Talk:Adyghe people

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As I understand adyghe (self designation), circassians (in W. Europe), cherkess (in Russia) is a common name for many ethnicities: Abadzekhs, Besleneys, Bjedughs, Egerikhuays, Temirgoys, Khamyshs, Natukhays (Natkhuagias), Shapsughs, Ubykhs. In imperial Russia it was a common name for all these tribes. Only in soviet Russia appeared Adyghe (in Adygeya) and Cherkess (in Karachay-Cherkessia). It was a practise in 1930-ies in Soviet Union rename ethnicities acording to self designation: Udmurts instead of Votyaki, Komi instead of Zyryane. Do we have same confusion with Adyghe? Is Adyghe example of soviet's created ethnicity? Or it was divide et empera policy? --82.135.217.55 19:02, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

You forgot the largest group, Kabardins. The word "Cherkes"/"chirkassians" is still in common use in Russia (and possibly Europe). And yes it was more of a "divide and conquer" thing; the Russian designations of "Adygetsi/Адыгейцы" (in Adygea) and "Cherkes" (in Karachay-Cherkessia) have to do with administrative partitioning, not ethnicity. As far as ethnicity, what you wrote in the beginning is correct -- Adyghe = Cherkes, further subdivided into a dozen or so tribes; many of them live in other places in Caucausus/Russian South such as Krasnodar & Stavropol regions, which are part of their historical homeland as much as Adygea, etc. --Let 07:33, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Circassian ethnic cleansing

Hey, I did an article about it. Everyone's welcome to add something to or correct the article, incorporate it into existing ones, and also to protect it from overzealous Russian nationalistic editor(s). Thanks! --HanzoHattori 23:01, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Foster parents

"Familial ties were not strongly encouraged; parents fostered their children to other adults [...]" -- actually I think only the boys were given away, the idea was to aquire pseudo-familial ties to other families, who could be called upon in case of trouble; family and "foster" family ties were very important and thus "encouraged". I'll correct this as soon as I dig up some references. Let 07:49, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adyghe as mercenaries

Article claims that "The Adyghe first emerged as a coherent entity somewhere around the tenth century A.D" yet it's also said that they served in the armies of Rome even though the last Roman emperor was deposed in 476. Also I've never heard of Circassian auxiliary forces under any Persian dynasty.

[edit] "related groups" info removed from infobox

For dedicated editors of this page: The "Related Groups" info was removed from all {{Infobox Ethnic group}} infoboxes. Comments may be left on the Ethnic groups talk page. Ling.Nut 23:22, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Inclusion in WP:ISRAEL

As I understand it, there are only Adyghe in two villages in Israel. Not to snuff them out of the big picture, but isn't that a little insignificant? Octane [improve me] 19.09.07 2248 (UTC)

[edit] Past Tense

Most of this article, such as the culture section, is written in the past tense. I feel like this implies that as a people, they dont exist anymore, but the info box seems to assert they do. I dont know anything about the topic, so I wont chang it myself, but I feel like it should be changed to show that yes, the Adyghe people still have a culture in the present tense. --DerRichter (talk) 21:19, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The first half of the culture section deals with the culture before the diaspora (see Muhajir (Caucasus)); certainly, there would be those who would keep up traditions, but their distinctness as a people, in general, is probably more difficult nowadays to see than earlier. Octane [improve me] 02.02.08 2124 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. --DerRichter (talk) 00:00, 3 February 2008 (UTC)