Citizenship gone wrong

Bibliographic Data

ID4524807
AuthorsFlorian Mühlfried (0000-0002-5257-2794, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume15
Issue3-4
Pages353-366
Publication date2011-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2011.564782
OpenAlexW2027074631
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited15

This paper examines how and why a deliberate enactment of the state got out of control. It does so by outlining three phases of border management in Tusheti, a highland province of post-Soviet Georgia. In the first phase, control was directly exercised by the local population. At the same time, border transgression for economic and political purposes was encouraged. A second phase of border management was triggered by the Chechen war in the mid-1990s. In order to discredit claims that Chechen 'terrorists' were hiding in Georgian territory, the Georgian government, monitored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, effectively brought border transgression to a standstill. Finally, a third phase was initiated by a mission of the Georgian Orthodox Church sent to Tusheti with the aim of 'spiritual fortification'. In the end, despite their courageous civic engagement, the locals had fewer entitlements than before. In order to explain what went wrong, I reflect on the downside of performing and incorporating the state and elaborate three different models of citizenship enacted by the key players in each distinct period. Finally, I argue for a temporalisation and hence deconstruction of the notion of 'post-socialism'. Keywords: citizenshipstateborderspost-socialism Notes 1. For an anthropological study of this border in post-Soviet times, see Pelkmans (2006 Pelkmans, M. 2006. Defending the border: identity, religion, and modernity in the Republic of Georgia, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]). 2. See Bobrovnikov (2007 Bobrovnikov, V. 2007. "Bandits and the state: designing a 'traditional' culture of violence in the Russian Caucasus". In Russian empire: space, people, power, 1700-1930, Edited by: Burbank, J., von Hagen, M. and Remnev, A. 238-267. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]) as well as Kemper (2005 Kemper, M. 2005. Herrschaft, Recht und Islam in Daghestan: von den Khanaten und Gemeindebünden zum ğihād-Staat, Wiesbaden: Reichert. [Google Scholar]) on the socio-historical background of these raids. 3. This is a pseudonym. 4. Khusheti (also called Iusheti in one letter) is a small mountain village in the Tsumada district of Dagestan in the borderland to Tusheti. 5. Copies of the documents are with the author. 6. It is unclear to me whether these punishments were ever handed down. I also cannot verify if they were punished by the jamaat according to religious law, as stated by Gogitidze in an interview. 7. For the discussion of whether the religious beliefs of the Georgian highlanders are Christian, pagan, or syncretic, see K'ik'nadze (1996 K'ik'nadze, Z. 1996. Kartuli mitologia 1: jvari da saqmo. [Georgian mythology 1: the cross and its people], Kutaisi: Gelatis mecnierebata ak'ademiis shromebi. [Google Scholar]), Tuite and Buxrashvili (1999 Tuite, K. and Buxrashvili, P. 1999. Binarität und Komplementarität in Nordostgeorgien. Die Vorstellung von Jungen und Mädchen am Iaqsari-Heiligtum. Georgica, 22: 59-72. [Google Scholar]), and Tuite (2004a Tuite, K. 2004a. Lightning, sacrifice and possession in the traditional religions of the Caucasus. Part I. Anthropos, 99: 143-159. [Google Scholar], 2004b Tuite, K. 2004b. Lightning, sacrifice and possession in the traditional religions of the Caucasus. Part II. Anthropos, 99: 481-497. [Google Scholar]). 8. Georgia became a Christian kingdom in the fourth century. 9. The word khat'i denotes picture, icon or tutelary god in standard Georgian, but cross in the Khevsurian dialect (Tschenkéli 1965 Tschenkéli, K. 1965. Georgisch - Deutsches Wörterbuch, Zürich: Amirani-Verlag. [Google Scholar], p. 855). The Khevsurs are a regional group settling in highland Georgia in the vicinity of the Tushetians. Both groups are closely related in matters of rites and ritual, with the Khevsurs taking a leading role. Until the 1920s, Khevsuretian priests frequently supervised the ritual activities in Tusheti, especially during the summer festivals. 10. Two villages formerly under the administration of the council of Tusheti are now situated in a security zone between Georgia and Dagestan, patrolled by armed forces from the Russian Federation and Georgia in turn. The security zone was established in the 1990s. At present, the population of these villages consists mostly of local Dagestanis. 11. This mirrors the observation of Das and Poole that, contrary to Scott's famous dictum that the state works towards legibility, it is experienced through 'the illegibility of its own practices, documents, and words' (Das and Poole 2004 Das, V. and Poole, D. 2004. "State and its margins: comparative ethnographies". In Anthropology in the margins of the state, Edited by: Das, V. and Poole, D. 3-33. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press. [Google Scholar], p. 10, emphasis in the original

Chechen · Georgian · European Union Policy and Governance · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Soviet and Russian History

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