CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Shalvashvili, Mariam |
|---|---|
| Title | Living with the Dead: Transgressive Mortuary Practices in Samegrelo, Georgia |
| Summary | In Samegrelo, Georgia, mourning relatives are challenging the boundaries between the dead and the living. Families share food, houses and a lasting relationship with their dead relatives, actively including them in everyday lives and refusing the idea of the deceased belonging to the past; this understanding of where the dead belong, are materialized and tangible in everyday mundane activities, by elimination of divided spaces and inclusion of the dead as suitable and active family members. My thesis is about almost complete elimination of such blurry boundaries by parents in case of the tragic death of their children, especially sons. Since in the Georgian society this behavior is understood as transgressive, this paper will try to explain how these transgressions happen. In the moments of tragedy, concepts of parenthood, familial ties and generational expectations come in tension with the reality of death. This research is about studying what appears to be strange in order to learn about the rules, I will argue that transgressive acts are facilitated by existent social norms and institutions, simultaneously challenging and exposing the basic organizational structure of social norms, gender hierarchy and family in Megrelian society. |
| Supervisor | Vlad Naumescu |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/shalvashvili_mariam.pdf |
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