Roots of Armenians

[Harut]

i have been around here for a short time, so i don't know, have you discussed the ethnical roots of Armenians? i mean what race do we belong to? are we Europeans or Middle Easterns?........ this kind of things.

 

if you have not, i'm really interested, can you start one?

[Berj]

Harut,

 

Here are some of the forum discussions related to "our roots" theme:

 

Who are our closest relatives?

 

Strange coincidences between Armenian culture and other cultures

 

Armenian culture vs. "odar"

 

on our identity

 

on the origins of our tribalism

 

These are the few I found. I believe there have been much more. You can find them in Other, Help, National, Culture, Language, Life and other sub-forums.

[Berj]

Basing on the information we have on our ethnic history, we have emerged as a nation from the alliance, merging and genesis of the proto-Indo-European tribes. The first state on the territory of Armenian plateau, Urartu, dates 9-th century BC. There are ongoing discussions among the historians about Urartu's being an Armenian state. The first metioning of "Armenia" as a state dates 6th century BC (on the "Behistunian cuniform" by Daruis (Dareh) the First, an Achemenian Iran king).

During the history, due to conquests, assimilation and other historic processes our ethnic formation (similar to all other ethnic groups of the world) included many other ethnic groups (Skifs, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Turks...).

 

We belong to European culture basing on the facts of our dominant Indo-European link and our Christian religion.

 

[ April 22, 2001: Message edited by: Berj ]

[levonyeshilian]

Dear Berj,

Accept being Othodox,what of us is related to Europeans?

Our music,tradition,family values,food,which part of our culture?

[Anna]

I heared that Armenians came from Himalayas, & that were Hindus, which I think isn't right at all. Has any of you heard about it?

[MJ]

Not so long ago, we had a conjecture in this forum, that the early Armenians have been brought to this earth by some alien ships, which have subsequently abandoned them on the Earth.

[gamavor]

All of it! Our music is distinct (very distinct), our traditions and Traditions are old, but that does not mean that they are non-European, family values vary from family to family, and our food is very delicious.

Cheers

[Harut]

WOW

i see you had some good times discussing it.

Berj, i glanced thru the previews postings and came to a conclusion that Armenians are one big bowl of civilization where everybody contributed its share. and Armenians, kama te akama(in ARM.), accepted them(well, not always, but we did and still do).

and i think that that contributions were not limited in one or two areas but included all acpects of life.

just because we are located closer to middle easterns we had a little more impact from them. but of course europeans had great impact on us as well.

this is just an opinion.

 

i'll post more conclusions later.

 

[ April 22, 2001: Message edited by: HarutPakhanyan ]

[Harut]

after posting my last opinion i thought of something else.

if we have that many similarities with different cultures, than why do assume that all that was borrowed from us and not the other way around.

maybe WE were the center of all civilization. but we were so generous that we gave something to each one.

 

wouldn't that be nice?

[Berj]

Dear Levon,

A short answer to your question would be:
"If we stop listening to rabis music, stop cooking lahmajou, houmuos, qoufta and other Arabic dishes, reduce the control over our women's individuality, everything else (and there is A LOT more) will be purely European".

Firstly, I suggest you a meditation. Imagine your homeland. If a vision of a minaret with molla on its top calling for morning namaz will appear, then you're a middle-easterner. Simply, nothing of that kind appears when I immagine my homeland.

If a country like Turkey demands integration with Europe, believe me, we should have been there long time ago.

The last Armenian kingdom, the Kingdom of Cilicia, though formed not on afthokhton Armenian soil, but almost in the heart of the Middle-East, at the time of the blossom of middle-eastern values, had pure European structure of state, church and education, as well as produced art which was influenced by European values (without mentioning that Cilician art, in its turn, influenced the European one).

[ April 24, 2001: Message edited by: Berj ]

[Boghos]

I feat that sometimes there is an implied judgement when formulating this question. For many Armenians being Middle Easten equates with being part of a corrupt, repressive and undemocratic society. Whereas being Europena entails all the stereotypes of Europeans created in the underdeveloped countries, and the USA.

 

I don´t think we should care if we are Europeans, or perceived as such. We certainly are not Middle Easterns in my view. Our history and culture is very different. We are much closer to Greece than to the Arabs.

[Harut]

one interesting thing:

if you read biographies of ancient Armenians (unfortunatly, there are not many) you'll find that many of those people had khartyash (redish, blondy, if i'm transtaling right) hair. but now, most of us have dark hair.

 

as far as i know, green, blue (etc...) eyes are not common (if there are any) among middle easterns. am i right?

if i'm, then if we are middle easterns then how come we have so many people with blue or green (other colors ) eyes.

 

if i'm mistaken, please correct me.