The space of motility of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds as a phenomenon of “Northernness”
English
journal number:
Journal’s Subject Headings:
History, ethnography, archeology
About author:
Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Researches and Development, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russian Federation, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Introduction: the concept of a phenomenon of “Northernness” in the title of the article makes it possible to present the North of Western Siberia as an area of mobile cultures, a model of the development of vast spaces by the Ob Ugrians and the establishment of their control over it. The focus of the author’s attention is the motility, which has left an imprint on mentality as a specific style of perception of the world. It can be recognized in many aspects – biomotility, psychomotility, sociomotility, – the features of which as an ethnic phenomenon are revealed in this article.
Objective: to reveal a culturally determined system of movement modes against the background of historical and ethnographic realities, as well as their representation in the folklore and traditional worldview of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds.
Research materials: collections of folklore, linguistic and ethnographic data from published sources, toponymic and linguistic dictionaries, oral reports of informants.
Results and novelty of the research: the article identifies two streams of movement (biomotility) associated with the intracontinental migrations of Ugric nomads from the West through the Urals to the territory of the Lower Ob region (legends about the people of Por and Moshch, the cosmogonic myth of the pursuit of the six-legged Moose) and from the Southern Urals to the territory of Western Siberia (the movement of the people Moshch – the inhabitants of huge herds of animals and living in “broadcloth houses”). The internal movements of individual local groups in search of new forage or hunting and fishing grounds are also being investigated (the heroic legend about the bogatyr Pākv Pōsy Vojkan Otyr, the legend about the settlement of Mansi ancestors along the rivers of Sosva and Lyapin). The article for the first time systematically presents an expanded interpretation of the concept of motility as movement, reflected in the mental sphere (psychomotility): the travels of the gods of the Ob-Ugric pantheon; the mobile nature of the human soul moving through the universe’s layers; the idea of different trajectories of the movement of time; sociomotorics as the drift of kinship. Thus, the movement is considered in a space and time continuum, the unity of ideas about which characterizes the phenomenon of “northernness” as a unique way of constructing the ethnic picture of the world.
Key words: biomotility, intracontinental migration, seasonal migration, travel, psychomotility, sociomotility, phenomenon of ethnicity, kinship drift, Khanty people, Mansi people
For citation: Spodina V. I. The space of motility of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds as a phenomenon of “Northernness” // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2023; 13 (2/53): 345–355.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: the concept of a phenomenon of “Northernness” in the title of the article makes it possible to present the North of Western Siberia as an area of mobile cultures, a model of the development of vast spaces by the Ob Ugrians and the establishment of their control over it. The focus of the author’s attention is the motility, which has left an imprint on mentality as a specific style of perception of the world. It can be recognized in many aspects – biomotility, psychomotility, sociomotility, – the features of which as an ethnic phenomenon are revealed in this article.
Objective: to reveal a culturally determined system of movement modes against the background of historical and ethnographic realities, as well as their representation in the folklore and traditional worldview of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds.
Research materials: collections of folklore, linguistic and ethnographic data from published sources, toponymic and linguistic dictionaries, oral reports of informants.
Results and novelty of the research: the article identifies two streams of movement (biomotility) associated with the intracontinental migrations of Ugric nomads from the West through the Urals to the territory of the Lower Ob region (legends about the people of Por and Moshch, the cosmogonic myth of the pursuit of the six-legged Moose) and from the Southern Urals to the territory of Western Siberia (the movement of the people Moshch – the inhabitants of huge herds of animals and living in “broadcloth houses”). The internal movements of individual local groups in search of new forage or hunting and fishing grounds are also being investigated (the heroic legend about the bogatyr Pākv Pōsy Vojkan Otyr, the legend about the settlement of Mansi ancestors along the rivers of Sosva and Lyapin). The article for the first time systematically presents an expanded interpretation of the concept of motility as movement, reflected in the mental sphere (psychomotility): the travels of the gods of the Ob-Ugric pantheon; the mobile nature of the human soul moving through the universe’s layers; the idea of different trajectories of the movement of time; sociomotorics as the drift of kinship. Thus, the movement is considered in a space and time continuum, the unity of ideas about which characterizes the phenomenon of “northernness” as a unique way of constructing the ethnic picture of the world.
Key words: biomotility, intracontinental migration, seasonal migration, travel, psychomotility, sociomotility, phenomenon of ethnicity, kinship drift, Khanty people, Mansi people
For citation: Spodina V. I. The space of motility of the Ob Ugrians and Samoyeds as a phenomenon of “Northernness” // Vestnik ugrovedenia = Bulletin of Ugric Studies. 2023; 13 (2/53): 345–355.
