Links to Articles

* The Ewenki Ethnic Minority by China.org.cn

* The Evenks by the Peoples of the Red Book

* Evenki Autonomous District by Scott Polar Research Institute

* Evenki Reindeer Herding: A History by N.V. Ermolova

* Satisfying Your Ancestral Appetite by Catherine Zandonella

* Origin and Affinities of Indigenous Siberian Populations as Revealed by HLA Class II Gene Frequencies by T. S. Uinuk-Ool, et al. 

* mtDNA Variation of Aboriginal Siberians Reveals Distinct Genetic Affinities with Native Americans by Antonio Torroni, et al.

* Basal Metabolic Adaptation of the Evenki Reindeer Herders of Central Siberia by V.A. Galloway.

* Nutrition, Thyroid Function and Basal Metabolism of the Evenki of Central Siberia by W. R. Leonard, et al.

* Population Distributions of APOE, APOH, and APOA4 Polymorphisms and Their Relationships with Quantitative Plasma Lipid Levels Among the Evenki Herders of Siberia by M. I. Kamboh, et al. 

* The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols by Tatiana Zerjal, et al

* The Reindeer People by NPR

 

Tungusic Peoples

The term Tungusic peoples is used to describe peoples speaking a Tungusic language. The largest of the Tungusic peoples are the Manchu who are around 10,000,000 in number. They are originally from Northeast China (Manchuria), but since they conquered China in the 1600s, and especially during the 1900s, they have almost totally been assimilated into the main Han Chinese population, though are often still living in northern China.

 

 

The flag of Evenk Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Federation is a horizontal tricolor of light blue, white, and dark blue, all of which stand for the polar days and nights in Northern Siberia. It is charged in the center by a red kumalan, the solar emblem in Evenki culture.

 

Official Website of Evenkiysky Municipal District (in Russian)

 

The State Museum of Ethnology in Ulan Ude

capital of the Buryat Autonomous Republic in eastern Siberia

 

Forest Peoples Project

 

Photographs of Evenks by ArticPhoto.co.uk

 

Man, God and Magic by Ivar Lissner

 

Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia by Piers Vitebsky

 

Evenks domicile - Evenks home in ethnographic museum in Ulan Ude, Russia.

 

 

EVENKI

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

The Evenks or Evenki (obsolete: Tungus or Tunguz, autonym: Эвэнки, Evenki) are a nomadic Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks (Russian: Эвенки, Evenki; pop. 35,527, 2002 Census), are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North. In China, the Evenki (鄂温克族; pop. 30,505, as per 2000 Census) form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There is also a small Evenki group of Manchu-Tungus origin in Mongolia, referred to as Khamnigan. Evenki people is related to Altaic people of Eurasia.

 

Origin

The Evenki or Ewenki traced back to the Shiwei people who inhabited the Greater Khingan Range in the 5-9th centuries, but such connection is merely conjectural. Ewenki language forms the northern branch of the Manchu-Tungusic language group and is closely related to Even and Negidal in Siberia. By 1600 the Ewenkis or Evenkis of the Lena and Yenisey valleys were successful reindeer herders. By contrast the Solons and the Khamnigans (Ewenkis of Transbaikalia) had picked up horse breeding and the Mongolian deel from the Mongols. The Solons (ancestors of the Evenkis in China) nomadized along the Amur River. They were closely related to the Daur people. To the west the Khamnigan were another horse breeding Evenkis in the Transbaikalia area. Also in the Amur valley a body of Siberian Evenki-speaking people called Orochen by the Manchus.

 

Historical Distribution

The Evenks have most likely been in the Baikal region of Southern Siberia (near the modern-day Mongolian border) since the Neolithic era; "The origin of the Evenks is the result of complex processes, different in time, involving the mixing of different ancient aboriginal tribes from the north of Siberia with tribes…related in language to the Turks and Mongols. The language of these tribes took precedence over the languages of the aboriginal population" (Vasilevich, 623). Elements of more modern Evenk culture, including conical tent dwellings, bone fish-lures, and birch-bark boats, were all present in sites that are believed to be Neolithic. From Lake Baikal, “they spread to the Amur and Okhotsk Sea…the Lena Basin…and the Yenisey Basin” (623).

 

Contact with Russians

In the 17th century, the Russian empire began to expand enough to contact the remote Evenkis. Cossacks, men who served as a kind of “border-guard” for the tsarist government, imposed a fur tax on the Siberian tribes. The Cossacks exploited the Evenki clan hierarchy and took hostages from the highest members in order to ensure payment of the tax. Although there was some rebellion against local officials, the Evenks generally recognized the “great need of peaceful cultural relations with the Russians (624). Contact with the Russians and constant demand for fur taxes pushed the Evenkis east all the way to Sakhalin Peninsula, where some still live today (Cassell’s). In the 19th, some groups migrated south and east into Mongolia and Manchuria (Vasilevich, 625). Today there are still Evenki populations in Sakhalin, Mongolia, and Manchuria (Ethnologue), and to a lesser extent, their traditional Baikal region (Janhunen).

 

Evenki Language

Evenki language (sometimes incorrectly called Evenk language) is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungusic languages or Manchu-Tunguz languages).

It is spoken by Evenks in Russia, Mongolia, and People's Republic of China. According to the 2002 Russian Census, it has 7,584 speakers.

The basic vocabulary and inflectional morphemes have almost nothing in common with the Mongolian and the Turkic languages, with which the Tungusic languages are sometimes popularly connected. In certain areas the influences of the Yakut and the Buryat languages are particularly strong. The influence of Russian in general is overwhelming (in 1979, 75.2 % of the Evenkis spoke Russian, rising to 92.7% in 2002). The Evenki language varies considerably among its dialects which are divided into three large groups: the northern, the southern and the eastern dialects. These are further divided into minor dialects. The written language based on the Cyrillic alphabet was created in the late 1920s for Evenkis living in the Soviet Union. In China, Evenki is written in the Mongolian alphabet.