Culture of the Caucasus

Well actually lezginka word comes from lezgi nation. Thats all i know... If there is a lezgi formmer here, maybe he/she could enlighten us :)

I have never seen an Armenian lezginka :(

I never heared about the lezgni people so tha settles the origin of the dance.

Lezginka is a Folk Dance. All Eurasian Folk dances are pretty much the same. I mean joyfull music lots of jumping and clapping . Lezginka seems one of the hardest 2 learn . That russian dance & song that is verry famous I forgot what its called. It's a cossack dance right?

The traditional clothing of the caucasus isn't allways teh B�rik(furry hat) sometimes its a normal hat.


I never knew that the khazars brought the Burka 2 the Caucasus

Armenians and Georgians do not have Lezginka. Goergians have very similar music close to Lezginka. Lezgis are the Caucasus nation (neither Turkish nor Iranic), living in those lands even from Albania, having most of its population situated in Northern Azerbaijan and in Southern Dagestan, south to Avars. They are somehow similar to Avars. Lezgis are white. They are more emotional than the rest of minorities in Aerbaijan. They easily begin fight and usually one of the sides get killed :D

They dance Lezginka best, but we Azeris used to dance it in every ceremony and national parties as well. It is interesting. I like dancing it.

Armenian, Georgian and Azeri dances (since those are the ones that i know best what they look like) may seem quite same, as their dance music, but on can easily seperate them if they live in the region for more than 2 years. IN Azerbaijna we 've got many Turkish and Islamic aspects in our dance music, but in georgia, it is way different. About Armenian, I do not have a special knowledge.

any further information that u need, please do not hesitate asking

Originally posted by Kerimoglu Armenians and Georgians do not have Lezginka. Goergians have very similar music close to Lezginka. Lezgis are the Caucasus nation (neither Turkish nor Iranic), living in those lands even from Albania, having most of its population situated in Northern Azerbaijan and in Southern Dagestan, south to Avars. They are somehow similar to Avars. Lezgis are white. They are more emotional than the rest of minorities in Aerbaijan. They easily begin fight and usually one of the sides get killed :D They dance Lezginka best, but we Azeris used to dance it in every ceremony and national parties as well. It is interesting. I like dancing it. Armenian, Georgian and Azeri dances (since those are the ones that i know best what they look like) may seem quite same, as their dance music, but on can easily seperate them if they live in the region for more than 2 years. IN Azerbaijna we 've got many Turkish and Islamic aspects in our dance music, but in georgia, it is way different. About Armenian, I do not have a special knowledge. any further information that u need, please do not hesitate asking

There are also Hellens/Greeks in the Caucasus, especially Pontic Greeks. I am not aware of their numbers, but they must be very few, mainly in Georgia and Abkhazia.

Year	Total	Georgians	Abkhaz	Russians	Armenians	Greeks
1926 Census	186,004	67,494	55,918	12,553	25,677	14,045
1939 Census	311,885	91,967	56,197	60,201	49,705	34,621
1959 Census	404,738	158,221	61,193	86,715	64,425	9,101
1970 Census	486,959	199,596	77,276	92,889	74,850	13,114
1979 Census	486,082	213,322	83,087	79,730	73,350	13,642
1989 Census	525,061	239,872	93,267	74,913	76,541	14,664
2003 Census1	215,972	45,953	94,606	23,420	44,870	1,486

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia


Edited by Spartakus - 03-Mar-2008 at 13:41

I always wonder why all people think that lezginka belongs only to chechens or azerbajdjans? I am from south Russia, Kuban and I can say that almost the whole Russia has this dance, and clothes are not that diffrent aswell. (I dont talk about north Russia as Moscow, their culture is a little bit diffrent than caucasian one).
Lezginka comes from lezgi nation, most of them live today in Dagestan, Russia. And every nation has their own clothes, like our in south Russia look a bit like chechen style.
But however, lezginka is a simple dance in whole Russia, but as I said it is most popular in south.

Music is also a little bit diffrent, so when I lissten to lezginka I can hear if it is chechen one or dagestani or russian a.s.o.  In dagestan it is not that much melody in it, it has more drums, while chechen and russian has more melody, but also a lot of drums. It is also the rythm of the song that can make u feel what part of Russia lezginka comes from. Chechen one has its own rythm, that is alway all the song out is the same, while russian is changing more often.

And ofcourse the moves in the dance can be diffrent, chechen ones, russian ones, dagestani ones. Chechens(when I talk for the women dance) use to "walk" holding their hands down and wifting with them as they walk. Dagestani can be diffrent, becouse there is 66 nation living in Dagestan and there is a lot of diffrent kind of moves but one of them is when girls walk, while holding one hand over their head and one on the belly. And last russian lezginka that comes from cossacks may also be diffrent, it is when a girl is wifting with both hands like a bird while walking, or when she is "running" from the guy holding both hands on the right or left side of the belly. Also usual that girls cover their face with one hand while dancing, that means that she is shy.

And the guys in my oppinion in all nations have the same moves. They have to look strong and tuff and always clap their hands and cream ACCAAA or OPAAA!

Originally posted by Nick1986 Originally posted by kafkas The Caucasus is one of the most diverse regions in the world, religiously and ethnically.Lezgin people as mentioned are a purely Caucasian people, not Turkic. But their dance has pretty much become standard in every Caucasus ethnic group, except perhaps the Armenians. As far as I know Armenians have their own dances and don't do Lezginka dances, because they're very much used to their middle-eastern or Cilician style customs. I've never seen them doing Lezginka personally. I might be wrong, if there's an Armenian here it would be nice if they could clarify this.There are many Caucasian-Turk groups (Karapapak, Terekeme, Karachay, Kumyk, Turkmen, Azeri, Nogai, and some others) and one Caucasian-Iranic group (the Ossetians). There are also Caucasian-Russians like Cossacks.The hat is supposedly originally Bashkir (Turkic ), and since it was worn by Bashkir units, it became popular throughout Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. Everyone living in the Caucasus is a Caucasian. You can have Caucasian Slavs, Caucasian Turks and Caucasian Tartars

(Bold is mine above)

I agree with you, but nowadays all the Caucasians are not from Caucasian. There is still a saying: All the barbers are prostitutes, but all the prostitutes are not barbers.

Especially the US police uses this term “Caucasian” as Wiki tells:

The term Caucasian race (also Caucasoid, Europid, or Europoid) has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. Historically, the term has been used to describe the entire population of these regions, without regard necessarily to skin tone. In common use, specifically in American English, the term is sometimes restricted to Europeans and other lighter-skinned populations within these areas, and may be considered equivalent to the varying definitions of white people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

I saw one mysterious list of the “Caucasians”; all the Europeans are Caucasians except the Finns. Anyway the Finns have a lot of loan words from Caucasus with more migration from Caucasus to Fennoscandia – really Fennoscandia with Kola is the only correct term.

We can continue by Y-DNA. In Dagestan haplogroup I is most common (58%) among Dargin.

The maps of 650 AD shows that the Huns were in Dagestan. Can we say that Attila & the Huns are Caucasians?

The most common Y DNA Haplotypes of Inca are from Caucasus (Dagestan especially, Ossetians, Lezgin, Rutuls, Chechenians, Armenians, Ingush, Abazins, etc. Can we say that by Peruvian Y-DNA Caucasus people were Inca?

The Cossacks had the coolest traditional-costume: a long coat known as a chokha with integrated cartridge pouches and lots of silver braid. This costume was widespread in that part of Russia, being worn by Georgians, Chechens and Azeris since 900AD