They are a subgroup of Uralic peoples.

Peoples

Samoyedic peoples include:

• Northern Samoyedic peoples
• Nenets
• Enets
• Nganasan

• Southern Samoyedic peoples
• Selkup
• Kamasins or Kamas (now extinct as a distinct ethnic group)
• Mator or Motor (now extinct as a distinct ethnic group)
• Koibal (now extinct as a distinct ethnic group)

Location

The largest of these peoples are Nenets numbering 34,000. They live in three autonomous districts of Russia: Nenetsia, Yamalia (also known as Yamalo-Nenetsia), and Taymyria (formerly known as Dolgano-Nenetsia).

Cultural References

• In Aldous Huxley's "Point Counter Point": "God-thirsty from the spiritual deserts of the workshop and the office, men came as to a temple [to a bar]...the mysterious divinity revealed itself to them...the shamans of the Samoyedes ate toadstools and were filled with the spirit of Num."

References

• Mile Nedeljković, Leksikon naroda sveta, Beograd, 2001.