The Slavs free essay sample

When the term â€Å"Slav† is mentioned, the first people to come to mind are the Russians. We know them by their unique script of writing, vodka, and are the most populated of all of the ethnic tribes that populated the mountains, rivers, and plains of Eastern Europe. Although a quintessential people of this continent, they differ greatly from many of their brothers and sisters of the same bloodline that also live south and west of them. Russians, along with their neighboring cousins to the south, east, and west are divided dramatically by religion, language, and geographical landforms from the South Slavs and West Slavs. Religion is a key in the great divide in the Slavic peoples. Before Christianity each Slavic tribe had their own set of pagan gods, with the most common one being Svetovid, the god of war. Many of the Slavic tribes and cantons will not adopt Christianity until the 9th Century AD, and they would not be united by one single Christian Church. We will write a custom essay sample on The Slavs or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When the Great Schism occurred in 1054, the church would be spilt into the two main fragments, creating a byproduct of two branches of Christianity we know of today, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. While the Western Slavic peoples like the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Sorbs, Moravians, Silesians, Kaszubians, Croats, and Slovenes were under the sphere of influence of the Pope and Catholic Rome, the Russian, Ukrainians, Rusyns, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, and Montenegrins gravitated to the Patriarch of then Orthodox Constantinople. Although these two are the main Christian religions present, Islam is also common in some Slavs. The Bosniaks, Gorani, Pomaks, and Torbesh peoples are all Muslims. Since the battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, The Ottoman Turks had occupied the Balkans until the 20th Century. Some of the local populations like the Bosniaks and Albanians had welcomed the Turks and converted to their conquerors religion and remained. Others like the Serbs and Croats, resisted the occupation and as a result, were persecuted, heavily taxed, and even executed by their new rulers. Today, many of the Bosniaks and other ethnic groups still practice the most common branch of Islam as Sunnis. This evidence of Ottoman occupation can still be noticed today in Sarajevo, Srebrenica, and the rest of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Script and language is also a factor in the varieties of Slavic cultures. In the 9th century AD, a Greek monk from the Byzantine Empire by the name of Saint Cyril evangelizes the word of Jesus to the rest of Eastern Europe. He translates the Greek script into a similar writing system specifically used for the early Slavonic Christian Church. Cyril and other monks travel through many southern and eastern Slavic kingdoms to spread the word of God and the new writing system which will be modestly named after the monk, Cyrillic. Today, the majority of Slavic countries that practice Orthodox Christianity will use Cyrillic as their main script in parallel to their religion. Even though this writing system was popular among Orthodox Slavs, Western Slavs paid their devout attention to Rome. Western Slavs had seen not Constantinople, but Rome as the center of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church instead used Latin as the main language of the Church and used the traditional Latin alphabet. Perhaps cultural centrism, the West Slavs may have sought to use Latin because Rome was the first civilization to adopt Christianity and was the home of Pope and the Holy See. To accommodate their languages like their Eastern cousins, most ethnic groups had to incorporate special vowels and consonants. Although many West Slavs have individual variations in each of their alphabets, many vowels and consonants perform the same exact functions (1). As for Muslim Slavs, It had been optional for years to use the Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Arabic script was prevalent but eventually died out in favor of the other two popular systems. For literacy purposes and religious ceremonies, a Bosniak variation of Arabic is implemented, but is not typically used for everyday communication. Like Kabary, some Slavic language like Polish and Russian last a while in conversation to finish in order asking a simple question (2). Finally, geographical landforms play a large role in different cultures. Rivers and mountains are a catalyst for why Slavs have come in different hues and sizes for the past 2000 years. For example the Danube River has served as definitive border between the Poles, Czech, Sorbs and Slovaks to the north and west and the Croats, Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks south of them. Characteristically, the Slavs of the west are tall and pale closer to the Scandinavian cool subarctic region, whereas the Slavs of the south are bordering the warm Mediterranean and Adriatic climates, making them also tall but typically darker. But this depends on what ethnic group you belong to in the southern region. The Carpathians Mountain Range divides the some of the West Slavs as well. The Poles and Czechs have lived side by side for 2000 years and the juxtaposition of each nation have greatly influenced the ways each of these related peoples have lived. The name Pole or â€Å"Polak† has come from the common Slavic word â€Å"Polje† meaning â€Å"field†. About 80 percent of Poland is meadows and pasture lands due to the flooding of the Bug and Vistula Rivers, creating a rich soil for farming and livestock. The Czechs on the other hand live on the other side of the Carpathians or rather in the mountains. Because it is land locked to rocky for agriculture, the Czechs rely more on industrialization. The Czech Republic is known for its main production exports of iron, chemical, and electronics. If the Carpathians did no exist, there might have been just one people rather than the different ethnic clans that it has forcibly subdivided. Although religions, languages, and geography have made big contributions in the differences of customs, beliefs, and physical characteristics, the Slav like all other ethnic tribes is still changing as we speak. Since their earliest ancestors migrated, spilt and settled in the regions they have settled, they are still moving and introducing new ideas and fractioning among themselves. But this can never be finished without following of people who determine the custom should be adopted or not.