The term Samoyed

The term Samoyed was a Russian collective name for several ethnic groups, not just Nenets. There were, for example: Nenets, Enets, Naganasans, Sellkupers, (Ostijak Samoyeds), Sayans, Mansi and others. There have been many different explanations regarding the meaning of the term Samoyed. We have also understood that the people themselves do not want to be called Samoyed, but to be categorized according to their real nationality. Below are some excerpts from this discussion in the FB group Samoyed History.

Debby JahnkeStor: The derogatory translation is incorrect and there was a discussion less than 5 years ago. The translation is wrong, not meaning self eater or cannibal... but meaning self sufficient or not needing outside there own for their livelihood which does not have a corredponding word. So self feeder is closer to correct and not eater. I met some Russian students at UW-Green Bay. They were all over my Samoyed. They came back no less than 5 times and stated they knew of these dogs but have never touched one before. 

Sarah de Monchy: To broaden the perspective I suggest to take a look at the text of this article published in 1895. Arthur Montefiore F.G.S., F.R.G.S.: Notes on the Samoyads of the Great Tundra"The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland", Vol. XXIV, 1895. Here is the url of the page on the oldsams.info website where you find a set of old articles on expeditions and research, of which this article is number 4 in the row from left to right: https://www.oldsams.info/.../polar/polarframeset_NL.html 

David-Kirsten Fischer: Etymologists don't even agree that it is a derogatory name. There are others who take the position that Samoyed comes from the expression 'same-edne' meaning "Land of the Saams."If you try to research this topic you'll find a handful of extremely scant references which seem unclear and divided on the origin of the term. To me that is hardly the basis for changing the name of an entire dog breed.It also seems like an instance of being offended on behalf of people who will never know or care. You can probably count on zero fingers the number of ethnic Nenet people who are involved in breeding Samoyeds as we know them today, and who take umbrage with the term.Even if Samoyed is some ancient derogatory term, it seems like it isn't doing anyone any real harm outside the realm of the hypothetical.

Don Duncan: Many years ago I had a conversation with Russian crew member on one of boats I worked on. He said Samoyed was more a term of respect and meant "Self Feeder" in that the Samoyed People were able to be self sufficient and survive in a hostile environment by "living off the land".

Hannie Wink: In the article "SAMOYEDS: THEN AND NOW" by Helen Newman she writes:

"What we think of today as "Samoyeds people" were not originally called that term, but it was a term the Russians used to group people who's language was the same or very similar."

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica linguists are grouping the Samoyedic languages into north and south Samoyed divisions.

"North Samoyed languages are spoken by the Nenets, Enets, and Nganasan, although the Nenets language has been much influenced by contact with the Komi. The south Samoyed division is represented by the language of the Selkup and also by that of the Kamasin people who inhabit the Sayan uplands of south-central Siberia. Many scholars believe the Sayan region to have been the ancestral homeland of the Samoyed-speaking peoples of today."

About the places the different Samoyed people live the Encyclopedia writes:

"The Nenets (Samoyed) form the largest of the indigenous groups of northwestern Siberia and are distributed over an area of forest and tundra that extends from the White Sea in the west to the Yenisey River in the east. They were traditionally divided into the tundra Nenets, reindeer pastoralists who migrated with their herds between the tundra and forest margins, and the much less numerous forest Nenets, with an economy based on hunting and fishing combined with small-scale and intensive reindeer husbandry. Closely related to the Nenets are the Nganasan (Tavgi Samoyed), inhabitants of the Taymyr Peninsula to the east of the Yenisey; and the Enets (Yenisey Samoyed), who occupy the basins of the Taz and Turukhan rivers and the lower reaches of the Yenisey. The Nganasan are notable for having preserved well into the 20th century a mode of livelihood focused on the hunting of wild reindeer, while they also kept herds of domestic deer for transport and for use in the chase. The Enets also traditionally combined wild reindeer hunting, domestic reindeer husbandry, and fishing.

The Khant (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul) are two closely related groups inhabiting the low-lying swamp and forest country around the Ob River and its tributaries. Their economy was traditionally based on hunting and fishing, but they adopted reindeer husbandry from the Nenets about the 15th century. The Selkup (Ostyak Samoyed), though related to the Nenets in language, were in their traditional economy very similar to their Khant neighbours. They were hunters and fishermen living within the forested regions of the Ob basin. In the 17th century some Selkup migrated northward to the Taz and Turukhan rivers. Only these latter, the so-called "northern Selkup", kept reindeer, which were used solely for transport."

When I read this, it reminds me of what Mrs. Kilburn Scott said about the blacks and their parti-colours : "Most certainly, when it does appear, there is a cross somewhere in the ancestry, most likely from an Ostiak dog." I think she meant the dogs of the Selkup (Ostyak Samoyed). The standard says also "in the northern parts the dogs were pure white".

About the way of living the Encyclopedia writes:

"There are two basic forms of reindeer husbandry, corresponding respectively to the boreal forest and the tundra. The open terrain of the tundra permits the supervision of large herds, and these generally migrate with their herdsmen between winter pastures within the margins of the forest and summer pastures out on the tundra. Such pastoralism therefore entails fairly extended nomadic movements, sometimes over hundreds of miles. Peoples that practice this form of husbandry include the mountain Saami and tundra Nenets in the west and the inland Chukchi and Koryak in the east. They differ in that the western groups use herding dogs, whereas the eastern groups do not. Techniques of herding that involve the use of drift nets and surrounds are clearly derived from the prepastoral hunting of wild reindeer (still practiced in the 20th century by the Nganasan). A few trained animals are kept for transport purposes, the reindeer being harnessed to the sledge in place of the dog. But the majority of animals are kept for their meat, fat, and hides and are scarcely tame."