Barbarian

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Barbarian

"Barbarian" is a pejorative term for an uncivilized, uncultured person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos perceived as having an inferior level of civilizationCivilization

The word civilization has a variety of meanings related to human society....
, or in an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person whose behaviour is unacceptable in the society of the speaker. Barbarians are distinct from savages in that they are willfully ignorant, choosing to remain primitive despite contact with more civilized societies, such as the Greeks.
Origin of the termThe word "barbarian" comes into English from Medieval LatinMedieval Latin

Medieval Latin refers to the Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgica...
, from Latin , from Latin , from the ancient GreekGreek language

Greek has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family....
word . The word is onomatopeic, the bar-bar representing the impression of random hubbub produced by hearing a spoken language that one cannot understand, similar to blah blah, babbleBabble

Babble is a British internet telephony service....
or rhubarbRhubarb Summary

Rhubarb is a perennial plant that grows from thick short rhizomes, comprising the genus Rheum....
in modern English.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Barbarian'

Start a new discussion about 'Barbarian'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Timeline

970 Byzantine Emperor John I successfully defends the Eastern Roman Empire from massive barbarian invasion

Encyclopedia

Origin of the term

The word "barbarian" comes into English from Medieval LatinMedieval Latin

Medieval Latin refers to the Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgica...
, from Latin , from Latin , from the ancient GreekGreek language

Greek has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family....
word . The word is onomatopeic, the bar-bar representing the impression of random hubbub produced by hearing a spoken language that one cannot understand, similar to blah blah, babbleBabble

Babble is a British internet telephony service....
or rhubarbRhubarb Summary

Rhubarb is a perennial plant that grows from thick short rhizomes, comprising the genus Rheum....
in modern English. Related imitative forms are found in other Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages

, 1.2-7; 3.14), barbarians are slaves by nature. From this period words like barbarophonos, cited above from Homer, began to be used not only of the sound of a foreign language but of foreigners speaking Greek improperly. In Greek, the notions of language and reason are easily confused in the word logosLogos

The Greek word ????? or logos is a word with various meanings....
, so speaking poorly was easily conflated with being stupid, an association not of course limited to the ancient Greeks.

Further changes occurred in the connotations of barbarus in Late AntiquityLate Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a rough periodization used by historians and other scholars to describe the interval between high Classica...
, when bishops and catholikoi were appointed to sees connected to cities among the "civilized" gentes barbaricae such as ArmeniaArmenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked mountainous country in the Southern Caucasus , bordered ...
or Persia, while bishops were appointed to supervise entire peoples among the less settled.

Eventually the term found a hidden meaning by ChristianChristian

A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as Christ....
RomansRoman Empire

The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government....
through CassiodorusCassiodorus

Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and great writer, se...
. He stated the word barbarian was "made up of barba (beard) and rus (flat land); for barbarians did not live in cities, making their abodes in the fields like wild animals".

The female first name "BarbaraBarbara (given name)

Barbara is a female given name used in numerous languages....
" originally meant "A Barbarian woman", and as such was likely to have had a pejorative meaning - given than most such women in Graeco-Roman society were of a low social status (often being slaves). However, Saint BarbaraSaint Barbara

Saint Barbara, known as the Great Martyress in Orthodox churches, was a Christian saint and martyr, who flourished in the 3r...
is mentioned as being the daughter of rich and respectable Roman citizens. Evidently, by her time (about 300300

Events...
A.D according to Christian hagiographyHagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints....
, though some historians put the story much later) the name no longer had any specific ethnic or pejorative connotations.

The BerberBerber

Berber may refer to:*a member of the Berber people...
s of North AfricaNorth Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent....
were among the many peoples called "Barbarian" by the Romans; in their case, the name remained in use, having been adopted by the ArabArab

The Arabs are predominantly speakers of the Arabic language, rather than a pure ethnic group, mainly found throughout the ...
s (see Berber (Etymology)Facts About Berber (Etymology)

The term Berber is but a variation of the Latin original word Barbarian, earlier in history applied by Romans specifically...
and is still in use as the name for the non-Arabs in North Africa (though not by themselves). The geographical term Barbary or Barbary CoastBarbary Coast

The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans until the 19th century to refer to the coastal regions o...
, and the name of the Barbary piratesBarbary pirates

Though at least a proportion of them are better described as privateers, the Barbary pirates were pirates that operated ...
based on that coast (and who were not necessarily Berbers) were also derived from it.

Hellenic stereotype

Out of those sources the Hellenic stereotype was elaborated: barbarians are like children, unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly, effeminate, luxurious, cruel, unable to control their appetites and desires, politically unable to govern themselves. These stereotypes were voiced with much shrillness by writers like IsocratesIsocrates

Isocrates, Greek rhetorician, was one of the ten Attic orators....
in the 4th century BC who called for a war of conquest against PersiaPersian Empire

The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau and beyond....
as a panaceaPanacea Summary

In Greek mythology, Panaceia, or ?a???e?a, was the goddess of healing....
for Greek problems. Ironically, many of the former attributes were later ascribed to the Greeks, especially the Seleucid kingdom, by the Romans.

However, the Hellenic stereotype of barbarians was not a universal feature of Hellenic culture. XenophonXenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, was a soldier, mercenary and an admirer of Socrates and is known f...
, for example, wrote the CyropaediaCyropaedia (Xenophon)

Cyropaedia is a fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, written by the Athenian philosopher and historian, Xenophon....
, a laudatory fictionalised account of Cyrus the GreatCyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Persian Empire und...
, the founder of the Persian empire, effectively a utopiaUtopia Overview

'Utopia', in its most common and general positive meaning, refers to an imaginary, ideal civilization, which may range f...
n text. In his AnabasisAnabasis

The Greek term anabasis referred to an expedition from a coastline into the interior of a country....
, Xenophon's accounts of the Persians and other non-Greeks he knew or encountered hardly seem to be under the sway of these stereotypes at all.

The renowned oratorOrator

Orator is an originally Latin word for speaker. ...
DemosthenesFacts About Demosthenes

Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens....
made derogatory comments in his speeches, using the word "barbarian."

Barbarian is used in its Hellenic sense by St. PaulPaul of Tarsus

Paul of Tarsus, also known as Paul the Apostle or Saint Paul , is widely considered to be central to the early d...
in the New TestamentNew Testament

The New Testament , sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, and sometimes also New Covenant...
(RomansEpistle to the Romans Summary

The Epistle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible....
1:14) to describe non-Greeks, and to describe one who merely speaks a different language (1 CorinthiansFirst Epistle to the Corinthians

The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament....
14:11). The word is not used in these scriptures in the modern sense of "savageSavage

Savage has various meanings.For the notion of savage meaning "people without civilization", see:...
". The term retained its standard usage in the Greek languageGreek language

Greek has a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language within the Indo-European family....
throughout the Middle Ages, as it was widely used by the Byzantine GreeksByzantine Greeks

Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines or Romaioi, is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medi...
until the fall of the Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the...
in the 15th century.

Later developments, other cultures

Historically, the term barbarian has seen widespread use. Many peoples have dismissed alien cultures and even rival civilizations as barbarians because they were recognizably strange. The Greeks admired ScythiaScythia

Scythia comprised an area in Eurasia whose location and extent varied over time....
ns and Eastern GaulsGalatia

Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey....
as heroic individuals— even in the case of AnacharsisAnacharsis

Anacharsis was a Scythian philosopher who travelled from his homeland on the northern shores of the Black Sea to Athens in t...
as philosophers—but considered their culture to be barbaric. The RomansRoman Empire Overview

The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government....
indiscriminately regarded the various Germanic tribes, the settled GaulGaul

Gaul was the name given, in ancient times, to the region of Western Europe comprising present-day northern Italy, France, B...
s, and the raiding Huns as barbarians.

The Romans adapted the term to refer to anything non-Greco-Roman. The Persians saw the Greeks and later Romans and Arabs as inferior people with inferior and less civilized cultures and referred to them as "Soosk" or barbarians. The IndiaIndia

India , officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia....
ns referred to all alien cultures that were less civilized in ancient times as 'Mlechcha' or Barbarians. In the ancient texts Mlechchas are people who are barbaric and who have given up the VedicHinduism

Hinduism is a set of religious traditions that originated mainly in the Indian subcontinent....
beliefs.

The Chinese of the Chinese EmpireHistory of China

The history of China is detailed by historical records dating as far back as 16th century BC....
sometimes (depends on the dynasty, geographic location, and timeline) regarded the XiongnuXiongnu

The Xiongnu; were a nomadic people of Central Asia, generally based in present day Mongolia....
, TatarsTatars Overview

Tatars , often misspelled Tartar, is a collective name applied to the Turkic speaking people of Eastern Europe and Cen...
, Turks, Mongols, Jurchen, ManchuManchu

The Manchu are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria....
, JapaneseJapanese people

The are the people having identity as a Japanese....
, Koreans, and EuropeEurope

Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth....
ans as "barbaric". The Chinese used different terms for "barbarians" from different directions of the compass. Those in the east were called DongyiDongyi

Dongyi was a collective term for people in the east of China. People referred to as Dongyi vary across the ages. ...
(??), those in the west were called Xirong (??), those in the south were called NanmanNanman

Nanman was the rebel tribe in southwestern China during the Three Kingdoms Period....
(??), and those in the north were called BeidiBeidi

Beidi is a term which originally denoted an ancient ethnic group but is now used to refer to all non-Han ethnic groups in to...
(??). However, despite the conventional translation of such terms (especially ?) as "barbarian", in fact it is possible to translate them simply as 'outsider' or 'stranger', with far less offensive cultural connotations.

The Japanese adopted the ChineseChina Summary

China is a cultural region and ancient civilization in East Asia....
usage. When Europeans came to JapanJapan

is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of China, Korea, and Russia, stretching from...
, they were called nanban , literally Barbarians from the South, because the PortuguesePortugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic is located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and is the w...
ships appeared to sail from the South. The DutchNetherlands

The Netherlands is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , which is formed by the Netherlands, the Neth...
, who arrived later, were also called either nanban or komo , literally meaning "Red Hair."

In Mesoamerica the AztecAztec

The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries....
civilization used the word "ChichimecaChichimeca

Chichimeca was the name that the Mexica generically gave to a wide range of nomadic groups that inhabited the north of moder...
" to denominate a group of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes that lived in the outskirts of the Triple AllianceAztec Triple Alliance

The Aztec Triple Alliance also known as The Aztec Empire was an alliance of three Aztec city-states: Tenochtitlán, Tex...
's Empire, in the North of Modern Mexico, which were seen for the aztec people as primitive and uncivilized. One of the meanings attributed to the word "Chichimeca" is "dog people".

Converted barbarians have historically proved sometimes the staunchest supporters of the more developed culture they have recently subverted. Historic examples are the LombardsLombards Overview

The Lombards , were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire....
and the ManchuManchu

The Manchu are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria....
. "The best Romans," wrote Henry JamesHenry James

Henry James, OM, son of Henry James Sr....
, "are often northern barbarians." A running theme in all histories of China is that of the conquering outsiders who become utterly Chinese, sinicized: for the English-speaking world the outstandingly familiar example is Kublai KhanKublai Khan

Kublai Khan, Khubilai Khan or "the last of the Great Khans", was a Mongol military leader....
.

Italians in the RenaissanceRenaissance

In the traditional view, the Renaissance was understood as a historical age in Europe that followed the Middle Ages and ...
often called anyone who lived outside of their country a barbarian. The term has also been used to refer to people from Barbary, a region encompassing most of North AfricaNorth Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent....
. The name of the region, Barbary, comes from the Arabic word Barbar, possibly from the Latin word barbaricum, meaning "land of the barbarians".

Even today, barbarian is used to mean someone violent, primitive, uncouth or uncivilized in general, in very much the same disapproving and superior sense that Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament....
used the term in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which recounts how "the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians" a usage epitomized in Gibbon's :

Beyond the Rhine and Danube, the northern countries of Europe and Asia were filled with innumerable tribes of hunters and shepherds, poor, voracious, and turbulent; bold in arms, and impatient to ravish the fruits of industry. The Barbarian world was agitated by the rapid impulse of war; and the peace of Gaul or Italy was shaken by the distant revolutions of China.

Compare the modern usage of PhilistinePhilistinism

Philistinism is a derogatory term used to describe a particular attitude or set of values....
.

Functional definition

A non-pejorative, simply functional concept of *barbarian*, as sociologists have redefined the term, depends upon a carefully-defined use of "civilizationCivilization

The word civilization has a variety of meanings related to human society....
", denoting a settled, urbanCity Summary

A city is an urban area that is differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or ...
way of life that is organized on principles broader than the extended familyExtended family

Extended family is a term with several distinct meanings....
or tribe, in which surpluses of necessities can be stored and redistributed, and division of labor produces some luxury goodLuxury good

In economics, a luxury good is a good for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises, contrast with in...
s (even if only for gods and kings). The barbarian is technically a social parasiteParasitism (social offense)

Social parasite is a derogatory term denoting a member of society who is considered to be detrimental to others, by taking a...
on civilization, who depends on settlements as a source of slaves, surpluses and portable luxuries: booty, loot and plunder. In this limited sense, without cities there can be no barbarians.

The nomad subsists on the products of his flocks, and follows their needs. The nomad may barter for necessities, like metalwork, but does not depend on civilization for plunder, as the barbarian does. The culture of the nomadNomad

Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location....
is not to be confused with the barbarian. "Culture" should not simply connote "civilization": rich, deep authentic human cultureCulture Summary

The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning "to cultivate", generally refers to patterns of ...
exists even without civilization, as the German writers of the early Romantic generation first defined the opposing terms, though they used them as polarities in a way that a modern writer might not.

A famous quote from anthropologistAnthropology

Anthropology consists of the study of humanity ....
Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lvi-Strauss born November 28, 1908, is a French anthropologist who developed structuralism as a method of understand...
says: "The barbarian is the one who believes in barbary", a meaning like his metaphor in Race et histoire ("Race and history", UNESCO, 1952), that two cultures are like two different trains crossing each other: each one believes it has chosen the good direction. A broader analysis reveals that neither party 'chooses' their direction, but that their 'brutish' behaviors have formed out of necessity, being entirely dependent on and hooked to their surrounding geography and circumstances of birth.

Romantic and post-Romantic barbarians

The modern sympathetic admiration for such fantasy barbarians as Conan the BarbarianConan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional barbarian created by Robert E....
is a direct descendant of the Enlightenment idealization of the "noble savageNoble savage

In the 18th century culture of "Primitivism" the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization was considered ...
". The German Romantics (influenced by eighteenth century precursors such as Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Geneva-born philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolu...
) recharacterized the barbarian stereotype. Now it was the civilized Roman — or that modern Romanized Gaul, the Frenchman — who was effeminate and soft, and the stout-hearted German barbarian exemplified 'manly' virtue. The reforming of Arminius as "Hermann der Cherusker" the noble barbarian countering evil Rome provided a prototype from the 16th century16th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600....
onwards.

These fantasy barbarians are often represented as lone warriors, very different from the vibrant cultures on which they are based. Several characteristics are commonly shared:

Extreme physical prowess
Unmatched fighting skill
An appetite for, and the ability to attract, women thanks to his animal magnetismAnimal magnetism

Animal magnetism is the 18th century term for the supposed ethereal medium postulated by Franz Mesmer as a therapeutic agent...
(Or men in the case of female characters)
Ravenous meat eating (this fits several social norms. Nomadic peoples and military men often ate more meat because they were not in one place long enough to farm and harvest.)
An appetite for large amounts of alcoholFacts About Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substit...
- and the stamina to stave off its effects far more effectively than any civilized man
A blending of BritishGreat Britain

Great Britain is an island lying off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe and to the east of Ireland, comprising the ma...
, GermanicGermanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are groups of people identified by their use of the Germanic languages that are descended from Proto-Ge...
, SlavicSlavic peoples

The Slavic peoples are a linguistic and ethnic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Europe....
, and nomadic Turco-MongolTurco-Mongol

The Turco-Mongols were the aristocratic, nomadic, mostly Turkic-speaking horsemen of East Asian Mongol descent who served as...
cultures
A strong sorcery element that is almost never used by the barbarian character
A violent temper
A robust tolerance for pain

In fantasyFantasy Overview

Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting....
novels and role-playing games, barbarians (or berserkerBerserker

Berserkers were Norse warriors who had sworn allegiance to the god Odin and worked themselves into a frenzy before a battle....
s) are still depicted as brave uncivilized warriors, often able to attack with a crazed fury. Conan is the best known of the type.

Compare

EuropeanEuropean

European may mean:* A person or attribute of the continent of Europe...
, of or pertaining to the Occident, Europe, now also with pejorative connotations.

External links

, an excerpt from the Terry Jones' book.
, A humorous view of Barbarians
Andrew Lang, , The Making of Religion, Chapter XII (1900).
, Examples of Greek tribes being labeled Barbarians

Barbarian

Origin of the term

Hellenic stereotype

Later developments, other cultures

Functional definition

Romantic and post-Romantic barbarians

See also

Compare

Further reading

External links