Alienation in Time and Space: Vision of the World as a Unity of Order and Drama

by Kote Gogolashvili (Ilia Chavchavadze State University) 

Historical Preconditions and the Present-Day Plight

Introducing an element of Nature into a present-day discussion on the problems of modern life and cultural diversity may at first glance not seem strong enough to be considered an argument in developing a creative approach to the task. For that reason we propose to examine the matter again but more freely, without the burden of established opinions and preconceptions.

In view of the accelerated changes in social life and global culture, linking a geographic area to the fate of an ethnic entity when we deal with the current issues can be criticized as outworn or subjective. Therefore, the suggested evidence must confirm our diverse attitude and stance.

The principle point of our discourse is based on the applicability of modern concepts of general social norms and standards to those of the highlanders, and vice versa. The material on which we are basing our reasoning, is to be found in the works of Besarion Nijaradze, whose role cannot be overestimated in creating the first serious and multifaceted scientific research on Svaneti at the end of the 19th century, and those of Sergi Makalatia, historian and ethnographer of the early 1930s, who produced thorough studies of the Georgian highland regions of Mtiuleti, Pshavi, Khevsureti and Tusheti.

All of the mentioned regions, together with Khevi, Racha and Lechkhumi, represent the parts of our country that retain their old ethnographic features and are the birthplace of rich folklore. For many decades those regions have been practically neglected with respect to financial support for their economic and cultural needs. The help they received – like building roads or electric stations during the Soviet period – was prompted by the more serious reasons and requirements of the „republican scope“. As for the immediate cultural needs of the regions, the direct attention they received used to be either superficial or spontaneous, being limited to occasional local festivals and celebrations. Not much was done to facilitate everyday life and the personal needs of the people, who, as a result, developed the tendency to leave their homes and the traditional areas of their homeland. Although they did not do so in a dramatic, dynamic fashion, the tendency was constant.

This process of migration is naturally associated with the younger generation and signifies direct, serious losses to the spiritual and cultural aspects of the highlanders‘ life as well as other losses no less important to the whole country and the spectrum of national culture.

Ranges in Time and History

Some words must be said about the regions that provide interesting material about the insufficiently studied ethnic and cultural links of the Georgian tribes with other regions. In addition, in order to prove the depth of the problem and the range of the related issues, we mist also include the territory of the Mediterranean and the British isles – mostly their mountainous regions.

Widening the range of comparison shows an objective interest in spheres that are not traditionally included in the established set of issues. The investigation embraces a variety of epochs, along with the appropriate geographical territories. Thus, location becomes decisive not only in the case of retaining the ancient historical image of distant cultures (i.e. in time and space), whether European or any other region of the world. Since the still unstudied aspects of the ancient cultural links (of the Georgian nation) with the surrounding world are many, for the time being we will confine our discussion to the issues that concern Georgian history along with a few parallels in the European past.

„The physical formation of a country is the key to the history of its earlier settlements, especially in days before man had the mastery of nature which he now possesses“ – these words are taken from History of England by George Trevelyan. Ironically, this idea is cited from the chapter The Iberians of the same book. G. Trevelyan speaks about the remnants of Iberian civilization, as few as they are, being traced in the highlands of Scotland. If we limit our parallels to the root of the word, the plateau of the Iberian Peninsula has kept the imprints of ancient indigenous history more than the other parts of modern Spain. Finally, moving to the East, we can concentrate on our territory and the customs, traditions and ways of ancient Iveria, along with Kolkheti, i.e. the birthplace of Georgia.

Here is what we know and can learn about those ancient kinfolk of the old Iverians: „The bulk of those whom we miscall `Celts‘ are for the most part dark-haired people whose ancestors had been on the island thousands of years before the red Celt was ever heard of. They were the folk whom Matthew Arnold in his poem describes as `dark Iberians‘ coming down, `shy traffickers‘, to chaffer with the Phoenician traders on the shore.

We may conveniently speak of these pre-Celtic peoples collectively, as `Iberians‘, though in fact they consisted of many different races, not all of them dark-haired. Some `Iberian‘ blood probably flows in the veins of every modern Englishman, more in the average Scot, most in the Welsh and Irish. The Iberians were no mere savages. They raised themselves, during the long stone and bronze ages in Britain, from savagery onto the first steps of civilized life. At first hunters and users of flint, then shepherds also, they gradually learnt the uses to which man can turn the dog, the sheep, the goat, the ox, the pig; they adopted the use of metals; they became the men of the Bronze Age skilled in weaving and in crafts of many kinds, including agriculture. If in earlier times the largest political unit consisted of a tribe of a few hundred souls, living in dread of wolves and bears, and of their nearest human neighbours, the Iberians acquired in some parts of the country a much higher political organization, designed gigantic earthworks like the Maiden Castle near Dorchester or a scientific military plan, and reared Stonehenge, no mean engineering feat. Although the earliest of them had come over in coracles or canoes, they learnt to build the `long-ship‘ or low war-galley“.

When discussing a passage written by George Trevelyan, an important point to consider is his usual manner of adorning the facts with colorful and poetic descriptions – the manner that is usually attributed to „emotional writing“, thus making it unreliable for a scientific study to consider – but not in the case of this author: his works represent a perfect set of documents and facts.

If we suggest the vertical axis of history and the territory from the Caucasus to the „land’s end“ somewhere in Britain, the remnants and proofs of definite sources and links of the pre-literate period must be traced in ethnography and folklore. Since we are concentrating on the part that deals with the creative vision and primitive philosophy of the ancient culture as it is reflected in folklore, we shall confine our task mostly to that field (the word sounds ironic when applied to the realm of mountains!), but we shall also disclose a few details from the spheres of ethnography that present our task in stronger and well-founded terms

The highlands in Scotland are associated with bagpipes, a musical instrument unique in its conception. However, beyond the borders of Georgia not many know of the existence of the gudastviri in Racha, an instrument similar to bagpipes in principle and form.

Proofs and evidences of the long-forgotten cultural links are many. In his Essays on History and Ethnography, Besarion Nijaradze points at the amazing likeness of the Old Roman custom of molasalsa – to the custom of lemzir in Svaneti. The Romans mixed salt with flour for their offerings to their gods – and the Svans did the same. Their custom goes back to the pre-Christian period, as is the case with most of their customs. Since they inherited the major part of the old Roman religious customs from the Etruscans and the remaining part of their religious system was copied from the Greeks, who did not provide evidence of having that custom, the two remaining sources are Roman (who must have inherited it from the Etruscans) – and Svans who still observe the custom.

Another similarity concerns metaxa – a term used by Lazis, an ancient Georgian ethnic group that lived in the territory of contemporary Achara and the North-Eastern part of Asia Minor. The term signifies a coarse homespun silk. In order to make a thin colorless fishing-line, they used to wait patiently for the silkworm to straiten up at the moment of producing the secretion from its breast to wind its cocoon. The drop of secretion, which upon contact with the air transforms into a silk thread, was removed by Lazi fishermen. The same technology was used at that time in Italy, i.e. in the First millennium when Etruscans dictated the lifestyle as well.as policy and ideology on the Apennine Peninsula. To this detail we must add that this observation lacks another important element: the term metaxa is of Greek origin and apparently the discussion should cover that territory and Hellenic culture as well.

The Highlands as a Reservation of Ancient Customs and Mentality

The role of geographical location is universally acknowledged as decisive in the fate of a nation and particularly of its ethnic groups. The difficulties of reaching the highlands created favorable conditions for preserving traditional customs and lifestyle. In view of the changes that took place in the country – or rather in its political, economic and cultural center, situated mostly in the lowlands – the mountain regions face an unbalanced and distorted confrontation with the present-day changes in public life, especially with the doses of global mass culture that television spreads around indiscriminately.

Correspondingly, if we strive for a constructive idea to apply to the problem of discrepancy between the global processes in social life and the dramatic incompatibility of traditional approaches to modern problems, we have to be realistic in assessing aspects of the task of the ethnic entity today.

As we see it, this involves two main points:

Understanding of the forces that developed the history of a particular ethnic group and the alternate role of those forces in modern life of the same ethnic group;

Identifying the elements of ethnic culture that can be preserved by a conscious approach to the task of ethnic originality, as an important element of national identity, which in view of the contemporary conditions and standards of life becomes an issue of not only a spiritual value, but of a material value as well – as a matter of economic and cultural interest, with its potential for developing tourism and an infrastructure for winter sports.

In view of the relative state of affairs abroad, to speak about the plight we are facing now in the regions that are immediately associated with the rewarding spheres of economics, seems like a paradox, yet it does exist. With respect to our task, abundant material exists to recreate a reliable picture of our ethnic history and culture.

Old customs that attract attention are numerous. One of the most discussed – and often hushed as an unbecoming image to the standard pious morals – is the tradition of tsatsloba in Pshavi. The term signifies an old custom of sexual origin and is defined as a prolonged premarital foreplay without committing the sexual act, which is considered sinful within the limits of the tribal system. According to the historian Mikheil Tsereteli, the custom must have its origin in the cult of Cybel, which was notorious for its orgiastic ceremonies. M. Tsereteli finds a link between two cults, that of Cybel, goddess of nature in Asia Minor, and the cult of the Hittite goddess of Earth, Ishkhara. M. Tsereteli also traces the relevance in the names of Abkhazian goddess Ajahara or Ashakhara. As a matter of fact, we can point also to the two replicas of these terms: Ajahara, as a phonetical – and possibly conceptual basis for the name of Achara, the region situated in the South-East of Georgia at the Black Sea, and another term – Ashakhara -, which is certainly linked with the name of the beautiful peak of Shkhara in Svaneti.

Thus S. Makalatia’s opinion is well justified: the theme does require thorough study, because the superficial evaluation of the matter, which was carried out by a few researchers in the 19th century – mostly Russians – tends to simplify the problem by not thoroughly considering the parallels (as it is done in studies of Indo-European ethnic groups that live in similar geographical conditions).

S. Makalatia insists on the existence of a comparable custom in other parts of Georgia – not only in Khevsureti, the immediate neighbor of Pshavi, but also in the Western part of the country, including Svaneti, Abkhazeti and Samegrelo. He believes that the parallels with other cultures have value only after a concept is worked out, summarizing the nuances of the tradition, as it exists in Georgia. Meanwhile, this „dormant“ theme is still undeveloped and in need of updating both the facts and the problem.

What can we learn from this example?

The works of the above-mentioned researchers and historians provide the evidence to conclude that the 1700 years of Christianity did not eliminate the remnants of the pre-Christian culture but created an interesting sample of complex social identity. On the one hand, we witness the highlanders‘ greatly valued sense of social responsibility in the political and military conflicts of Georgia, where the performance of the highland troops was always highly praised and appreciated. Yet, their isolated existence had nothing to do with their sense of patriotic responsibility during the wars that Georgia used to have with its Islamic neighbors; the regiments of Svans as well as of Khevsurs, Tushis and others unfailingly displayed bravery and dedication to the historical fate of the country.

On the other hand, we know about the centuries of their daily life, mostly half-secluded from the influence of the lowlanders and laymen, who were in routine touch with other cultures. The stark choices of life that the Caucasus dictated to its inhabitants prompted the dedication of highlanders to their ancient ways, influenced the essentials of their frugal interests and determined the image of their ancient divinities, norms and ethics that their deities „dictated“.

All that plays a role in working out a concept of human nature that is so much in tune with the natural conditions and climate. As for the prevailing harshness and hazards of the general scene and the background – they suggest an emotional appreciation of beauty and rare joy that create a true picture of existence and spirit of living for centuries at an altitude of the clouds.

Folklore of Svaneti and Roots of the Highland Ethics and Mentality

In comparing the state of ethnic culture, as it is preserved now, to the general picture of modern life even in the vicinity of the region where that culture exists, the first issue is the controversy between the old attitude and vision of life and the ways of the modern lifestyle. Nowadays Svaneti is a small territory, partly abandoned by local residents due to various problems that took place in Georgia during the first decade of its independence, after the dismantling of the Soviet Union, when the country tried to work out its own aims and goals within the existing political scene and reality.

Strabo’s words about the military capacity of Svaneti in his time stand in sharp contrast to the later historical periods – and particularly to the present state of affairs in this sparsely populated part of Georgia. Strabo notes that an army of Svans reached 200,000 warriors. B. Nijaradze explains this number easily, by pointing at the toponymy in the valleys and lowlands of Georgia which, according to the names of the places, prove to have their meaning in Svanuri – and at the same time prove that the area of their habitat in that period was much more widespread and was not limited to the Caucasus.

Apart from the significance of this fact by itself, it also explains the range of observations about the mentality of the people living with the concept of alienation in their highlands with their eight-month-long winter and practically zero connections with the rest of the country.

Considering that the above-mentioned conditions have lasted for many centuries, it is logical to conclude that the ethnic mentality was determined by the centuries of `estrangement‘ induced by its geography and climate. Harsh in many aspects of everyday life and ethics, the creative mentality of the Svans proves unexpectedly multifaceted and flexible in matters of lyricism and in the dramatic confrontation of a person with reality, which includes both the social and physical environment.

Poetry as a Reflection of the World with its Order and Drama

Poetry is extremely characteristic of Svanuri culture. The aspects of the Svans‘ creative perception are rich and amazing. Taking into consideration the lack of extensive cultural and social communications with the cultures that had direct access to the treasuries of the world art and philosophy, the angle of vision of reality, as the Svans display it, impresses with ist originality and independent approach to the scene of the outer world.

There is no need to praise the verses that describe the beauty of the country, its nature and landscape – this is typical of all peoples living in exotic places, be it in the highlands or at the seashore. The more interesting feature is the way the ancient images of pagan religion are accumulated and „legalized“ in the culture, which has proclaimed Christianity an official religion since the 4th century. Those details of ancient cults include the sun goddess Dali, the patroness of hunting, holy bulls and deer.

Where the attributes and details are similar, the difference should be found in the spirit.

The guiding line in this respect is the dramatic vision. The dramatic effect is achieved in the best possible way: the images are sharp and laconic, evoking in the memory the style of Spanish romance. But the richness of the images transforms the scene into a dynamic nightmare that can take place openly under the shining sun, as is the case in the poem Dere, which can be compared to the manner that European painting displayed in the course of its evolution and to the classical symphonies for their finale. Here we make a point and insist on the seriousness of this claim in view of the unique fate of Svanuri culture, which was completely cur off from any influence of West-European culture and art. So, working out on its own the norms and canons associated with the concept of classical symphony, this sample of aesthetic forms and meter in Svanuri folklore provides a unique example of developing a similar aesthetic idea and form under completely diverse conditions of historical and cultural development. Therefore, this is a matter of various aspects, including the psychological element of perception in the process of creativity.

It is difficult to make out the prevailing note in the poem, and this difficulty adds an additional element of merit to the force of the whole piece. The story-teller and protagonist of the poem is extremely unusual – it is Dere itself that signifies the downslide of a glacier in the mountains and causes an instantaneous cataclysm, a genuine embodiment of the Wrath of God and the End of the World materialized within the borders of the small universe of a gorge. Dere’s monologue could be viewed in a simplified way, limiting its purpose to the temper of Nature and interpreting the text as an effective confession of Nature but in that case the poem could not be interpreted as a symphony. Meant for the audience to listen to, and later – now- for the public to read, we pay another detail its due – the mixture of snapshots that Dere provides us, describing the scenes of life that the disaster tore out of their existence and in its roar of White End, hurried down to the only destination – the Black Sea. The people, the victims of the drama portrayed in the manner of snapshots, represent the fates and images of all those who were destined to remain in the memory of their descendents ever young, ethereal and intangible, as a colorful decoration to the notion of Life as a Mystery of Unperceived Logic and Justice. The only reward the poem finds is in the sense of beauty that stoicism to their reality dictates, with the idea of readiness for the Fatal Final Chance.

The simplicity of form makes many poems extremely attractive in the present age of eclectics and in the permanent search of reliable examples of lasting artistic value. The examples differ and impressions vary, too. Even a slight change transforms the tone of the poem. Since the tone implies the difference also in spirit, the latter suggests a new vision and a grain of emotional philosophy, mostly stoic.

Each of the four three-lined verses of Dinol exist of the two repeating lines – the first and the third – of the same question and the same answer of a youth who is looking for his beloved, and all four answers he receives affect his growing disappointment and confusion.

Where my Dinol can she be?
I searched in vain she was nowhere.

The repetition in the last verse after the final answer converts the sentence into a concept of the mysterious freedom of spirit. This is especially important because the poetry of highlanders differs sharply from the evolution of folklore in the lowlands with the corresponding elements of civilization in the center of the state, where poetry is mostly male-centered and male-oriented, females being the objects of infatuation, deprived even of an optional note of discordant attitude to the chances they never craved.

The specter of problems that emerge in the poems is both rich and original, and the detailed study of the poetry of the Georgian highlands is certainly a revelation.

When reading or listening to the recital of highland poetry, the first thing that attracts attention is usually the dialect. However, the most impressive difference is the lack of the „i“ ending of the nominative case, which is used in Standard Georgian. To the ear of a Georgian acustomed to the frequent repetition of the sound, the lack of that ending increases the tonal force of the preceding consonant and adds additional force to the melody, and the strict reality of conventional dramatic existence acquires a kind of alertness, even if the issue is conventional and routine.

In Svanuri poetry we can find all of the typical features of the old culture’s folklore which are characteristic of the ancient societies and their attitude toward reality: themes like naïve bravado and self-assurance, which were often taken by their adversaries as boasting. This attitude of their enemies provided further development between the neighboring tribes – which, in turn, suggested other themes of the folklore.

The said attitude is both strong and traditional, because it persisted in Svanuri folklore until the time of firearms. The final verses of the popular poem Kansav Kipian are as simple as they are direct.

Tambi must be viewed as a unique example even among the few poems that represent the dramatic combat between a man and a beast. The Georgian poetic tradition – apart from the widely-known motive of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin – represents one of the gems of our folklore, The Poem of a Tiger and a Youth. The theme goes back to the ancient roots of confrontation of human spirit and animal force and the almost immediate regional vicinity of Babylonian literary tradition in the epic on Gilgamesh.

What makes Tambi different even from the above-mentioned beauty of The Poem of the Tiger and a Youth, with its exceptional twist in the relevant theme that Europeans know from the Beowulf epic? There the fight between the heroes is complicated by introducing the dragon’s mother into the scene with her pain and desire to help her son. The Georgian poem proves definitely deeper, because the mother of the dying youth decides to meet the tiger’s mother to express her condolence to the tigress because she had lost her beloved son, too. What makes the poem exceptional is the theme of compassion so strongly proclaimed in the world of the pre-Christian culture, when such feeling had not been so officially supported by the public morality and social life.

Even more amazing seems the poem Tambi, in which the drama is based not on the easily understandable sense of motherhood as an inbred feeling of kinship among mothers, but on the appreciation and hailing of beauty – even to the point of setting it in the foreground, where it outweighs the traditional values of blood-ties and family, the love of one’s father, brother and son. This serves as a perfect example to show that aesthetic values are not necessarily the product of the long evolution of art and/or of experiments in form carried out by various schools. Equally important is the conclusion that this example supports the points we expressed earlier about the cycling evolution of art and culture.

The first detail that differs qualitatively from similar themes comes in the lines:

The Striped-one hit with his paw
And iron-shirt went apart.
– Will I cherish my body, a-singing with lines
If my leap proves futile!

The last line here is extremely interesting, because in view of the coming lines with the priority of beauty that we suggest, this particular example represents the supremacy of the essential and the functional with respect to the imagery and form.

– I never thought you so hot-tempered, the Striped one
But you proved a fearless youth.
Me, why did I think you evil-eyed,
With your body in patterns,
Why did I think you a-thorny,
While your fur shines like atlas,
How could I think you graceless?
With your paw of lightning swiftness.

How grievesome am I for slaying you,
I’d rather kill my own father,
How sorry am I for killing you,
I would kill my brother rather,
I wish I would never kill you,
I would have my own son be dead.

I wish I would not kill you,
But kill myself – and
– Oh, devastating emptiness…

After reading these lines the third element that can be derived from this poem is disclosed – that of the poem’s rebellious spirit against the most sacred values of blood-ties and family. The idea of rebellion against the core and foundation of the highlanders‘ mentality and ethnic culture, evokes in the imagination the occasional scenes of Dere which bear a controversial double meaning of the Wrath of God when the high peaks demonstrate the irrational pulsation of their disastrous force. The scene also prompts an idea of Rebellion, reminiscent of the themes of Prometheus and Paradise Lost. The conclusive idea of the image is so emotional that it makes any rational explanation dubious and evasive. In any case, the beauty and drama are intact, as they have always been in the life of people who observe from above the world hidden by the clouds.

All of the above-mentioned problems may sound unexpected, especially in English, but we live in an age of unending discoveries, and our theme deserves to be included among those still waiting for the civilized world to unroll and consider them.

We believe that the most amazing in the process of changes – whether visible, invisible or none – is the working of the brain: to work out an artistic vision that is the very ground for further transformation into what was destined to become the trademark of Western thought and tradition is certainly amazing. For still undiscovered reasons, at some stage in the past, that creative drive was left without any further development – and alienation is only one aspect of those reasons. This is the most interesting problem in studying how the height, isolation and sternness, together with the beauty of nature, become the governing force in the formation of the human character and the features of those who are destined to live at their mercy.