A look at the Salar’s Samarkand Origins

China is a country made up of 56 officially recognised ethnic groups, the Salar being one of them. They are a Turkic-speaking Islamic people who live mainly in Xunhua County in eastern part of Qinghai Province. Along with the other ethnic groups, they have their own distinct dialects, culture, history and origins.

The Salar themselves claim that their ancestry lies in Samarkand, in modern day Uzbekistan. In the 13th century, they moved eastwards until they reached modern day Qinghai Province. Scholars have agreed with the Salar and their migration from Central Asia to China has been met with much interest.

According to one scholar, Mi Yizhi, claims that there are three possible explanations of the Salar’s migration from Samarkand. In the first, he says that the Salar were once an Oghaz tribe known as the Qaluer. The Oghaz were the descendants of the eldest son of Dagh Khan, one of the six sons of Oghaz Khan who gave his name to the people.

Sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries the Qaluer changed their name to the Saluer and followed other Oghaz tribes from the Saihun River basin, Yili, and Rehai (Isighgol) to Hezhong (Transoxania), Hualazimo (Khorarim), Huluoshan (Khorasam in Northern Iran), and eastern Anatolia.

However, during the Selzuk Empire (c. 1055 – 1258) the Saluer were forced into moving once more to the west. There were some who stayed in Marou and Sarakhs (modern day Turkmenistan) are known as the Turkomans. Between 1370 and 1424 the Saluer came to Samarkand and then passed through the Turpan Basin (present day Xinjiang), and Suzhou, ultimately reaching the Salar's present home in the region known today as Xunhua.

The second explanation draws on the work of Mula Sulaiman's investigations into the Hui ethnic’s group origins. Mi has suggested that the Salar were the descendants of the brothers Kharaman and Akhman who lived near Salark in Turkmenistan. When they moved to Qinghai they took 170 families with them, and these were the ancestors of the Salar.

The third explanation lies in linguistic similarities. Scholars have suggested that the similarities in the languages of the Salar, the Turkoman and the Uzbek suggest that they were all one people at one time.

The Salar celebrate their heritage with the doye oyna, a play which traces their migration from Samarkand to China. It is a way for these remarkable people to remember their Central Asian heritage.

Bibliography:

Jianzhong, Ma & Stuart, Kevin (1996) "Stone Camels and Clear Springs" The Salar's Samarkand Origins, Asian Folklore Studies, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.

The Mayan Religion

For the Mayan people, the universe was essentially chaotic yet predictable; living creatures subject to predetermined positions in the world and its people were thought to exist within an alternating pattern of life and death, each cycle lasting 5,200 years. It is this model, this pattern, which comes to identity Mayan religion.

According to sources available, the realm of heaven in Mayan cosmology was one of permanence. To ensure its constancy, colossal cosmic trees secure heaven in its place. It was then divided into thirteen distinct levels, which were each overruled by a god. Mayan society believed that a person had to have met a violent end if they were to enter heaven in the next world. Each stratum was meant for a specific type of violent death. This meant that sacrificial victims occupied a different realm to that of people who had been struck by lightning or drowned, for example.

The destination of the majority of the Mayan people was Xibalba, the “Place of Fright”. It had nine levels and its own collection of gods, who, for the main part, represented or resembled particular characteristics of deities of the Earth and sky. In Mayan society, as with other Mesoamerican cultures, there was no concept of human morality. The underworld was the ultimate destination for all people who had not met a violent end, and not reserved for sinners. The Temple I at Tikal and the Castillo at Chechen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula are nine-layered pyramids, where kings, priests and elite men were interred, symbolising the nine layers of Xibalba.

We can see the notion of a stratified cosmos among the Mayan in the construction of temples and shrines. These were predominantly built on top of the pyramids or the peaks of mountains, so that rituals could be performed as close to the heavenly realms of the sky as close as possible.

A broad pantheon of deities was worshipped by the Mayan. Some of these deities are hard to differentiate due to the fact that some deities possessed both male and female characteristics. Some had the ability to be both young and old, and assume either spiritual or corporeal form. Some possessed animal characteristics, or had combined human and divine attributes. However, in considering the nature of Maya gods, we may first rid ourselves of certain misconceptions by noting that in our field the term pantheon should not be taken in its strictly Greek sense.

According to such scholars as Morley and Brainerd, during the Classic Period the Maya were not worshippers of images. Most scholars relying on ethno-historic sources and archaeological information from Yucatan agree that 'idolatry' was introduced into Yucatan by the Nahua speakers of the Post-Classic era (950-1520 CE), who brought with them the practice of making idols.

The Maya had a full-time priesthood with an internal hierarchy, who performed important ceremonies in enduring temples of various kinds. The community temple was known as ‘ku’ or ‘kuna’. According to scholars there were differences between temple structure from the domestic structures, although rites, offerings, and prayers were made in both; “we see evidence for public religion and private religion, and communal rites versus household ritual” (Marcus, p.181). Priests controlled calendrical knowledge (such as the timing of festivals of the 260 day ritual calendar) as well as various methods for divination and prophecy. The ordinary priests were known as ‘ah kin’, and below them were religious functionaries with more focused functions.

The religion of the Mayan is a complicated knot of mythology and symbolism, but the study allows great insight into one of the most fascinating cultures of the world.

Bibliography:

Coe, Michael D. (1956) The Funerary Temple Among the Classic Maya, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, University of New Mexico.

Marcus, Joyce (1978) Archaeology and Religion: A Comparison of the Zapotec and Maya, World archaeology, Taylor & Francis Ltd.

The God Aizen Myoo in Mythology and History

Japanese mythology is a tangled knot of Buddhism and Shintoism, so that it is not always clear whether a particular deity is from Shinto or Buddhist. Buddhism spread into Japan around the 6th century CE and it quickly establish itself as a complement to Shintoism. Due to this overlap, Japanese religion and mythology had its own distinct flavour.

Aizen Myoo is one of the most popular deities in the Japanese pantheon. He is the god of love, a deity of both physical and intellectual desire and represents love transformed through the desire for enlightenment. The translation of his name reads “King of Esoteric Knowledge [called] Tinted by Love (or: Lust)".

Unlike many deities, Aizen Myoo is not an ancient deity taken over from the Indian pantheon, Buddhist or Hindu, into the vast crowd of East Asian Mikkyo divinities. The roots of this particular deity have no connection in India, Buddhism or in Tibet. It is under question whether Aizen Myoo has roots in Tang China instead.

According to the Mikkyo ideology, Aizen also should not be regarded as an isolated single deity, but as a “manifestation (hen) or transformation (keshin) of another figure of the pantheon situated as the so-called Fundamental Aspect (honji)in a ‘higher’ position”.

In art, Aizen Myoo was commonly depicted in a frightening appearance; sculptures of the deity were generally painted him red, as red is the primarily colour which expresses emotion or excitement; it is the tint of blood which rushes into the veins and gives the face a hue of joy and happiness. A quote from the Kakuzen-sho states, “Just as with a mother who is overwhelmed by compassion for her only child, so blood is flowing out of all pores in the skin [of Aizen] and tints his body red”.

In addition to this, the famous monk Ichijo (884 – 947 CE) stated that Aizen Myoo’s original colour was white. “Aizen-o is actually of white colour. But since he has compassion for the living beings and, since his spirit of compassion breaks through the structure of his bones so that tears of compassion flow through his whole body, his skin is tinted and he becomes red”.

Within art, the god is usually shown with a ’blazing circle’ that envelops his halo and the upper part of the lotus seat which he sits upon. This ‘blazing circle’ is commonly known as the Moon Disk, and is usually believed to represent the burning disk of the sun (nichirin) although there are some sources which state it is the moon (gachirin).

Aizen Myoo is usually depicted as having three eyes. In Buddhist iconography, three eyes are the typical paraphernalia of protective and fierce deities, with the third eye sitting vertically in the middle of the forehead. Additionally, the three eyes symbolise the Three Virtues (santoku) of the Absolute Body (hosshin) together with Transcendental Wisdom (hannya) and Liberation (gedatsu).

His eyes are usually described as fierce, but his seemingly wrathful look is, in reality, the apex of his compassion to help mankind overcome their difficulties on their way to salvation. It is here that one of the basic Buddhist conceptions, the interchangeability of opposites, can be seen in this deity.

The god’s hair is usually standing on end, emphasising his frightful appearance. This style of hair is characteristic of wrathful deities. With his hair in this style, it looks as though the deity had been shocked with an electric charge and is symbolic of his ecstatic emotion.

Like with many Tantric deities, Aizen Myoo has several arms in his main form. The main arms in front hold a bell and Vajra and are symbolic of the Appeasing Rites (sokusai-ho). The second pair grasping bow and arrow aptly symbolizes the Subduing Rites (keiai-ho) over which Aizen presides as Master. The third and upper pair, holding "that" and brandishing a lotus flower, hints at the exorcistic Terrible Rites (gobuku-ho).The bell is the symbol for stimulation, used to awaken the living beings from their sleep-like unawareness and to stimulate the Mind of Enlightenment (bodaishin) enclosed in a dormant position within each living being.

It is unclear to when in history Aizen Myoo materialized into a singular deity or even where he emerged from. The dating of the Yugi-kyo, our main source for his rituals and iconographic details, is still under debate. It is believed that Aizen Myoo had materialised in and around the 9th century CE, since the priest Kukai (774 – 835 CE) returned from China to Japan with a copy of Yugi-kyo.

In spite of Kukai bringing home the Yugi-kyo, no early Chinese sculptures or painting depict Aizen Myoo, even among the many Tang bronzes. It has been suggested by scholars the Aizen Myoo emerged from Chinese priests in the late 8th century from a composition of such deities as Ragaraja, Takki-raja or 'Dod-rgyal dmar-po from the lower strata of the Buddhist religion, since no direct or indirect counterpart can be found in either Indian or Tibetan Buddhism.

Bibliography:

Goepper, Rodger (1993) Aizen Myoo: The Esoteric King of Lust: An Iconographical Study, Artibus Asiae, Artibus Asiae Publishers.

Neolithic Cultures in the Yangzi River Valley

Neolithic China offers us great insight into pre-historical China as well as being important for the understanding of early rice farming. This time, place and people have fascinated scholars for decades. For this article, I will discuss three Neolithic cultures in the Yangzi River Valley, these being the Daxi, the Meudu and the Songze cultures.

Neolithic settlements in the Yangzi River Valley were based on millet cultivation proliferated, and a pattern of increasing cultural complexity that culminated in the formation of early states can be identified.

The Daxi culture can be dated around 4500 – 3300 BCE when village sites began to increase both in size and range. The Daxi culture is best known around the reign of Lake Dongting, which then spread out from there to both west and east. The terrain would have been swampy, suitable for the growing of rice fields and archaeological evidence for agricultural intensification through plowing has been established. Domestic pig and cattle were tended as well.

The Daxi Culture is contemporaneous with the Middle and Late Yangshao Culture (5200 – 3000 BCE) and at the Daxi site in Sichuan Province there are burials in narrow shafts apparently unique to the region. However, the most important Daxi site is at Chengtoushan where a series of excavations in the 1990’s revealed an early walled town. This was dated to 4000 BCE, with modifications to the walls undertaken at least three times. Here, 700 burials have been excavated. The majority of these burials were poor, but a number of them contained grave goods, including a body with two jade pendants and 50 pottery vessels (, p.246). Near the eastern wall, early rice fields were found, indicating the importance of rice farming at this time.

The Hemudu Culture had cultivated rice as early as 5000 BCE, as is shown by the archaeological evidence at the site of Hemudu, which, until Pengtoushan, was the oldest known site of rice cultivation.

The site is located around 3.3 ft above sea level, in the Lower valley of the Hangzhou River. Currently, only 5% of this site has been excavated (, p.247), yet the information revealed has been detrimental in the understanding of early rice farming. There are four layers to this site, beginning around 5000 BCE and ending around 3000 BCE. Houses have also been unearthed, one measuring 23 meters long by 7 meters deep with a veranda. It has been suggested by scholars that if these houses were built across the rest of the site, then Hemudu would have held a large population, possibly thousands of people.

The pottery manufactured by the Hemudu was handmade ware with black, tempered with charcoal powder from tempering with plant stems and leaves. The most common type of Hemudu pottery found is the cooking pot, sometimes with a waist ring. Other forms are urns, bowls, shallow plates, basins, vessel lids, and pot supports.

The economy of the Hemudu culture was based on rice cultivation, although it should be noted that these people attained a high level of technological skill. This is illustrated by the number of bone shuttles, needles and spindle whorls found at the site.

The Songze culture was located on the margins of Lake Tai, with sites in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu provinces, dated around 4200 – 3000 BCE. The Songze Culture is considered a successor phase to Hemudu, which was immediately to the south and the later stage of the Majiabang culture.

The modern day city of Shanghai was first occupied by the Songze around 4000 BCE, and the cemeteries here have revealed interesting information. Burials were oriented with the head to the southeast, rather than, as before with earlier cultures, to the north. There were more grave goods buried with the bodies, with tripod vessels as standard. One of the earliest boat coffins found in China is from the Songze Culture at Jiaxing.

Houses were built on raised ground that allowed access to the wet lowlands for rice cultivation as well as marshes and lakes for hunting and fishing.

Pollen data from the Songze site in the Yangtze delta indicate that in the sixth millennium BCE temperatures were 2 to 3 degrees C higher than at present and that the Yangtze delta was at an early stage of formation. The final period of the Neolithic the annual mean temperature is thought to have been 1 to 2 degrees C higher.

The history of Neolithic cultures in the Yangzi River Valley is important to the study, not only of Neolithic China, but also of rice cultivation and Chinese history as a whole. These cultures are important as they pave the way for the later Chinese Dynasties that make China so fascinating to all audiences.

Bibliography:

Higham, Charles (2005) The Human Past – East Asian Agriculture and It’s Impact, Thames & Hudson, London.

Pearson, Richard (1981) Social Complexity in Chinese Coastal Neolithic Sites, Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Zhimin, An (1988) Archaeological Research on Neolithic China, Current Anthropology, The University on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

The History of the Dai People in China

The Dai people are one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China. According to the national census they have a population of around 1.2 million, living in the Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai-Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Xishuangbanna in the southern part of Yunnan province.

Like with the rest of the ethnic groups in China, the Dai have their own oral language, belonging to the Zhuang-Dai branch of Zhuang-Dong Austronesian of Chinese-Tibetan Phylum and it has its own written script. The Dai have four forms of written script, however they only use the standard characters used in the Xishuangbanna and Dehong scripts.

The origins of the Dai people are said to have originated with the native aboriginal people on the southeast Yunnan-Guizhiou Plateau. These indigenous people are also the ancestors of the Bouyei, the Dong, the Shui, the Li and the Zhuang ethnicities.

The first mention of the Dai in Chinese records can be found during the reign of Wu Di of the Han Dynasty in 109 BCE. The emperor established the Yizhou Prefecture and in later years the Dais sent tribute to the Han court in the form of gold seals. The emperor was said to have called the Dai leader ‘Great Captain’. The Dai were, at this time, named ‘Dianyue’ or ‘Shan’. During the Tanf and Song dynasties they were called Jingchi, Huaman or Baiyi and Baiyi or Boyi during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Dai call themselves ‘Dai’ to express their devotion to peace and freedom.

During the ninth century, the Chinese recorded the livelihoods of the Dai people. Mainly agricultural, they developed a sophisticated method of irrigation farming, grew rice and used oxen and elephants to till the land. Records also stated that they used gold and silver to plate their teeth.

During the 12th century, the Dai were able to establish their own regime under the leadership of a Dai man named Bazhen. He united all the local tribes and established Jinghong as the capital. “According to local records, the kingdom had a population of more than one million, and was famous for white elephants and fine-breed horses. It recognized the Chinese imperial court as its sovereign. When Bazhen ascended the throne, he was given a ‘tiger-head gold seal’ by the Emperor, and the title ‘Lord of the Region’”. The Dai had even established the Mengmao Kingdom in earlier years with Ruilijiang as the capital.

The Dai are a truly remarkable people. In 638 CE, they created their own calendar and there are books in the Dai language to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. Theravada Buddhism is the main religion of the Dai and they have many festivals. These include the Door-Closing Festival in mid-June by the lunar calendar, the Door-Opening Festival in mid-September, and the Water-Splashing Festival in spring. The Water-Splashing Festival is still the most important festival where they splash water on each other and hold dragon-boat races in order to cleanse illnesses bad fortune and bring about a good harvest and weather for the following year.

Bibliography:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ljzg/3584/t17878.htm

A Look at Some British Celtic Tribes

Before the Romans came to Britain and annexed it into their Empire, ancient Britain was home to some of the most interesting kingdoms, or tribes in the Celtic world. These Celts occupied different areas of Britain, Wales and Scotland, each having their own distinct heritage and traditions.

When looking at Celtic tribes, either in Britain or anywhere else in Europe, it is important to stress that the word Celtic is an umbrella term; it refers to a group of people who speak a Celtic language, which is descended from the Indo-European family language branch. These ‘Celts’, found throughout British Isles and Europe, all shared a common origin, not only in language, but culture and blood. In this then, the Celtic people are only referred to as ‘Celtic’ by modern standards and would not have called themselves Celtic.

There are no records as to what these ancient people called themselves. The term ‘Britains’ and the naming of their lands ‘Britannia’ were what the Romans referred to these tribes. It is quite possible that the people, instead of calling themselves Britains or Celts, would have called themselves after the tribes they belonged to. Academically speaking, it is more appropriate to refer to these ancient people as Late Iron Age people.

There were around 20 major distinct tribes throughout the island of Britannia, although there were smaller tribes who had similar characteristics with these larger groups.

The Atrebates were one of these major tribes, the extent of their land occupation in parts of West Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and north east Wiltshire in southern England. We know from excavations that their occupations were at Selsey and Silchester, this capitol being called Calleva Atrebatvm.

One of our most key sources of information on the Atrebates comes from the Romans. When Caesar invaded Britain, he made note of the people he found there. “The sea coast is peopled by the Belgians, drawn thither by the love of war and plunder. These people, coming from different parts of their parent country and settling in Britain, still retain the name of the states from which they emigrated”.

The Atrebates were a tribe that migrated from Belgium, but we should be wary of taking Caesar’s account as literal truth; Caesar saw Britain as a land full of people from Belgium who was very different, and less civilized, than the people he had met throughout Gaul on his way to Britain.

One important Atrebate was Comius, a chief of this tribe. There are accounts that Caesar sent him to Britain ahead of him, intending to use him as an ambassador to the people due to the influence he had. From this, and other reliable archaeological sources, there are possibilities that there were a tribe of Atrebates in Britain before Comius was sent by Caesar.

They were considered to be the most civilized of the tribes and this is probably due to the fact that they supported Roman rule and had a succession of tribal leaders who were loyal to Rome, including Tincommius, Eppillus and Verica. However, by 25 CE, the Atrebates were under constant pressure from the Catuvellauni, until they were able to subjugate the entire Atrebate lands. Indeed, one tribal ruler, probably Verica, was forced to seek refuge with Claudius, the Roman emperor who finally brought Britannia under Roman rule.

Another ancient tribe of Britain were the Cornovii. These were a people whose territory was located in modern day Shropshire and Wroxeter, with their capitol named Viroconivm Cornovirovm. Like with many Late Iron Age British people, we rely on much of our information on these tribes comes from Roman sources. One source places the tribe, with its towns Deva and Viroconium, immediately east of the Ordovices of North and Central Wales, another gives among his list of towns the barbarous form Utriconion Cornoninnorum. Older scholars have called the tribe Cornavii but more recent scholars, however, have preferred the form Cornovii. In addition to this, the former scholar mentions Cornavii in the north of Scotland, and it is possible that there was such a tribe name in Western Gaul (cf. the later name of Brittany Cornouailles).

It seems that there were no major towns or centres among the Cornovii until the beginnings of Roman rule, which the tribe complied with almost immediately. From this it seems as though they were a pastoral life. Once the Romans arrived and set up a permanent military presence in Britain, the Cornovii provided the Romans with the regiment Notitia Dignitatum who served the north west of Britain.

With the coming of the Romans, the Cornovii built up their towns with Roman influence, including the construction of a Roman bath house and a forum. Their capitol at Wroxeter was said to have been destroyed in the second century CE but it has been suggested, and widely accepted amongst scholars, that it wasn’t destroyed until the time of Marcus Aurelius.

Another Late Iron Age tribe in Britain were the Dumnonii who were located in modern Devon and Cornwall. Their capitol was called Isca Dvmnoniorvm.

The Dumnonii are a tribe with a long history which can be traced back to the Bronze Age but it wasn’t until later that they were named Dumnonii. Indeed, early Irish accounts call them the Fir Domnann, and it has been suggested that there was a mass migration from Cornwall to Ireland, introducing bronze metal working to Ireland. One reason supporting this belief is the fact that scholars are aware of extensive trade between Ireland and the mainland at this time.

According to scholars, there were two parts to the Dumnonii tribe, the Northern Dumnonii and the Southern Dumnonii. From an inscription in Latin, we know the name of one of the kings of the Northern Dumnonii, Nudos Liberalis. Looking at the religion of this tribe, “the material fact is that Welsh kings of Northern extraction bore the name and shared the attributes of the god Nudd. They are thus strictly analogous to the Irish kings that were named after the god Nuada. To complete the parallel, it should be shown that Nudd, like Nuada, was at once a sky-god connected with the sun and a water-god connected with a river”.

Looking at what is commonly known as ‘Celtic’ tribes in Britain, we have to be aware that most of our information comes from Roman sources. Because of this, we have to be extremely wary about taking the Roman information at face value. This is because Roman historians and authors presented these tribes in a negative light, to create a distinction between the Roman way of life (which was considered civilized) and the Celtic way of life (who were seen as barbarians and un-civilized).

In recent decades, archaeologists have started to understand more about the lives of the Iron Age people and study their own distinct cultures and the impact they had on Britain. Despite the annexation of each of the British tribes, they deserve our attention away from the Roman invaders to be viewed for the fascinating people they undoubtedly were.

Bibliography:

Atkinson, Donald (1924) Civitas Cornoviorum, The Classical Review, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Classical Review.

Cook, Arthur Bernard (1906) The European Sky-God. IV. The Celts, Folklore, Taylor & Francis Ltd on behalf of Folklore Enterprises Ltd.

Crawfurd, John (1867) On Caesar’s Account of Britain and Its Inhabitants to Ethnology, Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Geary, James A. (1933) The Early Irish Race, The Scientific Monthly, American Society for the Advancement of Science.

Hind, J. G. F. (1977) The ‘Genounian’ Part of Britain, Britannia, The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

Powell, T. G. E. (1948) Celtic Origins: A Stage in the Enquiry, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Power, Patrick (1927) The Problem of the Celts, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Irish Province of the Society of Jesus.

Stevenson, W. H. (1899) The Beginnings of Wessex, The English Historical Review, Oxford University Press.

A History of the Lahu in China

China is a united country made up of various ethnicities; indeed, there are 56 officially recognised ethnic groups that call China home. The largest numbers of these minority groups are the Zhuang, the Han and the Manchus, but the smaller groups have just a rich and fascinating history of their own.

As of 1990, the Lahu has a population of 411,476 and can be found across Yunnan's Lancang Lahu Autonomous County and neighboring counties such as Menglian, Shuangjiang, and Simao. The Lahu have their own language which belongs to Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman Austronesian of the Chinese -Tibetan Phylum. For a long time, messages were passed by woodcarving the western alphabets that western priests had used. However, in 1957, an alphabetical script was created for them. Due to their frequent contact with the Han and Dai people, a large amount of the Lahus can also speak Chinese and the language of the Dais.

There are several branches of the Lahu family; the main groups are the Lahu Na, the Lahu Shi, the Lahu Nyi, and the Lahu Shehleh. All refer to themselves as Lahu instead of their individual sub-group identities. Lahu is the name they have given to themselves due to their long practice of hunting tigers. ‘La’ means ‘tiger’ and ‘hu’ means the method of roasting and eating. ‘Lahu’ in their own language can be translated as ‘roasting tiger-meat on a fire’.

The agricultural living of the Lahu is a combination of farming, raising domestic animals, gathering, hunting, and fishing. While many Lahu have engaged in altering degrees of intensive agriculture (irrigated wet-rice), slash-and-burn cultivation of hill rice, wheat, and buckwheat stays a noteworthy pattern of Lahu livelihood, especially for those in Burma and Thailand. The growth of cash crops, such as tea in Lancang, has also been increasing since the 1980.

There is a saying which is common among the Lahu, “"Hus-band and wife do it together" (phawd mawd nud ma ted gie te) and the often cited metaphor," Chopsticks work only in pairs”. These sum up the gendered allocation of labour among the Lahu. Married couples tend to own their properties jointly and practice a monogamous marriage. “The Lahu kinship system is fundamentally bilateral, although there are varying degrees of matrilineal or patrilineal skewing in different regions or subgroup”.

The main god of the Lahu is Xeul Sha and they practice an animalistic faith, although Mahayana Buddhism was introduced in the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 CE), only a small proportion has converted to this. According to Lahu creation myths, the supreme god is actually a pair of male and female deities who emerged simultaneously. Since they exist only as a pair, they are frequently addressed in the Lahu vernacular by the single proper noun, Xeul Sha.

The Lahu are descended from the ancient Qiang tribe, who immigrated to present day northern Yunnan from northwestern China early in the third century CE. The emergence of the Nanzhao Kingdom forced the Lahu to move south. From the 18th century onwards, the Lahu are first mentioned in Imperial records as a distinctive ethnic group.

Like with many of the other ethnic groups in China, the Lahu underwent significant changes during the period when Chairman Mao was in power and the Cultural Revolution. These changes were not only political, but they suffered radical socioeconomic changes as well. But despite these, the Lahu have “since the dissolution of communes in Lancangi n 1982 Nevertheless, since the dissolution of communes in Lancang in 1982 Lahu married couples have regained their authority in managing the production and labourers of their households, reviving their ideal of "husband and wife do it together."

Bibliography:

Du, Shanshan (2000) “Husband and Wife Do It Together”: Sex/Gender Allocation of Labor Among the Qhawqhat Lahu of Lanchang, Southwest China, American Anthropologist, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association.

Zephyrus in Mythology and History

Greek mythology has had a deep impact on western culture – literature, physical arts and scientific terminology – emphasising the power that the myths and legends that came out of ancient Greece still has in our contemporary society.

The wonders and the mysteries of nature were explained in mythology as the actions of the gods. In addition to the major gods of the sky, sea and land, there were a host of nature deities, spirits and nymphs who inhabited the forests, fields and rivers.

One of these minor nature deities was the god Zephyrus. He was believed to be the west wind who, along with his brother wind, Boreas, lived in a palace in Thrace.
In Homer’s Iliad, Zephyrus was the father of the immortal horses Xanthus and Balius by the harpy Podarge, who were given to Peleus. It should be noted that in other versions, the sea god Poseidon was the father of these horses.

In a fragment of Parthenios’ ‘Arete’, Zephyrus was noted as the husband of Iris, the messenger deity of the gods and in here, he is the only mythical figure appearing in the text. Homer states that Zephyrus was the god who conveys Aphrodite immediately after her birth at Cythera to Cyprus – “moist strength of blowing Zephyrus”. He was also the god that transported the beautiful Psyche to her new home as the bride of Eros, the god of love.

Apuleius, in his Ecphrasis, places Zephyrus in the text. One scholar states that, “It is also possible that the presence of Zephyrus in the vicinity a t 4.35.4 derives from Od. 7.118f., where the west wind (present nowhere else in such descriptions) promotes fertility in Alicinous' orchard; if so, Zephyrus' role has been substantially upgraded”.

In the Iliad, Zephyrus and his brother Boreas featured in the funeral of Patroclus. Boreas and Zephyrus make the pyre burn in answer to Achilles' prayer; the winds are seen in all their superior strength and freedom from human grief. They maintain the pyre while Achilles mourns.

Zephyrus was a force of nature; the personification of the mysteries of nature. Although the myths in which he features in are not ones where he shines brilliantly, unlike that of such gods as Zeus, he was an important aspect in ancient Greek mythology and continues to be an interesting character.

Bibliography:

Coventry, Lucinda (1987) Messenger Scenes in Iliad xxiii and xxiv (xxiii 192-211, xxiv 77-188), The Journal for Hellenic Studies, The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.

Johnston, Sarah Iles (1994) Xanthus, Hera and the Erinyes (Iliad 19.400-418), Transactions of the American Philological Association, The John Hopkins University Press.

Murgatroyd, P. (1997) Apuleian Ecphrasis: Cupid's Palace at Met: 5.1.2-5.2.2, Hermes, Franz Steiner Verlag.

Pfeiffer, R. (1943) A Fragment of Parthenios’ Arete, The Classical Quarterly, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Classical Association.

A Brief History of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are one of the recognised systems of writing in the world. They are the doorway into ancient Egypt and have come to fascinate us all on their own. For centuries these hieroglyphs were unreadable to us until a French scholar, Pierre-Francois Champollion, made the remarkable discovery of how to decipher them, enabling us to bring the ancient writings back to to life again.

Hieroglyphs were first used to record the Egyptian language at least 5,000 years ago and it is still argued amongst archaeologists whether Egyptian hieroglyphs or the ancient cuneiform script (found in Iraq) are the earliest examples of writing. In recent years, this argument has been swayed to the side of the hieroglyphs, due to new archaeological evidence.

Despite the fact that there were many different dialects up and down the River Nile, the ancient Egyptian language was the only language written in hieroglyphs. It lasted for over 4,000 years and underwent many different changes.

The language, and subsequently the hieroglyphs, is divided into various states – Old Egyptian was spoken before 3,000 BCE and at this time, the hieroglyphs used consist of simple lists and labels. This period lasted for 500 years.

Middle Egyptian (also called Classical Egyptian) was spoken from 2100 BCE for 500 years. From 1600 BCE Late Egyptian replaced the Middle Egyptian, although the previous language was used right up until the Roman period.

Around 650 BCE, Late Egyptian developed into the writing system which is known as demotic, which dervives from the ancient Greek word meaning ‘popular’. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, Greek became the official language and both demotic and Greek were spoken alongside each other. The final phase of the Egyptian language was Coptic which emerged around 100 CE which simply means ‘Egyptian’.

The languages that were spoken in ancient Egypt are important into understanding the history of the hieroglyphs. The written system was much slower to develop than the oral language. Despite the transition of spoken Old Egyptian to Middle Egyptian, the hieroglyphs continued to be used as the formal language for funerary, monumental and religious inscriptions.

It is the hieroglyphs from the Middle Egyptian language that is mostly studied today. “Among the more striking characteristics of hieroglyphic writing is the separateness or discreteness of its elements. In the first place, the phonetic and ideographic components are usually presented as individual signs; secondly, if the constituent parts of the signs sometimes combine di-verse elements or points of view, they are generally fitted together in an appropriate fashion, even if it does not always respect the nature of whatever is represented”.

During the Archaic Period emblematic writings of names are particularly characteristic of the early First Dynasty. One of the features of hieroglyphs at this time is the first sign of combining phonetic and ideographic composites. In the Old Kingdom, there are many examples of closed composites where “identification of a structure is framed by its walls”.

The hieroglyphs branched out into another form of writing, known as hieratic. This cursive or ‘flowing’ handwriting developed around 2600 BCE and was used as a quicker means of writing when needed as hieroglyphs was too burdensome for everyday use.

This style of writing also changed over the centuries and it is these changes which help scholars estimate when a particular text was written. They were used by a reed pen and ink written mostly on papyrus, but also on pieces of broken pottery. Because hieratic is a simplified version of hieroglyphs, it is quite possible to translate and convert it into its hieroglyphic sense characters.

It was hieratic which later developed into demotic. This type of writing in no way resembles the hieroglyphs and so cannot be used to convert hieroglyphs to study the ancient texts. It replaced hieratic around 650 BCE, and used extensively for business purposes.

It was also used by reed pen, ink and papyrus, but also came to be used on monument inscriptions because very few people at this time could understand hieroglyphs. Consequently, the famous Rosetta Stone was erected in three different languages. Demotic began to be used less and less as the years went on and the last known inscription was carved in 452 CE at Philae.

Hieroglyphs themselves began to die out during the Roman period when the last pharaoh, Queen Cleopatra VII committed suicide. At this time, the hieroglyphs were mainly used by scribes in the temples and did not continue when the Roman Christians closed down the pagan temples. The last dated hieroglyphic inscription was at Philae, dated on 24th August 394 CE.

After this, Coptic was the only means in which to record the oral language of the Egyptians. The skills that were needed to read, write and understand the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were lost until 1822, when Pierre-Francois Champollion unlocked the means to understand them once again.

Bibliography:

Fischer, Henry G. (1977) The Evolution of Composite Hieroglyphs in Ancient Egypt, Metropolitan Museum Hournal, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Brief History of Ancient Sparta

Sparta was a major city-state in ancient Greece, located on the southern part of the Peloponnese. The history of Sparta has fascinated scholars and non-academics for many years, especially in regards to their military prowess.

To understand the history of Sparta, one must first understand her people and their social system. Her history is fundamentally based on the class struggle between the helots and the Perioikoi, who were two of the three classes.

The helots’ social status is not expressed adequately by any contemporary phrase, but ‘state-serf’ it probably the closest that comes to mind. Either way, the helots’ made up the majority of the Spartan population, but ultimately remained the property of the state (Talbert, p.23), although the State could release them when it so desired. Scholars are still in debate as to what social and community life they had, but it is generally accepted among academics that they could hold property in their own right and practice marriage.

The Perioikoi were a higher class than the helots’ and it is generally accepted among scholars that they devoted themselves to trade and industry. They were dependant on agriculture as the basis of their lots, which the helots’ worked on for them. V. Ehrenberg writes: "The common view that the Perioikoi carried the burden of trade and crafts must, to a large extent, be modified. Sparta's foreign trade was small, crafts were mainly domestic and dependent on helot labour. The perioikoi were 'yeomen' who naturally went in for some local crafts and petty business" (Ridley, p.282-283).

The Spartiates were the ruling class of Sparta. Elite Spartiates not only avidly sought monetary enrichment through political activity and dealt in terms of coined money abroad, but they maintained stocks of precious metals (in coins and bullion) hidden within their oikoi (Figueira, p.67). As the controllers of most assets in the local economy, the Spartiates had the most to gain from greater efficiency among their sources for goods and services.

From the age of seven the Spartan male was directed in a group with others of his age-class and was thrown into a painstaking discipline of a comprehensive state education, as well as a process of socialization.

We can see the general attitude between the Perioikoi and the helots’ through the writings of Myron of Eleutherae, an Athenian sculptor. He states that "they impose on the helots every kind of insulting work which leads to total degradation. For they made it a requirement that each should wear a dogskin cap and be dressed in leather as well as receive a fixed number of lashes annually - without reference to any offence - so that they should never forget to behave like slaves. Moreover, if the physical well-being of any surpassed the usual appearance of slaves, they prescribed a death sentence and also a penalty for owners who failed to curb those putting on weight” (Talbert, p.36). There are several other examples which convey this same general feeling between the two class systems.

We know that the helots’ served in the army in various capacities from archaeological and literary sources. The first reliable source comes from the 5th century BCE when the helots’ accompanied King Cleomenes’ against Argos in 494 BCE and then again at the battle of Thermopylae in 480 against the Persians. It has even been mentioned by later Greek writers that helots or ex-helots were appointed as military governors abroad (Talbert, p.26).

Sparta had a duel government system – both a military oligarchy and a monarchy rolled into one, and was able to keep its monarchy unlike city-states such as Athens. The two kings of Sparta, from the Agiad and Eurypontids families, were believed to have been descended from the legendary Hercules. Between the two kings and the 28 nobles who had completed their military duties, they made the political decisions for the state.

The decline and fall of Sparta were due to several reasons - the tensions and inequalities between the Spartiate group, the pursuit of foreign overambitious policies and a devastating earthquake all contributed, leading to the disestablishment of the state in 195 BCE.

Bibliography:

Cartledge, Paul (1977) Hoplites and Heroes: Sparta’s Contributions to the Technique of Ancient Warfare, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.

Figueira, Thomas J. (2003) Xenelasia and Social Control in Classical Sparta, The Classical Quartley, Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association.

Ridley, R. T. (1974) The economic Activities of the Perioikoi, Mnemosyne, BRILL.

Talbert, Richard J. A. (1989) The Role of the Helots in the Class Struggle at Sparta, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschicht, Franz Steiner Verlag.