Linguo-religious complexes and their implications for the study of linguistic past
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | This paper presented interdisciplinary concept of linguo-religious complexes of human societies. The idea came from combined research of linguistic, religious and historical issues related to past tributary relations in Inner Asia and neighbouring countries with original focus on ancient Indo-European populations in the Tarim Basin. Specific features of this research are connected to conditions of past peopling patterns and long-range relations within South Siberian river systems and inter-oasis contacts in the Tarim Basin and seminomadic North China. Local academic literature is combined with continuing research of mobile pastoralism and environmental conditions of Mongolia and mountainous Central Asia in the opposition to coastal areas and lowlands in China and Vietnam. Due to changing climatic conditions, shifting ethnolinguistic borders and dynamic power relations in the past, some understudied natural passes and frontier areas had special importance as occasional migration routes used by Indo-European and other groups. In its main part, the paper explains contribution of linguo-religious complexes for advanced research of linguistic and ethno-religious contacts including interrelated functions of language, religion and their regulative impacts on past human groups. A special attention is dedicated to main reasons why particular language or religion (or both) can be replaced. Analyses of historical examples of religious changes in both Inner Asia and Europe allow description of basic rules in these exchanges. Accompanying migrations might be the result of climatic shifts, wars, religious missions and marriages between ethnically different royal houses. There are also specific environmental factors contributing to the emergence of diversity and exchanges among particular population units. Besides importance of rivers for the spread of people and languages, especially the interplay between population units occupying lowlands and mountains should be taken into account. It is because mountain people have higher number of red blood cells and as mobile or pastoral communities have higher exposition to sunlight and zoonotic microbiome. Influences of these natural settings contribute to changing unequal conditions and even sociobiological dominance of particular population units over their neighbours. Implications of mentioned research are showing slightly lower connection between linguistic evidence and archeological or genetic data, as particular Inner Asian expansions have led to effective spread of genes (of e.g. Jurchens and Manchu) on one side, but to the gradual loss own ethnic language on the other side. Even though physical geography of the Baltic area makes the mountain-lowland dichotomy irrelevant, other patterns and specifics of linguo-religious complexes remain to be highly relevant for populations related to waters. Very nice example might be a functional parallel between the tradition of mother deities in the Baltic area and among coastal populations of Southeast China and Vietnam. Also other rules related to the riverine peopling patterns are making the lower part of Daugava river a local population center and not just a periphery of Indo-European. |
| Related projects: |