who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

213all musicians are Bachs, but all Bachs are musicians”, we could coin a new saying “Notall European polyphonic traditions are in the mountains, but all mountains in Europe arepolyphonic”.Most importantly, there is one very important common feature that unites most ofthe European polyphonic traditions. Mountains, large forests, islands- these are allgeographically isolated regions. What does this fact tell us?This fact suggests that mountains do not help to create polyphony (the same wayas islands and forests do not help to “create” polyphony), but as geographically isolatedregions , they help polyphony and other elements of the culture to survive. It is widelyknown that the most archaic features of culture ( language, rituals, customs, singing styles,dances) usually best survive in mountainous regions. Islands and huge forests, likemountains, are also geographically isolated, so they also help the ancient features ofculture to survive. That’s why, for example, all East Slavic scholars agree that the abovementionedforest-covered Polessye is a unique museum of the most archaic features ofthe East Slavic language, ethnography and culture.As I have already mentioned, I am not going to go into a full detailed discussionof the migration processes that shaped the ethnic and linguistic map of Europe. We knowthat today the majority of peoples in Europe speak Indo-European languages. This isparticularly evident in Western Europe, where all the languages but one (Basque) belongto the Indo-European family of languages. This wide distribution of new Indo-Europeanlanguages means that in the history of Europe at least one very large-scale migration(more correctly – several migration waves during about two millennia) took place.Although it is not very clear from where and exactly when they appeared in Europe(debates continue), carriers of the Indo-European languages entered Europe between the3 rd and the 1 st millennia B.C. Of course, this picture was complemented by the arrival ofFinno-Ugric peoples, and during the late medieval time the Turkic language also made itsway to southeastern Europe.The process of the arrival of new populations has always been a complex process.Even today, when the migration process is very much controlled by the state authorities,legal and particularly illegal migration often creates different kinds of problems for thestate. A few millennia ago this process was easier for the migrating peoples and morepainful (and sometimes catastrophic) for the autochthonous peoples. Without discussingthe details of this very complex process, let us try to reconstruct the general dynamics ofpopulation movement and stratification in Europe. Several stages of this process could beidentified:‣ Before the migration waves of Indo-Europeans appear, the European continentwas populated by the speakers of non-Indo-European languages (sometimesthese languages are mentioned as pre-Indo-European languages). Carriers ofthese pre-Indo-European languages had more or less related cultures; let usnot forget that this seemingly monotonous primordial unity of Ancient Europeis generally a fiction, although some common features must have beenpresent.‣ The first waves of the new population arrive and occupy the best and the mostaccessible territories. More waves of the new arrivals – more pressure on theindigenous populations. Some of the later migrants push and assimilate theolder migrants as well.