#samoyedic peoples

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

Femme Samoyède. Habit of a Samoyede woman and child subject to Russia in 1768.

from Voyage en Sibérie by Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche as well as from A Collection Of The Dresses Of Different Nations, Antient and Modern. Particularly Old English Dresses. After The Designs of Holbein, Vandyke, Hollar, and others. With An Account of the Authorities, from which the Figures are taken; and some short Historical Remarks on the Subject. To which are added The Habits of the Principal Characters on the English Stage.

very cute kid coat with earsies ^_^

[mapsontheweb]

The Samoyedic ethnicities of today. Northern Russia. The people who gave the world the dog breed with the same name.

[tiivuline]

Demjaku, grandson of Demnime Kosterkin (1926–1980) who was perhaps the last Nganasan shaman who held traditional way of living in tundra.

[talonabraxas]

Amanita Muscaria 🍄🌀🍄 Talon Abraxas

The Fly Agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) has a long history in the shamanic traditions of Siberian, Tungusic, and Samoyedic cultures. This mushroom was not just used for its hallucinogenic properties but also as a spiritual conduit for accessing the unseen layers of reality.

Unlike typical psychedelic mushrooms, the Fly Agaric does not contain psilocybin but instead active compounds ibotenic acid and muscimol. These compounds interact with the body differently than those of traditional shrooms, yet they can still lead to altered states of consciousness and hallucinations. These altered states were essential for Siberian shamans, who used them to engage with the spirit world. The consumption of this mushroom was typically preceded by various ritualistic preparations such as fasting, isolation, and the wearing of ceremonial garments, believed to purify the shaman and enhance the mushroom’s spiritual effects. These mushrooms also have cultural significance, as they are woven into the folklore and traditions of these communities. For example, the Tungsic and Samoyed people hold the mushroom in high esteem and have folklore and mythologies rich with references to mushrooms. These cultures believed that mushrooms, especially the Fly Agaric, could act as mediators between the natural world and the spiritual realm, providing them with the ability to understand hidden wisdom, communicate with ancestral spirits, interpret dreams, and even see into the future. --The Spiritual Significance of Mushrooms in Ancient and Modern Cultures

[bubblewrapsnek]

Phantomarine Live reread: Prologue

I'm anticipating the reread before the chapter finishes cause I want to read it now again, altho I wanted to wait the chapter to be over to have a cleaner finish line for mental order and to avoid posing questions to things that would be maybe have more ground to speculate on or outright be answered in a few days This is my first time rereading Phantomarine, so if anyone is actually goint to read these posts expect me to come to realizations about stuff that everyone knew ages ago probably, also it's my first time liveblogging something since a friend suggested it could be appreciated, I am not convinced there would be interested but it can't hurt I guess. That said I hate the idea of clogging with posts and like keeping stuff a bit more tidy, so I'll post one post per chapter with my thoughts, silly ramblings and whatever comes to my mind that I feel like sharing while trying to put my thoughts in order

So uhh if you exist and are reading, have fun and feel free to interact!

First thing I'll not here with a few examples and try to not say everytime, but I can't help seeing how the royal family brands EVERYTHING with the Manta, I swear you could fill a where's waldo book by searching the mantas in Phantomarine's pages at this A manta hat, manta drawer, manta desk, and a manta polo in just the first pages, I swear they have a disney park-esque gift shop outside the palace

A manta hat, manta drawer, manta desk, and a manta polo in just the first pages, I swear they have a disney park-esque gift shop outside the palace

Bonus neat things, the candle has the same pattern as Cheline's dress and there is what I guess is a samoyede on Irving's shirt

Next thing is something I hadn't noticed before but I've seen already people point out in the comments now, Irving having very clearly pink eyes, at first I thought it might have been lighting but in the pages where he is alive they are very clearly pink, and even when in shock the characters get drawn with pinprick irises, while the others get black dots he has pink and is even more blatant in the shot with the Fata morgana stabbing them where he is eye to eye with a Fata with the same eyes

Bonus: alive Lani is very cute

I pointed the next thing in another post but I love how Cheline wanted to be sure to scapegoat the Fata Morgana so much she painted the arrows and bow too with Cheth's name bands(confirmed to be painted on by the transcript too altho it was the only possible reason they had those bad with what we know now), also I love that the cyan outline was faintly on the Fata Morgana's eye from the beginning

I am also getting suspicious about the ghosts being blue and the veins(referred as such in the transcript) that spread from the bite being purple, tho I don't have a concrete or sound thought about this

Also, something I love a lot in comics is paneling so some of this won't be thoughts but just panels that are really pretty or fun or creative here I love how the action flows very well, having many details making what happens readable such as the "magic" squares making phae's body on the bottom edge of the silouhette in the middle also appear on the heart, showing the wound being "repaired"

Love the veins snaking behind her

Something I had completely glossed over was Phae's middle name being Augusta, and I do find it possible to have a reading on it, as Augustus was the name and title that Octavian took as the first emperor of rome, the member of a what can be considered a royal lineage establishing the name for himself and becoming a key turning point in the history of an empire, just as I can see Phae become the turning point for the history of her reign, a change of the guard and of the status quo of the kingdom she watches over

End in the end, to finish the prologue of this reread, a funny typo Cheth appears, tipping his fedora: "M'Phaedra"

[moniquill]

Hey, I saw your post about that one Wikiproject that's basically trying to get rid of the notion of indigeneity on Wikipedia.

I have some more groups people might want to check. I'm not a member of any of these groups, nor to I have enough knowledge of them to actually verify anything on their pages.

In Europe: Basque Karelians Veps/Vepsians Catalans Galicians The Samoyedic Peoples Komi Crimean Tatars and Karaites Krymchaks Silesians Sorbians Circassians

There are so many in Asia, I could not name them all in one ask. Here are some: Bai Yamato Hui Tibetans Turkic peoples Manchus Ryukyuan Ainu Zhuang Mongolic peoples Persians Kurds Assyrians Armenians Azerbaijanis Mandaeans Tazidis

India alone has so many different ethnic groups.

People should also check the central Asian countries.

Passing this to those able and interested in doing this research

[fullyarmoredbattlesturgeon]

"My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to 'unconstitutional' Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word State (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate! If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the an and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to 'King George's council, Winston and his gang', it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy. Anyway the proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. And at least it is done only to a small group of men who know who their master is. The mediævals were only too right in taking nolo efiscopari as the best reasona man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers. And so on down the line. But, of course, the fatal weakness of all that – after all only the fatal weakness of all good natural things in a bad corrupt unnatural world – is that it works and has worked only when all the world is messing along in the same good old inefficient human way. The quarrelsome, conceited Greeks managed to pull it off against Xerxes; but the abominable chemists and engineers have put such a power into Xerxes' hands, and all ant-communities, that decent folk don't seem to have a chance. We are all trying to do the Alexander-touch – and, as history teaches, that orientalized Alexander and all his generals.The poor boob fancied (or liked people to fancy) he was the son of Dionysus, and died of drink. The Greece that was worth saving from Persia perished anyway; and became a kind of Vichy-Hellas, or Fighting-Hellas (which did not fight), talking about Hellenic honour and culture and thriving on the sale of the early equivalent of dirty postcards. But the special horror of the present world is that the whole damned thing is in one bag. There is nowhere to fly to. Even the unlucky little Samoyedes, I suspect, have tinned food and the village loudspeaker telling Stalin's bed-time stories about Democracy and the wicked Fascists who eat babies and steal sledge-dogs. There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as 'patriotism', may remain a habit! But it won't do any good, if it is not universal."

Tolkien's letter to his son! :)

oh hot damn!

[irithnova]

Tozhu/Tozhu Tuvan OC

Name: Kara-Kat

Birthdate: 13-15th century

I gave her the Tuvan name "Kara-Kat" which means blackberry because honestly, I thought it was cute. Also, it's extremely hard to find Tozhu names in particular. However I don't think it's not strange for her to have a Tuvan name as the Tozhu have lived with the Tuvans for a while and the Tozny Tuvan territory is a part of Tuva, and Tuvan is their first language.

The origins of the Tozhu Tuvans are widely contested however it is seemingly a common consensus amongst various ethnographers of the North East that they most likely had Samoyedic origins. Dolgikh, a prominent ethnographer of the North East, classifies the Tozhu Tuvans as being a distinct group with Samoyedic origins/are a Samoyedic language people, as opposed to Tuvans who are Turkic-Mongolic.

On Tozhu as a region of Tuva and Tuva as a whole being connected: Historically, the Tozhu land was also distinct from what was then Tuvan land. The Tozhu region of Tuva is the largest, however the least densely populated. When the Tozhu territory became part of the Qing, the Western and Central areas of Tuva were not a part of this, and instead were ruled by the Oirat Mongol (by Oirat Mongol I'm not talking about hws Mongolia I'm talking about a different Mongolic group) Zhungar Khanate. Historically, the Tozhu region was distinct from Tuva until 1757, when the Zhungars were ultimately defeated by the Qing. Tozhu, along with Tuva, then came under rule of the Qing dynasty until 1911. Like the other reindeer herders, she pretty much just was content doing her own thing and trading with whoever and became subject to many different rulers over the course of her lifetime.

The ancestors of Tuvans as opposed to the Tozhu Tuvans according to scholars are most likely from a loose confederation of Turkic language speaking tribes who descended from the Huns, and as early as the 6th century inhabited the Altai, Northwestern Mongolia and what is now Tuvan territory.

I am still a little lost as to what century I'd give to Tozhus birth date. In the modern day Tozhu region, the tribe name that was mentioned the most was called "Dubo" and this was recorded by Tang dynasty chroniclers. This is believed to have been derived from an evolution of ethnonyms that produced a variation of names, such as Tuva, Tofa, Topa, Tuba, Dukha. Perhaps a common ancestor? As mentioned before, these names were first recorded during the Tang dynasty however it ts unknown if these ethnonyms were always Turkic or were originally Samoyedic and then Turkicized. I think whoever the “Dubo" could have been an ancestor to her.

We know that the Tozhu came into closer contact with the Russia in 1944 once Tuva was annexed so they must have been around before then, and similar groups to the Tozhu like the Tofa/Tofalar have an even longer history of contact with Russian which began in 1648. I'm going to be safe and say perhaps they emerged anywhere between the 13-15th century.

The reindeer herders of the Eastern Sayan, Tozhu, Tofa, Soyot and Dukha are undeniably linked. The territories in which they inhabited are mountainous, forested, isolated and difficult to reach. This in turn, provided them a haven from Turkic and Mongolic invaders alike, as noted by ethnographer Larisa Raylinskaya.

When reading about the reindeer herders of the Eastern Sayan, I came across a remark that these peoples are unique in a sense that they've never shed blood nor engaging in conflict - but only fleed/escaped danger when it came nearby. It is said that those who retreated in these mountains are the ancestors to the Soyot, Dukha, Tazhy and Tofa.

Onto why the Tozhu people are called "Tozhu Tuvans" again and why, despite being called this, are distinct from the wider Tuvan population of Tuva and therefore from a historical and ethnographical standpoint AND a hetalia standpoint, Tozhu would warrant it's own personification - hence why I am talking about Miss Tozhu right now!

Once the Tozhi were incorporated into the u

Uriankhai by the Mongols and then later on becoming a part of the Tuva republic - by virtue they were considered Tuvans, even a Tuvan subgroup - which is a bit of a misconception. The Tozhu live in Tuva, and so are called Tozhu Tuyans by virtue of living there, however ethnographers of the North East almost unanimously agree that the Tozhu are their own distinct people.

Miss Tozhu does not mind being called a "Tozhu Tuvan" as she is part of greater Tuva, however her lifestyle is different from Tuva's traditional lifestyle, and she's quite keen on letting people know that she is not exactly a “Tuvan” and has her own history and lifestyle - thank you very much! She doesn't get into a huge fuss if she’s called a Tozhu Tuvan or whatnot as that's not technically incorrect, however she does have her own history she’s proud of.

A brief and kind of story which highlights the differences between the Tozhu and Tuvans: A Tuvan buddhist (Tuyans are predominantly buddhist) visited the Tozhy region and set up a kuddhism study club. None of the locals were interested (i think Miss Tozhu probably snorted at this.) Miss Tozhu, despite being part of Tuva, doesn't have many of the same interests as Tuva and doesn't really put in an effort to be interested, not because of malice (though, she will say something snarky tf someone calls her a "sub-group" of Tuvan) but simply because she's content with doing her own thing like she has been doing for a few hundred years now. Tuva knows this but can't help but take it as a slight sometimes. It's not as if she's disconnected from Tuva of course. However she's definitely not going to be joining any of Tuva's Buddhism book Clubs anytime soon.

The Tozhu are animistic/shamanistic. While Tuvans and even Mongols originally were also animistic/shamanistic, a majority of them have turned to buddhism. The Tazhu, like the other reindeer herders of the Sayan, have little to no interest in buddhism. I see her as still being quite in touch with her practice and kind of tuts at Dukha when she sees him camping outside Ulaanbaatar (capital of Mongolia) during Christmas time and charging Mongolians to ride on the reindeer (also because hey don't just let anyone on your reindeer you don't know if they'll behave and those are your livelihood-) but ultimately (begrudgingty) respects his grind.

Circling back to the Uriankhai - the exact meaning of Uriankhai has been contested. During Qing rule of Mongolia, Mongolia governed Tuvan territory and assigned the term "Uriankhai" to Tuvans and pretty much anyone on or around Tuvan territory if they were close enough. Therefore, it was and to this day, still is a generic term to refer to the peoples North West of Mongolia, hence Tuvans being the major group under the Mongolian label "Uriankhai" meant that a lot of other “Uriankhai” people such as the Tozhu and Soyots and Dukha were misrepresented as being Tuvan. This definitely irked Miss Tozhu but it’s not as if she can do anything about it. Sometimes she'd point out how hypocritical Mongolia was when he'd rant about people still referring to him as Tatar when he calls different groups the same name himself all the darn time and yes she thinks his reaction is hilarious.

Not only are the Tozhu distinct from Tuvans in their (most likely) Samoyedic heritage as opposed to the Turkic Tuvans, but so are their lifestyles. The Tozhu live in birch-bark tipis which are typical of reindeer herders, whereas the Tuvans live in felt yurts. Tuvans have had more direct contact with Mongols whereas the Tozhu (whether on purpose or not) managed to avoid as frequent contact with Mongols, Tuvans raise livestock for meat whereas the Tozhu rely on hunting for their meat - they do not eat their reindeer.

Major Tozhu clan names, such as Todot, have Ket origins, and other major Tozhy clan names such as Choodu, Kyshtag, Khaazyt etc are Samoyedic in origin, further indicating that Tozhu's Samoyedic origins and close ties to the Ket people. In

fact, the Tozhu language is so distinct from the Tuvan language that Tuvans call the Tozhy language "Tozhu Chugaa”, meaning “Tozhu talk", Tozhu would prefer it if Tuva just called it the "Tozhu language" and sometimes tries to correct him into calling it that but she guesses that that distinction is good enough for the time being.

I don't think Tozhy and Tuva dislike each other at all by the way, it's just that they don't really have too much in common, but ultimately they do respect each other and there's no hard feelings between them (for the most part), probably because historically they haven’t had conflict with each other and well now they pretty much live next to each other, so. Tuvan ts the first language of many Tozhu people, and the use of the Tozhu language has been waning, though it is in a far better position compared to the Tofa and Soyot languages. They sometimes bicker about this. They have grown closer over the years due to living next to each other and of course, the Tozhu are widely called the Tozhu Tuvans.

So who does Miss Tozhu relate to then? Miss Tozhu finds a lot in common with the other reindeer herders of the Sayan, the Soyot, the Tofa and the Dukha with Miss Jozhu living in the South Western quadrant.

Like the other reindeer herders, Miss Tozhu greatly respects her reindeer. As noted before, the Tozhu have to hunt for their food unlike the Tuvans who raise livestock for theirs - the Tozhu, like other reindeer herders, do not eat their reindeer. In fact, the reindeer herders of the Sayan avoid killing animals unless it is absolutely necessary. They rely mainly on fish and wild game for their protein intake. It is speculated that Reindeer herding may be the oldest form of animal husbandry in Siberia/North East Asia.

I think out of the reindeer herder gang, Miss Tozhu is the one who usually gets them all together and is the most extroverted. They're all quite closely related when it comes to their lifestyle, language and origins. In addition, she and Tofa are very keen on rekindling their old relationship. Historically these two groups are quite close but became divided due to the administration under the Russian Empire.

In addition, Tofa's close contact with Russia as opposed to Tozhu means that the Tofa have pretty much abandoned their traditional way of life and their language, however this is not the case with the Tozhu. The situation is the same with Soyot.

The Soyot and Tofa were in the original 26 “officially designated Indigenous Small-Numbered groups of the Russian federation." Due to this and the influx of Russian and Buryat (in Soyots case) culture and language, along with the collectivization policies implemented and the downfall of the USSR which lead to the collective institutions also collapsing, these two groups have lost their native language and lifestyle.

The Tozhu were also incorporated into this grouping, however in a much later date - 1993. The Tozhu also have a larger population, so of course they were harder to assimilate.

The Russian period for the other reindeer herders was extremely hard on them because of the collectivisation policies - it's not exactly a time they enjoy remembering however the ugly memories still rear its head. Despite Tozhu not being so affected by Russia as most of the other reindeer herders were, she gets slightly paranoid about the safety of all her reindeer as a result. So she sometimes finds herself scolding Dukha, for example, when she sees him being "careless" with his reindeer.

As in, camping outside Ulaanbaatar and charging any random Mongolian civilian money to ride on his reindeer during Christmas time (the Dukha fled from the Russian collectivisation policy and so was not subject to it.)

So, in short:

Generally quite chill but has that (1) thing that will make her go >.> (calling her merely a Tuvan subgroup) The most extroverted out of the reindeer herder gang!

Can kind of give older sister vibes

Bickers with Tuva like they're an old married couple sometimes

Has pictures of her reindeer in her wallet and is kinda paranoid about their safety at any given time

Likes to do a little trolling from time to time

I think Tozhu trying to uh “save” Soyot from Buryatia's clutches is quite funny (the Soyot are extremely assimilated to the Buryats)

Because a lot of Tozhu clan names are Ket in origin, she does try to have nice chats with him, even if he uh is keen to get back to his own little routines after they stop talking.

Tozhu: L + ratio + ur a Buddhist

Tuva:

Sources:

“HEY, YOU! GET

OFFA MY TAIGA!”

COMPARING THE

SENSE OF PROPERTY

RIGHTS AMONG THE

TOFA AND TOZHU-

TYVA - Brian Donahoe

A LINE IN THE SAYANS:

HISTORY AND DIVERGENT PERCEPTIONS OF PROPERTY AMONG THE

TOZHU AND TOFA OF SOUTH SIBERIA - Brian Donahoe

Naming Practices and Ethnic Identity in Tuva - K. David Harrison

[visualpoett]

The earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman, produced by the Dutch explorer Nicolaes Witsen, who authored an account of his travels among Samoyedic- and Tungusic-speaking peoples in 1692. Witsen labelled the illustration as a "Priest of the Devil" and gave this figure clawed feet to highlight his demonic qualities

[oscarjcarlisle]

In the 1920’s Isaac had distinguished himself in the Red Army during the Russian Revolution, and had some small influence on the Party. He was among the nomenklatura and used his connections in the Red Army to found a secret Paranormal Affairs division of the OGPU, later folded into the NKVD. Isaac met Stalin several times in person, and after Stalin’s accent to power Isaac demonstrated his immortality, convincing Stalin (though he needed little convincing) that magic was real and a possible threat to the Union. Thereafter Stalin committed essentially any resources Isaac requested to the Paranormal Affairs division. In actuality, magic users posed very little threat to the Soviet Union and all Isaac did was help them hide themselves from the persecution that Stalin would have levied against them.

Isaac despised Stalin, and tried several times to have him assassinated while also maintaining his good standing, but failed. Instead he did his best to mitigate the damage the rest of the NKVD was doing to the ethnic and religious minorities in Siberia.

Beryozka, the large tiger pictured here, was one of Isaac’s lieutenants and a personal friend. He was abducted from his village of reindeer Samoyedic reindeer herders in the Far North as a boy during the revolution, and fought in the Red Army, where he met Isaac. He speaks a Samoyedic dialect and is very familiar with the folklore and cryptids of Siberia, making him one of the division’s top field agents.

Beryozka is also gay and mostly closeted, Isaac was one of the first people he came out to, and while neither of them consider themselves to be in a relationship, they are very affectionate to each other. Only the other officers of the Paranormal Affairs division really know, and Isaac hand picked all of them to be fairly open-minded, anti-statist individuals, the type who’d rather let the two of them be gay together than report it to anyone because they hate the oppressive state more than they’re icked out by two guys cuddling.

[chic-cheek]

The Joy of Owning a Samoyed: A Fluffy Bundle of Happiness

When it comes to dogs that bring boundless joy and energy into a home, Samoyeds are often at the top of the list. These fluffy, white, and ever-smiling companions are more than just a pretty face; they have a rich history and a personality that can light up any room. Here’s a closer look at what makes Samoyeds so special. A Brief History Samoyeds, named after the Samoyedic people of Siberia,…

[spitzdog]

Everything you need to know about Spitz dog?

Spitz is a type of dog that includes several breeds such as Akita, Alaskan Malamute, Samoyed, and Shiba Inu. They are characterized by their thick, fluffy coats, pointed ears, and distinctive "Spitz Dog" or fox-like features. These breeds are known for their strong, independent personalities and their ability to excel in various activities such as working, agility, and sledding.

The Akita is a large and powerful breed that originated from the Akita prefecture in Japan. They were originally used for hunting large game such as bears and wild boar. Today, Akitas are often used as guard dogs and companions. They are known for their loyalty and protective nature towards their families. The breed has a strong, dominant personality and requires consistent training and socialization from an early age. They have a thick double coat that requires regular grooming.

The Alaskan Malamute is a strong and powerful breed that was originally used for hauling heavy loads in the Arctic. They are known for their endurance and strength and have been used in sledding competitions and as search and rescue dogs. They have a friendly and outgoing personality and make great family pets. However, they require a lot of exercise and space to run, and their thick coat needs regular grooming.

The Samoyed is a large, fluffy breed that was originally used by the Samoyede people of Siberia for herding and guarding livestock, as well as for hunting and sledding. They are known for their friendly and outgoing personalities, as well as their ability to work well in cold climates. They are known to be great family pets, but they do require regular grooming to keep their thick coat in good condition.

The Shiba Inu is a small to medium-sized breed that is native to Japan. They were originally used for hunting small game and were known for their agility and endurance. Today, they are popular as companion dogs and are known for their independent and stubborn personalities. They require consistent training and socialization from an early age and have a thick coat that needs regular grooming.

All of these breeds are considered to be Spitz, and they all have distinct characteristics, personalities and history. They are all popular breeds and make great companions if trained and socialized properly. It's important to research the breed and to make sure they are the right fit for your lifestyle before getting one. They all have high exercise requirements and require regular grooming to keep their thick coat in good condition. With proper care and training, Spitz breeds can make great loyal companions for many years to come.

[mayorofcattown]

I was looking up dog breeds to figure out the family tree for my wolf boy oc and discovered that for some reason the samoyed wikipedia page is certified green on shinigami eyes??

I can't believe all samoyed dogs said trans rights

[returquoise]

Ooh, finally an English-speaking tv production with proper Finnish in it!

[a-muscaria]

Nganasan kindergarten in Taymyria, Siberia

[niedopalek]

MYTHOLOGICAL In populations across North Eurasia, from Indo-European groups in the far west to the Chukchi in the far east, as well as in the Americas, two styles of myth can be found with striking consistency; an "Earth Diver" creation myth, and a myth in which a monstrous dog guards the underworld, where getting past it acts a test for deceased souls.

The "Earth Diver" myth generally follows a plot where some animal/being is sent to dive to the bottom of the primordial ocean to collect a small amount of sand or mud, from which a supreme creator deity constructs the first dry land. This story, with minor variations, is found in the mythos of Northeast Asian, Siberian, and Eastern European populations such as the Samoyedic peoples, Turkic peoples, the Buryats, the Ainu, Chukchi, Yukaghir, Slavs, Lithuanians¹²³⁴, etc, as well as Native American groups; Blackfoot, Arapaho, Athabaskans, Cayuga, Nipmuc, Ojibway, Potawatomi, Mohawk⁵, etc.

The Afterlife-Dog-Guardian myth is found throughout Indo-European cultures; you are most likely familiar with Cerberus from Greek mythology. It's also found among the Chukchi and Tungusic peoples. There's remains of dogs that appear to have been ritualistically slaughtered at Mesolithic sites in Siberia, which may be related to this myth. In North America, the mythos of Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian peoples also generally feature a fierce dog guarding the path to the afterlife; however, in their myths, the path is the Milky Way in the sky, rather than the underworld⁶.

Now, if this consistent continuum of distribution wasn't convincing enough, there's now also archaeogenetic evidence that further implies these two myths have a common origin (which would make them among the oldest reconstructable stories we know of.) Genetic analysis infers the existence of a Paleolithic/Mesolithic grouping of people in North Eurasia aptly known as the Ancient North Eurasians. The thread that defines the ANE is close relation to the 24,000 year old Mal'ta Boy remains from the Lake Baikal region⁷. The Ancient North Eurasians were an extremely prolific and important population; to the East, they've contributed ancestry to modern Siberian populations (and to a lesser extent, East Asians), and a large amount to Native Americans; 40-50% of Native American DNA is ANE in origin⁷. To the west, they mixed with various West Eurasian hunter-gatherers to form Mesolithic lineages such as the Caucasus Hunter Gatherers, Eastern European Hunter Gatherers, West Siberian Hunter Gatherers, and Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers. Proto-Indo-Europeans descended from a mixture of Eastern European Hunter Gatherers (70-75% ANE, 30-25% Western European Hunter Gatherer) and Caucasus Hunter Gatherers⁸ (45-62% Dzudzuana/Archaic Caucasus HG, 55-38% ANE⁹). This shared ancestry lends credence to the idea that this pattern of myths could have a common origin in North Asia predating the migration of people to the Americas.

Furthermore, very recent research (a few months ago) suggests that the domestication of the dog occurred in Siberia around 23,000 years ago, where, from there, they spread throughout Eurasia and into the Americas; the people responsible for the domestication are identified in the initial study as "Ancient North Siberians"¹⁰ , though they were described as being associated with the Mal'ta remains and are thus synonymous with Ancient North Eurasians. Not necessarily strong evidence in its own right that the Afterlife Dog myth comes from them, but I definitely think it's worth mentioning. There's also rituals consistently associating dogs with healing and protection through their perceived ability to absorb illness found in ANE-descended populations such as the Hittites, ancient Greeks, ancient Italics, Turkic peoples, Babylonians (Mesopotamia is adjacent to where Neolithic Iranians lived, who also had a large amount of ANE ancestry), and possibly the ancient Botai culture⁶.

(And just as a fun fact, blonde hair among West Eurasians is believed to have originated with the ANE; the earliest person known to have been genetically predisposed to blonde hair was the ~17,000 year old ANE-descended Afontova Gora 3 girl from central Siberia.)

CULTURAL

Broadly similar religious practices that can be described as shamanism are mostly distributed among East Asians (especially Siberians) and, quite famously, Native Americans¹². Uralic peoples, who ultimately originate from east Siberia¹³, brought it to Europe. The fact that shamanism is found in many different East Asian populations, including ones with little ANE ancestry in southern China, east India, and Southeast Asia, but is/was essentially absent in West Eurasia (as far as we know), suggests that the practice has an ancient East Asian origin, and that Native Americans picked it up from their East Asian ancestral component (40-50% of their DNA from ANE, 60-50% from Ancient East Asian)

Of course, shamanistic practices are also present in cultures from Sub Saharan Africa, and among Australian Aboriginals, so as a whole the concept obviously emerged multiple times, but the particularly strong concentration of it among the deeply related peoples of East Asia, Siberia, and Native America might indicate that theirs does have some sort of common heritage.

LINGUISTIC

In 2010, linguist Edward Vadja published The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, the culmination of years of his research, wherein he proposes that the Yeniseian language family of Central Siberia, and the Na-Dene language family of North America (which includes such languages as Navajo and Apache), are related¹⁴. This paper was actually well received by a number of respected linguists, the first theory connecting Old World and New World languages to receive this treatment. In a 2012 presentation, Vadja bolstered his theory with further comparative linguistic evidence, as well as non-linguistic evidence; the most compelling example of the latter being the fact that haplogroup Q1, which is very common throughout indigenous populations of the Americas , is found at a rate of nearly 90% among the Yeniseian Ket people (and at a rate of 65% in their neighbors, the Samoyedic-speaking Selkup, who have long intermixed with Yeniseians.) The Navajo have this haplogroup at a rate of 92%. The Ket people also have among the highest amount of ANE-derived ancestry out of any modern day population, similar to Native Americans¹⁵.

A possible scenario explaining the proliferation of the family: when the ancestors of most other Native Americans migrated over into the New World, a subset of them remained behind in Beringia for several millennia. Eventually, as Beringia began to flood ~10,000 years ago, the group split, with some going back into Asia to become the Yeniseians while others finally moved into America to become the Na-Dene. While this is certainly much older than the dating for most other established language families, it is not implausible; Proto-Afro-Asiatic, for example, is routinely dated to well over 10,000 years ago. However, Vadja himself postulated that Na-Dene might have arrived in America through a distinct migration which postdated the initial peopling of the continents.¹⁶

Today, Dene-Yeniseian is still not a universally accepted, firmly established language family, but its not widely rejected either; it remains an open, favorable possibility while further research is done. For the sake of fairness, here is an example of a critical review which doubts the theory as Vadja proposed it: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~lylecamp/Campbell%20Yeniseian%20NaDene%20review%2011-2-10.pdf

SOURCES

Sacred narrative, readings in the theory of myth, Alan Dundes, page 168-70

Earth-Diver Myth (А812) in northern Eurasia and North America: twenty years later, Vladimir Napolskikh

A Dictionary of Asian Mythology, David Adams Leeming, page 55

The Motifs of creating the world in the Lithuanian narrative folklore, Nijolė Laurinkienė

http://www.native-languages.org/earthdiver.html

Tracing the Indo-Europeans: New evidence from archaeology and historical linguistics, David W. Anthony & Dorcas R. Brown, page 104-105

Upper Palaeolithic Siberian Genome Reveals Dual Ancestry of Native Americans, Pontus Skoglund & Maanasa Raghavan

Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard, David Anthony

Paleolithic DNA from the Caucasus reveals  core of West Eurasian ancestry, Josif Lazaridis, Anna Belfer-Cohen, Swapan Mallick, Nick Patterson, Olivia Cheronet,Nadin Rohland Guy Bar-Oz, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Nino Jakeli, Eliso Kvavadze, David Lordkipanidze, Zinovi Matzkevich, Tengiz Meshveliani, Brendan J. Culleton, Douglas J. Kennett, Ron Pinhasi, David Reich

Dog domestication and the dual dispersal of people and dogs into the Americas, Angela R. Perri , Tatiana R. Feuerborn, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Greger Larson , Ripan S. Malhi, David J. Meltzer, Kelsey E. Witt

The genomic history of southeastern Europe, David Reich + many many more names

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Map_of_Shamanism_across_the_world.svg

The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers Further East, Lehti Saag

Reviewed Work: The Dene–Yeniseian Connection by James Kari and Ben A. Potter

Genomic study of the Ket: a Paleo-Eskimo-related ethnic group with significant ancient North Eurasian ancestry, Pavel Flegontov

DENE-YENISEIAN LANGUAGE FAMILY: EVIDENCE FOR A BACK-MIGRATION TO THE OLD WORLD? German Dziebel