Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Hunzib people
The Hunzib people are an ethnic group of the Avars.
Language
The Hunzib people mostly speak the Hunzib language of the Avar-Ando-Tsezic group of the Dagestan languages. The Russian, Avar, Bezhta, Ginukh, Tsezic and Georgian languages are also widespread.
Dispersion
They mostly live in the Tsuta and Kizilyurt districts of Dagestan.
Traditional occupations
The main traditional occupations are distant pasture cattle breeding and plough farming. They grew rye, barley, wheat, oats, millet.
Society
The Hunzib people were organized into communities (jaamats) of warriors-cattle breeders and farmers. The significance of the tukhum patriarchal kinship unions was preserved. A community could include from two-three to seven-eight tukhums. The heads of the tukhums usually were the elders. The tukhum support and solidarity preserved their significance until our days.
Dwellings
The houses are from stone, rectangular in plan, two-storey with the shed and other utility spaces on the first storey and the living space on the second storey. The open loggia has been replaced by a covered gallery. The dwellings that form a terraced setup have flat dirt roofs, separately standing dwellings usually have gabled roofs covered with cleaved pine planks.
Clothes
Traditional men’s clothes: trousers, shirt, beshmet jacket, chokha, sheepskin overcoats, sheepskin tall hats; the footwear was knitted, leather or felt. The main elements of the women’s costume are: shirt dress belted with a fabric sash, trousers, bonnet with a hair pouch (chukhtu), headscarves, shawls; the same types of footwear. The silver decorations included earrings, rings, bracelets, temple pendants, etc.
Food
The food was flour- or meat- and dairy-based. The main dishes were: scones, bread, oatmeal dough, khinkal, gruels, pies, kurze, flour and meat soups.
