Discover

'Hellenization' (or ''Hellenisation'') is a term used to describe a growing cultural influence of Hellenistic civilization. It was most prominently achieved under Alexander III of Macedon who spread Greek language, culture and religion to the lands he conquered. The result, some elements of Greek origin combined in various forms and degrees with other elements taken from conquered civilizations, is known as Hellenism.

Contents

Historic usage

Modern usage

De-Hellenization

Philosophical De-Hellenization

Re-Hellenization

See also

Notes

Historic usage

The term is used in a number of historical contexts, starting with the hellenization of the earliest inhabitants of the Greece mainland, the Pelasgians, the Leleges, the Lemnians, the Eteocypriots in Cyprus, Eteocretans and Minoans in Crete, prior to the Classical antiquity period, as well as the Sicels, Elymians, Sicani in Sicily and the Oenotrians, Brutii, Lucani, Messapii and many others in what was about to be known as Magna Graecia.
During the classical period, there was the hellenization of the Thracians, Dardanians, Paionians and Illyrians^[1], south of the Jireček Line.
In the Hellenistic times, the Macedonians – following the death of Alexander – hellenized the Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, Armenians and a number of other smaller ethnic groups along the Middle East and Central Asia. The Bactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), were hellenized during the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of the Asian Subcontinent (modern Pakistan) during the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Even today there are several ethnic groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan that claim descent from the Greeks (see Kalasha).
Hellenized people variously adopted Greek language, alphabet, customs, and philosophy.
Hellenization also refers of the Byzantine Empire from Constantine's founding of Constantinople and the primacy of Greek culture and the Greek language under the emperor Heraclius in the seventh century.

Modern usage

The modern use is in connection with the policies pursuing cultural harmonization and education of the linguistic minorities resident within the modern Greek state (the Hellenic Republic) in relation to Turks, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Arvanites, Slavic-speaking peoples (addressed as "Slavophone Greeks"), Roma. However, the ''Greek Helsinki Monitor'' reports: "Greece, like all other Balkan countries, has traditionally followed assimilatory policies and/or has discriminated against its citizens with a minority religious, ethnonational or ethnolinguistic identity. This despite the fact that almost all international treaties since Greek independence in 1830 included clauses for the protection of its minorities. The (Balkan or World) wars of this century, along with the resulting bilateral agreements with Bulgaria and Turkey to exchange the respective minority populations, contributed to the substantial cleansing of the current territory of the Greek state from most of its non-Greek populations" and "Acknowledging the presence of Turks, let alone Macedonians, in the country is widely perceived as a near-treason, and may lead to castigation, persecution or even prosecution of those who make such arguments."[1].
After the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, Greece embarked on a policy of constructing an educational environment that would be open towards all peoples resident in Greece, thus ensuring that their cultural diversities would be celebrated within a stable, democratic and sophisticated platform. The said vision was addressed indiscriminately towards ethnic Greek, as well as various nomadic and constantly migrating Balkan populations that had settled throughout Greece and were lacking basic reading and writing skills.

De-Hellenization

'De-Hellenization' (or ''De-Hellenisation'') is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something Greek becomes non-Greek (non-Hellenic). The process can either be voluntary, or, commonly, applied with varying degrees of force.
Through history, the term has been used in connection with the Islamization and eventual Turkification of some Greek populations in the Ottoman Empire, as well as with the slavicised Greek inhabitants in the Balkans (see Slavophone Greeks) and the Aromanians, who are considered by the Greek government as Latin-speaking Greeks since at least 84 Vlach associations located throughout Greece (the membership of the Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs) claim that the Vlachs are Greeks speaking a Latin-based language [2], [3].
In recent times, it has been used in connection with the Second World War and the triple occupation of Greece [4], the Enver Hoxha's regime in Albania [5] (a country with a large Greek minority in the southern part of the country) [6] and with the Greek Muslims.

Philosophical De-Hellenization

De-Hellenization can also refer to the rejection of classical Greek philosophy in Western civilization. It was most notably used in this sense by Pope Benedict XVI in a lecture he gave in Regensburg in 2006. Pope Benedict sees the process of de-Hellenization as occurring in several stages. The first stage took place during the Reformation, when the Reformers saw Catholicism as being too greatly influenced by Greek philosophy. They developed the teaching of sola scriptura in an effort to reduce this influence. The second stage consisted of the liberal theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which sought to secularize Christianity by eliminating from it many theological and philosophical elements. The third stage, inspired by cultural pluralism, and which is now in progress, seeks to make Christianity more available to different cultures by eliminating from it influences, such as Greek philosophy, which are not considered to be integral to Christianity, but merely historical accidents; thus, instead of Greek philosophy, other local influences may make themselves felt in different parts of the world.^[2]

Re-Hellenization

'Re-Hellenization' (or ''Re-Hellenisation'') is a term used to describe a cultural change in which something which had been originally Greek, becomes Greek again, after a period of time in which it was not Greek (''De-Hellenization''). The process can either be voluntary, or applied with varying degrees of force.
The term is used in a number of contexts, regarding the re-hellenization of the southern Slavic population in the Balkans^[3] in the Byzantine times. Greek^[4] and international^[5] authors have also used the term with regard to the territories the Greek state annexed from the Ottoman Empire. John Shea in particular attributes a major part in the re-hellenization process to the Greek Orthodox Church ⁵.
In modern times, it has been used in connection with governmental policies and exchanges among the linguistic and cultural minorities in Greece in relation to Arvanites^[6] , Aromanians⁶, Megleno-Romanians⁶, and Slavophone Greeks⁶. Arguably, the term can be used for the Kalasha tribe in Pakistan, that claims descent from the Greeks of Alexander the Great, and where Greek volunteers (with the help of the Greek government) have built 5 schools.[7]. Regarding the Vlachs of Greece (Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians) in particular, their origins are disputed. It should be noted though that the Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs (Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Πολιτιστικών Συλλόγων Βλάχων), a federation of at least 84 Vlach associations located throughout Greece, on the 28th February 2001 voted that ''we the Vlach-speaking Greeks do not request recognition from out state as a minority because both historically and culturally we were and are an integral part of the Greek nation'' [8]. Other Vlach associations (from Romania, Albania, Republic of Macedonia, and especially the ones from the Diaspora) reject the idea of a Greek origin for Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians. The existence of Vlachs in Albania claiming a Greek identity has been reported though: they are invited by Vlachs of Greece in their festivals, and receive help from them to rebuild churches or in the form of other necessary assistance to Vlach villages in Albania. On the contrary, no links exist with the Vlachs in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as there do not appear to be many who claim the Greek identity there [9].

See also

★ Albanization

★ Arabization

★ Romanianization

★ Turkification

★ Bulgarisation

★ Grecomans

Notes

1. Stanley M Burstein, Walter Donlan, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts, Sarah B Pomeroy, "''A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture''", Oxford University Press, p. 255
2. Meeting with the representatives of science at the University of Regensburg, Pope Benedict XVI, September 12, 2006
3. István Vásáry, "''Cumans and Tatars. Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185–1365''", Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest
4. ''Greece in the Twentieth Century'', Theodore A. Couloumbis, Frank Cass Publishers (15 Sep 2003). ISBN 0-7146-8340-X
5. Macedonia and Greece: The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, John Shea, McFarland & Company (23 May 1996). ISBN 0-7864-0228-8
6. Haris Exertzoglou, "Shifting Boundaries: language, community and the 'non-Greek speaking Greeks'"