Specficities of Fishing in Smaller Water Bodies (the Case of the Forest Nenets)

Abstract

The article discusses the role of fi shing in the social life of the Agan group of the forest Nentsy, their beliefs in the fishing guardian-spirits, and rites conducted to propitiate the latter. The author points to the paramount part that fish products played in their diet and concurs with the argument voiced by Z.P. Sokolova in her 2013 article on the “Basic Issues in the Ob-Ugric Ethnography”. Special attention is paid to Nentsy’s terminologies in the area of fi sh anatomy.