The location of all items belonging to women in the traditional Khanty dwelling was strictly regulated. The center of the house was the hearth, with all members of the family having their individual places of rest and sleep on both sides of it, depending on their status.

The space between the hearth and the entrance was considered to be a woman’s space, where such items as kindlings, household utensils, and a tuchan handbag for needlework were kept.

Men tried to pass through this zone as quickly as possible. Women’s things were taboo for men.

A woman was considered the guardian of the home hearth. She was responsible for making the chuval (hearth), and kept the fire in it. Behind the chuval was the sacral space — the man’s zone. This was where household sacred things were kept, and women were forbidden to go around the hearth and touch them. Despite the numerous restrictions, the material world that filled the entire living space was connected primarily with the activities of women. It was she who made and decorated clothes, birch bark boxes and cradles, and even cast objects from tin.

The application of decorative patterns on a newly made thing symbolically spiritualized it and incorporated it into the family’s living space. Apart from its aesthetic function, patterns were believed to have a protective and magical meaning. In this regard, the role of tuchan woman’s bag for storing tools and needlework materials: needles, threads, scraps, beads, was very significant.

Such handbags were most often made of suede, sometimes of rawhide. Researchers have also come across tuchans made of cloth. Such handbags were richly decorated both in the mosaic technique, when cut fur fragments were joined together, and in appliqué, when cut details were sewn on top of the base material. Tuchans had no fasteners.

The museum exhibit had a strip of white leather with a fold sewn into the upper part of the item, into which a narrow leather strap was inserted. The wide sides of this tuchan were decorated with a fur mosaic in inverted color: on the one side there was a pattern of light fur, on the other side — the same pattern of dark fur.