But let's move on to languages. Modern science about indigenous languages ​​- the product of the efforts of a few pale faces. These are John W. Powell, Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Alfred L. Kroeber and others. Despite their efforts, 60 Indian languages ​​have become dead and another 60-120 are on the way to extinction. This happened during the 100-year gap between the 1887 law prohibiting all use of Indian languages ​​in schools and the 1990 law giving a green light to the study and development of what remained of these languages ​​( mandan- 7 native speakers, eyak-knowledge of the language is concentrated in the head of one old man, the last catawba-speaking Indian died in 1996, etc.). Now the situation with Indian languages ​​has improved somewhat. Indeed, if in 1921 Kroeber counted six people throughout North America who were seriously studying the languages ​​of the Indians, now in the village of Tomilino near Moscow alone six Indianists are studying the language Lakota. One Moscow Delaware is gathering with linguistic spirit. So, “more than an Indian has perished,” as the Poles say.
But let's return to our bison. Let's start with the Indians sounds. According to the range of sounds, two extreme types of Indian languages ​​are distinguished - Atlantic And Pacific.
Atlantic-type languages ​​- Algonquian ( Cheyenne, Cree), Caddoan ( Wichita, Pawnee, Caddo) - have a small set of consonants (8-12) and an abundance of vowels in words. But I don’t advise you to start studying with these “simple” languages: the first line from the title of the article is verb from Cheyenne. We'll decipher the verb a little later, but now we'll continue our tour of Indian sounds. The other pole in terms of sounds is the languages ​​west and north of the Rocky Mountains ( Kwakiutl, Coeur d'alene, nootka, Athapaskan languages): 30-55 consonants and 3-10 vowels (in the Vishram language - one vowel /a/ and two semivowels /ў/ and /й/). Many of these sounds are absolutely alien to the Russian ear, palate and, I’m not afraid of this word, esophagus. For where we have three back-lingual consonants - /k/, /g/ and /x/, and our older Ukrainian brothers also have /gh/ (as in the word " G orilka"), there in nootka 16 consonants, and in Tlingite all 22! Our brother needs to practice pronouncing velar consonants on an empty stomach and immediately after taking a glass of absolute alcohol: a stream of velar, lingual, pharyngeal and other consonants is immediately formed! (In the Ubykh language of the Abkhaz-Adyghe family there are 80 consonants and two vowels - with all your problems you can contact the Ubykhs or Adygs)!
But one consonant is business card of all Indian languages, and therefore special emphasis should be placed on it. In English it is called glottal stop, but in Russian I don’t know how, maybe “swallow-stop!” You can take the term from German: glottal stop. It is designated small question mark: ?. It is used in Russian exclamation no-?a, in English ?uh-?oh! Indians often use it after consonants: t?a (pronounced /тъ-а/). Basically, we pronounce a solid attack when the doctor finally tells us “you can breathe.” The hard attack is the basis of the basics, because of it the Americans call Indian languages ​​“guttural”.
Many, many Indian sounds are unfamiliar to our ears. Indian on the tongue Chinook makes a sound, and we rack our brains: what is this? /m/? /V/? It turns out /b/. Indian Pawnee will pronounce the name of his tribe, and the pale-faced one can write it down as Skiri/Skidi/Skini. In the same time different options/l/ the Indians have half a dozen! How do you like the deaf /m/, /n/, /r/? long consonants (like the Finns)? Of the vowels that are exotic for us (but not the French, Poles and our ancestors) are nasal vowels; vowels pronounced in a raspy voice. And here voiceless vowels I don't know where else
you will meet (except perhaps again in Old Russian: vowels /ъ/ and /ь/). The division of vowels into long and short is not unusual for us, but three degrees of vowel length in Hidatsa will not surprise only Estonians (Examples from Hidatsa: asi"cloth", aasi"river", aaasi"spoon"). And in general, almost all the sounds of the Old World are represented in Indian languages, with the possible exception of the clicking sounds of the tribes of South Africa.
Another highlight is that the pitch of a sound in some languages ​​affects the meaning. For example, in Navajo a high sound is indicated by an acute accent, as in the word tse""stone", and the low sound - with a heavy accent, as in ha`i"winter". And now we have three different words: bi"ni""his nostril" bi`ni`"his face" and bi`ni""at his waist." A similar two-note melody is found in most Athapaskan languages, Shasta-Achomawi, Yuman, Tanoan, Heiltsuk, Arapaho, Caddo, Wichita. And in the language takelma three whole tones! (Mexican Trick has 5 tones; Vietnamese has 6; Chinese dialects have from 3 to 9!) The situation in the language is striking Cheyenne: he is the only one of the Algonquian languages ​​to have developed five note melodic vowel system (two tones in five variations)! On top of everything he has deaf vowels pronounced in a whisper! Beginning of a phrase with Cheyenne begins in a relatively high "pitch" that gradually decreases, making particularly large jumps downward at word boundaries, so that the low tone at the end of the previous word almost coincides with the high tone at the beginning of the next. Vowel height, as in Navajo, determines the meaning of the word. Sometimes only by using it can one determine the number of nouns: ve"?ho?e, "white man/spider" - ve"?ho"?e, "white people/spiders"; face of verbs: tse"hmaneto, "when you were drinking" - tse"hmane"to, "when I was drinking." Often “sung” words in different ways mean completely different things: taa?e, "night" - taa"?e, "beat your wives!" - ta"a?e, "in a heap".
In other tonal languages, pitch is often a grammatical tool:
1) Tlingit: roots hun-"sell", sin-"hide", tin-“see” refers with a low tone to the past tense, with a high tone to the future;
2) takelma: he`l"song", he"l"sing!";
3) Wichita: ka:kintika?acs"he's eating something" - ka:kinti"ka?acs"something is eating him; he has cancer."
...While Navajo And Cheyenne Many tribes of the Pacific coast are sophisticated in the peculiarities of chanting vowels, for example nuhalk, are wondering whether to give them up altogether:
qn-qn-kl-xit-Xw"put it down";
s-k?l-xl-x-c"I'm getting cold"
nm-nm-k"animal",
mn-k"excrement".
The record holder is the word c^lp?xwltlplskwc?"Then he got a bush of Canadian turf." Only a native speaker can compare with the Salish languages. Itelmen language Kamchatka: kstk?lcnan"he jumped" xhlitkas"starve".
Some Native American languages ​​have masculine and feminine pronunciations, masculine and women's dictionaries words Thus, in some Eskimo tribes, women transform final /p,t,k,q/ into /m,n,ng,NG/. In Californian language Yana male and female dictionaries differed: "deer" = pana(m.), pah(and.); "dance": puri?i?(m.), puri?(and.). In languages Dakota the names of some relatives differ between men and women: “elder brother” = chiye(m.), thimdo(and.). Men and women express consent in different ways: how to(m.), haN, tosh(and.); interrogative, motivating, affirmative particles, dictionaries of exclamations, and each gender also has its own at the end of the sentence! (Phew!)
In a language from the Sioux family mandan, on the contrary, speech does not depend on Who says, but to whom they say: when referring to men, males, tobacco, stones and the Divine, an indicative suffix is ​​added to the verbs - o?s^, in other cases it is added - o?re. Similar pairs exist for questions and orders.
Speaking about dictionaries, I would like to remind you of the self-names of tribes and their languages. In most cases, these are “people”, “people”, “real people” and “the language of the people”, “our language”, etc. The Caddo tribes have advanced further than others in self-naming ( kadohadacho- "real leaders") and Kiowa ( kaigwi- "dominant people"). Well, they outdid everyone by the Hopi (“good/wise”), who in modesty are second only to the Ukrainian descendants of the Scythians.
The Indians called other tribes differently. These are the “enemies” - Apaches, Sioux?, Comanches; “friends” (Lakota/Dakota/Nakoda, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq?), this and “they don’t speak our language”, in a word, the Germans - Yuchi, Cheyenne? , Sioux? . Sometimes names were given according to religion (Cree, Kiristino, Christians), or its absence (naskapi, “they have no religion”), as well as other conspicuous features (Nez Perce - “pierced nose”, etc.). But why am I writing something that everyone knows? I’d rather write about something that not everyone knows: the next issue of our program is

At the same time, small animals can belong to the inanimate genus. Animate and inanimate nouns correspond to animate and inanimate classes of verbs. At the same time, inanimate names are deprived of their rights: they cannot say “I”, “you”, they cannot be said “you”: the corresponding forms of verbs simply do not exist. If an inanimate object suddenly needs to say something in the first person, then it takes on the ending of an animate noun and “living” verbs are found with it.

Speaking about faces, we cannot help but say that in addition to the 1st (“I”), 2nd (“you”) and 3rd (“he”) persons, the Algonquins also have a 4th (he(4 ) in relation to him(3)) and the 5th (he(5) in relation to him(4)) persons. These bells and whistles avoid ambiguity in phrases like "he told his friend that he saw him." In this example, it is unclear who saw whom. But in the language blackfoot everything is expressed extremely precisely:

Naturally, the price for such accuracy is the abundance of different forms of the verb. Judge for yourself: in English language three forms of the verb love “to love”: love, loves, loved. There are 24 forms in the Russian language: (po) love, (po) love, (po) love, (po) love, (po) loved, etc. There are 62 forms in the Old Russian language. And in Blackfoot there are 138 forms for expressing love for an animate object, such as an oak tree or a teapot, and 47 forms for expressing affection for strawberries or Coca-Cola! If we take into account the forms of the verb that express denial, the question, indicating that the object of love is no longer among us (more on this form later), add prefixes corresponding to our “by-”, “under-”, “already”, “still”, “going to”, etc., then the number of forms will reach several thousand! This is polysynthesis! (In Athabaskan atna The number of forms of the verb “to go” reaches half a million!)
Incorporation is also held in high esteem among the Algonquins. In the Prairie Cree language, for example, immediately after the verb root two spaces are reserved for additional roots. The first place is for action objects - body parts. They can say this: “we shook hands,” “I half-spinned the enemy.” In principle, you can say this: “I broke the enemy’s back.” But they will look at you like you are crazy, thinking: “What is more important to him, the enemy, or his back?” ...Descriptors of the class of action objects can also be in the first position: wood, stone/metal, liquid, etc. For example, ki:skwe:- "crazy" + - ipe:- "liquid" = ki:skwe:pe:w"drunk".

The second position is reserved for various roots such as “yourself”, “each other”, “hand”, “foot”, “mouth”, “knife”, “tool”, “heat”, etc. And after the roots there are ten
positions for verb suffixes!
Let us summarize the structure of the Algonquian verb:
1) prefix of the main participant in the events,
2-3) prefixes of duration, repetition, future tense, etc.,
4) verb root,
5-6) additional roots,
7-16) suffixes.
The prefix of the main participant in events is chosen among the Algonquins in the series I-you-he. However, in Plains Cree the order is different: you-me-he, in connection with which fantastic assumptions were made about the peculiarities of the Cree worldview.
The root of the verb can be doubled to express the duration of the action (“everything writes and writes”), repetition (“beat-beat, didn’t break”) and intensity of the action (“hit-hit!”).
Among the suffixes, the diminutive suffix of the object is of interest (“i-vypi- chick-shaft cup water" = I drank glass
water) and the suffix of the absence of an object ("I-will-help-the-Kingdom-of-heaven-nu
my-grandfather-peace-of-his-day"), which are in Delaware, Plains Cree And passamaquoddy. Finally, in language blackfoot nouns, in addition to the already described absence suffix, also have a generalizing/abstract suffix - waa?(our response to critics of the non-abstract nature of Indian languages!), to express thoughts like “buffalo eat grass.”

If you can still figure something out, Khola, then you are capable of studying the Algonquian languages. Maybe even Pawnee(in which, not 16, but 36-component verb). If not, then you can join us and master the language -

LAKOTA.

FOOTNOTES

(1) True, in 1990, at the US Census, 17,000 people answered the question “what language do you use in everyday life”: Indian!
(2) This is what the self-names Miwok, Yana, Yokuts, Pomo, Tlingit, Kuchin, Lenni Lenape (Delaware), Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Inu (Mi’kmaq), Invna-ina (Arapaho) mean, ts(e)tse"h(e)stahes(e)(Cheyenne), Hochangara (Winnebago), Numakaki (Mandan), Chahiksichahix (Pawnee), Kirkitish (Wichita), Tsanish (Arikara), Nymyn (Comanche), Nimipew (Nez Perce), Diné (Navajo), Niyeye (Catawba), Inuit (Eskimo), as well as Lygyoravetlyat (Chukchi).
(3) In languages blackfoot And Plains Cree the word "enemy" also means "Cree" and "Blackfoot" respectively .
(4) Although Dakota folk rumor displays the word Shahiyena, Shahiyela from sha, "red", iya/iye"talk" and na/la will reduce. suffix, i.e. "little people speaking a strange language" (compare: iyeska"speak+white/clear"="translator"), yet another translation is more likely: shahiya"cree" + na will reduce. suff . ,those. "little Cree"
Joke. An old man from a remote village had never seen a train. One day he was walking along the railway. tracks when a locomotive appeared behind them. The driver pressed the brakes and desperately beeped, but the old man continued his march without looking back, as a result of which he was hospitalized with a diagnosis of post-traumatic quartering. The surgeons performed miracles and practically assembled the akyn piece by piece. After discharge, grandfather was unusually silent. And so, when all the relatives gathered to celebrate the recovery of the head of the clan, they set up an email. kettle with whistle. And so, when the kettle whistled, the old man suddenly jumped up and began to beat the kettle with his staff, saying: “They must be killed while they are still small!

Respecting of people, need to be loved and your people, and your language, and your national culture. Etiquette It has national traits. Same rules in different countries ah are interpreted differently. Let's take the simplest thing - greetings.

Customs of greetings

How do people greet each other?
Every nation has its own customs of greeting each other, but international etiquette is essentially the same: when meeting, people wish each other good and well-being, Have a good day or success at work.

The Englishmen greet familiar with the question " How do you do?" - (literally "How are you acting?"), the French welcome: « Comment ca va?" - ("How is it going?"), Germans welcome - « Wie geht's?"(How is it going?").

Persians will advise: “ Be cheerful!», Arabs greet: « Peace be with you!", A Jews – « Peace to you».

The most common greetings among Mongols: « How are your livestock?" And " How do you travel?». In Malaysia they ask: « Where are you going?”(to which they vaguely answer: “To take a walk”).
Famous " Salam!" means " Peace to you!" (like "Shalom").

People of Tibet they greet like this: when meeting, they take off their hat, stick out their tongue, and left hand held behind the ear, as if listening.

In Iran they say hello: « Be cheerful!», Georgians welcome with the word " Gamarjoba!" - "Be right!", or "Win!".

Japanese they will say: “ Konnichiwa" - "here is the day", "the day has come", Highlanders of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush greet each other with wishes " Watch out!", "Don't know fatigue!", Vainakhs- the wish “Be free!”

Chinese In the old days, when meeting and greeting a friend, he shook hands with himself.

Young American greets his friend, clapping him on the back.

Indians from the Maori tribe To greet, they must touch each other's noses.

Maasai people in Africa before as to greet each other, spitting on their hands.

Eskimos When greeting a friend, they lightly knock him on the head and shoulders with their fist.

Latin Americans hugging. Samoans sniffing each other.
On the other hand, the same norms can be interpreted and perceived differently. For example, spitting on a patient is considered bad manners, and American Indians in this way they wish for recovery, we negatively evaluate belching at the table, and Asians in this way demonstrated to the owner that the food was for good.

: we have thumb, raised up - everything is fine, but among the Swedes- stop the car; For us, stroking the chin is a pleasure, and among the Italians- the conversation dragged on; we nod our heads up and down - yes, among the Bulgarians- No.

America, Arizona, red rocks, desert, cacti, February, +28°C, piercing blue sky and dazzling White sun, not a single cloud. The locals call this weather boring, because every day is the same... My friend John and I are driving in a jeep to the White Mountains - the sacred lands of the Apache tribe, where the reservations are located. Some 50 minutes and we went from summer to winter: there was snow, pine trees and spruce all around, as if there were no cacti...

How do Indians live today? I, like most Russian people who have only seen Indians in movies, had the impression that Indians on reservations live in “wigwams” (the correct name is “teepees”) and wear leather clothes with feathers. Imagine my disappointment when, when I first got to the reservation, I saw dilapidated huts like those in the Russians, rickety fences, rusty cars, bumpy roads covered with rubbish and old tires, and drunken, wide-faced (like our Buryats) men in jeans and baseball caps, with a bottle in hand... “Oh my God,” I thought, “just like in a Russian village!” Maybe we have one big reservation in Russia?” Fortunately, I visited different reservations and a total of four tribes - Apache, Hopi, Navajo and Zuni. And here’s what I noted: in those tribes where the Indians managed to preserve their indigenous cultural tradition, spirituality, there were no problems with drunkenness. They drank themselves to death only in places where traditions had been lost. It dawned on me! We have the same situation in Russia - in the villages people are drinking themselves to death because they have not preserved the traditions of the indigenous, tribal culture of life on earth.

Reservations. Anyone can enter the territory of most reservations - now there are no fences or barriers, there is only a sign at the entrance: “Zuni”, or “Hopi Land”. But you can only stay on reservations if you have friends there. Indians don't start casual dating. You need to be introduced by a good friend, then you get into your family. My friend John introduced me to the Indians. He is white, but has worked for many years for charitable organizations on various reservations. John was close friends with several Indian families. The Indians immediately accepted me as one of their own. Apparently, the Russian spirit in me was in tune with the Indian, and they felt it. The closer I became acquainted with the culture and spirituality of the Indians, the more I felt the depth of this tradition, its closeness to the traditions of our Slavic ancestors.

Some tribes still tell the story of how their ancestors came from Siberia from mouth to mouth. The traditional homes of the Hopi and Navajo tribes are six- and octagonal log houses with a smoke hole in the center of the cone-shaped roof. The indigenous inhabitants of Altai have exactly the same traditional houses. But the majority of Indians on reservations still do not live in traditional dwellings, and in “caravans” - trailers permanently installed on blocks, or in “bungalows” - cheap frame houses.

In my opinion, it is impossible to eat regular American food in the USA. On the reservations, the food prepared by the Indians was very tasty and similar to ours. It is not for nothing that potatoes, which have become traditional for Russians, came from the Indians. From them tomatoes, corn, pumpkin and tobacco came to us. Tobacco is an example of the misuse of a traditional product. After all, Indians smoke tobacco only during prayer. One Indian told me that if all smokers prayed when they smoke, we would live in a completely different world.

Interestingly, the flying flag of the United States can be seen much more often on reservations than in the rest of the United States. However, US laws do not apply on reservation lands. Therefore, offenders escaping from US justice find refuge on reservations, which significantly increases the crime rate there. For the same reason, you can often see casinos there, which are prohibited in most of America. Each tribe has its own police force and its own laws. Photography is generally prohibited on reservations. But I took several photographs with the permission of the Indians.

Traditions. Like the ancient Slavs, almost the entire ritual life of the Indians is connected with solar and lunar cycles. Thus, the points of the summer and winter Solstice, spring and autumn Equinoxes in their tradition are key and determine the entire course of their lives. According to the lunar cycle, Indians usually perform the “Sweat Lodge” ritual, or, in Indian, “nipi”. They are offended if anyone calls this ritual an Indian bath. They don’t wash or take steam in the “svetlodcha”, although they pour water on hot stones there, like in a bathhouse. They pray in the "lightboat". Indians pray for relatives, for friends, for enemies, for their people and for all humanity. It is not customary for them to pray only for themselves. At the same time, the temperature in the lighthouse can be so high that it can only be withstood in a state of prayer. This is a rite of internal and external cleansing. Before entering the lighthouse, you must cleanse yourself through fumigation with wormwood smoke. For Indians, wormwood is one of the most sacred plants, the smell of which expels unclean things from the home, from the physical and subtle bodies of a person.

The Indians have a reverent attitude towards the elements - earth, water, fire and air - as if they were living entities. For example, throwing garbage into the fire of a home is considered unacceptable, a disrespectful attitude towards the fire and the house.

Indians are a people of few words. Only they can express themselves so succinctly, deeply and poetically, even in English. “Walk your talk” - they say (I won’t translate it, because it won’t work out so beautifully). Or the phrase “Look towards the Sun and you will not see a shadow” poetically reflects their worldview.

When John and I went to the Indian sanctuary, Spider Rock, on the Navajo reservation in Dae Shay Canyon, our guide was an 82-year-old Indian, Jonesy. John asked the Indian something for a long time and after a significant pause, Jonesy answered briefly: “Yes.” Then John again asked some questions, and each time the Indian answered simply “Yes” or “No.” I did not hear any other words from his lips. Jonesy took us to Spider Rock, where, according to legend, the Spirit of the Spider Woman lived, who taught the Navajo Indians to weave, weave and sew clothes. The spider, like the web, is among the Indians in a positive way. Indian amulets “dream catchers” are made in the form of a spider’s web. Such an amulet is hung on the window and it is believed that at night it allows only good energies to pass through, and catches bad ones in its net so that only dreams can be made. good dreams. Such “dream traps” are now sold in ethnic souvenir shops in Russia. But I have to disappoint you: almost all of them are made in China. Just like the Russian nesting dolls I saw in ethnic gift shops in Arizona. From a distance they look like nesting dolls...

The special relationship of Indians to the land.

They say: “the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth”. Deep responsibility for the earth and for the whole Earth is an integral part of their spiritual culture. Indian dances are not just a spiritual practice that allows the dancer to communicate with the Great Spirit ("Wakan Tanka"), but a ritual of self-sacrifice that atones for the sins of all humanity and restores the connection between man and nature. In this ritual, the dancer dances non-stop from sunset to sunrise for several nights in a row, which requires incredible fortitude and courage. If a dancer falls, it is bad sign– there will be a hurricane, drought or other cataclysm. The Indians know for sure that nature depends on them just as they depend on nature. They believe that the world still holds together thanks to their dances, and that all the earthquakes, diseases and disasters on Earth are due to the fact that people have lost contact with Nature and are raping it.

This is what the Ojibwa Indian prayer sounds like:

"Progenitor,
Look at our brokenness.
We know that throughout Creation
Only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Path.
We know that we are the ones who are divided
And we are the ones who must return to walk the Sacred Path together.
Progenitor, One Holy One,
Teach us love, compassion, respect,
So that we can heal the Earth and heal each other."

For the Indians, Nature is a sacred living book through which the Great Spirit communicates with them. A flying bird, a running animal, a gust of wind, the sound of leaves, a floating cloud - all these are living signs and symbols that the Indian reads, just as we read letters and words. When the Indians greet each other, they say: "O metako ash", which means "all my brothers." The Indian says the same greeting when he enters the forest, approaches a lake, or meets a deer. All beings in the sacred circle of Nature are brothers for the Indian.

From the history.

When the first whites landed on the shores of America, they ran out of food and were dying of hunger. The Indians brought food to the whites, taught them to grow local crops, and they survived. This day is now celebrated as the biggest holiday in America - Thanksgiving Day. For more than half a century after this, Indians and whites lived in peace. Immigrants from Britain had healthy children and they all survived, while in Britain itself at that time only every eighth child survived. Whites developed the land, engaged agriculture. The Indians were hunting. There was a mutual exchange of products. Then the whites fenced off their plots of land. But the Indians did not seem to notice the fences and continued to move freely through them while hunting. The whites did not like this and they began to explain to the Indians that beyond the fence was their own land. This is where it all started! The Indians could not understand how land could be someone’s property? How can land be sold or bought? The war has begun...

We can roughly imagine what happened to America next. I can say that mainly those tribes that adopted Christianity managed to survive and preserve their traditions. They simply incorporated Christianity into their traditions. On the Navajo reservations I visited christian temple. The temple was built of logs in the traditional octagonal shape, the entrance is from the East, in the center of the cone-shaped roof there was a one and a half meter hole in the sky, under it there is the same hole in the floor, there is earth. “Heaven and earth are sacred to us,” the Indians explained to me. An icon of Jesus Christ hung on the wall. Christ was red-skinned, wearing a loincloth and with the symbol of the Sun on his blessing hand. The Indians turned to the four cardinal directions sacred to them, Heaven and Earth, and began a prayer in the Navajo language with the words: “Oh, Jesus Christ, son of God, our elder brother, come to us...”

Here I cannot resist telling you an anecdote that I heard from white Americans: One Indian somehow ended up with a high-ranking priest. He taught the Indian Christian commandments, showed him a crucifix and icons. Suddenly the Indian noticed a telephone next to the priest’s chair. “What is this?” - asked the Indian. “And this is a direct telephone line to God,” answered the priest. "Is it true? Can I try it? - the Indian asked. The priest scratched the back of his head and said: “Actually, it’s possible, but not for long, it’s an expensive call over a long distance...” A few years later, this priest was passing through that Indian’s reservation. The Indian was glad to see him and showed him the village, local rituals and traditions. Suddenly the priest noticed an old, shabby telephone at the feet of the Indian. "And what's that?" - asked the priest. “And this... this is a direct telephone to God,” said the Indian. “Can we talk?” asked the priest. “Yes, of course,” said the Indian, “and you can talk as much as you want, this is a local call...”

Most Indians are very jealous of their traditions and protect them from the whites in every possible way. I’ll tell you about this topic already real story from life. Traditionally, Indians from different tribes meet at the annual Pow Wow festival. This usually takes place in a stadium, where there is a stand with spectators and a platform on which various kinds of games, competitions, dances, etc. take place. All participants in competitions and dances are usually dressed in traditional clothes made of leather with beads and feathers, as we are used to seeing in the movies. But most of the Indians sitting in the stands are dressed like ordinary Americans in jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps. There are also white people among the spectators, because... this event is open to everyone. So one white man, apparently an adherent of Indian culture, sat on the podium in traditional Indian clothing made of leather and feathers. The Indians looked sideways at him for a long time, then they couldn’t stand it, they came up and said: “Listen guy, we don’t like that you wear our national clothes. Go change clothes.” The guy turned out to be no mistake. He changed into jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, went out onto the court and, turning to the Indians sitting in the stands, said: “Guys, I don’t like the fact that you are dressed in my national clothes. Go, change clothes...”

But among the Indian shamans there are also those who sincerely share the depth of their tradition with the whites. Such, for example, is the leader Sun Bear, who founded the famous community “Sun Bear Tribe”, where Indians and whites live together in peace and harmony. Some such shamans also come to Russia, where they communicate with adherents of Indian spiritual culture - Indianists. Russian Indianists also meet annually at their Pow Wow. The sight is, frankly, stunning: a clearing with dozens of “tepees” (wigwams), all people dressed in beaded leather Indian clothes, some on horses with bows, tomahawks and painted faces. Indian dancing and singing to the beat of a tambourine. You won't even see this in the movies! But you shouldn’t come there without an invitation - the Indians (even though they are Russian) are harsh people.

Indians are called the native inhabitants of America. They really preserve their roots and pass them on to the next generations. In their tradition, honoring ancestors is not just a tribute of gratitude to previous generations, but a direct living connection with the spirits of their ancestors, to whom they constantly turn for help, support and advice. The Indian knows that his ancestors live in him, and he lives in his descendants. Therefore, there is no death for him, he perceives a single stream of life of his kind, identifying himself with it, and not with a separate period of time the size of life. The Indians have a different attitude towards “death” than that accepted in the “white” civilization. The same great attitude among the Indians and at birth. For example, in some tribes, a child’s birthday is not considered the day of his physical birth, but the day on which the child laughed for the first time. The one who saw this and gives the child a name. The name is given in this way - a person goes outside and sees what the Great Spirit tells him through Nature: Dancing Coyote, Two Bears (the name of my friend), or Playing Wind.

One white American woman once asked me: “Do you have any indigenous people there in Russia?” “Yes,” I answered proudly, “I, for one!” Then, when I returned home to my northern village - Grishino, I thought: “What kind of native am I? Where are my roots? Fortunately, our ancestral memory is still strong and we can revive and strengthen our roots, our connection with our ancestors, traditions, family. This is what is happening now in Russians, reviving the lost connection between Man and Nature, the place of which was determined by our ancestors: Human Nature.

Reply from ° ~...THE ONLY...~ ° [guru]
In Tunisia, when greeting someone on the street, it is customary to first bow and offer right hand to the forehead, then to the lips, then to the heart. “I think about you, I talk about you, I respect you” - this is the meaning of this greeting.
Residents of the country of Tonga, located on the islands Pacific Ocean, when meeting with acquaintances, they stop at a distance, shake their heads, stamp their feet and snap their fingers.
The Japanese bow when they meet.
Eskimos, greeting a friend, lightly hit him on the head and shoulders with their fists.
Residents of New Guinea from the Koi-ri tribe, when greeting, tickle each other under the chin.
Representatives of the African Akamba people living in southern Kenya, as a sign of deep respect... spit on the person they meet.
Residents of the Republic of Zambia in Central Africa, when greeting, clap their hands and curtsy.
Greenlanders do not have a formal greeting, but when meeting, they always say: “Fine weather.”
In Botswana, a small country in southern Africa, most of whose territory is occupied by the Kalahari Desert, the traditional national “Pula” is translated as a wish: “Let it rain!” »
It is believed that handshakes appeared in primitive times. Then, stretching out their hands to each other, people showed that they had no weapons, that they came in peace.
According to another version, the handshake originated during knightly tournaments. When the duel between two knights dragged on and it was clear that they were equal in strength, the opponents approached each other in order to discuss the peaceful outcome of the duel. Having gathered, the knights extended their hands for a handshake and held them like that until the end of the negotiations, thereby protecting themselves from possible treachery and deception on the part of the enemy. That is why the handshake is still common mainly among men.
Source: htt***p://poche****my.net/?n=16****29 (remove ******* in the link)

Answer from Mem[guru]
We speak Russian: “hello”, “ Good morning", "Good afternoon good evening". We greet guests: “Welcome”, “You are welcome”. The Slavic brothers greet with the words: “Zdorovenki bula”, “We kindly ask.”

In Germany, the idiom “how are you” literally means “how is it going for you”: “Wie geht es Ihnen” or more simply – “Wie geht"s?” For the French this is also typical: “Comment allez-vous?”, that is “how are you going?”, or “Comment ça va?” – how is it going?

When meeting, Mongols may ask questions depending on the time of year. So, in the fall: “Are the cattle fat?” or “Are you spending the autumn well?”, in the winter: “How are you spending the winter?”, and at the end of it: “Are you greeting the spring safely?” National etiquette allows you to ask anyone: “How do you travel?” or “How are your cattle?”, even if the person being asked doesn’t have any in sight.

In the Netherlands, you can also hear as a greeting: “How are you traveling?” The ancient Egyptians, without any embarrassment, said to the person they met: “How are you sweating?”
Active British people are accustomed to placing emphasis on actions: “How do you do?”, which means “How are you doing?”, and in abbreviated form simply “How are you?” - "How are you…". The talkative Italians and Spaniards limit themselves to the same question – “how are you”? Although Italians may ask: “Come sta?” (how are you standing?). The Swedes are also laconic: “How are things?” Malaysians may ask: “Where are you going?”, and the answer to this question is: “For a walk.”
Romanians have a caring speech pattern: “Are you feeling good?” or at least “Are you safe?” The Danes greet in a similar way: “Are you living well?” The Chinese begin a meeting with the words: “Ni hao ma” or a little shorter: “Ni hao”, which is now perceived as “how are you?”, but literally translated “have you eaten today?”

In Central Asian countries, it is customary to bombard an acquaintance you meet with a whole cascade of questions: “How is your health? As children? Like at home? How's the car? How about a dog (or other living creature)?” And finally: “How’s your wife?” This order allows the husband to make sure that there is no special interest in his wife, primarily of an intimate nature.

In India, as in Nepal, before asking, “How are you?”, “How is your health?”, “Is everything okay?” (or in the morning: “Did the mosquitoes bother you too much this night?”), express the wishes of “Namaste” (bow to you) and “Namaskar” (literally: making a bow). The custom of good wishes at a meeting dates back to ancient times. In such cases, the ancient Greeks said briefly and clearly: “Rejoice!” (Khaire!). But for the Romans it was more important to wish “Be healthy!” (Salve!).

Who doesn’t know that “Salam!”, like “Shalom”, means the good wish “Peace be with you!” In Afghanistan, it is customary to greet with the words: “Mandana bashi!” (May you not be weary!). In the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains, the call “Do not know fatigue” has long been accepted, as well as another: “Be vigilant!” In Iran they say: “May your shadow never diminish!”, but they also greet with another phrase, which translates as “Be cheerful.”

The Japanese calmly state: “Konnichiwa”, that is, “Here is the day” (or “The day has come”), but only from 10 to 18 o’clock; later they pronounce “Konbanwa”, i.e. evening came. The Georgian "Gamarjoba" means "be right" or "win." And the Caucasian Vainakhs stand up for the most important thing in their life: “Be free”; the younger ones say to the older ones: “Greetings to your bon voyage" Bavarians can remember the Lord: “Gruss (Dich) Gott” and “Behute Dich Gott”, that is, calling upon the person they meet the blessing of God and his protection.

The Zulus (South Africa) exclaim: “Sakubona!”, i.e. “I saw you.” African Basotho: “Tama sevaba!” - “Greetings, wild beast!” Navajo Indians: “Everything is fine.” Greenlanders: “Nice weather!” - even if there is a snowstorm outside.

In some tribes North American Indians greeting: “You are my other self.” New Zealand Maori say: "Kia ora!" - thank you for this day. Sounds nice!

http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-34340/

http://red-road.forum2x2.ru/t228p30-topic

some thoughts on finding out the origin of Sat-Ok

I read very carefully the controversy regarding the origin of Sat-Ok and I would like to express my opinion on this matter. Many people here really want to find out who Sat-Ok really was? This is exactly what most Indianists want to know, and not only in Russia. Below I will answer exactly who he really was. And I'll put an end to this. But first, I would like to ask everyone who is concerned about this issue - do you clearly understand your goal, what you want to achieve in the end, or more precisely, have you ever thought about the consequences of clarifying this issue? About the consequences primarily for Sat-Ok itself? Especially when he was still alive? There are such people - paparazzi. To take sensational footage at any cost, to delve into the “underwear” is their task. But they don’t care what will happen to the people they follow, and what they will feel after the publication. Let's think about this. Let's assume Sat-Ok is not a Shawnee by blood and not an Indian at all. Is he Polish or from of Eastern Europe, or from somewhere else. He wrote brilliant books about the Indians on which more than one generation of Indianists grew up. He created a legend - a legend under the name Sat-Ok, a legend about himself and carefully guarded it. Did he have the right to this, the right to personal secrets? Of course he did, like any other person. Especially after such excellent books. Do we have the right to interfere in personal life person? Let everyone answer according to their conscience. Think about it. After all, if you just imagine the consequences of exposure (something no one even thinks about), that Sat-Ok was exposed and proved that he was not an Indian at all - what would then happen to Sat-Ok himself? I think it would be very painful for him. It is impossible to imagine what would be going on in his soul. After all, remember (and there are many such examples) what happened to other great people in similar situations? Remember the writer Karl May, for example. When he was exposed that he was not Old Shatterhand and the story of Winnetou was fictitious, what happened to him? But at the court of the Austro-Hungarian emperor he was called by the name of his hero. After such a blow, Karl May did not write a book for 8 years, became isolated, left Germany, and experienced a mental crisis. And just before his death, one critic wrote that “the fire of goodness hovered in his books.” In the same way, revelations or life blows affected others creative people. Sometimes such things even led to the death of people or brought their death closer. And then I want to say in the words of the Faithful Hand from the film, when the son of the Comanche leader Tuvan is treacherously killed in the back: “Did you want this? Did you want this?” Why do we need to find out the origin of Sat-Ok? Do we have the right to do this? After all, Sat-Ok saw during his lifetime that many people wanted to know this. How old was he in the 80s or 90s? The age is respectable. Would he have survived the collapse of his legend at that age? I think that after such a revelation, almost every Indianist would bitterly regret it and repent in his soul. Remember another great man - Gray Owl. How he was worried and afraid that he would be exposed! And how delicately the Indians themselves defined this (I’m talking about an episode in the film, of course, this may not have been the case). Remember when Pierce Brosnan enters the tipi of the chiefs, Floyd Westerman gives him a gift and determines that he is not an Indian. But he doesn’t even express this thought out loud, he just laughs. And the secret of Gray Owl was discovered after his death. If the Indians themselves did not say anything about Gray Owl, other Indians who knew Sat-Ok did not say anything like that about Sat-Ok, do we have the right to know the truth? On the one hand, we seem to have it, especially since Sat-Ok is no longer alive, but on the other? After all, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise precisely for this - they wanted to know too much of the truth, an apple was plucked from a forbidden tree. But it is so, an allegory.

Now, exactly who was Sat-Ok. He was the son of Tall Eagle and White Cloud, and was born in Canada. He was more of a Shawnee than many Shawnees actually are, and in any case he was more of an Indian than many Indians are. He created wonderful books. He created a legend. HE HAD A RIGHT TO DO THIS. He was a defender of his Fatherland, a veteran who went through inhuman trials during the war. He was a GREAT man and citizen. He left us not so long ago, Dear Sun. He went to his ancestors. Let's honor his memory and leave everything as it is. That's how it should be. There must remain secrets in the world.

With respect to everyone, Roganov Igor, Vladimir region

P.S. I found an old post of mine when I was not yet in the community.