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Aug. 31st, 2010 01:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonflower77i've been going through some lecture materials on native siberian tribes, especially the nenets, and this gave me some interesting ideas.
one thing i found very interesting is the nenets naming system. in the past, the nenets were given two or more first names, and in most areas this is still practiced today. the most important of these names is called the 'true' or 'sacred' name (nenay nyum). such names are nenets in origin, but do not seem to have any discernible etymology and cannot be translated. some have a structure that is untypical for the nenets language, and are more similar to the names or nicknames found in palaeoasiatic languages, such as chukchi or yupik. it is said that they are usually given to honor the memory of one's ancestors – a boy is named after his grandfather, while a girl is named after her grandmother. at the same time, 'sacred' names tend to be remarkably diverse; in one sample of 390 names, recorded around the town of purov, only a handful recurred twice or thrice. the second name is the nickname or descriptive name (perabts). it can be based on prominent personality traits, physical features, circumstances of one's birth, (un)luckiness, etc. examples could be nekutya (little girl), neko (girl), serhasava (white-haired one, blonde), piribtye (maiden, young woman), mayda (lame one, one who limps), nyutskhe (infant), vesako (little old man), edey hasava (a new man), pirtsyako (tall child), hasavaka (little man), mebeta (strong one), seenyangy iri (the grandfather who lives at the back of the tent), tar'' iri (the bearded grandfather), ngaby iri (the terrible grandfather), halya hada (the grandmother who has fish), igarka hada (the elder grandmother) and others. these names are derived directly from other words, and thus are easily translatable. finally, most nenets also have a russian name, usually of greek origin, which was given to them by the priest at baptism, or, possibly, by the registrar, if the parents were reluctant to give the baby a native name or refused to share it.
among the examples given was an inhabitant of the nenets village yarsale, viktor pavlovich vanuyto (of the vanuyta clan). apart from the russian orthodox name, he also has a native nenets name or nickname, yabko. it is a diminutive derived from the word 'yab', meaning 'good luck', and was given to him because his father caught a fox at the time when he was born. his wife has a russian name, lyubov or lyuba, and a nenets name, vata-ne, meaning 'redundant one, one who is not wanted'. it was given to her because she was the eleventh child to be born in her family. her husband avoids using this name due to its unpleasant implications and prefers to address her by her russian name instead, though they speak nenets among themselves. another nenets man, alexander serotetta (of the serotetta clan) has both a russian name and a nenets name, antyam ('crybaby'), given to him because he used to cry a lot as a child. he also has a 'sacred name' which he refused to mention with his younger relatives present, and which appears to have been unknown even to his wife. another nenets woman explained, when asked about her name: 'my nenets name, umy, means 'kiss'. it was my elder brother who gave it to me. my mother was chopping firewood out in the street and crying, and my brother said that i kept kissing her, but she continued to cry. this is why i was named umy. later i was registered under the name galina.'
some nenets refuse to give their name(s) altogether. for instance, a man known as varyuchi hudi (of the hudi clan) and his wife were eager to discuss various topics with the visiting ethnographer, but whenever it came to their names, he would say he was tired and no longer wanted to speak. the russian principal of the secondary school at the salemal village used to say that the children there 'do not know the names of their own parents': 'normally, they won't stop talking, but as soon as you ask them what their father's or mother's names are, they fall silent. it's as if they did not know or were afraid to tell.'
it used to be forbidden to use the 'true' or 'sacred' name in everyday conversation. the only ones who could use each other's true names freely were small children; likewise, the senior members of a family could sometimes call the junior ones by their true name. in other cases the descriptive nickname was used as a substitute. members of the same family normally addressed one another using the usual terms of relation, e.g. neesya - dad/father, nebya - mom/mother etc., and it was also possible to refer to someone's children or grandchildren, in case their names still hadn't become forbidden, e.g. tetako-neesya (tetako’s father), tetako-nebya (tetako’s mother), hasavako-iri (hasavako’s grandfather), ser'' ne' hada (grandmother of the girl named serne), etc.
it seems that the ban on using one's 'sacred' or 'true' name was based on the belief that a name is integral to one's identity, which is by no means exclusive to the nenets. in many cultures a name, like a voodoo doll, is thought to contain something essential to one's being - a shred of one's soul, as it were - which may be manipulated, harmed or destroyed if it falls into the wrong hands. if overheard by an enemy, a name may be used to hurt its owner. therefore, birth names are substituted with vivid descriptive nicknames, which are seen as 'safe'. another reason is that, for the nenets, the shift in name usage may have been part of their initiation into adulthood. their true names usually became forbidden when they were on their way to becoming adults, that is, around 8-9 years of age, and this may have been a sign that other people had acknowledged the transition. using somebody's true name, then, would mean forcing them back into the status of a child, failing to notice, as it were, that they had become a fully fledged member of the community (or even a full human being, if children were looked down on and considered in some sense subhuman until their initiation). finally, some scholars think that in the most recent times this has become a matter of simple politeness. the taboo on addressing someone by their 'true'/'sacred' name may not have its original meaning anymore, but doing so still signals gross rudeness and disrespect. the rough equivalent could be addressing a stranger, a senior person or a person in a superior social position by first name alone, rather than by first name and patronymic (for a russian speaker) or by surname (for an english spaker); using the 'tu' form of 'you' in the same situation (for speakers of most slavic or romance languages); or, for most europeans, addressing a close family member by first name (in some anglophone families children do seem to call their parents by first name and it is considered more or less acceptable, but it would be utterly inappropriate, say, among russians).
this custom is currently being eroded. in some areas, nicknames and 'true names' are used alongside one another, without any distinction between these two types. in other areas, nicknames reserved for children, whereas adults are addressed by their russian names or 'true names', which are no longer seen as taboo. younger people are still expected not to call those who are older or more respectable than themselves by first name; instead, they have to use the appropriate term of relation (when speaking to a member of their own family) or refer to that person as the relative of a small child (when speaking to outsiders). at this point, of course, this is more about social politeness than anything else.
one thing i found very interesting is the nenets naming system. in the past, the nenets were given two or more first names, and in most areas this is still practiced today. the most important of these names is called the 'true' or 'sacred' name (nenay nyum). such names are nenets in origin, but do not seem to have any discernible etymology and cannot be translated. some have a structure that is untypical for the nenets language, and are more similar to the names or nicknames found in palaeoasiatic languages, such as chukchi or yupik. it is said that they are usually given to honor the memory of one's ancestors – a boy is named after his grandfather, while a girl is named after her grandmother. at the same time, 'sacred' names tend to be remarkably diverse; in one sample of 390 names, recorded around the town of purov, only a handful recurred twice or thrice. the second name is the nickname or descriptive name (perabts). it can be based on prominent personality traits, physical features, circumstances of one's birth, (un)luckiness, etc. examples could be nekutya (little girl), neko (girl), serhasava (white-haired one, blonde), piribtye (maiden, young woman), mayda (lame one, one who limps), nyutskhe (infant), vesako (little old man), edey hasava (a new man), pirtsyako (tall child), hasavaka (little man), mebeta (strong one), seenyangy iri (the grandfather who lives at the back of the tent), tar'' iri (the bearded grandfather), ngaby iri (the terrible grandfather), halya hada (the grandmother who has fish), igarka hada (the elder grandmother) and others. these names are derived directly from other words, and thus are easily translatable. finally, most nenets also have a russian name, usually of greek origin, which was given to them by the priest at baptism, or, possibly, by the registrar, if the parents were reluctant to give the baby a native name or refused to share it.
among the examples given was an inhabitant of the nenets village yarsale, viktor pavlovich vanuyto (of the vanuyta clan). apart from the russian orthodox name, he also has a native nenets name or nickname, yabko. it is a diminutive derived from the word 'yab', meaning 'good luck', and was given to him because his father caught a fox at the time when he was born. his wife has a russian name, lyubov or lyuba, and a nenets name, vata-ne, meaning 'redundant one, one who is not wanted'. it was given to her because she was the eleventh child to be born in her family. her husband avoids using this name due to its unpleasant implications and prefers to address her by her russian name instead, though they speak nenets among themselves. another nenets man, alexander serotetta (of the serotetta clan) has both a russian name and a nenets name, antyam ('crybaby'), given to him because he used to cry a lot as a child. he also has a 'sacred name' which he refused to mention with his younger relatives present, and which appears to have been unknown even to his wife. another nenets woman explained, when asked about her name: 'my nenets name, umy, means 'kiss'. it was my elder brother who gave it to me. my mother was chopping firewood out in the street and crying, and my brother said that i kept kissing her, but she continued to cry. this is why i was named umy. later i was registered under the name galina.'
some nenets refuse to give their name(s) altogether. for instance, a man known as varyuchi hudi (of the hudi clan) and his wife were eager to discuss various topics with the visiting ethnographer, but whenever it came to their names, he would say he was tired and no longer wanted to speak. the russian principal of the secondary school at the salemal village used to say that the children there 'do not know the names of their own parents': 'normally, they won't stop talking, but as soon as you ask them what their father's or mother's names are, they fall silent. it's as if they did not know or were afraid to tell.'
it used to be forbidden to use the 'true' or 'sacred' name in everyday conversation. the only ones who could use each other's true names freely were small children; likewise, the senior members of a family could sometimes call the junior ones by their true name. in other cases the descriptive nickname was used as a substitute. members of the same family normally addressed one another using the usual terms of relation, e.g. neesya - dad/father, nebya - mom/mother etc., and it was also possible to refer to someone's children or grandchildren, in case their names still hadn't become forbidden, e.g. tetako-neesya (tetako’s father), tetako-nebya (tetako’s mother), hasavako-iri (hasavako’s grandfather), ser'' ne' hada (grandmother of the girl named serne), etc.
it seems that the ban on using one's 'sacred' or 'true' name was based on the belief that a name is integral to one's identity, which is by no means exclusive to the nenets. in many cultures a name, like a voodoo doll, is thought to contain something essential to one's being - a shred of one's soul, as it were - which may be manipulated, harmed or destroyed if it falls into the wrong hands. if overheard by an enemy, a name may be used to hurt its owner. therefore, birth names are substituted with vivid descriptive nicknames, which are seen as 'safe'. another reason is that, for the nenets, the shift in name usage may have been part of their initiation into adulthood. their true names usually became forbidden when they were on their way to becoming adults, that is, around 8-9 years of age, and this may have been a sign that other people had acknowledged the transition. using somebody's true name, then, would mean forcing them back into the status of a child, failing to notice, as it were, that they had become a fully fledged member of the community (or even a full human being, if children were looked down on and considered in some sense subhuman until their initiation). finally, some scholars think that in the most recent times this has become a matter of simple politeness. the taboo on addressing someone by their 'true'/'sacred' name may not have its original meaning anymore, but doing so still signals gross rudeness and disrespect. the rough equivalent could be addressing a stranger, a senior person or a person in a superior social position by first name alone, rather than by first name and patronymic (for a russian speaker) or by surname (for an english spaker); using the 'tu' form of 'you' in the same situation (for speakers of most slavic or romance languages); or, for most europeans, addressing a close family member by first name (in some anglophone families children do seem to call their parents by first name and it is considered more or less acceptable, but it would be utterly inappropriate, say, among russians).
this custom is currently being eroded. in some areas, nicknames and 'true names' are used alongside one another, without any distinction between these two types. in other areas, nicknames reserved for children, whereas adults are addressed by their russian names or 'true names', which are no longer seen as taboo. younger people are still expected not to call those who are older or more respectable than themselves by first name; instead, they have to use the appropriate term of relation (when speaking to a member of their own family) or refer to that person as the relative of a small child (when speaking to outsiders). at this point, of course, this is more about social politeness than anything else.