Ethnology 

Adaev V.N., Konev A.Yu.

An unknown early 19th c. historical source on the subsistence activities of the population of the Lower Irtysh River basin: analysis of the information potential

This paper reports on a previously unpublished document — a survey of the traditional subsistence activities of the population of the Lower Irtysh River basin and the adjacent part of the Ob River (Denshchikov Commissariat of the Tobolsk Governorate, Russia), prepared in 1805 by a local official, D.S. Kochetovsky. The survey contains detailed information on fishing, hunting, and gathering practices of the Russian and Ugric populations, and it was intended for the preparation of the Governor's report to the Minister of Internal Affairs. The study is aimed at assessing the information potential of the historical source and determination of the socio-political context of its production. In the paper, a historical-ethnographic analysis of the document has been carried out against other sources of the 18th–19th centuries, and its main text with annotations is published. The document attests to a high level of competence of the government official in the subsistence economy of the region accountable to him, although that was not fully detailed knowledge. It is not replete with unique data, but at the same time confirms the deep historical tradition and conservatism of the local subsistence economy in which the ethnically mixed population was occupied. Unlike most of the published sources of the second half of the 18th c., the survey describes the economy of the clearly defined area of Northwestern Siberia, notably, as a whole complex, with the seasonal distribution of activities. Particularly valuable is the information characterising the flexibility of the economic structure, depending on the annual specifics of the fluctuation of natural resources. The authors of the paper concluded that the document under study constitutes one of the early experiences of compiling a survey of the economy at a lower managerial level, marking the formation of a new model of interaction between state institutions and local communities. The model was based upon the collecting of statistical and factual data on all Russian regions, which towards the middle of the 19th c. adopted by then a regular and formalised order.

Keywords: Northwestern Siberia, Tobolsk gubernia, materials of the governor's reports, socio-economic characteristics, Russians and Siberian natives.

Rud’ A.A.

Deities and spirits in the ideas of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob region (based on materials from 2002 to 2017)

The research is aimed at the characteristics of deities and spirits in the traditional beliefs of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob basin (the territory of Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, and Nefteyugansk Districts of KMAO — Yugra and Uvatsky District of the Tyumen Oblast). The common traits are identified and differences between the categories of deities and spirits clarified; the transition of personified spirits to the category of deities is shown, as well as the transfer of the forgotten deities to the category of spirits. The sources for the research are represented by publications of the scientists of the late 19th — early 21st c., as well as by the author’s field materials collected in 2002–2017 amongst the Surgut Khanty on the rivers of Lyamin, Pim, Tromyogan, Agan, Bolshoy and Malyy Yugan, as well as on the Demyanka River (the right-bank tributary of the Irtysh River). The comparativehistorical approach is employed in this work. Concerning the study of the communicative nature of the relationships between the man and supernatural beings, the concept of M. Salinz (1999) on reciprocal relations and the theory of gift-exchange of M. Moss (2011) are used. Also used are the theoretical and practical exploratory work of E.S. Novik (2004) and E.P. Martynova (2021, 2022), who observed a close link between the traditional perceptions of the peoples of Siberia and the reciprocal and giftexchange relationships between the human world and the characters of traditional beliefs. Traditional beliefs of the Surgut Khanty include the narratives of a series of supernatural beings who influence all aspects of human life and environment. The author proposes the revision of the intension of the term ‘spirits’ frequently used by the majority of researchers to denote the whole variety of the characters of the traditional beliefs of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob basin. Taking into account the social significance, characteristics, functions, as well as the terminology of the Surgut Khanty, the author proposes to return to the division of their traditional characters into two categories — the łungx (“deities”) and the spirits (“demons” “the evil spirit”), including kułet, yelek-kanlekh otet, kaltet, potchek, por ne, mengk, yuli, ves etc. Despite the difference of the characteristics of the personages of both categories, the landscape-geographical and morphological characteristics of the places of living of the deities (yimung togi) may have features similar with places of living of the spirits (atym togi). In the study, specifics of the reciprocal and gift-exchange relationships between humans and characters of the categories of deities and spirits are recorded.

Keywords: Surgut Khanty, traditional beliefs, deities and spirits, reciprocity.

Masharipova A. Kh., Fedorov R.Yu.

Specifics of settlement and numbers of armoured boyars in the Tobolsk Governorate in the second half of the 19th c.

On the basis of the archival sources, for the first time an attempt is made to reconstruct settlement of the migrants from the Vitebsk Governorate — the armoured boyars — in the territory of Siberia. The armoured boyars was a category of servicemen who guarded the borders of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later — of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the annexation at the end of the 18th century of the eastern territories of the Commonwealth by the Russian Empire, the armoured boyars joined in the peasant estate. The resettlement to Siberia of separate groups of armoured boyars in the 1840s–1850s caused by the land shortage may be considered as one of the first experiments in organised peasant resettlements to the territory of the Asian part of Russia. The foundation of the source base of this study comprises documents from the holdings of the state archives of Omsk, Tobolsk, Chelyabinsk, and St. Petersburg. Most archival documents are introduced into scientific discourse for the first time. The main stream of the migrants was directed to the Ishim and Tara Uyezds of the Tobolsk Governorate. According to the statistical data, more than 3000 armoured boyars arrived in Siberia with the permission from the government. The largest parties of the migrants were domiciled in Utchanskaya and Ilyinskaya Volosts of the Ishim Uyezd. In various developed places of their compact residence, the living conditions had significant differences. Different settlement models were implemented there, including co-settling armoured boyars with old-settlers, founding villages populated by different groups of resettlers, as well as a separate domicile. The most stable were the large groups of armoured boyars living in relatively favourable conditions. Such examples include the places of their compact residence in the territory of the Ilyinskaya and Loktinskaya Volosts of the Ishim Uezd. In the meantime, small groups of the migrants, who found themselves in less favourable conditions, were much quicker assimilating in the new ethnic environment.

Keywords: Belarusians migrants, resettlement to Siberia, peasant migrations, Siberia.

Mavlyutova G.Sh.

The social portrait of the Muslim clergy in the Tobolsk Governate in the 19th — early 20th century

The Muslim clergy is analysed as one of the social groups. In Muslim communities, the clergy could comprise khatibs, imams, muezzins or adhan-caller, mujtahids, and ahuns. The congregation usually called all clergymen of mosque as mullah. In the course of research, it has been found that the majority of the clergymen worked in the countryside. The clerical staff of countryside mosques was few. Generally, there were one or two clergymen in service: an imam and a muezzin. Sometimes, two imams worked in the house of worship. In the period under study, mosques operated in the towns of Tara, Tobolsk, and Tyumen. The clergy staff in the urban mosques in different periods included 1–4 people. In most cases, the religious community elected clergymen, although there were situations when the congregation were asking the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly to appoint them a mullah. The clergymen began religious activities at a relatively young age (28 years old). The average age of the imams was 45. Normally, they occupied clerical posts for the whole life. The Muslim clergy was not receiving allowance from the state. Usually, the religious community took the maintenance obligations towards the mullah. The clergy had different well-being levels. Part of the clergymen were living well. For example, they could afford to build religious houses at their own expenses. In the meantime, some mullahs lived in need, especially, in the time of natural disasters and poor harvests, when the members of the congregation did not support them with resources. A large part of the clergymen carried out educational activities, teaching children in a maktab or a madrasah. The Muslim clergymen were family people. In the second half of the 19th c., a trend towards establishing the dynasts of imams emerged in the Tobolsk Governate. The Muslim clergy had an immense authority amongst the population. Meanwhile, the facts are known when some imams discredited themselves by their behaviour. The religious community and individuals criticised them and composed complaints on them. Petitions against the Muslim clergy were written not only by the congregation, but also by clergymen against each other.

Keywords: mosque, Muslims, mullah, imam, muezzin, azanche, Muslim community, Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Assembly.

Anoshko O.M.

The influence of natural forces and the ways of adaptation to them by Tobolsk residents in the 17th–19th cc. (by the archaeological and historical evidence)

The architectural appearance of Tobolsk was developing and changing throughout the period of the 17th–19th cc. In the history of the city, there were impeding factors of this process associated with the activity of natural forces. Its lower quarter, located on the alluvial plane, was regularly subjected to the floods of the Irtysh River. They caused substantial physical damage to the city, eroded the loamy riverbank, and damaged roads, structures of the bridges, shops, churches, and residential houses. The upper quarter, on the contrary, suffered from the lack of water, which had to be delivered from the piedmont part. This situation was exasperated by the high overcrowding of the population and timber-housing density. Therefore, fire accidents were a real scourge of Tobolsk. The paper concerns the causes of the regular occurrence of natural disasters in Tobolsk, their influence on the development of its urban-planning structure and formation of adaptation processes with respect to them in the subsistence culture of Tobolsk residents. The novelty of the research is due to the fact that the historical and archaeological materials are considered in the synthesis. The historical sources contain information on the construction and renovation of the main city buildings, their destruction in the result of fires and floods, and refer to the measures taken by the authorities to counter these events. The archaeological data shows how the residents of Tobolsk were coping with the destructive power of natural elements. The research revealed the measures undertaken by the Tobolsk residents towards the reduction of the fire hazard: police surveillance, street planning, stone building, change of the structural features of ovens, house thermal insulation, building of Nikolsky Vzvoz and a water tower. Protection from snowmelt floods, highwaters and the high level of the ground waters centred around the bank strengthening of the Irtysh and its tributaries by ramming in poles and timber logs with tamping the free space with stone, digging ditches for water diversion, backfilling certain platforms with subsoil, and by building timber houses on subcletions, houses with stone foundation on stilts or ground sills. In general, using the archaeological and histrorical materials, the mechanisms of the adaptation of the Tobolsk population to the natural-climatic environmental conditions have been identified.

Keywords: Tobolsk, 17th–19th centuries, floods, fires, adaptation processes, historical and archaeological sources.

Poplavsky R.O.

Religiosity: fomation of the concept and first research in the late 19th — beginning of the 20th century

This article attempts to fill a gap in currently available literature on the history of the study of religiosity fitting it into a more general context of the formation of a scientific approach to the study of religion. This is the first review covering the second half of the 19th and the first two decades of the 20th century. The first part of the article explores the term “religiosity”. The issue was brought up at the initial stage of the history of Religious Studies. Nevertheless, the term wasn't immediately accepted by the scientific community. Its meaning was clarified as opposed to the term “religion”. This opposition is rooted in the German philosophy of the 18–19th centuries and was manifested in the 1860-1870s debates about religiosity as a distinctive feature of a human being in anthropology and, since the late 19th century, in psychology. An understanding of religiosity as a subjective side of religion became dominant in 1910s and provided a basis for later typologies and classifications of religiosity. The second part aims to describe some early studies on religiosity. Attendance to worship services was measured through statistical surveys. Conversion studies focused on various religious practices and beliefs, as well as factors that made people convert. Teachers and priests organized surveys among students in the United States trying to respond to a religious crisis and low level of interest in religion among children and adolescents at the turn of the century. Some studies grouped believers based on the frequency of religious practices, thus creating the first typologies of religiosity. The author analyzes the works of Russian researchers, too. He concludes that the theoretical understanding of religiosity went hand in hand with international science, although the term itself was used less. The lack of empirical studies of religiosity in Russia in the studied period was due to the state policy and the attention of theorists to other issues in relation to projects for the future Russia.

Keywords: religiosity, anthropology of religion, psychology of religion, religious studies, methods, history of religious studies.