To my knowledge, the Mari people were able to maintain their native faith in a relatively unbroken form through to the present day, despite pressures from Christianity. Can anyone tell me what their religious situation was like during the early-modern period (1500-1750)? Also, were there any other European groups during this period that still maintained their indigenous religions without having been assimilated into the Abrahamic faiths? I am not sure, for instance, what the religious situation of the Sami, Komi, or Udmurt was during the early-modern period?
Indigenous religions in Early-Modern Europe
- Thread starter narikis
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Joined Aug 2013
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Lorraine tudesque
Yes, I know what they are, but I'm wondering to which people he's referring. The Mari are Finno-Ugric, but I already mentioned them. What other Finno-Ugric people were still following their indigenous religions during the early-modern period?
Joined Aug 2013
4,921 Posts | 629+
Lorraine tudesque
I don't know much about their history, could you share some details? Had there been attempts to Christianise them in the runup to this period, or had they mostly been left alone? How did the religious situation carry on for them through the early-modern period?
I hadn't realised that Christianity reached them so late, thank you. So prior to 1750 there would have been no real Christian influence on their society?
In what sense? I thought the French would have been too heavily Christianised by that point.
Joined Aug 2013
4,921 Posts | 629+
Lorraine tudesque
Influence certainly. Before people move to an other faith there is always a time inbetween.
Syncretism - Wikipedia
Joined Aug 2013
4,921 Posts | 629+
Lorraine tudesque
Influence certainly. Before people move to an other faith there is always a time inbetween.
Syncretism - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Yes, I know what syncretism is. In the Baltic region during the early-modern period you could find peasants mixing "pagan" practices with Christianity. But as I said in the opening post, what I'm looking for are examples of people that had maintained their native faiths without being assimilated into Abrahamic religions, in other words practicing their native beliefs without strong outside influence.
I may be wrong, but from what I have read there was a proportion of the Mari at the start of the early-modern period that still managed to keep their indigenous faith relatively intact, before coming under Christian pressure during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Even then, it seems some Mari were resisting Christianisation attempts. I was curious to learn more about them during this period, or any similar groups that had managed to maintain their native beliefs independent of Abrahamic pressure.
Joined Aug 2013
4,921 Posts | 629+
Lorraine tudesque
Well the Sami certainly did.
www.cuyamungueinstitute.com
Finns and the Saami— Rich shamanic traditions. - Ecstatic Trance: Ritual Body Postures
by Leppä (Harold Alden) From prehistoric times in Finland there were two indigenous peoples—the Finns and the Saami—and both developed rich shamanic traditions. At the same time, the documentation regarding Finnish shamanism is fragmentary and the subject of various debates. This is much less...
www.cuyamungueinstitute.com
From what i've researched, indigenous non-Indo Europeanized ethnic groups in the extreme northern areas of Europe (Northern Scandinavia and Northern Russia) like Sami and some other Finno-Urgic people managed to keep indigenous customs and were not Christianized (or at least not as a whole).
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