Kumandins

The Kumandins (also Kumandy, Kumanda, Qumandy, Qumanda) are an indigenous people of southern Siberia. They reside mainly in the Altai Republic. Their language is related to the Turkic Uigur language of the Karluk branch.

According to the 1926 census in the territory of Russia lived 6,335 Kumandy. In the 2002 census, the number was only 3,114, but possibly the number of the 1926 census also included some related peoples. A part of Kumandy living on the banks of river Biya from river Kuu (Swan, Russ. "Lebed") downstream, almost to the city of Biysk, and also along the lower course of the river Katun by the present time (1969) conflated with the local Russian population.[1].

Ethnic background

Kumandy is a branch of the historical Kumans that fled to the Altai mountains, and found shelter by joining with the local people as a separate seok. In the 17th century, before migrating to Altai, Kumandy lived along the river Charysh, near its confluence with the river Ob. Their relocation was driven by their unwillingness to pay yasak tribute to the Russian sovereign.[2] N.Aristov linked Kumandy and their clan Chelkandy with the descendants of the ancient Türks (Modern Chinese Pinyin Tujue 突 厥 ), "who in the 6th-8th cc. CE created in the Central Asia a powerful nomadic state, which received in history a name Türkic Kaganate".[3][4] The ancient Türkic legend recorded in the Chinese Zhoushu annals (周書, 636 AD) tells about the origin of the ancestors of the ancient Türks from a state or possession So, located north of the Huns [5][6]. N.Aristov asserted: "Possession So, laying in the north from the Hun country, i.e. from the present Mongolia, should be on the northern side of Altai mountains, for its southern slopes were part of the Hun lands... From that, with sufficient reliability can be concluded that the legendary forefather of the Türks descended from the tribe So that lived in the northern Altai, and that the clan So is a small remainder of that, probably not too small tribe during the prehistoric times".[7][8] The people of the seok Soky (So, Sola) that amalgamated with Kumandy and Kachins had common historically well-known ancestors called Kumans (Kuban); O.Pritsak stipulated that the term "Kuman" in the Kumandy name is identical to the (Russian) name Polovets and Kypchak [9][10] O.Pritsak also identified the Soo with the Saha, a self-name of Yakuts, and with the ethnonym Sagai, Sakai [11]

The "Kumans (Kuban) belonged to the Kuman-Kipchak confederation(Polevetses of the Rus annals or Comans of the Byzantian sources, Folban of the German annals) during the period from the end of the 800's to 1230's CE spread their political influence in the broad steppes from Altai to Crimea and Danube. Irtysh with its adjoining steppes (at least below the lake Zaisan) was in the sphere of that confederation. Members of the confederation undoubtedly also were the ancestors of the present Kumandy and Teleuts, which is evidenced by their language that like the language of the Tobol and Barabinsk Tatars belongs to the Kypchak group." [12]

The name of the seok Ton is explained as an ethnonym that reflects their economic specialization, as a word meaning "deer" and "reindeer breeder". The remote ancestors of this Kumandy seok Ton were reindeer breeders, reflected in Kumandy hunting legends and fairy tales, for example about milking deers (which is attributed to the Kumandy's mountain spirits). The memory about breeding and milking reindeer belongs to some remote historical ancestors of a part of Kumandy, they can be explained by participation in the Kumandy ethnogenesis of the southern Nenets tribes, who cultivated riding deers, typically used not only for transport, but also for food and dress.[13]

The Northern Altaians, especially Kumandy and Shors, display a commonality of anthropological type by their metric and descriptive attributes not with the Southern Altaians, but with the Ob Ugrians: Khanty and Mansi. The Mongoloid admixture in their Caucasoid phenotype is much less pronounced than of the Southern Altaians. The Northern Altaians anthropologically belong, together with a number of Ugrian and Nenets nations, to the Uralic type.[14] Ethnologically, the Kumandy seoks have their own origination myths, from which L.Potapov concluded that they are an amalgamation of people with different backgrounds: pastoral steppe nomads (Kumans), taiga foor hunters (Chabash/Chabat), deer pastoralists (Nenetses), and a fishing tribe (Tastars).[15]

Kumandy consisted of six seoks [16], which L.Potapov identified ethnically:

No Kumandy Seok Name Annalistic Name Ethnic and linguistic affiliation Period Note
1 So So/Se/Sek/Saka Parental tribe of the Ancient Türks prior to 4th c. CE [17]
2 Kubandy Kuman/Cuman/Kuban/Kun (Hung.) Appear after disintegration of the Kangar state 7th c. CE [18]
3 Tastar Kuman/Cuman/Kuban/Kun (Hung.); Ases Appear after disintegration of Kangar state 7th c. CE [19]
4 Diuty (Chooty) Tele/Teleuts Tele/Teleuts were members of the Türkic Kaganate 6th-8th c. CE [20]
5 Chabash (Chabat) Unknown Unknown Unknown [21]
6 Ton (Ton-Kubandy) Nenets tribe Altai-kiji seok Tongjoan, Tuvinian group Tongak of unknown extraction 12th c. CE in "Secret history of Mongols" [22]

References

  1. ^ Potapov L.P., "Ethnic composition and origin of Altaians. Historical ethnographical essay", p. 21
  2. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 56-59
  3. ^ Aristov N.A., "Notes on ethnic composition of Türkic tribes and nations"//Olden Times Alive, 1896, v. 3-4, p. 341
  4. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 14, 53
  5. ^ Liu Mau-tsai, "Die chinesischen Nachrichten zur Geschichte der Ost-Türken (T'uküe)", vol. 1, p. 5-6, vol. 2, p. 489-490, Wiesbaden, 1958
  6. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 53
  7. ^ Aristov N.A., Ibid, Vol. 3-4, p. 279
  8. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 54
  9. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 58
  10. ^ Pritsak O., "Stammesnamen und Titulaturen der altaischen Volker. Ural-Altaische JahrMcher", Bd. 24, 1952, Sect. 1-2, pp. 49-104
  11. ^ Pritsak О. "Das Abakan- und Čulymtürkische und das Schorische"//Jean Deny et al. (Hrsg.): Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta, Wiesbaden, 1959, p. 600
  12. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 59
  13. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 60, 61
  14. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 19
  15. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 47, 62, 54, 60 respectively
  16. ^ W.Radloff "Aus Sibirien", Bd. 1, p. 212
  17. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 58
  18. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 54
  19. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 60
  20. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 14, 59
  21. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 62
  22. ^ Potapov L.P., Ibid, p. 60

See also

Italics indicate extinct languages
Oghur
Uyghuric
Old Turkic · Aini1 · Chagatai · Ili Turki · Lop · Uyghur · Uzbek
Kypchak
Oghuz
Arghu
Siberian
1 Mixed language.   2 Also Oghuz.   3 Classification disputed.