Khanty people

Khanty (in older literature: Ostyaks) are an indigenous people calling themselves Khanti, Khande, Kantek (Khanty), living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together with the Mansi. In the autonomous okrug, the Khanty and Mansi languages are given co-official status with Russian. In the 2010 Census, 30,943 persons identified themselves as Khanty. Of those, 26,694 were resident in Tyumen Oblast, of which 17,128 were living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug and 8,760—in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. 873 were residents of neighbouring Tomsk Oblast, and 88 lived in the Komi Republic.

History

In the centuries of the second millennium BC, the territories between Kama and Irtysh rivers were the home of a Proto-Uralic speaking population who had contacts with Proto-Indo-European speakers from the South. The inhabitants of these areas were of Europid stock. This woodland population is the ancestor of the modern-day Ugrian inhabitants of Trans-Uralia. Some consider the Khanty's ancestors to be the prehistoric metalworking Andronovo Culture. Other researchers say that the Khanty people are originated from the south Ural steppe and moved northwards into their current location about 500 AD.