Mankurts are unthinking
slave
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
s in
Chinghiz Aitmatov's novel ''
The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years''. After the novel, in the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
the word came to refer to people who have lost touch with their ethnic
homeland
A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...
, who have forgotten their
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
.
This meaning was retained in Russia and many other
post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...
.
Origin
According to Aitmatov's fictional
[ legend, mankurts were ]prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
who were turned into non-autonomous docile servants by exposing camel skin wrapped around their heads to the heat of the sun. These skins dried tight, causing brain damage
Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage.
A common ...
and figurative zombification. Mankurts did not recognise their name, family, or tribe—"a mankurt did not recognise himself as a human being".
Aitmatov stated that he did not take the idea from tradition but invented it himself.[Dmitry Bykov, Лекции по русской литературе XX века. Том 4 (Moscow: Eksmo, 2019), p. 52: «народ этого не выдумал, это выдумал я» 'The people did not invent it, I did.']
Usage
In the later years of the Soviet Union ''mankurt'' entered everyday speech as a metaphor for the Soviet people affected by the distortions and omissions in the history by the official teachings.
In the figurative sense, the word "mankurt" refers to people who have lost touch with their ethnic homeland
A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...
, who have forgotten their kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
. In this sense, it has become a term in common parlance
Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...
[ and journalism. In Russian, there have appeared neologisms such as ''mankurtizm'', ''mankurtizatsiya'' (meaning "mankurtization"), and ''demankurtizatsiya'' (meaning "demankurtization"). In some former Soviet republics, the term has come to represent those non-Russians who have lost their ethnic heritage by the effects of the Soviet system.
In 1990, the film '' Mankurt'' was released in the ]Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, based on the legend about the mankurt from Aitmatov's novel.[P. Rollberg (2009). Historical dictionary of Russian and Soviet cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 35, 37, 482. , 9780810860728]
See also
* Pitchcapping
* Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's Dominant culture, majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this ...
* Malinchism
Malinchism () is a Spanish term used primarily in Mexico to refer to excessive admiration for the people, culture, ideas, behaviors, and lifestyle of the United States, Europe and other foreign countries over those native to México.
It has bee ...
References
{{reflist
Turkish words and phrases
Pejorative terms for people