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Peoples of Russia
Udmurts
Udmurts (self-designation Udmort, obsolete designation Votyaks) are a Finno-Ugric people who mostly live in the Republic of Udmurtia (460.6 thousand people), Perm territory (26.3 thousand), Kirov (180 thousand) and Sverdlovsk (17.9 thousand people) regions.
Language
They speak the Udmurt language that belongs to the Permic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages of the Ural family. Dialectologically it is divided into 4 dialects: Northern, Southern, Peripheric Southern and Besermyan. The use of the Russian and Tatar languages is also common. The writing system is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
Society
The main traditional institution of the Udmurts was the neighbor community, several unions of related families. Another social institution (vorshud) as a system of exogamic groups with a common name (Bigra, Mozhga, Pelga, Tuklya, etc., altogether about 70) and a common cult of a family-kin protector. Southern Udmurts already had nuclear families in the first half of the 18th century, when the northern ones still had large families.
Dwellings
The Udmurt villages were traditionally located on river banks. The random layout of the settlements since the mid-19th century started to change to a street one. The residential house is a log izba, usually with a gabled roof, the cold seni anteroom, a clay oven, benches along the walls, plank beds or sleeping benches with a wooden headboard. As for the outbuildings, which are situated together with the house, forming an n-shape in the homestead, the obligatory ones are the klet (kenos) (where the family possessions are stored) and the summer house (kuala). Interior decorations included many decorative woven goods.
Food
The food in the past was mostly plant-based. Festive food included pelmeni dumplings, fish pies, pies with mushroom, berry or vegetable filling; meat, butter, milk porridges, soups, egg dishes, honey.
Occupations
The main occupations of the Udmurts were plough agriculture (rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, spelt, hemp, linen) and cattle breeding. Hunting, fishing, beekeeping, foraging, vegetable gardening were of a subsidiary nature. For the applied arts, the leading place belongs to embroidery and pattern weaving, pattern knitting, woodcarving, wickerwork, birchbark embossing.
