ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the Sel'kup traditionally understood their place in the world, with a special focus on the role of different kinds of sacred places and cosmological crossing points' in broader cultural landscape settings. The Sel'kups is indigenous peoples of Siberia who speak one of Samoyedic languages which are part of the Uralic language family. All Sel'kup groups live in areas with a sharply continental climate, with long winters lasting for six to seven months in the Tomsk region and seven to eight months in the Tas-Turukhan region with about one metre of snow. According to Tym Sel'kup view, Num also gives souls to humans through his servants. The Narym Sel'kups thanked Num for successful hunting or fishing. The habitual place of the Sel'kups expanded far beyond their village. It included all places of their hunting, fishing and gathering, cemeteries and all the sacred places in the woods and at the rivers or lakes.
