The monograph summarizes materials on the traditional material and spiritual culture of the Siberian Nenets, examines the tribal organization and ethnodemographic processes in their environment, and studies the anthropological features of local Nenets populations using a single methodology. A significant part of the materials was collected by the authors in the field, museum, archival and literary data are involved in their analysis, and materials on neighboring peoples - Ents, Nganasans, Huns, Selkups, etc. are analyzed during intergroup anthropological comparison. A special place is given to the main stages of ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the indigenous population of Yamal Peninsula, the problems of the origin of the Samoyans and the separation of the Nenets into an independent ethnic group.