First Published in 2000. This text provides a survey of the peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages and have titular republics or autonomous regions within the post-Soviet Russian federation. Their languages have set them apart from their Turkic and Russian neighbours and helped to preserve their distinct identity, including their animist religious practices. Previous works on this subject were written before the demise of the USSR so that information on the subject was screened by Soviet censors. In particular, this book explores the principal threats now facing these peoples - as much environmental as political. Although communism has gone, the exploitation of natural resources threatens the region's ecology, while the new rulers in the Kremlin seem set to continue their predecessors' oppressive policies towards the Finno-Ugrians. The book is written with commitment to the threatened human and political rights of these endangered peoples.
First Published in 2000. This text provides a survey of the peoples who speak Finno-Ugric languages and have titular republics or autonomous regions within the post-Soviet Russian federation. Their languages have set them apart from their Turkic and Russian neighbours and helped to preserve their distinct identity, including their animist religious practices. Previous works on this subject were written before the demise of the USSR so that information on the subject was screened by Soviet censors. In particular, this book explores the principal threats now facing these peoples - as much environmental as political. Although communism has gone, the exploitation of natural resources threatens the region's ecology, while the new rulers in the Kremlin seem set to continue their predecessors' oppressive policies towards the Finno-Ugrians. The book is written with commitment to the threatened human and political rights of these endangered peoples.
The village of Kolodozero, deeply concealed in the woods of Pudozh, is located on the border between Arkhangelsk Oblast and Karelia in Russia . In ancient times, people settled on the northern flanks of the local bodies of water -- rivers and lakes. Kolodozero therefore consists of a handful of small hamlets -- Lakhta, Isakovo, Ust' -Reka, Pogost', Zaozerye, and Dubovo. Houses are scattered along the picturesque lake's shores and capes. Fifteen years ago, these places enchanted three friends from Moscow who were strolling around the north and searching for the meaning of life, and most likely, themselves as well. In 2001, they jointly gathered resources and started building a new church to replace the old one that was burned down back in 1977. One of the friends, the redhead rebel and punk Arkady Shlykov, who graduated from the Moscow Spiritual Seminary, accepted the ordination in 2005. 40 years later, th erefore, parochial life was born anew in the village. The stern locals at first cast much suspicion onto the shaggy -haired, rockstar -resembling priest, but later on came to love him wholeheartedly. They accepted his freedom, both external and internal, and appreciated his character -- peace -loving and gentle. This i s a story about the people of the Russian North, about what keeps them together, about the spirit and soul, about their passions and emotions.
Cave paintings at Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain, fraught with expression thousands of years later; point to an early human desire to form a cultural identity. In the Oxford Companion to World Mythology, David Leeming explores the role of mythology, or myth-logic, in history and determines that the dreams of specific cultures add up to a larger collective story of humanity. Stopping short of attempting to be all-inclusive, this fascinating volume will nonetheless be comprehensive, opening with an introduction exploring the nature and dimensions of myth and proposing a definition as a universal language. Briefly dipping into the ways our understanding of myth has changed from Aristotle and Plato to modern scholars such as Joseph Campbell, the introduction loosely places the concept in its present context and precedes articles on influential mythologists and mythological approaches that appear later in the Companion. The main body of Leeming's work consists of A-Z entries covering all aspects of mythology, including substantial essays on the world's major mythological traditions (Greek, Native American, Indian, Japanese, Sumerian, Egyptian), mythological types and motifs (Descent to the Underworld, the Hero, the Trickster, Creation, the Quest), mythological figures (Odysseus, Zeus, Osiris, Spider Woman, and Inanna) as well as numerous interrelated subjects such as fairly tales and legends. The Companion also locates myth in our lives today, relating it to language patterns, psychology, religion, politics, art, and gender attitudes. Many of the better-known and more significant myths are vividly retold in this volume that will be illustrated with maps, more than 70 black and white images, and eight pages of color highlighting the central role art has often played in the transmission and perpetuation of myth. Following the entries, a rich section of appendices will include family trees of the major pantheons, equivalency charts for the gods of Greece and Rome, Babylon and Sumer, as well as other traditions, an extensive bibliography, and an index.
The Malay language, one of the most widely used in Southeast Asia, is commonly assumed to be relatively young. In the course of its development it incorporated a great number of loan words, galvanising them into an organic unit so successfully that it became the chief linguistic vehicle of regional trade. Easy to use and understand, Malay soon functioned as a kind of merchants' Esperanto across the vast archipelago. With this groundbreaking piece of research, Dr György Busztin postulates that the roots of Malay extend much deeper in time than previously thought. This study uncovers over one hundred words that tie the precursor of the Malay language - as we know it today - to languages spoken three thousand years ago on the steppes of Central Asia and its puzzling similarities to the Hungarian (Magyar) language. The Legacy of the Barang People is a must-read work for anyone interested in linguistics and the history of two unlikely cultural relatives. György Busztin, a career diplomat, has spent over a decade in Indonesia, beginning as a grade school student and most recently as the Ambassador of Hungary. With an academic background in linguistics, Dr. Busztin has held positions in both Europe and the Middle East and is fluent in five languages. The Legacy of the Barang People is his first book.
The unique cultures of minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide – spanning a wide variety of customs and practices – are under threat. This year’s edition of State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples highlights the impact of land dispossession, forced assimilation and other forms of discrimination on the most fundamental aspects of their identity, including language, art, traditional knowledge and spirituality. But while the effects of this attrition can be devastating, minority and indigenous cultures have also been critical in strengthening communities and providing activists with a platform to fight for their rights. As this volume illustrates, ensuring that the cultural freedoms of minorities and indigenous peoples are protected is essential if their other rights are also to be respected.
From the stories suggested by the great cave paintings of the Paleolithic period to the thought experiments of modern scientists, From Olympus to Camelot provides a sweeping history of the development of the rich and varied European mythological tradition. David Leeming, an authority on world mythology, begins with a general introduction to mythology and mythological terms, and then turns to the stories themselves. Discussing well-known figures such as Zeus, Aphrodite, Thor, and Cuchulainn, and less familiar ones such as Perun, Mari, and the Sorcerer of Lescaux, Leeming illustrates and analyzes the enduring human endeavor to make sense of existence through deities and heroes. Following an initial exploration of the Indo-European sources of European mythology and the connections between the myths of Europe and those of India and Iran, the book proceeds to survey the major beliefs of Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic cultures, as well as the mythologies of non-Indo-European cultures such as the Etruscans and the Finns. Among its contents are introductions to the pantheons of various mythologies, examinations of major mythological works, and retellings of the influential mythical stories. This work also examines European deities, creation myths, and heroes in the context of Christian belief, and considers the translation of traditional stories into the mythologies of modern European political, scientific, philosophical, and economic movements. European mythology is the core mythology of Western civilization. This wide-ranging volume offers a lively and informative survey, along with a provocative new way of understanding this fundamental aspect of European culture.
The World's Major Languages features over 50 of the world's languages and language families. This revised edition includes updated bibliographies for each chapter and up-to-date census figures. The featured languages have been chosen based on the number of speakers, their role as official languages and their cultural and historical importance. Each language is looked at in depth, and the chapters provide information on both grammatical features and on salient features of the language's history and cultural role. The World’s Major Languages is an accessible and essential reference work for linguists.
