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OROK OR ULTA: NOTES TO THE ETHNONYM AND ETHNOGENESIS // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2021. Issue 4 (34). P. 32-46

Oroks are residents of Sakhalin who speak one of the Tungus-Manchu languages (southern group), close to Ulchi and Nanai. Since the end of the 16th century, they have inhabited Sakhalin, practicing transport reindeer husbandry, combined with hunting, fishing and hunting of sea animals. The purpose of this work is to analyze some facts that were out of the field of view of their predecessors. This is a special account of the age of deer, which brings them closer to the Eastern evens, a calendar structure that has analogies with the calendars of the Amur Evenks (the name of January), and with the calendars of the Orochi, Ulchi and Negidals (the names of the summer months). Mosaic Oroks (subethnoses), along with the peculiarities of the island's natural conditions and long-term isolation, provided the uniqueness of cosmogonic representations, Pantheon, basic rituals (summer bear festival, etc.). The existence of the name of the reindeer, in the form *(I, u,e)l(v/b) (э/e)l in Koryaks, Yukagirы, Chukchis, Aleuts, Chuvans, Northern Khants, tundra Nenets with unknown etymology (except for the Nenets tundra ilebts — a means to life). The name of the wild deer siro can be associated with the preparation for the rut (stripping the horns of sirki / sitchе) of adult male wild deer. The name of the domestic deer (ula / ylja) among the Oroks, previously raised to the concept of river (ul / uil), close to the Aleutian ulinakh, North Khanty uli and Il in the tundra dialect of Yukagir, could be borrowed by the Oroks directly, or through an intermediate contact group. Data from population genetics make them related to the ethnic groups of the Sayano-Altai (tuvians-todzhins, tofalars, etc.) who still practice hunting, gathering, and nomadic transport reindeer husbandry. The approximately close (and low) frequency level of Tungusian haplogroup C in Oroks, Ulchi, Udege, and Negidals (frequency within 11.5–17.4%) seems to indicate a small participation of Evenki in the formation of mt DNA of Oroks (female gene pool).

Keywords: Oroks, ethnogenesis, Sakhalin, reindeer, Sayano-Altai, Chuvans, evens, “deer” account, haplogroups