2020, vol. 8, no. 3. Golovnev A.V.

2020, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 563-577

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-3.563-577

   OSTYAK SEES OSTYAK FROM AFAR: FEW REMARKS ON THE “ISHTYAKS:
THE BORDERLAND BETWEEN THE CIS-URALS AND SIBERIA”

A.V. Golovnev
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), RAS
Belgorod State National Research University
Saint Petersburg, Belgorod, Russian Federation
andrei_golovnev@bk.ru 

Abstract: In this review article, the author summarizes the views expressed in the collected papers of several authors and articulates his own vision on a specific topic. Seeing the authors’ focus on the borderland between the Cis-Urals and Siberia, the reviewer considers it necessary to expand the range of the overview by including into consideration the Ostyak taiga. The number of Bashkir examples cited in the book gives the impression that primarily the Bashkir ethnonymy holds the key to making sense of the Ishtyak phenomenon. In fact, Siberian materials about the “classical Ostyaks” – the taiga peoples of Western and Central Siberia (Khanty, Selkups, and Kets) – are no less important information for the meaning of this ethnonym and the phenomenon of the borderland between the steppe and the forest hidden behind it. If we put together the ethnonymic evidence of the Ishtyaks / Ostyaks from the Nogays to the Khakasses, then the “Ishtyak belt” will stretch “from the Volga to the Yenisei.” Over its supposedly long (pre)history, the word Ishtyak could survive and combine different meanings and shades: “forest people”, “savages”, “northern barbarians”, “foreigners”, “gentiles”, and “tax-payers”. Perhaps the term Ishtyak in the sense of “forest dweller” and “savage” contained implications of “idolatry” at all times. However, this meaning was especially strengthened in the fourteenth century when Nor­thern Eurasia was swept by another wave of geopolitical competition between Christianity and Islam. At a time when theopolitics became the core of the ideology of states and peoples, the confessional aspect of the word Ishtyak became dominant.

Keywords: review, ethnic history, Ural, Siberia, ethnonym, Ishtyak, Ostyak

For citation: Golovnev A.V. Ostyak Sees Ostyak from Afar: Few Remarks on the “Ishtyaks: The Borderland between the Cis-Urals and Siberia”. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie = Golden Horde Review. 2020, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 563–577. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-3.563-577

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About the author: Andrey V. Golovnev – Dr. Sci. (History), Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (3, Universitetskaya Embankment, St. Petersburg 199034, Russian Federation); Belgorod State National Research University (85, Pobeda Str., Belgorod 308015, Russian Federation). E-mail: andrei_golovnev@bk.ru

Received  April 20, 2020   Accepted for publication  August 25, 2020
Published Online  September 29, 2020