The excursion to Pshavi (June 12^th and 13^th 2010) was particularly useful for my research project, which has its focus on the “sense of place” in the Georgian context as it emerges from oral narratives and cultural practices. This aspect has been developed in a very interesting way by the mountaineers of Eastern Georgia, and the Pshavian among them: here, the stories told about places (andrezi) are especially connected to sacred sites (jvari and khati) of which they tell the foundation and the meaning, and help understand the ritual practices performed on the day of the site’s patron.

During our stay in Magharoskari, in fact, I had the chance to interview Mr. Udzilauri, head of the village, and to collect from him some interesting information concerning the territorial organization of the Pshavian region in 16 villages connected to specific cultic sites (the main one being Lasharis Jvari), traditional myths regarding those sites and the values associated with the so-called adgilis deda, the “Mother of the place”. The visit to the village’s adgilis deda, and to the Kopalas Jvari on the following day, has given me the possibility to document, both orally and visually, some important elements that contribute to the generation of the local cultural landscape.

Picture: Adgilis Deda in Magharoskari

During the excursion to Pshavi I tried to explore the holidays, which are celebrated by Pshavian people during the year. I wanted to know more about: what kind of holidays exists in Pshavi; where and how are they celebrated; and what is the aim of these holidays.

Pshavian people divide their holidays into two parts: church celebrations, which are indicated by the church authorities (e.g. “Giorgoba”, “Mariamoba” and etc.) and folk holidays, which are indicated by the “Khevisberi”, the man who mediates the relationships between the community and the invisible beings (e.g. “Lasharoba”).

During our excursion to the region, I interviewed some local families on such themes: from my respondents’ answers it is possible to argue that, for Pshavian people, besides God there are some other external forces that require worship. It seems that only a small part of the population separates the church celebrations from the folk holidays: in fact, most of them believe that both festivities are sacred and are part of their cultural life.

My research interest during the excursion to Pshavi was to explore which figures of Saints are considered most important in the region, starting from the example of Magharoskari village. I also wanted to find out why exactly these saints are worshipped, what their specific strength might be and what they are prayed for.
For this reason, I took interviews with five local families. The results show that people generally list the following main figures: 1. St. George 2. Virgin Mary, and 3. King Tamar. They represent the “invisible forces”, which are capable of everything on Earth, as killing, raising from the dead or healing patients.
At the question: “why exactly these saints?” my respondents looked quite surprised - anyway, their answers mostly referred to the fact that these Saints have a specific force: the power of doing anything they like on the Earth.
This excursion to Magharoskari and Chargali was useful for my general interest in religious practices and was a chance to touch upon the recent situation of religious beliefs in the mountainous communities of Eastern Georgia.

As a member of the two-day expedition to Pshavi, organized by the Center for the Study of Caucasus and Black Sea Region at the University of Georgia (CBSR), I was interested in traditional Pshavian clothes and particularly in the local interest and using of traditional clothes in contemporary Pshavi. As we stayed in the village of Magharoskari, I went to the head of the village to get advice as to see the right person for this matter and he suggested to visit the principle of the public school of the village, Ms. Mzisavar Turmanauli. I arranged the meeting with her in the evening in the public school, where their salon, a place where they work on making traditional cloths, clothes, wool, felt, etc., is situated.

The salon in the school is run by the principle of the school and her childhood friend, cloth designer Ms. Tina Datashvili, both very nice and welcoming people, who contribute to and know a lot about traditional clothes and cloth in Pshavi. They were my major informants. According to them traditional clothes in contemporary Pshavi are not worn anymore and they are striving not to lose the tradition. The principle of the school was herself both wearing details of traditional cloth from her grandmother and thinking aloud that keeping the details and the characteristics of traditional cloth is essential for contemporary Georgians. “We can put it in modern ways so that Georgians keep it and also enjoy wearing the cloth, to highlight the cultural heritage we have” – said one of informants. Also according to them the patriarchy of Georgia is working on this issue too. The above mentioned information is very interesting and essential for the further study of the revival of traditions in contemporary Georgia and the ways of reckoning, understanding and using traditional elements in modern reality.

The latter statement was also seen in the process, when Ms. Tina Datashvili showed us from the very beginning to the end how felt is made, and explained that before felt was rarely made with designs and multi-colored, however nowadays more colors and elements have been added to the traditional ways of making it and it is used for making many cloths, which contemporary Georgians like and wear. As for Pshavi, both of my informants, as mentioned before contribute a lot to keeping traditions alive and hope to create many Pshavian clothes so that everybody in the region wears them on a particular day, dedicated to the traditional clothes of Pshavi.

Picture 1: Ms. Mzisavar Turmanauli wearing a detail of design from old traditional Pshavian cloth on her dress (wearing it the way people in Pshavi would do, according to her) - Photo by Natalie Turabelidze

Picture 2: An example of felt which is made in the traditional way, but more colors and designs are added, used for creating modern clothes – Photo by Data Chigholashvili

The students of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Master program - David Chigholashvili, Nino Siprashvili and Manana Tsereteli - went on excursion to Pshavi on June 12^th and 13^th, supervised by their teacher Katharina Stadler, PhD candidate from Humboldt University Berlin, currently doing research in the field of musical anthropology. They were joined by PhD candidate Valentina Simeoni from Bergamo University, working in the field of landscape anthropology, and others, interested in the region.

During the two-day stay in Magharoskari the students chose their own topics of interest, related to the anthropological background acquired in class. In short supervising meetings future steps and first outcomes were discussed both before and during the excursion. The students conducted their research - a combination of participant observation, interviews as well as visual documentation - on their own. Next to Magharoskari the sites of Kopala and Chargali were visited. Information was mainly gathered on shrines and holy places, church celebration and folk holidays, saints, forbidden things and traditional clothes.

The excursion was funded by the Center for the Study of Caucasus and Black Sea Region at the University of Georgia.