THE WORLD OF THE NIVKHI

Taksami Chuner Mikhailovich (1931-2014) is the first Russian scientist, the first doctor of science from among the indigenous ethnic group of the North in the system of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Chuner Mikhailovich made a great contribution to the research of the traditional culture of his native people - the Nivkh.

He devoted a series of fundamental research to the study of the Nivkh language (the first Russian-Nivkh, Nivkh-Russian dictionaries with grammatical essays, as well as a series of tutorials, etc.).

The ethnographic and linguistic researches of Chuner Taksami are based on original materials that he personally collected during many expeditions to the indigenous people of Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Chukotka, Yamal, North Ob, Yakutia, the Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk areas, the Murmansk and Amur regions.

Until the end of 1920, they were called Gilyaks, and older people now call themselves that. They were also called Manguns "Amur" ("Man" means Amur river and every big river, "-goon" suffix).

According to the 2002 census, there are 5,162 Nivkhs living in Russia (according to 2010 - 4,652 Nivkhs).

The word "Nivkh" is, firstly, the ethnonym of these people, secondly, the expression of the concept of "man", thirdly, in the plural form means "the people", and originally it could mean "I am".

The main traditional occupations of the Nivkhs are fishing (keta, pink salmon, etc.) and sea hunt (seal, beluga, etc.). Hunting was of lesser importance (bear, deer, fur-bearing animals, etc.). Subsidiary activity - gathering (berries, roots of saran, wild garlic, nettle; on the seashore - clams, seaweed, shells).

Nivkhs made yukola from fish, drained fat from the guts, sewn shoes and clothing from leather.

Household crafts of the Nivkhs are widespread - making skis, boats, sleds, wooden utensils, dishes (troughs, tues), birch bedding; processing of bone and leather; weaving mats and baskets; and forging.

Nivkhs religious beliefs based on animism and trade cult, belief in spirits that live everywhere: in the sky, on earth, in the water, in the forest.

Nivkhs were officially considered Orthodox, but they retained traditional beliefs (the cult of nature, the bear, shamanism, etc.).

Each bear is considered the son of the master of the taiga(spirit), so the hunt for it is accompanied by rites of a trade cult.

Chuner Taksami played an important role in the beginning of Nivkh literature.

He met with native speakers of the Nivkh language and recorded their stories, folk tales.

Tylgur (Tylgund) - a genre of the Nivkh epic.

Chuner Taksami owns more than 300 publications (monographs, articles, etc.). He edited a series of collective works and collections of articles on the problems of the culture of the people of Siberia, the Far North and the Far East. There are presented the most important issues of general ethnography, traditional culture and historical destinies of the peoples of the Asia-Pacific region in these works.

At the first Congress of the Northern Small Nations, held on March 30 - April 1, 1990 in Moscow, Chuner Mikhailovich, being the Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the preparation of the Congress, made a report "On the political and economic situation of indigenous peoples of the North and the ways of their development". In this report, for the first time, anxiety about the fate of the indigenous peoples of the North was heard on a global scale. It was the voice of not only a scientist, but also a representative of indigenous peoples. Chuner Taksami’s contribution to the solution of important problems of the North is quite significant. On his initiative on the basis of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia held a scientific-practical conference "The creative potential of the peoples of the North in the XXI century." It presented an actual topic about the role of scientific and creative personnel of the people of the North in solving the most difficult issues of the fate of indigenous peoples in the XXI century.

In his creative work, Chuner Taksami paid much attention to the problems of the indigenous peoples of the North. On the pages of magazines and newspapers, he raised acute socio-economic and complex historical and cultural issues, speaking in defense of the interests of small peoples of the North.