ABSTRACT
The Ket people and their linguistic cousins—the Iughs, Kotts, Assans, Arins, and Pumpokols—are the earliest ethnically-identifiable inhabitants across the upper and middle watershed of the Enisei River (Figure 14.1). Numbering today no more than 1,200, the Kets are the sole survivors from among these formerly widespread tribes. Settled in Russian-style villages since the mid-20th century, they retain only remnants of their traditional culture and are in imminent danger of losing their language. Sparsely populating one of the world’s most remote areas, the Kets are largely unnoticed by the outside world. Central Siberia is populated today chiefly by Russians, who live alongside several small Turkic, Tungusic and Samoedic minorities—the neighbours of the Kets in pre-Russian Siberia. Though not the first and certainly not the largest native group to occupy the taiga forests along the Enisei or its tributaries, it is the Kets who have imparted to the region much of its underlying ethno-geographic flavour. Subtle echoes of their traditional culture have left an indelible imprint on wide expanses of territory stretching from the Altai-Saian Mountains downriver along the Enisei as far north as the Arctic Circle. This vast and rich, yet isolated and often inhospitable, territory becomes unexpectedly familiar when viewed through the multifaceted prism of the original Ket world-view. Map of Siberian peoples. (Map drawn by Alison Sandison.) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315425658/ce6dfa8a-0f5b-4ae5-91f6-2b337f219842/content/fig14_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
