Georges Dumezil

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Georges Dumézil was born in Paris in 1898, the son of a clacissist, and became interested in ancient languages at a very young age. According to the Wikipaedia entry, "it has been said that he could read the Aeneid in Latin at the age of 9". Having finished school, he went to France's elite Ecole Nationale Supérieure in 1916.

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His studies were interrupted by the First World War (the Battle of Verdun took place the year he became a student): He was mobilized, and fought in the war as an officer in the French artillery. After the war, he resumed his studies, and obtained his agrégation in Classical Literature in 1921.

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He spent a few months teaching in France, before becoming a lecturer at the University of Warsaw. In 1924, he received his doctorate, having written his doctoral thesis on "The Feast of Immortality" in Indo-European mythologies, thesis in which he compared the origins of the Greek "ambrosia" and the Indian drink "amrita", which was believed to render the man who drank it immortal.

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Dumézil apparently found the academic climate in France rather stifling, and moved to (the then nascent republic of) Turkey. He became Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Istanbul in 1925, where he taught for six . He learnt Turkish, and travelled in Turkey, Russia, and the Caucasus. It was also in Turkey that he first came across the Ubykh language, which was to fascinate him for years, and the experience and knowledge of the Caucasus he gained during these years was to make him the foremost French (and francophone) caucasologist.

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He left Turkey in 1931, and moved to Uppsala in Sweden, where he taught at the University for 2 years before returning to France in 1933. Back in Paris, he held the Chair of Comparative Religion of Indo-European Peoples at the famous Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

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Named a member of the prestigious Collège de France after the war (1949), where he held the Chair of Indo-European Civilization (created specially for him), Dumézil would go on to teach at the Collège for almost 20 years, before moving to Princeton University (1968-1971).

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Prof. Georges Dumézil was elected to the 40th Chair of the Académie française on October 26, 1978, and was formally received by the illustrious Claude Lévi-Strauss - his colleague, patron, and fellow student of mythology.

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Doctor honoris causa of the University of Uppsala (1955), of Istanbul (1964), of Berne (1969), of Liège (1979), Associate Member of the Académie royale de Belgique (1958), Member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1968), Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres de Paris (1970), Honorary Member of The Royal Irish Academy, Section of Polite Literature and Antiquities (1974), Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1974), Prof. Georges Dumézil died on October 11, 1986.

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Dumézil published many books and articles. The following list concerns itself only with those related to the Caucasus:
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Légendes sur les Nartes (Institut d’Études Slaves, 1930)
Textes populaires ingush (A. Maisonneuve, 1935)
Contes et légendes des Oubykhs (Institut d’Ethnologie, 1957)
Contes lazes (Institut d’Ethnologie, 1957)
Études oubykhs (A. Maisonneuve, 1959)
Documents anatoliens sur les langues et les traditions du Caucase (A. Maisonneuve, 1960-'67)
Le livre des héros, légendes ossètes sur les Nartes (Gallimard, 1965)
Le verbe oubykh, études descriptives et comparatives (Académie des Inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1975)
Romans de Scythie et d’alentour (Payot, 1978)
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Two books from the author's library:
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Travels in Tusheti

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When on my way back from the Dadaloba festival in the summer of 2008, I came across an English family on their way around Tusheti on horseback. I had been in touch with dad - Chris Wills - by email many months beforehand, and both parties were much surprised to bump into each other in Patima's wonderful guesthouse in the small hamlet of Djvarboseli!

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Here is a link to their blog, a fine tale of horsemanship and feasting, and probably the best account of a wonderful stay in Tusheti! And for more information on how to get to Tusheti in the first place, please see this entry on my blog.
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Khevsur Warriors

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I do not wish to become embroiled in the common nonsensical discussions about the Khevsurs being the descendants of Crusaders who somehow got lost in the Caucasus on their way from Europe to the Holy Land. Even a basic knowledge of geography suffices to know that Khevsureti is a long, long way from the routes followed by the Crusaders from Europe!

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Regardless: This old studio photograph (probably taken in Tbilisi) is so wonderful that I feel I must post it!

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no shields here - just swords
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There is a growing interest in and enthusiasm for "Caucasian martial arts", mostly on the internet, and there are even displays of "authentic" Georgian "martial arts skills" during folkloric festivals here in Georgia (see www.mtavari.ge for more information - the site is in Georgian). Here is an extract from The Religious System of Pagan Georgia by Georges Charachidze (Paris, 1968 - in French; my translation):

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Nevertheless, the kadag [a powerful soothsayer; the gods were thought to communicate through him] intervenes in matters of law; firstly, in precise circumstances such as the vendetta and the "duel", called parik'aoba or tch'ra-tch'riloba. In some ways, tch'ra-tch'riloba represents the legal form of the vendetta, if the protagonists belong to different clans. tch'ra-tch'riloba means "cut" or "wound" [in the Khevsur dialect of Georgian]: the two adversaries kneel facing each other, the sword held in the right hand, the shield in the other; they cannot break up [their fight]. They may only strike each other's faces, the sword's sharp point being used to inflict wounds; the wounds must be light, and may not go down to the bone. The fight takes place within the surrounding wall of the shrine; it is prescribed by the men of the council, the judges, either to end a debt of blood which may exist between two clans or as an ordeal to separate two plaintiffs belonging to the same clan. If one of the fighters receives a severe wound, the man responsible for inflicting it and/or his clan must "buy back his blood" [from the wounded man and/or from his clan]. The wound is measured with grains of cereal, each one being equivalent to [the payment of] one cow. Wherefrom springs a practice of certain Khevsur doctors who, at the bidding of the wounded man, deepen his wound down to the bone. Sometimes, instead of ending the vendetta, the tch'ra-tch'riloba restarts it, following a disagreement regarding the gravity of the wound inflicted or the good faith of the "surveyors of the wound" [those who judge its severity]. It is obvious that in this situation the "judges" are incompetent: by deciding that the fight should be held, they had already divested themselves of the case and had accepted the subsequent divine judgement beforehand. If even this divine judgement was for whatever reason inoperable or unacceptable, a retrial was useless: one addressed oneself directly to the divinity, i.e. to the kadag. Such cases were commonplace, if one may judge from the persistence, the popularity, and the violence of tch'ra-tch'riloba. Vaja Pshavela [a famous nineteenth-century Pshav writer and poet] tells that he counted more than 50 wounds on the face of a single man. G. Eladze, describing the custom in 1949[!], concludes by recommending governmental action with a view to transforming these bloody fights into a simple sport. (pp. 183-184)
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Here is a Youtube video showing old films and photographs of parik'aoba or tch'a-tch'riloba. The first few seconds (filmed in the late 1920s) are a good example of this practice, as the two fighters are not wearing chain mail hoods (which were included in all the early photographs of the Khevsurs, which prized dramatic effect over ethnographic accuracy).

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Two Songs by Lela Tataraidze

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Lela Tataraidze is Tusheti's most famous singer. She was first described to me as

TuSeTis jeniper lopez

i.e. "Tusheti's Jennifer Lopez" - some indication of her fame and popularity! She was born in Dano, a small, nearly abandoned hamlet in Pirikiti Tusheti. Like most Tush families, hers had no doubt been spending the harsh winters down in the valley of the Alazani, in Kvemo Alvani (where her house - and indeed her mother! - are still to be seen). Her haunting songs are THE music played by all the Tush, irrespective of origin (Tchaghma, Pirikiti, Gometsri, Tsova, Tbilisi Tush, etc.), and some of them - particularly "How beautiful is Tusheti!" - have come to represent the very soul of Tusheti - indeed, to the detriment of other Tush artists: Ask any Georgian (or Tush) to name a singer from Tusheti, and every single one will come up with Lela Tataraidze. But ask them to name a singer from Tusheti other than Lela Tataraidze, however, and you will most likely draw a blank.
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Here are two of her many songs:

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"ra lamazia tusheti", or "How beautiful is Tusheti", and a lamentation for the death of several [Tush] people carried away in an avalanche (in the 1970s or -80s, I believe).
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For more traditional Georgian songs - not from Tusheti, however - please see my previous post on two songs by Sandro Kavsadze.
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Journalists on Google

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Notice the peak in August? Those are all the journos frantically searching the web for information on Georgia and South Ossetia!
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The 2008 Dadaloba Celebrations

I spent a wonderful week up in Tusheti, travelling to Tsovata via the Gometsari valley with two friends - Peggy Scremin, the "Attachee de Cooperation" at the French embassy in Tbilisi, and Lali Laliashvili, a French-speaking half-Tush girl from Kistauri. We were the guests of the three "shulta" ("hosts") of this year's celebrations: Zura Garsevanidze (the former mayor of Zemo Alvani), Besik Kaishvili, and Petre Ushurauli (the master shepherd!).

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Our driver (a Tsova, naturally!) tops up the Niva's tank with a jar of moonshine petrol in Kvemo Alvani before we embark upon the epic drive over the mountains into Tusheti.

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The road up to Tusheti (looking from the Caucasus mountains down towards the Alazani Valley and Kakheti).

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The compulsory glasses of chacha (Georgian grappa - triple-distilled grape mush from the bottom of the wine press) on top of the 3,000m Abanos Pass which separates Tusheti from Kakheti. Because of the pass' high altitude, the road to Tusheti is only open to cars from mid-June to mid-September (and only passable to shepherds and horses from mid-May to late September).

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The (superb) view from the Abanos Pass down into Tusheti.

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The Sulak river basin, with Omalo ("the capital of Tusheti") and its fantastic castle in the background.

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The end of the road: Pati's fabulous guesthouse in the hamlet of Djvarboseli, "the byre of the Cross", where we spend the night on our way to Tsovata.

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The superb view down the Gometsari valley from Pati's guesthouse, as photographed from the bathroom [i.e. loo].

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The view from Pati's guesthouse up the Gometsari Valley, with the path to Tsovata in the foreground.

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The next day: Early morning preparations for the ride/walk to Tsovata.

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Even Nivas (!) can go no further.

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A pack-horse.

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The path that leads to Tsovata, looking down the Gometsari Valley back towards Djvarboseli.

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The Tsovatistsqali River (a tributary of the Gometsris Alazani), looking towards Tsovata.

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Our host in Tsovata: Mirza. (Looking festive, as usual.)

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Nightlife in Tsovata: The young Tsovas compete in lifting weights on their hand made bench-press.

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What dreams are made of (for young shepherds in Tsovata).

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The eve of Dadaloba. Mirza and his horse, with k'en sameb, "the old [church of the] Trinity" on the sacred hill in the background.

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Another, better view of the old church of the Trinity and the sacred hill. (Note the "stone man" on the latter's summit.) Women are not allowed to walk upon the hill, and it is not considered proper and respectful for them to even approach its flanks.

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Celebrating the victory of Mirza (black t-shirt) in the "doghi" ("horse race"), a ritual horse race which is held yearly, and is the high-point of the Bats festival of "dadaloba", "the Feast of God the Father".

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Zura Garsevanidze, the former mayor of the Bats village of Zemo Alvani (in Kakheti), and one of this year's three "shulta" ("host"). His saddlebags both contain a (live) sheep, which will be taken down the Tsovatistsqali valley from Indurta to Tsaro, where their sacrifice will mark the beginning of the "doghi" ("horse race").

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Rezo, a Bats who works as an airline pilot in China, was this year's "tamada" ("toast-master", i.e. master of ceremonies). Here he stands, addressing the (male end) of the table during the feast which follows the "doghi" ("horse race").

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The Autocrat of the Banquet Table

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An extremely interesting study of the history and rituals of the Georgian supra and its tamada toastmaster-cum-dictator is available here as a pdf on Prof. Kevin Tuite's website.
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Petroglyphs

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The following are petroglyphs from Dano (Pirikiti Tusheti, Lela Tataraidze's village), photographed by Prof. Kote Tchrelashvili.

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Musical Instruments of Georgia

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khalkhuri hangebi ("national melodies")

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Maizer Gazdeliani, the director of the adila musical ensemble and a keen musician and instrument-maker, has created this website in association with the Tbilisi and Kutaisi State Museums. It includes detailed descriptions and photographs of all the different wind, string, percussion, keyboard etc. instruments used in Georgian folkloric music, as well as many regional variations thereof (check out the "four-tone concert panduri"!).

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A View of Zemo-Omalo

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A beautiful 360-degree View of Zemo-Omalo, the (old) "capital" of Tusheti, print-screened from the Tusheti National Park website (there is a link in the list on the right)
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Travel to Tusheti

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If you are thinking of travelling to Tusheti - this summer, perhaps - then I can recommend your employing "MN Georgien Travel". This company is run by Maia Veshaguridze, a "lamzur yeuH" ["pretty girl" in Bats] whom I met during my numerous stays in Zemo-Alvani.

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Without wanting to cast any doubt upon the professionalism and capability of the many other companies which offer tours to Tusheti, I feel sure that Maia - as a native Bats (i.e. Tush) - would be able to provide an additional "edge" to your stay in the region! Her company's best offer is a 10-day (walking, mostly) tour which would take you from Akhmeta in Kakheti up the Pankisi Gorge to Tbatana, over a c.3,000m pass to the source of the Alazani river, over another c.3,000m pass to Tsovata, from Tsovata along the Gometsari valley to Omalo, and then down from Tusheti over the Abanos pass (c.3,000m, again!), back down to Kakheti... an exhausting but unforgettable and truly AMAZING trip!

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Besides speaking Georgian, Tush Georgian(!), and a little Bats(!!), Maia is also fluent in German (she studied History in Hannover, and has spent many years in Germany), and one of her colleagues in the company speaks very good English.

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Her company's website is here. (I have also added a link; top right corner of this blog.) And should you wish to contact her, you can do so at: --contact--at--mngeorgientravel--dot--ge.

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Should you have any more questions about travelling to Georgia and - more specifically - to Tusheti or to Tsovata in order to meet the Bats people, I would be delighted to help!

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For an account of an English family's trip through Tusheti on horseback in the summer of 2008 (just before the war between Russia/South Ossetia and Georgia broke out... not that the fighting even got remotely close to the beautiful mountain scenery of Tusheti!), please go to this page, or go directly to their blog.

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The best time of the year during which to go to Tusheti is - unsurprisingly - summer, but not for the usual reasons (i.e. warm weather and plenty of sunny photographs): The [truly amazing] road to Tusheti - which begins in Georgia's eastern province of Kakheti, a three-hour drive from the capital Tbilisi - crosses into Tusheti over the 3,000m-high Abanos Pass. The pass is only open to cars from early June to mid- or late september, and is only open to the rugged local shepherds from late April to mid-October... Good drivers can be found in the villages of Kvemo- and Zemo-Alvani in Kakheti; one should expect to pay around 120 Georgian Lari (roughly 80$) for a one-way trip in a Soviet or Japanese 4x4; the drive from Kakheti to Omalo takes around 7 hours (for a mere 80km - this should give you some idea of the road conditions!).

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INDEX

PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM SLOWLY TRANSFERRING THIS BLOG TO ITS NEW HOME AT www.batsav.com.
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SOME OF THESE POSTS MAY ALREADY HAVE BEEN MOVED, AND SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OR OTHER IMAGES MAY NO LONGER BE VISIBLE

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For a general introduction to the Bats people, their history, culture, and language, please click here. I have also reproduced (in full) a lengthy article on the Bats written by Prof. Roland Topchishvili from the University of Tbilisi, which can be read here.

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For photographs - old and new - this page would be an excellent place to start. There are many other photographs on this website: More historic images, and some recent photographs taken in Tsovata, others taken by my friend Pridoni Beroshvili.
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To see a composite, annotated satellite image of the Tsovatatistsqali Valley, the ancestral homeland of the Bats people, please click here.
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To read about a festival called "Zezwaoba-Dalaoba", which involves a dramatic horse race, please visit this page, and for more information on Bats/Vainakh/Caucasian horses and horsemanship, please click here.
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I have also translated a very interesting chapter about the traditional "doghi" funerary horse races, i.e. a horse race like that held to mark the anniversary of the death of Zezwa Prindauli (see Zezwaoba), which you can read here. More information on animal symbolism in funeral ceremonies and monuments can be found on these two pages - one is dedicated to a pair of horse-shaped tombstones still standing in situ south-west of Tbilisi in Georgia, and the other to a pair of eastern Anatolian ram-shaped tombstones held by the archaeological museum in Diyarbakir.

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For information on Caucasian languages:
1. A Table outlining the 37 Caucasian languages and their corresponding 123 dialects
2. Their numbers (of speakers) and geographical distribution
3. Their phylogenies (i.e. their "family trees"): South Caucasian ("Kartvelian"), (North-)West Caucasian ("Abkhaz-Adyghe"), and (North-)East Caucasian ("Nakho-Daghestanian")
4. A Table showing some linguistic isoglosses among Caucasian Languages
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Robert Chenciner (of Eastern Caucasological fame) kindly asked me to publish his notes on the feast of Wastyrdjy, or the Feast of St. George as celebrated in North Ossetia. His blow-by-blow (or, rather, toast-by-toast!) account of the feasting and religious rituals makes for a fascinating read!
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Mr Chenciner has also sent me a digital copy of a book on the Andi people of Daghestan, published in Makhachkala in 2002. I plan to slowly edit and publish several extracts from this book here on my blog. The first installment is a copy of the Adat (laws) of the Andi, as well as a text concerned with the levying of tribute by the Andi upon a neighbouring village.
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I have also published a short post and links to various works of Prof. Shorena Kurtsikidze and Prof. Vakhtang Chikovani, who are both experts in the ethnography of the Caucasus - particularly of Khevsuerti-Pshavi and the surrounding area. There is an amazing series of photographs taken by Prof. Chikovani on the website of the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a very interesting pdf article written by both profs on the ethnography of the Pankisi Gorge in northern Georgia.
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For information on Caucasian rugs and kilims, please read this post.
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For information on how to travel to Georgia without flying(!), please click here. I also have a small post on the abandoned railway project which was to link Georgia and Chechnya. It seems that quite a few people end up on this blog when searching for ways of travelling between Turkey and Georgia, so I have written down a few recommendations on how to go from Trabzon to Batumi and Tbilisi.
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I have also translated (from the French!) some Vainakh i.e. Chechen and/or Ingush etc. legends, such as:
1. The Hordune-Din ("The Sea Stallion")
2. The Seven Sons of the Snow-storm (an Ingush [Nart] Prometheus)
3. The Star of the Winds (or how it came to be that winds blow in the mountains)
4. Pharmat, "The Blacksmith of the Country" (another Promethean legend)
5. A list of Vainakh divinities.
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I have also just compiled a small bibliography of works relating to the Caucasus, which can be found here.
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The Deutsches Museum in Munich has a scale model (1:10) of an Ossetian brewery, built according to descriptions of the famous traveller and caucasologist Adolf Dirr, which I have copied here.
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Et specialement pour vous les Francais, j'ai mis en ligne la traduction francaise du "stumar-maspindzeli" ("L'Hote et l'Invite") et du "gvelis tchamieli" ("Le Mangeur de serpent") de Vazha Pshavela, traduit par Gaston Bouatchidze.
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For Google Earth fans, I have uploaded downloadable ".kmz" files to my blog showing all the villages of Khevi (a.k.a Kazbegi), Pshavi, and Khevsureti (including Arkhoti), as well as a highly-detailed Soviet military map of Pshavi.
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I have also copied and compiled some very interesting demographic figures on the population of Khevsureti which I found in Sergi Makalatia's Khevsureti (Komunistis Stamba, Tbilisi: 1935).
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I uploaded a song in Bats/Tsova-Tush to YouTube which I filmed in Zemo Alvani.
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Kevin Tuite from the University of Montreal let me copy his interview with Pilipe Baghiauri - tav-khevisberi (chief priest) of the Pshav commune of Gogolaurta in Georgia.
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Dr. Mamardashvili from the National Museum in Tbilisi kindly gave me (low-resolution, alas!) copies of the Museum's ethnographic maps of Tusheti, Qvara-Tianeti, and Piraketa- and Pirikita-Khevsureti.
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Prof. George Hewitt from SOAS let me reproduce his article entitled The Russian Academy and the Caucasus in the XVIIIth Century, which contains some very interesting information on the first academics to study the Caucasus and its peoples in detail.
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Prof. Tuite also passed on to me a catalogue of the collection of Mirian Khutsishvili's ethnographic films, which he filmed all over Georgia. The catalogue comprises Prof. Tuite's descriptions of all the films. Mirian Khutsishvili - who started filming in the 1950s - still works for the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, and is a remarkable man!
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I have also copied the sections relevant to the Caucasus of the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
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I also created a post entitled "Through Foreign Eyes - The Bats/Tsova and the Tush in Ethnographical Literature", where I copy all the references to them I have come across in the many books I have read.
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Please bear in mind that you can return to this Index page (and indeed to any other particular entry) by using the "menu" on the right-hand side!
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And feel free to contact me at --alexjtb--at--gmail--dot--com--! Any comments or suggestions would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED! If you leave comments on this blog without logging into Blogger, please make sure to include your email address, as I will not be able to reply if it is hidden.

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Cette page EN FRANCAIS - "Chauves-souris" se refere forcement au peuple Bats...
Diese Seite AUF DEUTSCH Die "Fledermaeuse" sind selbstverstaendlich das Batsische Volk...
Ver esta página EN ESPANOL Con "murciélago" se refiero obviamente al pueblo de los Bats y no al murciélago...
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Dadaloba 2008

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Sheltering from the Sun in Indurta during Dadaloba

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The annual "dadaloba" festival of the Bats people will take place in Tsovata in late July/early August. (The word comes from the Nakh "dal", "god", with the added Kartvelian "-oba" suffix meaning "the day of".) Drinking and toasts will start early in the morning - "as usual", cynics will say - and two horse races will be held around midday, before all join in a long and memorable feast! (Please see this previous post for photographs of last year's festival.)

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Last year, about a hundred people showed up, most of them Tchaghma-Tush and other Georgians from the lowlands. One small group of men arrived on foot from a side valley; I was told that they had walked all the way from distant Alvani, a three day journey up the Pankisi Gorge and past Alaznis Tavi i.e. the source of the Tushetis Alazani river. (This route is the old road to Tusheti, which was used before the new, motorable road was built from Pshaveli in the early 1960s.) All were dressed in normal clothes and city shoes, and one of them carried a little bread in a plastic bag... They must have been as tough as old boots!

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The feast was held on the valley floor itself, between two parallel lines of stones, which have probably been lying there for that purpose for centuries, and consisted of mutton cooked in several different ways (boiled, boiled then fried, etc.), and some vegetables brought up from the lowlands, along with a little bread and endless jerrycans of wine. Needless to say, one does not attend this festival for these culinary delights... Best to wait for the following day, when fresh "khinkali" dumplings (akin to large ravioli) are prepared en masse.

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The Supra (feast) to mark Dadaloba, with the Men's Khati (church) in the Background
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The Author's route will surely be the same as that followed last year, viz. First travel to Zemo-Alvani from Tbilisi, and the following day join others in a "Tush Taxi" i.e. a sturdy 4x4 driven by a grinning madman, to fight our way up the appalling road over the Abanos Pass (c.3,000m) all the way to Djvarboseli via Omalo and the Tushetis Alazani valley. Having spent an extremely comfortable night in the Djvarboseli guesthouse, one must walk the remaining few kilometres to Tsovata, which takes about a day.

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Tusheti as seen from the Abanos Pass

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