The geographical area covered by this article lies in Western Siberia, and concerns, more precisely, the basins of the rivers Pim, Tromagan and Lyamin in Surgut region. The Khanties who inhabit this region, according to language and culture features, belong to the Eastern group of Khanties. The semiospherical area I have chosen covers the connections between environment² and identity among the people traditionally living along these rivers.

In earlier papers, I have distinguished among the aborigines' three groups: the Forest-, the Village- and the City-Khanties (inspired by the term City-Sбmi used by the Sбmi living on the territory of the Finnish Republic). This division is also justified by the influence of the Khanties' environment on their identity and models of behavior.

In this article, I will not touch upon the questions of identity either as a phenomenon or as a notion; I will merely use some of its characteristics as a basis for study and comparison. The main concepts concerned by the present research are the feeling of geographical identity, the way of life and the world view (including the religious system). One important feature of the Khanties' geographical identity is the river-based division: e.g. the Pim river Khanties, the Kazym river Khanties, etc. Each territorial unit (in the area chosen, the rivers flow into the same river) is governed by a determined god or goddess (Barkalaja 1996a: 127. 128) (as the Khanties do not distinguish clearly the types of spirits and the boundaries between spirits and the humans beings are most confused, the terms 'god' and 'goddess' must be taken as most relative . Barkalaja 1996a: 125. 126). Other criteria have been lately added to the river-based division, as the type of living environment when the Khanties split as far as their paradigmatic way of life is concerned.

For practical aims will build my short historical presentation of the Khanties' cultural contacts on the world view concept. The world view is constantly influenced mainly by both cultural contacts and environmental changes. I will touch quite briefly upon the contacts of the Khanties both with Russian culture and with tsarist and Soviet rule, for these factors as the main elements, which influenced the Khanty world, view have been already analyzed in my master's thesis and previous papers (Barkalaja 1999a; 1999b).

Until the 1960s, the Khanty communities on the rivers Pim and Tromyugan lived almost in isolation. Practically no influence of tsarist rule on Khanty lifestyle and identity has been recorded. The attempts of the church to convert the Khanties in corpore practically failed (Karjalainen 1918: 11; Bazanov 1935: 14. 15, 32; Shcheglov 1993: 104; Barkalaja 1999a: 53. 57, 71. 72): christianisation through "double religion" (Zamaleyev & Ovchinnikova 1991), which had succeeded with Russians, did not succeed, in spite of the emergence of some interesting syncretistic family traditions and beliefs (Barkalaja 1999a: 74. 77; 1999b: 57. 66). Nevertheless, these features were not widespread and are recorded as regular only on the Southern Khanties' area. Formal as they were, the Khanties' connections with the church, were mostly due either to the violent methods used in order to baptize them (Bazanov 1936: 16. 17; Karjalainen 1918: 12. 13; Barkalaja 1999b: 55) or to the opportunities thus given of gaining economic profit (Balzer 1978: 435. 438; Shcheglov 1993: 104).

Although the lifestyle of the Khanties living in Surgut region was at first disturbed by the Soviet rule, did the new power's activity last because of the environmental conditions. For example, in the basins of the Pim and the Lyamin rivers sporadic campaigns of collectivisation took place: e.g. the creation of fish collective factories and scattering private reindeer herds, the building of a village, which were afterwards moved piece-by-piece into the new location according to the preference of the colonist leaders, followed by the decay of the same village and the return of the Khanties to their traditional lifestyle (Semyon Pesikov, Lyamin river, 1993). Religious persecution, the so-called shaman-hunt, also was carried out less effectively than in the Kazym area (let us recall the Kazym war), on the banks of the Ob river and in other more accessible places (Leete 1996; Barkalaja 1999a: 72. 73).

The actual invasion of the foreign culture in Pim, Lyamin and Tromyugan regions occurred with the discovery in the Surgut area in the 1980s of oil deposits (oil production had started in Khanty-Mansiysk region as soon as the end of the 1950s . Gorshkov & Popov 1998: 38). The mass migration caused by the 'oil rush' reached the city of Surgut and later the city of Lyantor which was built in place of the Pim village. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the population of the Surgut region increased 7.4 times, the urban population 9.4 times (Sokolova 1998: 95).

A road network was built in order to meet the needs of oil industry causing the massive felling of timber. The invasion of industrial culture was very sudden and brutal, and submitted the native populations to a serious cultural shock. Unlike what happened during the collectivisation, now the living environment of the Khanties was being destroyed, their lands were taken for oil production.³ The main factors causing the above mentioned cultural shock, apart from the loss of their lands, were a humiliating approach towards the Khanty mental culture repression against the main preservers of traditions, the shamans and mainly the impossibility of leading the traditional way of life (Leete 1996; Barkalaja 1996b: 52. 53). Some families were broken by psychical tension and died out for different causes (most commonly because of alcohol abuse. Most of the fatal accidents, suicides and murders were and are still committed under the influence of alcohol. The groups involved in abusive alcohol consumption mostly belong to the younger and middle-aged generations i.e. to the main basis for people's reproduction) (Barkalaja 1996a: 56). Some families, nevertheless, succeeded to recover from the shock and started to look for new opportunities for survival (Barkalaja 1996a: 131. 132; 1996b: 57. 60; 1997: 65. 66; 1999c: 63). Although the situation has somehow improved after the perestroika, we can still observe some clearly racist behavior in the colonizer's everyday communication with the natives as well as severe violations of Khanties' rights, up to murders committed by the Soviet militia (Barkalaja 1996b: 54. 55, 57; Taagepera 1999). As far as the Khanties can live on wooded grounds, the influence of the depressive factors mentioned above hasn't any irreversible effect. The factor leading to fatal consequences is mainly the takeover of Khanties' lands and their forced migration from their native areas. All the natives from the Pim river were gathered into the village of Lyantor, which in the 1990s was given the status of a city. In the Tromyugan area, they were collected into the village of Russkinskiye (Barkalaja 1996b: 56).

Under the influence of external factors, a social stratification emerged among the Khanties, based on the changes in living environment. The families not directly touched by the invasion tried to preserve their traditional way of life and world view. Inside the socium, a structural change in positions among the Khanties who had retained their forest-oriented lifestyle could also be noticed. Some families who belonged formerly to the peripheral sphere became, in a very short period, the leading families of the region. One example of such a group is the large family of the Kanterovs. As the Kanterovs occupied a low social position in the old system, they were mentally better prepared to react by non-traditional means to new extreme situations. As they couldn't any longer solve problems and behave according to a model relying on shamanism, they were more open to the outside world and it was easier for them to borrow new elements. For example, they were the first who started to use motor-powered equipment, who brought electricity and television to their forest households. Moreover, members of this family became mediators between the Forest-Khanties and the local officials of the colonial power, thus acting as a link between two different worlds.⁴ The same family was the first in this area to break taboos (e.g. the taboo of mushroom-eating⁵) and to introduce new technologies (e.g. cultivation of potatoes not only on the village fields but also at their forest households; introduction of the so-called Russian house . including an attic and gable roof; use of aluminum wire in making fishing gear, of plastic as a cover in tent-house building; introduction of sauna, etc.). Such innovation on the material level leads also to cognitive and world view transformations as well. Yegor Kanterov, the actual leader of the Kanterov family, has told me, more than once, that he is a non-believer, that he believes in science. According to him, no assertion, even if it relies on tradition, can be taken seriously unless it is "scientifically" proved (through the empirical experience inter alia). This attitude brings about different interesting phenomena. For example, the Kanterov family considers the radio, a priori, as the source of truthful information. Also, references to the impersonal category of scholar as a source of information, confers higher authority to statements and announcements. Their intensive orientation towards machine-centered culture and way of life provoked unexpected counteractions from the traditional world. If the obligation for organizing regional myyrs⁶ communicated by the gods via dreams can be explained through the subconscious influence of social prestige, it is still difficult to explain the following case. After the death of the guardian of the family's holy dolls, "the gods elected" as new guardian the grandson of the deceased, who didn't know nor cared much for oral inheritance and traditions. The young man refused to take over the function and after that he started to be a victim of accidents. His uncle pressured the shaman, demanding the charge of the sacred dolls for himself, but the gods "remained stubborn". But when the accidents started to become life threatening, the boy finally accepted the functions and the accidents stopped. He established got married, became interested in traditions and, following the advice of "councilors", performed the rites needed for taking over the position (Barkalaja 1996a; 1996b: 57. 58).

The second example comes from the same region . the upper course of the Pim river. The father died, and his wife was advised to move to the "national village" in the town of Lyantor for a "better life". The most active advisers were the town officials who described the advantages of city life (later it was revealed that the oil companies were expecting to take over the lands). As she was yielding to the pressure, her dead husband appeared in her dreams and advised her not to move to Lyantor, in order to avoid the situation where their sons would become Russianised and that the family would die out. According to Khanty traditions, the house of a deceased is abandoned, unless the master himself stipulates otherwise before his death. In this case, the spirit gave the permission for going on using the house and promised to help his wife. Later the woman felt the presence of her husband, especially during hard times. The children were sent to boarding-school but they were taken back to live in the forest as soon as they got the three-grade basic education. Following the example of the Kanterovs, she managed to settle her relations with the oil company and town officials and is still convinced that staying in the forest, although economically disadvantageous, was the right thing to do. We can find more examples where "another world" or "the world of legends" (Lintrop 1995: 102. 103; 1996) manifests itself and influences the decisions taken by the Khanties, for example in determining the dates for sacrifices and the persons performing them, in the procedures for turning someone into a shaman (Barkalaja 1996b: 57. 60; 1997: 59, 67), etc.

The Khanties draw a line between the "Khanty world" and the "Russian world": belonging to one or to the other gives, in their beliefs immunity against the phenomena that we call "supernatural" means of influence (Barkalaja 1999b: 68)⁷. The city as the environment in everyday life is the strongest precondition in belonging to the "Russian world".

The number of the City-Khanties is constantly increasing due to the natural growth in population, for many natives try to solve their problems by abandoning their original world and trying to become "Russians". This process is similar to the Estonian experience, where rural people tried to settle in towns and to become "Germans". For the same reasons, some Khanties moved to the city; their tendency to go outside their own ethnic group and their obvious preference for Russians or similar ethnic groups reveals their behavioral change (Barkalaja 1996b: 54. 55, 57). In some specific cases, the rejection of the Khanty world is connected with the world view or, to be more exact, beliefs. One of the sons of a family living on the Lyamin river abandoned the old way of life because, according to the family tradition, only one man from each generation will stay alive (Barkalaja 1996b: 63). Mostly, the reasons for leaving are of an economic nature (people go to the cities to look for an "easy life"). Another motivation for leaving is the eventual rise in social status caused by the external cultural and political environment. This was supported by the soviet election system: at every level, a certain number of people from different social classes and also from native ethnic groups were systematically included. It is interesting to analyse the new stratification based on behavior and attitudes, among City-Khanties which reveals their identity consciousness.

Some of the City-Khanties reject any possible connection with their people and ostentatiously speak Russian with their fellow countrymen, although they are able to speak in their native tongue. Further amalgamation with Russians is hampered by the excessive difference in the two ethnic groups' phenotype which plays an important role in the racism-favorable environment. If they succeed in marrying someone from the Russian-speaking community, their children will be raised to be "Russians".

There are also City-Khanties who have preserved contacts with their relatives. Many of them have their personal ugodie . inherited kinship territory (Ventsel 1998: 4). Their behavior shows clearly the different strata that compose their identity feelings.⁸ These Khantiess are mostly working in fields connected with the regulation of economic and legal relations between the native peoples and the oil industry. Their priorities are first to improve their own economic conditions, then to take care of their relatives, and finally to assist the other native people. Such behavior sparks off serious tensions among the Forest-Khanties: the family protects "its own" City-Khanties, while but the others react to them in an extremely negative way. Thus, the claims concerning the City-Khanties' estrangement have quite opposite reasons depending on the source (Ventsel 1998: 6). It is therefore difficult to obtain an objective picture on the City-Khanties using interviews, for the information received is substantially controversial. The main feature, we are concerned with, is that these City-Khanties working in "executive positions" try to preserve their connections with their family lands and live a kind of double-life, fully participating on one hand in sacrificial rituals, but still trying to hide any signs of this part of their life in the city environment.

City-Khanties working in the field of ideology, education and culture (i.e. the so-called intelligentsia), especially younger women, form a separate group. They are clearly hesitant and embarrassed when they participate in traditional events and rites. But, they are extremely involved and authoritarian in staging old traditional rites in festivals etc., acting as higher experts than the old men who perform the rituals themselves.

The lack of self-confidence in behavior is particularly obvious among the Khanty village intelligentsia (schoolteachers, cultural workers, etc.). In a participatory experiment we have provoked during our expeditions domestic prayers. In these cases, the uneasiness both in following the ritual and in the emotional reactions to thisit was so manifest among this social group, that people were close to hysterical behavior. This crisis perception is possibly caused by the opposition at the level of consciousness between on one hand the traditional collective memory based on shamanistic world view and, on the other hand, the basic code of the Soviet Union's educational system. This which implicitly included the oppression of native cultures (as the fight against nationalist relic) and the depreciation of the religious world view ("religion is opium to the people", "giving culture to the natives, excluded from development").

The Village-Khanties are the most mixed group, which embraces almost all of the social groups as far as economic and social positions are concerned (Barkalaja 1996b: 55. 56). This part of Forest-Khanty families, who were compelled to leave their original environment, and has not been able to adjust in their new cultural environment, has in the meantime lost the "feeding" connections with the "Khanty world" because of the lack of its material rallying component . the activity area corresponding to the family's sacred places. In this group, alcoholism, suicides and accidents are most widely spread. These families are condemned to die out.

I have thus chosen the attitude towards the religious tradition as a basic element for comparison between the Forest-, Village-, and City-Khanties. According to Joachim Mol, religion is the solemnisation of identity (Gopalan 1978: 124). Social identity is preserved by performing common rituals (Mol 1978: 191) and by having common sacred places (Barkalaja 1999b: 68). If one does not have any sacred place, one loses orientation in ethical values and one's social behavior becomes inconsistent. Also, behavior towards the socium ceases to be constructive and one suffers social degradation. Sacred rituals performed in sacred places code again and again one's conscience as archeacts⁹, functioning as "the recreators of universe".

Nevertheless, through the traditional "Khanty world", the "world of legends" has not lost its power on the Khanties who have maintained the connection with their forefathers' legends and their traditional environment. This power is most often becoming apparent through supernatural experiences. Supernatural experiences play an important part in counterbalancing the evolution towards the so-called Russian way of life and identity: the changes in actual life are thus mentally stabilized through spiritual world and the families' connection with life in forest is preserved.

The archetypes to be found in myths contain the fundamental codes for identity, values, ethics etc. These codes affect human behavior. In myth studies, researchers argue about the primacy of ritual (action) or myth (instructions for action). The method of connecting both (Sidorenko 1999: 85) has also been studied, but a closer approach shows that this method just confronts rituals and myth, putting them into the same system. It seems nevertheless that archetypes and archeacts (as respectively myth and ritual) are related more like electric and magnetic fields: they constantly recreate each other giving thus the basis for light spreading. In this comparison, culture (in our case the Khanty world) is seen as light.

According to their social position, different families chose different ways of reacting to changes, but all the families which try to preserve their traditional identity are characterised by the highest importance given to spiritual tradition. In some cases this attitude is conscious, while in some cases it is unconscious and appears in instructions for behavior given through different supernatural experiences. These supernatural experiences counterbalance most strongly the movement towards the so-called Russian lifestyle and identity, thus stabilising through the spiritual world changes occurring in real life, preserving families' connections with traditional forest life¹⁰.

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¹ This article has been prepared by support of the Estonian Science Foundation (project No 3134).
² Under the term 'environment', in addition to the geographical environment, I also mean semiotic environment like worldview, mentality, the cognitive map of perceived reality, etc.
³ It is interesting to observe the course of creation of the oil industry and the roads leading to it. The roads usually pass through the former Khanty settlements, marking the way the geologists followed looking for oil and moving from one host to another.
⁴ I became aware of the separation that the Pim river Khanties draw between "Khanty world" and "Russian world" when I asked why the Khanties do not use their shaman powers to fight the Russian invasion. They replied that a shaman may have his influence on another Khanties but not on the Russians because the Russians are coming from a different world. The Pesikov family tradition, where Semyon Pesikov's elder daughter got under the protection of the "Russian god" and later started to lead a "Russian way of life" shows how seriously the Khanties take the existence of the "Russian world" (Barkalaja 1999b: 66).
⁵ The reason why it was not allowed to eat mushrooms was their heavenly origin. The utilitarian explanation is that mushrooms were a major addition in the reindeers' unvaried food ration (information from the members of the Kanterov family, the Ai-Pim river).
⁶ Collective sacrifices by the Khanties living in the region (look in Barkalaja 1997; 1999c).
⁷ It is important to notice that the division of Khanty into "ours" and "strangers" is not carried by the negative approach about which we are warned by warns Lawrence Grossberg (1996: 96. 97) but rather by the productive state of mind that defines the individual's efficiency in a certain environment. This state of mind is described in the Western cultural sphere in three ways: "(1) the subject as a position defending the possibility and the source of experience and, by extension, of knowledge; (2) the agent as a position of activity; and (3) the self as the mark of identity" (Grossberg 1996: 97. 98) with everything resulting from them.
⁸ To some extent this state of mind can be described with terms like 'fragmentation' and 'hybridity', described by L. Grossberg in his inductive overview on the essence of identity (Grossberg 1996: 91. 92). In fact, he describes the possibilities for having several contemporaneous identities which may lead to the situation usually considered by the positivistic paradigm as schizophrenic, as from the Olympian heights of empirical positivism the situational objectivity of mullah Nasreddin is not to be expected.
⁹ P. Burnel's term 'archeact' has been used by I. Sidorenko in analysing the function of a cultist act from the aspect of protecting person's spiritual world (Sidorenko 1999: 58, 62).
¹⁰ A good example is reindeer herding among the Pim river Khanties: it does not have any great economic importance but plays an important role in the sacral world and identity.

References