borrowed by the Mansi from the Nenets, became widespread relatively late and became the main occupation in a very small part of the Mansi, mainly in the upper reaches of the Lozva, Northern Sosva and Lyapin rivers, where there were favorable conditions for keeping large herds. In general, the number of deer among the Mansi was small, they were used mainly for transport purposes.
A traditional dwelling in the pre-Russian period, the Mansi had a semi-dugout with different options roof fastening. Later, a log house made of logs or thick blocks with a gable roof became the main permanent winter and sometimes summer dwellings of the Mansi. Such a house was built without a ceiling, with a very gently sloping gable roof, covered with strips of dedicated birch bark along the wooden planks, sewn into large panels. On top of the birch bark, a row of thin poles was laid - a knurl. The roof protruded slightly forward along the facade, forming a canopy. Windows were made in one or both side walls of the house. Previously, in the winter, ice floes were inserted into the windows (instead of glass); in the summer, the window openings were tightened with a fish bubble. The entrance to the dwelling was usually arranged in the pediment wall and faced south.
The Mansi reindeer herders lived in a Samoyed-type chum. In the same tents, covered with birch bark, in the lower reaches of the Ob, the Mansi fishermen also lived in summer. On the hunt, on hastily, arranged temporary dwellings - barriers or huts made of poles. They made them from branches and bark, trying only to get shelter from snow and rain.
The traditional Mansi women's clothing is a dress with a yoke, a cotton or woolen robe, in winter - a double sakhi fur coat. The clothes were richly ornamented with beads, stripes of colored fabric and multi-colored fur. The headdress was a large scarf with a wide border and fringe, folded in an unequal triangle diagonally. The men wore shirts similar in cut to women's dresses, pants, belts to which the hunting equipment was hung. Outer men's clothing - goose, dull cut, tunic-like, made of cloth or reindeer skins with a hood.
The main means of transportation in winter were skis, lined with kamus or foal skin. Hand sleds were used to transport the cargo. If necessary, the dogs helped to pull them. The reindeer breeders had reindeer teams with freight and light sleds. In the summer, the Kaldanka boat served as the main vehicle.
The traditional Mansi food is fish and meat. An essential addition to fish and meat dishes were berries: blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, bird cherry, currants.
Religion and Beliefs
The traditional Mansi worldview is based on a threefold division of the external world: upper (sky), middle (earth) and lower (underground). All the worlds, according to the Mansi, are inhabited by spirits, each of which performs a specific function. The balance between the world of humans and the world of gods and spirits was maintained through sacrifices. Their main purpose is to ensure good luck in trades, to protect themselves from the influence of evil forces.
For traditional worldview Mansi is also characterized by shamanism, mainly family, and a complex of totemic ideas. The bear was most worshiped. In honor of this animal, bear holidays were periodically held - a complex complex of rituals associated with hunting a bear and eating its meat.
From the 18th century, the Mansi were formally converted to Christianity. However, like the Khanty, the presence of religious syncretism is noted, expressed in the adaptation of a number of Christian dogmas, with the predominance of the cultural function of the traditional worldview system. Traditional rituals and holidays have survived to this day in a modified form, they have been adapted to modern views and timed to coincide with certain events.
MANSI (obsolete - Voguls), the people in the Russian Federation (8.3 thousand people), in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (6.6 thousand people). The Mansi language of the Ob-Ugric branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Believers are Orthodox.
Origin and history
As an ethnos, the Mansi developed as a result of the merger of local tribes of the Ural Neolithic culture and the Ugric tribes, moving from the south through the steppes and forest-steppe of Western Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan. The two-component nature (a combination of the cultures of taiga hunters and fishermen and steppe nomad-cattle breeders) in the culture of the people is preserved to this day.
Initially, the Mansi lived in the Urals and its western slopes, but the Komi and Russians in the XI-XIV centuries drove them out in the Trans-Urals. The earliest contacts with Russians, primarily with Novgorodians, date back to the 11th century. With the annexation of Siberia to To the Russian state at the end of the 16th century, Russian colonization intensified, and already at the end of the 17th century the number of Russians exceeded the number of the indigenous population. The Mansi were gradually pushed to the north and east, partially assimilated [source not specified 390 days], in the 18th century they were converted to Christianity. The ethnic formation of the Mansi was influenced by various peoples.
In the Chanven (Vogul) cave, located near the village of Vsevolodo-Vilva in the Perm Territory, traces of the presence of the Voguls were found. According to local historians, the cave was a temple (pagan sanctuary) of the Mansi, where ritual ceremonies were carried out. In the cave, bear skulls with traces of blows from stone axes and spears, shards of ceramic vessels, bone and iron arrowheads, bronze plaques of the Permian animal style with the image of an elk man standing on a lizard, silver and bronze jewelry were found.
Culture and traditions
Believers are Orthodox, but traditional shamanism, the cult of patron spirits, ancestors, bear (bear holidays) are preserved. Rich folklore, developed mythology.
Mansi are divided into two exogamous phratries: Por and Mos, historically differing in origin and customs. Marriages were concluded only between representatives of opposite phratries: Mos' men married Por women and vice versa. The Por phratry was composed of the descendants of the Ural aborigines, and the Mos phratry were the descendants of the Ugrians. The ancestor of the Por phratry is the bear, and the Mos phratry is the woman Kaltash, who could appear in the form of a goose, a hare or a butterfly. Judging by the archaeological finds, which will be discussed below, the Mansi actively participated in hostilities along with neighboring peoples, knew the tactics. They also distinguished the estates of princes (governors), heroes, warriors. All this is reflected in folklore.
In folk art, the main place is occupied by ornament, the motives of which are similar to those of the related Khanty and Selkups. These are geometrical figures in the form of deer antlers, rhombuses, wavy lines, a Greek-type meander, zigzag lines, often arranged in the form of a strip. Among the bronze casting, images of animals, an eagle, and a bear are often found.
Everyday life
Traditional occupations -hunting, fishing, reindeer husbandry, agriculture, cattle breeding... Fishing is extended toObi and on Northern Sosva... In the upper reaches Lozvy, Lyapins, Northern Sosva - reindeer husbandry, it was borrowed from the Khanty inXIII- XIV centuries... Agriculture is borrowed from the Russians inXvi- XVII centuries... Horses, cows, sheep, and birds are raised from livestock. From commercial fish caughtgrayling, ide, pike, roach, burbot, crucian carp, sturgeon, sterlet, nelma, muksun, schokura, pyzhyana, cheese, and in Northern Sosva there was also freshwaterherring, an exquisite delicacy. Fishing equipment: spears, nets. They caught fish, blocking the streams with dams. Great importance in everyday life he hadSiberian cedar, from which a huge crop of pine nuts was harvested. In addition, household items were made from braided cedar root,dishes, boxes, boxes, baskets (so-calledrhizomes). Products frombirches, boxes, tuesa, wooden dishes, spoons, troughs,bucketsand also the simplestfurniture... Pottery was used. In the Ob region, archaeologists also discovered a large number of arrowheads, spears,swords, axes, helmets, bronze casting. They also knew armor. The Mansi and neighboring peoples also achieved certain successes in the processing of iron, but their greatest skill was manifested in the processing of wood. From archaeological finds silver dishes are of great interestIranian and Byzantineorigin. To move the Mansi, already in ancient times they used dugout boats,skis, sled(with a dog, reindeer or horse team). From weapons they knew bows and arrows, spears, various types of blades. For hunting, various traps (chirkans) were used andcrossbows.
Settlements are permanent (winter) and seasonal (spring, summer, autumn) at the fishing grounds. The settlement was usually inhabited by several large or small, mostly related families. The traditional dwelling in the winter is rectangular log houses, often with an earthen roof, in the southern groups there are Russian-type huts, in the summer there are conical birch bark tents or quadrangular frame buildings made of poles covered with birch bark, for reindeer breeders they are covered with plague deer skins. The dwelling was heated and illuminated by a chuval - an open hearth made of poles coated with clay. The bread was baked in separate ovens.
Women's clothing consisted of a dress, a swinging robe, cloth or satin, a double reindeer coat (yagushka, sakh), a scarf, and a large number of jewelry (rings, beaded beads, etc.). Men wore trousers and a shirt, deaf clothes with a cloth hood, for reindeer breeders - from a deerskin (malitsa, goose), or cloth clothes with a hood and unsewn sides (luzan).
Food - fish, meat (jerky, dried, fried, ice cream), berries. They did not eat mushrooms, considering them unclean.
The life of the Mansi has changed noticeably during the years of Soviet power, 45% live in cities.
clothing
Traditional women's clothing - a dress, a swinging robe (satin or cloth) and a double reindeer fur coat (yagushka, sakh), a scarf on the head, a large number of jewelry (rings, beaded necklaces, etc.); men's clothing - a shirt, trousers, blank clothing with a cloth hood, for reindeer breeders - made of reindeer skins (malitsa, goose), hunting cloth clothing with a hood and unsewn sides (luzan). Weaving from nettle and hemp fiber was widespread.