#Udmurt culture

[nonrussian]

Udmurt (Votyak) women of the Vyatka province. 1887 Удмуртки Вятской губерни. 1887

photo by Nikitin, engraving by Baranovsky фотография Никитина, гравюра Барановского From Niva: Illustrated Journal of Literature, Politics and Modern Life Из " Нива : иллюстрированный журнал литературы, политики и современной жизни в 100 томах. Т. 36 : 1887, № 27-52"

[vyvilha]

you guys really need to be educated on russia's indigenous people. some of you will rightfully call out isnotreal and usa on being settler colonies dependant on stealing land and killing it's indigenous population but then say that "i don't support russia but they aren't the same". tell that to yakut, buryat, chukchi, chechens, cirkassians, ingush, ossetians, tatars, nenets, tuvans, bashkirs, udmurts, qirimtatar of illegally occupied crimea, and many, many others. their land stolen, their culture on the verge of extinction; they're facing racism and discrimination in their own land, their activists are being thrown to prisons. russia is no different from usa

[sag-dab-sar]

I feel like just with any other tradition it's decided by historical precedent and especially the People, (if its based in ethnic supremacy its another story but ignoring that for now)

As an example, Mari faith. It survived Christianization to a high degree, was influenced but not replaced by it, was syncretized with it, or are practiced side by side. While there is a neo-pagan like revival I feel as if the Mari people get the final say. Same with Udmurt faith, while not as well preserved as Mari, it still heavily exists among their communities; it never died. It also has a neo-pagan like revival that exists but I believe Udmurt people get the final say. These faiths were persecuted by the Russian Empire, USSR state atheism, and now a further push of Russification in the Russian Federation.

Both of these are European. Both are living cultures and living folk traditions. I don't have the answer as to whether they are closed or opened. It might be extremely difficult to discuss the topic with an Udmurt person or Mari person without knowing Russian. I could be wrong on that last part and simply have not come across them online yet to discuss their culture. However, I'd encourage people who want to participate in those folk religions/cultures that have no ancestral ties: talk to the people. If you REALLY want to participate make an effort to talk to them.

Compare this to Greece. The ancient religion was open— we know this as a fact (Exhibit A: Alexander The Great. Exhibit B: interpretatio Graeca. Exhibit C: Serapis). I've discussed with many Greeks that modern Hellenic Polytheistic/Pagan Religion is open, if you respect Greek culture and are aware that Greeks still exist. That Hellenic Religion never vanished completely, it is still apart of Greek culture. I have also discussed this with a Hellenic Polytheist organization from Greece who said that it is open. (As opposed to a very ethno-nationalistic form of "Greece is for Greeks" type organization that attempts to talk for all Hellenic polytheists that live in Greece.) As a Greek American I have literally no issue with non-Greek people being Hellenic Polytheists: except when I see them forgetting Greek people still exist or completely disregarding culture as if it doesn't matter. (Literally saw a non-Greek Canadian claim Hellenic Polytheism wasn't Greeks' heritage and they had no claim to "Hellene" because they "gave it up" when they became Christian wtf)

Another example is Celtic Polytheism: Irish, Cornish, Manx, Breton, Scottish, and Welsh are all different cultures— "Celtic Nations". I have seen quite a lot of people from these cultures being frustrated about how all deities, traditions, stories are melded into a pan-Celtic pantheon & tradition without even an attempt to learn the separations. Refusal or lack of interest in learning differences in festivals, cultures, histories, or languages. I've never seen them call it closed, only that they want the different nations/cultures to be respected and at least have an understanding that differences exist. Also that the languages, cultures, and people still exist.

I don't have personal experience reading a lot of Slavic Polytheist opinions on here. But there are MANY ethnicities/nations that are "Slavic" and I imagine, just like Celts, they would prefer their differences be recognized and respected.

In addition, immigration within Europe from an ethnicities' traditional homeland to another location within Europe (including unfortunate forced relocation). They may have brought their folk traditions with them, adopted the surrounding culture's ones, or mixed them! AND the many immigrants who came from outside Europe. They may have also brought their own traditions with them, adopted the ones in the place they settled in, or have mixed them together.

Not only that, ethnicity & nationality, is much more than blood. Culture, upbringing, language(s), location, music, cuisine, traditional dress, history, religion etc etc etc is often considered what defines the ethnicity, culture, and its folk traditions; more so than blood or skin tone. This would include ethnic & local folk religions and traditions. I'll use myself as an example, (other then ethnic supremacists), I've known many Greeks, both in the diaspora and in Greece, that consider me a Greek American due to my upbringing and passed on heritage, not because of my adoptive mother's blood/genetics.

I could go on and on. The number of "Sovereign Nation States" in Europe in no way shape or form reflects the diversity of ethnicities in Europe— have you ever heard of the Karelians, Wallons, Rusyns, Sorbs (Lusatians), Izhorians, Sami, Faroe Islanders etc?

I think its a silly question because its so broad— Ask. The. People.

Europe is extremely ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse. More than we give it credit for.

---

I have a whole draft about "dead religion" appropriation and open/closed that would seem excellent here but I've been too worried & scared to edit and post.

-Dyslexia: did my best to audio proof read for once-

What’s your stance on white Americans appropriating local European folk traditions? Does this count as cultural appropriation? Or is it Volkist to say so?

Your question appears to frame Europeans as if they're all white and culturally monolithic/interchangeable.

[mlemonelov]

The Idnakar Center of History and Culture of the Udmurt Republic is the only museum-reserve in the region and the adjacent territories. The museum prioritizes the preservation, museumification and presentation of the ancient archaeological complex.

The Idnakar hillfort is positioned as a center of the ancestral tribes of modern Udmurts and an important cultural landmark of all Finno-Ugric tribes.

[unhonestlymirror]

Liet and Bela had a country? Ukraine and Finland had a country????

1)Well, not officially, but Lithuania and Belarus fight (not physically) for Užupis (Zarečča) a lot. XD. Užupis doesn't really consider itself anyone's relative, it's more an international Republic, but being in Lithuania is certainly better than anywhere, and I consider him Jewish Lithuanian because Užupis was born on the ruins of Jewish neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, both Belarus and Lithuania dote on him. And Poland. And France. There's a lot of drama. XD

2)Well, about that... It was a joke based on some real events. Ukrainians, unlike russians, don't like to bring Kyivan Rus history left and right because, unlike russians, we are aware of our cringe moments.

So, anyway:

This is the Kyivan Rus map (with incorrect names btw), not so far from its collapse. The luminous green and orange lines are drawn by me and indicate approximate(!) borders of people who tend to speak back then either Ukrainian or Belaruthian.

Before Kyivan Rus colonialism, there were mostly Finno-Ugric tribes, including Mordvins, Udmurts, Mockshans, etc. Many of them formed a Finnish state Biarmia, a pretty successful if Scandinavians traded with them and even mentioned them. Green and orange shaded areas are the areas of Church Slavonic (the government language) and Finnish languages merging, which led to such a thing as, e.g., Old Novgorod dialect appearing. It's still not russian yet, but it's not any Ruthenian language either.

We could have blamed Belarus in everything, but that's what russians do, and if we, as Ukraine with its Kyivan Rus management located in Kyiv in U-kraine (In-land), we should take responsibility for Ruthenian Aus-land, just as we take responsibility for Yuri "Long-handed" Dolgorukiy, who was called like that either because of his appearance or because of meddling in the struggle for the Kyiv throne and infighting in Ruthenia, while being in a distant peripheral. That's why embittered Kyivans poisoned him eventually and killed all the invaders.

You can read more here

It's important to note that calling Novgorod&Rostov colonies and russia the one historical state is the same as calling Baltic Prussija and Teutonic Prussia the same state. Russia appears somewhere in the 16th century, after Golden Horde merging with Novgorod&Rostov etc. principalities. That's why a lot of "blonde-blue-eyed" russians have a mentality characteristic of Asian countries: e.g., a woman is a non-human, a baby making tool to them, no democracy, strong subordination of younger to older, of "cogs" to "higher-ups", habit of boot-licking of the higher-ups and the habit of humiliating and mocking those who are weaker. In more than half of the cases, you will encounter this kind of social behaviour in most of Asian countries. Not gonna lie, you can meet such behaviour in any country, but for russia, it's such a commonplace as for Ukrainians to scold the government, it's something they actually love to do. What is popular in russia is not really popular in Ukraine and Belarus. You would probably understand it better if you've read the russian fanfiction website for years, but I feel too sorry for you, so I don't want you to do that. Russia is the true heir of Golden Horde, and the fact that people can't distinguish a 16th-century russian clothes from Golden Horde clothes only proves my point. Which is ironic, because russians are responsible for destroying the Mongolian culture as well.

Ruthenia didn't give birth to russia, but it gave birth to Novgorod-Rostov Principalities. Nevertheless, Ukrainians tend to quote Taras Bulba when talking about russia: "Я тебе породив, я тебе й вб'ю" which means "It was me who gave birth to you, and it will be me who will kill you." Finland has, in principle, the same position.

P.S. The fact that both Kyivan Rus and Scandinavian chronicles don't really mention Baltics probably means the Baltics were already quite conscious in terms of their national identity.

[nonrussian]

Udmurt (Votyak) woman. 1896 Удмуртка (Вотячка). 1896 from Baye, Joseph. de Russie d'Europe en 1896-1897

[folkfashion]

Udmurt women, Russia, by Arp Karm

[she-is-cultured]

Udmurt folklore ensemble Aikai performing traditional dance Orina-Marina.

[thenuclearmallard]

Final round - crossbow. A show in Udmurt.

[tenosit]

I do not need to see a single Russian to know that Russia, as a state, is a colonial empire. It has wounded my land aplenty, and wounded countless more. The war that Russian state brought to us is merely the latest in list of grievances that Russians will forget, but Ukrainians will remember.

There are people talking about decolonisation of Russia, in Russia - but it is not "Russians". There are people who work every day to preserve native language and culture, and it is not "Russians". Countless ethnic groups are dismissed as savages, invasive immigrants, their cultures erased, their histories obscured - while all Russians have to do is remind how they have had Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Lermontov, many others. This is neither "left" or "right" of Russian politics - it is basic presumption for politics of Russia.

I am myself over one-eight of Povolzhye heritage, but I do not need to know anything about Russians to know any of this. I glad I do know both sides, but most people know only what Russia presents to the world. Go and look up the Moksha and Erzya, Mari, Bashkorts, Udmurts, Saha, Kalmyks, Buryats, and many more for these are merely most prominent of peoples. Look up actual historic Russian culture, and how diverse it is even within boundaries of "Slavic Russia". See for yourself how different all of this is from shallow, imperialistic vision Russia feeds all of you.

there is nothing essential about russian culture that puts the country on a warpath against its neighbors; there is nothing inherently cruel, violent, or sadistic to be found in it. there is likewise nothing about azerbaijanis or turks that makes them predisposed to barbarity against armenians, kurds, greeks. we are going to see all this happen again and again and again if we buy into this superficial, reactionary argument

[felgueirosa]

Re: the conversation on the colonialism and racism of cottagecore, it's very clear that Europeans think indigenous people don't exist where they live or that they're indigenous because they're Irish or whatever the fuck, so as a Vaqueira, I think it’s time Europeans start understanding whose land they’re on and that there are indigenous people everywhere, so i've made a short, incomplete list of indigenous and nomadic peoples of Europe. Feel free to look up more about them, especially if you're living on their land:

Abazins (Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia)

Adyghe/Circassian people (Russia, Turkey)

Aromanians/Vlachs (Greece, Romania, Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria)

Ashkali Romani (Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia)

Avars (Russia)

Balkars (Russia)

Bashkirs (Russia)

Basque people (Spain, France)

Bats people (Georgia)

Bergitka Romani (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary)

Boyash Romani (Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia)

Boykos (Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland)

Calé Romani (Spain, Portugal, France)

Cascarot Romani (France, Spain)

Chechens (Chechnya, Russia)

Crimean Tatars (Crimea)

Dargins (Russia)

Erlides Romani (Greece)

Erromintxela (Spain, France)

Finnish Kale Romani (Finland, Sweden)

Gagauz people (Moldova, Ukraine)

Gorani people (Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia)

Gurbet Romani (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo)

Hutsuls (Ukraine, Romania)

Ingush (Russia)

Irish Travellers (Ireland, UK)

Izhorians (Russia, Estonia)

Kalderash Romani (Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia)

Karelians (Finland, Russia)

Komi people (Russia)

Laks (Russia)

Laz people (Turkey, Georgia)

Lemkos (Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland)

Lezgins (Russia, Azerbaijan)

Lipka Tatars (Poland, Lithuania, Belarus)

Livonians (Latvia, Estonia)

Lom people (Armenia, Georgia)

Lovari Romani (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Germany)

Manouche Romani (France)

Maragatos (Spain)

Mari people (Russia)

Mingrelians (Georgia)

Mordvins (Russia)

Norwegian Travellers/Fanter (Norway)

Ossetians (Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia)

Pasiegos (Spain)

Polska Roma (Poland)

Mercheros (Spain)

Romanichal (UK)

Romanisæl (Norway, Sweden)

Ruska Roma (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)

Sámi people (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia)

Sarakatsani (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia)

Scottish Travellers/Indigenous Highland Travellers (UK)

Servitka Roma (Ukraine, Russia)

Setos (Estonia, Russia)

Sinti (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Czechia, Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia, Croatia)

Tat people (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia)

Udi people (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Georgia)

Udmurts (Russia)

Ursari Romani (Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia, Italy)

Vaqueiros de Alzada (Spain)

Veps (Russia)

Volga Tatars (Russia)

Welsh Kale Romani (UK)

Yeniche people (Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg)

Also to mention:

The millions of Jews whose homes, property, and land was stolen and never returned when they were murdered in the Shoah.

The hundreds of indigenous peoples of Asian Russia which is frequently seen as part of Europe because of its colonization by Russia.

There are many peoples that are known by few. There may be very little to no information about them in English or any language besides the official language of the country they are in. They may not have a written tradition and all written accounts of them are in old print books. They may be known only by people who live near to the region where they are. I know this is certainly true for Vaqueiros and the nomadic peoples of Spain.

Indigenous and nomadic peoples of Europe may be called ‘hill peoples’, ‘nomads’, or ‘cursed peoples’. They have lived in your country for hundreds or thousands of years, but were or are still not considered proper citizens. They live in their own territory by their traditional lifestyle, or in the city as part of your society, or in diaspora across the world. They unequally face land theft and environmental racism. They are hardly represented, if at all, and face challenges like insufficient infrastructure, education, healthcare, or access to water. It's time to learn who your neighbors are. We want to be known. We are in small numbers because of the land theft and cultural destruction by the European countries you live in.

If this description rings a bell for you, or if your group isn’t up here, feel free to add an indigenous or nomadic people in Europe you know!

DO NOT fuck around on this post or i will tear your head clean off

[keister-meister]

I kind of wonder why there is so much romanticization (and borderline fetishization) of being bilingual/multilingual and multicultural/multiethnic in Marauders fanon?

Like just browsing Marauders era fics on AO3 quickly gives you the idea that it's now universal fanon that James is Indian and speaks Hindi as his mother tongue, Sirius speaks French and Remus is Welsh/Jewish and speaks both Cymraeg and Yiddish, Lily is Irish or Latina... Like, anything seems to go, as long as nobody is a monolingual English person. well except for Peter and Snape who are bad, ugly, racists so they don't deserve to have Culture™

I don't get the appeal.

Like, why is a Remus who swears in Welsh and a Sirius who swears back in French so intriguing to people that there's a thousand of posts about it? Why does James speaking Hindi and celebrating Hindu holidays make him more lovable than he'd be if he was just English? Why is calling your lover "darling" perceived as infinitely more romantic when it's done in French or Welsh or Irish or Korean or Udmurt?

Sometimes fanon diversification of characters comes from a desire to represent one's own culture... but a lot of the time it seems more like, taking a whole bunch of "foreign" (from an Anglocentric view) cultures and languages, superficially tacking tiny aspects (like swear words and terms of endearment) of them on characters as if they were fun little accessories to spice them up, and gushing about it all in a weird way. And it's such a recent trend too – you don't see this in older fanon.

It just sticks out to me as a non-anglo, EFL person myself. Like, it seems as if some people have this idea that speaking a language other than English and being ethnically and culturally other than English is like... "Special" and automatically gives a character more depth? It feels like such an Anglocentric view in itself – that English is the boring norm, and everything else is special and exciting.

[oktaste]

Finno-Ugric Peoples 

 Almost 25 million people belong to the Uralic language family, who represent about 24 different peoples whose political fates and status vary greatly. Despite the fact that they are the indigenous inhabitants of the territories where they live, most of them have never had their own nation-state. Only the speakers of Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian have their own independent states.

17 out of 24 different Finno-Ugric peoples live in Russia and 3 peoples live both in and outside the territory of Russia. The largest Finno-Ugric peoples have their own so-called republics (Karelians, Mordvins, Maris and Udmurts) or autonomous regions (Khanty, Mansis, and Nenets), in all of which they are minorities. 

The number of people actually speaking Finno-Ugric languages in Russia has decreased to less than two million, and this number is declining constantly. Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia have had very limited opportunities, if at all, to preserve their languages and cultures, though the situation, of course, differs from region to region.

The VIII World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples takes place in 2021 in Tartu. Source: eng.fennougria.ee

[motsimages]

This conversation is actually part of a bigger debate about nationalism and colonialism.

The Western world is so rampant with both that it ignores its own non-official languages as possible languages to learn while also ignoring foreign languages that may be native to the land where Western people live.

Monolinguism is, on the global scale, not that common but for some reason it only counts if you study and learn it in formal education settings or if it's European languages. My Russian friend who is natively trilingual in Udmurt, Tatar and Russian is ashamed of not speaking English. She works in an institution to maintain Udmurt culture and language but do these languages matter to the Western world? No. So she doesn't register that she is trilingual of three separate language families (finougric, Turkic and Slavic). If she were to live in Europe, only Russian would matter so it's just the same as being monolingual. It took me a while of living abroad to realise my native language also counts as a language. Many people still say that they don't speak any language because they don't speak English or other European languages, forgetting their native language.

A similar thing happens with many African and Asian languages. Even more so if there is no standard written form or other normalising efforts for it. Many Africans coming to Spain won't even mention their African languages if they speak French. Unless they do not speak a European language and even then, they may mention only the bigger one like Lingala or Bambara, creating a false idea of monolinguism that may or may not be real.

When that Australian woman says "we're so far for everything else, so why bother learning foreign languages", she forgets that there are "foreign" languages for her to learn in Australia. Almost as if a) there was a native group of people who are discriminated against but who have their own native language and b) there were many immigrants coming to Australia. It is indeed a case of "non-native English speakers are expected to speak in English". US people, btw, are in a similar position. And it is a case of imperialism and nationalism.

Sure, bigger colonial countries, like France or Spain, tend to have many speakers with that same attitude. People will adapt to me. But they also forget that there are non-official languages in their land and whose speakers are bilingual and ashamed of their native language so much so they only speak it at home. The 19th Century opened the door to language unification and here we are now.

Another thing that people forget is that migrating countries will also create plurilinguals. Many grandparents in my Spanish village speak German or French or both because they went to work to Germany, France or Switzerland. They still have family abroad and their German grandchildren come visit during the summer. Do these old people consider themselves bilingual? Do their families? Would they count in an statistics about plurilinguism in Spain? Probably not. They often also have a non-official local language that would never count. So we could have trilingual grandparents while their children struggle to learn English and see no point in learning foreign languages and they all feel that they are monolingual and that they speak Spanish poorly (because it's not Spanish, it's a local language that is getting lost).

In short... What is impressive of Finland is the educational offer in schools and high-schools and the way people view languages, not plurilinguism. Plurilinguism can be easily achieved in many ways and many people are naturally so inclined or in such need despite their governments.

Meanwhile in America it’s considered a miracle if you can get someone to learn more than English in some places.

I think it's different for English speaking people because you are, pretty much, expected to survive anywhere in the world with your native language. You DO need English in the global world, you absolutely do.

I once spoke with an elderly Australian woman. She said that since Australia is far away from everything else, no one really seems to bother to lean foreign languages. Why would you? You'll survive with your native language pretty much anywhere you go, and non-native English speakers are expected to speak your native language.

Of course, are language courses offered at school matters REALLY A LOT! There's a big difference in do you get to start free foreign language lessons at school at age of 9 or do you have to self-study or go to language courses on your own time at the age of 19, 29 or 39.

I went to a small rural town high school and we had the mandatory Finnish, Swedish and English lessons, but also a chance to study French, German, Italian, Estonian, Russian and if I'm not mistaken, also Creek.

If the offered language lessons from a junior high and a high school were combined, I would have had a chance to study French and German for 5 years for free.

In bigger cities and in some rare cases in country side towns, kids can concentrate on their chosen language through their whole education. I've got a friend who could start Russian lessons at age 13, and continued her studies all the way to a university. My Japanese teacher was able to start Japanese studies at age 12 in her school, and also continued to university to study Japanese.

[milii-macaroni]

I send my prayers to the Ukrainian population.

Coming from an Udmurt / Tatar family, our languages were not taught at schools, and we were being denied our land and our culture.

I will forever stand against imperialism and colonialism, and I will survive enough to see P*tin fall.

Хай Бог береже всіх вас. 🇺🇦

[ayearinfaith]

𝗔 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵, 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟳𝟰: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼-𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗼-𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻 The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) religion is the proposed reconstruction of the beliefs held by the ancestral Proto-Indo-Europeans. Though we lack direct evidence for it, the echoes found across the historical record and in modern Indo-European peoples enable us to make strong conjectures about this ancient faith. Names and words in PIE are generally prefixed with a “*-“ to represent their theoretical status. 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 The Proto-Indo-Europeans lived as a (more-or-less) single people roughly 6-7 thousand years ago in what is now Southwestern Russia and Eastern Ukraine. They were some of the first humans to domesticate the horse and spread across Eurasia from Europe’s Iberian Peninsula to the South Asian Ganges Delta. Modern Indo-European peoples include but are not limited to: Non-Dravidian people of the Indian sub-continent (Bengalis, Nepalis, Hindustanis, Punjabis, etc.), Persians (aka. Iranians), Kurds, Greeks, Balts (Lithuanians and Latvians), Armenians, Albanians, Slavs, Germans (Scandinavians, Netherlanders, Englishmen, etc.), Celts, and Western Europeans (French, Spaniards, Italians, etc.). The study of these ancient ancestors is the result of a great marriage of physical and linguistic anthropology. On their own, each source of evidence has major blind spots; physical anthropology can only trace what artifacts have survived, especially tricky with an ancient nomadic people who used stone and other long lasting materials sparingly, and linguistic reconstruction is a completely theoretical activity in the absence of any recorded language. By pairing common word origins, we can tell what technology and concepts were common (ex. Almost all branches share the etymology for “wheel” but not for “sword”) which can inform the minimal archaeological finds, which can in turn inform linguists which proposed reconstructions are more likely than others. Just as we can use these tools to determine their technology and migrations, we can guess at more immaterial things like culture and beliefs. Major pillars of this are the 𝘝𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘴 and to a lesser extent the 𝘈𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢, the oldest written texts in Indic and Aryan culture, respectively, both of which were written in a language quite similar to Proto-Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit and Avestan), which was spoken some 3-4 thousand years ago. Germanic mythology is another strong pillar, valuable due to being well attested and written about, as Germanic peoples were one of the last of Europe to Christianize. Though Greek mythology has been popular across Europe since the Roman Empire, it is a weak pillar for reconstruction as many of its elements are traceable to non-Indo-European sources (mostly Semitic). Baltic mythology is also prized, as the Baltic languages are the most conservative, i.e. most similar to PIE, but recorded pre-Christian myths are sparse. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵𝘀 The following is a general overview of some of the most widely agreed upon aspects of PIE religion. There was, before the creation of the universe, a state of non-existence or void (Greek “Chaos”, Norse “Ginnungagap”). After that come three figures: the primordial cow, the progenitor of humankind, *Manu, and a third being *Yemo. The word *Yemo means “twin” (compare to Norse “Ymir”, Hindu “Yama”, and Latin “Remus”). This is generally taken as his relationship to *Manu, but also quite probably is an allusion to *Yemo’s hermaphroditic nature. Likely *Yemo was some form of giant or supernatural being, a cosmic man as opposed to the literal man *Manu. *Yemo is sacrificed along with the cow by *Manu, and from his body the world is formed. It is likely that *Yemo’s myth continues with him as the lord of the land of the dead. The world of the Proto-Indo-Europeans was a flat disk surrounded by water, with the realm of the gods above and that of the dead either below or beyond the world surrounding ocean. Notably, there was likely not a central world tree or mountain, like the Norse Yggdrasil, Greek Olympus, or Hindu Meru; that is most likely a Uralic (Finnish, Hungarian, Udmurt, etc.) loan. The land of the dead was guarded by a supernatural dog (Greek “Cerberus”, Hindu “Sharvara”, Norse “Gamr”). PIE gods have two defining features; their association with the sky and their immortality, which likely was originally credited to a special diet (Hindu “Amrita”, Greek “Ambrosia”, the Norse Idunn’s apples or Odin’s wine). The central gods were *Dyḗus, god of the daylit sky, *Dhéǵhōm, the earth goddess, and their three children, twin sons, who likely represent the sun and moon, and their daughter *Héusōs, goddess of the dawn. The number three is also of special significance and there was likely a triple-fate goddess (Norse “Norns”, Greek “Klothes”), though this is notably absent in the Indo-Aryan branch. The two best reconstructed narratives are the “Chaoskampf”, in which *Dyḗus or his chosen hero slays a serpent, and the cattle raid myth, in which the primordial cow is stolen and must be retrieved through combat by a hero. 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 As mentioned above, the number three was likely an auspicious number to the Proto-Indo-Europeans. A somewhat less well attested, but still popular reconstruction, is the character of *Trito (“Third”) who would have been the hero who rescues the primordial cow and slays the serpent. This idea of threes was expanded by a French mythographer and linguist, Georges Dumézil in 1929 into what is now referred to as the trifunctional hypothesis. The idea was that PIE society had three classes, which was reflected in their myths; a priestly/scholarly class, a military class, and a herding/farming class. While the theory overall has largely fallen out of favor, aspects of it persist. Many of the mythical battles, like the Norse Æsir-Vanir war or the Greek Titanomachy, have been proposed as mythologized accounts of conflicts or integrations of these three parts. Another tripart proposition is that the PIE cosmos was divided into three skies; the daylit sky, the night sky, and the liminal sky of dawn/twilight.  In this model, each sky has its own deities who may not trespass on each other, with *Dyḗus the god of the daylit sky representing the warrior class, *Werunos (compare to Greek Ouranos and Hindu Varuna) god of the night representing the priestly, and a liminal god associated with agriculture (ex. The Greek Kronus, a harvest god who falls between Ouranos and Zeus). Distinctive from *Dyḗus, a hammer wielding storm god has been proposed, though evidence is limited to just a few of the European branches, implying he was likely a later development. His name is reconstructed as *Perkwunos, the “lord of oaks”, likely referencing the way lightning strikes tall trees. Image credit: The Seven Gods, Maxim Sukharev, 2010’s