The Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, ''Nʼivxgu'' (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, ''Nʼiɣvŋgun'' (E. Sakhalin) "the people"), are an
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of
Sakhalin
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...
Island and the lower
Amur River and coast on the adjacent Russian mainland and historically possibly parts of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
.
![Nivkh_settlements_2002_map_vector](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Nivkh_settlements_2002_map_vector.svg)
Nivkh were traditionally
fishermen
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...
, hunters, and dog breeders. They were semi-nomadic, living near the coasts in the summer and wintering inland along streams and rivers to catch
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
. The land the Nivkh inhabit is characterized as
taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
forest with cold snow-laden winters and mild summers with sparse tree cover.
The Nivkh are believed to be the original inhabitants of the region, and to derive from a proposed
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
people that migrated from the
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia.
The steppe and ...
region during the
Late Pleistocene.
[Fitzhugh, William, and Durbreui pp.39, 40]
The Nivkh had long maintained trade and cultural relations with neighboring China and Japan. Previously within the
Qing China sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal a ...
, the
Russian Empire annexed the region following two treaties in 1858 and 1860. Subsequently, traditional Nivkh lifestyle was significantly altered by colonization and
collectivization
Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...
.
[Bassett, p.1][Jesup Exhibition]
" Culture: Nivkh (Gilyak)"
- American Museum of Natural History Today, the Nivkh live in Russian-style housing and with the overfishing and pollution of the streams and seas, they have adopted many foods from
Russian cuisine. The Nivkh practice
shamanism, which is important for the winter
Bear Festival, though some have converted to
Russian Orthodoxy.
[Chaussonnet, pp. 34, 35]
As of the 2002 Russian Federation census, 5,287 Nivkh exist. Most speak
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
today, and about 10 percent speak their native
Nivkh language. Nivkh is considered a
language isolate, although it is grouped, for convenience, with the
Paleosiberian languages
Paleosiberian (or Paleo-Siberian) languages or Paleoasian (Paleo-Asiatic) (from , "ancient") are several linguistic isolates and small families of languages spoken in parts of northeastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. They are not know ...
. The Nivkh language is divided into four
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
s.
[Mattissen, p.515]
Etymology
''Nivkh'' (plural ''Nivkhgu'' in the
Nivkh language), an
endonym, means "person" in the Nivkh language. They may also be referred to as Nivkhi in 1920s Western literature, due to the romanization of the Russian term plural "" from "" (''nivkh''). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Russian explorers first termed the group ''Gilyak'' (also ''Giliaks'' or ''Giliatski''). The etymology of the name "Gilyak" is disputed by linguists, with some believing the name originated from an
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
given to the Nivkhs by a nearby
Tungusic group. Other scholars believe that "Gilyak" derives from ''Kile'', another nearby Tungusic group that the Russians had mistakenly named Nivkhs.
[Gall, pp.2-4] "Gilyak" is the Russian rendering of terms derived from the Tungusic "Gileke" and Manchu-Chinese "Gilemi" (Gilimi, Gilyami) for culturally similar peoples of the
Amur River region, and was applied principally to the Nivkh in Western literature.
Origins
![Delisle - Carte d'Asie (Compagnieland)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Delisle_-_Carte_d%27Asie_%28Compagnieland%29.jpg)
The origins of the Nivkh are hard to discern from current archaeological research. Their subsistence by fishing and coastal sea-mammal hunting is very similar to the
Koryak and
Itelmen
The Itelmens ( Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langu ...
on the
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...
. The rigging of dog-sledges is also similar to these Chukotko-Kamchatkan groups. Spiritual beliefs are similar to those of the
Northwest Coast Indians of
North America, whose ancestors migrated from this area.
The Nivkh are physically and genetically different from the surrounding peoples, and scholars believe they are the indigenous inhabitants of the area. The current archaeological model suggests that a sub-Arctic technological culture originating from the
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia.
The steppe and ...
region, termed the
microlithic culture, migrated across Siberia and populated the Amur and Sakhalin region during the
Late Pleistocene, perhaps earlier.
Scientists believe that people of this
microlith
A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Th ...
ic (small tool) culture were the first to migrate eastward into the Americas.
The microlithic culture was technologically adept in the harsh climate of Siberia during the last ice age. After the ice receded,
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or ...
from the south pressed into the warmer northern areas, soon dominating the settled peoples. The Nivkh are considered the last surviving ethnic group able to adapt to the warmer climate and not be assimilated or squeezed out by the newcomers, hence the Nivkh isolate language. The earliest archeological
radiocarbon dating for Northern Sakhalin as of 2004 is the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
Age ''
Imchin Site 2'', dated to 4950–4570 BCE near the
Tym' River Estuary on the west coast.
Michael Fortescue suggests that Nivkh might be related to the
Mosan languages
Mosan is a hypothetical language family consisting of the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It was proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929 in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Little evidence ...
of North America (however, Mosan is generally considered a ''
Sprachbund'' rather than a language family). Fortescue also presents evidence that Nivkh is related to the
Chukotko-Kamchatkans, forming a Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric family, though the evidence was judged to be "insufficient" by ''Glottolog''.
More recently,
Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between Nivkh and the
Algic languages of North America and a more distant relationship between these two together and the
Wakashan languages
Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
As is typical of the Nor ...
of coastal British Columbia.
History
Pre-modern history
The Sakhalin Nivkhs populated the island during the
Late Pleistocene period, when the island was connected to the Continent of Asia via the exposed
Strait of Tartary. When the ice age receded, the oceans rose and the Nivkh were split into two groups. It is suggested that the Nivkh people were present in a wide area of Northeast Asia and influenced other people and their cultures. Several historians suggest that the Nivkh were present in the kingdom of
Goguryeo
Goguryeo (37 BC–668 AD) ( ) also called Goryeo (), was a Korean kingdom located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of Northeast China. At its peak of power, Goguryeo controlled mos ...
. There are indications that the ancestors of the Nivkh may have played a much more prominent role in pre- and protohistorical Manchuria. Nivkh lands extended along the northern coast of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
from the Russian fortress at
Tugur Bay eastward to the mouth of the
Amur River at
Nikolayevsk, then south through the
Strait of Tartary as far as
De Castries Bay. Formerly their territories had extended westwards at least as far as the
Uda river Uda or UDA may refer to:
UDA
* UD Almería, a Spanish football club
* Unión Deportivo Ascensión, a Peruvian football club
* Ulster Defence Association, a loyalist paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland
* Union des artistes, a Quebec act ...
and the
Shantar Islands until pushed out by the
Manchus
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
and, later, the
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
.
The earliest mention of the Nivkh in history is believed to be a 12th-century Chinese chronicle, referring to a people called ''Jílièmí'' (), who were in contact with the
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
rulers of
Yuan China.
They were allied with the Mongols since 1263, and the
Mongols invaded Sakhalin to aid the Nivkh against the Ainu, who had been encroaching on Sakhalin from Hokkaido. In 1643,
Vassili Poyarkov
Vassili Danilovich Poyarkov (Василий Данилович Поярков in Russian, ? - after 1668) was the first Russian explorer of the Amur region.
The Russian expansion into Siberia began with the conquest of the Khanate of Sibir in 158 ...
was the first Russian to write of the Nivkh, calling them ''Gilyak'', a
Tungus
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
, by which they would be referred until the 1920s.
[
After the Yuan period, Ainu and Nivkh of Sakhalin became tributaries to the ]Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
of China after Manchuria came under Ming rule as part of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission
The Nurgan Regional Military Commission () was a Chinese administrative seat established in Manchuria during the Ming dynasty, located on the banks of the Amur River, about 100 km from the sea, at Nurgan city (modern Tyr, Russia). Nurgan ...
. Boluohe, Nanghar and Wuliehe were Yuan posts set up to receive tribute from the Ainu after their war with the Yuan ended in 1308. Ming Chinese outposts in Sakhalin and the Amur river area received animal skin tribute from Ainu on Sakhalin, Uilta
Oroks (''Ороки'' in Russian; self-designation: ''Ulta, Ulcha''), sometimes called Uilta, are a people in the Sakhalin Oblast (mainly the eastern part of the island) in Russia. The Orok language belongs to the Southern group of the Tung ...
and Nivkh in the 15th century after the Tyr based Yongning Temple was set up along with the Nurkan (Nurgan) outposts by the Yongle emperor in 1409. The Ming also held the post at Wuliehe and received marten pelt fur tribute from the assistant commander Alige in 1431 from Sakhalin after the Ming assigned titles like weizhenfu (official charged with subjugation), zhihui qianshi (assistance commander), zhihui tongzhi (vice commander) and Zhihuishi (commander) from Sakhalin indigenous headmen. The Ming received tribute from the headmen Alingge, Tuolingha, Sanchiha and Zhaluha in 1437. The position of headman among Sakhalin indigenous peoples was inherited paternally from father to son and the sons came with their fathers to Wuliehe. Ming officials gave silk uniforms with the appropriate rank to the Sakhalin Ainu, Uilta and Nivkh after they gave tribute. The Maritime Province region had the Ming "system for subjugated peoples' implementers in it for the Sakhalin indigenous peoples. Sakhalin received iron tools from mainland Asia through this trade as Tungus groups joined in from 1456-1487. Local indigenous hierarchies had Ming Chinese given political offices integrated with them. The Ming system on Sakhalin was imitated by the Qing.
Nivkh women in Sakhalin
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...
married Han Chinese Ming officials when the Ming took tribute from Sakhalin and the Amur river region. Local Sakhalin native chiefs had their daughters taken as wives by Manchu officials as sanctioned by the Qing dynasty when the Qing exercised jurisdiction in Sakhalin and took tribute from them.
Due to Ming rule in Manchuria, Chinese cultural and religious influence such as Chinese New Year, the "Chinese god", Chinese motifs like the dragon, spirals, scrolls, and material goods like agriculture, husbandry, heating, iron cooking pots, silk, and cotton spread among the Amur natives like the Udeghes, Ulchi
Ulchsky District (russian: У́льчский райо́н) is an administrativeResolution #143-pr and municipalLaw #194 district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Khabarovsk Krai, seventeen in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is locat ...
s, and Nanais.
Tsarist Russia and Imperial Japan
For many centuries, the Nivkh were tributary to the Manchus. After the Treaty of Nerchinsk
The Treaty of Nerchinsk () of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Range and kept the area between the Argun River ...
in 1689, they functioned as intermediaries between the Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
ns, Manchu and Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, also with the Ainu who were vassals of the Japanese. Early contact with the southern Sakhalin Ainu was generally hostile, although trade between the two was apparent.
The Nivkh suffered severely from the Cossack conquest and imposition of the Tsarist Russians; they called the latter (devils). The Russian Empire gained complete control over Nivkh lands after the 1858 Treaty of Aigun
The Treaty of Aigun (Russian: Айгунский договор; ) was an 1858 treaty between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty that established much of the modern border between the Russian Far East and China by ceding much of Manchur ...
and the 1860 Convention of Peking
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amon ...
.[Kolga, pp. 269-273] The Russians established a penal colony (''katorga
Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', " galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisone ...
'') on Sakhalin, which operated from 1857 to 1906. They transported numerous Russian criminal and political exiles there, including Lev Sternberg
Lev (Chaim-Leib) Yakovlevich Sternberg (russian: Лев (Хаим-Лейб) Я́ковлевич Ште́рнберг) (, Zhitomir, Russian Empire – August 14, 1927, Dudergof, now Mozhaisky, Soviet Union) was a Russian and Soviet ethnographer ...
, an important early ethnographer of the Nivkh. The Nivkh were soon outnumbered; they were sometimes employed as prison guards and to track escaped convicts. The Nivkh suffered epidemics of smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
, and influenza, brought by the foreign immigrants and spread in the crowded, unsanitary prison environment.
Though the Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...
never controlled the northern part of Sakhalin, Japan and Russia jointly ruled the island as part of the 1855 Treaty of Shimoda
The Treaty of Shimoda (下田条約, ''Shimoda Jouyaku'') (formally Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and Russia 日露和親条約, ''Nichi-Ro Washin Jouyaku'') of February 7, 1855, was the first treaty between the Russian Empire, a ...
. From the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg until the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...
, Russia governed all of Sakhalin. From 1905 to 1945, Sakhalin was partitioned between Russia and Japan along the 50th N parallel. Russia allowed Japanese entrepreneur fishermen in Nivkh lands from the 1880s until their 1948 expulsion.[Kaminaga, p.269] The Russian Priamur Governor-Generalship had difficulty finding Russian labour and allowed Japanese and Nivkh fishermen to develop the area, though they were heavily taxed. Russian authorities prevented the Nivkh from fishing in prior coastal and river systems via bans and high taxes from cached fish. The first of many incidents of over-exploitation
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...
of fisheries by the Japanese (and later the Russians) on the Tartar Strait and lower Amur occurred in 1898. It drove many Nivkhs into starvation if they could not import expensive Russian foods.[
]
Under Soviet rule
Russia underwent the October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
forming the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in 1922. The new government altered prior Russian Imperial policies towards the Nivkh that were in line with communist ideology
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
. Soviet officials embraced the autonym ''Nivkh'' to replace the old term ''Gilyak'', as a hallmark for new native self-determination.[Shternberg and Grant, pp.184-194] A brief autonomous okrug
Autonomous okrugs ( rus, автономный округ, ''avtonomnyy okrug''; more correctly referred to as "autonomous districts" or "autonomous areas") are a type of federal subject of the Russian Federation and simultaneously an administrati ...
was created for the Nivkh. The government granted them extensive fishing rights, which were not rescinded until the 1960s.[ But, other Soviet policies proved devastating. The Nivkh were forced into mass agricultural and industrial labour ]collectives
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
called ''kolkhoz
A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...
''.[ Nivkh fishermen were difficult to convert to agricultural practices because of their belief that ploughing the earth was a sin.][ The Nivkh were soon working and living as a second-class minority group among the massive Russian labour force.][
These collectives irrevocably altered the lifestyle of the Nivkh. The traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle disappeared.][ Soviet authorities showcased the Nivkh as a 'model' nation for a culture quickly transforming from the ]Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
to a socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
industrial model. They banned the use of the Nivkh language from schools and the public square. The Russian language was mandated and russification of the Nivkh accelerated. Many Nivkh stories, beliefs, and clan ties were forgotten by new generations.[ From 1945 to 1948, many Nivkh, as well as half of the ]Oroks
Oroks (''Ороки'' in Russian; self-designation: ''Ulta, Ulcha''), sometimes called Uilta, are a people in the Sakhalin Oblast (mainly the eastern part of the island) in Russia. The Orok language belongs to the Southern group of the Tungu ...
and all of the Sakhalin Ainu, who had been living under Japanese jurisdiction in the southern half of Sakhalin, were forced to move to Japan along with the ethnic Japanese settlers. Many indigenous people would later return to the area. According to "Modern Ainu: The Romance of Ethnic Migration" (現代のアイヌ : 民族移動のロマン, by Kosuge Sugawara, 1966 under Genbunsha), these Nivkh people in Japan resided in Abashiri, Hakodate, and Sapporo.
Chuner Taksami, an anthropologist, is considered the first modern Nivkh literary figure and supporter of Siberian rights.[ In the post-Soviet Russian commonwealth of nations, the Nivkh have fared better than the Ainu or the ]Itelmens
The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language ...
, but worse than the Chukchi or the Tuvans
The Tuvans ( tyv, Тывалар, Tıvalar) are a TurkicOtto Maenchen-Helfen, Journey to Tuva, p. 169 ethnic group indigenous to Siberia who live in Russia ( Tuva), Mongolia, and China. They speak Tuvan, a Siberian Turkic language. They are a ...
. The Soviet government in 1962 resettled many of the Nivkh into fewer, denser settlements, such that Sakhalin settlements had been reduced from 82 to 13 by 1986. This relocation was accomplished via the Soviet collectives that the Nivkh had become so dependent on. The closure of state-funded amenities such as a school or electricity generator prompted citizenry to move into government-preferred settlements.[
]
After the Soviet collapse
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Kolkhoz collectives were abandoned. The Nivkh were dependent on the state-funded collectives, and with their dissolution, rapid economic hardship ensued for the already poor populace. At present, the Nivkh living in the north of Sakhalin see their future threatened by the giant offshore oil extraction projects known as Sakhalin-I
The Sakhalin-I (russian: Сахалин-1) project, a sister project to Sakhalin-II, is a consortium for production of oil and gas on Sakhalin Island and immediately offshore. It operates three fields in the Okhotsk Sea: Chayvo, Odoptu and Arku ...
and Sakhalin-II
The Sakhalin-2 (russian: Сахалин-2) project is an oil and gas development in Sakhalin Island, Russia. It includes development of the Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field and the Lunskoye natural gas field offshore Sakhalin Island in the Okhot ...
, operated by foreign Western firms. Since January 2005, the Nivkh, led by their elected leader Alexey Limanzo, have engaged in non-violent protest actions, demanding an independent ethnological assessment of Shell's and Exxon's plans. Solidarity actions have been staged in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and later in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. The monthly Nivkh newspaper, '' Nivkh Dif'', established in 1990, is published in the West-Sakhalin dialect and is headquartered in the village of Nekrasovka.
Society
Village life
The Nivkh were semi-sedentary
Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...
hunter-gatherers having summer and winter settlements. Nivkh villages consisted of 3 to 4 households shared by several families with larger villages rare, mostly located on the Amur estuary.[ Households were shared for reasons of community and survival during the harsh cold winters. Villages would last for several decades but were susceptible to floods and sometimes vanished such as the many wiped out during the devastating Amur floods of 1915 and 1968.][ Often households contained families that were not related. The village was usually composed of people from two to eight different clans, four being standard.][
In the late fall able-bodied Nivkh men would leave the villages to hunt for game in the surrounding hunting grounds whereas women would gather foods from the forests.][ Nivkh would move to winter settlements near rivers to survive the harsh snows and catch salmon spawning (see list of Nivkh settlements). The Nivkh were very hospitable, such that the Nanai located upstream on the Amur when faced with hard times would often visit or stay in Nivkh villages.][
]
Clan
Nivkh clans (''khal'') were a group of people united by marriage ties, a common derived deity, arranging marriages, and responsible for group dispute resolution. The clan is divided into three exogamous sub-clans.[Czaplicka and Collins, pp.52-54] A clan would cooperate with other members on hunts and fishing when away from the village.[ A Nivkh clan believed they had "one (common) ''akhmalk'' or ''imgi'', one fire, one mountain man, one bear, one devil, one tkhusind (ransom, or clan penalty), and one sin."][Sternberg and Grant, p.154]
Marriage
Marriage tended to be exogamic unlike many paleo-Siberian groups. Although within the clan, marriage is endogamic, while sub-clans are exogamic.[ Nivkh marriage customs were very complicated and controlled by the clan.][ Cross-cousin marriage seems to be the original custom with the clan, a latter necessity when the clan was unable to marry individuals without breaking taboo.][ The ]bride price
Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...
was probably introduced by the Neo-Siberians.[ The ]dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
was shared by the clan. The number of men generally exceeded the number of women. It was hard to gain wives, as they were few and expensive. This lead to the wealthier men having more than one wife and poor men being unable to obtain wives. The existence of a form of group marriage, which closely resembles the Punaluan marriage of the Hawaiians, had been referred to by Friedrich Engels.
Religion
Nivkh's traditional religion was based on animist beliefs, especially via shamanism, before colonial Russians made efforts to convert the population to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Nivkh animists believe the island of Sakhalin is a giant beast lying on its belly with the trees of the island as its hair. When the beast is upset, it awakens and trembles the earth causing earthquakes.[ Nivkh have a pantheon of vaguely defined gods () that presided over the mountains, rivers, seas and sky. Nivkhs' have extensive folklore, songs, and mythos of how humans and the universe were created, and of how fantastic heroes, spirits and beasts battled with each other in ancient times. Some Nivkhs have converted to Russian Orthodoxy or other religions, though many still practice traditional beliefs. Fire is especially venerated. It is the symbol of the unity of the clan. Fire is considered a deity of their ancestors, protecting them from evil spirits and guarding their clan from harm. An open flame would be "fed" a leaf of ]tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, spice
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spice ...
s, or a tipple of vodka
Vodka ( pl, wódka , russian: водка , sv, vodka ) is a clear distilled alcoholic beverage. Different varieties originated in Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impuriti ...
in order to please the spirits for protection. Nivkhs would also frequently offer items to the deities by 'feeding'. The sea would be "fed" an item of importance in order that the sea god protects the travellers.
Shamanism
Shamans' (''ch'am'') main role was in diagnosing and curing disease for the Nivkh. The rare Shamans typically wore an elaborate coat with a belt often made of metal.[Friedrich and Diamond, p.283] Remedies composed of plant and sometimes animal matter were employed to cure sickness. Talismans were used or offered to patients to prevent sickness.[ Shamans additionally functioned as a ]conduit
Conduit may refer to:
Engineering systems
* Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids
* Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables
* Conduit curre ...
to combat and ward off evil spirits that cause death. A shaman's services usually were compensated with goods, quarters and food.[
]
Bear Festival
Nivkh Shamans also presided over the Bear Festival, a traditional holiday celebrated between January and February depending on the clan. Bears were captured and raised in a corral for several years by local women, treating the bear like a child. The bear was considered a sacred earthly manifestation of Nivkh ancestors and the gods in bear form (see Bear worship). During the Festival, the bear would be dressed in a specially made ceremonial costume. It would be offered a banquet to take back to the realm of gods to show benevolence upon the clans.[Chaussonnet, pp.35,81] After the banquet, the bear would be sacrificed and eaten in an elaborate religious ceremony. Dogs were often sacrificed as well. The bear's spirit returned to the gods of the mountain 'happy' and would then reward the Nivkh with bountiful forests. The festival typically would be arranged by relatives to honour the death of a kinsman. Generally, the Bear Festival was an inter-clan ceremony where a clan of wife-takers restored ties with a clan of wife-givers upon the broken link of the kinsman's death. The Bear Festival was suppressed during Soviet occupation though the festival has had a modest revival since the decline of Soviet Union, albeit as a cultural instead of religious ceremony.
A very similar ceremony, Iomante
, sometimes written as , is an Ainu ceremony in which a brown bear is sacrificed. The word literally means "to send something/someone off". In some Ainu villages, it is a Blakiston's fish owl, rather than a bear, that is the subject of the ceremo ...
, is practiced by the Ainu people of Japan.
Environment
The Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
has a cold and harsh climate. In the fish-rich Amur River estuary in the districts of Nixhne-Amruskii and Takhtinskii, winters have high winds and heavy snows with mid-winter usually averaging from . Summers are wet and moderately warm ranging between . The area's biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
is characterized as Taiga
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...
and evergreen coniferous forest
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...
s consisting of larch
Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...
, yew, birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...
, maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
, lilac, honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Approximately 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified in both conti ...
, and extensive low-lying swamp grasses. Higher elevations have spruce, fir, ash, lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
, walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
and mountain tops have cedar and lichens. Bears, foxes, sables, hares, Siberian tiger
The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies '' Panthera tigris tigris'' native to the Russian Far East, Northeast China and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, but currently inh ...
s, elks, grouse
Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...
, and deer typical near the Amur outlet which usually floods during the rainy season.[Fitzhugh, William, and Durbreuil p.35]
Northern Sakhalin is harsher ecologically with mostly Taiga. Winters are longer, with a mean temperature of , however, short summers are warmer averaging due to warmer Pacific Ocean currents moving around the island. Heavy snows blanket the island of Sakhalin (''Yh-mif'' in Nivkh) during winter, due to monsoon winds blowing from Siberia, drawing humidity as they pass over the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, i ...
, and the Strait of Tartary. Barren tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
dominates the north, with sparse trees such as larch, birch and various grasses, while moving southward, spruce and fir are seen. Bears, fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
es, otters, lynx, and reindeer
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 sub ...
are common wildlife. The Island's major rivers are the Tym' and Poronai, rich in fish, especially salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...
. Before Russian colonization, Nivkh villages could be found on these rivers approximately every 5 km.
The Strait of Tartary is currently only wide and is shallow enough that the divide is covered by an ice bridge
An ice bridge is a frozen natural structure formed over seas, bays, rivers or lake surfaces. They facilitate migration of animals or people over a water body that was previously uncrossable by terrestrial animals, including humans. The most sig ...
during the winter that can be traversed by foot or dog-sledge. At the glacial maximum of the Ice Age, sea levels were lower than they are today. The Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
continent was connected to Sakhalin via the Strait of Tatar and Hokkaidō via the Soya Strait of which humans migrated. This connection explains the similarities of trees, plants, and animals including now extinct mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...
s. The receding ice age warmed the area allowing greater tree cover and wildlife, thus new resources for the Nivkhs to exploit. The opening of the Soya and then the shallower Strait of Tartary allowed warm pacific currents to bathe the island and the lower Amur River.
Technology
Dwellings
Nivkhs lived in two types of self-built winter dwellings. The most ancient of these was the (or ''to''). The dwelling was a round dugout about 7.5 meters (23 feet) in diameter, shored up by wooden poles and covered with packed dirt and grass.[Gall, pp.4-11] The had a fireplace in the centre and a smoke hole for light and smoke escape. The other type of dwelling used for winter is the similar to the Nanai ''dio'' which was modelled after Manchurian and Chinese dwellings of the Amur.[ The were one-room structures with a ]gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
roof and a '' kang'' (Chinese furnace) for heating.[ A nearby shed held sledges, skis, boats, and dogs.][
]
Clothing
Nivkhs traditionally wore robes (''skiy'' for men, for women) having three buttons, fastened on the left side of the body.[ Winter garments were made of skins from fish, seal, sable, and furs from otter, lynx, fox, and dog. Women's extended below the knee and were light multicoloured with intricate embroideries and various ornaments sewed on the sleeves, ]collar
Collar may refer to:
Human neckwear
*Clerical collar (informally ''dog collar''), a distinctive collar used by the clergy of some Christian religious denominations
*Collar (clothing), the part of a garment that fastens around or frames the neck
...
and hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the g ...
.[ Ornaments were coins, bells, or beads made of wood, glass, or metal mostly originating from Manchurian and Chinese traders.][ Men's ''skiy'' were darker coloured, shorter, and had pockets built into the sleeves. Men's clothing were less elaborate with ornaments on the sleeve and left ]lapel
Lapels ( ) are the folded flaps of cloth on the front of a jacket or coat (clothing), coat below the collar and are most commonly found on formal clothing and suit (clothes), suit jackets. Usually they are formed by folding over the front edges o ...
. Men would also wear a loose kilt called a ''kosk'' when hunting or travelling on dog-sledge.[ Boots were made of fish-, seal-, or deerskin, being very watertight. Fur hats (''hak'') were worn in winter, with the furry tails and ears of the animals used often adorning the back and crown of the hat. Summer hats (''hiv hak'') were conical made from birch-bark. After Soviet collectivization, Nivkh mostly wear mass-produced Western clothing, but traditional clothing is worn for holidays and cultural events.][
]
Diet
The Nivkh had a diverse diet being semi-sedentary before colonization. Fish was the main source of food for the Nivkh, including pink
Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
, Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
, and chum salmon as well as trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...
, red eye, burbot
The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish. It is also known as bubbot, mariah, loche, cusk, freshwater cod, freshwater ling, freshwater cusk, the lawyer, coney-fish, lingcod, and eelpout. The species is closel ...
and pike
Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:
Fish
* Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus''
* Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes
* ''Esox'', genus of ...
found in rivers and streams. Saltwater fishing provided saffron cod
The saffron cod ''(Eleginus gracilis)'' is a commercially harvested fish closely related to true cods (genus '' Gadus''). It is dark grey-green to brown, with spots on its sides and pale towards the belly. It may grow to 55 cm and weigh up t ...
, flatfish, and marine goby caught in the littoral
The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal a ...
coasts of the Strait of Tartary, Sea of Okhotsk, and the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
, though over fishing by Russian and Japanese trawlers has depleted many of these fish stocks. Additionally, industrial pollution such as phenols
In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of one or more hydroxyl groups (— O H) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest is phenol, . Phenolic compounds are ...
and heavy metals in the Amur River have devastated fish stocks and damaged the soil of the estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...
. There is a traditional preservation process called ', involving slicing the fish in a particular way and drying the strips by hanging them in the frigid air, without salt.[Smolyak, pp.174]
"Indigenous Peoples' Consultation Programme :Social Impact Assessment"
. Sakhalin Energy Investment Company. p.13 - ( Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document) The preservation process created a lot of dried fish waste, unpalatable for human consumption but utilized for dog food.[Smolyak, pp.174-180] Pulverizing dried fish and mixing it with fish skins, water, seal fat, and berries until the mixture had a sour cream consistency is a favorite Nivkh dish called ''mos''. Nivkhs would hunt seal ( larga, ringed, ribbon, sea lion
Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...
s), duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...
, sable, and otters. They would gather various berries, wild leeks, lily
''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...
bulbs, and nuts. Contacts with the Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
, Manchu, and Japanese from the 12th century on introduced new foods incorporated in the Nivkhs’ diet, such as salt, sugar, rice, millet, legumes and tea. Russian 19th-century colonisation introduced flour, bread, potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
es, vodka, tobacco, butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condimen ...
, canned vegetables and fruits, and other meats.[Gall, p.5]
Population genetics
Y-chromosomal DNA haplogroups
Lell ''et al.'' (2002) tested a sample of seventeen Nivkh males and found that six of them (35%) belonged to Haplogroup C-M48, six of them (35%) belonged to haplogroup P-M45
Haplogroup P1, also known as P-M45 and K2b2a, is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup in human genetics. Defined by the SNPs M45 and PF5962, P1 is a primary branch (subclade) of P (P-P295; K2b2).
The only primary subclades of P1 are Haplogroup Q (Q- ...
(x Q-M3, R-M17
Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to southern Siberia and South Asia.
While R1a originated c. 22,000 to 2 ...
), two of them (12%) belonged to haplogroup C-M130
Haplogroup C is a major Y-chromosome haplogroup, defined by UEPs M130/RPS4Y711, P184, P255, and P260, which are all SNP mutations. It is one of two primary branches of Haplogroup CF alongside Haplogroup F. Haplogroup C is found in ancient po ...
(xM48), two of them (12%) belonged to haplogroup K-M9
Haplogroup K or K-M9 is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. A sublineage of haplogroup IJK, K-M9, and its descendant clades represent a geographically widespread and diverse haplogroup. The lineages have long been found among males on every co ...
(xO-M119,O-M122,N-Tat,P-M45), and one of them (6%) belonged to haplogroup O-M119
In human genetics, Haplogroup O-M119 is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup O-M119 is a descendant branch of haplogroup O-F265 also known as O1a, one of two extant primary subclades of Haplogroup O-M175. The same clade previously has been ...
.[Jeffrey T. Lell, Rem I. Sukernik, Yelena B. Starikovskaya, Bing Su, Li Jin, Theodore G. Schurr, Peter A. Underhill, and Douglas C. Wallace, "The Dual Origin and Siberian Affinities of Native American Y Chromosomes." ''American Journal of Human Genetics'' 70:192–206, 2002.]
Tajima ''et al.'' (2004) tested a sample of twenty-one Nivkh males and found that eight of them (38%) belonged to haplogroup C-M217
}
Haplogroup C-M217, also known as C2 (and previously as C3), is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring branch of the wider Haplogroup C (M130). It is found mostly in Central Asia, Eastern Siberia and significant fre ...
, a haplogroup which is also common among Koryaks
Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...
, Itelmens
The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language ...
, Yukaghirs
The Yukaghirs, or Yukagirs ( (), russian: юкаги́ры) are a Siberian ethnic group people in the Russian Far East, living in the basin of the Kolyma River.
Geographic distribution
The Tundra Yukaghirs live in the Lower Kolyma region ...
, Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or ...
, and Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
; six (29%) belonged to haplogroup K-M9
Haplogroup K or K-M9 is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. A sublineage of haplogroup IJK, K-M9, and its descendant clades represent a geographically widespread and diverse haplogroup. The lineages have long been found among males on every co ...
( xO-M122, O-M119, P-P27), four of them (19%) belonged to haplogroup P-P27( xR-SRY10831.2), two of them (9.5%) belonged to R-SRY10831.2, and one of them (4.8%) belonged to Haplogroup BT-SRY10831.1( xC-RPS4Y711, DE-YAP, K-M9).[Atsushi Tajima, Masanori Hayami, Katsushi Tokunaga, Takeo Juji, Masafumi Matsuo, Sangkot Marzuki, Keiichi Omoto, and Satoshi Horai, "Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages." ''Journal of Human Genetics'' (2004) 49:187–193. DOI 10.1007/s10038-004-0131-x]
According to the abstract for a doctoral dissertation by Vladimir Nikolaevich Kharkov, a sample of 52 Nivkhs (Нивхи) from Sakhalin Oblast
Sakhalin Oblast ( rus, Сахали́нская о́бласть, r=Sakhalínskaya óblast', p=səxɐˈlʲinskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) comprising the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the Russian ...
(Сахалинская область) contained the following Y-DNA haplogroups: 71% (37/52) C-M217(xC-M77/M86, C-M407), 7.7% (4/52) O-M324(xO-M134), 7.7% (4/52) Q-M242(xQ-M346), 5.8% (3/52) D-M174, 3.8% (2/52) O-M175(xO-P31, O-M122), 1.9% (1/52) O-P31, and 1.9% (1/52) N-M46/M178.[KHARKOV, Vladimir Nikolaevich, "СТРУКТУРА И ФИЛОГЕОГРАФИЯ ГЕНОФОНДА КОРЕННОГО НАСЕЛЕНИЯ СИБИРИ ПО МАРКЕРАМ Y-ХРОМОСОМЫ," ''Genetika'' 03.02.07 and "АВТОРЕФЕРАТ диссертации на соискание учёной степени доктора биологических наук," Tomsk 2012](_blank)
/ref>
Mitochondrial DNA haplogroups
Torroni ''et al.'' (1993) reported collecting blood samples from 57 "unrelated and unhybridized Nivkh individuals living in Rybnovsk and Nekrasovka villages in northern Sakhalin Island."[Antonio Torroni, Rem I. Sukernik, Theodore G. Schurr, Yelena B. Starikovskaya, Margaret F. Cabell, Michael H. Crawford, Anthony G. Comuzzie, and Douglas C. Wallace, "MtDNA Variation of Aboriginal Siberians Reveals Distinct Genetic Affinities with Native Americans." ''American Journal of Human Genetics'' 53:591-608, 1993.] According to Starikovskaya ''et al.'' (2005) and Bermisheva ''et al.'' (2005), the members of this sample of Nivkhs belong to haplogroup Y (37/57 = 64.9%), haplogroup D (16/57 = 28.1%), haplogroup G1
In human genetics, Haplogroup G-M285, also known as Haplogroup G1, is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. Haplogroup G1 is a primary subclade of haplogroup G.
G1 is possibly believed to have originated in Iran. It has an extremely low frequency in modern ...
(3/57 = 5.3%), and haplogroup M(xC, Z, D, G) (1/57 = 1.8%).[Elena B. Starikovskaya, Rem I. Sukernik, Olga A. Derbeneva, ''et al.'' (2005), "Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in Indigenous Populations of the Southern Extent of Siberia, and the Origins of Native American Haplogroups." ''Annals of Human Genetics'' 69, 67-89. doi: 10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.00127.x][M. A. Bermisheva, I. A. Kutuev, V. A. Spitsyn, R. Villems, A. Z. Batyrova, T. Yu. Korshunova, and E. K. Khusnutdinova, "Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Population of Oroks." ''Russian Journal of Genetics'', Vol. 41, No. 1, 2005, pp. 66–71. Translated from ''Genetika'', Vol. 41, No. 1, 2005, pp. 78–84.]
In another sample of Nivkhs, possibly "those living on the continent" (although there appears to be an error in the original text), Bermisheva ''et al.'' (2005) have found the following mtDNA haplogroups: 67.3% (37/55) haplogroup Y, 25.5% (14/55) haplogroup G, 3.6% (2/55) haplogroup D, 1.8% (1/55) haplogroup M(xC, Z, D, G), and 1.8% (1/55) haplogroup N or R(xA, B, F, Y).
According to Duggan ''et al.'' (2013), the members of a sample of 38 Nivkhs collected in northern Sakhalin belonged to haplogroup Y1a (25/38 = 65.8%), haplogroup D4m2 (10/38 = 26.3%), and haplogroup G1b (3/38 = 7.9%).[Duggan AT, Whitten M, Wiebe V, Crawford M, Butthof A, ''et al.'' (2013), "Investigating the Prehistory of Tungusic Peoples of Siberia and the Amur-Ussuri Region with Complete mtDNA Genome Sequences and Y-chromosomal Markers." ''PLoS ONE'' 8(12): e83570. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083570] One identical Y1a haplotype was shared by eight Nivkh individuals, another Y1a haplotype was shared by six Nivkh individuals, and two other Y1a haplotypes were shared by three Nivkh individuals each, indicating a low genetic diversity of this population. Likewise, one identical D4m2 haplotype was shared by four Nivkh individuals, another D4m2 haplotype was shared by two Nivkh individuals, and a third D4m2 haplotype was shared by two or three Nivkh individuals and a Northeast Yakut individual. The authors also have found Haplogroup Y1a in 13.3% (2/15) of Berezovka Evens, 12.5% (3/24) of Taimyr Evenks, 6.5% (2/31) of Udegeys, 2.6% (1/39) of Kamchatka Evens, and 2.3% (2/88) of Central Yakuts, and they have noted that other studies have reported finding this haplogroup in high frequency in the Ulchi and Negidal, in 9%-10% of Koryaks and eastern Evenks, as well as in low frequency in Central and Vilyuy Yakuts. Besides the Nivkhs, the authors also have found mtDNA that belongs to haplogroup D4m2 in 8.7% (2/23) Sakkyryyr Evens, 3.7% (1/27) Tompo Evens, and 3.1% (1/32) Northeast Yakuts, with the Northeast Yakut individual sharing an identical haplotype with several of the Nivkhs. The authors have noted that mtDNA sequences that belong to the same branch of haplogroup D have been found in Evenks, Evens, Yukaghirs, and South Siberian Buryats and Turkic speakers, and another study has reported one instance of D4m2 in a sample of 154 Dolgans
Dolgans (; Dolgan: , , (Sakha); Yakut: ) are an ethnic group who mostly inhabit Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. They are descended from several groups, particularly Evenks, one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. They adopted a Tur ...
.[Sardana A Fedorova, Maere Reidla, Ene Metspalu, ''et al.'', "Autosomal and uniparental portraits of the native populations of Sakha (Yakutia): implications for the peopling of Northeast Eurasia." ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' 2013, 13:127. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/13/127] As for G1b, the other mtDNA haplogroup found among Nivkhs, Duggan ''et al.'' (2013) also have found it in their samples of Kamchatka Evens (6/39 = 15.4%), Koryaks (2/15 = 13.3%), Yukaghirs (2/20 = 10.0%), Iengra Evenks (2/21 = 9.5%), and Tompo Evens (1/27 = 3.7%), and they have cited Starikovskaya ''et al.'' (2005) as evidence for their statement that haplogroup G1 is also common in the Negidal. According to YFull and Dryomov ''et al.'' (2020), two members of haplogroup G1b from the Nivkh sample of Duggan ''et al.'' (2013) belong to G1b-G16129A!*, whereas the remaining member of haplogroup G1b from that sample belongs to G1b1a-G16244A.[YFull MTree 1.02.8526 as of 31 March 2021](_blank)
/ref>[Stanislav V. Dryomov, Elena B. Starikovskaya, Azhar M. Nazhmidenova, ''et al.'' (2020), "Genetic legacy of cultures indigenous to the Northeast Asian coast in mitochondrial genomes of nearly extinct maritime tribes." ''BMC Evolutionary Biology'' (2020) 20:83. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-020-01652-1]
М. А. Gubina ''et al.'' (2013) examined the mitochondrial DNA of a sample of seventeen Nivkhs from the village of Nogliki, Nogliksky District, Sakhalin Oblast and found that they belonged to haplogroup Y (8/17 = 47.1%, all Y1a+T16189C!), haplogroup D (3/17 = 17.6%, including 2/17 D4e5b and 1/17 D4j4a), haplogroup G (3/17 = 17.6%, including 2/17 G1b1-16207 and 1/17 G1b1a-16244), haplogroup H (2/17 = 11.8%), and haplogroup U5 (1/17 = 5.9%).[М. А. Gubina, L. А. Gyrgolkay, V. N. Babenko, ''et al.'' (2013), "Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphism in Populations of Aboriginal Residents of the Far East." ''Genetika'', 2013, Vol. 49, No. 7, p. 862–876.] Besides the Western Eurasian influence apparent in the presence of haplogroups H and U5 among Nivkhs of Nogliki, it is also notable that there is no overlap between the Nivkh samples of Duggan ''et al.'' (2013) and Gubina ''et al.'' (2013) in regard to the subclades of haplogroups D4 and G1b to which they belong except for a single member of G1b1a-G16244A in each sample.
Notable Nivkhs
* Chiyo Nakamura (1906–1969), Japanese Nivkh writer
* Chuner Taksami (1931–2014), Russian Nivkh ethnographer
* Vladimir Sangi
Vladimir Mikhailovich Sangi ( rus, links=no, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Санги́, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ sɐnˈɡʲi; 18 March 1935) is a Nivkh writer and publicist from Russia. He writes in Nivkh and Russia ...
(b. 1935), Russian Nivkh writer, publicist
* Alexey Limanzo, President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of North Sakhalin Region
See also
* List of Nivkh settlements
* Ainu
*Itelmen
The Itelmens ( Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langu ...
*Koryaks
Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...
* Chukchis
References
Citations
Sources
* Bassett, Elizabeth (retrieved Nov. 2007
Gilyak (Nivkh) Culture
- Minnesota State University, Mankato
Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU, MSU, or Minnesota State) is a public university in Mankato, Minnesota, United States. It is Minnesota's second-largest university and has over 123,000 living alumni worldwide. Founded in 1868, it is ...
- EMuseum
*Black, Lydia (1973) ''Nivkh (Gilyak) of Sakhalin and the Lower Amur''. Arctic Anthropology. Volume 10 No.1, 110p.
*Chaussonnet, Valerie (1995) ''Native Cultures of Alaska and Siberia''. Arctic Studies Center. Washington, D.C. 112p.
*Czaplicka, Marya Antonina and Collins, David (1999) ''The Collected Works of M. A. Czaplicka, 1st Edition''. RoutledgeCurzon. 1600p.
*Fitzhugh, William, and Durbreui (1999) ''Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People''. Washington, D.C.: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
, Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
and University of Washington Press
The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, they have worked to assist the universi ...
. 415p.
*Friedrich and Diamond (1994) ''Encyclopedia of World Cultures: Russia and Eurasia- China. Volume 6''. G.K.Hall and Company. Boston, Massachusetts.
*Gall, Timothy L. (1998) ''Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life'':Nivkhs. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Inc. 2100p.
*Kaminaga, Eisuke (2007) ''Maritime History and Imperiology Japan's "Northern Fisheries" and the Priamur Governor-Generalship''. Slavic Research Center
*Kolga, Margus (200
''The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire''
NGO Red Book. Tallinn, Estonia 399p
*Kuzmin, Vasilevski, Gorbunov, Burr, Jull, Orlova Shubina (2004
''Chronology of Prehistoric Cultural Complexes of Sakhalin Island''
Radiocarbon, Vol 46. Nr. 1. University of Arizona
*Mattissen, Johanna (2001) ''Facts about the World's Languages''. New England Publishing. 896p.
*Mote, Victor L. (1998) ''Siberia: Worlds Apart''. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 258p.
*Reid, Anna (2003) ''The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia''. New York, New York: Walker & Company. 224p.
*Shiraishi, Hidetoshi. (2006) Chapter 1
''Topics in Nivkh Phonology''
- University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...
. - ( Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document)
* Shternberg, Lev Iakovlevich and Bruce Grant. (1999
''The Social Organization of the Gilyak''
New York: American Museum of Natural History. Seattle: University of Washington Press
The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, they have worked to assist the universi ...
. 280 pages.
* Smolyak, A. V. (2001) ''Traditional Principles of Natural Resources Use among Indigenous Peoples of the Lower Amur River''. Journal of Legal Pluralism, Num. 46. .
*
Further reading
* Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, and Brian Reeve. (1993) ''A Journey to Sakhalin''. Cambridge: Ian Faulkner.
*Grant, Bruce (1995) ''In the Soviet House of Culture''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
.
* Taksami, Ch. M (1967) ''Nivkhi: Sovremennoe Khoziaistvo, Kul'tura i Byt.'' he Nivkhs: Contemporary Economy, Culture, and Way of Life Leningrad: Nauka
External links
Nivkhs National Community
The Nivkhs
from The Red Book
Norwegian Polar Institute article
Sound Materials of the Nivkh Language
The World's Largest Sound Archive of the Nivkh Language on the Web
{{Authority control
Ethnic groups in Siberia
Ethnic groups in Japan
Indigenous peoples of North Asia
History of Northeast Asia
Sakhalin
Khabarovsk Krai
Sakhalin Oblast
Fishing communities in Russia
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
Ethnic groups in Russia