Ritual as a Sign and Means of Identity

Abstract

The paper aims to show how it is possible to associate the conceptof identity with “ancestral customs” and “cultural memory”. Withthat purpose the author tries to outline a particular version of collectiveremembering grounded in the use of ritual resources. Withthat end in view, the special literature together with the field ethnographicdata collected by the author during the years 1976-89throughout Georgia had been used in the paper. Purposely, the ritualprocess associated with the early-Christian tradition had beendescribed not as a stereotyped activity, but as related events locatedwithin Georgian history. It has also been shown that the mentionedcustom bore the function of the ethnic and culturalidentification, as foreigners and aliens infiltrated from other countrieswho performed the custom, in that way were adopted and integratedinto the Georgian Christian culture. An emphasize hasbeen made on the importance of the performance of the ritualwhich became so inseparable and immanent among the inhabitantsof Georgia, that in spite of the confessional turbulences of thelater periods, it persisted in the environment of a new faith. Themain task of the paper was organized around the question:whether it is possible to experience the feeling of identity andwholeness within the Georgian culture throughout the centuriesby means of performing an established ancestral ritual. The analysisof the ethnographic data provided the author with clues to theidentity, culture and self-understanding of an age-old Georgian society.