- Yaghnobi people
Yaghnobi people (or Yagnobian people, Tajik яғнобиҳо /yaġnobiho/, یغنابیها) is the name of a people who live in mountainous
Tajikistan . Sometimes they are viewed as a sub-ethnic group of theTajiks . They live in theSughd province ofTajikistan in thevalley s of theYagnob , Kul andVarzob river s. They speak theYaghnobi language , a language that has its roots in theSogdian language .The 1926 and 1939 census data gives the number of Yaghnabi speakers as approximately 1,800. In 1955, M. Bogolyubov estimated the number of Yaghnabi native speakers as more than 2,000. In 1972, A. Khromov estimated 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley and about 900 elsewhere. The estimated number of Yagnobi people is approximately 25,000. [cite web
url=http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/yaghnabis.shtml
title=The Peoples of the Red Book - The Yaghnabis
publisher=
accessdate=2006-11-25 ]History
Their traditional occupations were
agriculture , growingproduce such asbarley ,wheat , andlegumes as well as breedingcattle ,oxen and asses. There were traditionalhandicrafts includingweaving which was mostly done by themen . Thewomen worked on molding the earthenwarecrockery . [ru icon [http://www.referatu.ru/1/94/678.htm Большая Советская Энциклопедия] ]Some claim that the Yagnobian racial structure is different than that of the
Tajiks , being more similar to the NorthernEurope an. TheYagnobi language is unintelligible to the Tajiks. This has given rise to alegend , that Yagnobians and other fair-haired Pamirians are the descendants of the Greek armies underAlexander the Great . But authorities say that the Yagnobian people originated from theSogdians , a people dominant in the area until theArab conquests in the 8th century whenSogdiana was defeated. In that period Yagnobians settled in the high valleys. The Yaghnobi people areSunni Muslims , and some elements of pre-Islamic religion (probably,Zoroastrianism ) are still preserved. [According to http://www.pamirs.org Zoroastrian Designs on Embrodiary]20th century
Until the 20th century Yagnobians lived through their
natural economy and some still do, as the area they originally inhabited is still remote fromroad s andelectrical line s. The first negative contact with the outer world occurred in the 1930s during theGreat Purge , when some Yagnobians wereexile d, but the most traumatic events were the 1957 and 1970 forced resettlings from Yagnob mountains to thesemi-desert lowland s ofTajikistan . [ru icon [http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/country/?item_id=2279&vs=1 Вокруг света - Страны - - Таджикистан - Последние из шестнадцатой сатрапии] ] [cite web
last =Loy
first =Thomas
date =
year =
month =
url =http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/13_2/loy16.htm
title =From the mountains to the lowlands - the Soviet policy of "inner-Tajik" resettlement
publisher = Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften
accessdate =2006-08-06]Helicopter s were sent to valleys, as there was anavalanche threat, to evacuate the population. Some Yagnobians died of shock in helicopters as they were moved to the plains. The officials said that Yagnobians were needed to work on thecotton plantation s on theplain s. Some Yagnobians rebelled, with a few groups escaping back to themountains , but officials destroyed all "kishlak s" (villages) in the valleys to prevent any attempts to return. They also tried to annihilate the ancient Yagnobianculture , destroying Yagnob religious books, the oldest of which was 600 years old. [Books were thrown into theYaghnob river ] Pskon, the biggest village on theYaghnob River , was erased from the maps, and Yagnobianethnicity was officially abolished. Through the change inclimate and back-breaking work, several hundred Yagnobians died. [cite web
last =Loy
first =Thomas
coauthors =
year = 2005
month =July 18
url =http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu/cel/cel_publ67.html
title =Yaghnob 1970 A Forced Migration in the Tajik SSR
format =
publisher =Central Eurasia-L Archive
language =
accessdate =2006-08-06]Since 1983, families have begun to return to the Yagnob valley. The majority of those that remain on the plains tend to be assimilated with the Tajiks, as their children study in school in the
Tajik language . The returnees keep the Yagnobi culture and language alive, as their children do not speak either Tajik or Russian. The returnees live through thenatural economy , and the majority remain withoutroads andelectricity .ee also
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Yaghnobi language References
External links
* [http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Tajling/yaghnob.html The Yaghnobis]
* [http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu/cel/cel_publ67.html Central-Eurasia-L Archive]
* [http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/yaghnabis.shtml The Yagbnabis]
* [http://www.ling.su.se/staff/ljuba/maps/tajikistan.gifEthnolinguistic map of Tajikistan]
* [http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/yaghnabis.shtml The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire]
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