Kets people, life and customs. Kets: what is interesting about this small indigenous people of Siberia

The term "ket" was coined in the 1920s. Previously, in Russian literature, the Kets were known as Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks, Yeniseis. The ancestors of the Kets have long lived in the territory of Southern Siberia along with other representatives of the so-called Yenisei-speaking peoples: Arins, Assans, Yarins, Tints, Bakhtins, Kotts, etc.

Some Keto-speaking groups in the 9th-13th centuries. went north, settling on the middle Yenisei and its tributaries. It was here, in contact with the Khanty and Selkup, and then with the Evenki, that a distinctive Ket culture was formed. Subsequently, the Kets moved north up to the rivers Turukhan, Kureyka and Lake Maduiskoye, displacing or assimilating the Enets from there.

The Yenisei tribes that remained in the south were gradually, by the 18th-19th centuries. assimilated by the peoples around them. In particular, the Yeniseis participated in the formation of separate groups of Khakassians (Kachins), Tuvinians, Shors, and Northern Altaians.

From the end of the 18th century. The Kets united into councils, within which they lived in separate camps of several families. By the beginning of the 20th century. Small families predominated among the Kets. The marriage was preceded by conspiracy and matchmaking. The central point of the conspiracy was the ritual with the cauldron. The groom's relatives filled a copper cauldron with gifts (squirrel skins, scarves) and took them to the bride's tent. An inverted cauldron meant refusal, acceptance of gifts meant consent to marriage. After this, the parties agreed on a ransom (kalym) for the bride.

National characteristics are clearly manifested in funeral rituals. The Kets had several types of burials, in particular, in the ground and in the air. By the 19th century air burial was used only for shamans and children. The deceased was placed in a hole on his back, with his head to the east, and covered with two boards. A stick with a fork was placed on the grave, and later an Orthodox cross. A special feature is the tying of pieces of white material to the cross. There were burials in an overturned boat. Air burials took place in the stump of a felled tree or on a platform. The accompanying equipment broke and deteriorated.

The original occupations of the Kets were hunting on foot for ungulates (elk, deer), waterfowl and upland game, and mass fishing with a cat (a fence with a wicker trap). With the introduction of yasak, and then with the development of commodity relations, fur trade (sable, squirrel) took first place.

Hunting tools - bows and arrows - were used to hunt all types of animals and birds until the 1930s. The northern part of the Kets borrowed transport reindeer herding from the Nenets to a limited extent, which completely disappeared in the 1970s.

Ket hunters moved on wide skis made of spruce, covered with camus underneath. The cargo was transported on a movable hand sled. The dog helped drag her. To move on water, large wooden boats-ilimkas (with a load capacity of up to four tons) with a mast and sail, a living part covered with birch bark, were used. In shallow waters and lakes, branch boats hollowed out of aspen were widely used.

The men's home occupations were wood processing, bone processing, antler processing, and blacksmithing. Ket bows and tools (knives, scrapers, etc.) were famous in the Yenisei North and served as objects of exchange. Women tanned skins and birch bark, made clothes and utensils from them.

The film “Torn from the Fire by the Wind...” (1991) from the series “Golden Fund of Krasnoyarsk Television” (2012). Authors: Maxim Faitelberg, Vladimir Cherenkov. Video provided by State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Krasnoyarsk

The Kets are a miraculously preserved people living along the banks of the Yenisei. Despite their original Siberian roots, the Kets have a genetic connection with South American Indians. But the Orthodox faith does not prevent them from believing that during the period of Creation they descended to earth from the stars.

Name

The first mention of the name “chum salmon” dates back only to the 20s of the last century. Before this, the people living along the banks of the Yenisei were called Yenisei Ostyaks or Yeniseis. This name is first found in Russian written monuments of the 17th-18th centuries, during the period of active development of Siberian lands. At that time, most of the northern indigenous inhabitants were called Ostyaks: Khanty, Yugs, Selkups, Evenks. The self-name of the people “Keto” comes from the word “ket”, which means person. At the same time, before the revolution, individual Kets communities named themselves after their place of residence. For example, “Uterets” is the name of the inhabitants of the upper reaches of the Yenisei, and “pgyuyrets” was used to generally refer to families from the lower reaches of the river. Some ethnonyms belong to the names of rivers or the type of habitat: kol'ldets - those living on the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, where "kol" denoted the name of the river, and "dets" had the general meaning of "people". The names of the Ket groups "kas"dets were formed in a similar way " and "shchbats" dets": "living on the sand" and "living in the ravine", respectively.

Where live

The main habitat of the Kets is the northern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Most of the people live in the Turukhansky district, more than 1,000 km away from Krasnoyarsk, along the tributaries of the Yenisei rivers Kureika, Podkamennaya Tunguska, Turukhan, Nizhnyaya Tunguska, Elogui. About 20% of the Kets live in the villages of Sulomai, Evenki district and Sym, Yenisei district.
With the arrival of the Russian-speaking population in the region and the widespread introduction of the principles of the social structure of Soviet power, most of the Kets assimilated or left their native lands. Mostly, representatives of the nationality live in mixed villages, but settlements have been preserved where the number of Kets predominates. Among them:

1. Maduika
2. Kellogg
3. Sulomai

Number

The Kets are one of the smallest northern peoples, whose number, according to the 2010 census, is 1,220 people. Since 1959, there has been an increase in the number of residents; the maximum figure was shown by the 2002 census: 1,494 people. The largest number of representatives of the nationality - 215 people - live in the village of Kellogg, located on the left bank of the Eloguy River.
Due to unemployment, difficult social conditions, alcoholism, and a high level of injuries, mortality increases, and the birth rate, on the contrary, decreases. Thus, comparing the indicators of 1991 and 2001, the researchers noted that the number of elderly people decreased by 1.2%, and the number of children - by 11.2%.
The reduction is largely facilitated by the undeveloped social situation: most children are sent to study in boarding schools located in large cities. Many of them do not return to their homeland after studying, remaining to work or continue their studies in regional and district centers.

Language

The uniqueness of the Ket language is that today it is the only living representative of the Yenisei language family, lost back in the 18th-19th centuries. Previously, it included the Assan and Arin languages, related in structure and sound, which were spoken by other nationalities living in the modern territory of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The Ket language is difficult to learn and understand due to the abundance of verb forms, of which there are several hundred. In dialects, intonation stress plays an important role. There are two main dialects of the Kets: Sym and Imbat, which have significant differences, but belong to the same group. In the 19th century, a significant part of the Kets lost their language, switching to Selkup.

It is interesting that, despite its originality, linguists find striking intertwinings in the language with peoples completely different from the Kets. Among them:

1. Burushaski is the language of the small Burish people living near Kashmir.
2. Sino-Tibetan languages ​​- there is a connection with dialects common in China and Tibet.
3. Na-Dene is an ethnic Indian region located in North America.
4. Abkhaz-Adyghe and Nakh languages, widespread in the North Caucasus.

Until the 30s, there was no information about the presence of writing among the Kets. During this period, an alphabet was created based on Latin, which was changed to Cyrillic in the 70s and 80s. There is a Russian-Ket dictionary, but 98% of the ethnic group speak Russian at the native level.
Scientists seriously fear for the preservation of the language: by 2002, only 30% of Kets spoke it, but only 1.5% constantly use it in speech. Since the late nineties of the last century, Ket began to be taught in primary classes in local schools. However, the high level of migration and the education of children in boarding schools have a negative impact on its preservation.

Names

Before the revolution, the Kets were dominated by national personal names, most of which came from ordinary everyday words denoting names:

• insects
• animals
• natural phenomena
• plants

Examples of such names: Kugom, which means “arrow” and Direget - “eagle”. In addition, each Ket had a household nickname from his fellow tribesmen, by which he was most often called. Their surnames came from the family names of their ancestors. Typical options: Imlyakovs - Imla, Baldins - Ballna, Kogonovs - Cowet. Some surnames, as before the names of communities, have a toponymic origin, for example, Ulenevs - Ul'gyt, Olenevs - Ol'gyt.

Story

The main version of the origin of the Kets says that their distant ancestors lived here at least from the first millennium AD. At its end, they mixed with the Ugric-speaking Turkic-Samoyed peoples, as well as nomadic tribes who came from Asia. This led to migration to the upper and lower reaches of the Yenisei and settlement along its tributaries. Thus, the Kotta people settled on the Kanu River, the Assans settled in the lower reaches of the Angara, and the Arins settled closer to Krasnoyarsk.
The ancestors of the Kets settled in the lower reaches of the Yenisei, choosing its tributaries, the rivers Kas, Bakhtu, Sym, Eloguy, Dubches. By the 11th-13th centuries, separate Ket groups separated and went higher along the Yenisei to the north, where they later came into close contact with the Evenks, Selkups and Khanty. The preservation of authentic features, coupled with the adoption of features of the culture and way of life of neighboring peoples, formed the distinctive Ket nation.
In the 16th-17th centuries, the Russian tsars began actively developing Siberia, including the lands where the Kets historically lived. Even in those days, the small people did not put up resistance, completely accepting the new rules of life. Thus, in 1607, the Kets became part of the Russian state.

The authorities imposed yasak on the entire local population - a tax in kind in the form of furs. This forced the Kets to change their way of life in many ways, replacing nomadism with a sedentary lifestyle. Researchers who studied the life of the nation in the pre-revolutionary period noted widespread poverty, hunger, disease, and low standards of living and education.
After the revolution, the Kets accepted Soviet power: on the basis of large settlements, with the help of local residents, they formed collective and state farms. The main focus of their activities remained traditional Ket trades: fishing, fur farming, and woodworking. At the same time, settled settlements grew, plagues and dugouts became a thing of the past, replaced by solid wooden houses.
In the 90s, the situation in Ket villages began to approach critical: every 3 residents did not have a job, some of them led a semi-marginal existence. However, the lack of work and “real” money has led to the revival of traditional crafts: today 80% of Kets are engaged in fishing and hunting. Vegetable gardening has been preserved since the times of the USSR, but not everyone practices it.

Appearance

Anthropologists believe that the formation of the external characteristics of modern Kets began in the Bronze Age. At this time, in the southern part of the interfluve of the Yenisei and Ob, a mixture of ancient Mongoloids with Caucasoid representatives of the inhabitants of Southern Siberia occurred. For a long time they were classified as a large Ural anthropological type, but later a separate Yenisei type was identified.
Genetic studies have shown that haplogroup Q dominates in men, which indicates a connection with the Selkups, Turkmen and Huns. However, like most Kets, 60% of South American Indians have a unique subclade Q1a. This leads scientists to believe that they have common ancestors, some of whom, during ancient migrations, crossed the Bering territory from Eurasia to America, subsequently forming Indian tribes. Among Kets women, the predominant haplogroup is U4, which connects the nation with the Indo-Europeans.

Typical appearance features of Kets include:

• short stature
• subtlety
• darker skin pigmentation compared to neighboring peoples
• dark, dense, straight hair
• high nose bridge
• blue or gray eyes
• sloping forehead
• convex nasal bridge
• developed brow ridges

Outwardly, Kets resemble American Indians, but their facial features are more Mongolian: cheekbones are less pronounced, the face is more rounded, and the eyes are small.

Cloth

Men's and women's Kets costumes are based on swing-type clothing. The main elements of everyday attire were:

• undershirt: just below the waist for men and to mid-thigh for women.
• Natazniki - pants made of rovduga (suede made from reindeer skin) knee-length or slightly lower.
• In the summer, a cloth robe called kotl’am or rovduzhny kheltam, wrapped on the left side for the living, and on the right side for the dead during funerals. The length for men reached to the knees, for women - to the ankles.
• In winter they wore besem - a quilted parka made of squirrel skins with fur inside or kat - a fur parka made of deer skins. The northern Kets, who were engaged in reindeer herding, wore malitsa, characteristic of peoples of the Ural type.

Men belted their clothes low, with short belts. For these purposes, women used wide belts up to 20 m long, which were wrapped several times to ensure that the clothes fit tightly. Clothes were decorated with embroidery with national strictly geometric patterns and protective symbols. The material used was beads, copper plaques, trims, fur trim, beads, and threads made from white deer hair.

In the summer, they wore shoes made of leather with a round toe and a short sewn top. An alternative option is ankle boots made of rovduga that reach the middle of the shin. To protect from moisture and rain, loon skins removed with a stocking were put on top. Winter shoes were made from camus - deer skin from the shin, which did not slip. A cloth boot was sewn on top of it, and dry grass was placed inside. For warmth, they additionally wore special stockings made of cloth or rovduga; men often secured them with suspenders embroidered with beads.
The traditional headdress is a scarf made from purchased chintz. Both men and women wore it the same way: folded diagonally and tied in a knot under the chin. In winter, hunters supplemented them with fur browbands made from squirrel tails to keep their heads warm, but not cover their ears for better hearing. Traditionally, a fur bonnet made of deer or squirrel skins, similar to the Evenki one, was used.

Traditional hairstyle is of interest:

• children wore their hair down;
• boys and girls - one braid with a braid;
• married women - two braids with bead decorations woven into them;
• men - one braid;
• widows - loose hair.

Men

The man was considered the main one in Ket society and resolved all social issues. Elders were chosen from among the men, who collected yasak and appointed public traders who sold furs in other settlements. A man's task is to provide food and housing for his family. Inheritance occurred through the male line to the youngest son, and could pass to the brothers of the deceased. However, if there were no close male relatives, the wife could accept the inheritance.

Women

Women played a secondary role in Ket society. They came to their husband’s house and took upon themselves all the worries of running the household. What was most valued in them was hard work, a gentle disposition, thriftiness, and mastery of crafts. They were forbidden to participate in many religious rituals or step over weapons: just in case, before the hunt they were specially fumigated to cleanse them of the female spirit.
This ritual goes back to the ancient mythology of the Kets, where the wife of the supreme male deity Yes, whose name was Khosedem, angered her husband. According to legend, she cheated on him with the Month, for which she was overthrown from the upper world to earth. Since then, she began to personify evil, bring about troubles and misfortunes, and command evil spirits. However, women were not offended or humiliated; they were treated with love and valued as mothers and wives.

Family life

The Kets lived in small one- or two-generation families with few children. According to tradition, the eldest sons built their own houses, the daughters went to their husbands' houses, and the youngest son inherited everything accumulated by his parents.
Small families most often lived close to their relatives, forming large tribal communities. The average number of chums in them was 8, but there were also large settlements with up to 30-40 chums. This was explained by the nomadic way of life, when winter stops changed to summer and vice versa.
In many clan communities, marriages between its members were strictly prohibited. In others, on the contrary, vestiges of levirate and sororate persisted for a long time. The marriage age for girls was 15-17 years, for boys - 17-19 years. Since weddings took place by agreement, a girl often began to live with her husband’s family at the age of 11-12. The opposite situations also happened: in order not to let the working hands leave the family, the girl was not married off until she was 20-25 years old.

Housing

The traditional summer home of the Kets is a cone-shaped tent made of birch bark, planted on thin rods, fastened at the top with special knots or hoops. In winter and in permanent habitats, semi-dugouts were built, which were called bannus. They were strengthened with vertical pillars, the top was covered with earth, turf or branches, and ice windows were made in winter. The floor was covered with soil, fir spruce branches were placed on top, which were replaced every 2-3 days.

The dwelling consisted of one room, in which an open hearth was installed, like a fireplace, which was called a Chuvash. In the center there were several low wooden tables at which people dined. In the summer they often lived in ilimka boats: they were large in size, had a mast and sail, and also a fairly spacious cabin, lined with birch bark on top. It consisted of two parts: in the first they lived, and in the second they stored utensils.

Life

The traditional occupations of the Kets are hunting and fishing. The latter was practiced all year round, but the main catch was in the summer, and then they made supplies for the winter: the fish was dried, dried and salted. For fishing they used nets and spears, they made primitive dugout boats or improved limkas with masts and a cabin. Reindeer were bred only in northern settlements and used as transport.
80% of the hunting industry consisted of squirrels: their fur was used to pay off tribute and was used in everyday life. Less commonly, they caught ermine, weasel, and sable, using special nets with bells for these purposes: they adopted this method only in the 18th century from the Russians.

Hunting for wild deer and elk was of great importance: their skin and antlers were used in crafts and everyday life. In the summer they hunted wild ducks and set snares for wood grouse. Bows were used for hunting, and with the arrival of the Russians, firearms became widespread.
There was a special attitude towards bear hunting: whole communities went to the owner of the forest, butchered the carcass in the forest, and gave the skin to the hunter who tracked the animal. Then they held a big celebration, during which they ate bear meat and performed ritual songs and dances. The bear was a sacred animal: it was believed that the spirits of ancestors came in its guise.
The chum salmon achieved great success in metallurgy: the knives and arrowheads they made were valued throughout the region. Men were engaged in processing wood and horns, women sewed clothes from skins and purchased cloth, embroidered, made household utensils from birch bark, and created fur appliqués.

Religion

Formally, the Kets profess Orthodoxy, but in fact it is closely intertwined with traditional beliefs. It is believed that Christianity was consolidated in the region back in the 18th century, but in reality it was accepted only at the end of the 19th century, when missionaries began to interpret sacred texts taking into account local mythology.

The Kets divided the world into the upper, where the supreme deity Yes lived, the lower, where people lived, and the underground with evil spirits. There is a cosmological theory about the origin of the people: the Kets believe that they arrived here from the stars, as a sign of which they decorate their clothes with symbolic signs.
In some villages, shamans played an optional role: they made predictions and practiced witchcraft. In most communities, they were indispensable: they participated in funeral and wedding ceremonies, could influence the weather, and performed rituals for successful hunting.

Traditions

Like many other peoples, the Kets are of particular value in funeral and wedding traditions, many of which have survived to this day. The wedding began with matchmaking: the groom and his relatives brought a cauldron with gifts to the tent of the chosen bride: squirrel skins, jewelry, cloth. If the decision was positive, the cauldron remained untouched; if it was rejected, it was turned over along with the gifts.
The decision about the wedding was made by the bride's senior relatives. Next, there was a discussion with the matchmakers about the size of the ransom, which ranged from 150 to 450 squirrel skins: the groom’s side could collect it for years. The wedding ritual was performed by a shaman: he tied the braids of the bride and groom, after which he walked around them three times, looping their community. During the wedding feast, the husband and wife sat in different tents, and their relatives had fun, organized archery competitions and folk festivals.
Funeral rites were divided into traditional earthly and airy ones. The second option was resorted to when stillborns, children under one year old, and shamans were buried. They were wrapped in reindeer skins and often additionally placed in a wooden coffin. After this, the bodies of the dead were placed on tree branches or in specially hollowed out trunks. During funerals, respected and rich people were buried deeply in the ground, while the graves of the poor were shallow.

Peculiarities

A distinctive feature of the Kets is their short stature. Its average is 140 cm for men and women, which makes the Kets the shortest nation in continental Eurasia. For comparison, the average height of pygmies, who are generally considered the shortest in the world, is 144 cm.

The amazingly preserved authenticity of the Kets over the past centuries is under threat: every year fewer and fewer representatives of the nation speak their native language and remain to live in the historical area. An important task in this situation is the creation of ethnographic parks and improvement of the socio-cultural situation of the people.

Video

general information

The Kets are an indigenous people living in the middle reaches of the Yenisei. Self-name – ket (“person”). Russians called the Kets in the past Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks, Yeniseians. Separate groups of Kets were known in the 17th century as Inbaki, Yugun, Zemshaks and Bogdenians.

Language - Ket. The dialects are Imbat and Sym, which differ significantly from each other in the areas of phonetics, morphology and vocabulary. Some researchers even consider them to be separate languages. The overwhelming majority of modern Kets speak the Imbat dialect, which is divided into dialects. The Ket language is one of the isolated languages ​​among all other peoples of Siberia. Linguists point out similarities in the basic principles of its construction with some languages ​​of the Caucasian highlanders, Basques and North American Indians. The Kets did not have a written language; it is currently being formed on the basis of Russian graphics. All modern Kets speak Russian, some speak Selkup and Evenki languages. It is generally accepted that the ancestors of modern Kets were formed during the Bronze Age in the south between the Ob and Yenisei rivers as a result of the mixing of Caucasians of Southern Siberia with the ancient Mongoloids. Around the 1st millennium AD, they came into contact with the Turkic and Samoyed-Ugric-speaking population and, as a result of migrations, ended up in the Yenisei North.

Territory of settlement and number

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Ket tribes occupied a vast territory along the rivers Kan (the right tributary of the Yenisei), Usolka, Ona (the left bank of the lower Angara), along the Yenisei from modern Krasnoyarsk to the mouth of the Tuba River. By the first half of the 19th century, almost all of them had lost their language, merging with the Russians, the Evenks, and the ancestors of the modern Khakass. And only the northernmost Kets, who lived lower along the Yenisei and its tributaries Kas, Sym, Dubches, Elogui and Bakhta, retained their language and ethnic characteristics.

Currently, the bulk of the Kets live in the Turukhansky, North Yenisei and Yenisei regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as in the Baykitsky district of the Evenki Autonomous Okrug. They are concentrated mainly in 13 villages. They live here together with Russians, Selkups, Evenks and other peoples. In the villages of Kellogg, Farkovo, Maduika and Sovetskaya Rechka they are the predominant part of the population. In the villages of Surgutikha, Baklanikha, and Goroshikha their share is about 30%. In other villages, chum salmon are represented insignificantly: from 5 to 15%.

The total number of Kets according to the 2002 census was 1,494 people.

Lifestyle and life support system

The traditional economic complex of the Kets, characteristic of the hunting population of the taiga zone, developed long before the resettlement of the ancestors of the modern Kets to the Yenisei North. As a result of interaction with their Samoyed-speaking neighbors, most Kets developed taiga reindeer herding. The main occupation of most Kets in the 19th century was hunting and fishing. Hunting provided meat for food and skins for clothing and shoes. The fishing of ungulates - elk and deer, as well as waterfowl and upland game - was of great importance. With the arrival of the Russians, the importance of fur hunting increased. Among the northern (Kureian) Kets, fishing prevailed over hunting. They caught fish all year round. Reindeer husbandry was a subsidiary industry. Deer were used exclusively as a means of transport during winter hunting. Over the past decades, significant changes have occurred in the way of life of the Kets. Economic reorganizations of the Soviet years (collectivization, transformation of collective farms into state fishing farms, resettlement to large multinational settlements, etc.) led to a reduction in the employment of Kets in hunting and fishing. Reindeer husbandry has been completely lost. The socio-professional structure has changed. A significant part of the Kets began to work in new industries - fur farming, dairy farming, and gardening. Its own intelligentsia emerged. About 15% of all Kets are urban residents. However, taiga fishing still plays an important role in providing Kets families with food. Due to supply difficulties, its importance in life support even increased. Fishing became especially important.

Ethno-social situation

As in other northern regions, the ethno-social situation in the Turukhansk region is determined by the problems of unemployment and the associated low standard of living of the indigenous population, the state of health of the Kets, and the low level of development of the social sphere. During the course of market reforms in the region, the economic base of agricultural enterprises, which provided the greatest employment for the Kets, was practically destroyed. By the end of the 90s. 58% of Kets were unemployed. The family-based farms that have emerged in recent years have not been able to solve the employment problems of the indigenous population. Most of them by the end of the 90s. due to economic difficulties they stopped working. Several Ket-Evenki family farms operate only in the Baykitsky district of the Evenki Autonomous Okrug. In the national villages of the Turukhansky district, in general, it was possible to preserve socio-cultural institutions. In every Ket village there are first aid stations (FAP), schools, clubs, kindergartens, but many of them do not work due to the lack of specialists. In the village of Kellogg, most subjects are taught by teachers without special education. The school in the village of Maduika operates with great interruptions. For the same reason, medical and obstetric centers do not work in Surgutikha and Sovetskaya Rechka, where a significant part of the Kets live. In general, out of 18 FAPs in the region, only 9 have managers. The lack of local medical workers leads to irrational spending of funds on air ambulances. In 1998, the district administration spent almost 1 million rubles on sanitary work up to Sovetskaya Rechka alone. The Kets of the region continue to maintain a fairly high birth rate - 21.4 per 1000 people (the total for the region - 11.7), however, the mortality rate is noticeably higher than the general district - 12.7 and 10.8 per 1000 people, respectively. In the structure of mortality of the indigenous population, mortality associated with injuries and accidents predominates - 59%. Among those who died for these reasons, people under the age of 40 account for more than 73%. The health status of young people is of particular concern.

Ethno-cultural situation

The everyday life of the Kets in the villages is no different from the Russian population. Some features of traditional life are preserved only during the period of fishing, which is carried out by a small part of the Ket population. From the traditional material culture, transport means that have become international (boats, skis, hand sleds), winter shoes, as well as some labor tools are preserved. To a greater extent, certain elements of traditional spiritual culture are preserved - religious views, family, clan and funeral cults, fine arts, oral, especially song folk art. In 1989, Ket was considered the native language by 48.8% of Ket people. In the period between the censuses of 1979-1989. The share of those who consider Ket their native language decreased by almost 12%. Currently interrupted at the end of the 30s, it has been restored. teaching the Ket language in elementary schools; in the village of Kellogg it is taught in high schools as an elective. An ABC book and other manuals in the native language, educational Kets-Russian and Russian-Kets dictionaries have been created. The measures taken in this regard have contributed to the fact that the rate of decline of the native language has slowed down somewhat. Measures are being taken to organize rural museums. Funds from the federal budget are being used to build two ethnocultural centers - in the villages of Kellogg and Farkovo.

Management bodies and self-government

In the structure of the Turukhansk district administration there is a specialist who oversees the problems of indigenous peoples of the region. Their problems occupy a very prominent place in the activities of the district administration as a whole. Kets head a number of rural administrations in national villages. The interests of the Ket population and other indigenous peoples of the region have been protected in recent years by the Association of the Ket People of the Turukhansk District, created in the early 90s. It has its branches in ethnic villages.

Legal documents and laws

There is no legal framework for chum salmon. The Charter of the Krasnoyarsk Territory does not even mention the Kets; it contains only a few insignificant general phrases about promoting the preservation and development of national and ethnic customs and traditions of all peoples inhabiting the region. At the regional level, not a single document has yet been adopted to guarantee the rights of the Ket people to independent development. But new draft regional laws are being developed that will reflect the rights of the indigenous peoples of the North.

Contemporary environmental issues

The environmental situation is deteriorating. In recent years, active geological exploration work has been carried out in the Turukhansky district, a number of promising mineral deposits have been discovered, and therefore the district administration is already raising the issue of compensation for damage inevitably caused to the local population during the exploration and extraction of mineral resources.

Prospects for the preservation of the Kets as an ethnic group

The Kets, as an ethnic system, are certainly in the “risk zone.” Their low numbers and increased assimilation processes (more than half of the families are ethnically mixed) make their ethnic future difficult to predict. At the same time, the ethnic identity of the Kets is stable. Interest in one's historical past and national culture is growing. The concentration of Kets within the boundaries of one administrative region, the status of an indigenous people, and increased independence in solving their internal problems also contribute to ethnic stability. It seems that the future of the Ket ethnic group will largely depend on the successful solution of the socio-economic problems of the region.

Encyclopedias tell us that the Kets are one of the small indigenous peoples of Siberia. The Kets live mainly in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, and according to the 2010 census there were 1,219 of them. The maximum number of Kets was recorded by the 2002 census - 1,494 people. Before the revolution, the Russians called the Kets “Yenisei Ostyaks,” distinguishing them from simply “Ostyaks,” as the Khanty people were called in Western Siberia.

Unique language

In the first half of the 19th century, in the first experiments in classifying the languages ​​of the peoples of the world, the Ket language was classified as part of the “Yenisei language family.” At that time it consisted of many peoples: in addition to the Kets, these were the Arins, Assans, Pumpokols, Kottas, Yugis, etc. However, the first three disappeared by the beginning of the 19th century, the Ashshtims, Baykots, Yarins and a number of others - much earlier. Only mentions of them survive.
All of them lived in Central Siberia in the Yenisei basin and partly the Ob. Currently, the term “Yenisei family” is still used, although not all linguists agree that these languages, located in the same area, had a common origin. Their study is hampered by the lack of living carriers and written monuments. The Ket language belongs to the same as Chukchi, Koryak, Yukaghir, Eskimo, Aleut, etc. to the vast family of Paleo-Asian languages ​​is generally accepted. “Yenisei languages” means a local group of these, mostly already dead, languages.
According to the concept of the common origin of linguistic macrofamilies, Paleo-Asian languages ​​have deep common roots with the languages ​​of the Caucasian and Sino-Tibetan families (Sino-Caucasian macrofamily). However, this concept remains hypothetical and unproven.
Experts note the uniquely complex verbal morphology of the Ket language. The number of its carriers is steadily decreasing. In 2002, only 30% of Kets spoke their native language, now less than 20% of them remain. In the 1930s, a writing system based on the Latin alphabet was invented for the Kets, as for most of the non-literate peoples of the USSR, but it remained unused. Only in the 1980s did they develop the Ket Cyrillic writing system, but they are in no hurry to introduce it into the educational process for this small people.

Complex anthropological type

The first researchers of the Kets (in particular, the famous Norwegian traveler Fridtjof Nansen) found more Caucasoid admixture in the Kets compared to their neighboring indigenous peoples of Siberia (Tungus-Evenks, Ostyak-Khanty, Vogul-Mansi, etc.). Subsequently, this hypothesis did not find support in science. But scientists, nevertheless, noted the special makeup of the Kets and identified them as an independent Yenisei type of the large Mongoloid race.

Mystery of origin

According to archaeological data, the formation of the peoples of the Yenisei family took place in the south of Siberia, from where in the 1st millennium AD. the ancestors of the Kets were displaced by the migrating Turks. So the Kets ended up in the valley of the Middle Yenisei, where the further formation of the people took place.
Comparative genetic (including paleogenetic) studies that began at the end of the twentieth century made significant adjustments to this simple scheme, significantly complicated it and posed a number of mysteries to scientists. It turned out that among the Kets, the Y-chromosomal (male) haplogroup Q is completely dominant (94%). Currently, its main carriers are the Indians of South America, among whom it also prevails everywhere (more than 60%). Among some peoples of Eurasia, haplogroup Q is also found quite often: among the Selkups (66-70%), among various ethnographic groups of Turkmen (up to 73%). It is believed that the same haplogroup was widespread among the Huns. However, only among the Kets and the Indians of South America is subclade Q1a dominant.
At the same time, the dominant mt-DNA (female) haplogroup in the Kets is U4. It is also represented among the peoples of a number of cultures from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age in Eastern Europe: Veretye, Khvalyn, Dnieper-Donets, Yamnaya, Catacomb. Many researchers believe that among the speakers of the last two cultures were the linguistic ancestors of the Indo-Europeans.
Thus, comparative genetic studies partly confirmed Nansen’s old hypothesis about the participation of the Caucasoid substrate in the composition of the Kets. It turns out that the predominant female haplogroup of this people is probably of European origin (even Indo-European, if we talk about genetic connections with the peoples of certain linguistic families). At the same time, the distant genetic ancestors of the Kets “through the male line” not only participated in the first “discovery of America”, but, apparently, prevailed in the migration flow that first moved across Beringia, when it was still land, from Asia to New World.

The last of the Yug people

The people closest to the Kets are the Yugi. He disappears literally before our eyes. Before the revolution, the Yugs were distinguished from the Kets, calling them “Sym Ostyaks.” After the revolution of the South, they began to count the Ket people in censuses; their language was classified as a dialect of Ket; a separate written language was never developed for it.
In 2002, the Yugs were counted for the first time as a separate people in the census. Then 134 people signed up for yugami. But back in the 1980s, field research revealed that only two native speakers of the Yug language remained alive. The 2010 census recorded the last person who spoke the Yug language.
Thus, at present, the Ket language remains, obviously, the last living language of the Yeniseian family or Yeniseian group in the family of Paleo-Asian languages.

In my search for the Aryans, I found this information.

"On the banks of the Yenisei, in the dense taiga wilds, lives an amazing people - the Kets..

There are only a thousand of them, and even fewer know the Ket language - several hundred. Representatives of this small people are completely different from their neighbors - the Selkups, Khantoa, Yakuts - high-cheeked, yellow-skinned, with slanted eyes, in a word, belonging to the “Mongoloid” type. The Kets have blond, almost white hair, an aquiline nose, blue eyes, partly they resemble Europeans, partly American Indians."

"Where did these people come to the banks of the Yenisei? Why does he speak a language that is completely different from the language of their neighbors, and indeed has no kinship with any language in the world? Who are the ancestors of this people?

And this Sledge plank. Chum salmon.

The description is quite standard - a world tree with the moon and sun, an upper and lower world.
But why is the tree shaped like a trident?

Scientists are persistently studying them, restoring the archaic, ancient understanding of the world by the Kets. And the purpose of this “reconstruction” is to learn not only about the origin and history of an amazing people, but also about the most distant past of all humanity, about its “childhood”, of which almost no traces remain. After all, the way of life, superstitions, work habits, myths of the Kets of the Yenisei, the Papuans of New Guinea, the Vedas of Ceylon, the Cubans of Sumatra and other “pagan” peoples are a kind of “living fossils”. And although none of the modern tribes, even the wildest ones, exactly replicate the primitive ones, and each of them has centuries and millennia of cultural development behind them, but they have more than anywhere else remnants of the Stone Age.

Here's what Wikipedia says about chum salmon.
" The ancestors of the Kets supposedly lived in the territory of Southern Siberia along with other representatives of the so-called. Yenisei-speaking peoples: Arins, Assans, Yarints, Tints, Bakhtins, Kotts, etc.
The Ket language is an isolated language, the only living representative of the Yenisei family of languages. It is spoken by the Kets in the Yenisei River basin area. Russian scientists have attempted to establish relationships between the Ket language and the Burushaski language, as well as with the Sino-Tibetan languages ​​and the languages ​​of the North American Na-Dene Indians, whose self-name is similar to the self-name of the Kets. The Yeniseian languages ​​are often included in the hypothetical Sino-Caucasian macrofamily.
According to some data, in the 1st millennium AD. e. they came into contact with the Turkic-Samoyed-Ugric-speaking population and, as a result of migrations, ended up in the Yenisei North. In particular, the Kotts were settled along the Kanu River (the right tributary of the Yenisei), the Asans were settled along the Usolka and One rivers (the left bank of the lower Angara), on the Yenisei in the Krasnoyarsk region there were Arinas, and above them along the right bank of the Yenisei to the mouth of the Tuba River there were Yarintsy and Baykotovtsy. Below the Yenisei and its tributaries Kas, Sym, Dubches, Elogui, Bakhta, and along the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska lived the ancestors of the modern Kets. Some Keto-speaking groups in the 9th-13th centuries. went north, settling on the middle Yenisei and its tributaries. It was here, in contact with the Khanty and Selkup, and then with the Evenki, that a distinctive Ket culture was formed. Subsequently, the Kets moved north up to the Turukhan and Kureyka rivers and Lake Maduiskoye, displacing or assimilating the Entsy from there. At the beginning of the 17th century, three tribal local groups were known - the Zemshaks in the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska, the Bogdens at the mouth of the Bakhta, and the Inbaki in the Eloguya basin.

Some researchers contact the Kets