Culture
Historically most Votes were farmers. Slash and burn (sardo) was practiced until the early 20th century. Cattle, horses and geese were the most important livestock. Some made their living from fishing. Many primitive fishing habits survived a long time in Votic communities, such as fishing with a club or spear. Seine fishing was practiced during the winter. Votians formed seine groups (artelli) and made fishing trips as far as the Finnish outer islands like Seskar. Fishermen lived in wooden sleds called (pudka) during these trips. Hunting was never an important source of income, because local nobility had reserved the right to hunt to themselves. Since St. Petersburg was so close to Votic homelands, many of the Votes went working there. Men worked in factories and women worked as servants. This contributed to rapid demise of Votic culture.
Votes were quite poorly educated, and only one Vote, Dmitri Tsvetkov, is known to have ever attended and graduated from a University. Ancient Votic religion is not known well, but it is assumed that it was similar to other Finnic-beliefs.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“All our civilization had meant nothing. The same culture that had nurtured the kindly enlightened people among whom I had been brought up, carried around with it war. Why should I not have known this? I did know it, but I did not believe it. I believed it as we believe we are going to die. Something that is to happen in some remote time.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)
“When a culture feels that its end has come, it sends for a priest.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting the progress of the arts and the sciences and a flourishing culture in our land.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)