Chewsuren

Chewsuren with Tschocha and armor (around 1910)

Chewsuren ( Max Tilke , 1910)

The Khevsurs ( Georgian ხევსურები / Chewsurebi ) are a Subethnie the Georgians , a mountain people of the Greater Caucasus in northeast Georgia . They live in the historical region of Chewsuretia on both sides of the main Caucasus ridge. It is located in the extreme northeast of today's Mtskheta-Mtianeti region on the border with Russia . The Khevsurs speak the northeastern Georgian dialect Khevsur .

Traditions

They are Georgian Orthodox Christians. Despite the more than 1200 years of Christianization, pre-Christian rituals exist, as in some neighboring regions, e.g. Partly over-molded Christian, like the annual sacrificial ceremonies and festivals at Chati .

The costume of Khevsurs heard the very characteristic colorful Chokha , the Georgian talawari is called. It is usually cut short and has a trapezoidal outline. The front and sleeves are embroidered with crosses and geometric shapes. Chain armor and other medieval armor used up until a few years ago testify to their ability to defend themselves.

They were described at the end of the 19th century by Gustav Radde in the monograph The Chewsuren und their Land , which provided various testimonies to their customs.

In particular, the marriage customs of the Chewsuren described by Radde had remarkable peculiarities. It was considered a shame if a young couple had a child before the first four years or a second before another three years had passed. For the first two years, the father did not have to hold the child in his arms and the mother did not give the child caresses in the presence of other people. If a woman already had a son, she was not allowed to enter into a second marriage even as a widow. In the past, woman's infidelity was punished by cutting off her ears and noses.

literature

Representations

Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger: The representation of the disputes between the Caucasian ethnic groups of the Chewsuren and Kisten in Georgian literature . In: Living and Conflict Area Caucasia. Großbarkau 1996, pp. 32-47.
Gustav Radde: Chews'uren and their country: A monographic attempt . Fischer, Cassel 1878.
Georg Nioradze: funeral and death cult at the Chewssuren . Strecker and Schröder, Stuttgart 1931.

Fiction

Micheil Jawachishvili (Georg. "The white collar") “Just get away. Just get out or the white collar ”. (German, Caucasus-Caucasus Library No. 3), translated by Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger and Artschil Chotiwari, Aachen 2014.

Web links

Commons : Khevsurs - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, “ქართველები”, Volume 10, pp. 458–461, Tiflis, 1986
↑ Bernhard Lang cable: Man and his races , Dietz, Stuttgart, 1892, p. 536f.
↑ In the novel, the Georgian townsperson Elisbar comes under Chewsuren more or less by chance in the 1920s. He becomes one of them. The author, who studied the customs of the Chewsuren before writing it, describes in the novel his amazement, his recovery from the city and an emancipated wife, his adaptation until he is supposed to commit an honor killing ... At the end of the novel he wants to break out . The novel reveals whether he succeeds.

[1] Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia, “ქართველები”, Volume 10, pp. 458–461, Tiflis, 1986

[Langkabel1892_536f-2] Bernhard Lang cable: Man and his races , Dietz, Stuttgart, 1892, p. 536f.

[3] In the novel, the Georgian townsperson Elisbar comes under Chewsuren more or less by chance in the 1920s. He becomes one of them. The author, who studied the customs of the Chewsuren before writing it, describes in the novel his amazement, his recovery from the city and an emancipated wife, his adaptation until he is supposed to commit an honor killing ... At the end of the novel he wants to break out . The novel reveals whether he succeeds.