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Nomads of Siberia |
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Cattle breeding culture of the peoples of the Southern Siberia and the Yakuts is the unique combination of the Central Asian and Siberian elements. Turkic and Mongolian-speaking peoples of Siberia have certain cultural unity caused by ancient cultural and ethnogenetic connections. Basis of the nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life had been forming through centuries and some most archaic features date back to the Scythian period (7-3 c. B.C.).
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| Ritual cup for drinking fermented mare milk. Yakuts. Yakutsk Region. Early 20th century. |
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| Woman pouring koumiss (fermented mare's milk) during the spring festival. Yakuts. Photoarchive of the RME |
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Flapper to fan mosquitos away. Yakuts. Yakutsk Region. Early 20th century |
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| Woman's belt pendant with items for personal use. Buryats. Baikal area |
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| Case for woman's smoking pipe. Tofalars. Irkutsk Province. Late 19th - early 20th century |
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| Matchmaker's pectoral ornament. Khakass. Yenisei Province. Early 20th century. |
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Lion and yak effigies. Tuvinians.Tuva. Second half of the 20th century |
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Bride and matchmaker in wedding costumes sitting astride decorated horses. Khakass. Yenisei Province. Early 20th century. Photo-archives of the RME |
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Chess set made of agalmatalit. Tuvinians. Tuva. Mid.-20th century. |
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Siberian nomads.
Cattle breeding culture of the peoples of the Southern Siberia and the Yakuts is the unique combination of the Central Asian and Siberian elements. Turkic and Mongolian-speaking peoples of Siberia have certain cultural unity caused by ancient cultural and ethnogenetic connections. Basis of the nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life had been forming through centuries and some most archaic features date back to the Scythian period (7-3 c. B.C.).
The peculiar features of the culture
Cattle Breeding culture of the peoples of the Southern Siberia and the Yakuts is the unique combination of Central Asian and Siberian elements. Turkic and Mongolian-speaking peoples of Siberia have certain identity based on the ancient cultural and ethno genetic connections. The Basis of the nomadic and semi-nomadic way of life had been forming through many centuries and some most archaic features date back to the Scythian period (7-3 c. B.C.).
Cattle-breeding is the basis of life.
Highly developed stock-raising determined their way of life, culture, world view as a whole. It provided them with staples, material for producing clothes, dwellings, and household utensils. All year round livestock was feeding in the pasture. Nomadic systems were different depending on the landscape and climatic character of the territory inhabited by these ethnoses (steppe, mountain-steppe, taiga areas).
Peculiar features of the moving of different peoples.
Mongolian nomadic way of life was spread among the Eastern Buryats - during a year they could move on from 4 to 12 times.
The Southern Altaians, Western Tuvins and Khakasses moved 3-4 times a year from one season camp to another.
Yakuts, the most Northern horse-breeders in the world, moved twice a year (from the winter camp where they lived in a stationary log dwelling " tent" to the summer camp where they lived in the birch-bark dwelling "uras").
They moved mounted. In front of the procession teenagers drove cattle, then loaded pack animals followed, then members of the families on the horsebacks. Women put the cradles with babies in front of them on the saddles. It took only two or three hours to dismantle yurts, pack things and load animals. When people moved to the summer camp it was considered to be a festive occasion and was preceded with various purification rites and was held according to strict ritual rules.
The meaning of horse in the culture
A horse played the most important role in everyday life, rites and beliefs of the all Turkic-Mongolian peoples in Siberia. A horse accompanied a nomad all his life. The brightest Yakut festival was connected with horse-breeding. It included a number of important rituals aimed at providing prosperity of the collective group and normal way of life. This festival was also bound to the spring wakening of nature, worshipping good deities - creators of people's and cattle's souls, the beginning of the new economic cycle.
Hunting
Among peoples of the Southern Siberia and the Yakuts cattle-breeding was always combined with hunting. Among the Northern Altaians and related to them the Shorts hunting dominated over other types of economic activity. The eastern Tuvins and Tophalars also practiced reindeer breeding.
Metal work.
Mining, smelting and working of metal was the part of the traditional economy from the ancient times. Among the Yakuts and Buryats a blacksmith, whose mastership used to be given from generation to generation, was also a jeweler who knew perfectly various techniques.
Man and woman
Man played the decisive role in the economic activity while woman was in charge of all household activities: she looked after the cattle, cooked meals for eating and preserved food, she made felts and leather items, dressed sheepskins and sewed clothes and footwear; she kept the dwelling in order and brought up children.
Lineage exogamy i.e. a ban marriage within one kin dictated the whole code of ethic norms for the married woman: it was prohibited for her to call her husband by name in the presence of his older relatives; she couldn't appear before their eyes without a special sleeveless jacket and a headdress.
Woman wasn't allowed to visit praying ceremonies devoted to the upper deity and lineage guardians, she couldn't touch hunting outfit. However, within the family woman's authority was high the more so that each married woman had her own separate household even if she was in a polygamous marriage.
Dwelling.
The described peoples had great variety in their types of dwelling: from temporary frame-houses which reminded of chums of taiga and tundra inhabitants to felt yurts and frame yurts entirely made of logs.
Festivals and rites
Cattle-breeding way of life found its reflection in the calendar and family rites of these peoples. A child received cattle as a present in the days of name-giving and first hair cut. These animals as well as their litter were the property of a child. Cattle also made up the main part of kalym and dowry. A horse and parts of the horse trappings played the important role in wedding and funeral rituals.
Among the Khakasses festive clothes of a matchmaker and a bride were made of expensive imported Russian and Chinese fabrics and marked the special status of the main participants of the ritual. Bride's costume consisted of a woman's festive shirt, wedding headdress under which the kerchief was put on, upper clothes made of black cloth embroidered with colored silk. Matchmaker's costume included a fur coat, hat with high brims trimmed with fox fur, woman's sleeveless jacket and a breast-cover decorated with mother-of-pearl buttons, corals and glass beads.
Folk arts and crafts
Traditional culture of the Altaians, Tuvins, Buryats, Khakases, Yakuts and Buryats as well as of the other peoples, obviously suffered significant changes during 20 century: a lot of things disappeared, however many others not only survived but continue developing. To the full extent it refers to the folk arts and crafts. The brightest example of it is Yakut mammoth tusk carving and items produced by Tuvin "agalmatolite" carvers.
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