Page 35 - ARCTIC_Atr&Culture_eng_3

The Cultural
The beads and glass beads from the archeological collection
Ust’-Poluy ancient sanctuary 1 cent. BC – 1 cent. AD.
The author: M. Samburov
32 Arctic Art & Culture • №1 (3) • 2018
Heritage
Siberia. It is known that Volga Bulgaria’s I.S. Shemanovskiy, in early XX century,
merchants delivered glass beads to the fairs lost their popularity as “trading
local peoples in exchange for fur/peltries. stalls (small settlements consisting of one
However, they “…brought them from or two houses)” began to be set up. “All
Israel and Asia Minor” [4. P. 81]. goods started to be sold there that were
In Modern Period, in late XVI – early necessary for foreigners and that had been
XVIII century, glass beads began to be brought by traders in the navigation time.
arrived from European Russia and strings Hence, many foreigners having come to
– from the Middle East and China [3. P. these stalls (…) do not go to Obdor fair
185, 205]. any more” [19. P. 277-278].
In XVIII century, the Western Siberia’s The return to the traditions of glass
peoples gradually started to get glass beads beads application in the adornments of
from the Russian merchants. The certain the indigenous peoples of Yamal North
part of them was made in Russia, another is observed only in the 60-s – 70-s of XX
one was brought from abroad as previously. century. It is linked to the interest rise in
It is stated that glass beads were also conventional elements of cultures having
delivered to the Gulf of Ob by the English been partially lost for the period of the
people who exchanged them for fur with the Soviet authority establishment and the
Russian merchants. In XIX–XX century, erasion of “cultural borders”. According
large stores of glass beads were in Tobolsk to informers, in that period, the main
from where they got to the Ob-Ugric and supplier of glass beads became Gypsies
Samoyed via merchants. According to many [21. P. 20]. In 1980-s, the agitation policy
Thus, glass beads import tradition is deeply
rooted and its origin has been stipulated for
several historical epochs by cultural, trade, and
diplomatic relations of the Western Siberia’s
native population with the surrounding world
researchers’ witness, traders earned a lot of was being conducted by power and the
money on those operations “as taking into representatives of the native small in
account the Khanty’s and Mansi’s passion numbers Yamal’s peoples. It was aimed at
for glass beads they increased retail price coming back to the sources of their own
without remorse”. In the book “The Ostyak culture and lost crafts restoration. The
Wares of Tobolsk Province” of 1911, authors reason was the implementation of the
inform about the following: “…Glass beads Order “About Folk Artistic Crafts” issued
and strings are a noticeable item among the by the Central Committee of the CPSU in
objects brought into the Ostyak residence 1974. This historical document influenced
for trade” [5. P. 92]. “The buying price of their revival and further development. The
small glass beads is 35 kopecks per pound exhibitions of arts and crafts character were
but the same amount is sold for 1 ruble and being held everywhere. One of the leading
50 kopecks; a pack of strings bought for 80 places in them was given to adornments
kop is sold for 1-2 rubles” [5. P. 113]. and objects made of glass beads. In late
In late XIX century, the adornment 1990-s, “the Czech glass beads” which were
from beads and strings started to be popular and being valued for the quality
outdated step by step among the native started to be bought purposefully for the
population of the Western Siberia. The craftswomen of “beaded fancywork” in
reasons for the declining interest to glass crafts houses and national creative teams.
beads are connected with, first of all, the Under the informers, “the Czech glass
cease of fairs work where the demand of the beads are so good that one bead is equal to
North local population was formed. Under another one” [21. P. 20]. In 2000-s, cheap
Arctic Art & Culture • №1 (3) • 2018 33