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The following is an extract from the manuscript of Mariel Tsaroieva's Ingush and Chechens – Mesopotamian and Anatolian Roots, which the author kindly sent me.
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In it, the author argues that the theory that the Batsbi / Tsova-Tush migrated from the North Caucasus (viz. from Ingushetia) in the XVIth or XVIIth centuries is false, and that the Batsbi are the original, autochthonous inhabitants of Tusheti, who remained there when their fellow-Vainakh were pushed north by the influx of Georgian highlanders, most notably the Khevsurs and the Pshavs... Mariel Tsaroieva also adds that "until the XIXth century, these lands [Tusheti - A.B.] remained under the jurisdiction of certain great Ingush clans (Yandiev, Aldaganov, etc.), and here the latter pastured their flocks [in summer - A.B.]; they were then transferred by Russia to the Georgians."
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"The Ingush and the Batsbi (or Batsoi)
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The question of the ethnic ancestry of the Tushin, Georgian highlanders, who divide themselves into Tshagma- and Tsova-Tushin (or Batsbi / Batsoi), remains a difficult and litigious issue in modern caucasology. A.N. Guenko considered Tusheti as an ancient religious centre of "georgianized" Ingush. One of the main arguments with which he sought to prove his case was the coincidence of the ethnonym Tush(in) with the theonym Tush(oli), the name of the goddess-mother of the Ingush, deeply venerated by this people until the early XXth century. Traces of the worship of this goddess by the Georgian highlanders could still be seen at the end of the XIXth century, despite their christianization. This was normal: newly-arrived tribes accepted the religious cults and rituals of the autochthonous populations, and worshipped them as they did their own.
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Most researchers link the Tsova-Tushin or Batsbi (Batsoi) with the Ingush tribes. According to Klaproth, the Ingush region of Wabua or Wobua is considered to be their original homeland. The Batsbur language has preserved a large number of elements of ancient Ingush. The Batsbi used to maintain strong ties with their ancient north Caucasian compatriots. The works of I. Detcheriev and of the new generation of caucasologists, who linked the history and language of the Batsbi with those of the Ingush, were not met with much enthusiasm. This small people has led a calm existence for hundreds of years, integrated into Georgian society and protected by the intelligent politics of its government. They were not deported to northern Kazakhstan in 1944, and have therefore not experienced the atrocities that the Vainakhs had to endure. For the Batsbi, to be related to these peoples and to their tragic history could introduce an undesirable element into their quiet lives.
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The new generation of Batsbi has chosen the path of full integration into the Georgian nation; only old people still speak their mother tongue. This is their right, and none wish to dispute this. The question here is the restoration of the history of the Vainakh people, of its historical roots, where every small detail which can further enlighten us is important. The study of the history and the language of the Batsbi allows one to understand how processes of unification and assimilation changed the ethnic map of the Caucasus. And yet, it is always difficult to accept the disappearance of a language from the arena of human correlations, language which, when it dies, takes with it a part of the history of humanity itself, as Claude Hagège wrote in his work Halte à la mort des langues (Paris, Odile Jacob, 2000).
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This region of intense interethnic contacts between the Vainakhs and the Georgian highlanders was in the past inhabited by vainakhophone tribes. The arrival of Georgian tribes progressively displaced them northwards. However, the cultural, religious, and linguistic syncretism continued to exist in this region until the early XXth century. According to A. Zisserman, in the 1840s Tusheti was subdivided into four communities: Tsova (or Wabua), Gometsar, Tshagma, and Pirikiti (or Damakhkroi). The Tsova (Wabua) and the Pirikit were considered as tribes of Kist, Vainakh origin. And so, in the patronym Damakhkoi the Chechen words da ("father") and mokhk ("country, land") may be discerned; the name Wabua (Wappua) corresponds with the name of the Wappi (Fappi) community in Ingushetia, the inhabitants of the Metskal district. The elderly Batsbi have not forgotten their original homeland, which they call Wobi (Wabi), also known as Tsovata by the Tsova-Tushin themselves. The Chechens (the Ingush) call Batsoi all the Tushin, dividing them into two teipa: "The Georgians, and our people. The latter speak our language." (N. Volkova)"
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