| Summary: | TheKhants inhabit the area of the western Siberia in the basin of the river Ob and its tributaries, administratively belonging to the Tlumen region. In the two autonomous districts, Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets, lives the absolute majority of the Khants. The 1979 census estimated their number to 21 000. The Soviet literatuře divides the Khants to three groups; one of them being the Northern Khants - mostly reindeer herders. The oldest account of the Ob-Ugrians - the Khants and the Mansi ~ we find in the Nestor Chronicle. In the western Siberia there existed two types of transport- the dog teams were ušed by the Khants, the reindeer teams by the Samoyedic groups (for example the Nenets). The question of the time when the Northern Khants started the reindeer herding has not been resolvedyet. During the field research realized in theyears 1996, 1997 and 1999 during my stay with the Maksar family I háve studied the problems concerning the reindeers and the contemporary life in the Khanty community after the disintegration of the USSR. The everyday activity in the camp is centered around the reindeer. The camp moves periodically, depending upon the quantity of the pasture for the reindeer. The Khants can be described as „ seasonal pastoralists “ that every year leave from their point of departure, the community of Pitljar, to places chosen in advance, located in a precisely demarcated area, in summer in tundra, in winter in taiga. In summer the moving of the camp takés plače more often, approximately every fourteen days, in winter the Khants move three or four times altogether at the most. For the moving of the camp they use reindeer team and two types of sled, riding and cargo sled.
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