Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Employees of the Center of Anthropology of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of ANAS are studying the modern ethno-cultural and ethno-social status of the peoples belonging to the "Shahdag" group.

A group of employee led by Aliagha Mammadli, a director of the Center of Anthropology, Dr. Anthropology, has gathered information about Hapit people belonging to “Shahdag group”, in August 2019.

The main purpose of the expedition was to study the modern ethno-cultural and ethno-social processes among minority ethnic groups living in polyethnic areas. During surveys, interviews, carrying out among hapit people is mainly focused on issues such as ethnic identity, historical memory, native language functionality, and interactions with neighboring ethnic groups.

The Hapit people have historically moved to lowland areas for various reasons and have now laid the foundations of several villages in Ismayilli, Gabala and Aghdash. It should be noted that in the Ismayilli region there is also a village called Hapitli. Researches have shown that the population of this village is aware of the “Azerbaijani” identity and that Azerbaijani is the main communication language among the villagers.

It is known that the Hapit language belongs to the Lezghian subgroup of the Nakh-Dagestan group of the North Caucasian family of languages. Some researchers believe this language is a dialect of the Griz language. According to them, these dialects also include the languages spoken by the inhabitants of Elik and Jek villages. Surveys and interviews in the villages mentioned during the expedition confirm that these languages are indeed related and that the inhabitants of these villages understand each other. However, representatives of these linguistic communities do not refer to themselves as a single ethnic group. In other words, in terms of ethnic identity, Hapit people refer to their ethnicity as different from that of the Griz.

The collected data and analyze do not provide a basis for referring Griz and Hapit people to the same ethnos.

Studies show that in a large part of ethnic groups, there is a certain degree of ethnic identity. This also applies to research of Hapit people. In addition to identifying their ethnicity, these respondents also perceive themselves as an integral part of the Azerbaijani ethnicity. Respondents' responses confirm that these ethnic groups have preserved the essential elements of their ethnic culture. This is especially true in language behavior. It is no coincidence that during the regional studies, the use of native language among Hapit people has been the subject of surveys and interviews.

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