Traditional Selkup Belt: Origin, Manufacture, Symbolism, Application

Abstract

The article is devoted to the theme “Thing in culture”, and more specifically, “Thing in Selkup culture”. The aim of the study is to consider the belt, an attribute of the traditional outer clothing of the Selkups. It is outlined that the preservation of this element of culture can be highly estimated: during field work among the Selkups, author had an opportunity to see various belts, male and female ones, stored in families and presented in museums. It is emphasized that the Selkup belts are very beautiful, bright, decorated with seed bead and cast brass pendants. The article contains information about the origin of each type of belt, as well as their description is presented in the article. Methods: author's field research in the Krasnoselkupsky district of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug made in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2018, interview of informants, a number of author's publications on Selkup culture; comparative and typological method and description method. The classification of the belt is based on such characteristics as the technic of execution, origin, application and symbolism. The author outlines that information about the symbolism of the belt was especially difficult to collect, since all informants noted in the belt only the functionality, beauty and antiquity of the tradition of wearing it. Without pretending to be a full disclosure of the topic, the author presents a summary of data obtained and collected. Results of the study. Putting on traditional belts only on big (winter) holidays along with national clothes, Selkups practically do not make new belts nowadays. It is pointed out that belts stored in museum collections are generally not attributed. Study devoted to belts returns to the Selkups the element of their traditional culture in the form of a scientific description. It is assumed that the study will contribute to the formation of a new ethnicity of the Selkups, the collection and rethinking of cultural heritage by the Selkups.

Keywords

• Northern Selkups
• Selkup worldview
• belt
• belt symbols
• clothing
• ethnography