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Bogordayeva A.A. Costume of the Khanty Prince Artanzeev. Journal of Clothing Science. 2023; 8(4). Available at: https://kostumologiya.ru/PDF/14IVKL423.pdf (in Russian).

Costume of the Khanty Prince Artanzeev

Bogordayeva Aksana Aleksandrovna
Tyumen Scientific Centre of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Tyumen, Russia
E-mail: bogordaeva@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2665-4833
RSCI: https://elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=16634
SCOPUS: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=57212172610

Abstract. The article aims to study the costume of the Khanty Prince Artanzeev in a photograph of the late 19th century. The Prince is pictured wearing a long braided kaftan, a round cap, long wide trousers, and leather shoes. The author applied comparative historical and typological methods to analyze the cutout and decoration of garment pieces, as well as the composition of the costume in order to determine its historical and cultural background. Published information on the Russian costume of the 15th–19th centuries and traditional Khanty clothes of the 19th century was used for the analysis.

The article provides brief information about the Khanty, their settlement, the peculiarities of Khanty culture and clothing, the duties and privileges of the princes, and the origin of the princely family of the Artanzeevs. According to ethnographic literature, the Russian tsars and tsarist officials presented the Khanty princes with clothes, such as kaftans, waistcoats, caps, etc., when awarding letters of ownership to them. The local population perceived those clothes as a symbol of power. Princes wore them when they performed administrative or representative duties, for instance, during a fair, tax collection, in the court, etc. The costume differed from the traditional clothes worn in the 19th century by the northern group of Khanty, to which Prince Artanzeev belonged. Men used to wear close-fitting clothes made of deer skins or thick cloth with a hood and fur or leather shoes, also made of deer skins. Prince Artanzeev wore such clothes when he didn’t perform his duties.

However, the costume pictured in the photograph doesn’t match either a civilian or military uniform of the 19th century. Based on the information on Russian clothing of the 15th–19th centuries, the author concludes that the composition and pieces (a kaftan, a cap, pointed shoes) of the princely costume corresponds to the upper-class Russian costume of the 15th–17th centuries, which indicates the time of its formation. The kaftan differs by additional decorations which determine its ethnic features. Besides, the costume was likely to be sewn by local craftswomen who used traditional sewing techniques they knew. In addition, it is known that when presenting clothes, the Russian authorities often gave away fabrics for its manufacture. Therefore, the author suggests Prince Artanzeev’s outfit to be of local origin. A comparative analysis of the vestments of Prince Artanzeev and photographs of other local princes of that period revealed similarities in composition and decoration with the costume of the Khanty Prince Taishin, which is indicative of an established ethnic tradition of the princely costume.

Keywords: Khanty; Mansi; Ob Ugrians; Nenets; prince; princely costume; kaftan; cap

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