Vesti FM
The Dargin people are one of the largest peoples of Dagestan. They are the second-largest ethnic group after the Avars of Dagestan, who constitute 16.5% of the population. According to the National Population Census of 2010, there are 589,396 Dargin people in Russia. The territory of traditional settlement of the Dargins are the mountain and foothill regions of Central Dagestan. About 68% of the Dargins are settled in 16 rural areas. They self-name Darg, Darganti, and in pre-revolutionary Russia the Dargins were also known as Akushintsy.
Two peoples are close to the Dargins - the Kaitags, preserved in the name are memories of the eponymous state of the Middle Ages - and the Kubachins, living in the most famous village beyond Dagestan, Kubachi.
The Dargins speak Dargin languages that belong to the Nakh-Dagestani branch of the North Caucasian language family. The Dargin language is divided into many dialects.
The Dargin people belong to the Caucasian type of the Western variation of the Balkan-Caucasian race. Interestingly, some researchers identify the anthropological type of the Dargins with the northern or, as it used to be named at the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries, the Nordic type.
So the writer Kostenetskiy, who visited the Dargin villages in 1837, wrote: "Akushinsky Lezghins are entirely different in complexion from the other peoples of the Caucasus, which much more resembles our own, of the north, rather than any of the south. They are all blondes, even have red hair, with small gray or blue eyes and humpbacked noses. Very tall "
The anthropological type of the Dargins was also described by medical doctor and anthropologist Svidersky in 1903. Sviderskiy refers the Dargins to the southern Germans: "There is reason to assume the accessory of the Dargins to the European race and their proximity to the southern German peoples."
Dargin people profess Sunni Islam. In the everyday life and culture of Dargins there are numerous pagan, mythological characters of the former pantheon. For example, Abdal is the god of hunting, the protector of journeys, wild goats, deer. He was taking care of wild animals and protecting them. Batsz is the god of the moon, has the appearance of beautiful girl. Berchy is the god of the sun, has the shape of a handsome young man, which emits a blinding light. Cooney is a good spirit, the patron of the genus, the family center, brings abundance to the house. Cooney is invisible, comes to the house on Friday. To appease Cooney, women would smear their hot stoves with fatty cuts of meat or butter on Friday.
The Dargins have, especially in mountainous areas, developed home crafts - wool processing, metal, wood, stone, leather. There are weapons and jewellery in Kubachi. Agricultural implements, weapons of Harbuka, blades of Amuzgi. Pottery from Sulevkenta. Cloth of Khadzhalmakhi. Carved wood from Sutbuka and Holaya. Wooden tools and utensils from Kaitag. Tsudaharts’ leather, goatskin and women's shoes of Gubden.
The program was prepared with the assistance of the History Faculty of Moscow State University and the information portal Vestnik Kavkaza.
