Chapter XII TRIBES OF EUROPE BEFORE THE ROMAN CONQUEST 1. CELTS IN WESTERN EUROPE IN THE V-I CENTURIES. A number of important changes in the socio-economic system and culture of the Celtic tribes mark the transition from the early Iron Age - Hallstatt - to its second phase, which received

The largest peninsula of the Eurasian continent, Europe, has long been recognized as a special part of the world. The reason for the allocation is not at all geographical, because there are no such natural boundaries - a sea strait or a watershed - that would justify it. Etymologically, the name just means a geographical landmark: the Greek Europe (from the Assyrian Erebus) means “country of the west”, in this case the west of Eurasia. Only the great role of the peoples of the western peninsula of Eurasia in the world culture and history of the peoples of the Earth, the enormous influence of the civilization created by the centuries-old work of the Roman, Germanic and Slavic peoples of Europe on the development of all humanity lies at the basis of the recognition of Europe as a part of the world.

The landmass of Europe changed its shape more than once, but was always characterized by a highly indented sea coast and great accessibility for settlement both from the coast and by land from Asia. Three quarters of the European landmass, with 9/4 of its current population and economic potential, are located no further than 300 km from the sea. The deepest areas are only 600 km away from the sea and are almost everywhere connected to the sea by navigable rivers.

Within the borders of Europe proper, many divisions have been adopted, based on modern or past socio-economic, ethnic, geographical, anthropological and confessional criteria.

So, when they talk about different social systems - capitalist and socialist - in modern Europe, it is customary to divide it into Western and Eastern - along the eastern border of Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy and the northern border of Greece and Turkey. In the Soviet Union there is also the concept of Foreign Europe. It includes all European countries in addition to the European part of the USSR itself.

For the 1st millennium BC. e. the ethnic concept of “Celtic Europe” was adopted, spreading to most of Foreign Europe, and from the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. up to the 20th century. dynamic ethnic concepts - Romance-speaking, German-speaking, Slavic-speaking parts of Europe. The names “blonde”, “brown-haired”, “brunet”, which refer to the indigenous population of Europe and characterize the degree of pigmentation of their hair, contain the most generalized definition of the inhabitants of this part of the world from north to south according to the anthropological groups of the Caucasian great race. According to the confessional criterion from the 3rd century. AD Christian Europe is often contrasted with pagan Europe, from the 14th century. - Muslim; Christian Europe itself has been divided into Catholic and Orthodox since the 16th century. - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Muslim.

Europe is the smallest part of the world after Australia. Its area together with the islands is 9.7 million square meters. km (7.1% of the world's land area). The territory of Foreign Europe is 5 million square meters. km, or 3.6% of the land area of ​​the whole world, population - 480.5 million people (1978), or 12% of all humanity, its average density is 96 people per 1 sq. km - significantly exceeds the average population density in any other part of the world or on average on the planet (27 people per 1 sq. km). In terms of economic development, Europe occupies one of the leading places in the world. It accounts for a third of global industrial production.

Ethnic characteristics. There are 58 peoples living in Foreign Europe. This number does not include representatives of almost fifty other peoples - immigrant minorities who found themselves in this part of the world after the Second World War as foreign, or “guest” workers and partly naturalized there.

96% of the population of Foreign Europe, occupying approximately the same part of its territory, speaks languages ​​of the Indo-European family. The most significant of this family, both in number of peoples and in total population, is the Germanic group. It consists of 17 nations and numbers 177.7 million people. The second largest Romanesque group. It includes 15 nations and has 177 million people. The Slavic group is represented in Foreign Europe by 11 peoples with a total population of 79 million people. The Celtic group is small (4 peoples) and unites 7.4 million people. The Indo-European family also includes gypsies (0.9 million). The Greek and Albanian groups are Greeks (9.5 million) and Albanians (4 million), respectively. Three peoples in Foreign Europe belong to the Finno-Ugric group (18 million people) of the Uralic language family: Finns in their own national state, as well as in Sweden (as the largest national minority there, constituting 2.5% of the country's population), Sami, or Lapps, in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as Hungarians (Magyars) in their own national state and as national minorities in those neighboring it. Two peoples of Overseas Europe are part of the Turkic group of the Altaic language family: the Turks within the European part of Turkey and as a national minority in Bulgaria, and the Gagauz in Bulgaria. The Semitic group of the Semitic-Hamitic family is represented in Foreign Europe by the small population of the island of Malta. A special language that is not part of any language family is spoken by the Basques, a people inhabiting the northwestern part of the Pyrenees Mountains.

Anthropological composition. Back in the 17th century. The anthropological uniqueness of the peoples of Europe was classified by Francois Bernier into one common Caucasoid racial type for the peoples of Western Asia and North Africa. In all subsequent classifications, anthropologists distinguish this type as one of the three or four great human races of the Earth called Caucasian, Caucasian, or white, in contrast to Negroid, Mongoloid and Australoid.

From the end of the 19th century. Several detailed schemes of large races appeared, in particular the Caucasoid large race, taking into account pigmentation and geographical variations of individual characteristics. Noted here and there in Southern Europe, especially in the south of France, some Negroid features are a consequence of the fact that the “Euro-African type” was a stage of development common to both Negroids and Caucasians proper. The Sami, or Lapps, occupy a peculiar position among Caucasians. These northern Caucasians are distinguished by dark pigmentation, the shortest stature in this part of the world, a wide face, a round head, deep-set eyes and a concave profile of the bridge of the nose. The complex of these characteristics, together with some Mongoloidity, characterizes the lopanoid type.

Greeks. The reliable beginning of this ethnic group on the lands of modern Greece is the oldest in Europe. Cretan-Mycenaean texts, as proven by the latest research, belonged to one of the ancestors of the Greeks - the Achaeans and dated back to 3-2 millennia BC. e. The period of rapid economic and cultural development of the ancient Greeks was the 8th - 5th centuries. BC e. It was then that crafts, trade flourished and the so-called great Greek colonization took place - the establishment of numerous colony cities on the shores of the Mediterranean, Black and Azov Seas, pan-Greek cultural unity was established, a common ethnic self-name - Hellenes and the name of the homeland - Hellas. Ancient civilization played an outstanding role in the development of the entire subsequent culture of Europe and the Middle East. The Romans called the Hellenic colonists of Southern Italy Greeks, and through the Romans this ethnonym spread among European and then other peoples.

But modern Greeks go back not only to the ancient Hellenes. In the 6th -8th centuries. AD Slavs settled in the Balkans, including the Peloponnese. It was as a Slavic ethnic element that they survived on the northern outskirts of modern Greece (Macedonians), while the rest were assimilated by the Hellenes, although traces of their presence remained in toponymy (for example, Mount Helikson in Boeotia is now called Zagora). In the 13th - 14th centuries. Albanians settled throughout northern Greece, and some of them were also assimilated by the Greeks. The descendants of the local population, either Thracians or Celts, are the Greek Vlachs (Aromanians), Romanized in the second half of the 1st and early 2nd millennium AD. Capture of Greece by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. caused the struggle of the Greeks for liberation and contributed to the awakening of their national consciousness.

Nowadays, Greeks live not only in their homeland and Cyprus (Cypriots, 0.5 million people), but also in many Mediterranean countries, in other European countries, both Americas, and in Australia.

The most characteristic economic activities of the Greeks since ancient times are the cultivation of grapes, olives and almonds, transhumance sheep and goat breeding, pottery and carpet weaving. Cereal cultivation does not satisfy its own demand. In the post-war years, the importance of high-value subtropical crops, cotton, as well as fishing and maritime trade increased. The basis of Greek food is beans, seasoned with lemon, olive oil, garlic, parsley, as well as dishes made from sweet peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, pickled olives, Turkish pilaf, cheese and sour milk.

The buildings of traditional settlements are crowded, one- and two-story houses are built of untreated stone; in the latter case, livestock is placed on the first floor, and the second serves as housing. The windows and verandas of the houses face the sunny side. The living space is heated by a brazier with coals. The folk costume of men is better preserved among the population of the islands: black or blue trousers, a white shirt, a vest with many buttons, a red or black sash, a red fez, sometimes with a black tassel, a woolen cloak. Women's costume: a long white shirt of a tunic-like cut, with wide and long sleeves, an embroidered hem, a wide long skirt, and there is also a sundress option.

After centuries of enslavement by the Turks, the Greeks received national sovereignty in 1830 with the active assistance of Russia. The Orthodox Church played an important role in this struggle, as in general in the public life of the modern Greek Republic.

Christianity, which spread in the country from the 2nd century. n. e. adheres to almost the entire believing population; only a small number of Greeks on the island of Rhodes and in Thrace profess Islam.

Greece still remains an agricultural country with quite significant industrial development.

Albanians. Their self-name is shchiptar, etymology is “speaking clearly.” They come from the ancient indigenous population of the Balkans - the Illyrians or Thracians. Already in the 4th century. BC e. The first state formations of the Illyrian-Thracian ethnic groups are known on the western coast of the Balkan Peninsula, which over the next two centuries were subjugated by Rome and settled by Roman colonists. The population of the southern part of the Illyrian-Thracian territory, in particular the land of present-day Albania, was culturally and economically more developed due to close ties with Hellas, they retained their language. From the 6th century Slavs settled in Albania. They are assimilated, but traces of their presence here are preserved everywhere in toponymy.

At the end of the 12th century. The first sovereign Albanian state known from documents arose - Arbery. At the end of the 15th century. Albania was captured by the Turks. From the 16th century Islam spread in the country. The centuries-long struggle for independence, especially in the guerrilla war at the beginning of the 20th century, contributed to the formation of a unified Albanian nation.

The traditional and main occupation of Albanian peasants is transhumance sheep breeding. The grain direction predominated in agriculture: barley, rye, oats and wheat were grown in the mountainous regions, and millet in the valleys. From the 17th century Corn has been cultivated since the 19th century. - potatoes, in the 20th century. - also cotton and sugar beets. Horticulture (olives, fruits and grapes) and winemaking have long been developed in the coastal strip. It is known that at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. In Albania, dozens of types of crafts were highly developed: the production of gold embroidery, weapons decorated with silver, silk fabrics, cast silver buckles, etc. Nowadays, most craftsmen are united in production cooperatives. Of particular importance are those crafts that are associated with folk clothing or household items: they sew white fezzes for men, cover elegant velvet vests of brides with gold embroidery, weave lint-free or pile carpets of bright colors with geometric or stylized floral patterns.

Albanian rural settlements are of three types: scattered, crowded and regular (modern). The same types of traditional housing are found in Albania as in other countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Two-story houses with a veranda along the upper, residential floor are common; the lower floor is a barn and other utility rooms. In northern Albania there are two- and three-story tower houses made of untreated (or processed only at the corners) stone with loopholes. In low-lying, partly swampy areas, one-story wicker houses plastered with clay are common.

Among Albanian believers, more than 2/3 are Muslims (of which 2/3 are Sunnis and

Uz - Shiites), who live mainly in the central regions of the country - both in villages and cities. About a quarter of believers are Orthodox; they inhabit mainly the south of the country. The rest, a little more than 10% of believers, are Catholics living in the north of Albania.

Roman group The country is represented by 15 peoples: Italians (65 million in the world, of which 85% are in Italy), Italian-Swiss (230 thousand), Friuls (400 thousand), Romanches (50 thousand), Ladins (14 thousand), Corsicans (280 thousand), Catalans (7.2 million), Spaniards (27 million), Galicians (3 million), Portuguese (10.7 million), French (44 million), French Swiss (1 million .), Walloons (4 million), Aromanians, or Vlachs (225 thousand), and Romanians (19 million).

All 15 now Romance-speaking peoples spoke other languages ​​at the origins of ethnogenesis, including, in part, the ancestors of the Italians. In the 8th-3rd centuries. BC e. The Romans gradually subjugated and assimilated linguistically related Italic tribes on the Apennine Peninsula, as well as non-Indo-European ethnic groups - the Etruscans, or Tyrsenians, then in the north-east of Italy the Illyrian tribe of the Veneti, in the 1st century. n. e. - numerous Celtic tribes in the Po Valley, and in the north-west of the country - the Ligurians. In the south of the Apennine Peninsula and on the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, the Romans conquered multilingual peoples - the Iapids, Carthaginians, Sicans, people from Hellas - and Romanized them, although the Greeks retained the remnants of their language until the 15th century.

In the 3rd century. BC e. The Romans managed to capture the Iberian Peninsula with its multilingual tribal composition. The south and east were occupied by Iberian tribes, the north by the Basques, the west (present-day Galicia and Portugal) by Celtic tribes, in the center of the peninsula in the zone of contact with the Iberians - mixed, Celtic-Iberians.

The territory of Gaul and Belgium was equally ethnically complex. The Mediterranean strip was inhabited by the Iberians, and later the Ligurians, Phoenicians, and Greeks settled here. The central and northern regions were inhabited by Celtic tribes and Gauls. After the aggressive campaigns of Julius Caesar (58-51 BC), the Roman colonies, founded on the site of ancient settlements of the indigenous population, became centers of regionalization of these ethnic groups, which switched to local folk dialects of the Latin language.

The process of Romanization proceeded unevenly, but quite intensively, until the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD) both on the lands of present-day France and Belgium, and on all ethnic groups of the Iberian Peninsula. It played a significant role in the cementation of these ethnic groups into Romance-speaking peoples from the 3rd century. n. e. The Christian Church of Rome, whose official language has always been Latin. This is how the languages ​​of the Walloons (in Belgium), the French, and on the Iberian Peninsula - the Spaniards, Catalans, Galicians, and Portuguese began to take shape.

In the 1st century BC e. The Romans subjugated several multilingual tribes in the center of the Alps (these were the Rheta, related to the Etruscans) and north of the Adriatic Sea (the aboriginal Euganaeans, Illyrian Veneti and Celtic-speaking Carni). Over the next five centuries, Romanization gave rise to three Romansh peoples - the Romanches living in the canton of Grisons in Switzerland, the Ladins (there and in the Dolomites in Italy), and the Friuli - in the province of Udine in northeastern Italy.

In 146 BC. e. Rome completed the conquest of Greece. However, the Greek language survived thanks to the high culture of the Hellenes. Moreover, the Greek language was widely used in Italy as the language of culture and science. But some local ethnic groups of the Balkan Peninsula became Romanized. The already mentioned Aromanians also live in Albania and Yugoslavia. Since Byzantine times, the ethnonym Aromun has a more common, although somewhat disparaging in etymology, synonym - Vlah (“rude, uncultured”) or Kutsovlakh (“lame Vlah”) as a hint of poor knowledge of the Byzantine language - Greek.

Ethnic groups also underwent Romanization to the north of the lower Danube - in Dacia, which the Roman Emperor Trajan captured at the beginning of the 2nd century. AD The Thracian tribes Dacians or Dacogetae lived here. The Roman legions and auxiliary cohorts located here played an important role in the Romanization of the province. No matter where the legionnaires were recruited from, they themselves became Romanized in language over many decades of service and unwittingly contributed to the Romanization of the local population. This was especially facilitated by those Dacians who, having served in the Roman legions abroad, settled in their homeland as landowners, artisans, and merchants. Even in the post-Roman period (after 271 AD), no less than 50 settlements in Dacia retained their Daco-Roman character.

Unlike Romance-speaking Catholics and Protestants in Western Europe, Aromanians and Romanians are Orthodox.

The traditional occupations of Italians are gardening, grain farming and animal husbandry. Viticulture and, on its basis, winemaking are in first place both in terms of the antiquity of the industries themselves and in their prevalence throughout almost the entire territory of Italy. Italians occupy third place in the world after the USA and Spain in the production of citrus fruits; other horticultural crops are apples, pears, and olives. Vegetable growing (legumes, onions, garlic) has ancient origins; nowadays potatoes, tomatoes, melons and cabbage, sugar beets, tobacco and hemp are also grown in rural areas. In the mountainous regions, Italians are engaged in transhumance sheep farming; in the valleys and foothills of Northern Italy they raise cattle.

Pasta dishes ("pasta" in Italian) are popular among Italians. Usually the first course (minestra) is pasta, flavored with tomato sauce or butter and cheese, and sometimes with ground meat. Food contains a lot of spices and seasonings. Village minestra - dzuppa (bean and vegetable soup with bread soaked in soup). Wheat bread, sometimes made from corn flour. Polenta is also prepared from it - a type of corn porridge, hominy, which is served cut into slices. Vegetable salads, fried vegetables, fruits, and cheeses are common. An indispensable accessory for lunch is grape wine, coffee is very popular.

More than half of Italians live in cities. Italian cities are the oldest in the European part of the world after the Phoenicians and Greeks. Some cities in Italy were founded in pre-Roman times: by the Greeks - Naples, by the Etruscans - Bologna, and most - in ancient times (Rome, Genoa, etc.).

The modern Italian city is not only an administrative and cultural center, it is primarily the center of industry in a wide variety of sectors. Italy is a developed industrial-agrarian country (6th place in terms of industrial production in the capitalist world).

Rural settlements of Italians are of three types. In the alpine zone in the north, partly in the center and south of the country, large villages and hamlets with a linear or radial layout are common. There are farmsteads on the plains. A unique type of settlement in the central foothill areas is a peak settlement on the hills, reminiscent of a fortress in location and appearance.

Rural estates are characterized by four types - two involve the location of residential and outbuildings under one roof, in the other two the buildings represent separate premises. The first type is Latin, found throughout Italy. This is a two-story stone house with a gable tiled roof. An external stone staircase with a landing at the top leads to the second floor, and the house itself is divided vertically into two parts. In one half there is a kitchen below, upstairs there are living rooms, in the second half there is a hayloft above the barn. The second type is alpine, common in the northernmost parts of Italy. The two-story house consists of a stone first floor and a log second floor. Around the walls of the second floor there is an open gallery with wooden railings and wood carvings on the pillars, plank lining of the gallery, cornices and platbands. The house has a vertical division, as in a Latin house. The third type is the corte, a closed rectangle formed by stone residential and outbuildings, in the center there is a courtyard with a current for threshing grain. The fourth type - Apennine, assumes a separate arrangement of residential and outbuildings, and the entire estate is fenced. The last two types of manor date back to ancient Roman villas and are found in small patches in Romance-speaking Europe. Archaic domed stone buildings - trulli - have been preserved in Italy. Their walls are laid dry; inside there is the only room without windows.

Although folk clothing in the villages is being replaced by pan-European costume, in some places it is preserved quite firmly. Italian men's folk costume: pantaloni (short, below-the-knee trousers), camicha (white, sometimes embroidered, tunic-like shirt with sewn-in sleeves), giacka (short jacket) or panciotto (sleeveless vest), hat or berretto (bag-like headdress). Women's folk costume: gona (long wide skirt, grembiule (apron), kamicha, corsetto (short blouse to the waist, with laces), jacketta or giusbetto (swinging outerwear - hip-length or shorter), fazzoletto (head scarf). In the Alpine regions, they walk in wooden shoes with iron spikes so as not to slip on the stones, and with leather socks or wear chochi (soft sandals made of untanned leather, tied to the foot over stockings or foot wraps with long straps - shoes of ancient origin).

The vast majority of the believing population of Italy are Catholics.

The Romansh people are close to the Italians and Italo-Swiss in traditional occupations and material culture. Among the Ladins and Romans, the Alpine type of manor is common, among the Friuls - the corte, as well as the Carnic version of the Alpine house, extensive galleries, arched porticoes, stairs to the second (and third) floor, often internal. There are also two typical Friul dishes: brovade (turnips aged in grape marc and grated) and dumplings with cottage cheese and raisins.

France is a developed industrial country with highly productive agriculture. In rural areas, the French are engaged in livestock farming, field farming and viticulture. Cattle can be kept almost all year on open pastures divided into areas with paddocks. In the highlands of the Alps and Pyrenees, transhumance livestock farming is preserved.

Wheat, oats, barley, and to a lesser extent rye, corn and rice are the main field crops of French peasants. Almost everywhere in France, except for the north and north-west of the country, viticulture and winemaking based on it have long been developed. The French occupy first place in the world in oyster fishing (in the Atlantic).

French national cuisine has long been famous for its variety of dishes. The food contains a lot of vegetables and root vegetables, and cheese is popular. Among meat dishes, rabbits, poultry, and, in the south, pigeons occupy a significant place. A traditional national dish is steak with potatoes in boiling vegetable oil. Leek and potato soup and onion soup with cheese are popular throughout the country. In Provence, bouillabaisse soup made from various types of fish, seasoned with pepper, is traditional; their favorite dish is snails with gray bread, grated with garlic. The table of southerners is diversified by olives. Dry wine must be served to the table twice a day. The French rank first in the world in terms of consumption of dry wine.

Two-thirds of the French live in cities, many of which date back to Roman times.

Rural settlements of the French are represented by two zones: a zone of street or ordinary villages in north-eastern France, a cumulus village in the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean coast, and a zone of farmsteads in the rest of France. There are four types of traditional homestead. The French type is common in most of the country. This is a one-story building in which residential and utility rooms are combined under one roof, stretched in a line parallel to the street. The corte type predominates in the northeast and along the middle Seine, the alpine type prevails in the Alps and the Pyrenees, and in the south of France and on the island of Corsica the type most closely resembles the Latin one.

The folk costume was supplanted among the French by a pan-European costume before anyone else in Europe, a century ago. A man's suit consisted of trousers (in the 18th century - short, tied with woolen garters under the knees, from the end of the 18th century - long and narrow), a shirt, vest, neckerchief, felt or straw hat. Over the last century, the untucked blouse has become common. The costume of a modern worker is overalls or overalls, with a cap or beret on his head. In general terms, the French women's costume resembles the Italian one.

By religious affiliation, the majority of believers in the country are Catholics. About 1 million French are Protestants.

The social life of the French is distinguished by high political activity, especially of the working class, which has gone through a great school of class struggle. The French Communist Party plays a major role in the political and cultural life of the country.

The Walloons make up 40% of Belgium's population and live in the southeastern half. They have long been known as a craft people. In the late Middle Ages, Walloon artisans found demand in European countries, forming community colonies in some (for example, Sweden) and constituting an ethnic minority. And now the most developed industries in Belgium (coal, metallurgy, engineering, chemical) employ mainly Walloons. Agriculture attracted a small part of the people, mainly for year-round feeding of large and dairy cattle on open pastures. The proximity and density of urban settlements gave rise to a narrow specialization of farms (vegetable gardens, greenhouses, poultry farming, pig farming).

Most Walloons live in small towns and workers' settlements, numbering no more than 15 thousand people. Similar towns, small cities, and sometimes villages form a chain of settlements merging with each other and stretching for tens of kilometers. Such a chain of settlements stretches along the river. Sambre in the Mons-Charleroi coal basin, and further along the river. Meuse, from Namur to Liege, i.e. from the border of France to the border of Germany, across the whole of Belgium.

The rural settlements of the Walloons are characterized by small villages of the street or cumulus type, while in the Ardennes there are large villages. Traditional buildings of the past are frame, in the Ardennes - stone, modern - brick. Walloon sloping rafter roofs are covered with tiles or slate. It is customary not to plaster Walloon houses, and decoration of red brick houses is provided during construction - by laying a layer of white limestone brick in the walls and facing the platbands with white stone. The Walloons traditionally have three types of manor: a closed type, reminiscent of a corte in Italy; Walloon, similar to Apennine in Italy; in the Ardennes - alpine type.

The peoples of the Iberian Peninsula have long been famous as skilled winegrowers and winemakers. And now almost half of the Portuguese and Galicians and about 40% of the Spaniards and Catalans are employed in agriculture, let’s say Spain ranks first in the world in olive oil production, second in vineyard area and third in grape harvesting and wine production, and the Portuguese - ranks first in the world in wine production per capita.

The olive culture, introduced by the Hellenes, took root on the peninsula. The Spaniards and Catalans provide half of its total world production. The importance of citrus fruits in the economic activities of the Spaniards and Catalans is similar, for which Spain ranks first in the world in exports and second after the United States in collection, figs and almonds - second in the world after Italy.

Despite the arid climate of two-thirds of the peninsula, grain farming has long been developed here. Wheat and other crops are grown. The irrigation system has a long tradition. There is a noria, introduced back in the centuries of Arab rule, - a wheel with buckets for scooping water from a reservoir, driven by a donkey or horse. In the province of Valencia, the Water Tribunal is still in force - a relic of customary law. The Water Tribunal resolves all disputes between owners of irrigation canals arising from the use of water. His sentences are not subject to appeal.

Already in the Roman era in Spain and Portugal, cattle were bred on irrigated meadows. The bull was considered a sacred animal by the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. Cattle breeding is still one of the most important occupations of the Portuguese in the north of their country, Galicians and Spaniards. Since ancient times, the population of the peninsula has raised goats using their milk, meat and wool. Merino sheep were introduced by the Arabs, and after the Reconquista, sheep farming spread to all areas of Spain and Portugal, except the coastal ones. Castilian wool products are known throughout the world. In terms of the number of sheep and goats, Spain is second in Foreign Europe only to England (for meat breeds) and Greece (for milch breeds).

Fishing has very ancient origins on the peninsula, especially among the Portuguese and Galicians. In ethnographic literature, there is even an opinion that Portuguese fishermen are the descendants of Phoenician colonists, and Portuguese fishing boats with highly raised curved bows and a traditional pair of huge eyes on the bow of the vessel seem to confirm this assumption.

Almost all the cities of the Iberian Peninsula are of very ancient origin. Many of them grew up on the site of ancient Iberian or Celtic fortified settlements, the layout of which can still be seen in the centers of some cities (Spanish Seville, Sagunto). Spanish Cadiz (Hades) was founded by the Phoenicians, Spanish Cartagena (New Carthage) - by the Carthaginians, Catalan Barcelona - by the Hellenes, under the Romans many villages became beautiful cities (Spanish Merida, Catalan Tarragona, etc.). Many southern cities of the peninsula, including Cordoba and Granada, bear features of the Moorish style.

Non-urban settlements of the peninsula are divided into four types, in accordance with the main profession of the inhabitants, and sometimes with the boundaries of ethnic groups. So, along the Atlantic and

The Mediterranean coastline is lined with semi-urban fishing villages located on the sites of ancient settlements. The farm type is characteristic of the Galicians. It is known that even in ancient times the Portuguese had different northern regions from the southern ones: even now the north is dominated by farmsteads, while the rest of the Portuguese, like the Spaniards and Catalans, have street-type villages.

Rural dwellings of the Iberian Peninsula are represented by seven types. Some of them have analogies with Italian ones. Geographically, these types conditionally correspond to climatic zones and partly reveal the influence of cultures of different ethnic groups. In the humid zone, counting from the west from northern Portugal and Galicia to the east to Navarre, two types of manor are common: Galician (among the Galicians, Asturians and northern Portuguese) - an analogue of the Apennine type in Italy, and also Basque (see "Basques"). In the central zone, counting from the west from southern Portugal to the northeast to the middle of the Pyrenees Mountains, the adobe version of the corte type is widespread. Four types of estates are characteristic of the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula - from Andalusia to Catalonia. The first is the Levant barraka, a type of hut made of reed wicker, coated with clay, with a high, steep, gable roof without a chimney, covering the outside walls almost to the ground. The second is the Andalusian corte, which bears traces of the traditions of the Romans and partly the Arabs. The third is the Andalusian terrace, with earthen or adobe walls and a flat roof, common among the Spaniards of Andalusia and Murcia and the Catalans of Valencia and Catalonia, in places of former Arab domination. The fourth is the Andalusian landowner cortijo, similar in general schematic features to the Italian corte type, distinguished by the fundamental nature of stone buildings that form a closed courtyard, into which a gate leads through a tower; inside the courtyard there are outbuildings.

Variants of the Spanish folk costume have been preserved in everyday life only in some areas, and in the most generalized form, the women's costume is represented by a wide gathered skirt with an apron, a light blouse, a bodice or a short woolen manton jacket (a motley shawl fastened on the chest), on the head - a scarf or sombrero. composition of a men's suit: long johns (tight dark trousers just below the knees), camisa (white linen shirt), chaleco (vest), short woolen jacket with buttons, faja (sash made of bright fabric), montera (two-horned Spanish flu cap) or sombrero. Outerwear: kapas (dark cloak), cloak-like capes, blankets. On the feet they wear zapatos (leather pointed shoes) or abarcas (rawhide boots), and in wet weather wooden almadreñas are put on top.

Catalans dress like the Spaniards, in addition they wear a barretina (a cap like a Phrygian cap), Galicians have clothes more adapted to the damp climate, they prefer thick fabrics (cloth and dark-colored flannel or leather), and in the rain they wear a corosa (a long straw cloak -cap that opens from the front). The clothes of the Portuguese, unlike the Spanish, are characterized by greater brightness - for example, the favorite colors of the apron are red, yellow, green

Believing Spaniards, Catalans, Galicians, Portuguese are Catholics. Many holidays consecrated by the church are of pre-Christian origin (the Celtic origin of the maypole festival - mayos, the equally ancient origin of the carnival with the “fight of flowers” ​​in Murcia, the comic funeral of a sardine in Madrid and other cities, fairs and extravaganzas, the Valencian Fallas with the burning of stuffed giants). The love of bullfighting has long roots in the Pyrenees.

Basque. Their self-name is euskaldunak, "Basque-speaking". These are the descendants of the ancient Pre-Indo-European population, occupying a linguistically isolated position. They live in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula on both slopes at the junction of the Cantabrian and Pyrenees mountains, most of them in Spain, the smaller part in France. The number of Basques is about 1 million people. Traditional occupations in the mountainous regions are transhumance sheep breeding, on the plains and in the foothills - meat and dairy farming, as well as grain farming, gardening and viticulture. From the 14th century Due to the dispossession of part of the peasantry, the role of fishing increased, and labor was freed up for maritime merchant ships. Among the folk crafts, the extraction of iron ore lying on the surface (now the mining and metallurgical industries) and blacksmithing have long been developed.

The farm type of settlement in rural areas is typical. The settlement around the church and administrative building is a relatively recent phenomenon. The Basque type of dwelling is a two- or three-story house, rectangular in plan, under one gable roof common with outbuildings, standing in the center of the estate, surrounded by arable land, a garden and a vineyard. The lower floor is made of large hewn stone, plastered, the upper floor is of frame construction, sometimes the entire house is of frame construction.

Basque folk costume is worn only at carnivals. However, the purely Basque national headdress - the beret - not only remained the male headdress of Basques of any age, but also spread among other peoples on both sides of the Atlantic.

Spanish Basques received regional autonomy in 1980.

Maltese. They are the only Semitic-speaking people in Europe, inhabiting two islands (Malta and Gozzo). It was formed from many multilingual ethnic groups who successively arrived on the island. Material traces of the first settlers remain from the Neolithic in the form of burial grounds and ruins of stone buildings. Maltese, which is closest to the Tunisian dialect of Arabic, still bears traces of the Sicilian dialect of the Italian language, as well as English, because from 1900 to 1964 the island was a British colony, and since 1964 it has become a sovereign state. The Maltese number more than 360 thousand people, they have the highest population density in Europe - more than 1 thousand people per 1 sq. km. km.

Farming is carried out on tiny, terraced plots, reclaimed over centuries from the rocky mountains for vegetable gardens (potatoes, onions, garlic, beans, peas, peppers) and grain crops (wheat, barley), as well as vineyards and orchards. The lack of pasture limits livestock farming to domestic livestock (donkeys, mules, pigs, sheep, goats). They cultivate the land the old fashioned way - with a hoe. The climate and natural fertilizers allow us to harvest 2-3 crops of some crops per year. Since the Middle Ages, the Maltese have been famous for their crafts: silk and cotton lace, straw weaving and filigree work.

The houses are made of stone, with an obligatory gallery in front of the facade. The predominant color in clothing is black.

Religion - Catholicism plays a very important role in the life of the Maltese.

The democratic government of Malta is taking measures to develop the economy, primarily the port and ship repair industries, and eliminate remnants in public and private life.

German group. 17 peoples of Foreign Europe speak languages ​​or dialects of the Germanic language group. These are Germans (60 million in Germany, 17 million in the GDR and 2 million in West Berlin), Austrians (7.2 million), German-Swiss (4 million), Luxembourgers (300 thousand), Alsatians (1.4 million), Lorraine (200 thousand), Flemings (7 million in Belgium and France), Dutch (11.6 million), Frisians (410 thousand), Danes (5 million), Swedes (8 million), Norwegians (4 million), Icelanders (220 thousand), Faroese (40 thousand), English (44 million), Scots (5 million) and Ulsterians (1 million).

The peoples of the Germanic group inhabit the lands of Central, Western and Northern Europe, including the islands of the North Atlantic. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. The Germans occupied lands only in the north of modern Germany and the GDR, as well as Scandinavia. In the 2nd - 3rd centuries. n. e. Germanic tribes began to break into the borders of the Roman Empire, and in the 5th - 6th centuries. populated the entire Western Roman Empire as far as North Africa. After the collapse of the empire of Charlemagne (843), the German nation began to emerge in the lands between the Rhine and Elbe and the Upper Danube, inhabited by Saxons, Bavarians, Alemannics and other tribes. The Danes formed on the Jutland Peninsula and nearby islands, and the Swedes and Norwegians on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Dutch people formed on the coast of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, in the north-west of Germany and on the islands adjacent to the mainland, the Frisian people, in northern Belgium - the Flemish people, close in language to the Dutch.

In the 5th -6th centuries. The Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes conquered a large part of the British Isles with their Celtic population, and then Ireland was subjected to raids by the Danes and Norwegians, accompanied by their colonization in East Anglia. As a result of these complex processes, new peoples were formed: the English, the Scots and, many centuries later, the Ulsters. Romance roots in the English language arose from the influence of the Romans on the language of the Celts and the Normans themselves, who by the time of the conquest of England in 1066 had almost lost their language and spoke, after a long stay in Normandy, Old French.

The North Germans of Jutland, the Danish Islands and the Scandinavian Peninsula captured and colonized the North Atlantic islands during the "Viking Age" (ca. 800 to 1050). At the same time, immigrants from Norway gave rise to new ethnic groups - the Faroese and Icelanders, whose language is very close to Old Norse.

The traditional occupations of the Germanic peoples are animal husbandry, mainly cattle breeding, and agriculture. In mountainous Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland and the south of Germany, livestock farming has always been of a transhumance nature (driving livestock to summer pastures in the mountains while keeping them in stalls in the winter in the village). In Iceland and the Faroe Islands, sheep breeding is traditionally developed, and in Iceland, in addition, there is food horse breeding. Agriculture was more developed among the Germans and Austrians, where grain crops produce high yields and their cultivation is of great importance in the economy. Thanks to the high level of agricultural equipment, electricity and the use of chemicals, the Germans, Danes, and partly the Dutch are now obtaining the highest yields of wheat, rye, and potatoes in Europe. Other Germanic peoples often engage in agriculture as a subsidiary of livestock farming, growing fodder crops; the Dutch were the earliest of the Germanic peoples to take up fishing. Even in the early Middle Ages, they began to use salting of herring. Fishing among the Scandinavians, primarily among the Norwegians, Icelanders and Faroese, became commercial only in the 19th century.

More than two thirds of Germans now live in cities. The traditional type of Germanic settlement, which Tacitus wrote about (1st century AD) and which persisted until modern times on German lands, is large cumulus villages with randomly located courtyards and crooked streets. Only in the east of the GDR were circular settlements with a central square preserved, apparently inherited from the once assimilated Slavic population. In the west and south of Germany, partly among the Swedes, Danes and Faroese, the farm type of settlement is found. The farm type is almost exclusively common among the Frisians, Flemings, Dutch, Norwegians and Icelanders.

The traditional home construction technique for the Germans, Flemings, Frisians, Danes and southern Swedes is frame, or frame, so-called half-timbered. Log buildings are common in forest areas in the south of Germany, the east of the GDR, among the Norwegians and Swedes, and partly among the Austrians and German-Swiss. Stone and brick houses were previously built only in cities and here and there in villages on the Rhine and Upper Bavaria. Local features that persist in the material culture of the Germans are especially clearly revealed precisely in the types of housing. In the past, they were associated with regional divisions, hence the names of traditional types of houses and estates - Saxon, Franconian, Alemannic, etc.

In the northern half of Germany, Denmark and Holland, the Saxon or Frisian courtyard house predominates - a large rectangular frame building with residential and utility rooms under one roof, steep, often hipped, thatched, and later tiled. The entire weight of the roof lies not on the walls, but on the internal pillars. The covered courtyard - the threshing floor occupies the middle of the house; opposite the entrance there is a fireplace with a hanging boiler.

In the middle part of Germany and in the south of the GDR, the frame Franconian or South Limburg type is widespread. Outside the German lands proper, it is found in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and partly in Holland. The residential building and outbuildings separately cover the estate's courtyard on three or four sides. In addition to the open hearth, there is a stove in the living room. The border between Saxon and Franconian manor types coincides with the border between Low German and Middle German dialects.

In the southwest of Germany (Baden-Württemberg), the timber-framed Alemannic type of estate is common. Log residential and utility rooms form a continuous building under one roof and are located either in a U-shape, bordering the estate courtyard on three sides, or in a rectangle, forming a closed courtyard inside it. The last sub-option is schematically similar to the Italian type of manor house corte.

Upper Bavaria is characterized by the Alpine type of manor, which is also common in Western Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy, and Northwestern Yugoslavia.

The estates of Norwegians, as well as Swedes in forest areas, consist of a log two- or three-story residential building and many outbuildings. The layout of the estate depends on the local conditions. On the plain, the individual rooms form a rectangle around a stone-paved courtyard. On the mountain slope, buildings were located in “cattle row” (down the slope) and “clean row” (up the slope). The most archaic forms of residential and commercial buildings in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They are built from stone (tuff, basalt), turf, driftwood or imported timber. The gaps between the boulders are laid with turf. The houses are covered with boards over the stone walls. The roof is gable, made of birch bark and boards, covered with turf on rafter sheathing. Artistic wood carving is developed among the Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, German-Swiss, and Austrians (platbands, support pillars of dwellings and storage facilities, utensils).

The first information about the clothing of the Germans dates back to the beginning of our era. Men wore a shirt with sewn-in sleeves or sleeveless, consisting of two panels of fabric sewn on the shoulders, long pants, shoes (the same for men and women) were leather soles with webbed belts. The women's undershirt also consisted of two panels, which were fastened with brooches above the shoulders. Later, sleeves were sewn onto this robe. At the same time, outerwear was known - a cloak with a hood.

The Germanic peoples developed many regional costumes. But unlike more southern peoples, the bodice, jacket, skirt, and apron were always sewn from warm, heavy woolen fabrics. Residents of Hesse (Germany) still wear several short, gathered skirts (their number used to be up to 20, and this emphasized prosperity), from under which protrudes the hem of a white shirt, a black bodice with elbow-length sleeves and a small red cap. The traditional costume of Franconian women is in red and brown colors and consists of a skirt, a colorful apron with a zigzag pattern, a jacket with quilted sleeves, gathered on the shoulders, and a bodice with a wide neckline. Women's costume of the German-Swiss Catholics of the canton of Appenzell in Switzerland - a dark or red skirt and apron, a black bodice with silver decorations, a jacket with puffy elbow-length sleeves, a headdress of white and black lace in the form of two large wings, a lace shoulder scarf with an image of a mountain edelweiss flower . In Norway, up to 150 types of women's regional clothing have been preserved, in which women dress up for the holiday.

Currently, the folk costume of all German-speaking peoples has been replaced by the pan-European urban type and is preserved only for special occasions (holidays, choirs, etc.). Nevertheless, some details (choice of color, pattern, decorations, etc.) are preserved, especially in women's village clothing, quite firmly.

Such ancient types of crafts among the Germanic peoples as knitting (including sweaters, mittens, socks, decorated with geometric and zoomorphic patterns), carpet weaving, weaving, lace making and embroidery are widespread even today.

Celtic group. Four peoples represent this once large linguistic group. The British Isles are home to the Irish (3 million people in the Republic of Ireland and 500 thousand in Ulster on the same island of Ireland), Welsh (700 thousand in Wales) and Gaels (90 thousand in Scotland and the Hebrides), and on on the Brittany Peninsula in France - Bretons (1.1 million people). Only the Irish of the Irish Republic have their own national state. The struggle for cultural autonomy is acute among the Bretons and especially among the Ulster Irish, who are opposed by extremist organizations of Ulsterians - descendants of mixed Anglo-Irish and Anglo-Scottish families.

The traditional occupations of these four Celtic peoples until the end of the late Middle Ages, and among the Irish until the mid-19th century. - agriculture and livestock breeding. They grew barley, oats, and wheat. Gradually, livestock farming began to play a major role, and among the Gaels, primarily sheep farming, then cattle breeding. Among the Irish, Welsh and Bretons, cattle breeding is in the foreground. Agriculture among the Celts was aimed at growing forage crops (root crops, oats).

Bretons in the coastal, most developed areas are also engaged in growing vegetables for export or for the canning industry (cauliflower, peas, artichokes, etc.). One of their oldest activities, fishing (fishing for tuna, sardines, mackerel), has also been developed, and after the war, seaweed collection and oyster fishing have sharply increased. The Celts preserved old crafts - wool and leather. The Irish are engaged, as in the old days, in crafts made from straw, hay and reeds. The Gaels remain masters of pottery - they make jugs and tea sets. The Bretons produce handicraft furniture of antique designs; Bretons are famous for their skills as embroiderers and lacemakers.

The traditional food of the Celts is not very diverse. Among the Celts of the British Isles, it consists of cereals (especially porridge - liquid oatmeal), among the Gaels and Irish, fish and dairy dishes, mainly soups; haggis is popular - a soup made from lamb or veal tripe, cooked with oatmeal, pepper and onions. Corned beef and herring are common. National alcoholic drinks are beer (ale) and whiskey. The food of southern Bretons is more varied; they eat more vegetables and fruits.

One of the oldest Celtic cities, Dublin was founded by the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. In the last century and a half, rural settlements of the farm type have predominated. It is archaeologically confirmed that the ancient Celts built their houses from stone. In the Middle Ages, as evidenced by archeology and written sources, houses with wicker walls coated with clay became widespread. From the 18th century There are houses, both stone - in mountainous and coastal areas, and wicker - in flat, swampy places.

The stone houses of the Bretons, built of granite, are wide, squat, with a steep, low-sloping roof, similar to the stone houses of the Gaels, Irish and Welsh. The originality of the interior of the residential building was made up of tall wooden beds and wardrobes with sliding doors in the form of drawers open at the top.

Traditional costumes are popular at folklore festivals; there are many of them, especially among the Bretons (66 types of women's costume alone). In the costume of older women from different regions of Brittany, the most typical color is black clothing (long wide skirt, stockings, knitted jacket or woolen cape) and shoes, even wooden clogs. Young Breton women have a long wide skirt and corset with sewn-on sleeves (both the skirt and corset are densely covered with embroidery), a long white apron and a white lace cap. In men's costume, narrow short trousers were worn in Eastern Brittany (as in the rest of Romance-speaking Western Europe), and in Western Brittany, wide trousers of one of two types: either long with pleats gathered at the waist, or short with pleats secured with a cord. both at the waist and at the knees. A jacket with a closed collar and two rows of buttons, a sleeveless vest over it and a hat completed the outfit.

Irish women wore a long, ankle-length, very wide skirt of red, blue or green, fitted at the waist, a light jacket with long narrow sleeves, a round neckline and thick gathers around the neck. A dark bodice was worn over the jacket. A light checkered or striped apron was worn over the skirt, and a shawl with a colored border along the edge and long fringe was worn on the shoulders. Cloaks with hoods provided protection from bad weather. A century ago, the Irish had a custom of dressing children of both sexes in a short red skirt with a canvas bra, a knitted shirt and a brown jacket. Only after the first communion did the boy wear pants, usually short ones.

Men's folk dress of the Irish and Gaels back in the 14th - 15th centuries. It was similar, a saffron-colored linen shirt reached to the knees, and was gathered in thick folds at the neck and waist. The Gaels threw a plaid over the top, which has remained a characteristic feature of Scottish costume to this day. The costume of the Gaelic Highlanders consisted of a knee-length plaid skirt - a kilt, a white linen shirt with a turn-down collar, a short jacket with lapels and no collar, knitted stockings with a plaid pattern and rough leather shoes with large metal buckles.

Believing Bretons and three-quarters of the Irish on the island of Ireland profess Catholicism. The Welsh and Gaels, as well as some of the Irish, belong to different Protestant churches or sects (Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists).

Finno-Ugric group. Three peoples of Foreign Europe represent the Uralic family of languages: the Sami, or Lapps (50 thousand), the Finns, or Suomi (5 million), and the Hungarians, or Magyars (13.4 million).

The Sami are the only reindeer herding people in Foreign Europe. Some of them still lead a semi-nomadic lifestyle with herds of reindeer, the other is engaged in fishing on lakes and rivers or coastal sea fishing. Sedentary Sami in non-fishing villages raise large meat and dairy cattle, grow forage grasses for them, as well as potatoes for their own food. Crafts are developed: sewing fur and cloth clothing, skillfully decorated with fur and colored pieces of cloth, basket weaving, bone carving, embroidery, making rugs. Most of the products go to satisfy the demand of the indigenous population, but they are also bought by foreign tourists and museums.

The folk costume, a type of Arctic clothing, is still widespread today, especially among reindeer herders. Male: a long, knee-length blouse made of coarse wool fabric with a slit at the collar, narrow cloth pants, a four-eared cap (for the Swedish) or a cap with earflaps (for the Norwegian Sami). Women's: a solid long shirt and a cloth (or calico in the summer) dress, straight, with a small yoke. Shoes for men and women: soft fur boots made of deerskin with the fur inside, with curved toes. Winter clothing is a malitsa (a fur bag with a hood and sleeves), it is belted to retain heat.

Like the majority of the believing part of the peoples of Northern Europe, Christianity (Lutheranism) is widespread among the Lapps. The Sami do not have their own statehood, and exercise the rights of cultural autonomy through the Sami Councils, advisory bodies under the parliaments of Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as through the All-Sami Council under the inter-parliamentary Nordic Council of these states

The ancestors of the Finns appeared on the territory of present-day Finland apparently in two waves in the Neolithic era - in the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. e. from the east and from the south-east, pushing the proto-Lopar population to the north. The long and strong influence of Swedish culture led to the existence of a stable ethnographic border between the west and the east - from the city of Kotka through the center of the country to Rahe and Oulu.

Half of Finns live in cities. Rural areas are characterized by settlements with villages in the southwest and hamlets in the east. Log estates consist of many buildings - residential and commercial, and are not fundamentally different in layout from Norwegian or Swedish ones.

The traditional women's costume is characterized by a tunic-like shirt, skirt, colored bodice, apron and cap with lace trim; in the southeast - a towel headdress; for men - knee-length pants, a caftan, ornamented woolen stockings, posts, or bast shoes.

Despite the harsh, subpolar and polar conditions, agriculture (livestock breeding and farming, until the late Middle Ages - slash-and-burn) is the original occupation of the Finns. But grains (oats, rye, barley) never met the needs of the population, so the main thing was the breeding of large meat and dairy cattle. For him, fodder crops are grown on two-thirds of the arable land. Fishing, both lake and river and sea coastal, has always been an important help. The long-developed forestry industry has now become a powerful branch of the economy.

Finnish believers are predominantly Lutherans.

The ancestors of the Hungarians lived in the southern Urals. Pressed by the Huns and Avars, in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. ended up in the Black Sea region, and by the end of the 110th century. reached modern Hungary. In terms of language, they are related to the Khanty and Mansi peoples who now live on the lower Ob in the USSR.

Although the Hungarians arrived in the middle Danube as pastoralists, here on the fertile lands they also became farmers. perhaps having learned this branch of the economy from the Slavs. In any case, the agricultural terminology of the Hungarians is Slavic.

The main crops are cereals, especially wheat. Viticulture and winemaking, river fishing and diversified livestock farming (breeding cattle, sheep, pigs, horses) are well developed. Traditional handicraft production is very developed: furriery, cloth, felt, pottery, weaving, shoemaking.

The Hungarians' food is varied: flour (noodles, dumplings), vegetables (products made from cabbage, legumes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, etc.), meat (especially pork) with spicy seasonings, fruits. They drink grape wine.

More than half of Hungarians are rural residents. In the countryside, either farms predominate - to the west of the Danube, to the east - huge villages of regular planning, in the pushta (steppes). The building material of dwellings and outbuildings is clay and reed. Estates are enclosed by a fence, wattle fence or natural green hedge and are of two types: in one, utility rooms are built partially or all under one roof with housing; in the other, all rooms are built separately. The residential building is one-story, with three sections inside (kitchen, room, pantry).

Men's costume: narrow cloth trousers (in the east) or very wide canvas trousers (in the west), a short canvas shirt, usually with wide sleeves, a short vest trimmed with braid and lacing, high black boots, a straw or felt hat. Women's costume: a very wide gathered or pleated skirt, worn over petticoats, a pruslik (a bright sleeveless vest, fitted at the waist and decorated with lacing, metal loops and embroidery), an apron, a cap or scarf, high boots made of colored leather or papuchi (shoes made of velvet and leather, decorated with bright embroidery, without a backdrop). Girls tie their heads with a wide colorful ribbon with a bow.

Two thirds of believing Hungarians are Catholics, about a third are Protestants (Reformed).

There are 58 nations in Western Europe. 96% of the population speaks a language of the Indo-European family. The most significant of this family (in terms of the number of peoples) are the Germanic group, the Romanesque group, the Slavic group, etc.

Anthropological composition: Caucasian racial type.

Greeks: the beginning of this ethnic group on the lands of modern Greece. In the 8th-5th centuries. BC. a common ethnic name was established - Hellenes, homeland - Hellas. The main occupations are growing grapes, olives, almonds, transhumance sheep and goat breeding, pottery and carpet weaving. Houses made of untreated stone (1st and 2nd floors), where livestock also live. Men's folk costume: black or blue trousers, white shirt, vest, sash, fez, cloak; for women - a long white shirt of a tunic cut with wide long sleeves, a wide long skirt.

Albanians. They come from the ancient population of the Balkans - the Illyrians (Thracians). In the 4th century BC. the first state formations. Main occupations: transhumance, farming (cereals - barley, rye; in the mountains - oats, wheat; in the valleys - millet; potatoes, corn, cotton, sugar beets are also grown). There are three types of rural settlements: scattered, crowded and regular. Usually 2-story houses with a veranda. More than 2/3 are Muslims, about a quarter are Orthodox.

Roman group. 15 nations (Italians, Italian-Swiss, Corsicans, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Romanians, etc.). The Romans subjugated and assimilated many peoples, Romanization continued until the 5th century. AD The traditional occupations of Italians are gardening, grain farming, and animal husbandry. Food – pasta, a lot of spices and seasonings. More than half of the population lives in cities, rural settlements of 3 types: villages, hamlets, fortresses. Costume: men's - trousers, kamicha (tunic-like shirt), jakka (jacket), hat or beret; female - gona (long skirt), camicha, corsetto, jacketta (outerwear), fazzoletto (head scarf), wooden shoes with iron spikes. The majority of believers are Catholics. Traditional occupations of the French: animal husbandry, field farming, viticulture. The main crops are rice, corn, rye. Food: cheese, rabbit meat, poultry (pigeons in the south), vegetables, root vegetables. Rural settlements are of 2 types: street plan (row) and cumulus. This is a 1-story house with a roof, residential and utility premises. Men's suit: pants, shirt, vest, scarf, straw hat. The believers are mostly Catholics. Walloons(40% of the Belgian population) are a craft people. Large villages of street and cumulus type. Peoples of the Iberian Peninsula: Spain ranks 1st in olive oil production. Grain farming has been developed. Already in the Roman era, cattle were bred; fishing has very ancient origins. Women's costume: wide pleated skirt with an apron, light blouse, bodice, scarf on the head. Catholics.

German group– 17 nations. They speak languages ​​of the Germanic group (Germans, Austrians, German-Swiss, Luxembourgians, Lorraineers, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, Norwegians, English, Scots, etc.). The traditional occupation is livestock raising (cattle) - transhumance, farming. Traditional settlements: large cumulus villages with haphazardly located houses and crooked streets. Clothing: men's - shirt (consists of two panels), long trousers, shoes were leather soles with leather straps; women's - a shirt also made of two panels, a cloak with a hood. Crafts – knitting, carpet weaving, weaving, embroidery.

Celtic group. 4 peoples - Irish, Welsh, Gaels, Bretons. Traditional occupations are agriculture and cattle breeding. They grow barley, oats, and wheat. Livestock (cattle) plays a major role. Food – cereals, fish, dairy dishes, soups. One of the oldest cities is Dublin. Rural settlements of the farm type. The houses are stone and wicker. Traditional costume: black clothing for older women; young people have a long wide skirt and corset, a long white apron and a white lace cap; male - tight short pants, jacket with a closed collar, hat. Mostly Catholics.