Adgilis deda. Luoghi sacri, narrazioni e pratiche di place-making nelle regioni nordorientali della Georgia (Caucaso Meridionale)

Adgilis deda. Sacred places, narratives and place-making practices in the North-Eastern regions of Georgia (Southern Caucasus). Georgian Eastern Highlands (Pkhovi, Tusheti) constitute a peculiar cultural landscape, characterized by the presence of specific types of sacred sites: shrines (salocavi), icons (khati/jvari), wishing trees (naṭvris kheebi), old churches and the so called “Mother of the Place” (adgilis deda), the latter being particularly worshipped for the protection of each village. Georgian highlanders tell many stories (andrezi) about the foundation and life of the shrines: in these mythological narratives, as well as in their strongly spatialized symbology, pagan and Christian cosmologies intertwine in complex representations and practices, resulting in a very interesting sacred geography. Despite an evident problem of depopulation, the local communities (temi) still exhibit a strong connection to their land and sanctuaries: during an intense summer cycle, each of them celebrates its own Patron by joining his shrine and performing a day-long ritual (dgheoba) guided by the khevisberi, a man who mediates between villagers and deities and is the most authoritative storyteller of the community. Taking cue from the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Georgia during 2009 and 2010, my dissertation explores the relationships between andrezi, ritual practices and the local sense of place. After reviewing the many narrative layers deposited on the whole Caucasian area through history, I describe the territorial organization of the sanctuaries and its connection to social boundaries and relationships; in the third chapter I interpret the Pkhovian sacred geography in the light of its foundation myths and argue for the interpretive potential of a narrative approach to the cultural landscape, whereas in the last part I reconstruct the way in which those stories interact with ritual practices and provide an important insight into some local historical experiences, such as the feudalization and the Christianization of the Country.