ABSTRACT
The Nenets people live in the far north of the Russian Federation. A small number of the Nenets reached the Kol’sky peninsula, the northern parts of the Komi Autonomous National District, and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous National District. Linguistically and culturally the Nenets are related to other inhabitants of the circumpolar area of Eurasia, known by the general name Samoyed: Sel’kup, the Nganasan, and the Enets. There are different hypotheses on the etymology of the term Samoyed referring to the Nenets and their linguistic and cultural relatives. Besides a clan name individual Nenets have a variety of other names signifying their various identities. Modem standard Nenets-Yurak was codified by Georgy Prokofiev and his colleagues in the Institute of Northern Peoples in Leningrad in the early 1930s. Nenets treat their tundra as a huge spacious home which they endeavour to save for future generations. They know every comer of their land and regard themselves as the guardians of the region’s resources.
