From: ehlsmith
Message: 23200
Date: 2003-06-13
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" <alxmoeller@...> wrote:
....
> In the time we speak about, the one of the slavic migration, what
could
> mean at that time "searching for a better life"? The existence of
people
> in the "barbaricum" was mainly agriculture and bread of animals and
of
> course fishing/hunting. (we have to agree at least for the curtesy
of
> accepted terms that everything outisde of Latin/Greek world was
called
> barbarian). I don't see something more in that time and it was all
> necesary for a population to live.On this statement, pretty
depending on
> what the respectively population has specialised itself, we can see
the
> danger for survying. In this case danger could have two natures ,
> economical and military (I exclude the religios factor in Europe for
> that time)
> Economical:
> -natural catastrofes which made imposible to cultive the land or to
> bread the animals
> -insuficience of fish/animals for fishing/hunting.
> These are the factors of food which, when they occure, then it can
be
> assumed a population will be ready to migrate somewhere else, even
if
> not with the idea to migrate forever, but with the chanse to migrate
> indeed forever.
>
> Military:
> The another factor is the military menance of other population which
> will determine them to move due the feeling of unsecurity or simply
> because they are forced to do it. Motto: "Me strong, you weak, you
> leave."
>
> For the period of time we are speaking about there cannot be other
> factors IMHO.
>
Alex,
I believe you are disregarding a very strong tendency of any
agricultural group existing at a subsistence level to expand whenever
given the opportunity, because they usually have a reproduction rate
higher than the carrying capacity of the land (i.e. the danger many
individuals face is starvation, even if the whole community as a
group is not in danger of starvation.) Normally this is kept in
equilibrium by the presence of competing groups also needing land. So
perhaps the question is not why did the Slavs expand then, but rather
what permitted the Slavs to expand at that time? Population loss in
the Byzantine Empire because of the Plague of Justinian and following
epidemics comes to mind as a contributing factor.
George, do you think this might be a plausible hypothesis?
Ned Smith