The Koibal are one of the subdivisions of the
Khakass people of Southern Siberia. Although they speak the Turkic
Khakas language
Khakas (also known as Xakas, endonym: хакас тілі, ''khakas tįlį'', тадар тілі, ''tadar tįlį'') is a Turkic language spoken by the Khakas people, who mainly live in the southwestern Siberian Khakas Republic, in Russia. The ...
, the Koibal have mixed ancestry and used to speak the
Kamas language
Kamassian () is an extinct Samoyedic language. It is included by convention in the Southern group together with Mator and Selkup (although this does not constitute a subfamily). The last native speaker of Kamassian, Klavdiya Plotnikova, died ...
, which is now extinct. They formed in the late 19th century from the merger of the
Abugach The Abugach or, to the Russians, ''Abugachaevtsy'', were a people from the region around the Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙа ...
,
Baikot, Kandyk, Tarazhak, Kol and Arsh peoples. Most of these people are believed to have been of ancestry more closely related to
Samoyedic peoples
The Samoyedic people (also Samodeic people)''Some ethnologists use the term 'Samodeic people' instead 'Samoyedic', see are a group of closely related peoples who speak Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguis ...
than to Turkics. Koibals live in the
Beysky District
Beysky District (russian: Бе́йский райо́н; Khakas: , ''Pii aymağı'') is an administrativeLaw #20 and municipalLaw #60 district (raion), one of the eight in the Republic of Khakassia, Russia. It is located in the east of the republi ...
of Khakassia
Prior to the rise of Communism the Koibal were officially Russian Orthodox. However they had retained many
Shamanist
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
and
Animist customs.
References
Sources
* Wixman, Ronald. ''The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook''. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1984) p. 109.
{{authority control
Ethnic groups in Russia
Khakas