Denomination. Religion. Church
Lecture 5
Population
People who now live in the UK are descended from various people who inhabited the country many centuries ago. The first people settled on the BI in prehistoric times during the Stone Age when the islands were joined with the continent by the landbridge. Very little is known about them. Historians refer to them as the Iberians, who came from the Iberian peninsula between 3000 BC and 2000 BC which now belongs to Spain. The Iberians are supposed to have built stone structures called cromlech (the most famous – The Stonehenge in southern England). But then the Iberians were attacked, killed or driven the westward by Celtic tribes (the Picts, the Scots, the Britons). They came in the 6th - 3rd centuries BC. We know about the Celts because of the Greek historians. The Celts were pagans with priests knows as Druids.
From the middle of the 1 century BC the Celts were conquered by the Romans. In 55 BC Julius Cesar crossed the English Channel …. the Romans stayed in Britain for 4 centuries. They lived in military camps, built roads, bridges and so on. One of the monuments of Roman Britain is a long stone wall called Hadrian's Wall. Roman emperor Hadrian ordered to build it to protect country from Scotland. The remnants of the wall can be seen – they are of tourists' attraction.
The Roman left Britain at the beginning of 5 century AD - they had to protect Empire from barbarians. After that Britain was attacked from all the sides: The Germanic tribes attacked Britain from the … and east. The Danes – from Scandinavia (950 AD). Each of the invaders drove the native population to the north and west. Anglo-Saxons gave the name to the country. Beowulf – give inside to the character of Anglo-Saxons. They valued personal liberty and were perfect warriors. Due to this qualities they were able to defend themselves from invasions for 200 years. But in 850 – The Danes came. Anglo-Saxon formed the basis of Old English.
The last were the Normans. They were the northmen who had assimilated in France. (They were led by William the Conqueror). 1066 – they subdued the Anglo-Saxons. After that conquest for almost 2 centuries there were 2 languages, cultures and nations in the country.
Norman-French was the language of the ruling class and the official language of the country while Anglo-Saxon was spoken by the majority of the native population oppressed by the conquerors. Normans broke the ties with France and by the 13th century had mingled in blood and language with AS. New language was born – Middle English (the official language of the country and educated classes by the late 13th century.)
Chausser wrote in New middle English.
The British are descendents of many peoples which reflected in many nationalities, langs and characters.
The English – Anglo-Saxons; the Scots – Celts; The Welsh – Celts; the Irish – Celts
Migration
Traditionally Britain gave a lot of emigrants to the rest of the world. 1836-1936 – 11 million emigrants.
This mass emigrations was formed from ruined peasants, the unemployed. To find new opportunities ….
Mass emigration from the UK stopped , when many countries limited its emigration.
Many emigrants moved to the UK in the 1960s: India, South Africa, Jamaica, South Asia.
They made an important contribution to the economic development of the country.
Today they’re also many Americans, Chinese live in the UK.
The UK has become more multiracial, because people from all parts of the world made the UK their permanent home.
Total population is over 60,000,000 (the 14th in the world)
They take a census of the Br people regularly.
Ethnic composition
Th English – 82%; The Scots – 95%; The Welsh – 2%; The Irish – 2.5%
The Gaels – гаэлы; Jews; Poles; Germans; Frenchmen; Italians; India + Pakistan – over 2%
The coloureds’ – цветные
Languages
English
1. standard literary Eng
2. Regional dialects
3. Social dialects (cockney)
Wales – bilingual as a result of a long struggle of English and Welsh languages.
Welsh was banned from the use be Henry VIII in 1535.
The Welsh language Act was passed (1967)
550,000 people use Welsh as the 1st lang
Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic / Irish Gaelic (Erse) but Scotch whiskey
Lowlanders speak Scottish
French is still the official lang of Jersey and the island of man
Denomination. Religion. Church
Modern England is a multifaith community, the Cristianity is major.
Freedom of worship is generally excepted.
In northern Ireland religious tensions are …
As many as 75 per cent of adults are said to believe in God, Though about 4 per cent go to church regularly. Regional variation attendance – the father
English – 13%, Wales – 23, Scotland – 37, Northern Ireland – 80%.
according to denomination the overwhelming majority of the British are Protestants including the Presbyterians. The rest form the 'Catholic minority. Over 60% of the English describe themselves as belonging to the Church of England; 10% - Roman Catholic Church.
Many people are Christened, some get married in church and many people a Christian funeral service, but otherwise they have little interest in religion.
White British People rarely discuss religion and they feel that person's religious beliefs are private matter.
Today there is complete freedom of practice regardless of religion or sect, but it wasn't always so. Until the mid 19 century those who didn't belong to the Church of England were bud from public offices. The establish church still plays a powerful role in national life in spite of small number of active members. Many national and local events include prayers. The church is also involved to some extent in political life, because archbishops and bishops sit in the house of lords.
Some people believe that politics and religion should be kept apart, but others consider that the church should be more active in the minding social justice.
Christian religious education is provided in all British state schools, though it's not compulsory.
There are 2 state churches in the UK. The church plays a certain role in government: the Church of English and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
The Church of English is protestant episcopal, it's subjected to the crown and to the Parliament,
The Church is Scotland is independent from state authority, though it's a state church.
Scotland – no altar, only table and it's more democratic.
Anglican – associated with authority, it's used to be known as “the Tory party at prayer” (Conservative party). Though the church has been gradually distancing itself from ruling establishment, it still remains predominantly middle and dominant class establishment.
The Roman Catholic church returned to Britain in the mid – century, earlier was prejudice that being catholic …. it has disappeared. The only 10% of population are Catholic – the biggest active
all the other Protestant groups in Britain other than the church of England are called nonconformist churches. Most working class people belong to them.
They are Christian churches, but they are not epicsopal. they all admit both men and women to their ministry. The main nonconformist churches are:
The Methodist church
the Baptist Church
The salvation Church.
On oldest among others – the Judaism.
Density. Distribution
Britain – densely populated country. The UK – 234 people per sq. km. - the 3rd in Europe according to its density (the Netherlands and ….)
The world's extremes – Hong Kong – about 5,5 thousand people per sq. km.; Botswana – 2 people per sq. km.
Though the population density is very high the distribution is …
England is the most thickly populated part 361 people per
Wales – 135; Northern Ireland – 110
Scotland – 65 people (one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe).
Densities over 500 people are onle found in industrial areas – the Midlands and south-east england.
The density of greater london – over 4000 people per sq. km.
There are 8 major conurbations:
- Greater London
- Greater Manchester
- the Merseyside with Liverpool in its center
- Clydeside with glasgow as its centre
- South Yorkshire (Shefield
- West Yorkshire (Leeds as its
- Tyneside (Newcastle
- the West Midlands with Birmingham
Most of the mountainous parts in Wales, Scotland, Pennines are sparsely populated.
In proportion of the urban population over 90% lives in cities and towns (the first of the world)
There are 91 cities and towns in the UK.
Some big towns in the UK are not called cities
There are 62 cities in the UK including the City of London and Westminster (parts of London – not cities in full meaning)
Rural population differs from traditional of other countries. British villages are situated not far from towns and they are inhabited by farm workers, teachers, clergymen, shopkeepers and old-aged people.
Farmers do not live in such places they live in isolated farms.
There are about 13000 villages in England – nearly all of them existed before the Norman Conquest.
Villages are usually 2-3 km apart.
The recent tendency shows a movement of people away from the main conurbations to surrounded suburbs.
Social-Class Make up
British society is often described as a class-conscious )class-ridden) society. But it doesn't mean that country's society is more divided than in other European states – that means that there is love for hierarchy and the sense of deference. That is why the Royal family and the surviving titled families are treated with greater deference. This class of people enjoys special status. Such people form a small minority of the population.
Most people are classified according to their occupations. The classification includes 2 broad groups as in other industrial societies -
the middle class (white-collar workers) & the working class (blue-collar workers)
The peculiarity of the British social class make up that there are no peasants at all. There are farmers and their hired labourers. Less that 2% of working population work on farms though over 3 quarters of britain's land is used for farming.
The working class is rapidly declining while the middle class is growing fast.
There is a tendency for a decline of manual workers. Most working-class people enjoy what might have be regarded as a middle-class consumer style several years ago.