Table of contents:
- The notorious Slavic type with reservations
- Linguistic similarities or a little about linguistics
- Common in folk culture
- Mentality and common Slavic psychotype
Video: Is there a "Slavic unity", or in what the Slavs are similar to each other
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The Slavs constitute one of the most extensive groups of peoples inhabiting today Europe, Siberia and the Far East. Despite a number of common features, the Slavic representatives are fundamentally different in certain characteristics. Let's try to figure out why the southern Slavs are very different from the West-Eastern, how close the Ukrainians are to the Russians, and who, in principle, are considered Slavs.
The notorious Slavic type with reservations
In scientific circles, Slavs are considered peoples who have long used the Slavic group as their native languages. Naturally, speakers of related languages have anthropological similarities. Western Slavs are genetically similar to Eastern ones. The Russians inhabiting the central and southern regions form a common eastern group with the Ukrainians and Belarusians. At the same time, the northern Russians stand out strongly against the background of other representatives. In the genetic context, the Finno-Ugric peoples are more dear to them.
As for the western group, the Eastern Slavs are most closely related to the Poles. Having a number of common features among themselves, the western and eastern brothers are in many ways similar to their non-Slavic neighbors.
We are talking about the Baltic-speaking peoples - Latvians, Lithuanians. Scientists logically explain this phenomenon by mutual assimilation due to territorial proximity.
The South Slavs represent a special gene pool. Gravitating as much as possible to the type of geographical neighbors, they are similar at the genetic level with other Balkan peoples. For example, Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs are sometimes difficult to distinguish from the Greeks, Romanians and Albanians living nearby.
Even taking into account the fact that all these representatives communicate through different non-Slavic languages. But the Czechs and Slovaks are genetically shifting towards the West European population, in particular, towards the Germans.
The Ukrainian theme, which is popular today, should be separately noted. Increasingly, there are assumptions based rather on politicized sources. Judging by the results of many years of research by the international genetic and linguistic group of scientists headed by Doctor of Biological Sciences O. Balanovsky, there is only one answer. Ukrainian populations are as similar as possible to Russians.
In this context, the role of Belarusians is interesting, some of whom are indistinguishable in genetics from Ukrainians, and some from Russians. In a detailed examination of all Eastern Slavs, the Ukrainian gene pool without sharp boundaries turns into Russian, and the Belarusians seem to be distributed among them.
Linguistic similarities or a little about linguistics
The Slavic group of languages is part of the Indo-European family, having a lot in common with the Baltic. The Slavic languages are conventionally subdivided into the East Slavic branch (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian), the South Slavic subgroup (Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian), and the West Slavic branch (Polish, Czech, Slovak). The spoken forms of languages are very similar to each other, differing in grammatical and phonetic aspects. The written difference, for example, in Polish, Czech and Slovak, is enclosed in the Latin alphabet. This is easily explained by the influence of Catholicism.
Accordingly, the Orthodox Church brought the Cyrillic alphabet to the Russian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian languages. Against their background, the Serbo-Croatian writing system, based on two alphabets, stands out. Another distinctive criterion of Slavic languages is the position of stress in words. For example, the Czechs emphasize the first syllable, the Poles - the penultimate, and the Bulgarians and Russians are maximally variable in this regard. Macedonian and Bulgarian languages differ grammatically from other Slavic languages, using a special system of using nouns and articles.
Significant interlanguage differences are largely due to the territorial position. Scientists agree that, settling in European lands, the Slavs brought language with them, at the same time absorbing a foreign gene pool.
Common in folk culture
Folklore is considered the main cultural reflection of certain characteristics of the people. As for oral creativity, common features can be easily traced among the Eastern Slavs, Western and even Southern. Many centuries-old Bulgarian fairy tales are very similar to Russian ones. After all, folklore community is not only in semantic identity. Researchers focus on the similarity of presentation styles, comparative images, epithets.
In other words, Slavic creativity is distinguished by a similar principle of perception and thinking. In addition, the similarity of cultures could not but be influenced by the general geographic location and types of activities. The Slavs lived by agriculture and cattle breeding, which is reflected in the ritual poetry of all representatives of the subgroups. The ancient Slavs are considered sun worshipers, so the images of the earth and the sun fill the mythology of Russians, Belarusians, Serbs, and Bulgarians. The heroes of fairy tales testify to a common community.
Close inter-Slavic ties were conducive to unification and resistance to enemies by common efforts. Some classic fairy tale characters are collective in the oral work of the Eastern, Southern, Western Slavs. The same applies to the plots of epics, folk songs and dances, which clearly testify to the unity of the Slavs.
Mentality and common Slavic psychotype
The 19th century Slavophile N. Danilevsky in his work "Russia and Europe" expressed the main features of the national Slavic character. In his opinion, this psychotype differs sharply from the same Romano-Germanic peoples. Based on the results of long research, the scientist identified a special Slavic cultural and historical type. The first feature he pointed out is a genetically determined peacefulness and lack of craving for violence.
The second distinguishing feature of Slavism as a whole is the priority of an internal deep way of life. In other words, the Slavs are contemplative introverts, neglecting pragmatism, activity, appeal to the outside world and expansion. According to Danilevsky, the life of the Slavs is based on spiritual contemplation, a measured search for truth. The scientist undertook to assert that the character of the Slavs is full of gentleness, respectfulness, obedience, which naturally proceeds from Christian ideals.
Gives the researcher more specific characteristics. Danilevsky called the Russians "Slavic Romans" with promising tendencies, and attributed the Western Slavs dependence on the German-Roman culture. He considered the Serbs prone to internal fragmentation, and the Poles as the most pro-Western people among the Slavs. According to Danilevsky, Bulgarians are liberal and democratic, while Czechs are Russophiles with a German character and German culture.
In addition to names, Russians today use a patronymic from the Slavic tradition, which is not the case in Central and Western Europe.
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