Rural Families In Soviet Georgia: A Case Study In Ratcha Province (international Library Of Anthropology)

Tamara Dragadze provides an unique account of family life in rural Soviet Georgia and shows how rural families adapt their traditional ways in response to Soviet policy. This title available in eBook format. . Contents Illustrations Preface Note on Transliteration Introduction (I) The area (II) The Ethnographie Context (III) Fieldwoiÿ and Academie Problems 1 The Georgian Villager in the Soviet Context (I) Notions Concerning the State1 (H) Administration (HI) Legalities (IV) Economic Aspects (V) National Culture (VI) The Villagers9 Views 2 The Social and Economic Organization of Domestic Units (II) The Ideal (HI) Variations (IV) The Tasks of Domestic Units (V) The Organization of Domestic Units (VI) Domestic Units and the Village 3 Kinship and Marriage (I) Kinship (II) Marriage (Ill) ‘Spiritual’ Kin (IV) Fulfilment and Prosperity through Kinship and Marriage (V) Conclusion 4 The Role Complex of Domestic Life: Growing Up in Rural Georgia (H) Marriage Status and Household Adjustment (HT) Parenthood (IV) Grandparenthood (V) Senility and Advanced Old Age (VI) Adjustments at Death (VII) Conclusion 5 The Morality of Age, Gender and Kin Distinctions (I) Gender Differences (II) The Distinctions of Age (Ill) The Morality of Kin Distinctions: Summary (IV) Conclusion 6 The Domestic Unit in Transition: Continuity and Change (I) General Approaches; Analytical Frameworks (II) General Background in Georgia for Assessing Change (Ill) Collectivization in Ratcha (IV) Elements of Change in Domestic Life (V) An Overview of Some Causes of the Persistence of ‘Traditional’ Domestic Units Conclusion Notes Glossary of Kinship Terms of Address (given in the nominative form) Bibliography Tamara Dragadze is the only western-trained anthropologist to have done three years'field work in any rural area of the Soviet Union. The result of her ethnographic study of a village in Ratcha Province in the foothills of the Great Caucasian Range is this unique account of family life in rural Soviet Georgia. Dragadze provides a detailed ethnography of domestic life, showing how rural families adapt their traditional ways in response to Soviet policy and including an account of women's roles and of socialization. Her book is an important contribution to the study of the relationship between social institutions and the State, and it demonstrates the relevance of social anthropology and detailed ethnographic case studies to political science and Soviet studies in particular.