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Peoples of Russia
Nivkhi
The Nivkh are a people in the Khabarovsk territory and on the Sakhalin island. Their self-designation is Nivkhgu (“people”). The obsolete exonym is Gilyaks. In 2000, by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation they were given the status of native small-numbered people.
Language
The Nivkh speak an isolated language. It is probably one of the most ancient languages in Eurasia. The connections of the Nivkh language are not discovered. There are several hypotheses about the similarities of the Nivkh language with the Tungus-Manchu, Turkic, Itelmen, Mongolian, Chinese language, with the languages of the native peoples of Northern America; however, none of these hypotheses are universally accepted. The majority of the Nivkh speak Russian.
Dispersion
Currently the largest Nivkh groups are concentrated in the Aleevka village on the bank of Amur and in the Sakhalin region (the villages Val, Nogliki and Nekrasovka of the Sakhalin Island as well as the Poronay district). There are small Nivkh groups in the Primorsky territory and in the Jewish Autonomous Region.
Society
The basis of the Nivkh society was the patrilineal kinship group which consisted of large-family communities. The kinship group was strictly exogamous. It was permissible to take a wife from one specific kinship group, and women were also married out into a different kinship group, but not the one from which wives were taken. The kinship group settled together, worked together and had common acreage. In the 19th century, the kinship groups started to disintegrate; however, many Nivkh still remember to which kinship group they belong.
Traditional occupations
The Nivkh economy was based on fishing and hunting, including hunting marine animals which was done using a harpoon or nets made from leather straps. They fished using large boats. Even the exoethnonym Gilyaks originates from the Manchu word “gila-gela”, which means “big boat”. Raising dogs was very important. In each settlement, the Nivkh people kept several hundred dogs, which they used as riding and hunting animals and for food. The dogs also served as the main means of exchange (money equivalent). Foraging was of a subsidiary nature. They gathered wild leeks, nettles and the bulbs of the yellow daylily. The latter were also grown on kinship group’s grounds. Sometimes they bred animals in cages.
Dwellings
In winter the Nivkh lived in semi-dugouts with round roof. In summer they lived in wooden pile-dwellings with gabled roof.
Food
The basis of the Nivkh diet consists of fish (raw, frozen, cured, cooked), meat and marine animals’ fat. They also ate dog meat. The vitamins were obtained from yellow daylily, wild leeks, roots and berries.
