Russia is
my homeland

Peoples of Russia

Selkups

The Selkups are a people living in the north of the Western Siberia. Their self-designation is Solkup or Sholkup (Taz or Turukhan), Chumylkup (Vasyugan, Parabel, Tym), Shoshkum (Ob), Sussekum (Ket). Until the 1930s, they were called Ostyak-Samoyeds. In 2000, by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation they were given the status of native small-numbered people.

Language

The Selkup language belongs to the Samodian group of the Ural language family and is the only language of the Southern subgroup of the Samodian group of the Ural language family which survived to our days. Large territory of dispersion in conjunction with small population predetermined the internal fragmentation of the Selkup language. There are the following dialect groups within it: the Taz (Northern), Tym, Ket (Southern), Narym, Ob groups, with those groups in their turn consisting of a large number of dialects. Its writing system is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Dispersion

Currently the Selkups live in two separate groups: the southern group in the Tomsk region and the northern one in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District and the Krasnoyarsk territory.

Traditional occupations

The main occupations of the Selkups were hunting and fishing. A lot of game, especially squirrels, was killed with bows and arrows. The northern Selkups in contact with the northern Samodian peoples mastered the taiga reindeer breeding for transportation purposes, and even now they preserve the traditional commercial occupations, the mobile dwelling (chum), clothes traditional for northerners (of the malitsa parka type), utensils, transport.

Food

The Selkups ate mostly fish. They used it to make porsa flour. Their diet also included meat of the upland game, and for the northern group of Selkups, reindeer meat. As for wild plants, they ate wild leek, daylight lily, various forest berries. Instead of tea, they used juniper water. By the 19^th century, the Selkups started using flour, sugar, tea, grits, etc.

Holidays

The northern Selkups celebrated the spring and autumn Poryy Apse holidays, which were dedicated to the arrival and departure of the birds. “Meeting the ducks” meant meeting the summer; “seeing off the ducks” meant the burial of summer. The southern Selkups celebrated their holidays according to the Orthodox calendar, though even at the early 20^th century a big part was played by the shamans.