Presentation on the topic: “Small nationalities of the Sakhalin region. Three main ethnic groups lived on Sakhalin: Nivkhs, mainly in the north of the island, Oroks (Ulta) in the central.”

Sakhalin, where small peoples - Nivkhs, Uilta (Oroks), Evenks and Nanais - have lived since ancient times, is the cradle of the culture of the region's aborigines, who created original decorative and applied arts. Like all folk art, it was born from the need to make everyday things and the desire to combine functionality and beauty in them. The peoples of Sakhalin, hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders, creating clothes, utensils, and tools, reflected their worldview in decorative language and informed them about life and economy.

In the 60s and 70s, due to the resettlement of the Sakhalin aborigines to large settlements and their separation from traditional fishing grounds, the custom that made folk art obligatory gradually became a thing of the past. The spread of Russian-style clothing leads to the gradual extinction of traditional folk costume. Active labor and social activities are replacing labor-intensive handicrafts. It seemed to be on the verge of extinction. However, the craving for traditional art continued to persist, acquiring new forms of modern life. Regularly held traditional holidays of the peoples of the North, accompanied by exhibitions of decorative and applied arts, contributed to the restoration of interest in national art. Products of these years largely lose their purpose of serving everyday household needs and are perceived as artistic values, satisfying aesthetic needs.

In the 70s, state-owned specialized enterprises for the production of artistic products and souvenirs were created in the cities and towns of Sakhalin. Folk craftsmen from the city of Poronaysk, the villages of Nogliki, Nekrasovka, Viakhtu and the village of Val were involved in this activity. The range of artistic products and souvenirs produced by these enterprises includes products made from deer skins, kamus, seal skins, rovduga and other natural materials.

The beginning of the collapse of the economy associated with the restructuring of the Soviet Union also affected these enterprises. Transformed into national specialized enterprises in 1989, they suffered losses due to exorbitant taxes and lack of markets and gradually ceased to exist. At present, the modern applied art of the peoples of the North of Sakhalin is largely amateur in nature, although it tends to develop into national professional decorative and applied art. Now only a few masters are trying to preserve traditional art. Among them, Uiltka Ogawa Hatsuko (1926 - 1998), Nanayk Nina Dokimbuvna Beldy (1925 - 2002), Nivkhki Olga Anatolyevna Nyavan (born 1915), Lidia Demyanovna Kimova (born 1939), Uiltka Veronica Vladimirovna Osipova (born 1966) stand out. , Nivkhs Valery Yakovlevich Yalin (born 1943), Fedor Sergeevich Mygun (born 1962) and others.

The Nanai craftswoman N.D. Beldy was gifted with all the talents, she was fluent in playing traditional instruments: a harp, a tambourine, a shaman's belt, she kept in her memory many original Nanai songs, mastered the art of improvisation, and herself composed works in the national spirit. Her singing style was so original that recordings of songs performed by her were used by other Nanai groups. For example, the Nanai ensemble “Givana” from the Khabarovsk Territory used songs performed by her in the fairy tale play “Ayoga”. The first laureate of the Governor's Prize (1999), she immediately declared herself as a great artist with an innate sense of color, compositional flair, as a master who masters not only national technical and artistic techniques, but also an expert in national artistic and aesthetic traditions. Nivkh master L. D. Kimova began to engage in national art already in adulthood. Studying the originals and copying them, Lidia Demyanovna gradually mastered almost all the materials and traditional types of Nivkh women’s artistic creativity.

V. Ya. Yalin stands out among Sakhalin woodcarvers with his special talent, high artistic taste, steady hand and natural intuitive sense. The spoons carved by V. Yalin for the exhibition in 2000 are distinguished by their rich ornamentation and complexity of handle profiles. Variations in the shapes of handles and ornaments - the individual creativity of the master was manifested here with great completeness.

The collection of the Sakhalin Regional Art Museum, numbering more than 100 items, was created over the last decade. Collected thanks to targeted funding by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation for the project “To the Origins. Aborigines of Sakhalin" and supported by the company "Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Ltd", it characterizes the state of modern decorative and applied art of the peoples of the North of Sakhalin. The museum's collection well represents the festive clothing of the peoples of Sakhalin, the decor of which seems to close the clothing, creating a special microcosm, which is usually what any national costume is.

The national costume occupies a significant place in the work of the Nivkh master L. D. Kimova. In it she reached special heights, becoming a recognized master of folk costume. It was in this capacity that she was invited to work on the film “The Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea.” Festive women's robes, men's shirts and other items made by her are in museums across the country and abroad. What is most striking in her works is the color harmony, exquisite selection of fabrics, thoughtfulness of color and shape of additional details. Among the festive robes of Lydia Demyanovny Kimova, of particular interest is a robe made on Nivkh motifs from fish skin with an ornamented back, dressed in which a Nivkh woman dances to the sounds of a musical log at a bear festival. The craftswoman sewed a robe from white wool and embroidered an ornament on the back, the image of which is based on an attempt to artistically comprehend the nature of her native land. Lidia Demyanovna realized her long-standing dream of creating a series of traditional Nivkh clothes by making a collection of dolls in Nivkh clothes.

Among them, the hunter-archer in a seal skirt stands out with the exotic beauty of his outfit. Everything here is ethnographically accurate, from skis lined with seal fur, short seal high boots tied at the ankle, to a seal skirt with a belt and a sheath and a flint bag suspended from it.

The ornaments of the Nanai robe of N.D. Belda are bright, the arrangement of patterns is dense. The scaly pattern on the back of the robe, the cut-out appliqué, braid and piping along the edges of the robe emphasize its festive purpose.

Each Far Eastern craftswoman had a supply of various preparations for decorating clothes. It took a lot of time to decorate a thing with an ornament, embroidered or applique, so they prepared for sewing festive and wedding robes in advance. In the museum’s collection there are such blanks for a robe by the oldest Nivkh craftswoman O. A. Nyavan with exquisite graphic patterns. In addition to robes, the museum collections also include another type of clothing - a dress for Uilta women, complete with an elegant bib, headdress and handbag for needlework. This costume was recreated by a group of Uilta women from the North of Sakhalin in 1994 and made by a young craftswoman Veronica Osipova from the village of Nogliki.

The only item of the Sakhalin Evenki in the museum’s collection is the “Avsa” handbag, sewn from deer kamus and suede. The main decoration of the bag is a semi-oval suede plate at the top of the bag, embroidered with deer hair and decorated with white round plates with red beads in the center. Tassels of white and dark fur are inlaid into the semicircular edge of the plate, giving it a festive, elegant look.

No less beautiful is the ulta pouch made of light seal fur by Ogawa Hatsuko. Its shape is traditional - a pouch, slightly tapering towards the top. Nivkh pouch - author Kimova L.D. - is sewn from alternating light and dark strips of fish skin. On the golden and dark gray surface of the pouch, red inserts and preserved traces of scales look very decorative.

In the manufacture of footwear among the peoples of Sakhalin, in addition to other materials, rovduga was widely used, obtained by soaking reindeer skin in water, then removing the wool from it and smoking it. On the children's chests made by Ogawa Hatsuko from this material, the embroidered pattern of their two paired spirals and images reminiscent of a jumping frog attracts attention.

The carpets of the peoples of the North of Sakhalin are distinguished by a wide variety of materials and techniques used. Uilta craftsmen sew them from deer skins and inlay them with white (protective) deer fur. Ogawa Hatsuko's rug (ulta) is sewn from pieces of golden seal skin.

The Nivkhs have long been famous for the art of wood carving. The custom of artistic carving of wooden products, which has lost its popularity, is preserved on Sakhalin by individual craftsmen, who from time to time turn to it to make a traditional gift, still valued among the Nivkhs, to participate in exhibitions or to perform a ritual ceremony. The main part of the museum collection consists of carved wooden utensils: ritual ladles and spoons. The shapes of the buckets are predominantly trough-shaped. Most of them traditionally have opposing handles of different configurations. The carved designs decorating them are different on each handle. The predominant element of the rich ornamentation on the ladles is a curved ribbon, intricately intertwined, in places turning into spirals and curls, or illusorily going deeper. F. Mygun complements the ribbon ornament with simple cuts or fills the background space between the intertwining ribbons with small carved figures. It is interesting that Fyodor Mygun came to Nivkh carving through Russian culture. Graduated from the Abramtsevo Art and Industrial School, wood carving department. In Nivkh carving he uses a special Bogorodsk knife, which has long been used by Russian folk craftsmen.

Other ladles are decorated with spirals, and there is also a carved chain ornament, sometimes turning into a twisted rope. Most ladles, dishes and spoons are traditionally soaked in seal oil, which gives them a beautiful yellow color.

Currently, only a few Nivkh craftsmen carve sculptures from wood. Marina Kavozg is a hereditary woodcarver. This author is represented in the museum’s collection by five sculptures made of wood of a cult nature, in which, according to the ideas of the peoples of the Far East, “spirits” lived. In the plastic characteristics of the images of the “mistress of the mountain and water”, as well as in the amulets, their semantics seems to be confirmed: on the chest of the “mistress of the water” there is a relief image of a fish, the “mistress of the mountain” has a protrusion on her head resembling a hill (hill), and on her head figurine depicting a spirit causing headaches - a raised growth-protrusion. In amulets against heart disease there is even more: an image of the diseased organ - the heart - is given.

The museum's collection also includes wooden toys. A. Voksin’s very expressive “Ducks” are shaped like the traditional “Dog” toy. After removing the bark, he painted them with spiral patterns, which were traditionally carved into the bark. These conventional figures, where only the most characteristic features are sparingly revealed, resemble iconic sculptures.

In the past, birch bark was also widely used in the economy of the peoples of the Amur region and Sakhalin. The basket of Sakhalin craftswoman Ogawa Hatsuko demonstrates the traditional form of birch bark products, made from one piece of birch bark. The Nivkh birch bark ladle (Sakhalin, 1980s) amazes with its sophistication and unusual design of clearly ethnic origin. We admire the thoughtfulness and variety of decorative details in the design of the birch bark body of the musical instrument - tynryn - Nivkh violin (property of the regional museum of local lore). Here, not only different shades of birch bark are used as decorative means, not only figured stripes along the edge of the cylinder, but even the height of the stitch that sews them and echoes the wavy edge of these strips. Everything is complemented by an embossed ornament on the body and an original selection of the color of fish skin, which covers the upper part of the body (from the belly of a sea goby). Only L.D. Kimova makes functioning tynryns on Sakhalin. The exquisite seam along the edge of a small tueska of her own work resembles a sprouting twig, vibrantly and naturally entering and exiting the holes on the strip holding the top of the tueska together.

In the work of folk craftsmen in the last decade, embroidery has begun to stand out as an independent art form (L. D. Kimova. Triptych panel “Swan Girl” - the property of SOKM; Ogawa Hatsuko. Panel “Deer”), which previously played an auxiliary role: sew on an applique ornament or traditionally decorate the edges of festive national clothing with ornaments. When creating an embroidered picture, the craftsmen used national decorative stitches. Acquaintance with Russian culture, with the achievements in the art of other nationalities of Sakhalin (in particular, with the art of the Evenki master Semyon Nadein), and the passion of a creative person led Ogawa Hatsuko to create a story-based work. Using traditional techniques and patterns, she embroidered the “Deer” panel rug. With naive spontaneity, the rug depicts a gray deer with a block around its neck, a green outline of Sakhalin at its feet, reminiscent of a thick-lipped fish (Semyon Nadein has the image of a deer-island), and two brown-green trees on the sides. There are many deviations from the rules of professional art, in particular, the image of the deer as the most important thing in the plot is given in much larger sizes than the trees, and this does not bother the artist at all. The naivety of the visual language and the spontaneity of the content attract the viewer.

In modern decorative and applied art of the peoples of Sakhalin, there is the emergence of separate trends in the artistic processing of fish skin, based on a folk basis and therefore having a local originality. Young Nivkh artist Natalia Pulus constantly turns to fish skin, making small narrative or ornamental panels using the appliqué technique. Veronika Osipova has a unique technique of painting with ink on fish skin, who creates decorative paintings-panels with it. A bearer of the Sakhalin Uilta culture, she introduces ethnographic details into the drawing, giving the product a national identity. Nivkh master L. D. Kimova, combining various natural shades of fish skin color, enriching them with new content, creates unique things: beads, handbags, collages. When making the collage “Keraf - the summer home of the Nivkhs,” Lidia Demyanovna not only uses different shades of skin color of different breeds of fish, but also smokes it, cuts it into pieces, crumbles it, and then makes images from them.

Considering the products of modern folk craftsmen, it can be noted that the ancient cultural tradition is not static. It is constantly evolving in the interrelationship of old and new. Increasingly, craftsmen are decorating modern things with traditional patterns: cosmetic bags, newspaper cases, covers for banquettes and pillowcases, etc.

And yet, a review of the products of Sakhalin craftsmen of the last decade shows a not entirely favorable situation with the art of indigenous and small peoples on the island. The museum's collection practically does not represent the DPI of the Sakhalin Evenks. The average age of folk craftsmen is 55 - 60 years. Old masters who know and remember the cultural traditions of their people are leaving. Along with the preservation of traditional types of decorative and applied art and the emergence of new ones, losses are also noted in Sakhalin folk art. Wicker weaving has disappeared, and the production of birch bark products has begun to disappear, although some older representatives of these nationalities still possess the skills of birch bark art.

At present, when folk art is no longer vital, it is very difficult to work on its revival and preservation. Studying various artistic crafts is one of the most effective forms of familiarization with traditional national culture. In order for the art, which was and is owned by representatives of the older and middle generations of Sakhalin masters, to be studied and assimilated by young people, it was necessary to organize the transfer of ancient skills to future generations.

But despite the fact that from the 60-70s, Nivkh and Uilt children began to be introduced to national arts and crafts in labor lessons in secondary schools, where they were fully supported by the state, only a few mastered traditional wood carving techniques and learned embroidery, processing of seal and fish skin. The departments of decorative and applied arts of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin organized in the 90s in children's art schools located in areas where artistic crafts are especially developed, and the technological lyceum in the city of Poronaysk, also helped little. Since 2002, at the Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers of the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, there has been a department of additional education under the program “DPI and folk crafts of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin”.

And although we understand that the loss of any element of the traditional heritage of indigenous peoples is a tragedy for the entire world culture, we are probably no longer able to prevent its leveling. But there is no doubt that the best ethnic traditions, if they are truly significant and valuable in a spiritual and aesthetic sense, can and should enrich modern folk arts and crafts and professional art.

Alexandra MARAMZINA

Maramzina Alexandra Mikhailovna, head of the decorative and applied arts sector of the Sakhalin Regional Art Museum, where she has worked since 1985. Interests: decorative and applied arts and folk art.

People in the Russian Federation. The indigenous population of the lower reaches of the Amur River (Khabarovsk Territory) and about. Sakhalin. The Nivkh language belongs to the Paleo-Asian languages. Number of people: 4631 people.

Nivkhs are a people in the Russian Federation. Settled in the northern part of Sakhalin Island and in the Tym River basins (more than 2 thousand people), as well as on the Lower Amur (2386 people).

The total number is 4631 people. They belong to the Central Asian type of the North Asian race of the large Mongoloid race. Together with the Chukchi, Koryaks and other peoples of the Northeast, they belong to the group of Paleo-Asians. Self-name - nivkhgu (person). The old name is Gilyak. This ethnonym was widely used until the 30s of the 20th century. Some of the old Nivkhs still call themselves Gilyaks. In addition to the Nivkhs, the Russians also called the Ulchi, the Negidals, and some of the Evenks Gilyaks.

They speak the Nivkh language, which has two dialects: Amur and East Sakhalin. The Nivkh language, together with Ket, belongs to the isolated languages. The Russian language is widely spoken. In 1989, only 23.3% of Nivkhs called the Nivkh language their native language. The writing was created in 1932 on the basis of the Latin alphabet, and in 1953 it was translated into Russian graphics.

Nivkhs are direct descendants of the ancient population of Sakhalin and the lower reaches of the Amur. In the past they settled over a much wider area. The settlement area of ​​the Nivkhs extended to the Uda basin, as evidenced by toponymy data, archaeological materials and historical documents. There is a point of view that the ancestors of modern Nivkhs, northeastern Paleo-Asians, Eskimos and American Indians are links of one ethnic chain that in the distant past covered the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean. The modern ethnic appearance of the Nivkhs was greatly influenced by their ethnocultural contacts with the Tungus-Manchu peoples, the Ainu and the Japanese.

The first Russian explorers (I. Moskvitin and others) first met the Nivkhs in the first half of the 17th century. During his Amur voyage, V. Poyarkov imposed tribute on the Amur Nivkhs. The number of Nivkhs in the 17th century. the Russians estimated 5,700 people. In the second half of the 17th century. Direct contacts between the Russians and the Nivkhs were interrupted and were resumed only in the mid-19th century, when the Amur expedition of G. Nevelsky annexed Sakhalin to Russia. In the mid-19th century, the Nivkhs retained remnants of the primitive communal system and clan division. They had an Iroquoian type of kinship system. Members of each genus had a common generic name. The clan performed the functions of self-government and consisted of large-family communities and individual families. The clan was exogamous. The classic form of marriage is marrying the mother's brother's daughter. Each clan had its own territory. And now all Nivkh families well remember their clan names and territories that belonged to their clans. Russian colonization of Sakhalin and the lower reaches of the Amur had a serious impact on the socio-economic and cultural life of the Nivkhs. An intensive disintegration of the clan organization begins. Some Nivkhs are drawn into commodity-money relations, new types of economic activities appear - livestock breeding, agriculture, commercial fishing, and latrine trades. Many elements of Russian material culture became widespread. Missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church were active. By the end of the 19th century. All Amur Nivkhs were baptized, but the ideas of Christianity did not have a significant impact on their consciousness.

The main branches of the Nivkh economy are fishing and marine fishing. Land hunting and gathering were of secondary importance. A particularly important role in the life of the Nivkhs was the fishing for anadromous salmon - pink salmon and chum salmon, which were caught in large quantities and from which yukola was prepared for the winter. They caught fish with seines, nets, hooks and various traps.

Sea animals (nerpa, seals, beluga whales) were caught with nets made of leather straps, traps and a special tool - a long, smooth harpoon. They hunted fish and sea animals all year round. In winter, fish were caught under the ice with fixed nets and fishing rods in holes. Near villages, sea animals were hunted individually; collective hunting was associated with going to sea, traveling to distant islands and rookeries. It is known that for this purpose the Nivkhs made long expeditions to the Shantar Islands. Hunting for fur and meat taiga animals was individual. In some cases, especially when hunting a bear in a den, several hunters went out. Forest animals were caught using various traps and snares. Crossbows were used on otters, foxes, ungulates and bears. The bear was also caught with a spear.

The sable was caught with a net. Bird hunting was widespread - ducks, geese, upland game. During the molting period, birds were caught with a net in small bays and bays. On the sea coast, seagulls were caught using a special hook. Gathering was done by women, children and teenagers. In addition to berries, nuts, and edible plants, they collected seaweed, especially seaweed, and shellfish. For the winter, wild garlic, acorns, saran roots, nuts, and some types of berries were usually prepared. Mollusks and crustaceans were not only collected on the tidal strip, but also from the bottom. To do this, they used a long pole with a bunch of pointed sticks at the end.

Dog breeding was widely developed among the Nivkhs, keeping animals in cages was practiced, and valuable plants were grown on family plots - saran, etc. Currently, only a part of the Nivkhs are employed in traditional sectors of the economy. The majority, especially young people, work in industry, various organizations and institutions. All Nivkh families in rural areas are engaged in livestock farming and gardening.

The Nivkhs led a sedentary lifestyle. Their villages were located on the high wooded banks of the Amur, at the mouths of spawning rivers, on the sea coast, close to fishing grounds. In April they moved to summer villages, where they lived until late autumn. The villages were small - from 2 to 10 houses. By the beginning of the twentieth century. separate summer settlements disappeared; they began to be placed together with winter dwellings. The traditional dwelling is a half-dugout toryv in the shape of a simple or truncated pyramid. The hearth-fire was in the center, along the walls there were bunks. Another type of dwelling buried in the ground (earthen house) was a log house or a frame-and-pillar pitched structure. An above-ground building of the same design (lochurladyv) was heated with an iron stove. From the middle of the 19th century. They began to build veiled winter houses. This is a rectangular above-ground house of frame-and-post construction, built using mortise-and-mortise technology, with a gently sloping gable roof. The summer dwelling is a building on stilts with a gable roof covered with birch bark. In the field, gable and spherical frame buildings were built as temporary housing.

Traditional outer clothing for men and women was made from fish skin, the skins of sea animals, deer and elk and consisted of pants and a robe. In cold weather, they wore insulated robes, which were tied with sashes. Winter clothing was a fur coat made of dog fur and seal skin without a collar or hood. A seal skin skirt was worn over the fur coat. Headdress - fur hat, headphones, in summer - birch bark or fabric hat. Shoes were made from sealskin and camus. An indispensable attribute of clothing is arm sleeves and knee pads. Currently, most Nivkhs wear European clothes, which some craftswomen decorate with national ornaments.

Nivkhs are classic ichthyophages. Their main food is raw, boiled and dried fish.

The meat of marine animals, which has become a delicacy in recent decades, played an equally important role in nutrition. Stroganina and mos (fish skin jelly with berries and seal fat) were considered tasty dishes. They remain a favorite food today. Tea was brewed from chaga, lingonberry leaves, wild rosemary shoots and berries.

The means of transportation in winter were skis - golts and covered with kamus or sealskin, as well as dog sleds. They traveled on the water in boats. There were two types of boats - planks and dugouts. The large plank boat in the past could accommodate up to 40 people. Sled dog breeding of the Nivkhs of the Gilyak-Amur type. The characteristic features of the Nivkh sled are straight spears, runners curved on both sides and two horizontal arcs - front and back. The Nivkhs also used dog teams to tow boats through the water.

In their worldview, the Nivkhs were animists. In every object they saw a living principle and human traits. The cult of nature - water, taiga, earth - was widespread. In order to maintain good relations with their “masters”-spirits, the Nivkhs organized sacrifices - “feeding”. All rituals associated with fire were strictly observed; there were complex rituals associated with eating beluga whale meat, hunting bears and other animals. The dog played an important role in the spiritual life of the Nivkhs and in their worldview. The beloved dog was killed after the death of the owner. There was a special type of taboo dog that was sacrificed. Two major folk holidays are associated with the religious views of the Nivkhs - “feeding the water” and the bear holiday, associated with the slaughter of a bear raised in a cage. It was accompanied by sports competitions, games, and playing musical instruments. The main idea of ​​the holiday is to honor nature and its inhabitants. Currently, attempts are being made to revive the bear holiday as the basis of national artistic creativity. In Nivkh folklore, there are 12 independent genres: fairy tales, legends, lyrical songs, etc. The folklore hero of the Nivkhs is nameless, he fights evil spirits, defends the offended as a champion of goodness and justice. Decorative art is represented by ornaments, sculptures, and carved objects. A special place is occupied by a sculpture depicting twins, an image of a bear on ladles and other objects. Spoons with carved ornaments, dishes and ladles for bear festivals have a complex plot.

Wooden images of birds, figurines of the “masters” of water, fire and other guardians occupy a worthy place in sculptural art. Nivkhs decorated clothes, hats, shoes, wooden and birch bark utensils with ornaments. The most ancient way of decorating birch bark products is embossing.

Among the motifs in the ornament there are often tree leaves, stylized images of birds, paired spirals and leaf-shaped patterns with symmetrically arranged curls. Currently, great efforts are being made to revive the entire complex of traditional spiritual culture. Folk festivals are held regularly, folklore ensembles have been created,

in which young people participate.

Nivkhs (Nivkh. Nivakh, Nivukh, Nivkhgu, Nyigvngun; obsolete - Gilyaks (paraphrased in Russian from Ulchi gilemi - “people on oars”, (gile - oar)) are a small ethnic group on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Self-names: nivkh - “man”, nivkhgu - “people”. They live near the mouth of the Amur River (Khabarovsk Territory) and on the northern part of Sakhalin Island.

They speak the Nivkh language, which has two dialects: Amur and East Sakhalin. Writing was created in 1932 (based on the Latin alphabet), and since 1955 - based on the Russian alphabet and graphics. Number - 4652 people (2010).

Number of Nivkhs in populated areas in 2002:

Khabarovsk region:

• Nikolaevsk-on-Amur city 408
• Innokentyevka village 130
• Takhta village 124
• Khabarovsk city 122
• Lazarev village 113

Sakhalin region:

• Nogliki village 646
• Nekrasovka village 572
• Okha city 298
• village Chir-Unvd 204
• Poronaysk city 110

The Nivkhs are direct descendants of the ancient population of Sakhalin and Lower Amur, who were settled in the past much more widely than at present. There is a point of view that the ancestors of modern Nivkhs, northeastern Paleo-Asians, Eskimos and American Indians are links of one ethnic chain that in the distant past covered the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean. For a long time, the Nivkhs had close ethno-cultural contacts with the Tungus-Manchu peoples, with the Ainu and Japanese, and possibly with some representatives of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples.

The Nivkhs settled Sakhalin during the late Pleistocene, when the island was connected to the Asian mainland. But with the end of the Ice Age, the ocean rose, and the Nivkhs found themselves divided into 2 groups by the Strait of Tatar.

It is believed that the earliest mention of the Nivkhs in history is Chinese chronicles of the 12th century. They speak of the Gilami people who were in contact with the rulers of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in China. Contacts between Russians and Nivkhs began in the 17th century, when Cossack explorers visited here. The first Russian to write about the Nivkhs in 1643 was Vasily Poyarkov, who called them Gilyaks. This name stuck with the Nivkhs for a long time. In 1849-1854. The expedition of G.I. Nevelsky, who founded the city of Nikolaevsk, worked on the Lower Amur. A year later, Russian peasants began to settle here. The Russian Empire gained full control over the Nivkh lands after the Treaty of Aigun in 1856 and the Treaty of Beijing in 1860.

Crafts and crafts

The main traditional occupations of the people are fishing (chum salmon, pink salmon, etc.) and marine fishing (seal, beluga whale, etc.). They fished with seines, nets, hooks, and set traps. The sea beast was beaten with a spear and clubs. Yukola was made from fish, fat was rendered from the entrails, and shoes and clothes were made from leather. Hunting for bear, deer, and fur-bearing animals was of less importance. The beast was caught using nooses, crossbows, spears, and from the end of the 19th century. - guns. A secondary occupation is gathering (berries, saran roots, wild garlic, nettles, shellfish, seaweed, shells).

The main means of transportation were dog sleds and skis, and on water there were different types of boats: a plank boat “mu”, a dugout boat - “mla-mu” with the widespread use of rowing oars and a quadrangular sail made of fish skin.

Traditional home

The traditional dwelling of the Nivkhs was divided into summer (a hut in the shape of a dissected cylinder; a gable hut covered with grass; a rectangular hut with a gable roof, covered with bark; a summer dwelling on stilts (and a winter one); an Amur winter road with a gable roof; a winter underground dwelling).

Traditional clothing

The winter outer clothing of the Nivkhs for men and women was an “okkh” fur coat made of dog fur, double, wide, knee-length. The left floor was folded over the right and fastened on the side with three small metal ball-shaped buttons. For the top of the fur coat, black or dark brown fur was preferred; for the lining, thinner and softer fur of young dogs or puppies was used. Everyone wore fur coats made of dog skins, only women, in addition to these fur coats, could sometimes find fur coats made of fox fur. The skins of fur-bearing animals - foxes, river otters, sables, squirrels - were used only as edges on clothes. The summer outerwear for men was the “larkh” robe; it was made of cloth and fabrics in white, blue and gray colors. Robes were sewn to knee length. The gate was made round. The left floor at the top had a semicircular cutout and was fastened at the neck, at the right shoulder and on the right side with three buttons. Summer women's clothing were robes made of fish skins or fabric of the same cut as men's kimonos. On the hem, along the border, one or two rows of copper plates or Chinese copper coins with a hole in the center were usually sewn on straps.

The Nivkh men's winter clothing was also characterized by the "koske" apron skirt, which held the hem of the fur coat. It was sewn from seal skins and tied at the waist. When riding dogs, when you had to sit astride a low sled, such a skirt provided excellent protection from rain, snow, and wind.

Conical birch bark hats were used to protect from rain and sun. They were decorated with an applique of openwork patterns cut from painted birch bark. The hat was held on the head with ties and a splint rim sewn inside the hat. Winter headdress - double hood. The top was made of sealskin, sometimes in combination with fabric or other skins. The lining was always made of fox fur; in front it protruded in the form of an edge, framing the face. In summer, women did not wear headdresses. Women's winter headdress is a deep helmet-shaped hat, on the top of which is sewn a cone of twisted red cord. Such a hat was made of black or blue fabric, lined with fox fur, with a trim of river otter fur along the edges of the hat. This hat was surprisingly similar to the Mongolian ones, which also had a red bump on the top. It was probably brought to the Amur by tribes of Mongolian origin.

Shoes were made from seal and fish skin, as well as from deer and elk camus.

Folklore

In Nivkh folklore, 12 independent genres are distinguished: fairy tales, legends, lyrical songs, ritual songs, lament songs, shamanic songs. Tales about animals occupy a special place: in them, in artistic images, the Nivkhs reflected their observations of animals, considering them as a society of people with all their vices.

Folk decorative art is represented by women's art (artwork made of leather, fur, cloth, fabrics and birch bark); in men's art, a significant place was occupied by sculptural images, carved objects (ladles for the “bear festival”, spoons, sheaths, knife handles, objects from bones decorated with ornaments).

The Nivkhs were animists - in every object they saw a living principle, human traits. According to traditional ideas, the surrounding nature was full of intelligent inhabitants, and therefore sacrifices were made to them. Some elderly Nivkhs remember places of worship well and continue to observe this ritual. Currently, only a few Nivkhs engage in ritual rituals for themselves and their families; they also preserve folk recipes for medicinal herbs and plants.

During the Soviet period, the life of the Nivkhs changed radically: they began to work on fishing collective farms, in industrial enterprises, and in the service sector. About 50% of all Nivkhs became city residents. Nivkhs have their own writing in two dialects. But many negative phenomena and processes affected the health and well-being of this people. The departure from traditional methods of fishing and hunting, a sharp change in the diet, the separation of children in boarding schools from their families, and the deteriorating environmental situation in the places where the Nivkhs live often lead to disappointment in life, drunkenness, and mass illnesses of the younger generation. And yet, beneficial processes are gaining strength: the period of Nivkhs returning to their former places of settlement and the revival of old abandoned villages, increasing national self-awareness has begun.

Nivkhs, Nivkhs (self-name - “man”), Gilyaks (obsolete), people in Russia. They live in the Khabarovsk Territory on the lower Amur and on Sakhalin Island (mainly in the northern part). Number of people: 4630 people. They speak an isolated Nivkh language. The Russian language is also widespread.

It is believed that the Nivkhs are direct descendants of the ancient population of Sakhalin and the lower reaches of the Amur, who were settled in the past much more widely than at present. They were in extensive ethnocultural contacts with the Tungus-Manchu peoples, the Ainu and the Japanese. Many Nivkhs spoke the languages ​​of the peoples of neighboring territories.

The main traditional activities are fishing (chum salmon, pink salmon, etc.) and marine fishing (seal, beluga whale, etc.). They fished with seines, nets, hooks, set traps, etc. They beat sea animals with a spear, clubs, etc. They made yukola from the fish, they rendered fat from the entrails, and they sewed shoes and clothes from the leather. Hunting (bear, deer, fur-bearing animals, etc.) was of less importance. The beast was hunted using nooses, crossbows, spears, and, from the end of the 19th century, guns.

A secondary occupation is gathering (berries, saran roots, wild garlic, nettles; on the sea coast - mollusks, seaweed, shells). Dog breeding is developed. Dog meat was used for food, skins were used for clothing, dogs were used as a means of transport, for exchange, for hunting, and as sacrifices. Home crafts are common - making skis, boats, sleds, wooden utensils, dishes (troughs, tues), birch bark bedding, bone and leather processing, weaving mats, baskets, blacksmithing. They moved on boats (planks or poplar dugouts), skis (shafts or lined with fur), and sleds with a dog sled.

In the former USSR, changes occurred in the life of the Nivkhs. A significant part of them work in fishing cooperatives, industrial enterprises, and in the service sector. According to the 1989 census, 50.7% of the Nivkhs are urban residents.

In the 19th century, remnants of the primitive communal system and clan division were preserved.

They led a sedentary lifestyle. Villages were usually located along river banks and the sea coast. In winter they lived in a semi-dugout with a quadrangular plan, 1-1.5 m deep into the ground, with a spherical roof. Above-ground dwellings of a pole structure with canals were common. A summer dwelling is a building on stilts or upturned stumps with a gable roof.

Traditional clothing (men's and women's) consisted of pants and a robe made from fish skin or paper material. In winter they wore a fur coat made of dog fur; men wore a skirt made of seal skin over the fur coat. Headdress - headphones, fur hat, in summer a conical birch bark or fabric hat. Shoes made of seal and fish skin.

Traditional food is raw and boiled fish, meat of sea animals and forest animals, berries, shellfish, algae and edible herbs.

Officially they were considered Orthodox, but retained traditional beliefs (the cult of nature, the bear, shamanism, etc.). Up until the 1950s. The Nivkhs of Sakhalin maintained a classic bear festival with the slaughter of a cage-bred bear. According to animistic ideas, the Nivkhs are surrounded by living nature with intelligent inhabitants. There is a norm to treat the surrounding nature with care and to use its wealth wisely. Traditional environmental regulations were rational. Particularly valuable are the labor skills accumulated over centuries, folk applied arts, folklore, music and song creativity, knowledge about medicinal herbs and gathering.

Currently, the process of returning the Nivkhs to their former places of settlement and reviving old villages has begun. Our own intelligentsia has grown. These are mainly employees of cultural institutions and public education. Nivkh writing was created in 1932. Primers are published in the Amur and East Sakhalin dialects, reading books, dictionaries, and the newspaper "Nivkh Dif" ("Nivkh Word").

C. M. Taxami

Peoples and religions of the world. Encyclopedia. M., 2000, p. 380-382.

Gilyaks in history

Gilyaks (self-named nib(a)kh, or nivkhs, i.e. people, people; the name “Gilyaks”, according to Shrenk, comes from the Chinese “keel”, “kileng”, as the Chinese used to call all the natives in the lower reaches Amur) - few in number. nationality in Primorye. Explorers of the 19th century (Zeland, Schrenk, and others) then brought the number of G. (using different methods) to 5-7 thousand people. They also gave a detailed description of the G. themselves and their way of life: the average height for men is 160, and for women - 150 cm. They are most often “stocky, with a short neck and well-developed chest, with somewhat short and crooked legs, with small hands and feet, with a rather large, wide head, dark skin color, dark eyes and black straight hair, which in men is braided at the back in a braid, and in women - in two braids. The features of the Mongolian type are noticeable in the face... Schrenk classifies G. as a Palaisite, a mysterious “regional” people of Asia (like the Ainu, Kamchadals, Yukaghirs, Chukchi, Aleuts, etc.) and believes that G.’s original homeland was on Sakhalin, where they came from crossed to the mainland under pressure from the south of the Ainu, who in turn were pushed aside by the Japanese... They also differ from their neighbors in that they do not practice tattoos at all and their women do not wear rings or earrings in the nasal septum. The people are healthy and hardy... The main food of G. is fish; they eat it raw, frozen or dried (dried)... they stock it for the winter for people and dogs. They catch fish with nets (from nettles or wild hemp), forests or streams. In addition, G. kill seals (seals), sea lions, dolphins or beluga whales, collect lingonberries, raspberries, rose hips, pine nuts, wild garlic... They eat mostly cold... They eat all sorts of meat, with the exception of rats; Until recently, they didn’t use salt at all... both sexes smoke tobacco, even children; They have no utensils other than wood, birch bark and iron cauldrons.” G.'s villages were located along the banks, in low-lying areas, but not accessible to high water. Mainland G.'s winter huts had stoves with pipes and wide bunks so that 4-8 families (up to 30 people) could be accommodated. Fish oil and torch were used for lighting. For the summer, G. moved to barns, most often built high above the ground on poles. The weapons consisted of a spear, a harpoon, a crossbow, a bow and arrows. For transportation in the summer, flat-bottomed boats were used in the form of a trough made of cedar or spruce boards, up to 6 m long, sewn together with wooden nails and caulked with moss; instead of a rudder there is a short oar. In winter, G. went skiing or rode sledges, harnessed to 13-15 dogs. The weaving and pottery crafts of Georgia were completely unknown before the arrival of the Russians, but they were very skilled in making complex patterns (on birch bark, leather, etc.). G.'s wealth was expressed in the ability to support several wives, in silver. coin, more clothes, good dogs, etc. There were almost no beggars, since they were fed by wealthier fellow tribesmen; there was no privileged class; the most revered people are old people, rich people, famous brave men, famous shamans. At rare gatherings, important disputes were resolved, for example, the kidnapping of someone's wife. The culprit could be sentenced either to material satisfaction of the offended person, or to expulsion from the village, sometimes, albeit secretly, to the death penalty. “The Gilyaks generally live peacefully, they take care of the sick in every possible way, but they take the dying out of superstitious fear, and they also remove the mother in labor to a special birch bark hut, even in winter, which is why there are cases of freezing of newborns. G.'s hospitality is very developed, theft is unknown, deception is rare, in general they are distinguished by their honesty... G. usually get married early; sometimes parents marry children 4-5 years old; For the bride, the bride price is paid in various things... and, in addition, the groom must throw a feast that lasts for a week. Marriages with nieces and cousins ​​are permitted. The treatment of his wife is generally gentle. A marriage can easily be dissolved, and a divorced woman can easily find another husband. It is also common to kidnap wives, with the consent of the kidnapped woman; the husband then demands the return of the bride price or pursues and takes revenge (there are even cases of murder)... The widow often goes to the brother of the deceased or to another close relative, but she can remain a widow, and relatives are still obliged to help her if she is poor. The father's property goes to the children, and the sons receive more... G. seem sedentary, incurious, and indifferent. They sing very rarely, do not know dancing, and have the most primitive music, produced by hitting sticks on a dry pole hanging on ropes parallel to the ground...” G. had very few holidays; the most important one was the bearish one, which lasted approx. 2 weeks in January. They took him from a den, and sometimes bought him a bear cub on Sakhalin, fattened him up, and took him around the villages. In the end, they were tied to a post, shot with arrows, after which they were lightly fried over a fire and eaten, washed down with an intoxicating drink and tea. G. worshiped wooden idols depicting man or beast. Typically, idols were kept in barns and were taken out only in exceptional cases. G. had sacred places where they asked their spirits for good luck or forgiveness. They believed in an afterlife. The dead were taken to the forest and burned at the stake, and the ashes were collected and placed in a small house near the village, in the forest, where the clothes, weapons and pipe of the deceased were also buried, sometimes they were placed in the house itself; the dogs that brought the corpse were also killed, and if the deceased was a poor man, then the sledges were only burned. Near this house, relatives held a wake, brought a pipe of tobacco, a cup of drink, cried and lamented. Communication with spirits was carried out through shamans. The Russians first heard about G. in the spring of 1640: from one captive, Even, the pioneer of Tomsk. Cossack I. Moskvitin learned about the existence in the south of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk of the “Mamur River”, i.e. Amur, at the mouth of the river and on the islands there lived “sedentary revelers”. Moskvitin with a detachment of Cossacks headed by sea to the south. direction and at the mouth of the river. Uda received additional. information about the Amur and its tributaries - pp. Zeya and Amgun, as well as about G. and the “bearded Daur people.” The Yakut who took part in this campaign. Cossack N. Kolobov reports in his “skask” that shortly before the Russians arrived at the mouth of the Uda, bearded Daurs came in plows and killed approx. 500 Gilyaks: “...And they were beaten by deception; They had women in single-tree plows as oarsmen, and they themselves, a hundred and eighty men each, lay between those women, and when they rowed to those Gilyaks and came out of the ships, they beat those Gilyaks...” The Cossacks moved further “near the shore” to the islands of the “sedentary Gilyaks”, i.e. it is quite possible that Moskvitin saw small islands off the north. entrance to the Amur Estuary (Chkalova and Baidukova), as well as part of the north-west. shores of the island Sakhalin: “And the Gilyak land appeared, and there was smoke, and they [the Russians] didn’t dare go into it without leaders...”, apparently considering that a small detachment could not cope with the large numbers. population of this region, and turned back. In 1644/45, a detachment of the letter head V.D. Poyarkov spent the winter in the vicinity of the Gilyak village, looking for silver reserves in those places. ores and explored along the way “new lands” to collect yasak. The Cossacks began to buy fish and firewood from G. and over the winter they collected some information about Fr. Sakhalin. In the spring, leaving the hospitable city, the Cossacks attacked them, captured the amanats and collected yasak in sables. In 1652/53, E. Khabarov’s detachment wintered in the Gilyak land, and in June 1655, the united detachment of Beketov, Stepanov and Pushchin cut down the fort and stayed for the winter. Due to the lack of writing and a rich oral tradition in Georgia, by the 19th century. no memories or legends have been preserved about clashes with the first Russians who appeared in their area in the middle. XVII century

Vladimir Boguslavsky

Material from the book: "Slavic Encyclopedia. XVII century". M., OLMA-PRESS. 2004.

Nivkhi

Autoethnonym (self-name)

nivkh: Self-designated n i v x, “man”, n i v x g y, “people”.

Main area of ​​settlement

They settle in the Khabarovsk Territory (the lower reaches of the Amur, the coast of the Amur Estuary, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Tatar Strait), forming a mainland group. The second, island group, is represented in the north of Sakhalin.

Number

Number according to censuses: 1897 - 4694, 1926 - 4076, 1959 - 3717, 1970 - 4420, 1979 - 4397, 1989 - 4673.

Ethnic and ethnographic groups

Based on territorial characteristics, they are divided into two groups - mainland (the lower reaches of the Amur River, the coast of the Amur Estuary, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Strait of Tatar) and the island or Sakhalin (northern part of Sakhalin Island). According to the generic composition and some characteristics of the culture, they were divided into smaller territorial divisions - mainland into 3, island into 4.

Anthropological characteristics

The Nivkhs are unique in anthropological terms. They form a local racial complex called the Amur-Sakhalin anthropological type. He is of mixed origin as a result of the mixing of Baikal and Kuril (Ainu) racial components.

Language

Nivkh: The Nivkh language occupies an isolated position in relation to the languages ​​of other peoples of the Amur. It belongs to the Paleo-Asian languages ​​and reveals similarities to the languages ​​of a number of peoples of the Pacific basin, Southeast Asia and the Altai linguistic community.

Writing

Since 1932, writing has been in the Latin script, since 1953, based on the Russian alphabet.

Religion

Orthodoxy: Orthodox. Purposeful missionary activity began only in the middle of the 19th century. In 1857, a special mission for the Gilyaks was created. This fact does not exclude the earlier spread of Christianity among the indigenous population of Primorye and the Amur region from among Russian settlers. The mission was involved in the baptism of not only the Nivkhs, but also the peoples neighboring them - the Ulchi, Nanai, Negidal, Evenks. The process of Christianization was rather external, formal in nature, which is confirmed by the almost complete ignorance of the fundamentals of faith, the limited distribution of cult attributes among the Nivkh people, and the rejection of names given at baptism. Missionary activity was based on a network that was built near Nivkh settlements. In particular, there were 17 of them on Sakhalin Island. In order to introduce the children of the indigenous people of the Amur region to literacy and faith, small, one-class parochial schools were created. The introduction of the Nivkhs to Orthodoxy was greatly facilitated by their living among the Russian population, from which the Nivkhs borrowed elements of peasant life.

Ethnogenesis and ethnic history

The differences between the Nivkhs and neighboring peoples are usually associated with the independent process of their ethnogenesis. Due to the peculiarities of their language and culture - the Nivkhs are Paleo-Asians, they belong to the oldest population of the Lower Amur and Sakhalin, who preceded the Tungus-Manchus here. It is the Nivkh culture that is the substrate on which the largely similar culture of the Amur peoples is formed.
Another point of view believes that the ancient population of Aur and Sakhalin (archeology of Meso/Neolithic times) is not actually Nivkh, but represents an ethnically undifferentiated layer of culture, which is substratum in relation to the entire modern population of the Amur. Traces of this substrate are recorded in the anthropology, language, and culture of both the Nivkhs and the Tungus-Manchu peoples of the Amur region. Within the framework of this theory, the Nivkhs are considered to have migrated to the Amur, one of the groups of northeastern Paleo-Asians. The relative inconsistency of these ethnogenetic schemes is explained by the high degree of mixing and integration of the modern peoples of Amur and Sakhalin, as well as the late time of their ethnic registration.

Farm

In Nivkh culture, they inherit the ancient Lower Amur economic complex of river fishermen and sea hunters, with the auxiliary nature of the taiga fishery. Dog breeding (Amur/Gilyak type of sled dog breeding) played a significant role in their culture.

Traditional clothing

The clothing of the Nivkhs also has a common Amur basis, this is the so-called. East Asian type (wrap-up clothing with a double left hem, kimono-like cut).

Traditional settlements and dwellings

The main elements of the material culture of the Nivkhs correspond to the general Amur ones: seasonal (summer temporary, winter permanent) settlements, dugout-type dwellings, coexist with a variety of summer temporary buildings. Under the influence of the Russians, log buildings became widespread.

Modern ethnic processes

In general, the traditional and modern culture of the Nivkhs demonstrates its correspondence to the culture of the Tungus-Manchu peoples of the Lower Amur and Sakhalin, which was formed both genetically and in the process of long-term ethnocultural interaction.

Bibliography and sources

General work

• Nivkhgu. M., 1973/Kreinovich E.A.
• Peoples of the Far East of the USSR in the 17th - 20th centuries. M., 1985

Selected aspects

• Traditional economy and material culture of the Peoples of the Lower Amur and Sakhalin. M., 1984/Smolyak A.V.
• The main problems of ethnography and history of the Nivkhs. L., 1975./Taksami Ch.M.

Economy and life of the Nivkhs

The main occupations of the Nivkhs have long been fishing and marine activities. In fishing, the first place was occupied by fishing for anadromous salmon fish - chum salmon and pink salmon. Salmon fish were caught using traps, nets and seines. The driveway was a fence made of thick stakes and rods in the shape of the letter “L”, located perpendicular to the shore and “verbly” downstream. In this part, a lifting network was installed, at which people were on duty on the boat. The fish, moving in a solid mass along the shore, bumped into the wall of the entrance, turned along the wall and fell into the net. Noticing the movement of the signal ropes, the fishermen lifted the net and unloaded the caught fish into the boat. This method usually gave the farm 4-5 thousand salmon in a few days, which fully satisfied its consumer needs. The drive-in was usually built collectively by several families.

Seines, small in size, were previously woven from nettle threads. Two or three fishermen were pulling the net, one of whom was walking along the shore, while the others were sailing in a boat. Later, the Nivkhs learned from the Russians how to sew large nets. The Nivkhs caught beluga and sturgeon with harpoons and hook tackle - hooks on short ropes attached to a long rope stretched in the water.

Particular fishing, which was carried out throughout the year, was of great importance for the Nivkhs. It was caught using fishing rods, fixed nets (in winter and summer), floating nets (in summer) and seines (in the spring-autumn season).

Marine fishing was developed among the Sakhalin and Liman Nivkhs. They hunted sea lions and seals. Steller sea lions were caught with large fixed nets. They went out to hunt for seals in early spring, with the first signs of breaking up the ice. They beat them with harpoons and clubs (clubs) when they climbed out to bask on the ice floes. The seal hunt continued into the summer. In open water they were hunted using a floating harpoon (lykh). It was a board with a harpoon point attached to a stick, 10-30 m long. The lykh was launched into the water, the hunter was hiding nearby on a boat or on the shore. Seeing the prey, the hunter carefully pointed his bald head at it and quickly thrust it into the animal.

Hunting, in comparison with other peoples of the Amur, played a lesser role among the Nivkhs. The hunting season began in the fall, after the end of the fish run. At this time, bears go to the rivers to feast on fish, and the Nivkhs were waiting for them with a bow or a gun. Sometimes they used crossbows. In winter they hunted bears with a spear. Following the bear hunt came the sable fishing season. Sable and some other fur-bearing animals (otter, lynx, weasel) played a significant role in the economy of the Nivkhs. The furs went to the Chinese and later to the Russian market. The Amur Nivkhs went every autumn on their large, plank, heavy-moving boats to the sable fishery on Sakhalin and returned from there only in early spring. This was caused by the abundance of sable on Sakhalin. Along the banks of rivers and on fallen trees, which served as crossings for sables, the Nivkhs set numerous traps.

The main hunting weapon was the gun; at the beginning of the 20th century. replacing the Nivkh compound bow with horn overlays. Noah later, the bow was preserved in the bear festival and in children's games. Squirrels and foxes were hunted with dogs. Crossbows were used on large and small animals.

Agriculture began to penetrate the Nivkhs in the middle of the 19th century. when they first started planting potatoes. A few Nivkhs used to work as a cab driver and other jobs, but they were hired.

Even before the arrival of the Russians, in some villages there were specialist blacksmiths who forged Japanese, Chinese, and later Russian metal products for their needs; they made straight and curved knives, adapted for planing wood, arrowheads, harpoons, spears, etc. The blacksmiths used a double bellows, an anvil and a hammer. The surviving remains of massive chains indicate the high skill of blacksmithing in the past.

Among the Nivkhs, inlay with silver and copper> tips was common. The old people were engaged in the production of ropes from bast and nettles, as well as the manufacture of desks and dog harnesses.

Men's jobs included fishing, hunting, making tools, including gear and vehicles, collecting and transporting firewood, and blacksmithing. Women were engaged in processing fish, seal and dog skins, as well as birch bark, sewing and decorating clothes, preparing birch bark dishes, collecting plant products, housekeeping and caring for dogs.

By the time of the Sovietization of the Far East, the way of life of the mainland Nivkhs was characterized by a fairly strong development of commodity relations. The old forms of collective production and distribution almost completely disappeared under the influence of growing processes of property differentiation. Many fishermen and hunters, deprived of fishing tools, were forced to go to logging, work for hire, and engage in carting. Insignificant income from fishing forced the Nivkhs to turn to agriculture. Fur hunting was of negligible importance among the Amur Nivkhs. The products of hunting marine animals - seals, beluga whales, sea lions - were mainly used for consumer needs. Fishing was carried out by artels. These artels were usually small, consisting of 3-7 people. It was practiced to hire workers in the form half-shareholders. Some of the Nivkhs worked for hire during fishing in fish processing.

Among the Sakhalin Nivkhs, fishing was also very important, but along with it, fishing for sea animals and hunting for bear, sable and some other animals were widely practiced.

The main food of the Nivkhs was always fish, most often dried; yukola replaced bread for them. Meat food was rarely consumed. Food was seasoned with fish oil or seal oil. Moss, prepared from a decoction of fish skins, seal oil, berries, rice, and sometimes with the addition of chopped yukola, has always been considered a tasty dish. Another tasty dish was talkk - a salad of raw fish seasoned with wild garlic. The Nivkhs became acquainted with rice, millet and tea during the time of trade with China. After the Russians appeared on the Amur, the Nivkhs began to consume, albeit in small quantities, bread, sugar and salt.

The original, and until the recent past, the only domestic animal of the Nivkhs was a dog. It served as a draft animal and provided fur for clothing, its meat was eaten, it was a common object of exchange, and played a prominent role in religious beliefs and rituals. The number of dogs in a household was an indicator of prosperity and material well-being. Typically, each household had 30-40 dogs, which required a lot of care. They most often fed on fish and seal oil; food supplies had to be stored for the entire winter, during which dogs were used as mounts as much as possible.

The ancient Nivkh sled, which Shrenk found in the middle of the last century, was so narrow that the rider sat astride it, resting his feet on small skis, and sometimes he stood up and ran in this position on skis. The runners of this sled were curved both front and back. The dogs were harnessed with a snake, that is, they were tied to a pulling belt not in pairs, but one at a time, then on one side or the other in turn. The harness was a simple collar, so the dog pulled with its neck.

Not so long ago, at the bear festival, they organized dog races, using old sledges and an old team for this. The dog harness and sled that appeared among the Nivkhs at the beginning of the 20th century are significantly different from the previous ones. Later sled dog breeding among the Nivkhs (the so-called East Siberian type) is characterized by a more capacious sled with a vertical arc and a pair of sleds not in collars, but in straps in which the dogs pull with their chests.

The development of the carriage industry caused the transition to a new type of sledge. Increasing the stability and size of the sled made it possible to transport up to 200 kg of cargo. Usually 9-11 dogs were harnessed. The most trained and valuable dog is the leader. The shouts from the management of the driver - the musher - were usually addressed to her. They stopped the dogs with a shout and a stopping stick. The dogs were harnessed not only to the sled, but sometimes also to the boat with a longer pull.

The horse as a transport animal appeared among the Nivkhs relatively recently.

In winter, the means of transportation on land, in addition to dog transport, were skis - skis without fur or skis with seal fur glued on. The first were used for short journeys, the second - for long trips during the fur hunting season. A distinctive feature of Nivkh skis were wooden flaps nailed on top of the skin.

They swam along rivers (mainly on Sakhalin) on light dugouts made from poplar. These dugouts were so light that they were carried by hand across the obstacles (shoals, isthmuses). They moved on them with the help of an oar and a pole, which they usually used when climbing against the current. For long journeys, the Nivkhs had a large boat, similar to the Ulch, Nanai and Oroch boats. It was built from three wide cedar boards, the bottom (bottom) at the bow was bent upward and protruded above the water with a shovel. Row on it with 2-4 pairs of oars, lifting the oars on the right and left sides separately.

Nivkh settlements were usually located near the mouths of spawning rivers and only rarely numbered more than 20 dwellings. Until recently, the houses of relatives were placed nearby. About 40-50 years ago, the dugout was still widespread among the Sakhalin Nivkhs. For it, they dug a hole 1.25 m deep, over which they placed a frame made of thin logs and covered it with earth from the outside. The smoke hole served as a window, the fireplace was built in the middle, and there were bunks around it. At the end of the 19th century. The entrance to the dugout was no longer through the roof, but through a long, low corridor.

Among the Amur Nivkhs, approximately from the time of the Ming dynasty, dugouts began to be replaced by Manchu fanzas of the frame type, which spread throughout the territory of the Nanai and passed on to the Nivkhs. The type of construction and the distribution of places inside the winter road among the Nivkhs were the same as among the Ulchi. The Nivkhs usually spent the summer in summer houses. Letnik is a building on stilts 1.5 m high. It consisted of two halves: the back - living, illuminated through a hole in the roof, and the front, which served as a barn. Around the summer house there were usually hangers for drying fish and pile storage sheds for storing various products. The general appearance of the Nivkh summer dwelling on piles was no different in general from the Ulchi summer barn.

The old summer men's costume of the Nivkhs largely coincided with the Nanai. It consisted of trousers (varga), a robe that reached to the knees and fastened from left to right, shoes made of sealskin, and a conical birch bark hat (kh'ifkh'akk). Pants and a robe were sewn from blue or gray paper material. The women's summer robe made of fish skin or fabric was longer and decorated along the hem with copper plates. In winter, over the robe they wore clothes made of dark fur, sewn with the fur facing out. When traveling on sleds, to protect the fur from drying, men wore a skirt made of seal skin over their fur clothing (seal skin was not used for clothing of the deceased). Headphones and a fur hat were put on the head. The differences between men's clothing and women's clothing boiled down to a greater number of embroideries and appliqués and a greater variety of materials for women's clothing (silk, cloth, lynx fur on the hat).

The Nivkhs previously purchased material for clothing from Chinese and Russian traders. For shoes, dressing gowns and fur coats, they used specially tanned skins of carp, chum salmon and pike, seal and elk skin, dog fur, etc.

In pre-revolutionary times, both men and women did not cut their hair, but braided it - men in one braid, women in two braids