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Vainakh Mythology
The Vainakh peoples of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingush people, Ingush) were Islamisation, Islamised comparatively late, during the early modern period, and Amjad Jaimoukha (2005) proposes to reconstruct some of the elements of their pre-Islamic religion and mythology, including traces of ancestor worship and funerary cults. The Nakh peoples, like many other peoples of the North Caucasus such as Circassians, practised tree worship, and believed that trees were the abodes of spirits. Vainakh peoples developed many rituals to serve particular kinds of trees. The pear tree held a special place in the faith of Vainakhs. Comparative mythology K. Sikhuralidze proposed that the peoples of the Caucasus region shared a single, regional culture in ancient times. Careful study of the Nakh peoples, Nakh and Georgian mythology, Kartvelian mythologies reveals many similarities. Jaimoukha (2005) adduces comparison with the Circassians, but also more generally with the Iron Age mytholog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vainakh Peoples
The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian languages, North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen people, Chechen, Ingush people, Ingush and Bats people, Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical Ethnic group, groups. The ethnonyms "Vainakh" and "Nakh" "Nakh peoples" and "Vainakh peoples" are two terms that were coined by Soviet ethnographers such as the Russian linguist and Ingush ethnographer . The reasoning behind the creation of these terms was to unite the closely related nations of Chechen people, Chechen and Ingush people, Ingush into one term. The terms "Vainakh" (our people) and "Nakh" (people) were first used as a term to unite two peoples in 1928. It was subsequently popularized by other Soviet authors, poets, and historians such as Mamakaev and Volkova in their research. According to the historian Victor Schnirelmann, the ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Tree
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen pinophyta, conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was developed in Central Europe, particularly Germany and Livonia (now Estonia and Latvia), where Protestantism, Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, tinsel, apples, wafers, and sweetmeats, confectionery". Moravian Church, Moravian Christians began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles, which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. Today, there is a wide variety of Christmas ornament, traditional and modern ornaments, such as garlands, Christmas ornament, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be tree-topper, placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nart Saga
The Nart sagas (; ; ) are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus. They form much of the basic mythology of the ethnic groups in the area, including Abazin, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Karachay- Balkar, and to some extent Chechen- Ingush folklore. Etymology The term ''nart'' comes from the Ossetian , which is ''plurale tantum'' of . The derivation of the root ''nar'' is of Iranian origin, from Proto-Iranian ''*nar'' for 'hero, man', descended from Proto-Indo-European '' *h₂nḗr'' (the name of the Roman emperor Nero also derives from this same root). In Ingush and Chechen, the word ''nart'' means 'giant'. Characters Some of the characters who feature prominently in the sagas are: * Sosruko or Soslan ( Ubykh, Abkhaz and Adyghe: ''sawsərəqʷa'' (Саусырыкъо); ) – a hero who sometimes also appears as a trickster * Batraz () – the leader and greatest warrior of the Narts * Satanaya (; ; ) – the mother of the Narts, a fertility fig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World Oriole
The Old World orioles (Oriolidae) are an Old World family of passerine birds. The family contains 41 species which are divided in 4 genera. The family includes two extinct species from New Zealand that are placed in the genus '' Turnagra''. Taxonomy and systematics The family Oriolidae comprises the piopios, figbirds, pitohuis and the Old World orioles. The piopios were added in 2011, having been formerly placed in the family Turnagridae. Several other genera have been proposed to split up the genus ''Oriolus''. For example, the African black-headed species are sometimes placed in a separate genus, ''Baruffius''. The family Oriolidae is not related to the New World orioles, despite their similar size, diet, behaviour and contrasting plumage patterns. Rather, these similarities are an example of convergent evolution. Extant genera There are three extant genera in the family Oriolidae: Extinct genera There are at least two extinct genera in the family Oriolidae: * Genus '' Tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, other animals, and earthquakes. Primarily composed of flowing snow and air, large avalanches have the capability to capture and move ice, rocks, and trees. Avalanches occur in two general forms, or combinations thereof: slab avalanches made of tightly packed snow, triggered by a collapse of an underlying weak snow layer, and loose snow avalanches made of looser snow. After being set off, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass and volume as they capture more snow. If an avalanche moves fast enough, some of the snow may mix with the air, forming a powder snow avalanche. Though they appear to share similarities, avalanches are distinct from slush flows, Mudflow, mudslides, Landslide#Debris landslide, rock slides, and serac collap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoopoe
Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "Crest (feathers), crown" of feathers which can be raised or lowered at will. Two living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years both extant species were lumped as a single species—''Upupa epops''. In fact, some taxonomists still consider the species to be Biological_specificity#Conspecific, conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together but split the Madagascar hoopoe. The Eurasian hoopoe is common in its range and has a large population, so it is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, their numbers are declining in Western Europe. Conversely, the hoopoe has been increasing in numbers at the tip of the South Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh. There are dozens of nesting pairs that remain resident all year round. Taxonomy The genus ''Upupa'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Galain-Am
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tusholi
Tusholi (Тушоли) is a goddess of Spring and fertility in Ingush and Chechen mythologies and the daughter of the supreme god Dyala/ Däl. She was the best-loved goddess of the Vainakh people before their adoption of Islam, revered as the patroness of her people, and believed to intercede on their behalf with her father, the more aloof Dyala. The ancient Ingush and Chechen people prayed to her for healthy offspring, abundant crops, and the fertility of their livestock. Tusholi was the only deity of the Vainakh pantheon who was depicted regularly in an icon - usually a wooden or silver belt ornament depicting a woman with a tear on her cheek. Tusholi is also often depicted on the building stones of Chechen and Ingush towers. In the Ingush calendar the month of April was named in her honour. The goddess was also worshipped by childless women. Ingushetians and Chechens celebrated the Spring Festival of Tusholi at the time of the annual return migration of hoopoe Hoopoes () ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satanaya
Satanaya ( ; ; Ubykh ; ''Satana'') is a mythological figure who appears in many cycles of the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus. Satanaya is the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure who is also an authority over her children. Satanaya is often cast in the light of a "wise woman" or matriarch, which mirrors the relative freedom of women in North Caucasian societies generally. Satanaya can be compared to the Greek Demeter, with whom she shares many traits. In Ossetian tradition, she is the daughter of Uastyrdzhi (St. George). The Chechen-Ingush version is somewhat different in that the counterpart of Satanaya, Sela-Sata, is primarily a goddess of crafts and women's work rather than a Nartic matriarch. However, many of her characteristics, including the story of her miraculous birth of a dead Nart mother and her involvement in the birth of chief hero Seska-Solsa ( Sosruko), correspond closely to those of Satanaya in the other versions. Etymology A nickname derived from Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northwest Caucasian Languages
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called West Caucasian, Abkhazo-Adyghean, Abkhazo-Circassian, Circassic, or sometimes Pontic languages (from Ancient Greek, ''pontos'', referring to the Black Sea, in contrast to the Northeast Caucasian languages as the ''Caspian languages''), is a family of languages spoken in the northwestern Caucasus region,Hoiberg, Dale H. (2010) chiefly in three Russian republics ( Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia), the disputed territory of Abkhazia, Georgia, and Turkey, with smaller communities scattered throughout the Middle East. The group's relationship to any other language family is uncertain and unproven. One language, Ubykh, became extinct in 1992, while all of the other languages are in some form of endangerment, with UNESCO classifying all as either "vulnerable", "endangered", or "severely endangered". The Northwest Caucasian languages possess highly complex sets of consonant distinctions paired with a lack of vo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianization
Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individual conversions, but has also, in some instances, been the result of violence by individuals and groups such as governments and militaries. Christianization is also the term used to designate the conversion of previously non-Christian practices, spaces and places to Christian uses and names. In a third manner, the term has been used to describe the changes that naturally emerge in a nation when sufficient numbers of individuals convert, or when secular leaders require those changes. Christianization of a nation is an ongoing process. It began in the Roman Empire when the early individual followers of Jesus became itinerant preachers in response to the command recorded in Matthew 28:19 (sometimes called the Great Commission) to go to all the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pkharmat
Pkharmat () is a legendary hero of the Nakh peoples, Vainakh people who Theft of fire, stole fire for mankind, thus allowing them to forge metal, cook food, and light their homes, and uniting the people into a nation.Lecha Ilyasov. ''The Diversity of the Chechen Culture: From Historical Roots to the Present.'' For this Pkharmat was punished by being chained to Mount Kazbek. Pkharmat is the Vainakh equivalent of the Greek mythology, Greek hero Prometheus and the Georgian mythology, Georgian hero Amirani, among others. Tale Pkharmat was a demigod, or Nart, who loved and pitied his people, for they had no fire. The only fire in the world was kept by the cruel god Sela,Anciennes Croyances des Ingouches et des Tchetchenes.Mariel Tsaroïeva the god of the stars, thunder and lightning. Sela would drive his fire-chariot across the heavens and fire lightning-arrows down to earth, to demonstrate his strength and to suppress the Narts. Because they had no fire, the Narts ate raw food and c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
