Peoples of the Caucasus
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{{for|the term "Caucasian" referring to all white people|Caucasian race}}
[[Image:Caucasus-ethnic en.svg|thumb|300px|Ethno-Linguistic groups in the Caucasus region]]
[[Image:RGS 07.jpg|right|thumb|250px|The village of Tindi, in Dagestan, in the late 1890s. The photograph was taken by M. de Déchy]]
This article deals with the various '''[[ethnic group]]s inhabiting the [[Caucasus]]''' region. There are more than
50 ethnic groups living in the region.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9021862/Caucasian-peoples Caucasian peoples], ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''</ref>
==Peoples speaking Caucasian languages==
Peoples of Caucasus that speak languages that belong to the Caucasian language family are divided into two groups — [[North Caucasian languages|North Caucasian]] and [[South Caucasian languages|South Caucasian]].
[[North Caucasian peoples]]:
* Northwest Caucasian peoples:
** [[Abkhaz people|Abkhazians]] (including [[Abazins]])
** [[Adyghe people|Adyghe]] (including [[Kabard]]ins and modern day [[Cherkes]])
** [[Ubykh people|Ubykh]]
* Northeast Caucasian peoples:
** [[Caucasian Avars|Avars]]
** [[Aguls]]
** [[Dargin people|Dargins]]
** [[Khinalug]]
** [[Lak people (Dagestan)|Laks]]
** [[Lezgins]]
** [[Nakh peoples]]:
*** [[Bats people|Bats]]
*** [[Kist people|Kists]]
*** [[Chechen people|Chechens]]
*** [[Ingush people|Ingush]]
** [[Rutuls]]
** [[Tabasaran people|Tabasarans]]
** [[Tsakhurs]]
** [[Udi people|Udins]]
** [[Archi people|Archins]]
[[South Caucasian peoples]]:
* [[Georgians]]
** [[Adjarians]]
** [[Mingrelian people|Mingrelians]]
** [[Svan people|Svans]]
* [[Laz people|Laz]]
The largest peoples of the Caucasian language family are Georgians (4,600,000), Chechens (800,000), and Avars (500,000). Georgians are only Caucasian people that have their own independent state — [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], while some other of those peoples possess their republics within the [[Russia|Russian Federation]]: Adyghe ([[Adygea]]), Cherkess ([[Karachay-Cherkessia]]), Kabardins ([[Kabardino-Balkaria]]), Ingush ([[Ingushetia]]), Chechens ([[Chechnya]]), while Northeast Caucasian peoples mostly live in [[Dagestan]]. Abkhazians live in [[Abkhazia]], which is de facto independent, but de jure is autonomous republic within Georgia.
<gallery>
Image:Traditional dress, mtshketoba.jpg|[[Georgians]] in their traditional costumes
Image:TL019520.jpg|Georgian ''prima ballerina'' [[Nino Ananiashvili]]
Image:Pyotr Bagration portrait.jpg | [[Pyotr Bagration]], a famous [[Russian people|Russian]]–[[Georgian people|Georgian]] general
Image:Georgischer Priester.jpg|Georgian orthodox priest in Mtskheta, Georgia
Image:Circassian Warrior.jpg | [[Circassians|Circassian]] warrior
Image:Lakian girl 1883.jpg | Lak girl (1883 photograph)
Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-44.jpg | [[Dagestan]]i couple in traditional dress (circa 1907 to 1915)
Image:Chechenchildren.jpg|[[Chechen people|Chechen]] children in Pankisi
</gallery>
==Peoples speaking Altaic languages==
{{main|Altaic peoples}}
Peoples of Caucasus that speak languages that belong to the Altaic language family.
* Turkic group:
** [[Azerbaijani people|Azerbaijanis]]
** [[Balkars]]
** [[Karachays]]
** [[Kumyks]]
** [[Nogais]]
** [[Trukhmens]]
* Mongolic group:
** [[Kalmyk people|Kalmyks]]
The largest of the Altaic-speaking peoples on Caucasus are Azeris (8,700,000), who live primarily in [[Azerbaijan]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], [[Dagestan]] and [[Armenia]] (before 1991). Other Altaic-speakers live in their autonomous republics within [[Russia|Russian Federation]]: Karachays ([[Karachay-Cherkessia]]), Balkars ([[Kabardino-Balkaria]]), Kalmyks ([[Kalmykia]]), while Kumyks and Nogais live in [[Dagestan]].
<gallery>
Image:Azeri 7.jpg | Performing [[Azerbaijani people|Azeri]] musicians
Image:1403-84.jpg | An [[Azerbaijani people|Azeri]] woman from [[Baku]] (19th century)
Image:Gfdfgd.jpg | [[Karachays|Karachay]] [[patriarch]]s in the 19th century
Image:Kalmyk Brides and Grooms.jpg | [[Kalmyk people|Kalmyks]]
</gallery>
==Peoples speaking Indo-European languages==
Peoples of Caucasus that speak languages that belong to the Indo-European language family.
* Armenian group:
** [[Armenians]]
* Iranian group:
** [[Ossetians]]
** [[Talysh people|Talysh]]
** [[Kurdish people|Kurds]]
** [[Tats]]
** [[Mountain Jews]]
* Slavic groups:
** [[Russians]]
*** [[Kuban Cossacks]]
*** [[Terek Cossacks]]
* Hellenic group:
** [[Greeks]]
Armenians number 3,215,800 in their native [[Armenia]], though approximately 8 million live outside the republic, forming the [[Armenian diaspora]]. Elsewhere in the region, they reside in [[Nagorno-Karabakh]] (which is de facto independent, but de jure is part of Azerbaijan), [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] (primarily [[Samtskhe-Javakheti]], [[Adjara]], and [[Abkhazia]]), and the [[North Caucasus|Russian North Caucasus]]. The Ossetians live in [[North Ossetia-Alania]] (autonomous republic within Russia) and in [[South Ossetia]], which is de facto independent, but de jure is part of Georgia. The Yazidi Kurds reside in the western areas of [[Armenia]], mostly in the [[Aragatsotn]] marz. An [[Kurdistan Uyezd|autonomous Kurdish region]] was created in 1923 in [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Azerbaijan]] but was later abolished in 1929. [[Pontic Greeks]] reside in Armenia ([[Lori]], especially in [[Alaverdi]]) and Georgia ([[Kvemo Kartli]], Adjara, and Abkhazia). Russians mostly live in the Russian North Caucasus and their largest concentration is in [[Stavropol Krai]], [[Krasnodar Krai]], and in [[Adygea]].
<gallery>
Image:Armenian girl.jpg | [[Armenians|Armenian]] girls
Image:Musicians.jpg | Armenian folk musicians
Image:Armenian children.jpg | Armenian children at the UN Cup Chess Tournament in 2005
Image:Armenian-clergyman.jpg | An [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenian Apostolic]] clergyman
Image:Cosacos de Terek.jpg| Modern [[Terek Cossacks]]
Image:CAEIPDS0.jpg |[[Yazidi]] [[Kurdish people|Kurds]]
Image:Kukul.jpg | A [[Greeks|Greek]] ([[Pontic Greeks|Pontian]]) man in traditional clothes from [[Trebizond]]
Image:Ossetian girl 1883.jpg | [[Ossetia]]n girl (1883 photograph)
</gallery>
== Connection to Caucasian race ==
The indigenous peoples of Caucasus, and the geographic location of it — being on the border of Europe and Mideast — had directly lent their name to the designation of the white race as "Caucasian". [[Image:Blumenbach beautiful Georgian skull.png|right|thumb|150px|The famed exemplary [[Georgians|Georgian]] skull Blumenbach discovered in 1795 to hypothesize origination of Europeans from the Caucasus.]]
The term "Caucasian" originated as one of the racial categories developed in the 19th century by people studying [[craniology]]. It was derived from the region of the [[Caucasus]] mountains<ref name="blumenbach upenn">[http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/People/blumen.html Johann Friedrich Blumenbach], [[University of Pennsylvania]]</ref>.
The 18th century German philosopher [[Christoph Meiners]] first named the concept of the Caucasian race<ref name=Painter /><!-- p. 34 -->, but the term was more widely popularized in the 19th century under the name "Varietas Caucasia" by the German scientist and naturalist, [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach]] (1752–1840) who "''borrowed the name Caucasian''" from Meiners<!--p.9-->.<ref name="blumenbach upenn"/> Blumenbach based the classification of the Caucasian race primarily on skull features, which Blumenbach claimed were optimized by the [[Caucasian peoples]],<ref name="Blumenbach">Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, The anthropological treatises of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, translated by Thomas Bendyshe. 1865. [[November 2]], [[2006]]. [http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/reader/blumenbach.PDF]{{dead link|url=http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/reader/blumenbach.PDF|date=May 2008}}</ref> particularly a single skull from the Caucasia which resembled German skulls.<ref name=Gossett>Gossett, Thomas F. ''New Edition Race The History of an Idea in America'', New York:Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-509778-5 p. 38</ref> It was from this similarity that he conjectured Europeans having arisen in the Caucasia.<ref name=Gossett /> Blumenbach wrote about the "''primeval''"<!--p.24--><ref name=Painter /> Caucasian race which he believed was "''the oldest race of man''"<ref name=Painter /><!--p.20--> and the "''first variety of humankind''"<!--p.23--><ref name=Painter />.
<blockquote>''Caucasian variety — I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian; and because all physiological reasons converge to this, that in that region, if anywhere, it seems we ought with the greatest probability to place the autochthones (birth place) of mankind<ref>Blumenbach , ''De generis humani varietate nativa'' (3rd ed. 1795), trans. Bendyshe (1865). Quoted e.g. in Arthur Keith, ''Blumenbach's Centenary'', ''Man'', Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1940).
</ref> </blockquote>
In 1915, French diplomat and man of letters Arthur de Gobineau popularized ideas about race: "I must say, once and for all, that I understand by white men the members of those races which are also called Caucasian<!--146--><ref name=Gob />… [these] white races… had their first settlement in the Caucasus."<!--p.141--><ref name=Gob>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=JeM_1BCeffAC|year=1915|publisher=Putnam|last=Gobineau|first= Arthur|title=The Inequality of Human Races|accessdate=2007-10-18}}</ref>
The Caucasus was historically an area of fascination for Europeans. Myths of the Caucasus featured [[Prometheus]] and [[Jason#The quest for the Golden Fleece|Jason and the Argonauts]].<ref name=caucasus>Caucasus, Historical Notes [http://www.ewpnet.com/elbrus/caucasus.htm]</ref> Greek mythology considered women from the Caucasus to have magical powers.<!-- page 26 --><ref name=Painter>Painter, Nell Irvin. Yale University. "Why White People are Called Caucasian?" 2003. [[September 27]], [[2007]]. [http://www.yale.edu/glc/events/race/Painter.pdf]</ref>, such as [[Medea]] of Jason and the Argonauts fame. In Greek mythology, this area was thought of as a kind of hell since [[Zeus]] imprisoned many Titans who opposed him (e.g. [[Prometheus]]) there. In this sense, these Titans were banished outside the civilized world to an area inhabited by [[Colchians]]. The Greeks considered them barbaric.<ref>(Ovid, Metamorphoses V 830-845)</ref>
==References==
*Mile Nedeljković, Leksikon naroda sveta, [[Belgrade]], 2001.
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
* [[Caucasian languages]]
* [[Peoples of the Caucasus in Turkey]]
* [[List of ethnic groups]]
* [[European ethnic groups]]
* [[Y-DNA haplogroups by ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Peoples of the Caucasus]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Europe]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Asia]]
[[fr:Peuples du Caucase]]
[[hr:Kavkaski narodi]]
[[hu:Kaukázusi népek]]
[[sv:Kaukasier]]
[[zh:高加索民族]]