From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 62184
Date: 2008-12-19
----- Original Message -----
From: "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Reindeer: another ideer
>
> On 2008-12-19 17:54, Arnaud Fournet wrote:
>
>> Do you have any information or reference of "that price for a bride" ?
>
> I've done some checking and it seems that my memory didn't serve me too
> well: in Saami traditions reindeer are part of a girl's dowry, and the
> married couple merge their herds:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/rodeodrive/6232/lapland.html
>
> But they did make various payments in reindeer and/or reindeer products:
>
> "In 1602 the tax structure was reorganized (Kvist, 1989b:44)
> and the Saami were required to pay their taxes in live reindeer
> and dried fish. One live reindeer became an equivalent tax
> unit."
>
> http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic44-4-337.pdf
>
>> This also exists with Tatar and Other Finno-Ougric people.
>
> Indeed. Here's an example: "The price of a wife is from 30 to 100
> reindeer, besides skins and various other things." (Fridtjof Nansen,
> _Through Siberia: The Land of the Future_, describing the Samoyeds).
>
> Piotr
>
==========
Reindeer are really worth about nothing
when compared to cattle.
This means a bride is worth three heads of cattle and one hundred heads of
reindeer.
I wonder if you should not try to find the origin of *xrain- on the
*s-kr-tos side of it.
Anyway thanks for information.
A.