Ethnography of the Selkups: on the ethnic identity of the Tym Ostyaks on the Vakh River in the 18th–20th centuries

Abstract

The article, based on the analysis of published sources and archival documents, details the chronology and circumstances of the complete loss of ethnic identity by the Vakh Selkups, determines its main markers and supporting factors. The popular point of view, that representatives of the Tymsk foreign volost on the Vakh River were mainly Khanty people already since the 17th or 18th century, is disputed. Three historical stages of the group's existence are considered one by one, for each of which the key events determining the fate of the ethnic community are established, and information confirming the preservation of various parameters of its identity is revealed. It has been found that the long-term preservation of the identity of the Vakh Selkups (until the 1930s) was largely based on their belonging to a separate volost, their isolated residence, maintaining contacts with neighboring Selkups, stable numbers and a consolidated state of the group, significant specifics of their economic complex, preservation of historical memory and the high social status of representatives of their elite.

Keywords

• ethnography of western siberia
• ethnicity
• northern selkups
• tymskaya volost
• vakh khanty
• tamgas