From Etymological Nuances to the Integration of Scientific Disciplines: A Reply

Abstract

The author summarizes and responds to the critical comments on his article “On the Origin of Ethnonym Rus’ and of the Rurikid Lineage: A Look at the Slavo-Finno-Scandinavian Frontier of the 9th–11th Centuries AD from the Point of View of Kinship Studies”. He advances new arguments and maps out future research venues. He continues to criticize the widely spread interpretations of the ethnonym Rus’ as “the ones who row” or the “red-haired ones” and underscores the specificity of the formal development of deictic forms of language. He acknowledges the conflicting nature of ancient written sources and the overlap between different ethnonymic traditions. The evolution of terms of kinship and affinity into ethnonyms is frequently observed in ancient Europe and may have been the source of other ethnonyms such as Slavs and Suomi. Ancient relationships of marital and dynatic exchange lurk behind these ethnonyms. The reconstruction of ancient forms of social organization can be made possible by means of integration between ethnology, linguistics, archaeology and population genetics.