ABSTRACT
In Nenets culture, as in most others, women’s behaviour is closely regulated by a system of prohibitions. Thus it is forbidden for a woman to step over tools, or equipment used in reindeer-breeding, reindeer harnesses, and lassos for catching reindeer, nor may she step over men or children. If she comes across bear tracks on the road, she may not cross them, but she must efface the tracks from the road; only then may she continue on her way. A woman may not take part in sacrifices, and she may not visit sacred sites. She is forbidden to cut through the spine of certain kinds of fish. Ethnographers have repeatedly pointed out the existence of these regulations in their works (see e.g. E. Atsusi 1997: 177–79, Golovnev 1995: 212–19; Lekhtisalo 1998: 90–91; Kharyuchi 2001: 155–58; Khomich 1966: 185–86, 1988: 75, 1995: 195–96; Kostikov 1930: 40–41; Verbov 1937). Indeed, commentators invariably noted these rules straight away, as women were sometimes so obviously inconvenienced by observing them:
More than once we happened to notice how a woman leading an anas (a convoy of sleighs) had to mend a harness that had broken en route. She kept going round from one side of the sleigh to the other, never stepping on the traces, but instead she always crawling under them and passing them over her head.
(Kostikov 1930: 40) The oddity of women’s behaviour was striking, and for this reason not just ethnographers, but almost all travellers who have come into contact with this people have noticed the existence of particular rules for women in Nenets culture (see e.g. Pallas 1788: 94; Lepekhin 1805: 115; Islavin 1847: 25–33; Shrenk 1855: 407; Kastren 1860: 312).