Sarakatsani
 Sarakatsani children in Kotel, Bulgaria. |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| unknown | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Greece | 80,000 (1950s est.) |
| Bulgaria | 2,556 (2011) – 25,000 (est.) |
| Republic of Macedonia | 500 – 1,500 (est.) |
| Languages | |
| Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Greek Orthodoxy | |
The Sarakatsani (Greek: Σαρακατσάνοι) are an ethnic Greek population subgroup, who were traditionally transhumant shepherds, native to Greece, with smaller presence in neighbouring Bulgaria, southern Albania and Republic of Macedonia. Historically centered on the Pindus mountains and other mountain ranges of continental Greece, the vast majority of the Sarakatsani have currently abandoned the transhumant way of life and have been urbanised to a significant degree.
There have been various theories about the origin of the name "Sarakatsani." The most widely accepted is that it comes from the Turkish word karakaçan (from kara = 'black' and kaçan = 'fugitive'), used by the Ottomans in reference to those people who dressed in black and fled to the mountains during the Ottoman occupation of Greece. According to another theory, the name derives from the village of Sakaretsi, the supposed homeland of the Sarakatsani.
Despite the silence of the classical and medieval writers, scholars argue that the Sarakatsani are a Greek people, possibly descended from pre-classical indigenous pastoralists, citing linguistic evidence and certain aspects of their traditional culture and socioeconomic organization. A popular theory, based on linguistics and material culture, suggests that the Sarakatsani are descended from the Dorians, who were isolated for centuries in the mountains. Their origins have been the subject of broad and permanent interest, resulting in several fieldwork studies by anthropologists among the Sarakatsani.
Many of the 19th century descriptions of the Sarakatsani do not differentiate them from the other great shepherd people of Greece, the Vlachs, a Romance-speaking population. In many instances the Sarakatsani were identified as Vlachs. Aravantinos discusses how another group, the Arvanitovlachs, were erroneously called Sarakatsani, although the latter were clearly of Greek origin, increasing the differences between the two groups and stating that the Arvanitovlachs were actually yet another group, the Garagounides or Korakounides. The Sarakatsani have also been referred to as Roumeliotes or Moraites, names based on where they lived. Otto, the first king of modern Greece, was well-known to be a great admirer of the Sarakatsani, and is said to have fathered an illegitimate child early in his reign with a woman from a Sarakatsani clan named Tangas.
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Wikipedia