Macedonians (ethnic Group) - Origins

Origins

The question of Macedonian origins depends on which aspect is examined. Linguistically, the Slavic languages from which Macedonian developed are thought to have expanded in the region during the post-Roman period, although the exact mechanisms of this linguistic expansion remains a matter of scholarly discussion. Many aspects of Macedonian culture developed during the rule of Medieval Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires which alternately controlled the region. Certain of these cultural aspects developed within Macedonia itself, becoming a cradle of Slav Orthodox Culture. Anthropologically, Macedonians possess genetic lineages postulated to represent Balkan prehistoric and historic demographic processes. Such lineages are also typically found in other South Slavs, especially Bulgarians, Serbs, Bosnians, Montenegrins, but also to the northern Greeks and Romanians.

Traditional historiography has equated the appearance of Sclaveni (independent tribal polities) with postulated Slavic migrations. However, more recent anthropological and archaeological perspectives have viewed the appearance of Slavs in Macedonia, and throughout the Balkans in general, as part of a broad and complex process of transformation of the cultural, political and ethno-linguistic Balkan landscape after the collapse of Roman authority. That movements of the population groups known as the Sclaveni and the Antes, who initially dwelt beyond the Danube, contributed to this process is not denied, however, such migration was actually rather small scale and not the cause per se for the ethno-linguistic transformation of the formerly Roman provincial populace.

Subsequently, the Sclaveni in Macedonia were incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire, and eventually, Kutmichevitsa became the second political and cultural center of Medieval Bulgaria.