Tungusic peoples


Tungusic peoples are an ethnolinguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages. They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The "Tungusic" phylum is divided into two main branches, northern and southern. An intermediate group is sometimes recognized.

Name

The name "Tungusic" is artificial, and properly refers just to the postulated linguistic phylum. It is derived from Tungus, a Russian exonym for the Evenks. English usage of "Tungusic" was introduced by Friedrich Max Müller in the 1850s, based on earlier use of German Tungusic by Heinrich Julius Klaproth. The alternative term Manchu-Tungus is also in use.
The word Tunguska, a region of eastern Siberia bounded on the west by the Tunguska rivers and on the east by the Pacific Ocean has its origin from the Tungus people. Russian Tungus was likely taken from East Turkic tunguz, although some scholars prefer derivation from the Chinese word Donghu. This "chance similarity in modern pronunciation led to the once widely held assumption that the Eastern Hu were Tungusic in language. However, there is little basis for this theory."

History

It is generally suggested that the homeland of the Tungusic people is in northeastern Manchuria, somewhere near the Amur River region. The Tungusic language family is grouped with Turkic and Mongolic, as Altaic, and genetic evidence collected from the Ulchi suggests a date for the Micro-Altaic expansion predating 3500 BC.
The Tungusic expansion into Siberia displaced the indigenous Siberian languages, which are now grouped under the term Paleosiberian. Several theories suggest that the Pannonian Avars of the Avar Khaganate in Central-, East- and Southeast-Europe were of Tungusic origin or of partially Tungusic origin.
Tungusic people on the Amur river like Udeghe, Ulchi and Nanai adopted Chinese influences in their religion and clothing with Chinese dragons on ceremonial robes, scroll and spiral bird and monster mask designs, Chinese New Year, using silk and cotton, iron cooking pots, and heated house from China
The Manchu originally came from Manchuria, which is now Northeast China and Russian Far East. Following the Manchu establishment of the Qing dynasty in the 17th century, they have been almost totally assimilated into the culture and language of the ethnic Han population of China. This process has accelerated especially during the 20th century.
The southern Tungusic Manchu farming sedentary lifestyle was very different from the nomadic hunter gatherer forager lifestyle of their more northern Tungusic relatives like the Warka, which left the Qing state to attempt to make them sedentarize and farm like Manchus.
During the 17th century, the Tsardom of Russia was expanding east across Siberia, and into Tungusic-speaking lands, ending with the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. The first published description of a Tungusic people to reach beyond Russia into the rest of Europe was by the Dutch traveler Isaac Massa in 1612. He passed along information from Russian reports after his stay in Moscow.

Ethnic groups

"Tungusic" peoples are divided into two main branches, northern and southern.
The southern branch is dominated by the Manchu. The Chinese Qing emperors were Manchu, and the Manchu group has largely been sinicized.
The Sibe were possibly a Tungusic-speaking section of the Shiwei and have been conquered by the expanding Manchu. Their language is mutually intelligible with Manchu. The Nanai are also derived from the Jurchen. The Orok are an offshoot of the Nanai. Other minor groups closely related to the Nanai are the Ulch, Oroch and Udege. The Udege live in the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in the Russian Federation.
The northern branch is mostly formed by the closely related ethnic groups of Evenks and Evens. The Evenks live in the Evenk Autonomous Okrug of Russia in addition to many parts of eastern Siberia, especially Sakha Republic. The Evens are very closely related to the Evenks by language and culture, and they likewise inhabit various parts of eastern Siberia. People who classify themselves as Evenks in the Russian census tend to live toward the west and toward the south of eastern Siberia, whereas people who classify themselves as Evens tend to live toward the east and toward the north of eastern Siberia, with some degree of overlap in the middle. Minor ethnic groups also in the northern branch are the Negidals and the Oroqen. The Oroqen, Solon, and Khamnigan inhabit some parts of Heilongjiang Province, Inner Mongolia, and Mongolia and may be considered as subgroups of the Evenk ethnicity, though the Solons and the Khamnigans in particular have interacted closely with Mongolic peoples, and they are ethnographically quite distinct from the Evenks in Russia.

Demographics

Tungusic peoples are:
EnglishChinese / Russianself designationRegionPopulationNotes
Manchu满族（满洲）/Маньчжуры Liaoning Pro., Jilin Pro., Heilongjiang Pro., Inner Mongolia A.R., Hebei Pro., Beijing etc., People's Republic of China: 10,410,585 : 12000
Sakhalin Oblast. Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Oblast, Buryatia Rep., Zabaykalsky Krai, Evenk Autonomous Okrug, Sakha Rep., Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tomsk Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Russian Federation.
Selenge Pro., Mongolia		: 38,396
Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, Russian Federation		: 12,160
Abashiri City, Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan		: 295 : 20
Ulch乌尔奇人/УльчинаниUlchsky District, Khabarovsk Krai, Russian Federation: 2,765 : 76
Oroch奥罗奇人/О́рочиNaniKhabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin Oblast, Magadan Oblast, Russian Federation: 596 : 288
Udege乌德赫人/Удэгейцыудээ, удэхе, Udihe, Udekhe, UdegheKhabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, Russian Federation: 1,496 : 42

Population genetics

Paternal

The Tungusic people are closely related to other Northern Asian populations and to the Mongols. The main haplogroup of the Ewenic peoples is the C-M48 subclade of Haplogroup C-M217.Besides the Ewenic peoples, C-M86 is also common among Mongols, Kazakhs, and Ulchi. Y-DNA haplogroup C is also the most common haplogroup among the Udege, but the frequency among them of the C-M86 subclade is unclear.
Haplogroup N Y-DNA is also found among Ewenic peoples with varying frequency. Haplogroup N Y-DNA among Evenks in the basin of the Yenisei River and the Taimyr Peninsula most often belongs to the N-P43 subclade, which they share mainly with the Samoyedic and Ugric peoples of Western Siberia. Haplogroup N among Evenks, Evens, and Negidals in Eastern Siberia belongs mainly to the N-Tat subclade, haplotypes of which they often share either with Yakut or with Buryat.
However, the modern Manchu people show relatively high amounts of Haplogroup O2, which is common among Chinese and Koreans, and Haplogroup O1b2, which is common among Japanese and Koreans.

Maternal

According to a total of 29 sample from the mtDNA studies of Xibo, Oroqen, and Hezhen
283 samples from a mtDNA study of Tungusic Evenks, Evens, and Udeges in Russia published in 2013, their main mtDNA haplogroups are :
The Ewenic people in Siberia appear similar to their North Siberian Turkic and Yukaghir neighbors in regard to their mitochondrial gene pool, exhibiting high frequencies of haplogroups C4a, C4b, C5, D4l2, and D5a2a2. D4l2 seems to be relatively common among Dolgans, Ewenic people, and Yukaghirs and less common among Yakut, whereas D5a2a2 seems to be relatively common among Evenks in the basin of the Iyengra River and the Yakut and less common among Evens, Yukaghirs, and Dolgans. C4a, C4b, and C5 seem to be spread relatively evenly among these populations. Evens, Evenks in the basin of the Nyukzha River, and Yukaghirs also share mtDNA haplogroup Z1a with notable frequency, but this haplogroup is rare among Evenks in many other areas as well as among Yakut and Dolgans.
The mitochondrial gene pool of the Udege appears to differ starkly from that of the Ewenic people. According to the same study by Duggan et al., the members of a sample of Udege belong to haplogroup N9b, haplogroup C4b1, haplogroup M7a2a3, haplogroup M8a1b, haplogroup M9a1a1a2, haplogroup Y1a, and C4a1a4a.
The mitochondrial gene pool of the Ulchi, a Tungusic-speaking people who live in the lower basin of the Amur River, differs in detail both from the Ewenic peoples and from the Udege. According to Sukernik et al., the mitochondrial DNA of the present-day Ulchi population belongs predominantly to haplogroup Y1a, which is shared with Nivkhs, Koryaks, Evens, and Mongolians and is estimated to have a time to most recent common ancestor of approximately 6,000 years before present on the basis of complete genomes or approximately 1,800 years before present on the basis of synonymous positions. Another 20% of the present-day Ulchi population belongs to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup D, which is significantly more diverse than their haplogroup Y1a mtDNA and can be resolved as follows: 12/160 = 7.5% D4o2, 4/160 = 2.5% D4h, 3/160 = 1.9% D4e4, 3/160 = 1.9% D4j, 2/160 = 1.25% D3, 2/160 = 1.25% D4c2, 1/160 = 0.6% D4a1, 1/160 = 0.6% D4b2b, 1/160 = 0.6% D4g2b, 1/160 = 0.6% D4m2, 1/160 = 0.6% D4o1, 1/160 = 0.6% D5a. Haplogroups C and G are also well represented. The remainder of the Ulchi mitochondrial DNA pool comprises haplogroups N9b, M8a, F1a, M7, M9a1, Z1a2, and B5b2. Besides a very high frequency of mtDNA haplogroup Y1a among the Ulchi, they also have a greater proportion of C5 than C4b or C4a, unlike the Udege, Evens, or Evenks. The haplogroup D mtDNA of the Ulchi is very diverse, but the most frequently observed subclade is D4o2, which Duggan et al. have observed only in their sample of Evens from Kamchatka among their samples of Tungusic peoples. The second most frequent subclade of haplogroup D among the Ulchi, D4h, was not observed among the Evenk, Even, or Udege samples of Duggan et al., but it has been observed in people from China, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Americas. Like the Udege, the Ulchi lack D4l2, the most frequently observed subclade of haplogroup D among Siberian Evenks and Evens, as well as haplogroup A. Haplogroup Z1a, which is very frequent in some samples of Evens and Evenks, has been observed only in the form of a rare basal Z1a2* in a single Ulchi individual. Small percentages of Evens and Evenks belong to haplogroup F1b, which is spread widely in Central Asia and northern East Asia, whereas a small percentage of Ulchis belongs to haplogroup F1a, this latter clade being found mainly in Southeast Asia, but also throughout China, Korea, and Japan.
The Human Genome Diversity Project included small samples of three Tungusic populations from the PRC in its panel: Xibo, Oroqen, and Hezhen. The Hezhen sample included ten individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are Y1a, C5, C5d1, D4o2a1, B5b2a1b, and F1d. The Oroqen sample also included ten individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are D3, B4d, C4a1, F1b1, F1c, J1c10a1, and M11. The Xibo sample included nine individuals, whose mtDNA haplogroups are C5d1, C5a1, C4a1'5, D4b2, F1a1c, R11b, U4a2a1, and Z3a.
The data seems to reflect some amount of gene flow with peoples living around the Sea of Okhotsk on the one hand and peoples living in Central Asia on the other. A minor connection with Beringian populations is apparent in the presence of mtDNA that belongs to haplogroup D2, haplogroup D3, and haplogroup A2a among present-day Northern Tungusic people.

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