Georgians - Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Georgian society is patriarchal: the head of a Georgian table is by custom always a man, and the men of a family are protective of the women. On the other hand, mothers are especially revered, and the language contains far more idiomatic expressions that refer to mothers than to fathers: the world is "mother Earth" ( deda mits'a ) , Georgian is the "mother tongue" ( deda ena ) , and so on. The Georgians revere the twelfth-century Queen Tamar as the symbol of their nation at its apex, and all mothers for the power to give life. Georgians expect men and women to have distinct natural inclinations, but regard each other as equals. Most doctors, teachers, and philologists are women, whereas men dominate in government, science, and heavy industry; many other professions are mixed. Georgians respect all older people's wisdom and control; in return they expect parents and grandparents to watch over children and be patient with their mistakes. People pay attention to each other's ages and sit and toast at suppers in roughly decreasing order of age. In general, Georgians do not enjoy eating meals or going places without the company of relatives or close friends.

Georgia has a large, loosely defined class of leading families whose members are academics, doctors, writers, artists, and political leaders. Old Tbilisi families have the highest status, but every village has an intelligentsia, usually including the former nobility. Communist party members, some from leading families and some not, formed a special class, at once elite and outcast, now disintegrating. Working and farming families receive respect insofar as they are large, prosperous, established, and honorable. Georgians feel working in business or any kind of service job is degrading, even if sometimes necessary. The Russians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Jews who fill these jobs are therefore considered tainted by them or marked as separate people with separate roles. People recognize and reward individual merit, but access to education and employment also usually involves family guidance and patronage, thus replicating existing social divisions. The Communists, while they were in power, followed this traditional system, their ideology to the contrary notwithstanding.

The control exercised by Soviet offices, factories, schools, and clubs was to some extent circumvented by private ties that were the bases of society. People were accustomed to using their connections and paying bribes to gain government permission to build houses, change residence, or travel outside their republic. In general, Georgians consider it natural and moral to favor relatives and friends, provided that the beneficiaries are worthy. Under feudalism, the king, the church patriarch, and a few dozen princely families commanded lesser nobles as warriors and attendants; nobles, in turn, ruled farming families, who owed them labor, crops, and respect. City dwellers were organized into guilds, and foreign prisoners of war became slaves. In some areas peasant families were essentially free, watched over by village elders; elsewhere princes exploited their serfs, even selling them into slavery. Nobles were usually raised in local peasant families, and all classes carried arms, fought in battle, and had a sense of honor.

Political Organization. Under Soviet rule, Communist party leaders, government officials, and heads of institutions and industries effectively formed a single ruling body. Party members, supervisors, collective-farm chairmen, and schoolteachers represented this authority in everyday life, earning respect according to their individual qualities. Major decisions were made in Moscow, and formal opposition was not tolerated. Factions of the local nomenklatura schemed aggressively against each other for government wealth and favor, however. In earlier centuries, nobles, members of the royal family, and rulers of neighboring states formed shifting alliances. The central monarchy and the Christian church became closely tied to the idea of a unified, independent Georgia. Strong kings developed a feudal system similar to that of Europe, with hereditary land rights conditional on services rendered to a lord. However, princes and local leaders also made wars and alliances as extensions of their private affairs, building power by tradition, kinship ties, and personal ability.

Social Control and Conflict. Disputes are mediated by older men in the families involved or by third parties who have the respect of both sides; occasionally they simply simmer unresolved. Soviet police and courts were politically controlled and sometimes instruments of terror. People avoided litigation and resorted to bribery and influence when arrested. This system is now breaking down but has not been replaced. Georgia's traditional law codes, administered by nobles, bound offending families to pay fixed restitutions for death, injury, and loss of property; there was no distinction between purposeful and accidental wrongs. Parties took oaths on icons or brought witnesses to swear support. Families also took justice into their own hands, retaliating back and forth over generations. Georgians who feared revenge or official punishment sometimes fled to the forest and became bandits.

Georgia was thus historically a land of blood feuds and frequent raiding and warfare. A dagger belted around the waist and cartridge belts across the chest were standard elements of dress. This was balanced by a chivalric code of honor and strong traditions of kinship and hospitality. With the weakening of Soviet control, people are again dividing along political, national, and family lines, and leaders are building private armies. Georgian banquet tables may erupt into drunken fights, but can also heal rifts through adroit toasting; the supra is ideally "the academy," a place to learn and discuss. A fight most often starts between young men; older men, friends, or women then step in and try to calm them. A man's relatives and close friends may, however, also feel obligated to take his side. Formerly a woman could stop a fight by throwing her kerchief between the combatants.