Tungusic peoples

The name Tungusic is artificial, and properly refers just to the postulated linguistic phylum (Tungusic languages). It is derived from Russian Tungus (Тунгус), a Russian exonym for the Evenks (Ewenki). English usage of Tungusic was introduced by Friedrich Max Müller in the 1850s, based on earlier use of German Tungusik by Heinrich Julius Klaproth. The alternative term Manchu–Tungus is also in use (Тунгусо-маньчжурские 'Tunguso-Manchurian').

The name Tunguska, a region of eastern Siberia bounded on the west by the Tunguska rivers and on the east by the Pacific Ocean, has its origin from the Tungus people (Evenks).[1] Russian Tungus was likely taken from East Turkic tunguz (literally, 'wild pig, boar', from Old Turkic tonguz),[2] although some scholars prefer derivation from the Chinese word Donghu (東胡, 'Eastern Barbarians', cf. Tonggu 通古 'Tungusic').[3] This "chance similarity in modern pronunciation led to the once widely held assumption that the Eastern Hu were Tungusic in language. However, there is little basis for this theory."[4]

It is generally suggested that the homeland of the Tungusic people is in northeastern Manchuria, somewhere near the Amur River region. Genetic evidence collected from the Ulchsky District suggests a date for the Micro-Altaic expansion predating 3500 BC.[5]

The Tungusic expansion into Siberia displaced the indigenous Siberian languages, which are now grouped under the term Paleosiberian. Several theories suggest that the Pannonian Avars of the Avar Khaganate in Central, East and Southeast Europe were of Tungusic origin or of partially Tungusic origin (as a ruling class).[6]

Tungusic people on the Amur river like Udeghe, Ulchi and Nanai adopted Chinese influences in their religion and clothing with Chinese dragons on ceremonial robes, scroll and spiral bird and monster mask designs, Chinese New Year, using silk and cotton, iron cooking pots, and heated homes from China.[7]

The Manchu originally came from Manchuria, which is now Northeast China and the Russian Far East. Following the Manchu establishment of the Qing dynasty in the 17th century, they have been almost completely assimilated into the language and culture of the ethnic Han population of China.

The southern Tungusic Manchu farming sedentary lifestyle was very different from the nomadic hunter gatherer forager lifestyle of their more northern Tungusic relatives like the Warka, which left the Qing state to attempt to make them sedentarize and farm like Manchus.[8][9]

During the 17th century, the Tsardom of Russia was expanding east across Siberia, and into Tungusic-speaking lands, resulting in early border skirmishes with the Qing dynasty of China, leading up to the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. The first published description of a Tungusic people to reach beyond Russia into the rest of Europe was by the Dutch traveler Isaac Massa in 1612. He passed along information from Russian reports after his stay in Moscow.[10]

Tunguska rivers, forming the western boundary

"Tungusic" (Manchu-Tungus) peoples are divided into two main branches: northern and southern.

The southern branch is dominated by the Manchu (historically Jurchen). Qing emperors were Manchu, and the Manchu group has largely been sinicized (the Manchu language being moribund, with 20 native speakers reported as of 2007[11]).

The Sibe were possibly a Tungusic-speaking section of the (Mongolic) Shiwei and have been conquered by the expanding Manchu (Jurchen). Their language is mutually intelligible with Manchu. The Nanai (Goldi) are also derived from the Jurchen. The Orok (Ulta) are an offshoot of the Nanai. Other minor groups closely related to the Nanai are the Ulch, Oroch and Udege. The Udege live in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Federation.

The northern branch is mostly formed by the closely related ethnic groups of Evenks (Ewenki) and Evens. (Evenks and Evens are also grouped as "Evenic". Their ethnonyms are only distinguished by a different suffix - -n for Even and -nkī for Evenkī; endonymically, they even use the same adjective for themselves - ǝwǝdī, meaning "Even" in the Even language and "Evenkī" in the Evenkī language.) The Evenks live in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug of Russia in addition to many parts of eastern Siberia, especially Sakha Republic. The Evens are very closely related to the Evenks by language and culture, and they likewise inhabit various parts of eastern Siberia. People who classify themselves as Evenks in the Russian census tend to live toward the west and toward the south of eastern Siberia, whereas people who classify themselves as Evens tend to live toward the east and toward the north of eastern Siberia, with some degree of overlap in the middle (notably, in certain parts of Sakha Republic). Minor ethnic groups also in the northern branch are the Negidals and the Oroqen. The Oroqen, Solon, and Khamnigan inhabit some parts of Heilongjiang Province, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia and may be considered as subgroups of the Evenk ethnicity, though the Solons and the Khamnigans in particular have interacted closely with Mongolic peoples (Mongol, Daur, Buryat), and they are ethnographically quite distinct from the Evenks in Russia.

Distribution of the Tungusic languages

Tungusic peoples are:

List of the modern Tungusic peoples
Ethnonym	Population	Main country	Religion
Manchus	10,424,785	China	Manchu shamanism, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Roman Catholicism
Sibes	190,481	China	Buddhism, Shamanism
Evenks	69,503	Russia	Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy, Buddhism
Evens	22,487	Russia	Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy
Nanais	17,514	Russia	Buddhism, Russian Orthodoxy, Shamanism
Oroqens	8,659	China	Shamanism, Buddhism
Ulchs	2,841	Russia	Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy
Udeges	1,538	Russia	Shamanism
Orochs	815	Russia	Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy, Buddhism
Negidals	565	Russia	Shamanism
Oroks	315	Russia	Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy
Taz	274	Russia	Russian Orthodoxy

Full genome analyses on Northern East Asian populations, including Tungusic peoples, revealed them to descend primarily from Ancient Northeast Asians, with varying degrees of admixture associated with agriculturalist populations from the Yellow River region. Tungusic peoples display their highest genetic affinity with Mongolic peoples, but also share varying degrees of genetic affinity with Turkic peoples, which however have significant West Eurasian admixture. Tungusic peoples display the highest genetic affinity to Ancient Northeast Asians, represented by c. 7,000 and 13,000 year old specimens.[12]

Previous studies argued for a potential shared ancestry between Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Koreanic, and Japonic populations via Neolithic agriculturalist societies from Northeast China (eg. the Liao civilization) as a part of the hypothetical Altaic language family. However, recent data contradicts this because while West Liao River ancestry was found among the "macro-Altaic" Koreans and Japanese, it was absent among the "micro-Altaic" Tungusic and Mongolic populations.[13]

The Manchu, the largest Tungusic-speaking population, displays increased genetic affinity with Han Chinese, and Koreans, compared to with other Tungusic peoples. The Manchu were therefore an exception to the coherent genetic structure of Tungusic-speaking populations, likely due to the large-scale population migrations and genetic admixtures with the Han Chinese in the past few hundred years.[14]

• 
  Portrait of a Tungusic man by Carl Peter Mazer (1850)
• 
  The Manchu people in Fuzhou in 1915
• 
  A Manchu guard
• 
  An Evenks wooden home
• 
  Sibe military colonists (1885)
• 
  An Udege family (early 20th century)
• 
  Tungus man in Vorogovo, Siberia (1914)
• 
  A Manchu man in traditional clothing

• Eskeri
• Xeglun
• Sinicization of the Manchus

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

• Manchu Tungusic people of China