Customer Reviews:
Kupalo, Volos, Mokosh . . ........2004-01-23
This is the corrected title for my review, below.
kupala, volos, mokosh . . ........2004-01-18
This book is intended for those interested in old Slavic beliefs, and it is well illustrated with photos and artwork. The book begins with information on history and culture, then delves into gods and goddesses, nature spirits, demons, folktales, and sorcery. Most of these nature spirits are described as dangerous, which can be disappointing. This book is NOT about vampires, as these get just 2 pages. The book is generally more fun than academic. If it is your kind of thing, you should get it. You will be happy with the many illustrations.
It's not about vampires at all.........2003-11-13
First of all, the title is very misleading to provide wider appeal especially with the vampire lore trend bs. The book has very little dealings with vampire myth, but it focuses well on some areas of paganism and other things throughout eastern europe. A decent book and very much worth the price. If it will ever be re-printed, they should deffinately change the title and remove Vlad photo from the cover, a non-slav by the way, it shouldn't be there.
Customer Reviews:
Deep but Narrow - 3...Nf6 variations only!.......2005-11-22
Another excellent book by Matthew Sadler. As mentioned in a number of other reviews, Mr. Sadler has a talent for explaining the theory behind an opening while providing an excellent analysis of current practice. However, the small size of the book means that this depth comes at a price - less popular moves are not adequately explored.
Also, Mr. Sadler makes a number of assumptions in getting to the starting position of the book that reduce it's usefulness to a player of the Semi-Slav - it really should be titled 'Semi-Slav with an early Nf6 (and assuming White doesn't first exchange pawns on d5)'.
Thus, while the book covers the Botvinnik variation and the Meran variation it does not cover the Slav exchange, (1.d4 d5, 2.c4 c6, 3.cd, cd), the Queens Gambit Declined exchange (1.d4 d5, 2.c4 e6, 3.cd, cd), the Marshall Gambit (1.d4 d5, 2.c4 c6, 3.Nc3 e6, 4.e4) or the Abrahams-Noteboom Variation (1.d4 d5, 2.c4 c6, 3.Nc3 e6, 4.Nf3 dc)
Good, but something missing.......2003-09-02
I think these Sadler books are good but a bit overrated. None of the three are complete: all of them have significant omissions in terms of the scope of coverage. And the "question and answer" format is a great idea, but it doesn't really work very well. Too often, the questions aren't even questions, but just exclamations such as "Oh Dear!" by an imaginary befuddled reader. His answers have a slick smoothness that sometimes do not really answer the questions. One gets the feeling that these books were turned out quickly. They're not really for beginners, but they are not thorough enough to be stand alone treatises on their respective openings. In the end, they succeed mostly as annotated games collections.
Didn't even need to read it!??.......2002-06-21
Having studied the two other books of M.Sadler, just a fast look in this one and seeing the same structure convinced me that it is of the same quality than the others. I mean great learning quality.
Excellent book, though incomplete.......2001-08-01
Matthew Sadler does an excellent job of covering the material he covers in his books, and this one is no different. He does a lot of his explaining in a sort of "Question and Answer", or "Frequently Asked Questions" format, which appears to be unique to him (I have yet to see another author use this format). There is a massive amount of material that is squeezed into this 160-page book, including 128 annotated games.
The one downfall to this book is that it leaves out a few of the most critical lines in all of the Semi-Slav. An example here would be the 18...d4 line in the Main Line of the Botvinnik Variation with 17...a3. This is a line that was seen in 1994 (about 4 years before the writing of the book). It is an interesting and sharp line that leads to a Rook Sacrifice on move 22 (22...Rh5, which is the ONLY MOVE), the sacrifice of yet another rook, and eventually a position considered roughly equal after going through a sequence of moves where White is up 2 rooks, but Black has pawns on b4, b2, and c3.
Another loop-hole is the lacking of Black's options other than 6...Bd6 in the 6.Qc2 lines of the 5.e3 Semi-Slav. An important alternative for Black would be 6...b6, for example.
If there was such a rating as "4 and a half stars", that's what I'd give this book, but I had to round it off to 5. 4 would be a bit too harsh. However, while I would highly recommend reading this book, I would also recommend "The Botvinnik Semi-Slav" and "The Meran System", both by Steffen Pederson, as these appear to be more complete in coverage, though also deeper into the theory, and hence I would recommend reading Sadler's book first before trying dive into the others.
A MUST READ for "First-Time" Semi-Slav Players!!!
A different type of opening book, and a welcome change.......2000-10-18
Matthew Sadler has put together a real masterpiece here. The book is like no other opening book I have seen (except other books by the same author).
If you want to skip to the most important reason why this is as an excellent book, skip the next three paragraphs.
There are several types of opening books out there. Some are "repetoire" books attempting to put forth a single, unified approach, or maybe two separate unified approaches, for the benefit of those without a lot of time on their hands. Others are little more than compilations of lines with sparse commentary and tons of games. These can be helpful as a reference, but are not as helpful in terms of actually learning an opening.
Still other opening books concentrate on explanation and stand motifs, with a few games for example purposes. These are better for learning, but are still not in the same league as _The Semi-Slav_ by Sadler.
The thing that separates this book is as much the _type_ of commentary as the format, but more on that later. The format is excellent: the book is broken into two main sections: the Bot. and Moscow systems. Then several lines are each analyzed, using sample games with excellent commentary.
Now, I get to my major point: the type of comments, especially in the very first chapter of each main section is extraordinarily insightful. The Semi-Slav can be pretty sharp, so many moves are forced, but Sadler does an A1 job of explaining what is going on. Not simply tactically, but on a more heurestic setting.
His commentary is invaluable because it highlights the key issues of the formation, so you know the reasons why what you should do is good. It goes one step further and often uses the _present_ situation on the board to give reasons why certain moves are good, rather than simply saying "Do this because in the future it will help achieve a this common theme."
One example of this simple yet elegant commentary is about 13 moves down in the Botvinnik variation where the placement of the light bishop and the queen are discussed. The key point is that White's KN has been traded, so it is natural to attack the g2 (which would normally be shielded by this knight) square and those central squares for which the KN and the misplaced QB are natural defenders.
I assert that it would not be overstating things to say the first chapter of each of the two sections of this book will be more helpful by themselves than the majority of opening manuals.
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- A must have for those who study Liturgies
- Excellent detail of the divine liturgy
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Byzantine Slav Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Its Origin and Evolution
Casimir Kucharek
Manufacturer: Alleluia Pr
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Customer Reviews:
A must have for those who study Liturgies.......2005-01-21
What a surprise. As the previous reviewer commented the first 200 pages of the book spend much time discussing the Liturgy up to the time when there was a distinctive split into the Eastern and Western Rites. However, even throughout the rest of the book, Rev Kucharek really puts effort into disucssing the origins of practices and parallels between the east and west.
As a Roman Catholic I found this book to be a much needed compliment to the works of Fortescue and Jungmann. I am glad I did not pass this title up.
Excellent detail of the divine liturgy.......2001-05-11
Although written by a Uniate priest, this book presents a scrutiny of the Orthodox liturgy which is indispensible for anyone interested in studying the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The first part of the book deals with the history and evolution of the different liturgies throughout the century. The rest of the book, after the first 200 pages, is a detailed analysis of the liturgy including rubrics and theological background.
Book Description
In this easy-to-read guide, Grandmaster and openings expert Glenn Flear goes back to basics, studying the essential principles of the Slav and Semi-Slav Defences and their numerous variations. Throughout the book there are an abundance of notes, tips, and warnings to guide improving players, while key strategies, ideas, and tactics for both sides are clearly illustrated.
Customer Reviews:
Practical and excellent book........2006-08-23
The book is practical, clear and full of tips for 1600-2000 player. I don't know for players over this. I'm 1.700 and my friends, who read the book, are all in the 1600-2000 interval.
Good Intro to Important Defence against d4.......2006-02-05
Epitomizes the strengths, and weaknesses, of the Starting Out series. It serves as an excellent introduction to one of the most important defences to 1. d4. Players interested in using this system competitively would, of course, have to go deeper with the help of other works, such as Flear's own on the a6 Slav, currently the rage, or Silman and Donaldson's.
A good overview, but not much more.......2005-11-06
This is a good overview over almost all relevant variations in the Slav and Semi Slav (the quiet 7.... Nb6 in the Ne5-mainline seems to be missing, though). Each variation is explained very well, using one or two games from current tournament practice. You get some statistics plus a hint if a line needs a lot of theoretical knowledge or not. Beginners as well as strong players will benefit from these annotations. But the material presented is far too little to play the Slav or Semi Slav after studying it. This has of course nothing to do with the author, but with the concept of the "Starting Out" series. I think that you simply get too little material for your money, although Flear does an excellent job within these limitations.
Recommended for players under 2000 ELO or as a first overview if you plan to play (or face) these openings.
A practical and solid defense to 1 d4.......2005-09-23
If you are a chess player who is looking for a defence to 1 d4, consider the ideas in this book. The book is up-to-date, with plenty of annotated recent games as examples.
The book covers the lines resulting from 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6. Quite often, White continues with 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3. And, in this introductory book, Flear explains how to play either side of the major lines which follow:
4...dxc4 is the Slav.
4...e6 is the Semi-Slav
4...a6 is the Chameleon, a waiting move that is considered part of the Slav
In some cases, White plays 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e3. Black can now reply 4...g6, the Schlechter, which the author also has a chapter on.
But there is a line which I think is a nuisance for Black. White can simply play 3 cxd5, the Exchange Variation. Black has to recapture, and the game becomes relatively easy for White. As the book shows, Black is not in serious trouble in this line, but I certainly would rather have White.
There is a way, however, to pretty much avoid the Exchange Variation. As Flear shows, Black can play the Triangle. That's the move order I recommend. Black plays 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6. After 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 c6, Black is playing a Semi-Slav and has avoided the Exchange Variation. White can still take the pawn on move 3, but it isn't as good a line.
Most likely, White will play 3 Nc3. Now, Black plays 3...c6, blocking her Queen Bishop even more. This is the characteristic position of the Triangle. White's main choices are:
4 e3, after which Black has a choice: play 4...Nf6 and get to a Semi-Slav in which White's most dangerous move, Bg5, has been avoided. Or play 4...f5, transposing to a very playable version of the Dutch Stonewall (although White can still play 5 g4).
4 Nf3, after which Black can play 4...Nf6 and get into a Semi-Slav in which White does indeed have the option of playing 5 Bg5. Or play dxc4, the Noteboom, which is wild but okay for Black.
4 e4, the dangerous Marshall Gambit. This typically goes: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 c6 4 e4 dxe4 5 Nxe4 Bb4 6 Bd2 Qxd4 7 Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8 Be2. White's idea is to allow 8...Qxg2, answering with 9 Qd6 Nd7 10 0-0-0 and an extremely dangerous attack. So Black tends to play 8...Na6. If you are going to play this line in tournaments, I think you'll need to study more than just this introductory book, however.
Of course, that is not all Black has to learn. As I said, there is that variation where White plays 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 (you do not want to play 3...c6 here, after which White has too many good options) 4 Nc3 e6. This is the Semi-Slav, which the book spends over 100 pages on. White generally plays:
5 Bg5. This gives Black the choice of playing what Flear recommends, 5...dxc4 (the Botvinnik variation). Or trying the move I use, 5...h6 (the Moscow variation). Both require some work to learn, and Flear teaches us quite a bit about both moves.
5 e3, which leads either to the Meran variation or some Meran-avoiding sideline. The Meran variation the book recommends for Black is 5 e3 Nbd7 6 Bd3 dxc4 7 Bxc4 b5 8 Bd3 Bb7, a popular line which I've used for many years.
This book is useful and easy to read. I recommend it.
Slav Semi Slav Battle Manual.......2005-09-19
The first half of this book deals with the Slav. Roughly 119 pages, and 39 games. The second half of the book deals with the Semi-Slav Botvinnik, Moscow, Meran, Anti-Meran at roughly 126 pages and 52 games. I like the way that this book is written explaining the strategic ideas behind each variation. Also another nice thing about the book is the author recommends his favorite lines and the percentage statistics for white and black. This is nice to know but at the 1700-1800 level it is not very important. At the end of the book are a few quizzes where a position from a slav or semi slav is given, from games that were discussed in the book and you are supposed to guess the move. This is a good memory test to see if you remember the position and what to do in it. I wish there were other problems the author added that were originial given with analysis so that it was not just a pure memory test. This book is a must read for any one who plays queen pawn openings as the slav and semi-slav and the positions explained in this book occur in many openings and it is nice to know the strategic ideas. It was a good buy, and I hope to see more books on the subject from the author. The author has also written several other books on the slav, but in this book he has explained it to the masses.
Customer Reviews:
Not for Wimps.......2006-12-27
This dense brick of a book starts with a warning to the unwary - an (untranslated) Latin dedication. It was written by a Czech priest who eventually became a Harvard professor of Byzantine history. He informs readers that this book enlarges upon a Harvard course on Slavic history from the 13th to the 17th centuries. So brace yourself.
The reader must be motivated for this erudite sweep of an extremely complex history - successive waves, not just of Germans and Hapsburgs and Angevins, popes and antipopes, but also Mongols and Ottoman Turks. I read the book in preparation for a vacation in Prague, with a road trip across the Czech Republic to Auschwitz. As I breathed in the choking, acrid air of modern Silesia, I could reflect that this battered land had been Bohemian, Hungarian, Prussian, and Polish.
I had to make liberal use of the internet, since, for example, Prof. Dvornik rather assumes his readers know what the Bogomil heresy is. (To my relief, other very interesting heresies are given explanations in the text.)
Not surprisingly, the author is at his best in describing religious history in a political and economic context, including the rise of Jan Hus at the University of Prague in the 15th century, the Hussite wars and the stubborn resistance of the papacy to moderate demands for reform of very real abuses. In response, for instance, the Hungarians preferred to direct a crusade against the Hussites, rather than the Turks, opening the way to the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Poland-Luthuania was hospitable to the later Protestants, with the flowering of many competing doctrines. It is surprising to read of this grudging tolerance (at the time, of course, the Protestants were more than happy to burn adherents of competing Protestant sects) in light of Poland's later complete reversion to uncompromising Catholicism. Prof. Dvornik points out, though, that the reconquering Jesuits had to shrewdly adopt some of the most attractive facets of Protestantism, including reforms in education, literature in the vernacular, introduction of baroque art and
architecture.
The Russians, on the other hand, quarantined Westerners and zealously protected Orthodoxy from heretical Protestantism. "The tsar's attitude toward the new teachings in best illustrated by an incident which happened in 1563 in Polock. On conquering the city, Ivan [IV, the Terrible] ordered the arrest of the preacher Thomas and, after beating him with his stick, ordered him to be drowned in the icy waters of the Dvina." Any attempt at correcting copyists' errors in the liturgy, moreover, was met by opposition of the eschatological Old Believers, who conflated religion with magic and consequently believed that the liturgy would lose its power if changed at all, and protested by mass suicide. Even by the standards of the time, Moscow was seen by Western travelers of the 16th and 17th centuries as a wretched cesspool of alcoholism and ignorance. Reading the Russian history in the book, I realized how impossible it will ever be for me to understand these fascinating people.
This is a dated book (1960), with a myriad of footnotes to obscure monographs. However, it marvelously depicts the roiling events of medieval and early modern east Europe as a whole, rather than focusing on just one or a few of the slavic nations.
Useful for the serious history enthusiast.......2003-01-02
A useful resource for the serious history enthusiast. Dvornik discusses the East, West and South Slavs from the sixth to the 19th centuries. The casual reader will find this book too detailed and densely written to be enjoyable.
Average customer rating:
- Independent studies in correlation
- Bravo!
- Curta, The Making of the Slavs
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The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500700 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)
Florin Curta
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Book Description
This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic ethnicity in southeastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700. The author shows how Byzantine authors "invented" the Slavs, in order to make sense of political and military developments taking place in the Balkans. Making extensive use of archaeology to show that such developments resulted in the rise of powerful leaders, responsible for creating group identities and mobilizing warriors for successful raids across the frontier. The author rejects the idea of Slavic migration, and shows that "the Slavs" were the product of the frontier.
Download Description
This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic ethnicity in south-eastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700, from the perspective of current anthropological theories. The conceptual emphasis here is on the relation between material culture and ethnicity. The author demonstrates that the history of the Sclavenes and the Antes begins only at around 500 AD. He also points to the significance of the archaeological evidence, which suggests that specific artifacts may have been used as identity markers. This evidence also indicates the role of local leaders in building group boundaries and in leading successful raids across the Danube. Because of these military and political developments, Byzantine authors began employing names such as Sclavines and Antes in order to make sense of the process of group identification that was taking place north of the Danube frontier. Slavic ethnicity is therefore shown to be a Byzantine invention.
Customer Reviews:
Independent studies in correlation.......2004-01-13
Since both reviewers before me made a detailed review, I would like to interpret the content of this scientificaly very well supported scholar work in a larger context. First of all, I would like to inform/remind future readers that the concept of "Slavic migrations" is a residue of the 19-th century scholarship whose conclusions were "firmly based" on the scarcity of the archaeological material and the "prima facie" interpretation of the mediveal Byzantine texts. Curta uses: much more material artefacts, his common sense and analytical approach to the written material. Consequently, it is no surprise that he comes to the conclusion that there was no "arrival of the Slavs" and there were no "massive Slavic migrations" on the Balkans in the early middle ages. The reader will find it difficult to draw a different conclusion on the basis of the presented evidence in the book.
However, the conclusions of Dr. Curta concerning the Slavic ethnogenesis are supported by at least two more independent streams of scholar work.
The first one comes in a form of recent breakthroughs in the field of genetics. The analyses of genetic founder linages on the populations in the Balkans (and eastern Europe) showed that only 10% of the extant mt DNA genetic pool (maternal ancestry)is of recent date (recent = starting from Metal ages onwards). The rest (90%)of the lineages are from Paleo-Mezo-Neolithic migrations that ceased some 5000 -6000 years before present. Similar results were found for the Y-chromosome lineages (paternal ancestry).
The second stream of scholar work that discards the idea of massive Slavic migrations in the early middle ages is the Theory of continuity of professor Mario Alinei. This theory (which is strongly corroborated by the above mentioned genetic findings)claims that the populations and languages in Europe are more or less geographically autohtonous. On several places in his two volume study ( Il Mulino editions 1996 & 2000) he points out that the idea of recent Slavic migrations is inconsistent and unsupported either by archaeological or linguistic evidence.
(I hope that this extremly important and up to date study will be published in English soon).
Those strong correlations between Curta's and Alinei's evidence and conclusions, on the one side, and the genetic evidence on the other, make a really strong case against the concept of Slavic migrations and offers a much more supported model of the prehistory and history of Balkans.
Seen in this larger context, the content of Dr. Curta's book represents a basic component of the new paradigm that emerges in the scholar work.
We cordially hope that time has come to make significant changes in the elementary school and high school history textbooks which are still based on the interpretations of the 19-th century scholar work.
Bravo!.......2003-05-06
This is a superb work of scholarship, putting to shame most histories of the Balkans which deal with this time period (e.g., Fine's). Curta smashes modern notions of the Slavic migrations derived mostly through (Byzantine) Roman sources, most of which are purely second hand accounts.
Curta begins with a history of the current thought on the Slavic migrations, influenced primarily by 19th century prejudices and Soviet Union "scholarship" emphasising the reigning hegemony there. He then goes on to offer a critical reading of texts, first those contemporaneous to the period under review, then the centuries immediately following. What's so important is that these readings are truly critical, as opposed to accepting or dismisive: how do these people know what they are writing? All of these texts have value, the argument goes, but they all have different value. What do these texts tell us about their authors?
Curta then reviews the archaeological evidence for the Byzantine-Roman fortifications built along the Danube. He finds Procopius' reports of these forts to be very accurate, but notes a significant absense of evidence that many were destroyed by violence; most were abandonded (and wait until you read his arguments about the coin hordes, a nerd's delight!).
Then Curta reveals the evidence for an actual Slavic culture north of the Danube. What he finds, using distributions of sites and artifacts, correspondence analyses, and cluster analyses, is a complex, well-organized and far-ranging system for the distribution of goods. His tentative conclusion is that this notion of Slav is one, while perhaps taken from a tribe somewhere along the northern border, that is projected onto a heterogeneous group of individuals that have long-ranging relationships from just east of Bavaria to east of Crimea to the Baltic seas! In short, there was no migration as such, they were always there, but had not yet formed this group identity they were given. (He does not deny raids into Byzantine-Roman territory, but who didn't raid their territory?)
What I didn't like: Curta has quite a beef with linguists and tars the entire field in his introduction. Linguists, he claims, have used spurious analyses of the Slavic lexicon to invent a purely fictional Slavic Urheimat (roughly, homeland/place of origin). While this might be true, this sort of folk etymology has little place in modern linguistics. Worse, Curta implies that he doesn't believe that Slavic languages are part of the Indo-European family! Anyone who knows a little of a Slavic language will recognize this as fantasy... Curta doesn't bother to justify his claim. It's hard to know how he would answer for this, particularly given that he doesn't seem especially up to date in linguistics.
But that's not the thrust of the book. The evidence is placed in the archaeology and a truly critical reading of the contemporaneous texts. This is a well substantiated iconoclasm that should be read by every student of European history.
Curta, The Making of the Slavs.......2002-03-08
The main purpose of this volume is "to explore the nature and construction of the Slavic ethnic identity in the light of the current anthropological research on ethnicity". The author proposes an innovative vision about the archaeological evidence, considering that the ethnic boundaries were marked by items of material culture (features of an "emblemic style" used by an ethnic group in order to be different). The `ethnie' results from the interaction of groups with different emblemic styles. Significant changes in the material culture can thus show what Curta calls "the making of the Slavs": the emergence of a new ethnie. This approach is completely new from all what was written before about the Slavic ethnogenesis.
The sources about the early Slavs are classified in three categories according to the position of their authors: eyewitness, possible contact and second-hand information. The interest of the Byzantine writers was focused on the Slavs only in some periods when they were a real danger. The sources are showing that the inroads occurred when the Danubian limes was weak because the Byzantine army was involved in other wars. A major change took place in the Slavic society around 550-560: the anarchy recorded by Procopius was replaced by war operations commanded by several chiefs whose names were preserved in the further sources. The Byzantine answer to the Slavic threat was the building of three defence lines inside the eastern Balkan provinces. The migration of the Slavs south of the Danube can be dated only since the first years of Heraclius. Only after their settlement, the Byzantine sources recorded several real tribal names, replacing the Byzantine ethnic label that was the generic name Sclavenoi.
Curta examines the Byzantine Balkan region, in order to explain how the classical urbanized society turned into a ruralized one in the period of the Slavic invasions. After a detailed archaeological overview of the main cities in the Balkan provinces, the author concludes that the economic decline occurred because they were not supplied with food from the hinterland. The fortified network established by Justinian fell because the state was not able to support the permanent garrisons of the limes with the central distribution of grain; in the same time, the few number of peasants made impossible a defence based on their service. The withdraw of the Balkan troops in the early years of Heraclius was the natural result of the interruption of the annona taken from Egypt. Therefore, the economic decline and the withdraw of the army from the Danube were not caused by the Slavic invasions; both had internal reasons, remarkably emphasized by Curta.
Objects like amber beads, bow fibulae or pots with stamped decoration are items of two well-defined `emblemic styles' developed by the Gepids and the Lombards. The ethnic identity was constructed on the basis of different types of imported objects with symbolic value bore by elite people (especially by women). The spreading of these objects in different areas matches with the territories inhabited by the Gepids and the Lombards. Aristocratic women, with their garnment, played the main role in the establishment and the transmission of the emblemic style and, as a consequence, of the ethnic identity (they were "symbolic vehicles for the construction of social identities"). The need to emphasize the emblemic style increased in periods of instability and competition between neighboring groups. In this way, Curta finally comes to the making of the early Slavic emblemic style. Like the Gepids or Lombards, the Slavs used specific types of pottery and bow fibulae to construct an emblemic style. This does not means that such objects were genuine Slavic products. Curta argues that the earliest specimens of the so-called "bow fibulae" were found in Mazuria and in Crimea. Their diffusion does not show migrations, but another kind of mobility: "gifts or women married to distant groups in forging alliances" and their function was to express a kind of heraldry displayed on the female dressing. The bow fibulae became a part of the Slavic emblemic style shortly before 600, in the same time with a wider change in the material culture which took place during the climax of the raiding activity of the Slavic rulers.
The individual houses were settled according to a pattern that implied specialized sectors for production or for ceremonies involving food consumption. Food was prepared in ceramic pots, whose shape was determined only by practical reasons. Curta points that the pottery shapes "should be interpreted in relation to food preparation, not to emblemic style". Hundreds of hand-made and wheel-made ceramic vessels belong to the same set of shapes. The pots from the sites ascribed to the Slavs have similar shapes with pieces from Gepidic cemeteries and from Danubian early Byzantine fortresses. If so, the `Prague type', which was defined as the genuine Slavic pottery, is an artificial construct of the archaeologists.
The Lower Danubian settlements are earlier than those from the Zhitomir area (the chronology was established with the aid of the metallic objects, including coins). This contradicts the usual theory of the Slavic migration. In this way, Curta comes to one of his main conclusions: "it appears that instead of a `Slavic culture' originating in a homeland and then spreading to surrounding areas, we should envisage a much broader area of common economic and cultural traditions". This means that large migrations should be replaced with short-distance movements caused by the itinerant agriculture. The population from this wide area became Slavic because acquired an identity during the second half of the 6th century. This identity was expressed through a specific emblemic style defined by bow-fibulae and pottery decorated with finger impressions.
The final chapter deals with the political organization of the early Slavs. Curta applies the anthropological theories on chiefdom, distinguishing between great-men (warriors), big-men (rich men with authority inside their community), and chiefs (rulers of organized polities with control over a group of subjects). The Slavs evolved during the 6th century from a "segmentary society" (lack of hierarchy) to a society ruled by chiefs who fought between them. The emergence of the political organization was the result of the contacts with the Byzantine state. By this military elite the Slavs came into being as a new ethnicity.
The book written by Florin Curta will be a turning point both for the Byzantine and the Slavic studies.
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The Slavs (Ancient Peoples and Places, Vol. 74)
Marija Gimbutas
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0500020728 |
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The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
Serhii Plokhy
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0521864038 |
Book Description
The latest developments in the countries of eastern Europe, including the rise of authoritarian tendencies in Russia and Belarus, as well as the victory of the democratic ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine, pose important questions about the origins of the East Slavic nations and the essential similarities or differences between their cultures. This book traces the origins of the modern Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nations by focusing on premodern forms of group identity among the Eastern Slavs. It also challenges attempts to ‘nationalize’ the Rus' past on behalf of existing national projects, laying the groundwork for a new understanding of the premodern history of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The book covers the period from the Christianization of Kyivan Rus' in the tenth century to the reign of Peter I and his eighteenth-century successors, by which time the idea of nationalism had begun to influence the thinking of East Slavic elites.
Customer Reviews:
Great introduction of the Ancient Slavs.......2007-04-20
"The Early Slavs" by P.M. Barford is probably the best non-fiction book about Ancient Slavs that I've ever read. It is, in reality, very complicated to discover who these Ancient Slavic peoples were, since there are sparse archaeological evidence and minimal historical accounts. Barford, despite the sparse evidence and accounts, fully details the "Pagan Ideologies" and the "Daily Life" and the "State Formation" of what is now Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and (even) Germany. However, there is a downside to this book: this reads like a bloated textbook and much of the vocabulary is sophisticated (a dictionary must be useful). This is nonetheless a great introduction of the Ancient Slavs. A-
The 1st book those interested in the early Slavs should buy.......2003-02-14
P. M. Barford is a British scholar residing in Poland. With this book he has made a valuable contribution by providing an easy to read, and best of all OBJECTIVE overview of this often controversial subject area.
I say controversial because as any student of Eastern Europe knows, the history of the region has always been fraught with vastly differing interpretations based on rival and competing nationalisms, and no area moreso than the fragmentary early history.
The author tackles this issue head-on, tracing the course of various nationalist contructions of early Slavic history in response to certain political imperatives, such as the post-WWII refutation of Nazi German claims to East European territory, or Soviet government desires to minimize and divert attention away from differences among peoples in order to facilitate the formation of one "Soviet people". He also carries this healthy skepticism even further, by constantly questioning the perspectives and motivation for writing of all of the existing early written sources he discusses, and even applying it to the newest scholarship which has begun to appear in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.
The book begins with a preface and introduction as well as a very convenient time-line chart of East-, West- and South-Slavic history. The body of the book consists of 13 chapters. The first four cover the early history divided into several phases. Chapters 5-10 respectively focus on daily life of the early Slavs, their social structure, warfare, economics, paganism, and the coming of Christianity. Chapters 11-12 deal with state formation and the final chapter deals with the image of the Slavs from a historiographic perspective.
This is then followed by 30 pages of extensive notes to the preceding chapters, a select bibliography (which I would have preferred to be a bit more thoroughgoing), and best of all 80 pages of illustrations and maps. The 12 maps included here I found especially wonderful!
My only tiny complaints would be the rendering of certain East- or South-Slavic names in Polish style, which may be confusing to some readers, and the very occasional echoing of a distinctly Polish perspective on certain issues (which I had actually gone into the book expecting to be far stronger given the author's immersion in the Polish academic milieu). But neither of these are significant enough to mar my 5-star rating of this book.
I am happy to recommend this book as a concise, comprehensive and up to date introduction to this subject area.
The Early Slavs: a wealth of hard-to-get information.......2002-06-27
This is a scholarly book by an archaeologist/historian living in Poland. 12 main maps, plus some more maps among the 72 illustrations, most of which are clear line drawings, not photos. The most important characteristic of this book is that it summarizes in English a wealth of information otherwise available only in Slavic languages. (Most of the 38 pages of notes and references cite Slavic language sources.) A very enlightening examination of who the Slavs are and where they might have come from. Of limited use in genealogy, since the main story here ends in about the 11th Century. Tiny print is hard on the eyes.
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The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus
Pavel M. Dolukhanov
Manufacturer: Longman Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0582236185 |
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