МАЭ № 2709-1

Man’s winter clothes – parka (anorak)

The Mansi

late 19th century

reindeer skin, woolen cloth

length 148.0; width along hem 108.0

This is a piece of winter clothes called parka of the Mansi - an Ugrian people. It was received by the Museum in the 1920s as a result of an expedition to Siberia, to the Ob River basin. This parka is made of two deer skins sewn together fur outside. The back is cut as a single piece together with the hood made of the skin from a deer head. It has the ears, while the horn and eye holes are stitched up. The parka is decorated with ornamental insets made in the fur mosaics technique and fringed with multi-color cloth. Such parkas were worn in the winter over other pieces of clothes (malitsa) worn fur inside. This parka originates from the ancient types of clothes of the peoples of northern Asia which were made of whole deer skins. Such cut was used until the 20th century in the traditional costumes of the Evenk people and shaman outfits of many Siberian peoples. It was defined by the ancient beliefs about the mythical deer that embodied the sun, the reviving nature and even the Universe. The cut of this parka is a vivid example of the realization of the concept of identity of the micro- and macrocosm. When a man put on such clothes made of a whole skin, his body sort of became identical to the body of the mythical animal that embodied the Universe. The ornament that is full of symbolic meanings reflecting the world of people and the Cosmos serves the same end. The protective pattern was placed along the hem, on the sleeves, on the shoulders and around the neck, thus guarding the person who wore this parka against evil forces. At the same time, it symbolized the cosmic order and the repetitive cosmic movement.

Ethnography of Siberia