The Kumandins (natively, Kumandy, Kuvandy(g)) are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia. They reside mainly in the

Altai Krai Altai Krai (russian: Алта́йский край, r=Altaysky kray, p=ɐlˈtajskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar Region), Novosibirsk an ...

and

Altai Republic The Altai Republic (; russian: Респу́блика Алта́й, Respublika Altay, ; Altai: , ''Altay Respublika''), also known as Gorno-Altai Republic, and colloquially, and primarily referred to in Russian to distinguish from the neighbour ...

of the

Russian Federation 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 ...

. They speak the Northern Altai Kumandin language. According to the 1926 census, 6,335 Kumandins lived within the territory of Russia. In the 2010 census, the number was only 2,892, but possibly the 1926 census included some related peoples. Some Kumandins, living on the banks of the Biya River, from the Kuu River downstream, almost to the city of

Biysk Biysk ( rus, Бийск, p=bʲijsk) is a city in Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Biya River not far from its confluence with the Katun River. It is the second largest city of the krai (after Barnaul, the administrative center of the krai). Popu ...

, and along the lower course of the river

Katun River The Katun (, ''Katuń''; , ''Kadın'') is a river in the Altai Republic and the Altai Krai of Russia. It forms the Ob as it joins the Biya some southwest of Biysk.

, by 1969 were conflated with the

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

population. In the Soviet years and until 2000, the authorities considered the Kumandins to be part of the

Altai people The Altai people ( alt, Алтай-кижи, Altai-kizhi), also the Altaians ( alt, Алтайлар, Altailar), are a Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia. Several thousand of the Alta ...

. Currently, according to the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 255 dated March 24, 2000, as well as

Russian Census (2002) The Russian Census of 2002 (russian: Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2002 го́да) was the first census of the Russian Federation since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, carried out on October 9 through ...

, they are recognized as a separate ethnic group within

indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East The indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East (russian: коренные малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока) is a Russian census classification of indi ...

. For ethnic rights protection was established the "Association of the Kumandin People Revival".

Origins

Omeljan Pritsak Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Har ...

claimed that ''kuman-'' in the name of the Kumandins is identical in meaning to the names given to the

Turkic people The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose memb ...

, ''

Cumans The Cumans (or Kumans), also known as Polovtsians or Polovtsy (plural only, from the Russian exonym ), were a Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. After the Mongol invasion (1237), many so ...

''-Kipchaks and '' Polovets'' (a Slavic term for

). However, the (tribes) of the Kumandins have varying origin myths; L. Potapov proposed that they were originally a federation of peoples from different backgrounds: nomadic

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate gras ...

pastoralists (such as the

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, sp ...

hunters ( Chuvash), deer pastoralists ( Nenets), and fishers (

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different Turki ...

). By the 17th century, the Kumandins lived along the river

Charysh The Charysh (russian: Чарыш; alt, Чарас, ''Çaras'') is a river in south-western Siberia in Russia, flowing into the left bank of the Ob.Ob. A subsequent relocation to the Altai was driven by their unwillingness to pay ''

yasak ''Yasak'' or ''yasaq'', sometimes ''iasak'', (russian: ясак; akin to Yassa) is a Turkic word for "tribute" that was used in Imperial Russia to designate fur tribute exacted from the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Origin The origins of yasa ...

'' (financial tribute) to the Russian sovereign. N. Aristov linked the Kumandins – and the

Chelkans The Chelkans (native name—''Chalkandu, Shalkandu'') are a small group of Turkic indigenous people of Siberia. They speak the Northern Altai Chelkan language. Those residing in Altai Republic are sometimes grouped together with the Altai ethnic ...

– to the ancient Turks, "who in the 6th-8th CC AD created in

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

a powerful nomadic state, which received ... the name Turkic Kaganate". Potapov regarded the Kumandins as being related anthropologically to the peoples of the Urals, and suggested that they were less

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

n than the Altaians proper. This subjective impression has been borne out to an extent by genetic research (see below). Six have been identified: An ancient Turkic legend recorded in the Chinese annal (

Book of Zhou The ''Book of Zhou'' (''Zhōu Shū'') records the official history of the Xianbei-led Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties of China, and ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. Compiled by the Tang dynasty histori ...

周書, 636 CE) mentions the origin of the Göktürks' ancestors from a possession or state named ''Suǒ'' (索國; MC: *''sak̚-kwək̚''), located "north of the Xiongnu country" (which, in this case, apparently meant Mongolia). The name of the Ton is explained as an ethnonym that reflects their economic specialization, as a word meaning "deer" and "reindeer breeder". The remote ancestors of this Kumandy Ton were reindeer breeders, reflected in Kumandy hunting legends and fairy tales, for example about milking deer (which is attributed to the Kumandy's mountain spirits). The memory about breeding and milking reindeer belongs to some remote historical ancestors of a part of Kumandy; they can be explained by participation in the Kumandy ethnogenesis of the southern Nenets tribes, who cultivated riding deer, typically used not only for transport but also for food and dress.

Genetics

Genetically, the Kumandins are different from the neighboring

, into which they were tried to be included in the Soviet years. They are genetically isolated not only from the southern, but also from the northern Altaians. This is evidenced by the complete absence of the variants of the

Y chromosome The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abs ...

haplogroup A haplotype is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent, and a haplogroup (haploid from the el, ἁπλοῦς, ''haploûs'', "onefold, simple" and en, group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share ...

s—R1a and Q—which are absolutely dominant in Altai. At the same time, the haplogroup

R1b Haplogroup R1b (R-M343), previously known as Hg1 and Eu18, is a human Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in Western Europe, as well as some parts of Russia (e.g. the Bashkirs) and pockets of Central ...

is widespread within them, and except for the Kumandins themselves, no one in Altai has found it in any quantity. By genetic research suggesting that most Kumandin males belong to

Y-DNA The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...

haplogroups that are generally found in populations further to the west, such as

(although the Kumandins belong to R1b-M73 rather than R1b-M269, the latter being the subclade to which a majority of Europeans belong) and N-P43 have remarked that, in fact, Chelkans and Kumandins have N-P43 Y chromosomes very similar to ones found in the Ugric-speaking Khanty). However, a majority of

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...

lines belonged to the

North East Asia Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical subregion of Asia; its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the Pacific Ocean. The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by American historian and political scienti ...

n haplogroups C or D with also a large minority of west Eurasian lineages such as U5a1 (5/52), H8 (3/52), U4b1b (2/52), X2e (2/52), and T1a (1/52).

Culture

The Kumandins were originally hunters and animals living in the taiga were vital to the local subsistence economy. Around the 19th century, Kumandins took up picking cedar nuts as an additional economic activity. The traditional dwellings of the Kumandins included polygonal yurts made out of bark or log and topped with a conic bark roof. Other types of dwellings also included conic yurts made out of bark or perches. Traditional Kumandin dress included short breeches, linen shirts, and single-breasted robes.

Religion

Most modern Kumandins are Orthodox Christians, but

shamanism 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 spiri ...

and Burkhanism is also practiced by some.

References

External links

Genetic research into the Kumandins
{{Authority control Turkic peoples of Asia Nomadic groups in Eurasia Ethnic groups in Siberia Indigenous peoples of North Asia Indigenous peoples of Russia Indigenous peoples of the Altai Republic Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East