Hygienic traditions of the Selkups

The study is devoted to the traditional hygiene of the Selkups, one of the small peoples of the North. Selkup hygiene traditions are viewed from two perspectives: through the prism of mythological representations and in the light of their conditioning by the natural environment and historical moment. As a result of the study, it was found that in the traditional worldview of the Selkups, all the excretions and “growths” from the human body, such as feces, sweat, urine, saliva, nails, hair, etc., which, together with the person's attitude to them, form the sphere of household hygiene, were interpreted as the soul / the life principle through which the idea of the cycle of life in the Universe is realized. The mythological interpretation of excreta and “growths” as elements responsible for human vitality is directly reflected in Selkup hygiene traditions. Selkups did not demonstrate hostility to feces and urine on the floor of the dwelling, to sweat that never washed off the body and never washed off clothes, and to saliva on plates wiped by it, but they were afraid of breaking even one of the rules for cutting nails. The formation of hygiene skills, as well as their mythological interpretation, occurred under the influence of the natural environment in which the ancestors of the Selkups lived. The Selkup adaptation to the harsh natural conditions of the North was the maximum possible and did not let the Selkups down for many centuries. Its assessment fell from “relevant” to “unsanitary” when epidemic diseases came to the Selkups along with the Russian colonization, and traditional hygiene could not resist them.