Finno-Ugric peoples

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Pie chart showing the percentage rates of specific nations speaking languages of the Finno-Ugric family

The Finno-Ugric peoples is a historic linguistic group of peoples in Europe who speak Finno-Ugric languages, such as the Finnic (Finns and Estonians) and the Ugric peoples (Hungarians).^[1] Finno-Ugric languages are not related to Indo-European languages, such as Germanic languages spoken by Germanic peoples; Slavic languages spoken by Slavic peoples and Romance languages by Romance peoples.

Ethnically and genetically Finno-Ugric peoples do not differ from their Indo European speaking neighbors, except for the Sami, whose distinct genetic pool is based on two frequent maternal linages that are less common among modern Europeans: the first Homo sapiens inhabitants of Europe and the second, descendants of common ancestors with the Basque people, one of the earliest inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula.^[2]

[edit] Finno-Ugric identity

In Finnic- and Ugric-speaking countries such as Finland and Hungary, which find themselves surrounded by unrelated tongues, language origins and language history have long been relevant to national identity.^[3] At the same time, nationalist ideologies in Hungary have been hostile to historical linguistics for demonstrating the close relationship between Hungarians and the Ugric peoples of central Russia, the Khanty and Mansi subsistence hunters and fishermen. Hungarian nationalists envision Hungarian kinship with more "prestigious" peoples such as the Turks, Mongols, and Sumerians,^[3] and the discovery of the Finno-Ugric linguistic links was a "psychological blow", as Hungarians had long prided themselves in their supposed Scythian origins, and indeed many Hungarians refuse to accept linguistic findings even today.^[4] Thus Finno-Ugric is not an ethnic group based on common culture or identity, but rather a discovery of linguistics:

[The] affinity of the Finno-Ugric peoples is based solely on the linguistic affinity of these nationalities, and often no other fact can be presented to prove it. [...] linguistic affinity is really a proof of cultural affinity, but only of the far distant past when the structure of the culture was far different from that which we investigate today. The common features of primitive culture are often found spread over very extensive areas and in several different language families.

—Gustav Ränk, p. 2^[5]

The peoples, or rather their linguistic ancestors, have a hypothetical common history based on linguistic reconstruction. However, they do not necessarily share a common ancestry, since entire peoples may change their language. In addition, while the Finnic and Ugric languages are undoubtedly related to each other, there is some debate^[who?] over whether they are closer to each other than they are to the third branch of Uralic languages, Samoyedic, and thus whether Finno-Ugric is a valid genealogical group , or merely a geographic one. If the latter, then "Finno-Ugric peoples" would also be a partially geographic term.^{[citation needed]} Linguistic ancestry may not necessarily correspond to biological ancestry, and genetic studies have so far been unable to demonstrate a relationship between the various Finno-Ugric peoples.^[6]

[edit] Location

The Uralic peoples.

The four largest Finno-Ugric peoples are Hungarians (14,800,000), Finns (6,000,000-7,000,000), Mordvins (850,000), and Estonians (1,100,000). Three of them (Hungarians, Finns, and Estonians) have their independent states - Hungary, Finland, and Estonia. The traditional area of the indigenous Sámi people is in Northern Fenno-Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula in Northwest Russia and is known as Sápmi. Some other Finno-Ugric peoples have autonomous republics in Russia: Karelians (Republic of Karelia), Komi (Komi Republic), Udmurts (Udmurt Republic), Mari (Mari El Republic), and Mordvins (Moksha and Erzya; Republic of Mordovia). Khanty and Mansi peoples live in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia, while Komi-Permyaks live in Komi-Permyak Okrug, which formerly was an autonomous okrug of Russia, but today is a territory with special status within Perm Krai.

[edit] Mythology

Shamanism has had a historically important influence on the mythologies of Siberian peoples, including the Finnic, Ugric, Scandinavian, Yeniseian, Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and other northern Eurasia peoples. Central concepts in their cosmologies is the myth that the world was created from an egg, myths about the Milky Way, ideas about the existence of the World tree or pillar, and the idea that asterisms represent animal spirits.^[7]

See Finnic mythology.

[edit] International Finno-Ugric societies

Established in Syktyvkar in 1992,^[8] the World Congress of Finno-Ugrian Peoples is convoked at least once in four years.^[9] The members of the Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee include the Erzyas, Estonians, Finns, Hungarians, Ingrian Finns, Ingrians, Karelians, Khants, Komis, Mansis, Maris, Mokshas, Nenetses, Permian Komis, Saamis, Tver Karelians, Udmurts, Vepsians; Observers: Livonians, Setos.^[10]

The first Festival of the Finno-Ugric Peoples was held in Yoshkar-Ola in 1990. The tradition continiued covering turn by turn all regions of the Finno-Ugric world: the Republic Mari El, Mordovia, Hanty-Mansijsk, Estonia, Udmurtia, Hungary.^[11] In 2007 the festival was hosted by the President of Russia and visited by the leaders of Finland and Hungary, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. ^[12]

[edit] Population Genetics

The linguistic reconstruction of the Finno-Ugric language family has lead to the postulation not just of an ancient Proto–Finno-Ugric people, but that the modern Finno-Ugric–speaking peoples are ethnically related.^[13] Such hypotheses are based on the assumption that heredity can be traced though linguistic relatedness, which is only sometimes the case.^[14] Like perhaps all populations, individual groups of Finno-Ugric speakers have a diverse array of cultural, environmental, and genetic influences. However, modern genetic studies have shown that the Y-chromosome haplogroup N3, and sometimes N2, having branched from haplogroup N, which, itself, probably spread north, then west and east from Northern China about 12,000–14,000 years before present from father haplogroup NO (haplogroup O being the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup in Southeast Asia), is almost specific, though certainly not restricted, to Uralic- or Finno-Ugric-speaking populations, especially as high frequency or primary paternal haplogroup.^[15]^[16]

[edit] List of peoples

Finnic peoples:

Ugric peoples:

Hungarians
- Székely
- Csángó
- Magyarab
- Jász
Khanty
Mansi

[edit] Gallery

Hungarians dressed in national costume in Serbia	Finnish artist, Akseli Gallen-Kallela	Ingrian Finnish oral poet, Larin Paraske	Karelian women in Sammatus
From left to right: Sven-Roald Nystø, Aili Keskitalo and Ole Henrik Magga, the second, third and first president of the Norwegian Sámi Parliament	Khanty women in Man uskve nomad camp, Berezovsky, Khanty-Mansia, Russia	Hungarian Prince Árpád is crossing the Carpathians	A Székely village in Romania
A Sami family around 1900	Sami woman	Erzya women	Komi people