The Culture Of The Karelian People

The Karelian people are a Baltic-Finnic ethnic group who inhabit north western Russia and south eastern Finland, and most of the lands that cover the borders of these two countries, Karelian consists of 5 developing languages and is very similar to Finnish in which it shares a common ancestry, and could be considered to be a dialect of Finnish. The population of the Karelian people in the Russian federation alone as of 2010 is estimated at 25,600, while the sum amount of speakers in all countries is 35,600 (ethnography, 2010) a relatively small amount compared to Russian and Finnish speaking people. There are several different subgroups of Karelians that vary based on linguistic traditions, material and customary geographic distinctions. Karelians are closely related to the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, and the Seto people of south eastern Estonia as well as the people of Livonia, an ethnic group of northern Latvia. The Karelian way of life is based on traditional agriculture which create family ties and interfamilial relationships through arranged marriages creating power structures. Karelians are also remarkable craftsman and have been known as master woodworkers since the beginning of their history and have created some of Europe’s finest wooden architecture. The homeland of Karelians is in the region of Lake Ladoga. Dating back to the 5th century, it is a region that is rich in natural resources. The region of Karelia covers a vast 260,000 square kilometers,