Mythologies of the Mingrelian Tribe

The Mingrelians (Mingrelian: მარგალეფი, romanized: margalepi; Georgian: მეგრელები, romanized: megrelebi) are an indigenous Kartvelian-speaking ethnic subgroup of Georgians that mostly live in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (Mingrelian: სამარგალო, romanized: samargalo; Georgian: სამეგრელო, romanized: samegrelo) region of Georgia. They also live in considerable numbers in Abkhazia and Tbilisi. In the pre-1930 Soviet census, the Mingrelians were afforded their own ethnic group category, alongside many other ethnic subgroups of Georgians. The Mingrelians speak the Mingrelian language, and are typically bilingual also in Georgian. Both these languages belong to the Kartvelian language family. In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the increasing consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region, which covered modern western Georgia. The endonym margalepi (მარგალეფი) is presumably reflected in the Greek Manraloi (Μάνραλοι), recorded as a people of Colchis by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE. By the mid-3rd century, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica (or Egrisi in Georgian sources). In the 5th century, the first Christian king Gubazes I declared Christianity as a state religion of Lazica. Locals began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language. From 542 to 562, Lazica was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War. Emperor Heraclius's offensive in 628 AD brought victory over the Persians and ensured Roman predominance in Lazica until the invasion and conquest of the Caucasus by the Arabs in the second half of the 7th century. In the 7th century Lazica fell to the Muslim conquest; however, in the 8th century combined Lazic and Abasgian forces successfully repelled the Arab occupation. In 780 Lazica was incorporated into the Kingdom of Abkhazia as a result of dynastic succession, the latter led the unification of the Georgian monarchy in the 11th century. The nobility and clergy of Lazica switched from the Hellenic ecclesiastic tradition to the Georgian, and Georgian became the language of culture and education. After the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Mingrelia was an autonomous principality within the Kingdom of Imereti, until being annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. In several censuses under the Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union, Mingrelian were considered a separate group, largely because at the time of the annexation Mingrelia was politically separate from eastern Georgia, the historical political and cultural centers of the Medieval Georgian Kingdoms. They were reclassified under the broader category of Georgian in the 1930s. Currently, most Mingrelians identify themselves as a subgroup of the Georgian nation and have preserved many characteristic cultural features – including the Mingrelian language – that date back to the pre-Christian Colchian era.

The Mingrelians (xmf|მარგალეფი|margalepi; Georgian: მეგრელები|tr) are an indigenous Kartvelian-speaking ethnic subgroup of Georgians that mostly live in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (xmf|სამარგალო|samargalo; Georgian: სამეგრელო|tr) region of Georgia. They also live in considerable numbers in Abkhazia and Tbilisi. In the pre-1930 Soviet census, the Mingrelians were afforded their own ethnic group category, alongside many other ethnic subgroups of Georgians. The Mingrelians speak the Mingrelian language, and are typically bilingual also in Georgian. Both these languages belong to the Kartvelian language family. In the 13th century BC, the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the increasing consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region, which covered modern western Georgia. The endonym margalepi (მარგალეფი) is presumably reflected in the Greek Manraloi (Μάνραλοι), recorded as a people of Colchis by Ptolemy in the 2nd century BC. By the mid-3rd century, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica (or Egrisi in Georgian sources). In the 5th century, the first Christian king Gubazes I declared Christianity as a state religion of Lazica. Locals began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language. From 542 to 562, Lazica was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the Eastern Roman and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War. Emperor Heraclius's offensive in 628 AD brought victory over the Persians and ensured Roman predominance in Lazica until the invasion and conquest of the Caucasus by the Arabs in the second half of the 7th century. In the 7th century Lazica fell to the Muslim conquest; however, in the 8th century combined Lazic and Abasgian forces successfully repelled the Arab occupation. In 780 Lazica was incorporated into the Kingdom of Abkhazia as a result of dynastic succession, the latter led the unification of the Georgian monarchy in the 11th century. The nobility and clergy of Lazica switched from the Hellenic ecclesiastic tradition to the Georgian, and Georgian became the language of culture and education. After the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Mingrelia was an autonomous principality within the Kingdom of Imereti, until being annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. In several censuses under the Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union, Mingrelian were considered a separate group, largely because at the time of the annexation Mingrelia was politically separate from eastern Georgia, the historical political and cultural centers of the Medieval Georgian Kingdoms. They were reclassified under the broader category of Georgian in the 1930s. Currently, most Mingrelians identify themselves as a subgroup of the Georgian nation and have preserved many characteristic cultural features – including the Mingrelian language – that date back to the pre-Christian Colchian era.

Mingrelia (Samargalo) is situated in the western half of the Georgian Republic in the former USSR. It comprises seven administrative districts (raions ): Abasha, Senak'i (renamed Tskhak'aia by the Soviets), Khobi, Ts'alenjikha, Chkhorots'q'u, Mart'vili (formerly Gegech'k'ori), and Zugdidi. The region is ethnically homogeneous except for significant Russian minorities in the towns of Poti, Zugdidi, and Senak'i. Mingrelians also make up large numbers in the Gali and Ochamchire regions in the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic, which is part of Georgia. The Gali region is considered by many Mingrelians to be part of Mingrelia. Mingrelia is bound on the north by Abkhazia and by the mountainous region of Svaneti. To the east and the south are the Georgian provinces of Imereti and Guria, and to the west, the Black Sea. Of the total land area of 4,339.2 square kilometers, approximately 1,260 is lowland river valley and rolling hills and the remainder foothill and mountain zones mainly in the northeast (Ts'alenjikha, Chkhorots'q'u, and Mart'vili regions). The former swampland of the coast and the Rioni River valley contain rich soils that support a variety of crops including silk, citrus fruits, and tobacco. The lowlands have a subtropical climate with temperatures ranging from averages of 4°-5° C in December to 23°-24° C in July. Winters last no longer than a month. The mountain regions are cooler, especially in the winter months (-6° to -2° C on average in January). The annual rainfall in Mingrelia is between 150 and 230 centimeters. Mingrelian is a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language, not mutually intelligible with Georgian. Most former Soviet and some Western experts recognize Mingrelian as belonging, along with Laz, to a separate division within the South Caucasian Family of languages, known as Megrelo-Ch'an or Zan. The Soviet Georgian scholar A. Chikobava discerned two closely related Mingrelian dialects: the western Samurzaq'an-Zugdidian and the eastern Senakian. Mingrelian is not a written language, and although Mingrelians generally speak it at home, they have adopted Georgian (Kartuli) as their literary language. There are no Mingrelian language schools, books, or newspapers, although there were periodic attempts at establishing Mingrelian as a literary language in the late czarist and early Soviet periods. In the pre-Soviet period, Mingrelian was one of the best-described South Caucasian languages, and today studies of Mingrelian folklore are extensive. Georgian remains the language of business and government. The number of Mingrelian speakers is declining, and most Mingrelian speakers positively identify themselves as "Georgian" (Kartveli).

Mingrelians now occupy part of a region that was known by ancient Greeks and Romans as Colchis or Lazica, and by western Georgians as Egrisi. In the fourteenth century, it became a separate feudatory under the princely Dadiani family and was known as Odishi. It was not until the nineteenth century that "Mingrelia" became the popular name for the region. Mingrelia has always been part of the broader Georgian cultural and political sphere, in large part through the influence of the Georgian Orthodox church. At times, however, in common with western Georgia, it has come under different cultural influences from the Georgians in the east (Kakhetians and Kartlians) who were separated from the western regions (Georgian imier, "over there") by the Likhi mountain range. The Greek, Roman, and Byzantine empires had much more influence in west Georgia. In the seventeenth century Georgia was divided into two by the Persian and Ottoman empires. West Georgia, including Mingrelia, became part of the Ottoman sphere and east Georgia, part of the Persian. The Georgian church was likewise split into two, and Mingrelia, which established its own mint and customs barriers, became one of the competing feudatories of west Georgia until it was finally taken under Russian protection in 1804 as an autonomous territory. Autonomy was withdrawn after a revolt in 1856-1857, by Mingrelian peasants who seized the regional capital of Zugdidi and threatened czarist control of the region. In 1867 the kingdom was formally abolished by the Russian Empire. Under Russian rule, the serious problem of malaria was solved by draining swampland. Between 1918 and 1921, Mingrelia was part of an independent Georgia; in 1921 it became part of the USSR. There had been little conflict in the past between Mingrelians and their neighbors, except on a dynastic level. The assimilation of Mingrelians by the Georgians, which accelerated in the nineteenth century under the impact of modernization, was completed after the Soviet annexation. Some half-hearted attempts by local Bolsheviks to establish autonomy failed. Abkhazian and Mingrelian relations in the mixed southern regions of Abkhazia were soured by the Georgianization policies of Lavrenti Beria (a native of Mingrelia) in the 1940s and 1950s. Conflict between local Georgians (mostly Mingrelians) and Abkhazians emerged briefly in the 1960s and 1970s. In July 1989 there was a bloody conflict in Abkhazia between Mingrelians and Abkhazians over Abkhazian demands for secession; more than twenty people were killed. The majority of Mingrelians reject suggestions of a politically autonomous Mingrelia and identify with the struggle for Georgian independence.

Mingrelians, a group inhabiting the western province of Mingrelia in Georgia, and formerly also part of the disputed territory of Abkhazia. In recent years the identity of the Mingrelians, and the ‘correct’ status for their most obvious distinguishing trait, the Mingrelian language, has become the subject of an increasingly wide debate. Crucially this debate is not entirely new, but reminiscent of similar debates in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But for the first time, a group of Mingrelian intellectuals are actively and openly pursuing what they see as the recovery of their own cultural heritage as Mingrelians. This has engendered avigorous renewed controversy over how Georgian and Mingrelian identities, and the relationship between them, are to be imagined. In the post-Soviet context of secessionist conflict in Georgia, it is not difficult to see why there should be extreme reluctance, particularly in the centre, to concede or encourage the expression of further identities beyond the level of the nation. Especially for Georgian understandings of the conflict in Abkhazia, and the Georgian claim to Abkhazia, any notion of Mingrelian separateness is intolerable. In this sense the Mingrelians are in a not dissimilar situation to their closest linguistic relatives, the Lazi in Turkey, in that separatist conflict elsewhere in the state imposes severe constraints on the open expression of any degree of cultural individuality. Indeed my approach here owes much to the approach taken by anthropologists dealing with similar questions in the Lazi case (Bellér-Hann 1995; Hann 1997). Firstly I seek to identify the different sources constituting a Mingrelian identity and the different frames of reference to which they apply. I hope to demonstrate that these are varied and in some senses in conflict with one another. Secondly this paper will present a survey of the different modern attempts to construct Mingrelian identity, and analyse their approach in relation to the sources of identity available. I will then situate these constructions of Mingrelian identity in their political context. Many of the views to be examined here would be rejected out of hand by my Georgian colleagues as ‘unscientific’. My approach differs somewhat in that I see folk and popular beliefs as an important level of subjective reality constitutive of the distinctions and categorical orders which make up ‘identity’, and as such they merit our serious attention. I stress that I am not so much concerned with the objective qualities of this or that language or group, as in what beliefs are being promoted about language and identity and what role those beliefs are playing in the new cultural politics of nationbuilding in Georgia. This research is based on a survey of relevant academic and media sources in Georgia, and ethnographic interviews carried out on successive visits to the field between June 1999 and June 2000.