“Folklore”
After the split of the Roman Empire in 1054, the Slavs settled on the East side and practiced E. Christianity
Baltic Republic: not Slavic
Hungarian/Roman: Slavic
Turks: Slavic
Slavs by Area/Language
East
125 m. Russians
9 m. Belo-Russians (Belarus)
40 m. Ukranians
West
35 m. Poles
150 k Kashubs (in N. Poland)
10 m. Czechs
5 m. Slovaks (same country)
80 k. Upper Sorbs (in Germany only)
40 k. Lower Sorbs
South
2 m. Slovenes (by Italy)
3.7 m. Croats
6.7 m Serbs
1.5 m Macedonians
9 m Bulgarians
Film: “Grass” (1925)
Directed by Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack
A silent documentary showing the annual migration of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia (today Iran) to Iranian highlands
Migrations
3000 BC: Pamir Mountains (between iran and Tajikstan, west end of Himalayas); conflict at Chinese border-tribes pushed west
2300 BC: Indo Europeans made it to Europe
Indo-European neighbors in Europe
Baltic
Germanic Slavic Iranian
Illyrian Thracian
2000 BC-500 AD: Slavs broke off from Indo Europeans à North of Carpathian Mountains, between Upper Vistula River (Poland) and middle Dnieper River
between 2 cities: Uzhorod and Kiev..swampy for defense purposes
Slavic Social Structure
Up to 2000 BC: semi-nomadic (foragers)
2000 BC to 800 AD: Agrarian – settled within a perimeter
800 AD to present: Urban
3 Level Cosmo
1: Heavens
2: Human plane
3: Underworld
Nomadic
Shamanistic: the shaman can go from level 2 to 3, bringing back information
People were animistic: imputed spirits to inanimate objects
There is conscious life in nature and objects
Agrarian
Still animistic, but only peripherally…(anyone can come into contact with spirits in trances/dreams)
Place spirits: Chthonic (spirits bound to a particular place in human world, level 2)
Didn’t worship ancestors but would make offerings to help in other world
Urban
Pre-Christian gods-not chthonic
Collected by cities’ rulers
Spirits of universal power
To consider:
1) When the did Slavic vampire first occur? 10th century AD
2) Where? Bulgarian empire…in the Balkan peninsula, north of Greece
3) How? Of ancient religion
4) Idea of 4 elements:
fire= to kill them
water= holy water
air= wind
^non-bound universal cleansers of the Earth
in earth-underworld: bound to dirt
5) Idea of 2 souls: 1 stays with you in sleep, the other has adventures…subconscious vs conscious.
6) East Orthodoxy: in the Bible: 40 days of flood, being in the desert, soul doesn’t leave body for 40 days
7) Koliva (boiled wheat/ritual food used in E. Orthodox churches)..church service at the end of 40 days to pray for passing to a better underworld..Koliva service
8 ) Iranian dualism: the idea of a god of good and god of evil
*Thanks Zoe Arndt*
After the split of the Roman Empire in 1054, the Slavs settled on the East side and practiced E. Christianity
Baltic Republic: not Slavic
Hungarian/Roman: Slavic
Turks: Slavic
Slavs by Area/Language
East
125 m. Russians
9 m. Belo-Russians (Belarus)
40 m. Ukranians
West
35 m. Poles
150 k Kashubs (in N. Poland)
10 m. Czechs
5 m. Slovaks (same country)
80 k. Upper Sorbs (in Germany only)
40 k. Lower Sorbs
South
2 m. Slovenes (by Italy)
3.7 m. Croats
6.7 m Serbs
1.5 m Macedonians
9 m Bulgarians
Film: “Grass” (1925)
Directed by Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack
A silent documentary showing the annual migration of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia (today Iran) to Iranian highlands
Migrations
3000 BC: Pamir Mountains (between iran and Tajikstan, west end of Himalayas); conflict at Chinese border-tribes pushed west
2300 BC: Indo Europeans made it to Europe
Indo-European neighbors in Europe
Baltic
Germanic Slavic Iranian
Illyrian Thracian
2000 BC-500 AD: Slavs broke off from Indo Europeans à North of Carpathian Mountains, between Upper Vistula River (Poland) and middle Dnieper River
between 2 cities: Uzhorod and Kiev..swampy for defense purposes
Slavic Social Structure
Up to 2000 BC: semi-nomadic (foragers)
2000 BC to 800 AD: Agrarian – settled within a perimeter
800 AD to present: Urban
3 Level Cosmo
1: Heavens
2: Human plane
3: Underworld
Nomadic
Shamanistic: the shaman can go from level 2 to 3, bringing back information
People were animistic: imputed spirits to inanimate objects
There is conscious life in nature and objects
Agrarian
Still animistic, but only peripherally…(anyone can come into contact with spirits in trances/dreams)
Place spirits: Chthonic (spirits bound to a particular place in human world, level 2)
Didn’t worship ancestors but would make offerings to help in other world
Urban
Pre-Christian gods-not chthonic
Collected by cities’ rulers
Spirits of universal power
To consider:
1) When the did Slavic vampire first occur? 10th century AD
2) Where? Bulgarian empire…in the Balkan peninsula, north of Greece
3) How? Of ancient religion
4) Idea of 4 elements:
fire= to kill them
water= holy water
air= wind
^non-bound universal cleansers of the Earth
in earth-underworld: bound to dirt
5) Idea of 2 souls: 1 stays with you in sleep, the other has adventures…subconscious vs conscious.
6) East Orthodoxy: in the Bible: 40 days of flood, being in the desert, soul doesn’t leave body for 40 days
7) Koliva (boiled wheat/ritual food used in E. Orthodox churches)..church service at the end of 40 days to pray for passing to a better underworld..Koliva service
8 ) Iranian dualism: the idea of a god of good and god of evil
*Thanks Zoe Arndt*
