Sans Sanity

Dancing And Sacred Groves: What Does It Mean To Be Mari? 

Photography project by Sergey Peteryaev

“The Mari El Republic in central Russia is home to the Mari people, an ethnic minority that proudly preserves its traditions. Sometimes described as “Europe’s last pagans,” locals speak a Finno-Ugric language and observe pre-Christian rituals, although some also follow the Russian Orthodox faith. The Mari religion centers on believers’ connections to nature, with rituals taking place in sacred forest groves. RFE/RL photographer Sergey Peteryaev asked Mari women to pose in traditional dress and describe their impressions of Mari identity, language, and faith.”

First row from left to right: 

1. Natalya Solovyova, 24, accountant. "I come from a Mari family. We have always spoken Mari at home, so I can speak it fluently, but I make mistakes in my writing. My parents were Russian Orthodox, but my grandparents used to go to the sacred groves. Holidays, especially family holidays, are the moments when I most clearly feel that I am Mari. There’s singing and dancing, and it’s not just a performance but real Mari tradition.“

2. Olesya Starikova, 33, ballet dancer. “My mother is pure Mari and my father is half Mari. What does it mean to be a Mari? It affects everything! Language, rituals, family. All those things make up the nation. Language plays a key role in understanding the Mari people’s connection with nature. It helps you express feelings that are difficult to speak about. Being a Mari means understanding the past and realizing who you are. My grandfather was very influential for me in this regard. He would give all his food to his children, leaving just scraps for himself. That’s what I understand as the meaning of being Mari. My husband and I bought a house so that our children would have a real home and feel attached to it. Living in an apartment is a totally different thing.”

3. Natalya Mochalova, 19, student. “I am 100 percent Mari, but I come from a Russian Orthodox family. However, my grandmother still performs a few traditional rites. I live in Mari El, which is important. I feel ashamed of those Mari people who are embarrassed by their origins and call themselves Russians. Nature is nothing but beauty for me. I just walk in the woods.”

Second row from left to right:

4. Olga Volkova, 28, choreography teacher. “For me, being a Mari means knowing the language and cuisine. Family is one of the key things in my life. I have special ties with nature. For example, if I felt unwell when I was a child I lay down under a birch tree and fell asleep. It was very peaceful.”

5. Yekaterina Ivaikova, 22, dancer. “My father is Mari and my mother is [ethnic] Russian. The family is Russian Orthodox, which is usual in Mari El. I don’t feel that I am Mari because I don’t speak the language. I think you can find a real Mari only in a village. But I do feel a connection with nature. Sometimes I feel the urge to go and meditate in the forest. When I go to sleep in the city, I put on a recording of sounds of the forest.”

6. Svetlana Davydova, 24, student and ballet dancer. “My mother is Mari, so I understand the language, but I can barely speak it. I currently don’t go to the sacred groves but I have been there a few times. I don’t have time for it, although I feel close to nature. When I am in Chuvashia [neighboring Mari El] I tell everyone that I am Mari, and when I am in Mari El, it’s vice versa. However, I feel that I’m more of a Mari because of the history of the people. When I come to the forest, I want to touch the trees, especially if I expect something important to happen.”

Third row from left to right:

7. Tatyana Kudyashova, 19, student. “I speak Mari, but I don’t feel any particular connection to nature or the Mari people. I haven’t given much thought to being Mari. Maybe I will in the future.”

8. Anastasia Galiyeva, 19, student. “I’m fluent in Mari because my mother teaches it. We used to live in Tatarstan near a Mari village where they study the language. I have never attended a traditional rite. When you live outside the Mari culture, you start forgetting the rites. When I was a child, I was embarrassed to speak Mari. Now it’s different. I speak it all the time. I don’t think about our connection with nature too often, but I feel calmer in the forest than in the city.”

So, sometime last year (?) science invented Vantablack, which is the darkest possible shade of black. Art world got incredibly excited. But as it needs to be very carefully made in a lab, it’s hard to get a hold of, and is extremely expensive. Enter Anish Kapoor, aka FuckFace McGee. Anish Kapoor buys the rights to Vantablack. He is the only human being on the planet that can legally use it, and he’s kind of a prick about it.

Art world is not thrilled with that.

Enter Stuart Semple.

Stuart Semple is an artist, and also makes pigments to sell in his free time. Stuart Semple is astoundingly pissed about this Vantablack nonsense, and Anish Kapoor’s dickery. Stuart Semple makes a new pigment, the brightest shade of pink ever, called Pinkest Pink, and puts it for sale on the internet. To be bought by everybody except Anish Kapoor. Literally, to purchase, you need to confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, do not associate with him, and will not sell or give the pigment to Anish Kapoor or his associates. Art world has a good laugh, everyone buys Pinkest Pink because it’s awesome, and damn it we deserve something.

Anish Kapoor however is a penis, and will not take this lying down, because HOW DARE he not have literally everything.

Anish Kapoor gets his London associates to buy him a thing of Pinkest Pink, and being such a classy human being, posts a picture to instagram of him with his middle finger covered in Pinkest Pink, captioned with “Up yours. #pink”

Everyone flips shit, because. Y’know. Fuck that guy. Especially Stuart Semple. For context here, Anish Kapoor is one of the richest artists on the planet, and has repeatedly been referred to as everything wrong with the art world, and the epitome of the art worlds elitism problem. He’s a giant douchebag. Meanwhile Stuart Semple makes pigments just to get them out there. He turns 0 profit from his now enourmously popular pigments.

Stuart Semple launches an investigation as to who the fuck leaked Pinkest Pink, and plans to strike back. He does so by releasing two new products. First is Diamond Dust, which is a glitter made from glass, so that a painting is still visible after it’s applied, but glitters like a mofo. It’s the most reflective glitter out there, and is available to everyone who isn’t Anish Kapoor. And it being made of glass, if you stick your finger in there, it’s going to hurt quite a bit, so that was Stuart Semple’s way of saying “shove your middle finger in this, asshole, see what happens”. Except without saying that, because he can get an insult across while still being fucking classy.

He also releases Black 2.0, created with the help of over a thousand artists worldwide.

Black 2.0 is the answer to Vantablack. Black 2.0 is a slightly less black black, but looks functionally the same to the human eye. It’s completely safe, smells like cherries, and costs four pounds. Vantablack is highly toxic, potentially explosive, needs to be applied in a special laboratory and sealed properly, can’t be moved across borders, can reach 300 degrees celsius if you’re not extremely careful, and costs thousands of dollars. Anish Kapoor is the only human being who can use Vantablack. He is the only human being who cannot use Black 2.0.

So I think we can guess who got the better deal.

And thus the feud ends, Kapoor defeated.

…But not quite.

Kapoor, in this entire afair, has made exactly two comments to the public. The first being his charming message about aquiring Pinkest Pink, the second being claiming to Buzzfeed that he and his small army of lawyers will be suing Semple, an extremely poor artist who cannot afford a lawyer.

No lawsuit has been made yet, fyi.

The point is, Kapoor is a prick, and doesn’t like talking to the lower classes. So one day in July 2017, he decides he needs another floor on his London studio apartment, and starts making arrangements to have it built. His neighbors are fucking pissed, because this will ruin the light of their apartments. They call to Semple to save them, or at the very least piss Kapoor off some more.

Semple answers to the call, and releases two new paints, Phaze and Shift, as always, banned to Kapoor. They change colours, Phaze with temperature, and Shift is just iridescent. Shift needs to be painted over Black 2.0 to work, and Phaze just works on its own.

So that’s been the art world for the last two years.

1. “Anish Kapoor is however a penis” is the best line in this post.

Arguably one of the most recognisable parts of Ancient Rome is the war-machine itself, the Roman legion. With the legions and individual legionaries skyrocketing into the limelight within modern culture, the weaponry has become instantly identifiable. This brings us to the Roman gladius, the weapon of choice for Rome from around 216 BCE to the end of the second century CE. The gladius was, in earnest, a solely assault sword designed specifically around dealing devastating piercing thrusts while the legionary would defend with the scutum. The short nature of the weapon combined with the pronounced distal taper - meaning the blade thickness narrows from hilt to tip - means formation fighting within a shield wall is exquisitely effective for swift, fatal stabs.

Firstly, the gladius is not an original Roman design in the slightest. Roman records, specifically Appian of Alexandria and Polybius (although the latter shares some biases with Livy, who also contributed), tell us that Roman legionaries first encountered a gladius styled weapon against the Iberian and Gallic (Celtiberian) mercenaries employed by Hannibal at Cannae in 216 BCE. This would only be exacerbated by the Roman conquest of Iberia up until 206 BCE when Hispania is finally tamed. The Romans already had a familiarity with the Greek “xiphos”, a double-edged thrusting sword with a leaf-shaped blade for enhanced power thrusting and slashing potential.

This, combined with the Iberian usage of the falcata and other general short swords was the genesis for the Gladius Hispaniensis, the heaviest of the gladii with a full length typically around 75-85 cm.

The Hispaniensis style would remain popular throughout the Republic and early Empire until between 20-10 BCE. At this point, three new patterns of gladius appear at times that are unclear. They are as follows: the Mainz style, Fulham style, and Pompeii style. The Mainz style was likely the continuation of the Hispaniensis and became shorter and lost the leaf shape rendering the sword now at 65-70 cm. The Mainz style, having been developed in the German provinces, was incredibly popular and successful in the northern campaigns, but failed to spread to the rest of the Empire. The Fulham style has only been found in England and must be dated after 43 CE, the Roman invasion of Britannia and seems to be a fusion of the Mainz and Hispaniensis, stays short like the Mainz, but is not as wide and takes a more aggressive triangular tip. The length for a Fulham style tends to be around 65-70 cm. Some to be aware of in the picture below is that the Mainz gladius absolutely would not have had the leaf shape that they show. Only the Hispaniensis would have retained this.

Lastly is the most recognisable form of the gladius (and the most popular in the Empire) but also has no definitive date. It absolutely had to have been developed before 79 CE when Pompeii was wiped off the face of the Earth but spread throughout the entire Empire around the same time the Mainz and Fulham were around. Pompeiian gladii can be found from Jerusalem to Britannia and seem to have been the go-to weapon of choice for Roman infantry for a variety of reasons. 

The Pompeii gladius was significantly shorter than the others at a mere 60-65 cm and loses the entire vicious triangle and settles for a much tamer tip, but retains the width and general shape from the Fulham. The Romans, an impossibly practical people, probably entertained the Pompeii style more as it was sturdier, perfect for the formation tactics already used, and was a generally a powerful slashing and thrusting weapon suitable for almost any close combat situations. Later, as tactics move more towards mobile strategic forces, the Pompeii gets longer and becomes a semi-spatha before the spatha is fully adopted with Diocletian’s sweeping military reforms around 290 CE.

An important piece to note is that gladii were not standardised at all and it was theoretically possible to see every different style of gladius in the same legion. I find it more probable that the gladius style was more based on location and time period, but the lack of standardised forging meant that it was likely up to personal preference. In the picture below, from Legio XXI Rapax (@ them at legioxxirapax for source), we can see three distinctly different styles of gladius which probably would not have been uncommon. 

Furthermore, the composition of gladii is something not often mentioned. Every gladius would have had some form of a diamond ridge to strengthen the ability to thrust and a guard cap to strengthen the area where the tang meets the grip itself. The gladius was absolutely not used for defence (why defend with a sword if you’ve got a big ole shield?) and was a strictly offensive weapon which is why there is no crossguard or even an attempt at defensive sword techniques.

[pre-gifs] “…So, she [Paris Hilton] was a very wealthy woman, [initially] not that well known and then she gets to mega-stardom. How? The sex tape. Which was made by her boyfriend at the time, who was married, and thirteen years her senior. She sued to try and stop it [the tape’s circulation] and she couldn’t and it became the best selling sex tape for two years on the porn market.”

Trump is exploding the deficit using failed Republican policies, and tariffs that are antithetical to free trade economics.