THE ORIGINS OF THE SELKUPS IN THE LIGHT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH (ARCHAEOLOGY, GENETICS, LINGUISTICS, HISTORICAL ETHNOGRAPHY)

The present article considers the ethnogenesis of the Selkups from the viewpoint of archaeological, genetic, linguistic and ethnohistorical researches. The authors make an attempt to outline the existing Selkup ethnogenesis theories from different standpoints, avoiding incorrect data interpretations in the related disciplines. The study has revealed that the publications by archaeologists contain two main hypothetical variants of culture genesis for the Middle Ob population. The first one (by L.A. Chindina, A.I. Bobrova, V.A. Mogilnikov) assumes the autochtonous foundation of the Samoyedic (Kulayskiy) entity. Its historical development could have led to the pre-Selkup (Ryelkinskiy) culture formation in the Middle Ob region. According to the second variant (by V.I. Molodin), the Kulayskiy culture is Ugrian, whereas the Ryelkinskiy culture is Ugrian-Samoyedic. V.I. Molodin links the ethnogenesis of the Samoyeds with the Odintsovskiy (upper Ob) culture, located on the territory of the Upper Ob. The review of the existing theories, based on the archaeological materials analysis, leads to the conclusion that the period of 9-14th centuries is extremely significant for the ethnogenesis of the Selkups, although this period is insufficiently covered by archaeological researches. The genetic data suggest that the Selkups could have formed on the basis of the local autochthonous population, formed on the territory under study over 3 thousand years ago. The collected genetic material points to the conclusion that the genetic ancestors of the bulk of the Southern Selkups constantly lived in Narym Priobye (the Narym part of the Ob river). The Southern Selkups gene pool seems to have been formed as a result of integration of the South-Western groups (in the Early Iron Age) and other Western, Southern and Eastern origin groups into an ancient autochthonous component, formed in the Early Iron Age. Thus, the direct genetic ancestors of the major Selkup groups resided on the territory of Narym Priobye even in the pre-Kulayskiy era. Besides, the impact of later migrants on the Southern Selkup gene pool was less significant, than the autochthonous population influence. The linguistic data, conversely, indicate that Priobye could not be considered as the territory of the Early Selkups formation, while offering the options to search the native Selkups dislocation in the more Southerly, South-Easterly direction. It is worth to mention that the analysis of the phonetic changes in the Selkup dialects (by A.P. Dulson, S.V. Glushkov) proved the independent development of the two of the language divisions - the Southern-Selkup and the Central-Selkup right from the Pre-Samoyedic period. This assumption seems to be crucial for understanding the ethnical history of the native Selkup speakers.