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 hides 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.

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?

Science has no answers to these questions. Some scientists believe that the ancestors of the Kets were North American Indians; others think that the Kets are the last representatives of the Paleo-Asians, the oldest inhabitants of North-East Asia, who were then displaced by Mongoloid tribes; and still others suggest that the Kets are the last descendants of the creators of the ancient civilization of Hindustan. After all, the names of many mountains and rivers in Altai, Tibet, and the Southern Yenisei are very similar to Ket words. But there is no convincing evidence for either point of view.
Before the October Revolution, the standard of living and culture of the Kets, or, as Russian merchants called them, “Yenisei Ostyaks,” were similar to those of the most primitive tribes on earth - the Australians, Bushmen, and Amazon Indians. According to the Kets, the whole world is divided into the “top” and “bottom” of the Yenisei, its “stone” and “felt” sides. In the north, at the mouth of the Yenisei, to which, by the way, the Ket word “ses” - “river” could not be applied - it was a special object - and so, at the mouth of the Yenisei the sky converged with the Earth and the evil spirit Khosyadem lived there , the likeness of our fairytale Baba Yaga. In the south, at the sources of the Yenisei, the sky also converged with the Earth, and the “mother of life,” Tomem, lived there. The Kets did not know that there were many rivers just like the Yenisei, that a vast world stretched around, that beyond the taiga lies the huge country of Russia. The word “ket” itself means “person”. The rest belong to “non-humans”, evil spirits and all kinds of evil spirits, like goblins, witches, swamp devils.
One amazing game, very similar to our checkers, has also been preserved from old times. But the struggle is not waged by “whites” and “blacks,” but by figures of women and men. Almost exactly the same checkers were found thousands of kilometers from the Yenisei, during excavations of the mysterious city of ancient India, Mohenjo-Daro. What is this? Coincidence? Or are those scientists right who claim that the Kets are the last remnants of the creators of the Mohenjo-Daro culture, who over the course of many centuries were forced out from south to north and traveled from hot India to taiga Siberia? Someday science will solve this riddle. But Ket checkers figures are interesting not only for their relationship with the checkers of the most ancient city of India. After all, the war between “men” and “women” is a reflection of the struggle that in time immemorial went on between men and women for the right to dominance in society, the struggle of matriarchy and patriarchy!
A world created by an omnipotent god named Es; the bear is an “evil spirit” and at the same time a “man” endowed with a soul; mythical "Adam" of the Kets - the first shaman Albe, from whom the entire human race descended - all these naive and mystical ideas of the Kets are irrevocably a thing of the past.
Modern Kets no longer live in tents, but in houses. Every day the radio informs them about all the events happening in the world. Chum salmon who have received higher education return to their native places. It is simply impossible to talk about them as a tribe. And only very old people retained ancient legends, concepts and myths in their memory...

Cult object "yin"

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.

From A. Kondratov’s book “Who are you, Adam?”

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

KETS (self-name - ket, keto - person, plural deng - people; obsolete - Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks, Yeniseis, Asians), people in Russia. They live along the middle and lower Yenisei (the villages of Vorogovo, Sumarokovo, Bakhta, Verkhneimbatsk, Kangotovo, Vereshchagino, Baklanikha, Turukhansk, Goroshikha) and its tributaries - the rivers Eloguy (with its center in the village of Kellogg), Turukhan (the village of Farkovo), Kureika (villages Serkovo and Munduyka on Lake Munduyskoye), in the lower reaches of the Surgutikha River (Surgutikha village) in the Turukhansky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory; the Podkamennaya Tunguska River (the villages of Sulomai, Baykit and Polygus) in the southeast of the Evenki region (until 2007 - an autonomous district), as well as in the Yenisei (village of Yartsevo) and Igarsk regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The Ket (along the Ket River) and Sym (along the Sym River) Selkups were sometimes mistakenly classified as Ket. The population is 1.5 thousand people, including in the Krasnoyarsk Territory 1.2 thousand people, Evenki District 211 people (2002, census); about half live in cities (Krasnoyarsk, Yeniseisk, Igarka, Norilsk, Svetlogorsk, etc.). They speak mostly Russian, some retain the Ket language. Officially, they were Orthodox since the 17th century; Protestantism has been spreading since the end of the 20th century.

The Kets are the northernmost of the peoples who spoke the Yenisei languages. Their early history is associated with the cultures of the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC) of the mountain-taiga zone between the upper Ob and Yenisei rivers (including the Samus 4 complex - see the article Samus culture). At the beginning of our era they were part of the zone of Hunnic and Turkic influence. The ancestors of the Kets themselves lived mainly in the Kuznetsk-Minusinsk basin. Their contacts with the Turks and southern Samoyeds are possible. During the period of Turkic expansion (9-13 centuries), the Kets advanced from the Sayan-Altai along the Irtysh through the Ob to Vasyugan, to Tym, Sym, and to the upper reaches of Eloguy; along the Tom - through the Ob and Ket to the left bank of the Yenisei. By the middle of the 19th century, the remaining Yenisei-speaking groups became part of the Khakassians, Tuvinians, Shors, and Northern Altaians.

Contacts with Russians since the beginning of the 17th century. The Kets lived in Mangazeya (northern, or Inbat, Kets, which included groups: Inbaki - in the lower reaches of the Upper Imbak and Eloguy rivers; Bogdenians - in the lower reaches of the Bakhta River; Zemshaks - in the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska) and Yenisei (southern Kets: Zakamenny Ostyaks - along the rivers Dubches and Sym; dukans, or yugas, - in the lower reaches of the Sym and Kaye rivers; Kuznetsk kets - in the area of ​​the Yenisei fort, modern Yeniseisk, etc.) counties. In the 18th century, they migrated down the Yenisei to the Turukhan and Kureyka rivers, and mixed (including Kets-Selkup) territorial groups were formed: Shaikhinskaya (Stone Tungusskaya), Bakhtinskaya, Eloguyskaya, Figanskaya, Kangatovskaya, Nizhneinbatskaya, Turukhanskaya, Kureyskaya. The term "chum salmon" has been established since the 1920s. According to the 1926 census, there were 1.4 thousand people. In the mid-20th century, national villages arose: Sulomai, Kellogg, Surgutikha, Pakulikha, Serkovo.

Traditional culture is typical for the peoples of the taiga zone of Western Siberia (see the section Peoples and Languages ​​in the volume “Russia”). They were engaged in fishing, hunting and gathering; With the arrival of the Russians, fur farming became the main occupation; among the Kets who lived along the Kureyka River, fishing became the main occupation. Ket (so-called Ostyak) compound bows (kyt) were the subject of exchange throughout the Yenisei North; firearms appeared in the 19th century. Each patronymy had its own hunting grounds (“road” or kang). In autumn and until mid-winter they lived in dugouts (bangus). In January, the men hunted in the taiga (“small walking”), and waited out the middle of winter in a camp. In January, the whole family left the camp and hunted, moving along the “road” (“long walk”), in the summer they united in camps on fishing grounds along the rivers, and hunted waterfowl. The tent (kus) served as a dwelling during winter hunting and summer fishing; the poles of the Ket chum at a height of about 1.5 m were fastened with a hoop (tep), the support poles were connected using a fork. Skis (asleng), lined with kamus, Evenki type. The hunters used a hand sled (sul) and a drag made of elk skin. They kept a small number of reindeer (reindeer husbandry was most developed among the Left Bank and Kurei Kets; on the contrary, it was absent among the Sub-Stone Tungus Kets). In summer, deer grazed freely in the taiga. The Nenets and Enets adopted sledges, and the Evenks adopted horseback riding. There is a hypothesis about the Sayan roots of reindeer husbandry among the Kets. They moved along the rivers on dugout (vetka, dylt'), plank and covered (ilimka, asel) boats, which were pulled by people and dogs walking along the bank. Underwear - shirt (soyat) with straight flaps, gussets, sewn-in sleeves with cuffs, straight slit and stand-up collar; Women's shirts have a long, slightly gathered hem made of fabric of a different color (since the end of the 19th century, a woman's shirt was worn as a dress) and pants (aleng). Outerwear of the Yenisei type (with side folds, seams on the shoulders, sewn-in sleeves and a wrap to the left): winter - a fur parka (kat), summer - made of cloth (kotlyam) and rovduga (kheltam) or quilted with a fur lining (besyam). The names of the details of Ket clothing and the features of the cut bring it closer to the clothing of nomadic pastoralists (Kachins, Tuvans). Women girded themselves with long (up to 3 m) and wide (up to 20 cm) belts (kut) made of red or dark blue fabric, wrapping them several times (similar belts are known among the taiga Khakass and northern Altaians). The reindeer Kets also had closed clothing - malitsa and sokui of the Ural type. Men and girls braided their hair in one braid; rovduga strips with three bead pendants (dumsut) were woven into it; married women braided their hair into two braids, weaving into them the ends of the back of the head (tydang) from rovduga, embroidered with beads and deer hair under the neck. Wood carving (characteristic of smoking pipes with a zoomorphic sculptural chibouk), birch bark, bone carving, painting on wood, leather and birch bark, appliqué on fabric, embroidery with deer hair and beads are developed. The ornament is characterized by a fork motif.

The descendants of the Inbaks made up the exogamous half (hugotpyl) of Kentan (with the Olgyt subdivision), the descendants of the Bogdenians and Zemshaks - half of the Bogdaget (with the Konan subdivision), united by patronymics (bisniming). Avunculation was common, matrilateral cross-cousin marriages and marriage dowry (whale) were practiced. The system of kinship terms is characterized by a combination of descriptive constructions, generationality, linearity, generational skew of the Omaha type and sliding generation counting (the older brother and older sister are identified with older cousins ​​on the paternal side, as well as with the father’s younger brother and the father’s younger sister - apparently , under Selkup influence). Siblings are called by a general term with the addition of indicators of relative age, although relations by relative age have not received such development as in the neighboring Ural and Altai kinship systems.

The Kets worshiped the supreme heavenly deity Yes; his ex-wife Khosedam personified the evil principle and was the mistress of the underworld. They revered the owner of the animals, Kaigus, the mistress of the ancestral sanctuary, Kholai, the female spirit guardians of the hearth (“old women” allel), whose images in the form of wooden dolls in fur clothes were inherited by relatives. They believed in harmful spirits (Dotet, Litys, Kalbesam), etc. The deceased was buried with his head facing east; his clothes, broken sledges, bows, and damaged guns were left at the grave; sometimes his dogs or deer were killed. Air burials (shamanic) and tree stump burials (children's) were known. On the occasion of the bear hunt, a bear festival was held; in the form of a bear they received a deceased relative who came to visit them. Kets shamanism is distinguished by developed ideas about the gift (kut), transmitted among relatives, and the seven-fold cycle (three years each) of becoming a shaman. During the ritual, shamans (sening) took on the image of a deer, dragonfly, bear, etc., put on a special parka, bib and iron headdress (for the deer shaman - with antlers), used a tambourine (khas) of the Sayano-Nisei version of the South Siberian type and a staff (tauks ). The memory of the legendary (first, great) shaman Dog was preserved. There were also soothsayers and healers (bangos) hostile to shamans, most often women.

Oral creativity included myths and texts of mythological origin, heroic and historical legends, fairy tales (fantastic, everyday, about animals, etc.), stories and legends, riddles. The mythoepic tradition (asket) is represented by narratives sung or alternating between speech and singing (including those about the bird-man Pikul; among the Kurei Kets, the plot of “Pikul” also existed in the form of a children’s fairy tale and a lullaby). There are known myths about the creation of the world, the epic tale of three brothers - Balne, Belegan and Toret. The shamanic tradition is characterized by: personal songs of the shaman; the shaman's assistant, who certainly participated in the rituals, echoed him during the invocation of spirits, to whom individual melodies were assigned. For shamanic chants-formulas, 3-5-step narrow-volume scales, anhemitonic pentatonic scale, a combination of different types of intonation, and timbre contrasts are common. Shamans could also act as storytellers. The basis of the song tradition (il) consists of personal songs (one person could have up to 6 or more of them), based on a 4-step diatonic scale with a subquart, full and incomplete anhemitonic pentatonic scale, and various 7-step scales. Welcome singing is characterized by an initial exclamation and continuous gliding; a specific pitch and loudness vibration is also possible. Instrumental music is represented mainly by playing on a plate jew's harp. In the past, a musical bow and a bowed lute-shaped instrument were known. Tales [about animals, about the Master of Beasts Kaigus, magical tales (Use Asket), etc.] could only be told after the end of the autumn hunt, in the middle of winter.

Modern chums are mainly engaged in fur hunting, gardening and fishing; intelligentsia was formed. Attempts are being made to preserve

traditional culture. Since 1995, there has been an Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Turukhansk North, an ethnocultural center with a museum in Turukhansk, and since 2004 - the Krasnoyarsk regional public organization of indigenous peoples of the North “Association of Kets”.

Lit.: Dolgikh B. O. Kety. Irkutsk, 1934; Alekseenko E. A. Kety (historical and ethnographic essays). L., 1967; Ket collection. M., 1969. Issue. 2: Mythology, ethnography, texts; Aizenstadt A. Among the Kets and Selkups // Music of Siberia and the Far East. M., 1982. Issue. 1; Ket collection. Anthropology, ethnography, mythology, linguistics. L., 1982; Nikolaev R.V. Folklore and questions of the ethnic history of the Kets. Krasnoyarsk, 1985; Dorozhkova T. Yu. Kets and Selkups // Musical culture of Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1997. T. 1. Book. 1; Krivonogov V.P. Chum salmon on the threshold of the 3rd millennium. Krasnoyarsk, 1998; Myths, legends, tales of the Kets / Comp., preface. and approx. E. A. Alekseenko. M., 2001; Peoples of Western Siberia. M., 2005.

E. A. Alekseenko; G. V. Dzibel (system of kinship terms), N. M. Kondratyeva (oral creativity).

Self-name "keto", "ket" ("person"), in the plural "deng" ("people", "people"). Previously, the ethnonyms Ostyaks, Yenisei Ostyaks and Yeniseis were used.

According to the 2002 census, the population was 1,494 people. They live mainly in rural areas of the Turukhansky, Evenkiy and Yenisei districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

During the period of Soviet power, the traditional way of life was destroyed. Economic reorganizations (collective farms and industrial farms, the organization of settlements with a transfer to settled life and the subsequent liquidation of some of them) led to a reduction in the role of the Kets in hunting and fishing, and reindeer husbandry was lost. The reduction of unique production, the experience of ancestors, material and spiritual values ​​led to a deformation of national identity. Currently, the Kets' interest in their historical past and national culture is growing. The teaching of the Ket language in schools, interrupted in the 1930s, has been restored. An ABC book and other manuals have been created in the Ket language. Measures are being taken to organize rural museums and cultural centers.

Language

The Ket language is the last living representative of the Yenisei language family. Other related languages ​​(Pumpokol, Arin, Assan) disappeared in the 18th-19th centuries along with their speakers.

It has been suggested that the Yenisei languages ​​are distantly related to the Adyghe-Abkhaz, Nakh (Chechen, Ingush) and Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Tibetan) languages.

The Ket language has three dialects: northern, central and southern, the latter in turn being subdivided into the Eloguy and Podkamenno-Tungus dialects. The actual differences between them are small.

In the 1930s, the Kets used a Latin-based alphabet, which was replaced in the 1980s by a new alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been a process of people losing their language. Currently, less than 20% of Ket people in the age group of 50 years and older consider Ket as their native language. The number of carriers, according to experts, does not exceed 150 people. At the same time, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, according to the 2002 census, out of 1,189 Ket people, only 365 people (30.7%) speak the Ket language.

The Ket language has been and remains an extremely popular object of linguistic research, primarily due to the complexity of its verbal morphology.

Origin and history

The ancestors of modern Kets were formed, according to some assumptions, 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. Anthropologically, the Kets were classified as the Ural type, combining Caucasoid and Mongoloid features. However, subsequent study made it possible to distinguish the Kets into an independent Yenisei type. It is curious that haplogroup Q is rare, indicating kinship with North American Indians.

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, Yarins, Tints, Bakhtins, Kotts, etc.). In the 1st millennium AD. they came into contact with the Turkic-Samoyed-Ugric-speaking population, as a result of which they were forced to migrate to the Yenisei North. In particular, the Kotts settled along the Kanu River (the right tributary of the Yenisei), the Asans - along the Usolka and Ona rivers (the left bank of the lower Angara), the Arins - on the Yenisei in the Krasnoyarsk region, above them along the right bank of the Yenisei to the mouth of the Tuba River - the Yarintsy and Baykotovtsy. The ancestors of the modern Kets turned out to be settled lower along the Yenisei and its tributaries Kas, Sym, Dubches, Elogui, Bakhta and along the lower reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. Some Keto-speaking groups went north in the 9th-13th centuries, 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 associate representatives of the Okunev and Karasuk cultures (2 thousand years BC) of Southern Siberia with the Kets.

Before the arrival of the Russians, the Kets had already mastered metallurgy, but lived in a tribal system.

The Kets became part of Russia in 1607.

Life

The main occupation of most Kets was and still is hunting and fishing. Squirrel, as the main object of the fur trade, accounted for 80-90% of the cost of all furs produced. The squirrel fishery was most strongly developed among the southern Kets. In addition to chum squirrels, weeds, ermine, fox, sable, wild deer, elk, and, in the north, arctic fox were caught. All furs were sold in chets. Only hare and bear skins, as well as the skins and most of the meat obtained from wild deer and elk, were kept for themselves.

The mining tools were primarily bows and arrows, which also served as military weapons. Sharp arrow tips, and later rifle bullets, were coated with poison from decomposed fish oil. With the advent of guns, bows almost went out of use. Transport reindeer herding, borrowed from the Samoyeds (Nenets, Enets) in the 2nd half of the 17th-18th centuries, did not spread among all Kets. Some Kets, including the entire sub-Stone Tungus group, remained deerless.

The traditional dwelling of the Kets is a conical tent made of poles and birch bark tires (kus). Another common type of dwelling is a dugout (ban, nus). Inside the chum, birch bark bedding and fir branches were laid on the earthen floor. An indispensable part of the decoration was several low tables made of birch (lamas), at which 2-3 people ate. Ladles and cups for tea and broth were made from birch and horn.

Even before the revolution, chum salmon clothes were made mainly from purchased fabrics and cloth (zipuna) and from the skins of domestic and wild deer. Hare and squirrel skins were also used as clothing material.

The summer men's suit consisted of a short, knee-length cloth robe ("kotlyam", from "kotl" - "cloth"), wrapped from right to left, with characteristic braid stripes on the shoulders and along the sides, from fabric trousers, cloth or woolen stockings to the knees and leather shoes - teal, often colored reddish with alder decoction.

The means of transportation in winter were wide skis glued with camus. Single-tree dugouts and large plank ilimka boats with a carrying capacity of up to four tons with a mast and sail, a living part covered with birch bark, were used as water transport. When hunting, hunters used hand sleds and elk skin drags.

Religion

The religious beliefs of the Kets were based on animism. The world, divided into three spheres (the upper heavenly world, the middle world of people and the lower underground world) was inhabited by many good and evil spirits. Shamanism among the Kets was not professional. The main function of shamans was healing and prediction.

The highest good principle in Ket mythology was the heavenly deity Yes. The wife of this deity, Khosedem, cast down to earth, personified evil.

With the arrival of Russian explorers and missionaries in Siberia, the Kets, along with other Siberian peoples, began to accept Orthodox baptism.

It seems natural to most Russians that Siberia is an integral part of our country. However, just four centuries ago, the Russians were strangers to this territory, and it was inhabited by indigenous people (Kets, Nenets, Evenks and others), who lived by fishing and hunting. Unfortunately, many of them are currently on the verge of extinction and have long lost their cultural traditions, language and history. The Kets people are among the smallest and least studied indigenous groups in Siberia. Therefore, our article is dedicated to this people, shedding light on their life and origin.

Kets: who are they?

The Kets are a people who lived on the territory of modern Siberia back in the first millennium AD. They appeared, according to scientists, as a result of the mixing of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races. Anthropologists have long attributed them to the Ural type, but recently they are inclined to the version that the Kets can be considered an independent Yenisei type.

How did the name "chum salmon" come about?

• Chickens.
• Pakulihi.
• Surgutikha.

It is worth noting that not all Kets live in ethnic groups. The people are distinguished by some isolation and isolation, therefore, even before the arrival of Russian discoverers in Siberia, representatives of the tribe could live in families, located thousands of kilometers from the main settlements of their people. Currently, a small part of the Kets live in Russian villages of the Turukhansk region. Kum usually avoid large cities, but several groups are known to have settled in Krasnoyarsk.

Kets (people): numbers

Unfortunately, scientists do not have reliable data on what the number of Kets was in the seventeenth century. Therefore, it is now quite difficult to track the dynamics of their development. The population census, conducted once every few years, allows us to draw conclusions about how harmful modern living conditions are to the preservation of the numbers of this ethnic group.

According to data for 2010, the Kets are a people whose number does not exceed 1,200 people. Although back in 2002, the population census showed 300 more people identifying themselves as belonging to this nationality. Scientists attribute this fact to the fact that most Kets are moving away from the traditions of their ancestors, gradually losing themselves. After all, even the language of this Siberian people is already dying.

Ket language

At the moment, the Ket language is the last of the rich Yenisei language family. The Kets are its only speakers; other peoples speaking similar dialects finally lost their native language back in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Already fifteen years ago, scientists argued that only 30 percent of the Kets could speak their own language, and the rest of the people (mainly young people) preferred to communicate in Russian.

Linguists study it with great pleasure, although it is complex and has three dialects. However, the difference between them is not too noticeable. Unfortunately, scientists' forecasts are disappointing - within a few years there will not be a single person left on Earth who can pronounce at least one word in Ket.

Kets national costume

Even at the end of the 18th century, the Kets were distinguished by the fact that they sewed clothes from purchased materials. But skins of wild and domestic animals were also often used. Deer, hares and squirrels were ideal for this purpose.

Thick and comfortable wrap-around robes and wide trousers were made from chum cloth. A mandatory attribute of the costume were woolen stockings; they reached to the knee and tightly fitted the shin. Shoes were mainly made of leather and painted in different shades of red.

In winter, the costume was complemented by outerwear made of skins and mandatory hunting skis. They were always glued with kamus and lubricated with animal fat.

Religion of the vanishing Siberian people

The religious beliefs of the Kets were very primitive. The basis of the religion was animalism, which is characteristic of all peoples engaged in hunting and fishing. At the same time, the Kets had some ideas about the afterlife; they divided the whole world into three components. The upper reaches were ruled by a good deity in male form, the middle world was inhabited by people, and the lower underground kingdom was dominated by an evil and cruel goddess.

Life of the Kets

Since the people almost always lived in the taiga, their life was extremely simple and convenient for hunters. The most common types of housing were:

1. Chum

It was built from long poles and covered with birch bark. In cases where it was necessary to urgently change place of residence, the tent could be easily disassembled and transported.

2. Dugout

Such structures were rarely moved, because equipping a new home was very time-consuming. The dugout was usually small and lined with birch bark with fresh fir branches. Inside the chum, several tables made of birch were installed, at which family members ate.

Almost everything was made of birch or horn; these were mainly cups, ladle and some kind of bowl for broth. Chum salmon went fishing in light boats made from hollowed out wood. Sometimes large ships were used that could take on board up to four tons of cargo.

For winter, hunters made drags and sleds, using wood and reindeer skins. This method made it possible to deliver sometimes up to five animal carcasses to the village at the same time.

Currently, historians and linguists are actively studying the Kets, but even old people cannot reveal many of their traditions to scientists due to ignorance. Many years ago, the people actually lost their roots and in the near future may completely disappear as a separate ethnographic group.