Croat
Webpages concerning "Croat"
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Wikipedia-Article "Croat"
| Croats | |
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| Total population: | > 5 million (2005 est.) |
| Significant populations in: | Croatia: 4,028,300 (2005 est.) 3,977,171 (2001 census) Austria: |
| Language: | Croatian |
| Religion: | Predominantly Roman Catholic. Also Orthodox, Muslim and Atheist minorities. |
| Related ethnic groups: | Slavs South Slavs |
Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a south Slavic people mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There is a notable Croat diaspora in western Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Croats are predominantly Catholic and their language is Croatian.
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Locations
Croatia is the nation state of the Croats, while in the adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina they are one of the constitutive nations.
Autochthonous Croat minorities exist in:
- Vojvodina in northern Serbia
- Boka Kotorska in western Montenegro
- Burgenland in the eastern part of Austria
The population numbers are reasonably accurate domestically: a bit under four million in Croatia and around 600,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Abroad, the count is approximated due to incomplete statistical records and naturalization but estimates suggest that there are around 1.5 to 2.0 million Croats living abroad. The largest emigrant groups are in western Europe: primarily Germany, where the emigrant community groups estimate around 450,000 people with direct Croatian ancestry. Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom etc follow.
Overseas, the Americas contain the largest Croatian emigration: the United States (409,458 in the 1990 census, mostly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California) and Canada (southern Ontario), as well as smaller groups in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. There is also notable Croat population in Australia (Perth, Melbourne, Sydney) and New Zealand as well as South Africa.
The foremost organization of the Croatian diaspora is the Croatian Fraternal Union.
It should be noted that the domestic population number includes a non-negligible amount of people who don't actually live in Croatia all year: instead, they live work in a nearby European country during large parts of the year, returning home for the holiday seasons (and the census, obviously).
History
The origin of the Croat tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. One theory suggests they are descended from ancient Persia (cf. Alans). The earliest mention of the Croatian name, Horoathos, can be traced on two stone inscriptions in Greek language and script, dating from around the year 200 AD, found in the seaport Tanais on the Azov sea, Crimea peninsula (near the Black Sea). Both tablets are kept in the Archaeological museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
In the 7th century, the Croat tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (what was referred to as the White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps.
For the rest of the history of the Croats, please see history of Croatia.
Genetics
Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>87%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups -- Haplogroup I (38%), Haplogroup R1a 35% and Haplogroup R1b 16% [1]. All three groups migrated to Europe during the upper paleolithic around 30,000-20,000 BC. Later, neolithic lineages, originating in the Mid East and that brought agriculture to Europe, are present in surprisingly low numbers.
The haplogroups J, E and G constitute together less than 10% - significantly lower than other populations in the region. Furthermore the dominant presence of haplogroup I is rather interesting. This group exists in Europe only and is fairly wide-spread, but in relatively small percentages. The only populations that have similar levels of the I group are Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders. [2].
There are a number of relevant conclusions that can be drawn from the genetic data.
First of all it gives strong support to the theory that the region of modern day Croatia served as a refuge for northern populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). After the LGM there was a migration to the north of the people whose offspring today form a significant portion of the three mentioned Scandinavian populations. The groups that stayed put are the ancestors of about 38% of modern day Croats. The second conclusion that can be drawn is that the theory of a Persian origin has no genetic support. Persians have a significantly different haplogroup distribution and a relatively small percentage of the Croats belong to one of the haplogroups that is common in the Mid East. The low frequency of these groups is consistent with the minor migration of neolithic farmers from the Mid East that occurred around 10,000 years ago.
And the third conclusion is that modern-day Croats may not have that much genetically in common with the Croats of proto-Slavic origin. The R1a haplogroup that is usually at 40-60% levels in most Eastern European countries is at 35% within the Croat population. Bottom line is that the genetic evidence points to that there was a high degree of merging with the indigenous populations that were in the region of modern day Croatia.
Croatian cuisine
Croatian cuisine is heterogeneous, and is therefore known as "the cuisine of regions". Its modern roots date back to Proto-Slavic and ancient periods and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable between those on the mainland and those in coastal regions. Mainland cuisine is more characterized by the earlier Proto-Slavic and the more recent contacts with the more famous gastronomic orders of today - Hungarian, Viennese and Turkish - while the coastal region bears the influences of the Greek, Roman and Illyrian, as well as of the later Mediterranean cuisine - Italian and French.
A large body of books bears witness to the high level of gastronomic culture in Croatia, which in European terms dealt with food in the distant past, such as the Gazophylacium by Belostenec, a Latin-Kajkavian dictionary dating from 1740 that preceded a similar French dictionary. There is also Beletristic literature by Marulic, Hektorovic, Drzic and other writers, down to the work written by Ivan Bierling in 1813 containing recipes for the preparation of 554 various dishes (translated from the German original), and which is considered to be the first Croatian cookery book.