Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Early Foreign Sources on the Samoyedic Peoples Ethnography

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (1)
Authors
Koptseva, Natalia P.; Perepelitsa, Yulia N.
Contact information
Koptseva, Natalia P. : Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation; ; ORCID: 0000-0003-3910-7991; Perepelitsa, Yulia N. : Siberian Federal University Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation; ; ORCID: 0000-0002-0279-9958
Keywords
Samoyedic peoples; foreign ethnography of the 17th‑18th centuries; reindeer herding; Muscovite Tsardom; Russian Empire
Abstract

This article presents a review of the earliest foreign sources on the ethnography of the Samoyedic peoples, including sources from the 17th and 18th centuries. In Russian ethnography, a generally accepted ethnic structure of the Samoyedic peoples emerged by the 1960s. The ethnonym “Samoyeds” was introduced by G. N. Prokofiev to counter the obsolete ethnonym “Samoyeds,” but the latter has survived and is used in modern European languages (English, French, German, and others). Furthermore, the ethnic structure of the modern Samoyedic peoples (Nenets, Enets, Nganasans, and Selkups) is global and generally accepted. The article examines the images of the “Samoyeds” in the works of foreign travelers, merchants, and diplomats of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is noted that foreign travelers of the 16th and 18th centuries described the “Samoyeds” as inhabitants of the northernmost territories of the Muscovite kingdom, later the Russian Empire. All these works provide detailed descriptions of the reindeer herding practices characteristic of these peoples

Pages
74–84
EDN
QIHUNU
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/158103

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