Polygamy among indigenous people of northern West Siberia in ethnographic and early census materials

Abstract

This article may be the first comprehensive work on polygamous families among the Yamal indigenous nomadic people. Based on the analyses of ethnographic descriptions, early census materials, Polar census (1926–27) and Yamal (Nenets) okrug census (1932–33) it focuses on how polygamous families were registered in censuses; their composition, ethnicity and economy and most important: why did polygamy exist in a society with a demographic shortage of women?

I argue that region's remoteness, Russian state politics and slow advances of the Russian Orthodox Church into the region helps explain the late existence of polygamous families. According to our data, there were up to 6,5 % polygamous families of reindeer herders in Yamal even in the early-mid 1930s.

I argue that polygamy in the Yamal area was not primarily an ethnic or religious issue. It connected to the household's main occupation - reindeer herding, a nomadic way of life and was a distinct marker of wealth before the social changes started in early 1930s.

Analyses of the fourteen polygamous families show that they were significantly larger than the average 5,5 members in the Yamal nomadic households; men were married to two women one of which was notably older, likely the widow of older late brother. I also advocate the opinion that polygamy in the north could be considered as a system of social security for women in general and widows in particular. Only genuine appreciation and general acceptance of the tradition, which let some men have more than one wife while depriving others of any hope of having their own family and children, could make this phenomenon last for centuries.

Keywords:

• Arctic polygamy
• Early census in Yamal
• Polar Census
• Yamal Okrug census

Acknowledgements

The author is thankful to the anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions and also grateful to Dr Igor Krupnik of the Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian Institution who kindly sent me the Okrug census materials, inspired me to use them, made valuable comments and improved my English.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Among others Alekseeva (2006); Antropova, Bogoraz, Popov, Vasil'eva, as cited in Kolomiets (2012), Krupnik and Chlenov (2013), Levin and Potapov (1956).