Journal of Siberian Federal University.

Humanities & Social Sciences 9 (2016 9) 2005-2012

~~~

УДК 82-342

Nganasan Children Literature:

History and Specifics

Alexandra A. Sitnikova*
Siberian Federal University
79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russia

Received 21.01.2016, received in revised form 18.04.2016, accepted 19.08.2016

The paper presents the results of studying Nganasan fairy tales for children. The author traces the
origin of Nganasan children’s fairy tales back to the mythological epic tales of the Nganasan people
(sitaby) and to the historical national traditions (diurymy). The author also looks into the possibility
of applying morphological and semantic analysis to understanding Nganasan fairy tales, resulting in
description of some aspects of the worldview of the Nganasan people, along with their moral and value
judgments, which are transferred by children’s literature to the younger generation.
Keywords: literature of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Nganasan folklore,
Nganasan mythology, sitaby, Nganasan fairy tales, Nganasan worldview.
The work was implemented within the project “Creating a corpus of texts for children in their native
languages (the Evenki, Nenets, Nganasan, Dolgan languages) as a way to preserve the unique
cultural heritage of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of Krasnoyarsk Krai”, supported by the
Krasnoyarsk Regional Science Foundation.
DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-9-2005-2012.
Research area: theory and history of culture.

Introduction and the currently “difficult” existence of human

In modern humanitarian sciences and communities in urban life. This is also partly due
practices (music festivals, documentary films, to the uniqueness of the situation: in unsuitable
workshops for the production of objects of for human life climates distinctive culture with
decorative and applied arts, etc.) the considerable their own languages, music, folklore, literature,
attention is paid to the culture of the northern etc. are not only preserved but even continue to
nomadic peoples, in particular, the culture of the develop. In part alarmist mood of the indigenous
indigenous peoples of Siberia. In part so much peoples’ representatives and academics about the
attention to this subject may be attributed to the fact urgent need of salvation and perhaps the museum
that the northern nomadic peoples are a cultural preservation of the remaining residues of northern
“bridge” between the ancient primitive and cultures determine continuous reference of
“simple” way of life of human communities there scientists to the topic.

© Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved

* Corresponding author E-mail address: sem_dobrianka@mail.ru

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 Alexandra A. Sitnikova. Nganasan Children Literature: History and Specifics

This paper focuses on studying one of the literature there were used materials of the corpus
indigenous cultures of the Siberian north, i.e. of Nganasan folklore and ethnographic texts
Nganasan culture – of the people inhabiting the collected in Nganasan settlements and translated
Taimyr District of Krasnoyarsk Krai (Territory). into Russian in the village of Ust-Avam (Taimyr
The Nganasans are the small-numbered Autonomic Okrug) in 2003-2005 under the
indigenous nation of the North accounting for less support of the Presidium of the Russian Academy
than 1000 people. More specifically, the author of Sciences within the framework of the target
is interested in Nganasan children’s literature program “Ethnic and cultural cooperation with
representing the literary processing of folklore Eurasia” (The Corpus of Nganasan ...). Among the
of this people. Children’s literature is a valuable texts there was a record of the story from the most
source for understanding attitudes toward the popular Nganasan sitab (national mythological
world existing among the Nganasan people. epic) “Seu Meliangana” and diurymy. Moreover,
After all, children’s literature, consisting mainly mythological legends and diurymy, which had
of fairy tales, is a translator of moral values of served as a basis for the development of Nganasan
any nation. children’s literature, were investigated in the book
The purpose of the study, the results of which “The Mythological Prose of Small-Numbered
will be laid out in this paper, was to describe the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East”, compiled by
history of the formation of Nganasan children’s E.S. Novikov (The Mythological Prose...).
literature and to reveal axiological specifics in Both in common and scientific
Nganasan fairy tales. understanding it has been long established that
children’s literature, especially fairy tales, is the
Survey Methodology best translator of the moral values ​​of a nation.
The key methods of the study were the Therefore, referring to the study of Nganasan
semantic and morphological analysis of literary children’s literature, the objective is to study
texts of Nganasan fairy tales. Following V.Ya. the Nganasans’ traditional values​​, a certain set
Propp’s method morphological analysis was of rules, helping them to survive in northern
aimed at identifying sustainable and recurring climates and in nomadic conditions.
“units” (characters) in Nganasan fairy tales;
it was an attempt to interpret the meaning of Related Literature
these morphological units. Taking an advantage There are almost no articles, papers and
of semantic analysis the author discovered the books devoted to the direct analysis of Nganasan
ontological and axiological meanings in Nganasan children’s literature, therefore, before describing
children’s fairy tales. the body of scientific texts, allowing to ascertain
During the study there were analyzed such the relevant aspects of the present study, the
tales as “The Girl and the Moon”, “The Bears author analytically approached and considered
and the Old Man”, “Morrede”, “About Nganasan such units as “the history of Nganasan literature”,
with three-sagene1 Arms and his Son”, “Lake “Nganasan folklore”, “folklore of the indigenous
of Death”, “Why the Fox Has White Wool on peoples of Siberia and the North”, “specifics of
the Chest”, “The Sun’s Daughter”, “The Son of Nganasan literature”.
the Bea”, “The Seagulls”, “The Tale of Siga- In the thesis, researcher V.K. Biche-ool
Cannibal”, “The Coward Deer”. As well for (2009) listed a large number of scientists and their
understanding the history of Nganasan children’s works devoted to the study of the culture and
– 2006 –
 Alexandra A. Sitnikova. Nganasan Children Literature: History and Specifics

way of life of the indigenous northern peoples, about the national heroes of antiquity, with one of
as well as various aspects of Nganasan culture the central characters of the Nganasan epic called
per se, such as archeology, linguistics, music, art, “Seu Meliangana”. Oral epics were sung by the
folklore, etc. In the context of this study the most Nganasans during the polar night in tents near
interesting is the scientific literature dedicated to the fire, that is in almost complete darkness, and,
the Nganasans’ worldview (Grachev, 1983) and as pointed out by researcher E.A. Khelimskii, in
the study of Nganasan folklore (Labanauskas, principle, the Nganasan epic is very auditory in
1992). No less significant are the studies by its nature. In particular, in telling Nganasan epics
O.E. Dobzhanskaia, the results of which are the role of the audience was very important as
stated in such articles as “On the Present State they were shouting their opinions (approval or
of the Practice of Performing Nganasan Epic outrage) about the behavior of certain characters,
and the Need to Preserve the Epic Heritage or asked performers about something; also the
of the Nation” (2013) and “The History of the audience expressed their opinions with facial
Nganasan Shamanism” (2013), as this source expressions showing whether they were happy or
gives classification of the Nganasan folklore unhappy with the events happening in the epic.
heritage. Description of Nganasan traditions of Indeed, when the modern reader reads the field
performing traditional folk tales from and the recordings of folk Nganasan tales, some events in
features of recording in writing Nganasan works the text are hardly understood by reading only as
are found in the paper by E.A. Khelimskii “The their narrator can transmit these events with the
Nganasan Language as Literary one: Reflections mimic only or replying someone’s shouting from
on the Literary Languages” (2000). the audience. It stands to reason that Nganasan
epic tales were told by shamans or skilled
Progress in Research and Results storytellers.
The history of Nganasan children’s As well as in many cultures, Nganasan
literature children’s literature is represented by fairy tales,
In all cultures, literature has its roots in which have a clear descent from the epic and
mythology, folklore and oral epic tradition. mythological tales. Consequently, it is difficult
For Nganasan literature its relationship with to speak about Nganasan special children’s
the folklore is particularly relevant, since the literature, as the epic stories were told at the same
transformation of the Nganasan language in time for both children and adults, so Nganasan
the written literary one happened artificially in fairy tales demonstrate the contradictory and not
the 1990s, when the Soviet scientists designed always understandable by urban humans moral.
the alphabet for the Nganasans, which was The appearance of Nganasan children’s literature
synthesized with Russian for the convenience probably happened in Soviet times, when there was
of the media public informing in their native a process of active integration of all the diversity
language. That is why literary works in Nganasan of national cultures into the single Soviet cultural
are mostly texts not of a single author, but rather space. So, at this time there were gathered whole
recording of folklore tales – sitaby (mythological collections of tales of various peoples of Siberia
epic) and diurymy (historical legends). These and, in particular, the Nganasans.
folklore works are of ancient origin; they tell In the analysis of Nganasan tales and some
both about the birth of the Nganasan people mythological tales (sitaby), from which they
(according to one version, from the deer) and originate, the author had the chance to identify
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 Alexandra A. Sitnikova. Nganasan Children Literature: History and Specifics

the most frequent characters in these tales, their

key motives and as a result to describe axiology
of Nganasan culture in the form in which it is
transmitted to the younger generation.
1. One of the key standard introductions for
Nganasan stories is the situation of matchmaking:
when a young man from one nomadic camp woos
a girl from other nomadic camp, namely asks for
a wedding permission from the girl’s parents. It
is a pretty traditional introduction for fairy tales
all around the world. But, for example, whereas
in the Russian fairy tales girl’s parents send the
young man to distant lands to go through trials Fig. 1. Illustration to the fairy tale “The Girl and the
and prove his ability to become a husband, in the Moon” by Gusarov

Nganasan fairy tales the girl’s parents quit their

camp and begin to run away, while the young (instead of the children’s lives they offer deer and
man rushes to pursue them. One can assume that so on), try to outwit it. All these activities most
the Nganasan hero is being tested for the ability likely reflect the relationships of the Nganasans
to roam on a sledge, lead a nomadic life, navigate with nature as a whole.
through the tundra not worse than the bride’s 4. Other frequent characters of Nganasan
family. tales are giants, ogres or strange people with eyes
2. One frequent character of Nganasan on their shoulders and mouth on their stomach.
legends and fairy tales is a shaman, and a fairy The profession of these characters can often be
tale very often offers a story of human evolution interpreted as intermediary between man and
told by a shaman. Nganasan tales form a little nature. Sometimes the description of strange
mundane attitude towards shamans, as they are people with eyes on their shoulders has such
lame characters (without a leg or an arm, blind, epithets as “with the roots of the trees on the head”,
or the children who were supposed to die in which suggests that these characters in Nganasan
childhood) who use either their own craftiness (as literature are a sort of centaurs, “man-deer”,
in the fairy tale “Three Brothers”) or cunning and “man-bears”. Being as if the nature ambassadors
stubbornness of their parents (“Lake of Death”) these “centaurs” are the antagonists, since, as it
to become shamans rather than to perish. was already indicated above, in Nganasan culture
3. Nganasan fairy tales reflect an nature is hostile to human.
interesting model of the interaction between man 5. Furthermore, one more distinctive
and nature. Nature seems hostile to man: lakes feature of Nganasan fairy tale is characters’
try to suck a human to the bottom, endless empty amenability and external absence of conflict: a
clay soils force a way worn man to run the tired Nganasan hero often does not directly oppose his
deer in search of food, mosquitoes do not give a torment, injustice and ill-treatment, but prefers to
person any chance to relax. People, in turn, do accumulate anger with the abuser quietly, waiting
not fight nature, do not try to alter it, and instead for the right moment for revenge or the moment
of this they try to persuade it not to be so cruel, when the very fate will avenge the hero’s injuries
to appease it, to give it any gifts, trade with it (one part of the legend of “Seu Meliangana”).
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 Alexandra A. Sitnikova. Nganasan Children Literature: History and Specifics

6. Many Nganasan fairy tales, like fairy language; they are not translated, and in texts
tales of other peoples of the world, embody the there are incomprehensible to the reader words,
history of the appearance of certain realities if the reader is unfamiliar with the northern way
on the Earth, that means they are to explain of life. For instance, these words are argishit’
the children the reasons for the existence of (to roam on a sledge with deer), argish (nomadic
certain phenomena, often specific to tundra wagon), vazhenka (female reindeer). Other
climate. These are the stories about the origin of features of storytelling concerning Nganasan
mosquitoes (“The Tale of Siga-cannibal”), the epic tales also left their mark on the specifics
reasons why the wolves eat deer (“The Tale of the of the literary version of Nganasan fairy tales:
Cowardly Deer”), white spots on the fox’s neck, for example, their written form often has forms
etc. from the colloquial language (simple, naïve
Apart from the morphological analysis, turns of speech speed) like “well”, “what”, etc.;
identifying key characters and motifs of Nganasan even reading the written variant one can gain a
fairy tales the researchers need to pay attention to clear sense that the fairy tale is told live  – by a
the lexical and syntactical specifics of Nganasan performer. This sense is created by the frequent
fairy tales. Many realities of Nganasan daily life presence of such vernacular phrases as slushai-
and culture do not have analogues in the Russian ka (encouraging to listen), a sam-to kak dumaesh’
(what do you think yourself?) and other similar
phrases.

Conclusion
Thus, the present study attempted to identify
the specifics of Nganasan children’s literature
as previously there was a virtual absence of the
scientific literature in reference to the subject. As
a result, it was found that Nganasan children’s
literature was formed as a separate phenomenon in
Soviet times, during the “gathering” and recording
Fig. 2. Illustration for “The Tale of Siga-cannibal” by in the written form of fairy tales of the indigenous
V.N. Losin peoples of the North and Siberia. The origin of
Nganasan children’s literature is mythological
national epic stories (sitaby) and historical tales
of the Nganasan people (diurymy). Despite the
procession of folk sources in writing, children’s
literature has retained some of the features of the
Nganasan narrative tradition: colloquial character,
unique words from the Nganasan language, which
denote the realities of the North, “naïve” appeals
to listeners, etc. Besides this, fairy tales partly
reflect axiology of the Nganasan people: the most
Fig. 3. Illustration for “The Tale of the Cowardly Deer” important human qualities are the ability to move
by V.N. Losin quickly across the tundra, to wander in search of
– 2009 –
 Alexandra A. Sitnikova. Nganasan Children Literature: History and Specifics

the best places; the ability to persuade nature, to and nature in full: most of nature phenomena are
“bargain” with it in an attempt to win a better lot; hostile to man and wish the death of people (like
the ability to hide and wait for the right moment the moon, lakes, rivers, ice, etc.), so a human has
(often for many years) like in the case of enmity to constantly bring gifts to nature for the sake of
and successive revenge. Fairy tales disclose the haggling over the very chance to survive on the
nature of the relationship between the Nganasans Earth.

1
Translator’s note: one Russian sagene is old measure of distance equal to 2,13 m.

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Нганасанская детская литература:

история и специфика

А.А. Ситникова
Сибирский федеральный университет
Россия, 660041, Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 79

В статье представлены результаты исследования нганасанских детских сказок. Раскрыта

история происхождения нганасанских детских сказок от мифологических эпических сказаний
народа (ситабов) и из исторических национальных преданий (дюрымы). Апробирована
возможность приложения морфологического и семантического анализа для понимания
нганасанских сказок, в результате чего описаны отдельные аспекты мироотношения
нганасанского народа, а также морально-ценностные установки, которые транслируются
детской литературой подрастающему поколению.
Ключевые слова: литература коренных малочисленных народов Севера, мифология коренных
малочисленных народов Севера, нганасанский фольклор, мифология нганасан, ситабы,
нганасанские сказки, мироотношение нганасан.
Работа выполнена в связи с проектом «Создание корпуса текстов для детей на родных
языках (эвенкийский, ненецкий, нганасанский, долганский) как способ сохранения уникального
культурного наследия коренных малочисленных народов Красноярского края», поддержанным
Красноярским краевым фондом науки.
Научная специальность: 24.00.01 – теория и история культуры.