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"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 Civilization , or in an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person whose behaviour is unacceptable in the society of the speaker. While the latter sense is almost always pejorative, the former one has not invariably been so, as described below. ORIGIN OF THE TERM The word "Barbarian" comes into English from Medieval Latin ', from Latin ', from Latin '''', from the ancient Greek word which meant a Non-Greek , someone whose (first) language was not Greek. 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 , Babble or Rhubarb in modern English. Related imitative forms are found in other Indo-European Languages , such as Sanskrit ''barbara-,'' "stammering" or "curly-haired". Originally the term was empty of content beyond 'not Greek'. The Greeks encountered scores of different Foreign cultures, including the Thracians , Egyptians , Persians , Indians , Celt s, Germans , Phoenicia ns, Etruscan s, Roman s, and Carthaginians . These cultures varied widely, but all were termed 'barbarians'. It was not the case that Greeks automatically despised all alien cultures. Plato (''Statesman'' 262de) rejected the Greek–barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group. In Homer 's works the term appeared only once ('' Iliad '' 2.867), in the form ''barbarophonos'' ("of incomprehensible speech"), used of the Caria ns fighting for Troy during the Trojan War . In general the concept of ''barbaros'' did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th Century BC . A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the Greco-Persian Wars in the first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast Achaemenid Empire . Indeed in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to mean Persia n. In the wake of this victory they began to see themselves as superior militarily, politically and culturally. A stereotype developed in which hardy Greeks live as free men in city-states where politics are a communal possession, whereas among the womanish barbarians everyone beneath the Great King is no better than his slave. This marks the birth of the cultural view termed " Orientalism ". A parallel factor was the growth of '' Politics '' 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 '' Logos '', so speaking poorly was easily conflated with being stupid—an association not of course limited to ancient Greeks. Further changes occurred in the connotations of ''barbarus'' in or Persia , while bishops were appointed to supervise entire peoples among the less settled. Eventually the term found a hidden meaning by Christian Romans through Cassiodorus . 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". Arno Borst, ''Medieval Worlds: Barbarians, Heretics and Artists in the Middle Ages'', London: Polity, 1991, page 3. MARXISM In Marxism , barbarity, along with wildness and civilization, is considered one of the states of society. It is superior to wildness and inferior to civilization. It is characterized by domestication of animals, metalworking and simple religious cults. 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 Isocrates in the 4th Century BC who called for a war of conquest against Persia as a Panacea 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. Xenophon , for example, wrote the '' Cyropaedia '', a laudatory fictionalised account of Cyrus , the founder of the Persian empire, effectively a Utopia n text. In his '' Anabasis '', 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 Orator Demosthenes made derogatory comments in his speeches, using the word "barbarian." ''Barbarian'' is used in its Hellenic sense by ". The term retained its standard usage in the Greek Language throughout the Middle Ages, as it was widely used by the Byzantine Greeks until the fall of the Byzantine Empire 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 Scythia ns and Eastern Gauls as heroic individuals— even in the case of Anacharsis as philosophers—but considered their culture to be barbaric. The Romans indiscriminately regarded the various Germanic Tribes , the settled Gaul s, and the raiding Hun s 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 India ns referred to all alien cultures that were less civilized in ancient times as 'Mlechcha' or Barbarians. In the ancient texts Mlechcha s are people who are barbaric and who have given up the Vedic beliefs. The Chinese ( Han Chinese ) of the Chinese Empire sometimes (depends on the dynasty, geographic location, and timeline) regarded the Xiongnu , Tatars , Turks , Mongol s, Jurchen , Manchu , Japanese , Koreans , and European s as barbaric. The Chinese used different terms for barbarians from different directions of the compass. Those in the east were called Dongyi (東夷), those in the west were called Xirong (西戎), those in the south were called Nanman (南蠻), and those in the north were called Beidi (北狄). However, despite the conventional translation of such terms (especially 夷) 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 Chinese usage. When Europeans came to Japan , they were called '' Nanban '' (), literally ''Barbarians from the South'', because the Portuguese ships appeared to sail from the South. The Dutch , who arrived later, were either also called "nanban" or Kōmō", , literally meaning "Red Hair". In Mesoamerica the Aztec civilization used the word " Chichimeca " to denominate a group of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes that lived in the outskirts of the Triple Alliance '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 . Italians in the Renaissance 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 Africa . 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 Gibbon 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 Book I, chapter 38 : 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.
In Fantasy novels and Role-playing Games , barbarians (or Berserker s) are still depicted as brave uncivilized warriors, often able to attack with a crazed fury. Conan is simply best known of the type. Among the oddest of these fantasy barbarians is comic book character Cerebus . Originally presented as a spoof of Conan, the character meets all the necessary elements of the fantasy barbarian save the fact he is a 3 foot tall Aardvark . Cerebus ran 300 issues and moved away from, but never completely abandoned his barbarian roots. NOTES SEE ALSO
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