THE SOCIOCULTURAL ORIGIN OF LITHUANIAN BORDERS PROTECTION

Abstract

The article examines the sociocultural measures of Lithuanian territory and border protection. The name "Lithuania" encompasses the process of Lithuanian ethnogenesis and state formation. In this process, sociocultural measures of protecting one's own territory were formed and the very concept of borders evolved. The study is based on A. Maslow's statement that security is one of the most important existential needs of a person. It can be satisfied only by other people, and only from the outside. This means people's dependence on the environment. It is in the activity of environmental control that the sociocultural experience of protecting one's own territory is accumulated, which is transformed into knowledge and passed on to the younger generation.

The principles of Lithuanian state border protection were formed in the long process of Baltic and Lithuanian ethnogenesis. Archaeological, linguistic, anthropological and other historical sources provide information, the analysis of which reveals the means of protecting their territory and things used by Lithuanian and other Baltic tribes. These could have been markers (dashes, notches) and signs placed on objects of natural and artificial origin; mounds and their communication systems; voids separating tribal territories (inter-tribal wastelands); agreements between tribal leaders regarding the boundaries of the territory. These territorial protection measures were characteristic of the period of Baltic and Lithuanian tribes' ethnogenesis, as their territories were invaded by foreigners. The state adopted and later modified the listed territorial and border protection measures.

Before the formation of the state, there were no people specially trained to protect their own territory. Their need arises when other states are formed or exist on the state border, whose hostile intentions need to be noticed in advance and their own people need to be notified of the threats in time. Therefore, the sociocultural elements of state border protection should include border wastelands; scout and guard villages; border rivers and other water bodies; probable enemy movement routes; oral and written border agreements of warlords; mobile border protection units.

The study is based on the methods of document analysis and historical comparative analysis. The conclusions of the study are presented at the end of the article.