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Re: Armenia and Dagestan
No not at all, I just don't want our conversation to get into flaming and getting both of us angry. Other then that I am always open to a conversation even if I don't agree with some one or someone doesn't agree with me.
Armenians used to have a huge territory where almost every state had their own customs, traditions, variations of dances or songs. That's a lot of culture... Our culture and history was destroyed, but we manage to survive and keep/recover small pieces of it. Eventually we don't know everything about culture we had, as people were genocided, culture and history destroyed.
Other people in Caucasus do have beautiful culture and dances, but they themselves know very little of what it used to be. After all Soviets were destroying it trying to make them all look the same. I don't think Sovients destroyed Armenian and Georgian cultures and history as much. We even kept our beautiful alphabets, while others got converted to Cyrillic.
I don't know about Georgians, as they had more chances, but N. Caucasians were very isolated in the mountains and never got deep into astronomy, mathematics, arts and sciences. People can correct me if I am wrong, but I think Armenians succeeded the most on the list above.
They also converted into Islam recently (couple of centuries I think). Don't know about Chechens, but some Dagestanie tribes used to be Christian, Ingushs used to be Christians. Don't know about Adyg tribes (Kabardins, Cherkess, Adyghas).
Also, people of N. Caucasus went through a lot to survive too and many didn't make it. For example Adygs used to consist of 12 tribes. Each speaking their own dialect. Only three exist today as nations (listed above). There was several more Wainakh tribes and all I can think of today are Chechens and Ingushs. Caucasian Albania alone had too many tribes for me to remember. I can think of only 5 nations that call themselves Dagestanies today where Kumiks are a unnative Turkic people (I think Avars are Turkic too, but I am not sure).
Are we the most ancient? It seems that our ages are traced to the same time, but most nations definably took a lot of time to go through a lot of reforms to be formed as nations. Perhaps that's why History refers to us, Armenians, a lot, while I almost never seen anyone refer to, let's say, Wainakh historical archives...
I can also say that we used to have a lot more incommon in our cultures with the neighbors in the North than today. For example dances. When Turks and Persians came they didn't allow Armenians to wear weapons, while weapons were a must to wear with a national custom. They also tried to ban war-like dances and change them. That's how people started to clap on to each other hands in Yarkhushta instead of doing it with daggers. Warrior customs were forbidden or modified (Chokha for example, but at least this one still appears here an there). The sad part of it is that Armenians and history remembers it, but we still do it like we were forced to......
No not at all, I just don't want our conversation to get into flaming and getting both of us angry. Other then that I am always open to a conversation even if I don't agree with some one or someone doesn't agree with me.
Armenians used to have a huge territory where almost every state had their own customs, traditions, variations of dances or songs. That's a lot of culture... Our culture and history was destroyed, but we manage to survive and keep/recover small pieces of it. Eventually we don't know everything about culture we had, as people were genocided, culture and history destroyed.
Other people in Caucasus do have beautiful culture and dances, but they themselves know very little of what it used to be. After all Soviets were destroying it trying to make them all look the same. I don't think Sovients destroyed Armenian and Georgian cultures and history as much. We even kept our beautiful alphabets, while others got converted to Cyrillic.
I don't know about Georgians, as they had more chances, but N. Caucasians were very isolated in the mountains and never got deep into astronomy, mathematics, arts and sciences. People can correct me if I am wrong, but I think Armenians succeeded the most on the list above.
They also converted into Islam recently (couple of centuries I think). Don't know about Chechens, but some Dagestanie tribes used to be Christian, Ingushs used to be Christians. Don't know about Adyg tribes (Kabardins, Cherkess, Adyghas).
Also, people of N. Caucasus went through a lot to survive too and many didn't make it. For example Adygs used to consist of 12 tribes. Each speaking their own dialect. Only three exist today as nations (listed above). There was several more Wainakh tribes and all I can think of today are Chechens and Ingushs. Caucasian Albania alone had too many tribes for me to remember. I can think of only 5 nations that call themselves Dagestanies today where Kumiks are a unnative Turkic people (I think Avars are Turkic too, but I am not sure).
Are we the most ancient? It seems that our ages are traced to the same time, but most nations definably took a lot of time to go through a lot of reforms to be formed as nations. Perhaps that's why History refers to us, Armenians, a lot, while I almost never seen anyone refer to, let's say, Wainakh historical archives...
I can also say that we used to have a lot more incommon in our cultures with the neighbors in the North than today. For example dances. When Turks and Persians came they didn't allow Armenians to wear weapons, while weapons were a must to wear with a national custom. They also tried to ban war-like dances and change them. That's how people started to clap on to each other hands in Yarkhushta instead of doing it with daggers. Warrior customs were forbidden or modified (Chokha for example, but at least this one still appears here an there). The sad part of it is that Armenians and history remembers it, but we still do it like we were forced to......
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