History
Linguistics
How Much Are the Russians Close to Other Peoples by Their Anthropological Characteristics?
The article deals with the typological distances between different ethnic groups of Russians. For comparison we also measured the ethno-typological distances between some other peoples, e.g. Finno-Ugric peoples: Vyru (South Estonian), North Estonian (Haapsalu), Mansi and some other ethnic groups. The distances are based on the finger prints, that is, dacteloscopic (fingerprints) characteristics which usually reflect the human genome well enough. The smaller the distances, the more similar the groups. The great values of ethno-typological distances between Russians and Swedes or Mansi Sosva, Mansi Vagil and Ivdel Mansi may speak for their different origin. On the contrary, small values of the dactiloscopic distances may speak for their close ethic contacts. The ethno-typological differences caused the dialect differences. The same tendency was found for the two ethnic groups of Estonians: Vyro (Southern) and Haapsala (Northern). Two ethnic groups of Nenets: Northern and Southern also have different dialects. Therefore, ethnic substratum causes the dialect differences.
Key words: ethno-typological distances, dermatoglyphic characteristics, dialects, Vyru, Haapsalu Estonians, Sosva, Vagil and Ivdel Mansi, South Jamal (Forest) Nenets.
Politics
The emergence of NGOs in Central Asia, if argued plainly, is deeply embedded in the past layers that brought up local agencies and communities, which with the passage of time became bedrocks for the development of civil society. The various locally based agencies Aksakal and Avlod were invoked in both settled and nomadic regions to redress the various issues successfully. Tajikistan in pre-Soviet Central Asia was such a region that soaked with traditional agencies. The Ashar, Hashar, Mohalla, Avlod etc. were to facilitate the needs of the locals and foster their welfare without any break. The prevalence of traditional forms of associations in both nomadic and settled areas of Central Asia not only guaranteed a sort of progressive interaction among the respective people but also proved helpful to the emergence of new forms of NGOs. They were so deeply rooted in the region that even donors needed their coordination; it was widely felt that they (Aksakal) can make or break any donor project. The Russians, once landed in Central Asia, tried to control their prevalence and they therefore, took a couple of steps into background. By the time of independence, they re-emerged partly due to revivalism and partly due to the mushroom growth of foreign NGOs (Aga Khan, ICRC, MSF, etc).
Aga Khan is one of the leading NGOs in Tajikistan that speaks benevolence, assistance and showers other facilities very lucidly. This paper first presents their structure and activities then it assesses them in a broader context.
Key Words: Central Asia, Tajikistan, acculturation, Avlod, Ashar, Hashar Mohalla.
Economics
Literature & Arts
Methodological Figures in the Making of the Mediaeval Eurasian Koine
The author exposes the major and minor Figures that have guided him on his explorations in the regions of Eurasia where his research on mediaeval epic tales was carried out. First he renders homage to Ananda Coomaraswamy for having laid the foundation of the Eurasian Koine, then he recounts how upon this solid mediaeval Eurasian foundation he set out to erect the Pillars of the House by medium of four major Figure-guides: the Being Exposed, the Parallel Doors, Peripheral Thinking and the Philology of the Future. Then the House itself was constructed with as his minor Figures: the Funnel Theory, Hermaphrodism, Oralture, Mediaeval Alchemy, Mobility and the Crack. The conclusion focuses on yet another major Figure, the Royal Road, upon whose many meandering ways the author was not only able to discover and explore the mediaeval epic tales of the Eurasian Koine, and join their vast differences into a coherent One, but more importantly, was able to encounter the Other, and with this Other as his road companion, join the Present to the Past. For it is by these two joinings that the reality of the Eurasian Mediaeval Koine debunks the long-standing artificial separation of Europe with Asia, dismisses the artless refrain of two opposed and opposing humanities...
A Royal Hunting Party in France - The Art of Hunting with Falcons
On the great international art exhibition 'The Road to Van Eyck', (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 13 october 2012-10 February 2013) we also find the drawing from the collection of the 'Musée du Louvre' in Paris In the catalogue of the exhibition this drawing is mentioned as number 79 with the as usual wrong title a 'Fishing-Party'. The main theme is rather a royal hunting-party with falcons and hounds with as central figures the King of England, Henry V, and Queen Isabeau of France, accompanied by her daughter the Princess Catherine as the bride to be of the English King and their respective retinues. The hunting with trained birds of prey such as falcons was the prerogative of the high nobility. Even as the right of fishing and the right to build and to use windmills the right of hunting was reserved for the highest class of the feudal society. This right was only done away with in 1798 during the French Revolution in Europe when the legal system was changed due to the ideals of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité'. Nevertheless these feudal rights remained in existence in several places during a long time. The hunting on and with birds of prey is forbidden in the Netherlands and so is the hunting with falcons. At the moment however it is again possible to be trained as a falconer. The hawker with his bird of prey is put into action to shoo away birds that present a danger for the air traffic.
The coloured draft on paper portrays an important political-historical eventin the history of Europe, namely the pacification and the alliance by means of a royal marriage between the two superpowers England and France at that time engaged in battle in which John the Fearless and his son Philip the Good, the Dukes of Burgundy, supported by the French Queen Isabeau, played a vital mediatory role. This is in our opinion the reason why this draft has been kept save first in Burgundian, than in Habsburgian and then in French possession. The commissioner was, as we suppose, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, the only son and hereditary successor of duke John the Fearless, who in 1422 was chosen into the English Order of the Garter of St. George, but refused admittance. For a long time until the Peace of Arras on the 1st of September 1435 Duke Philip remained the irreconciliable opponent, bent on revenge and honour killing, of the French King Charles VII, annointed and crowned on the 17th July at Reims because of the in his eyes treacherous murder of his father despite the regular attempts at reconciliation undertaken by the Carthusian monk of Bologna, cardinal Niccolň D'Albergati (1375-1443), the envoy of the Apostolic See in Rome.
During the falcon hunt with hounds, that is to say on all sorts of birds, such as pigeons, rooks, fowl, herons, ducks and other waterfowl, these tamed and well-trained birds of prey are lured with all sorts of bait, actually called 'lures', that is to say fake birds with white feathers of pigeons or of other birds, and rewarded to return to their owners/falconers after having succeeded in the execution of their task, who take the overpowered prey out of the falcons' talons. In the poetry of the Middle Ages the hunt on herons was compared with the highest form of love, the courtly love. The hunt with the 'falco peregrinus' - the fastest bird of prey on earth - on herons was a peculiarity of the falcony in the northern parts of the Burgundian empire with its abundant waters.
The unusual portrait of Henry V, King of England, with the black Burgundian-Flemish hood ('kaproen') on his royal head and a falcon on his left hand caused a lot of confusion later on. A French portret-engraving of the 16th century (1555) entitled 'Charles, sixiesme du nom liii Roy the France' does not portray the 54-years old mentally ill French King Charles, but the 36-years old English King Henry V with the falcon on his gloved right hand as the 'courtly lover' and as the (future) King of France with the stave of lilies in his left hand. Here he is wearing the same hood ('kaproen') as on our 'Eyckian' drawing in the Musée du Louvre.
The problem raised as the draft with the representation of the two royal companies on the falcon hunt, 'the sport of kings', accompanied by their hunting dogs and the three 'anglers' have not yet been totally solved. However, as the French historian professor Henri Pirenne (1862-1935) wrote to his colleague professor Johan Huizinga (1872-1945): 'Il y a, en somme, plusieurs vérités pour une męme chose: c'est un peu, comme une peinture, une question d'éclairage. L'essentiel est de faire réfléchir.'
Travelogue
Chronicle