'Caucasian peripheries'
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THE AMAZING WORK OF
Vakhtang Chikovani & Shorena Kurtsikidze
These three photographs were taken from Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani's very special Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border — Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries (Vol. IX of the LINCOM Studies in Anthropology, München: LINCOM, 2008), which can be ordered here on LINCOM's website. (Buy it! Buy it now!)
The publisher's puff blurb reads:
The aim of this book is to acquaint a wide audience with the traditional culture of the Christian and Muslim highlanders who live on the border of Europe and Asia in the central part of the Caucasus Main Mountain Range.
Under one cover, the publication features unique materials on visual anthropology, ethnography, mythology, and folklore of the region.The book portrays the mysterious subgroup of Georgian highlanders, the Khevsur, who are considered to be the champions of Georgian patriotism and at the same time, according to one popular theory, are believed to be direct descendants of the last Crusaders.
Featuring 158 black and white original photographs and accompanying explanatory texts, the publication gives a detailed description of the exotic religious institutions and examples of material culture of this group of highlanders, illustrating the closeness of their lifestyle to the ways of the Frankish crusaders. The emphasis is on the spheres of folk culture that bear clear traces of centuries of confrontations between two ethnic groups: Christian Georgian highlanders and their neighbors, Muslim Vainakh or Chechen and Ingush.
The authors attempt to show how the traditional mode of life of the highlanders affects the contemporary ethnic and political situation in the region. The publication includes original translations of Georgian folk tales and myths. The latter are narratives representing mythologized chronicles of “holy wars” of old times once carried out on the border of Europe and Asia by the ancestors of the Khevsurs.
Shorena Kurtsikidze and Vakhtang Chikovani are cultural anthropologists and natives of Georgia. They have been teaching the Georgian language, culture, and folklore courses at the University of California, Berkeley. Both authors are affiliates of the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies at the same university and regularly give talks and public lectures about Georgia and the Caucasus.
Some of this is rubbish, predictably—and most especially the bit about the "Frankish crusaders", a nonsense which seems almost offensive in this context: rather, the book essentially consists of 1.) a very interesting academic-paper-cum-first-chapter entitled Georgia's Pankisi Gorge: An Ethnographic Survey; 2.) absolutely unique (but certainly very mediocre) English translations of many fascinating legends, shrine foundation-myths (andrezi) and mythical hagiographies of pre-Christian deities and demi-gods, e.g. Iakhsar, and 3.) lots and lots of truly amazing black-and-white photographs of various mountain communities taken in the 1970s and 1980s.
The website of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California in Berkeley features an extremely interesting online gallery of photographs taken by Vakhtang Chikovani in the Arkhoti, Shatili, and Gudamaqari communities in the 1970s and 1980s: Images from the Georgia-Chechnya Border 1970-1980 - Visual Anthropology of the Peripheries.
This gallery contains some unique and truly remarkable photographs of the region—perhaps the finest of their kind. The following is merely a selection of some of the most interesting ones (in my view; the captions are original; all images are © V. Chikovani):
IMAGES OF SHRINES & THEIR TREASURIES
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Shrine of the Chain Mail Armored Saint George Cross of Khmeligori (in the front there is a bell tower, in the back there is a prayer tower of the Narozauli-Kavtar Clan). |
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"Tower of the Cross", Military and Prayer Flags of the Ochiauri Clan Chain Mail Armored Saint George of Khmeligori Cross-Shrine. |
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Shrine of Iakhsar-Pillar of Light or the Serpent-like Saint George Cross. |
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Rkena (Battle-Cross) Shrine, or Peter (Apostle) of Niaghvrispiri (torrential bank) Tsiklauri and Cholikauri Clan Chapel. |
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Stand for the Votive Phials, and Prayer and Military Flagstaffs inside the Court of Archangel Michael's Cross. |
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Treasures of the Cross of Archangel Michael - The Most Important Shrine of the Arkhoti Community. |
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Silver Bowl for Sacred Beer inside the Shrine of Archangel Michael's Cross. |
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Silver Dish with the Image of Annunciation from the Archangel Michael's Treasury. |
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The Elder Priest of Canyon performs a prayer and offering ceremony inside the Court of the Shrine of Archangel Michael's Cross. |
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TRADITIONAL DWELLINGS & INTERIORS
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Dwelling Structures of Highlanders. |
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Family Altar in the Basement of an Abandoned House. |
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Mother-Column—one of most important spots of traditional dwelling structures when performing family rituals. |
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Hearth in the Old Abandoned House. |
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Hearth Inside of the Old Ruined House. |
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House-Cattle Shed. |
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RUINS OF FORMER CHECHEN VILLAGES
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Ruins of the Houses of Chechens Deported to Central Asia and Siberia in February 23, 1944. |
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Muslim Graveyard. |
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Gravestone with the Arabic Script. |
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Unless stated otherwise or obviously not the case, all the text and images on this website are © A.J.T. Bainbridge 2006-2014
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