Sarakatsani

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The Sarakatsani are a group of Greek (and Greek-speaking) transhumant shepherds, mainly located in the Pindos Mountains.

Under the Ottoman Empire, the Sarakatsani were a relatively independent people and became wealthy through sheep herding and trade in meat (lamb and mutton) and wool. The Sarakatsani traditionally spent the summer months in the mountains and returned to the lower plains in the winter. The migration would start on the eve of Saint George's Day in April and the return migration would start on Saint Demetrius' Day, October 26th. Some went even as far as the Rhodope Mountains, in what is today Bulgaria, and returned south to Greece for the winter. After 1947, certain groups of Sarakatsani were not allowed to leave Bulgaria and enter Greece. They were subsequently settled in Bulgaria and some became partly Bulgarized. In Bulgaria, these Sarakatsani are known as Karakachans while in Romania they are called [Saracaciani].

The Sarakatsani speak an archaic Greek dialect and are Eastern Orthodox Christians. Etymologically, their name is probably derived from the Turkish word karakaçan/kırkaçan ' meaning 'those who flee to uncultivated lands' or perhaps from the Aromanian word sarac-tsani meaning 'poorman'.Babiniotis = Γεώργιος Δ. Μπαμπινιώτης, Λεξικό της νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας (Dictionary of the modern Greek language), Athens, 1998. Having abandoned their nomadic way of life, today they are firmly anchored in modern Greek life. Much of their traditional garb, songs, traditions and folklore have become integral parts of the overall Greek heritage.

Contents

1 History
2 20th century accounts
3 Summary of theories
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

History

Many authors have speculated on the origins of the Sarakatsani.

In Monograph on Koutsovlachs (Μονογραφία περι Κουτσόβλαχων, 1865, reprinted in 1905), an Epirotian Greek named Aravantinos discussed how the Arvanitovlachs were erroneously called Sarakatsani although the latter were of clearly Greek origin ("Τοιούτους Αρβανιτόβλαχους φερεωίκους ποιμενόβιους ολίγιστους απαντώμεν εν Θεσσαλία και Μακεδονία, Σαρακατσάνους καλουμένους καταχρηστίκους διοτι οι Σαρακατσάνοι ορμόνται εξελλήνων και αυτόχρημα Έλληνες εισι").

In Aravantinos' Chronography (Χρονογραφία), he elaborates more on the Sarakatsani and discusses about the "existence" of the Sarakatsani along with other actual existing groups like the Pestanianoi and the Vlachs. He also states that the Arvanitovlachs were called Garagounides or Korakounides thus increasing the differences between Arvanitovlachs and Sarakatsani, who according t one theory originated in the Greek village of Saraketsi ("Σαρακατσιάνοι ή Σακαρετσάνοι έχοντες την καταγωγή εκ Σαρακέτσιου ... Οι Σαρακατσάνοι, οι Πεστανιάνοι, και οι Βλάχοι οι εκ του Σύρρακου εκπατρίσθεντες, οιτίνες και ολιγότερων των άλλων σκηνιτών βαρβαριζούσι. Διάφοροι δε των τριών είσιν οι Αρβανιτόβλαχοι λεγόμενοι Γκαραγκούνιδες ή Κορακούνιδες").

The people known today as the Sarakatsani were referred to as Roumeliotes by authors such as Georges Kavadias even though the Sarakatsani did not use that name themselves. Based on an account by Fotakos, the people currently known today as the Sarakatsani referred to themselves as Moraites when they migrated to Thessaly after the Greek Revolution.

20th century accounts

Many 20th century scholars have studied the linguistic, cultural, and racial background of the Sarakatsani.

The Danish scholar Carsten Hoeg travelled twice to Greece between 1920 and 1925. There, he visited the Sarakatsani in Epirus and began studying their dialect and narrations. Hoeg published his findings in 1926 in his book entitled The Sarakatsani. In his work, Hoeg stated that there are no traces of foreign elements in the Sarakatsani dialect. These foreign linguistic elements are neither found phonetically nor are they found in the overall grammatical structure of the dialect. Hoeg was criticised by Georges Kavadias for exaggerating the link between the 20th century Sarakatsani populace and the ancient Greeks.

In terms of racial origins, the English researcher, J. K. Campbell (1964), stated that the Sarakatsani are more or less an unchanged populace. He found that the Sarakatsani were a very endogamic populace and considers them to be an isolate group. E. Makris (1990) considers the Sarakatsani to be a pre-Neolithic people. Yet they are not mentioned under the name of Sarakatsani until the end of the 18th century.

In 1987, the London based scholar John Nandris, who observed the Sarakatsani "on the ground" continuously since the 1950s, summarizes his account of this tribe by inserting them in a more complex context of nomadic people interacting with one another. Interestingly, he alludes to the Yoruk or "Yuruk" connection though he is keen not to jump to any definitive conclusion. Writes John Nandris: "A Turkic tribe of nomads, the Yuruks, moved about in Macedonia and Thrace following the Turkish occupation, and could be met in the Rhodope even up to the end of the 19th century".

According to their own traditions, many Saracatsans, even those now living in Bulgaria, trace their origins back to the region of Agrafa in the mountains of Pindos in Thessaly. Many of their folksongs metion the region and suggest that they originated, or at least, were settled for some time, in that area.

During the 20th century and up to the present day, Romanian and pro-Romanian Vlach and Aromanian scholars have tried to prove the supposed common origin of Sarakatsani and Vlachs. These attempts were based mainly on speculations, over- generalisations, vague assumptions and the similar nomadic way of life of the two groups, as well as on assertions that the Sarakatsani simply gave up their supposed former language during the 18th century in favour of assimilation into a Greek-speaking environment. Something like that would suppose the impossible fact that a secluded, endogamic society in the multicultural world of the Ottoman Empire abandoned its language for no obvious reason at all, then translated all of its verbal tradition into Greek and created within a few generatons a separate Greek dialect, adorned with an anchient Greek vocabulary. A possible reason for the creation of this theory was the political need to present a larger minority of Vlachs living in Greece than acutally existing by "adding up" other nomadic tribes to them.

The Sarakatsani speak a clearly northern Greek dialect with no major influx of Latin words than that of other Greeks of the region. Moreover, they have retained in their language several ancient Greek words not found in other Greek dialects of the region. Since they lived a reclusive and nomadic life in the mountains and mostly intermarried it seems impossible that they did not retain their original language (while Vlachs did). Their traditions, as manifested in their songs, proverbs, dress, customs and way of life are different to that of Vlachs. Moreover, the Vlachs themselves traditionally regarded the Sarakatsani as a distinct ethnic group and called them "Grek" (i.e. Greeks) and even today officially deny having any relation to the Sarakatsani. A rivalry often existed between the two groups as to who would have use of the pastures (both were shepherd people). And, to add to the whole, the Sarakatsani themselves (both in Greece and in Bulgaria) have always stressed their Greek identity and denied having any relationship with the Vlachs.

There were groups of Sarakatsani in Hoeg's time with no fixed villages, whether in summertime or in winter. Hoeg also found the Sarakatsani in other parts of Greece, in the Pindos Mountains, Thessaly, Macedonia, Pelagonia, Serbia, Rhodope, as well as in Thrace, on the Vermion, and around Lake Copais in Boeotia. Hoeg attempted to find nomadism in Classical Greece as an equation for that of the Sarakatsani. Beuermann rejects Hoeg's rationalizations of these facts, which is relevant to the claim frequently put forward that the Sarakatsani are the 'purest of the Ancient Greek' population. There appears to be no mention of 'Sarakatsani' previous to the 18th century.

The travel writer Sarah Wheeler in her book An Island Apart traces scions of the Sarakatsani in Euboea. They can also be found in the island of Poros. She writes: "I was fascinated by this elusive, aloof transhumant tribe with beguilingly mysterious origin. They fanned out all over the Balkans and have most closely associated with the Pindus and the Rodopi mountains in the northern mainland: in the fifties there were about 80.000 of them. They spent half of the year in their mountain pastures and the other half in their lowlands. Their rootlesness was balanced by an elaborate ritualization of almost every aspect of their lives, from costume to the moral code. Evia was the only island used by the Sarakatsani except Poros which was the furthest south they ever got (and perhaps Aegina too). In Evia they were, until this century, only found in the chunk of the island from the Chalkis-Kimi axis northwards about as far an Ayianna, and the cluster of villages around Skiloyanni constituted the most heavily settled Sarakatsani region on the island. There were 50 Sarakatsani families living on Mount Kandili, working as resin-gatherers encased in layers of elaborate costume. Photographs taken only few decades ago of Sarakatsani women in traditional costume sitting outside their wigwam-shaped branch woven huts. Many of them had quite an un-Greek looks, and were fair; perhaps that explains the blond heads you see now. The Sarkatsanoi were known by various names by the indigenous population, usually based on where they were perceived to have come from, and in Evia they were generally called Roumi, Romi or Roumeliotes after the Roumeli region. People often spoke of them misleadingly as Vlachs. They are settled now, mainly as farmers, with their own permanent pasture land. Their story is one of total assimilation."

Summary of theories

The anthropologist Georges Kavadias summarizes some of the theories about the Sarakatsani in Pasteurs-Nomades Mediterraneens: Les Saracatsans de Grece as follows:

The Sarakatsani are the lineal descendants of the Dorian tribes who lived in what is today Greece over three thousand years ago. This theory is endorsed by Greek historians and by Western European scholars.
They are an indigenous nomadic people dating back to the neolithic and therefore pre-hellenic times.
They are a branch of the nomadic Vlachs who became Hellenized. The Sarakatsani have similar socio-political patterns of organizing themselves as the Vlachs. Each socio-political unit was called a celnicat, in which each unit was lead by a leader known as a celnic (in Vlach) or tselingas (in Greek). The word celnic/tselingas is of Slavic origin meaning 'forehead'. This theory is endorsed by Romanian propaganda and Romanians of Vlach descent scholars such as Nicolaie Iorga, Tache Papahagi and Theodor Capidan, as well by the Austro-Hungarian scholar Lajos von Thalocy (see Aromanians).
They are a Christianized branch of the nomadic shepherd tribe of the Yoruk (or Yuruk) Turcomans (according to the French sociologist Arnold van Gennep, a scholar to whom we owe the term rite of passage).

References

External links