Ritual as a Sign and Means of Identity

Abstract

The paper aims to show how it is possible to associate the concept
of identity with “ancestral customs” and “cultural memory”. With
that purpose the author tries to outline a particular version of collective
remembering grounded in the use of ritual resources. With
that end in view, the special literature together with the field ethnographic
data collected by the author during the years 1976-89
throughout Georgia had been used in the paper. Purposely, the ritual
process associated with the early-Christian tradition had been
described not as a stereotyped activity, but as related events located
within Georgian history. It has also been shown that the mentioned
custom bore the function of the ethnic and cultural
identification, as foreigners and aliens infiltrated from other countries
who performed the custom, in that way were adopted and integrated
into the Georgian Christian culture. An emphasize has
been made on the importance of the performance of the ritual
which became so inseparable and immanent among the inhabitants
of Georgia, that in spite of the confessional turbulences of the
later periods, it persisted in the environment of a new faith. The
main task of the paper was organized around the question:
whether it is possible to experience the feeling of identity and
wholeness within the Georgian culture throughout the centuries
by means of performing an established ancestral ritual. The analysis
of the ethnographic data provided the author with clues to the
identity, culture and self-understanding of an age-old Georgian society.