Introduction

The phenomenon of transition from nomadic to settled way of life is one of the most basic shifts in the culture of a people. As such, it has attracted the attention of ethnologists and cultural anthropologists for a long time. However, this phenomenon is not yet completely researched and the mechanisms occupied in it are not well studied. Therefore, every example of such a transition is important and needs investigation in order to research the whole phenomenon.

The aim of this paper is to discuss one of the examples of this process . the emerging and development of traditional economic complex of one of ethnographic groups of European Nenets . the Kolva Nenets. This still little researched ethnographic group has its localisation in the north of the Komi Republic, Russia, on the middle and low Kolva River, the tributary of Usa, inside the borders of so-called Kolva Volost. This is a place in the forest . tundra zone to the south of the huge tundra belt going from the Pechora River on the west to the Polar Ural mountains on the East (so-called Bolshezemelskaya Tundra . `Tundra of the Big Land'). The group is different to the neighboring Nenets population living in the tundra zone first of all by its settled way of life and the usage of Izhma dialect of Komi language as the first language. Historically, the group of Kolva Nenets derived from the tundra Nenets population in the beginning of 19^th century by the process of sedentarisation. By the second part of this century, when it had abandoned its native Samoyedic language and begun to use the language of the majority population of the forest tundra zone of the region . Izhma Komi, it formed the distinctive ethnographic group, separated from the Tundra Nenets population by the set of cultural, linguistic and economical differences. However, in 1920s, Kolva Nenets still regarded themselves as a part of Nenets people, felt their unity with the tundra population of the Samoyedic origin and directly separated themselves from the Izhma Komi population, whose language they used.

Unfortunately, now this identity as well as the most part of culture of Kolva Nenets is destroyed. This is mostly provoked by the oil and gas drilling started in the region in the second part of 20^th century and the founding of the town of Usinsk connected to it. The appearance of this quite a big industrial town, which was populated mainly by Russians, in the center of the Volost (about 15 km from the village of Kolva) caused a significant change. The ecological and ethnical situation of the region changed and made the preservation of the traditional Kolva Nenets economy as well as many cultural norms impossible. As a result, most part of the population of former Kolva Volost identify itself as Komi and Russians now. In recent ethnographic literature there is even an opinion, that the group has completely disappeared (Komi-zyrjane 1993). However, in the process of writing this article, its author has received a growing set of evidences coming from informants as well as professional ethnographers making their fieldwork in the region, that the people referring to themselves as Kolva Jaran (Kolva Nenets) still exist in the north of the Usinsk region of the Komi Republic and in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. The author is especially grateful to Dr. Tuula Tuisku from the Arctic Research Center, Rovaniemi, Finland for her interesting comments concerning this question. This shows, the modern state of the ethnographic group has to be further researched.

This paper is based on archive materials of 1920s, which can be found in the State Archive of Political Parties and Movements of The Komi Republic (SAPPM). First of all, a very accurate report of observation of Kolva Volost made in 1925 needs to be mentioned (Otchet ob obsledovanii). This report was made by the Komi regional department of the Committee of Assistance to peoples of Northern Regions, also known as the Committee of the North. Since this was an operational document of the Committee, which was not aimed to be published, but to be used as a base for planning of the Committee's activity (the foundation of so-called cultural bases) in the region, it seems like the document must be reliable enough. Besides that, the author of the document is not Komi or Nenets but Russian worker of the Committee and, therefore, his opinion about the cultural position of the Volost tends to be more or less an opinion of an outsider. While this fact is a pity, there is still one serious advantage from it . the opinion of the author cannot be regarded as influenced by Komi or Nenets ethnocentrism and the very complicated interaction between these nations.

Besides this document, two other documents were also used. The first is the report about the activity of the Committee in 1925. This report is written by the Komi department for its main office in Moscow. Since the document was also not written for publishing, but as a source of decision making, it must be reliable enough as well. Some parts of the document can be checked against the first document. The third document is the report about the planned control of the financial activity of the artel Samoyedin. The report was made in 1922 by the financial department of the government of the Komi Autonomous Area (Oblast). The document contains a number of references to its primary sources (bills, financial acts, gross-buchs and so on) and even copies of this sources. All this shows, that the source must be reliable enough.

These sources make it possible to reconstruct an image of the Kolva Nenets way of life in the beginning of 20^th century and give a base to infer about the process of transformation of their culture. Since the history of the Kolva Nenets' culture and cultural transformation is actually the history of sedentarisation, this inferring can illuminate the whole phenomenon of transition from nomadic to settled way of life.

This article starts with the brief description of the history of the Kolva Nenets ethnographic group and its culture and economy in the beginning of 20^th century as they are reflected by the mentioned documents. An attempt to analyse of this data is made in the second part of the article. As a result of this analysis, an image of the transformation of the Kolva Nenets' culture in 19^th century and the first decades of 20^th century is given.

The history of the Kolva Nenets ethnographical group
and its economical and cultural position in the beginning of 20^th century

The history of Kolva Nenets started in the first half of 19^th century. Its origin are connected to the name of well known orthodox Bishop Veniamin, who conducted his missionary activity among Nenets population in 1820. 1840s. In 1827, this bishop founded a church in 20 km from the mouth of Kolva River. The reason for choosing this place for a church for newly baptised Nenets was, that the place was situated on reindeer routs and, therefore, was visited by Nenets at least twice each year (Zherebcov 1991). On the other hand, this place was situated on the border between the tundra, forest tundra and taiga ecological zones, among huge grasslands in the mouth of the river and, therefore, it suited well for permanent dwelling. Immediately after the foundation of the church, two Nenets families founded their permanent houses near it. After some years these families were accompanied by one Komi family and the newly established dwelling got an official name Kolvinskaya Vyselka (later . the village of Kolva) (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 2). It seems like, the emerging of this first settled population of the region was directly connected to the missionary activity. The fact is, that Bishop Veniamin as well as many others orthodox missionaries tried their best to destroy the nomadic way of life among their neophits. Bishop Veniamin himself wrote, that the nomadic way of life makes it impossible for orthodox Nenets to visit church regularly and, therefore, it is a sin. This aspect of the activity of the Bishop Veniamin is mentioned by several authors (Zherebcov 1982, Khomich 1995), but often overlooked in researches while shadowed by the other (progressive) aspects of his missionary activity, e. g. the foundation of Nenets' grammar and the translation of the New Testament on the Nenets language. Of course, these aspects gave a lot to the development of Nenets culture, but we should not forget, that Veniamin was first of all an orthodox missionary and the propaganda of truly Christian way of life in its orthodox sense was his primary goal. Therefore, the settling of Nenets ought to be one of the results of Christianisation and the foundation of the Kolva village was a part of this process.

Although Kolva attracted some part of Tundra Nenets population, in the first half of 19^th century its population grow very slowly. However, in 1860. 1880s, the process of settling of Tundra Nenets in the village significantly accelerated. The surnames of the Kolva's inhabitants became more diverse and by the beginning of 20^th century the dwelling already had all the surnames of European Nenets. The sources mention such surnames as Mohto (which can be defined as a surname of the Valei clan), Sadibej (Sangibej), Hojurov (Hoju), Olim (the Vyuchei clan), Sadej, Narta (the Sadei clan), Manzadej, Palja (the Khatanzei clan) and Hahle, Sando (the Vanoita clan). In this period (i. e. in the beginning of 20^th century) there were 64 households with 300 settled Nenets in the dwelling. Besides that there were also five Komi households (the number of residents is not mentioned in the sources). The total population of the village including nomadic Nenets, who were not residents of the dwelling, but were officially included in its population by the government (in Russian official terms pripisany) were 404 human beings (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 3).

In the beginning of 20^th century some other dwellings of settled Nenets came to existence in the region. The biggest of them was the village of Makhariha having 9 households with 79 inhabitants (all of them were Nenets). Among other dwellings Ivan-ju-Vom and Os-Van can be mentioned (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 3).

The sources allow to make some conclusions about the way of life and traditional economy of the settled Nenets population the basic economic activity was the cow breeding, hunting and fishing (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 5). Therefore, the economy of this part of population was complex and included food-producing (cow breeding) as well as food-extracting branches. The sources contain also evidences about some agriculture in Kolva, which was based on potatoes and barley growing (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 5). However, this branch was not important for the Kolva population due to its ineffectiveness and high risk of a loosing harvest to frost. The cow breeding as well as hunting were market-oriented. An essential part of the cow products, basically milk and butter as well as fish, meat and skins obtained from fishing and hunting were for sale in Russian market in exchange to the industrial goods and food as well as for exchange with Tundra Nenets population for reindeer meat and skins the Kolva Nenets needed. Unfortunately, the sources do not give an opportunity to determine the importance of each of these branches in the economical complex of the Kolva Nenets. Since the market of products of hunting was very small in 20s, the ratio of branches of that period fixed in the documents was displaced to the side of the food-producing branch.

Kolva cow breeding was highly developed and very effective. Its system has a lot of very striking similarities with the Izhma system of cow breeding, which gives an opportunity to suggest the borrowing of the system from the Komi. However, in 1920s Kolva Nenets had much more cows then neighboring Komi population (in Kolva village there were approximately 4. 5 cows in every household) (Otchet ob obsledovanii, attach. table 2). Cow breeding was generally realised in Izhma way, i.e. in summer cows were pastured on neighboring grasslands without any observation for most of the day owners were occupied in preparing hay for winter storage only visiting their cows in the evening for milking. It seems like the Kolva Nenets hay storage was also more sufficient than the Komi one: there are evidences that Kolva Nenets always had enough hay to keep their cows giving milk in winter (Komi-Zyrjane 1993), while Komi had to use surrogates for cow feeding after January. An interesting fact is that just as in Komi villages the hayfields were the private property of the households while summer pastures were common property. The basic cow product utilised by Kolva Nenets was milk, meat was less important. The most part of the obtained milk was further processed and sold in the form of butter and cheese. Such an important innovation as a mechanical separator for butter production was adopted by Kolva Nenets quite early. In 1924, there were two such separators in Kolva (they were bought by Kolva Nenets for collected shares) and Kolva inhabitants expressed a desire to by third machine as soon as an opportunity come (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 8). These evidences show, that Kolva cow breeding was strongly market-orientated.

Kolva hunting was practiced in the form of market trapping as well as in the form of meat hunting. Kolva Nenets trapped blue tundra foxes and some ermine. In the end of 19^th century . beginning of 20^th century, trapping began to loose its importance due to decrease of the population of these animals in forest tundra (Khomich 1995). On the other hand, the sources contain information about highly developmental practice of growing small blue foxes in Kolva. This practice is quite traditional for tundra Nenets (Kercelli 1911), but Kolva Nenets had further developed it and achieved quite spectacular results. In 1924, there were more than 200 grow blue foxes grown in Kolva and the author of the document even expressed hope, that this practice has a change to be developed into a highly productive market-oriented industry (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 6).

The methods of meat hunting were the same as among Tundra Nenets (Khomich 1995). In summer, Kolva Nenets hunted fading birds beating the unable to fly creatures with sticks on rivers and lakes. They also trapped squirrels with stitch traps, made collective rides for faded ducks (who also cannot fly and therefore can be driven to a closed water reservoirs and killed their in huge amounts) and so on (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 5).

Kolva fishing included Tundra Nenets as well as traditional Komi fishing practices. For example, Kolva Nenets used a traditional Komi fishing tool known as gymga (cone shaped fish trap made of twigs). Fishing roods were less popular (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 5). Although hunting and fishing were intensive, according to estimation of the document's author, Kolva Nenets used only a small part of the hunting as well as fishing resources of Kolva Volost. Kolva Nenets themselves said, that they did not have a reason to develop hunting, because they did not have a possibility to sell its products on the narrow market of 20s (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 6). This means, that the food-extracting branches of the economy of Kolva Nenets were also market-orientated.

The described economic complex was characteristic for the most part of the Kolva population. However, it was not until the second part of 19^th century, when a big group whose basic occupation was large-herd reindeer herding emerged in Kolva. In the beginning of 20^th century, about ј of Kolva population was occupied in reindeer herding, but it can be easily imaged, that reindeer herding had been more popular some decades before that (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 7). In the same time, a significant part of reindeer herders were occupied with others kinds of Kolva activities (for example cow breeding) and had, therefore, a mixed economic pattern.

Kolva reindeer herding was of seminomadic character and had a lot in common with Izhma reindeer herding in its most important parameters. It was very often, that only males migrated with their reindeer while their wives stayed in the village and stored hay for cows. In winter, reindeer were pastured in areas situated near the village and their migrations formed a circle with a diameter up to 20 kilometers around it in the Izhma Komi fashion. In summer, Kolva Nenets made quite a distant migration to the tundra zone to the North-East reaching Jugorskij Shar Peninsula and even the coast of Arctic Ocean near the mouth of Kara River. Therefore, this migrations could be up to 1000 km long. Usually Kolva Nenets started their migration at March in order to use the snow leaving in lower places in Tundra for traveling by sledges. Having a stop in their way for reindeer calving, they reached their summer pastures in July. In August they began their travel back having a stop in autumn pastures. In their migration, Nenets did not follow the direct way. The migration pattern was influenced by the morphology of tundra . for example, Nenets tried to follow the lines of hill rages for they are drier and contain more food for reindeer. This pattern is basically the similar to that of the Tundra Nenets.

The basic economic unit among the Kolva Nenets reindeer herders was household consisting of people living in a single house in the village. The household almost always coincided with a big family. Responding to the pasturing conditions and the size of herds, some households could join together for the whole pasturing season or for a part of it. Usually, but not always, these households consisted of relatives. It seems like the clans did not have any influence upon the households' joining. The average size of Kolva Nenets herds were smaller than one of Izhma Komi, but much bigger then one of Tundra Nenets. In 1930s, an average Kolva reindeer herding household had approximately 350 reindeer. In the same time, an average Izhma Komi reindeer herder had about 500 reindeer while average Tundra Nenets household include about 120 reindeer (Otchet ob obsledovanii, attach. table 4; Otchet o deyatelnosti, p. 2). Although it is very difficult to evaluate the level of marketability of the Kolva reindeer herding, some conclusion about it can be done from the observation of so-called Samoyedin reindeer-herding artel, the voluntary union of reindeer herders organised as a share company. In 1920s, this organisation incorporated the most part of the Kolva reindeer herders. According to the report of observation of this artel, the reindeer herders themselves consumed not more than 40. 45% of the utilised reindeer-herding production (Otchet o proverke.., p. 3). On the other hand, the percentage of the production sold outside the Volost was not very big either (about 25%) (Otchet o proverke, p. 3). Therefore, we should conclude, that more than 25% of the reindeer herding production was distributed in the Volost itself among non-reindeer herding population. It can be easily imaged, that this production was distributed in exchange for the production of cow breeding, hunting, fishing and may be agriculture. In this case, we should admit some kind of economic specialisation inside the population of the Volost. Although the percentage of reindeer herding production for sale was not very big, the reindeer herding of Kolva Volost definitely cannot be labeled as natural, i.e. aimed to satisfy only the needs of the reindeer herder.

Therefore we can say that, at least in the beginning of 20^th century Kolva economy had strong connection with market. The sources contain evidences about two directions of these connections:

The first direction was the close trade connections with Tundra Nenets. Kolva Nenets had contacts with the tundra during the whole history of the ethnographic group. The document of 1920s contains evidences about approximately 300 nomadic (Tundra) Nenets, who spent winter near Kolva and other villages of settled Nenets and were therefore included by the officials into the population of the Volost. Although there are no evidences that these Nenets were the only Tundra Nenets spending winter in the Volost (in contrast, the region is one of the most popular winter place for Tundra Nenets now and it can be supposed, that it was not less popular in the past), even 300 is quite a big amount of people for Bolshezemelskaya tundra (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 3). These Nenets were in the permanent contact with Kolva population during the winter and trade was an important part of this contacts. The basic goods exported to the tundra were milk products (cheese and butter), which were already very important for Tundra Nenets' consumption in the beginning of 20^th century. A significant role in the Kolva export was also played by things, which can be labeled as European goods (bread, hunting ammunition, etc.) obtained by Kolva Nenets from the south direction of their trade connections. All these goods were traded in exchange for the products of reindeer herding (reindeer skins and partly meat). It should be mentioned here, that neither Nenets nor Komi know reindeer milking (Otchet o proverke, attach. 3).

The second direction was to the south, consisting of connections with the Russian market. Kolva Nenets got access to this market through Pustozersk, Cherdyn and Izhma merchants. In this direction, basically the products of food-extracting branches (furs and valuable fish) and only partly the products of cow breeding were sold. It could be easily imaged, however, that a part of goods obtained form the trade with Tundra Nenets was further sold in this direction as well. It is obvious, for example, that the trade mediation was a significant part of the activity of the Samoyedin artel (Otchet o proverke, p. 3). It can be concluded, however, that the development of trade mediation was accelerated by the politics of the Committee of North. On the other hand, it is obvious that the prepositions to trade mediation (any may be mediation itself) was in the Volost before that. The goods obtained from the south included basically products of agriculture, however, that a significant part of these goods was the objects of orthodox cult (body crosses, church candles and icons). For example, these objects compiled 25% of goods bought by the Samoyedin artel for its members in 1925 (one should keep in mind, that it was quite dangerous to buy such things in that time, when the struggle of Communist government of Russia against religion took its most strong forms ) (Otchet o proverke, attach. 5).

Here it is possible to say some words about the wide-spread opinion in literature about unequal market relationships between Izhma Komi and Nenets and the full economic dependence of the later on former. It can be mentioned first of all, that the adepts of this point of view (Islavin 1847, Zhuravsky 1911 and so on) neither referred to the settled Kolva Nenets. As it can be seen from the sources, at least in the beginning of 20^th century, that this dependence did not exist. It is doubtful, that it could exist in the previous time, because the Izhma Komi and Nenets needed the same kind of things and the content of their export was also basically the same. The fact of the change of language, which is often used as an argument for the dependence of Kolva Nenets on Komi, clearly points to a strong cultural influence, but not to the economic dependence. Since the Kolva Nenets were an ethnic minority in the region, the change of language could easily occur due to this fact only. But the relationships between these groups were far more complicated then simply co-existence. They were accompanied by a number of cultural borrowings from the both sides. These relationships presupposed the numerous contacts, which could result in the borrowing of the language of the majority by the minority.

The social life of Kolva Nenets was quite different from that of the Tundra Nenets. One of the central position in the social life of the latter was occupied by clans. The clan of every Nenets can be easily defined by his surname, and the belonging to a clan significantly influenced the pattern of social interaction and even the manner of conversation between Nenets (Khomich 1995). The clan is the main organising power for collective actions in Tundra and the source of the juridical power. But although in the 1920s many Kolva Nenets still remembered the tundra clans to which they belonged, these clans did not play any role in the social life of the villages (Otchet ob obsledovanii.., p. 3). On the other hand, a significant role in the social life was played by the institutions of the Orthodox Church. The church building was the place, where Kolva Nenets gather together to solve the problems of the Volost. The mobilisation of the population of the Volost to do different common works, such as making fence for cows, cleaning of pastures and so on was make also through the institutions of the Orthodox Church. The church was the official owner of the public objects of the Volost (for example of the milk separators mentioned above), the job of baying, repairing and reconstruction of these objects was done also through it. The most outstanding and the best know example of the church social institutions in Kolva is the so-called "reindeer herd of God". This herd was compiled from reindeer voluntary presented by the Kolva reindeer herders to the church. It was pastured by a specially hired reindeer herder who got a salary from church founds. Leaving apart the sacral meaning of this herd for Kolva Nenets, we can conclude that it had a stabilising economic mean as well. Every reindeer herder who had lost his reindeer for some reason could borrow reindeer from this herd. In the same time, every inhabitant of the Volost, whose surplus fell down below the level needed for surviving, could get an assistance from the herd without an obligation to return the debt. Therefore, the herd definitely was some kind of institution of economic and social insurance.

The analysis of the presented data

As it follows from the data presented above, the core of the Kolva Nenets who settled under the influence of Christianity and changed the "full of sin" (in the opinion of missionaries) nomadic way of life to the completely Christian way of life near the "house of God". It is definitely not by accident, that the attitude to Christianity is the most bright difference between the spiritual cultures of Kolva and Tundra Nenets. On the other hand, the common peculiarities of traditional economy and spiritual culture (for example, language) of Kolva Nenets and Izhma Komi allow us to suppose also the influence of the neighboring Komi population upon the new settlers. It can be concluded, that Christianity was the reason of settling for the Kolva Nenets, but the influence of the settled Komi population was the necessary precondition of it. As can be judged from the peculiarities of the economic activity and some elements of material culture (methods of cow breeding and pasturing, the logged houses of Izhma type), the technologies and knowledge needed for the permanently settled way of life were borrowed from Izhma Komi.

It was not after the beginning of 19^th century, when the most characteristic elements of the social life of the Kolva Nenets came into existence. The settled economy demanded a higher level of social interactions than the characteristic for Tundra Nenets of that period of nomadic economy based on the large scale reindeer herding. Therefore, more sophisticated social institutions were needed to make these interactions possible. These social institutions were made on the basis and with support of the ideology of Orthodox Church. This can be easily explained by the fact, that the Orthodox ideology with its aim to determine the whole public and private life of members of the Orthodox Church, could offer a tight and complete model of the social interactions based on collective mobilisation. This model was suited well to the needs of settled way of life.

Traditionally, the Tundra Nenets whose mobility decreased because of their reindeer's loss as a result of epizootia, deep snow in winter (preventing the reindeer from getting the sufficient amount of lichen) or other reasons of this kind, based their life on the food-extracting branches of their economy (hunting and fishing). These branches were basically emergency source of surplus for the reindeer herding tundra population. Although these branches did not suite for the permanently settled way of life, they were kept untouched in the economic complex of Kolva Nenets and their technologies were basically the same ones as in tundra. Supplying the food-producing branches of traditional economy, they helped to keep equilibrium in the economic life of Kolva and were a source of goods to sell on the market. A complex economy based on food-producing and food-extracting branches is characteristic for many peoples living in the same natural conditions as Kolva Nenets (Ust-Cilma and North-Siberian Russians, part of Pomors, Karelians, Northern Finns, Sami, Nothern Norwegians of Finnmark, etc.). Therefore, this economy could be supposed as an optimal adaptation for these climatic conditions.

Having abandoned the traditional reindeer herding, Kolva Nenets tried to keep as many elements of their traditional culture untouched as possible. For example, they preserved untouched a significant part of their traditional diet, the traditional costume, some house-keeping tools and objects, means of transportation such as boats and so on. The raw material for making most of these objects as well as the base of the traditional diet was the production of reindeer herding (skins, meat, horns of reindeer and so on). Therefore, Kolva Nenets needed to keep access to this production. The easiest way to obtain the production of reindeer herding was to start trading with Tundra Nenets. This trade ought to be quite profitable for Kolva Nenets because the Tundra Nenets' dependence on imported goods (and milk products in their account) was already very high in the second part of 19^th century and become higher as time passed. On the other hand, Kolva Nenets also needed the imported goods (for example hunting ammunition) for themselves and had to begin trade with southern territories as well.

Since the need of imported goods always existed in the economy of Kolva Nenets, this economy originally emerged as a more or less market-orientated one. The market-orientation of the economy increased over the time and this fact allowed Kolva Nenets to occupy the equal position with merchants. Furthermore, Kolva Nenets could even try to occupy the positions of Izhma merchants in the Tundra trade when the Izhma was suppressed by Russian officials.

It is obvious, that this economic system provide quite a high level of life for Kolva Nenets. In some aspects, the Kolva level of life was even higher than in Izhma (for example, Kolva Nenets had more cows and their cows could be milked all the winter). Therefore it is obvious, that Kolva Volost attracted tundra population. This fact was especially important in 1860s, when epizooties and overgrasing caused a very significant loss of reindeer among the Nenets of Bolshezemelskaya Tundra. As a result, a lot of Nenets completely lost their reindeer appeared in Tundra. These losers experienced big difficulties in returning to reindeer herding, because their pastures were occupied by more successful reindeer herders of Nenets or Komi origin, who could restore their herds faster. Therefore, these Nenets had to settle and change their economic pattern.

However, the traditional activities of the settled Tundra Nenets, i.e. hunting, fishing and gathering, could not supply their life for a long time. Therefore, a lot of losers were attracted to Kolva populated by the people of the same culture. This fact can be proved by the statistical data showing, that the population of the Kolva Volost rose most significantly from 1860 till 1880. In the same time, new Kolva surnames (actually clan names) were recorded (for example Horuci and Lehe) (Otchet ob obsledovanii, p. 2).

The newcomers caused certain threat for the social institutions of the Kolva Volost. These institutions were based on the Orthodox ideology, and the presence of Tundra Nenets, who were still pagan or semipagan in that time, destabilised the community. Therefore, in order to be accepted to the community of Kolva Volost Villages, the newcomers had to accept some elements of the Kolva spiritual culture, basically the Orthodox ideology. However, there was at least one important difference between the newcomers and the core of the Kolva Volost population. In contrast to Kolva Nenets, the newcomers, who abandoned reindeer herding under the pressure of circumstances, wanted to return to it some day or at least keep relations with the Tundra as a cultural area. The social institutions of Kolva could assist them in turning their dream into reality. Therefore, the institution of the "reindeer herd of God" came into existence (it was mentioned in the first time in 1869). The presence of the common stock of reindeer gave the reindeer herders a possibility to restore their herds very fast and win the competition with the most successful reindeer herders of tundra.

As a result, reindeer herding returned to the economic complex of Kolva Volost, but it was reindeer herding of modified form. The Kolva reindeer herders were economically, socially and spiritually connected to the village as a permanent dwelling place. The optimal form of reindeer herding in this conditions was the seminomadic one. This new form of reindeer herding used by the Kolva Nenets was formed under the influence of the Izhma seminomadic reindeer herding. The emergence of reindeer herding made the Kolva economy more independent from the Tundra market and, therefore, more sustainable. It also gave the new source of goods for trade.

Conclusions

Therefore, using all the available material we can conclude, the following:

Kolva Nenets appeared as an ethnographic group, who had settled, bred cows, hunted and fished in the beginning of 19^th century under the influence of the Orthodox Church and the neighboring Komi population. The formation of this ethnographic group finished in the second part of 19^th century by including the big group of Tundra Nenets and appearance of the Kolva reindeer herding. The balanced economic complex and sophisticated social organisations where the Orthodox ideology played an important role, provided quite high life conditions for Kolva Nenets. The market orientation of the economy allowed Kolva Nenets to occupy an important place in the economic life of Bolshezemelskaya tundra of 1920s and to compete with Izhma Komi for the tundra market. All this shows quite a successful adaptation of the old nomadic culture to the new settled life stile and gives evidence, that the fruitful sedentarisation is possible.

Sources