Dezevaunis

Dezevaunis

dezevauni
Total population
~350 million
Regions with significant populations
Dezevau	290 million
Lavana	30 million
Mabifia	6 million
Languages
Ziba
Religion
Predominantly irreligion, Badi and Sotirianity (Solarian Catholic Church)
Related ethnic groups
Gowsa

Dezevaunis (or, as a collective noun, Dezevauni) (Ziba: dezevauni [dəzəb̪aɯni]) are an ethnic group or group of related ethnic groups, numbering about 350 million people. If counted as one, they are the second largest ethnic group in the world (after Shangeans). Dezevaunis are primarily located in Dezevau and neighbouring areas in Southeast Coius (especially Lavana) and Bahia, though there are up to twenty million in the international diaspora in Euclea and the Asterias.

Definition of Dezevauni ethnicity is complex, owing to the varying subdivisions and conceptions (or lacks thereof) that have arisen since the medieval period. Dezevauni ethnogenesis is generally considered to have occurred just prior to or during the early Aguda Empire, albeit largely from a population of already related Zibaic-speaking peoples (themselves largely descended from the Dhebinhejo Culture and immigrants thereto). From the beginning, however, the class-influenced subgroups of Juni ("city people"), Geguoni ("rural people") and Domoni ("boat people"; or jaujeni, "river people") have been primary categories of self-identification and association. The disruption caused by colonisation partially collapsed these distinctions, even as they were maintained in law and administration, leading to a nascent Dezevauni nationalism, as well as significant regionalisms (or "tribes"). The socialist Republic of Dezevau, however, came to take a consistently hard line against nationalism, known as ethnothanasia. The efficacy and meaning of this policy have been debated, while outside of Dezevau, there have been various differing ethnic identifications closely related to or part of Dezevauni, such as the Dhavonis in Lavana or gowsa ethnicities in the Arucian.

The Dezevauni ethnicity is closely associated with the Ziba language and the Badi religion, which originated with them in antiquity. However, the relationship is complicated by the use of Ziba as a koiné since the medieval period, with the widespread collapse of diglossia and primary use of Ziba as a mother tongue only occurring in the early modern period. Ziba's regional dialects may also be understood as separate languages associated with separate ethnic subgroups. Badi, also, is practiced by large non-Dezevauni populations in Southeast Coius, Bahia and beyond, although it has nonetheless been identified as a form of ethnic religion by some. Moreover, under colonisation and socialism, large portions of the Dezevauni population became Solarian Catholic Sotirian and irreligious respectively, especially in present-day Dezevau, though Badist philosophies or customs still often remain relevant. Dezevaunis are also associated with other cultural practices including the art form of goaboabanga and cuisine such as xxx.

History

Ethnothanasia

Main article: Ethnothanasia

Distribution

The majority of Dezevaunis (more than three quarters) are located in Dezevau. There are about 290 million in Dezevau (comprising around 90% of the country's population) and around 60 million elsewhere.

Within Dezevau, Dezevaunis are the majority throughout the country, except for in the far southeast, which is predominantly ethnically Pelangi, and in the far northwest, which has minorities of Kexris and other smaller groups.

Outside of Dezevau, most Dezevaunis are adjacent—there are about 30 million in Lavana, mostly in the north, closer to Dezevau, and about 6 million in Mabifia, mainly in the southeast, which also abuts Dezevau. There are also smaller minorities established in Surubon (about a million, or 2% of the country's population), Capuria and Hacyinia.

There is a significant overseas ethnic Dezevauni diaspora, of up to twenty million; definition is difficult due to complexities around ethnic identification of gowsas, who by most accounts count for the majority of the diaspora (up to 15 million).

Around two thirds of gowsa descendants are in the Asterias, both in destination countries such as Satucin, Aucuria, Carucere and Imagua, as well as in primarily remigratory destinations such as Cassier, Rizealand and Eldmark. The other third are largely in Estmere and Gaullica, the metropoles of the empires that facilitated gowsa migration.

A further few million Dezevaunis are emigrants or descendants thereof from after the Great War. They are located mainly in Estmere, Gaullica and the developed parts of Asteria Superior.

Notably, the Dezevaunis in Amathia are a recognised minority, the result of the Amathian Equalist Republic (later the South Euclean People's Republic) inviting workers from Dezevau. There are more than 300,000 of them, around 1% of the population of Amathia today, making Amathia the country with the third-most Dezevaunis in Euclea.

Subgroups

Juni, Geguoni and Jaujeni

Main articles: Juni, Geguoni, and Domoni

Beginning from the medieval period in Dezevau or the early Aguda Empire, the Juni, Geguoni and Domoni were the primary categories of ethnic identification.

Gowsa and diaspora

Gowsas were workers who were contracted and transported from the Aguda Empire to work in Euclean colonies (mainly the Estmerish and Gaullican), primarily in the 18th and 19th centuries after the abolition(s) of slavery. There were close to two million of them, mainly working in manual labour-intensive industries such as agriculture, mining, construction and logging. Records are sparse on how many of them returned home after their contracts expired, but many stayed in their destinations and produced descendants. Most gowsas were Geguoni, though a large minority of Estmerish gowsas were Kabuese. Very few were Juni or Domoni.

The ethnicity of gowsa descendants is a complex topic. In different parts of the world, different developments occurred.

Most frequently, some degree of ethnogenesis occurred among the gowsas and their descendants, such as with the Gosans of Carucere or the Coian-Imaguans of Imagua—this tended to be combined with intermixture with other Coian immigrant populations. These new ethnicities nonetheless still often consciously retained links to their ancestry, such influences from Ziba dialects, or the Badi religion, and some still do, though the trend is of increasing assimilation.

On the other hand, in other cases, a more-or-less Dezevauni identity was retained (or created), such as in Vinalia and Nuvania; accordingly, ethnic distinctions tended to be preserved for other groups (e.g. Lavanan-Vinalians and Kabuese-Nuvanians). In some sense, such identities were prototype sites for the development of Dezevauni nationalism along Euclean lines (as opposed to as an Aguda meta-category). Where such communities survived, they tend to blend into communities of later non-gowsa migrants. It may, nonetheless, be anachronistic to say that gowsas or their descendants were generally ethnically Dezevauni, even if some now identify that way.

In comparison, there is much less ambiguity about the ethnicity of postwar emigrants. Though some may prefer to identify as Dezevauni, others as Geguoni, Juni or Domoni, and a few even by tribe, there is clarity that the terms all refer to their recent roots in (or near) Dezevau. The postwar diaspora is not generally considered ethnically distinct in the way that gowsa descendant communities sometimes are.

It should be noted that though the word gauza ("bitter", referring to the difficulty and onerousness of such journeys) is still used to refer to overseas migration (and by extension diasporic communities), it does not mean that there is necessarily an equivalence between such populations and gowsas per se.