Lightning, Sacrifice, and Possession in the Traditional Religions of the (Continued from Anthropos 99.2004: 143-159) Author(s): Kevin Tuite Source: Anthropos, Bd. 99, H. 2. (2004), pp. 481-497 Published by: Anthropos Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40466394 . Accessed: 18/08/2011 08:53

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http://www.jstor.org H anthropos Γα! 99.2004:481-497

Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in the TraditionalReligions of the Caucasus (Continuedfrom Anthropos 99.2004: 143-159)

Kevin Tuite

Abstract. - In many communitiesof the West Caucasus, Slavic languages(such as Russiankupat') mean lightning-strikevictims were regarded with particularawe, "baptize,"also "bathe,dunk in water."The use and a dance was performedaround their bodies duringwhich of this root to Johnthe in the name of one or anothergod is uttered,along with the designate Baptist mysteriousvocable coppa. Data concerningthis ritualwill be Slavic seemsstraightforward, butthe Kupala cer- framedin an analysis of the representationsof possession, emonyhas relativelylittle to do withthe bibli- sacrifice,and, in general, the appropriationof people or cal desertprophet. In ruralRussia, Ukraine, and animals by divine beings in traditionalCaucasian religious Belorussia,the festivalis markedby the light- thought.Certain features of the religiousthought of the Pshavs of bonfires in some areas and Khevsurs of the northeastGeorgian highlands will be ing (called kupalo compared and contrastedwith those of the peoples of the [Ivanovand Toporov1974: 224]), whichyoung West Caucasus. [Caucasus, Pshav-,lightning-strike people jump across,and the makingof simple victims,sacrifice, possession] strawdolls, whichare eitherburnt in the bon- fireor thrownin theriver 1987:127- Kevin TWte, Ph.D. (Chicago 1988) in Linguisticsfrom the (Rybakov Universityof Chicago; since 1991 Prof,of Ethnolinguisticsin 129,153-155; 1994:326 f.).The dollsas wellare theDepartment of Anthropologyof theUniversité de Montréal. calledkupa(j)lo ("solomennoe chuchelo, szhigae- - Since 1985 linguisticand ethnographicfieldwork in the Re- moe 1959: - v'lvanovskujunoch"'[Preobrazhenskij public of on numerousoccasions. Publicationsin- 414; cp. Zelenin1991: 396-399]); thepurpose of clude: KartvelianMorphosyntax (Munich 1998); Ethnolinguis- themin the riveris eitherto ward off ticsand AnthropologicalTheory (co-editor. Montréal: in press); tossing CurrentTrends in Caucasian, East European,and InnerAsian drought,or to predictwhence a girl'sfuture hus- Linguistics(co-editor. Amsterdam: in press) and various arti- bandwill come (from the direction toward which cles in Journalof Indo-EuropeanStudies, Lingua, Anthropo- the doll floats[Propp 1963:83]). In a detailed logical Linguistics,Historio graphia Linguistica(see also Ref- and of the erencesCited). richly-documentedstudy symbolism associatedwith the Ivan Kupala festival,Ivanov andToporov (1974: 217-242; 1991c)demonstrate thatthe figure of Ivan Kupala,like othermytho- 3 Slavic Kupala and Georgian K'op'ala logicalpersonages across Central-Eastern Europe andWestern Asia namedafter John the Baptist or 3.1 East Slavic Kupala and His Antecedents theprophet Elijah, is the superficiallyChristian- ized avatarof thestorm and lightning god known The East Slavic summerfestival of Ivan Kupala to manyIndo-European-speaking peoples. Elijah's takesplace on the eve of the feastday of St. allegedability to cause droughtand (1 Kings Johnthe Baptist (23-24 June,O. S.). Old Church 17: 1-18: 46), call downlightning from heaven to Slavic kõpatiand its descendentsin themodern consumehis sacrifice (1 Kings18: 38) anddestroy 482 KevinTuite

his adversaries(2 Kings1:9-14), and finallyhis old Lithuanianfolk beliefs that lightning could assumptionto heavenin a chariotof fire(2 Kings begetchildren where it struck(Nagy 1990:196- 2: 11 f.) made him perfectlysuitable for super- 201; cp. Puhvel1989: 226 f.). The Latviandeity positiononto the role of a lightningand Perkonswas believedto assureabundant crops of god. On the basis of traditionand a handfulof grains,especially rye, barley, and hops (Biezais indicationsin theBible (Mark8: 28, 9: 12f.; John 1975:342 f.). In otherIndo-European traditions as 1:25; Luke 1: 17; Matthew11: 13f., 17: 10-12), well, stormgods were invokedfor rain and/or Johnwas widelyregarded in popularChristianity good harvests(e. g., ScandinavianThor as patron as theprophet Elijah returned to earth(Averincev of cereals),and to insurefertility ( bringer 1991). of"prosperity, harvest, longevity, masculine force, Associatedwith the numerous past and contem- wealth,livestock" [Toporov 1991]). porarymanifestations of the Indo-European storm Returningto the Caucasus,we findparallels godare such motifs as thesymbolic conjunction or to componentsof the Indo-Europeanstorm god oppositionof fire and water; patronage of fertility, complex in Ossetic religion,where one would especiallygrain production; and a mythiccycle expectto findthem, and in neighboringtraditions. featuringthe storm god and a serpentor monster, TheOssetic Wacilla, as Dumézilhas demonstrated, whichthe god defeats in orderto releaselivestock continuesnumerous features shared by Indo-Eu- or waterfor the benefit of humansociety. (This ropeanwar-and-storm such as Indraand lattertale is consideredby Ivanovand Toporov .25In additionto purelymeteorological func- [1991b],and also by Lincoln[1981], as one of tions,Wacilla is celebratedin Osseticfolklore as the foundationalmyths of earlyIndo-European a slayerof demonsand protectorof people and social ideology.)The pre-Christianantecedant of livestockagainst evil spirits.In particular,the Os- IvanKupala among the Slavs was mostlikely the setes would invokehim each New Year's Eve stormdeity known as Perum*in the Old Rus- forprotection against the kurysdzœutœ,danger- sian chronicles.By name,function, and symbol- ous spiritswho ruleover the kurys, "une prairie ism Slavic 'L·has been linkedby scholars to an ancientcluster of significationsand motifs 25 Certainfeatures of Wacilla,as well as of theNart hero attachedto the Indo-Europeanroot *per-(kw)-u- Batradz,have been traced back by Dumézil to the unnamed "strike."Reflexes of thisroot appear in various Scythiandeity glossed by Herodotusas "Ares"(Dumézil with 1978:19-90). A templededicated to himstood "in every Indo-Europeanlanguages meaningsincluding each consistedin a vast of wood "stormand " district"; temple pile lightninggod" (Balto-Slavic), (a scarcecommodity in the steppes),"having a square tree"(Latin quercus; possibly Celtic [hjercynia; platformon thetop." "An antiqueiron sword is planted notealso the locationof pagan Slavic sanctuar- on thetop of everysuch mound: it servesas theimage of ies to Perum*in oak groves);"lightning" (Baltic Ares.Annual sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to one ofGreek kerau- it,and in greaternumbers than to all of theother gods." perkunas' possibleetymology Furthermore,one of everyhundred prisoners of warwas nós)' "mountain,rock" (Hittite, Indie).24 In tradi- immolatedat thetemple of Ares,and theirblood poured tionalBaltic and Slavic religion,as reconstructed overthe sword. These human sacrifices concluded with a by Ivanov and Toporov(1991a, 199If), Jakob- macabrebut intriguing gesture: "the right hands and arms son andPuhvel of the slaughteredprisoners are cut off,and tossedup (1985a, 1985b), (1989:222-238), intothe air. Thenthe other victims are and those Perkunas-Peruni>had of theattributes of a slain, many who have offeredthe sacrificedepart, leaving the arms chiefgod, either in his own rightor as principal wherethey fell, and the bodies also, separate" (Herodotus representativeofan invisibleand unreachable deus HistoryIV, 59-62). Someof these details, in my view, may otiosus.As recentlyas 1734,the semipagan Baits finddistant parallels in thecult of OsseticWacilla. The celebratedthe cult of their Swats platformset atopthe mound of wood in Ares' "temple" lightninggod may be continuedby the platformused in the choppa Parkauns("Saint Perkunas") on thefeast day of ceremonies;the pouring of blood over the sword might also Johnthe Baptist(Biezais 1975:341). Elliptical be historicallylinked to thewidespread Caucasian practice Greekreferences to the belief,already archaic ofstretching ofthe skin of the sacrificed goat on a wooden and discreditedin classical thathumans pole plantednext to theplatform. There are of courseno times, directmodern correlates of the human sacrifices ascribed to "fromoak or fromstone" druós originated (apd theScythians by Herodotus, but an echomay be discerned . . . apò pétre:s[ Τ 162]), attestto the in thetraditional West Caucasian interpretation of associationof *per-(kw)-u-with fertility, as do the fromlightning-strike as tantamount to sacrifice at the god's initiative.The throwingof theslain warrior's arms in the air - as well as theleaving of theircorpses on thespot 24 Gamkrelidzeand Ivanov 1984: 792-794; Ivanovand Topo- of sacrifice- wouldaccordingly signal a beliefthat these rov 1991d,1991e; Jakobson 1985a; Nagy 1990: 181-201; victims,having been appropriated(upward) by thedeity, Watkins1995: 343. areoff-limits to human society.

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 483

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mythiqueoù poussentles semencesde toutesles is notknown to have been practicedthere. One productionsde la terre,et aussi le bonheuret le such case is Mingrelianzini antar,"Upper (ce- malheur"(Dumézil 1978:69, 67-74). This luxu- lestial) Antar,"whose name was comparedby rious,otherworldly prairie - cognate,according to Javakhishvili(1960/1: 122 f.) to thatof Abkhaz Ivanovand Toporov, with the Greek Elysian Fields Aytar(the shift /n/ > /I/> 1)1is attestedelsewhere and ScandinavianValhalla - appearsto be de- in Mingrelian,cp. majazoni< malazoni< Geo. scendedfrom a toposin the archaic Indo-European monazoni < "monk").Antar has beenequated by storm-godcycle (1991b). The serpent,adversary Abak'elia (1991:6-26) withthe personagesin- of the stormgod, is representedas possessing voked in variousrituals under the nameszinisi vastherds of livestock,which it keepson a wide orta, "Orta (= "portion?")from above," simply meadowin theunderworld. The stormgod does zinisi"the one above,"or 3gege,the Mingrelian battlewith the monster and finally slays it, freeing St. George.Prayers and offerings(especially of the animals.The oppositionbetween the storm roostersor goats)are madeto Antar/Orta/George god (Wacilla)and theproprietors of the"Elysian in timesof lightningstrike, excessive rain, or Fields"is retainedin theOssetic materials, albeit drought;to insurea good harvest;and forheal- in attenuatedform. Another function of Wacilla ingfrom certain illnesses, especially psychological whichis probablyinherited from his Indo-Europe- ones.26St. Georgeof Ilor,one of WestGeorgia's an forebearis thatof assuringan abundantgrain holiestshrines, is also called upon to witness harvest.One of the chieffestivals in honorof oathsand to curse oathbreakers.Lightning was Wacillais called xorybon "cerealday"; Ossetic believedto be thepreferred weapon of St. George women,for whom the name of thisdeity is taboo, forpursuing unclean spirits, punishing those who referto himby theparaphrase xory xicau "maître du blé" (Benveniste1959: 140). The northwest- Caucasian-speakingAbazas likewiseinvoke their 26 In his ethnographicstudy of ,Mak'alatia (1941: lightninggod fora richharvest of cerealcrops 319) also mentionsthe offeringsof split-tippedarrows to (Pershits1989:224). "the one above" to ward off lightningstrike. He adds Deitieswith attributesare featured thatepilepsy-like symptoms were interpretedas evidence comparable thatthe victimhad aroused the ire of zinisi, requiringthe in thetraditional religious systems of otherCau- sacrificeof a candle of the same lengthas the victim,along casiancommunities, even though the choppa ritual witha silverthread, at St. George's shrineat Ilor.

Anthropos99.2004 484 KevinTuite offendedhim, and for selecting individuals as "ser- ("openingof thecelestial vaults") features jump- vants."(These servants always wore white or col- ing over bonfires,the burningof Choppadolls, oredclothing, even when in mourning.Abak'elia and otherpractices reminiscent of theEast Slavic notesthat "servants of the one above"[zinisi max- Ivan Kupalafestival (Karaketov 1995). The same vameri]are called upon to prayfor the protec- is trueof therainmaking rituals associated with tionof peopleand propertyfrom lightning.) The Kabardiancop 'ay. The Khantseguashe"shovel- place wherelightning struck is called na^varleni lady"fetish brought by womento theriverbank, in Mingrelian(lit. "spot where a cross[jvan] had wherethey splash each other with water while the been"),since lightning was believedto falleither menpray for rain, is almostcertainly connected in the formof a cross or thatof a split-tipped- directlyor indirectly- with the Slavic kupa(j)lo arrow(bordzal), another weapon associated with doll.Similar rainmaking rituals, involving a doll or St. George.Objects struck by lightningwere not fetishdunked in water,are knownin Georgiaand to be used,or eventouched, for fear of provoking elsewherein theCaucasus (Chikovani 1972: 252- thedeity's anger (Abak'elia 1991: 6-26). 258; Shamanov1994).29 The Weinakh(Chechen and Ingush)supreme In view of the long historyof contactsbe- deityS(t)ela or Seli is representedas a particularlytween the peoples of theCaucasus and thoseof touchyand frequentlyhostile god. He is thesteppes to thenorth, contacts which go back armedwith the rainbow as a bow, and lightning at least to theBronze Age and probablyfurther boltsas arrows,and is imaginedas thesource of into the past (Gadzhiev 1991; Gej 1996), and snow,hail, and other extreme weather phenomena. the evidenceof Indo-Europeanloanwords bor- In thespringtime month named for him (Seli-but rowedby Caucasianlanguages at variousperiods "month/moonofSeli") he is invokedin prayers for (Klimov1991; Nichols1997; Tuiteand Schulze rainand a good harvest.At thesame time, Wei- 1999),historical links between the Indo-European nakhlegends describe how Seli punishedvarious and Caucasian storm-godcomplexes should be heroesand gods - includinghis son Elta, the no cause forsurprise. At the same time,certain divinepatron of cerealsand wild animals- for steppeIndo-European motifs appear to be ab- providingpeople withthe meansfor existence: sent,or nearlyso, in theCaucasian ethnographic livestock,water, grain, and fire.27 The 19th-centuryrecord, or presentbut in significantlytransformed ethnographerB. Dalgat (1893) comparedSeli to guise. The motifof enmitybetween the storm Ossetic Wacilla. Furthermore,"those killed by god and a serpentor monsterguarding a valued lightningwere considered blessed. According to resource(typically, livestock) does appearhere theIngush, if people mourn for such a victim,the and therein Caucasianfolklore, but in general, body will turnblack in color.The place where the serpentplays a less uniformlynegative role a personor animalwas killed by lightningis thanin the Indo-Europeancultural area. It is a consideredholy, and each yeara sacrificeto Seli particularlystriking fact that the very name of the is performedthere."28 Circassianlightning god, Shyble,means literally Althoughthe Karachays and Balkars are speak- "horse-serpent"(Charachidzé 1981a), and as was ers of a Turkiclanguage, their lightning god mentionedabove, the Kabardians imagine him in Choppa(or ElliriChoppa) is markedby features theform of a fieryserpent. The pouringof milk likelyto stemfrom an Indo-Europeansource. He on thespot where lightning struck, a practiceob- is describedas a fertilitydeity, second in impor- servedin Kabardiaand Ossetia,may reflect the tanceto the chiefgod Teyri;the Indo-Europeansame associationbetween serpents and milkthat warriorand stormgods (Dumézil' s "secondfunc- Chartolani(1961: 198) notedamong the , tion")are likewisesubordinate to the sovereign whobelieved that snakes liked "white" foods such *deiwos-pater"bright-sky-father," and many are invokedfor fertility. The chopparitual performed on the occasionof the firstthunder of the year 29 Sometimesthe dolls are used forthe oppositefunction: amongthe Khinalughs,a Daghestanianpeople of Azer- baijan,"during heavy rainfall young people made dolls of boards(guzhul), which they dressed in women'sclothing 27 Tankiev1991; Mal'sagov 1991; B.Dalgat 1893:107-117; and carriedthroughout the village while singing . . . that U. Dalgat1972: 54 f.,258-260. 'tomorrowthe sun will shine'" (Volkova 1994; on a similar 28 In thesame passage, Dalgat (1893) relatesthe legend ot a ritualamong the Aghuls and Lezgins, see Ixilov1967: 225). certainAus, whose mausoleum was regarded as a holysite, Thepractice of jumping across bonfires at thebeginning of eventhough it was believedthat Seli had slainhim with a summeris likewisewidespread in theCaucasus, especially thunderboltfor an unwittingviolation of the mountaineers' amongthe Lezginpeoples of Daghestan(Kosven et al. code of honor. 1960:516; Ixilov1967:223).

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 485 as dairyproducts, and who interpretthe sighting pagesto demonstratethat Javakhishvili' s tentative of a snakeby thehearth as a signof abundance. juxtapositionof K'op'ala and Kupala was notin Beforegoing further, let us reviewthe principal factas ill-advisedas Charachidzéclaimed, and pointscovered so far:Analysis of thechoppa rit- thatfurther examination of the dossiers of the two uals of thewestern Caucasus reveals a numberof deitiesmakes it look quitereasonable.30 commonfeatures, attributed to thedeity of light- One of thesedossiers, that of K'op'ala, has in ningand .In particular,this god takesthe factbeen assembled and analyzed with exemplary initiativein choosinghis own sacrificialvictims, thoroughnessby Charachidzé himself (1968: 337- andstriking them with his . Those who 433; 1981b).Although K'op'ala is rarelylinked surviveare possessed by the , and go intohis to lightningin any explicitway, it is significant serviceas prophets;those who die are buriedon thatCharachidzé characterizes him as a "dieuful- thespot, away from the village. In general,anyone gurant"(1981b: 455), an epithetmotivated by the or anythingstruck by lightningis regardedas numerousfeatures shared by K'op'ala andsuch In- "sacred"in theold senseof the word: appropriated do-European war-and-storm gods as Indraand the by a deity,and at thesame time taboo, off limits OsseticNart hero Batradz. K'op'ala is physically to humans.The choppasong and dance performed the strongest of the xvtissvili, the deities created by aroundthe body of a lightning-strikevictim is also thesupreme god Ghmerti,and in one balladhe is used to provokerain during a drought,and as a portrayedbesting them in a weight-liftingcontest. curefor certain types of mental illness. A descrip- Like his Indo-Europeancounterparts, K'op'ala, tionof CaucasianAlbanian religious practices by oftenin the companyof his comradeand near- thegeographer Strabo indicates that the association doubleIaqsar, wages a campaignof extermination betweensacrifice, possession, and madnessgoes againstthe ogres and demons which once inhabited backat leasttwo millennia in the Caucasus . theGeorgian highlands in greatnumbers, slaying themwith his massiveclub. Accordingto one legend,K'op'ala killedan ogrewhich had been 3.2 K'op'ala, "Dieu Fulgurant?" dammingthe River with gigantic boulders in an attemptto deprivethe Pkhoviansof wa- In thefirst book of his monumental "History of the ter(A.Ochiauri 1991:44; Vazha-Pshavela1994); GeorgianPeople," the historian Ivane Javakhish-this motif has numerousparallels in the reper- vili providedbrief sketches of numerousfigures toireof theIndo-European storm god.31 Accord- fromtraditional Georgian religion and folklore. He ing to Charachidzé(1968:428-431), amongthe devotedtwo pages to thePkhovian (Pshav-Khev- core functionsof K'op'ala in the religioussys- sur) xvtissvili("child of God") K'op'ala. Most temof the Pkhovian mountaineers are "circulation of the numerouslegends and ballads featuringand mediation."K'op'ala (and Iaqsar) circulate K'op'ala celebratehis prowessas an ogre-slayer,between the celestial,terrestrial, and underwater who rid theGeorgian highlands of thefearsome realms,and undergotransformation from human man-eatinggiants who had until then oppressed the humanpopulation. Javakhishvili noted in passing thatthe name of resemblesthose of the K'op'ala 30 Analysisof the ethnographicdata concerningthe Ivan NearEastern goddess Cybele and the Russian Ku- Kupala complexled Ivanov and Toporov(1965: 146 f.; pala,but as he saw littleother basis for postulating 1991c) to proposethat the nameKup-al-a derives from a historicallink among them, he did notpursue an Indo-Europeanroot *kwep/kup which they gloss "kipet', thematter in 97 Charachid- vskipat',strastno zhelat"' (seethe, boil, passionately desire), anydepth (1960/1: f.). thanOld ChurchSlavic a citedJavakhishvili' s halfhearted rather kõpati, possibleborrowing zé (1968:340 f.) fromLatin computer or some other source (Preobrazhenskij proposalas thoughit hadbeen intended seriously, 1959:412-414; Vasmer1953:695). Recently,however, thenflatly rejected it as completelyunfounded. Rix et al. (1998:334) revisedthe reconstructedform of Withregard to Kupala, he could findlittle in theIndo-European root claimed to be antecedentto Kupala the knownto him (*kweH{p-"sieden"), and in so doingseparated itfrom both descriptions (primarilysupplied *kwep-"hauchen" and *kewp- "(innerlich) beben"; Pokorny by Propp[1963]), to supporta linkto K'op'ala. had groupedreflexes of thesethree roots under the single "Quantà la ressemblancedes noms,"he continues, lemma*kwe:p-/*kewdp-/*kwap-/*ku(:)p- "rauchen,wallen, "elle repose,du côté russe,sur un malentendu kochen;auch seelischin Aufruhr,in heftigerBewegung ...... tout sein"(1959: 596 f.). Kupala signifie simplement'baptiste,' 31 Ivanovand considerthe theme of a storm au chrétiensaint et nulle- Toporov god renvoyant Jean-Baptiste liberatinga watersource blocked by monstersto be a mentà quelque divinitéde l'ancien paganisme variantof thestorm-god-defeats-serpent (1974: 138- slave"(1968: 341). I willattempt in thefollowing 141).

Anthropos99.2004 486 KevinTuite to animaland, finally, to divineform. One espe- humankilled by lightningwas thoughtto have ciallysignificant component of K'op'ala's circu- been killedin errorby a thunderboltaimed at a latingand mediatingactivity is the liberationof demonwhich went astray. As compensation,God "trapped"souls (sulis gamoqsna). Should a person would take the unintendedvictim to his realm; die of drowningor hanging,or be killedby an therefore"whoever dies froma lightningstrike avalanche,the oracle of K'arat'is-,the Khev- is happyin the Land of Souls" (Baliauriand surshrine dedicated to K'op'ala, is summonedto Mak'alatia1940: 53).33 the scene. (This shrineis also knownunder the Let us take the step - whichthe readerhas name"Soul-saver" [sultamqsneli].) The Pkhovians doubtlessanticipated for some time now - of believedthat a soul trappedunder a surfaceof juxtaposingthe east-centralCaucasian K'op'ala wateror snow,or stuckwithin a cadaverwith the andthe lightning gods of the western Caucasus. In throatconstricted by a noose,could not escape and additionto someshared traits, such as thepower riskedcapture by demons.Bearing the banner of to cure mentalillness, others appear to be in a theshrine, the oracle would call uponthe patron relationof inversion. As was demonstratedearlier, deityof K'arat'is-Jvarito liberatethe victim's thewest Caucasian storm gods seize theirvictims soul and slay the demonsthat threatened it. A by lightningstrike, and appropriatethem upward goat was slaughteredwith a back-handedstroke intotheir celestial realm. A goat is sacrificedto of theknife, as is consideredappropriate by the appeasethe anger of a beneficial,but dangerous, Pkhoviansfor an appeasementsacrifice to demons, sky god. In the case of K'op'ala, by contrast, andits meat left uneaten on thespot, as an offeringhis functionis to liberatesouls whichhave been inexchange for the soul (S. Mak'alatia1935: 216). captureddownward by demons.A black goat Consistentwith his function as a liberatorof souls, is the sacrificeof choice,but in Pkhoviit is K'op'ala was also invokedto treatcertain physical intendedto appease the demons,not the deity. and mentalillnesses attributed to possessionby Wacilla, Shyble,and the otherlightning gods demons,especially cases of insanity(Charachidzé strikewithout warning, and seize their"offerings" 1968:405-422; Mindadze2000: 202-206). withoutawaiting the permission of the community. If indeedcertain elements of K'op'ala's char- K'op'ala, representedby his oracle,comes when actermatch those of Indra,Batradz, and otherIn- called upon by people to rescuetrapped souls. do-European"second-function" deities, others do Lightning,the instrument bywhich the Indo-Euro- not.The chiefenemies of K'op'ala andIaqsar are pean and westCaucasian storm gods appropriate ogres(many-headed man-eating giants) rather than theirvictims, was imaginedby some Pkhovians as a wealth-guardingserpent. At the same time,a a weaponspecifically directed against demons, not mythicalserpent (gvelisperi) does appearin the people.As in thewest, those killed by lightning- K'op'ala cycle,but in a supporting,rather than strikeare believedto end up in a specialplace adversarial,role. This serpentis said to patrolthe in the afterlife,but for verydifferent reasons: bordersof thefields of hops used to makeritual the Ossetes regardthem as victimscalled by beerfor use at K'op'ala's sanctuaryof K'arat'is- Wacillato his side,whereas the Pkhovians regard Jvari(Charachidzé 1968: 421 f.).32In viewof what theirgood fortunein suleti,the Land of Souls, was mentionedabove concerningthe Circassian as compensationfor their accidental death. The lightninggod Shyble,one wondersif theserpent contrastbetween the sets of representationsis gvelisperiwas once considereda transformationstriking. In thePkhovian imagination, K'op'ala is of K'op'ala himself.The absenceof lightningin K'op'ala's résuméalso representsa significant contrastwith its in the of In- 33 This does notappear any longer to be themost widely- ubiquity portrayals sharedview of thematter, ifit everwas. Accordingto the do-Europeandeities such as Indra.One curious Pshavand Khevsurnatives interviewed by me, lightning fact mighthelp explainthis seeminganomaly. deathis treatedlike drowning or suicide.The chiefpriest Accordingto a Khevsurinformant interviewed by goes to the site of the tragedyand sacrificesa goat in in theearlier of the orderto appeasethe "evil "(avi angelozi)believed Georgianethnographers part to thesouls of thosewho die an unnaturaldeath. was believedto havebeen pursue pastcentury, lightning EitherK'op'ala orIaqsar may be invokedon thisoccasion. createdby God to massacredemons. Hence any The meatof the sacrificed goat was tossedbackwards over thepriest's shoulder and lefton thespot for the demons. The victim'sbody, if recovered,was thenreturned to the 32 Suchfields are considered the property of the shrine and its villagefor burial in thecemetery (interviews with Thek'le patrondeity in Pkhovi,and the grain that is harvestedfrom Badrishvili-Gosharashvili,July1997; Pilip'e Baghiauri, 25 themis storedin specialgranaries, which only a delegated June2000; Tinatin Ochiauri, 30 June2000; cp. A. Ochiauri shrineofficial can enter. 1991).

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 487 not so mucha lightninggod as a representationde l'ouragan[qui] reçoitses armes- l'éclairet la of combativeforce harnessed for the serviceof foudre- de la partd'un Forgerondivin" occurs the community.In thisrespect he resemblesSt. in ancientEgyptian and Near Eastern mythologies Georgerather more than Elijah. (Eliade 1977:84 f.). Abkhaziantradition as well associatesthe lightning god Afa withthe divine blacksmithShashwa (and metalworking ingeneral, 3.3 K'op'ala, Iaqsar, P'irkush,and St. George as in theproverb cited by Ardzinba[1988: 277]: "theforge is a fragmentof Afa"). Of the variouspatron deities commemorated in Althoughthere is evidencesupporting Iva- invocations,ballads, and hymns,several are de- nov and Toporov's postulatedhistorical link of scribedas naxorcivlarni,"former mortals" who K'op'ala, Iaqsar,and P'irkushto theIndo-Euro- weregranted divine status by God in exchangefor pean war-and-storm-godcomplex, in thecontext servicein thebattle against ogres. Chief among of Pkhoviantradition these and otherdivinized theseare K'op'ala, Iaqsar,and themythical gold- heroesare associated most closely with Giorgi, the smithand weapons-makerP'irkush (A. Ochiauri PkhovianSt. George.The variousTranscaucasian 1991:41-45, 95, 155). The featuresand activ- St. Georgeshave as theirprincipal function the pa- ities attributedto Iaqsar are so similarto those tronageand protection of men fulfilling their roles ofK'op'ala thatCharachidzé (1981b: 455) charac- as exploiters,for the profit of theircommunities, terizedIaqsar as K'op'ala' s "hypostase."34Many of theundomesticated space outside of the village Pkhoviantexts designate him as K'op'ala' s sworn and its adjacentfields. St. Georgeis theprotector brother(modzme) or even as his genuinebrother of shepherds,hunters, travellers, and menraiding (A. Ochiauri1991: 128). Both are celebratedfor cattlefrom their neighbors on theother side of the theirsuperhuman strength, granted to them by God mountains(Charachidzé 1968:620; Tuite 1998). to enablethem to freethe land of ogres.Both The imageof K'op'ala, massacrerof ogresand undergounderwater shape-changes. In onecycle of idealizationof masculineprowess, thus consider- ballads,K'op'ala is depicteddiving into a riverand ably overlapsthat of St. George.One informant resurfacinginthe form of a deer.In another,Iaqsar interviewedby the folkloristM. Chikovaniwent pursuesa one-eyedogre who plungesinto a lake so faras to equateK'op'ala and Giorgi:k'op'ala (usuallysaid to be AbudelaurisT'ba, outsideof the igivec'minda giorgia "K'op'ala is the same as Khevsurvillage Roshk'a); Iaqsar dives in afterthe St. George"(Chikovani 1972: 338), an identifica- ogreand killshim, but theogre's impureblood tionearlier noted by Javakhishvili(1960/1: 97 f.). blocks the surfaceof the lake, trappingIaqsar Charachidzénoted a Pkhovianinvocation ad- underwater.He is freedonly after people clear the dressedto "theforce of of K'op'ala" waterwith the blood of a four-horned,four-eared (dzalo c'mindagiorgi k'op'alesao), whichwas ram.When Iaqsar reappears at thesurface, he has called upon to defendthose who "go in the beentransformed into a shining,winged deity. The spaces far fromhome, who go far,who go to artisanP'irkush produced weapons used to slaythe hunt"(Charachidzé 1968: 406, 445). At thepow- ogres.He was himselfcaptured by theogres, but erfulKhevsur shrine of St. Georgeat Gudani, laterset free by Iaqsar. The associationof P'irkush thexvtissvilni K'op'ala and Saneba - likewisea andthe heroes Iaqsar and K'op'ala was compared "patrondes prédateurs(pillards et chasseurs)"- by Ivanov and Toporov(1974: 148-163) to the areinvoked as temporaryreplacements (moadgile) motifof a Hephaestus-typeblacksmith who pro- of Giorgi,should the latterbe forsome reason videsarms with thunderbolt-like characteristics to unreachable(Charachidzé 1968: 470). a war-and-stormgod, attested in theGreek, Scan- The identificationof K'op'ala and St. George dinavian,and Indietraditions, but also outsideof in Pkhovican be comparedto the representa- theIndo-European world. The themeof a "Dieu tionsof the variousElijahs and St. Georgesin the westernCaucasian belief systems. In Rach'a and and St. forma does not Ossetia,Elijah George pair, 34 The phonologicalshape of the name "Iaqsar" withrelated but contrastivefunctions. As men- look Georgian.The mostpromising source, as Abaev has demonstrated(1958- 1989/IV: 224f.) is pre-Ossetic tionedearlier, the of highlandRach'a (œ)xsar"martial valor, force, power" (< Ir. *xsaOra< prayedto Ilia forrain in timesof drought,and In-Ir.*ksatra-) (cp. Dumézil1995/1:488). The proposed to Giorgito protecttheir crops from hail. If the derivationfrom the root which was, amongother things, butoften destructive Ilia - in theIndo-Iranian designation of Dumézil's "2ndfunction" powerful represented fits well withthe reconstruction here manyparts of Georgiaas a blinddeity scattering extremely proposed - forIaqsar' s doubleK'op'ala. rainand hail upon good and bad alike is the

Anthropos99.2004 488 KevinTuite imageof uncontrollednatural force, Giorgi rep- The transformationof a deitycomparable to resentedcontrolled, specifically masculine force, OsseticWacilla/ Alardy and Slavic PeruniD/Kupala deployedfor the profitand defenseof human intoPkhovian K'op'ala is highlysignificant. On society.Vielle (1997: 190f.) characterizesOssetic theone hand,we havea dangerous,unpredictable Wacillaand Wastyrdjiin comparableterms: the stormgod whouses his thunderboltsto select his formeras "la foudreimpitoyable," whereas the own sacrificialvictims - withoutwaiting for the latterrepresents "la virilitéexacerbée." At the humancommunity to chooseone forhim -, and linguisticlevel, thesetwo are the only signifi- whoseanger needs to be appeasedby additional cantOssetic deities whose names are prefixedby sacrifice.Those victimsoffered to him,or slain wac-/was-"saint" (Wastyrdji < *was-gergi),and by his thunderbolt,are dangerouslysacred, and thenames of bothare taboo to women.35Wacilla, cannotbe broughtback to the village. On theother doubledby the spirit Tyxost (whom Dumézil con- handhe is a powerfuldeity who slays demons and sidersthe more directcontinuation of the an- ogresfor the benefit of humankind.Although it is cientIndo-European lightning god in Osseticre- notspecified who throwsit, the lightning bolt as ligion(1978:67-74)), is by no meansblind, and wellis intendedto exterminate demons, and, there- his functions,like thoseof otherIndo-European fore, in generala usefulthing. K'op'ala has the second-functiondivinities, include fertility, rain- specialmission to freesouls captured by demons, making,and protectionagainst enemies. This last and bringthem back to theircommunity, whence feature,as Dumézilnotes, overlaps the war- and theycan followthe normal trajectory to theLand defense-relatedrole of Wastyrdji.Partial overlap of Souls. Comparedto his Abkhaz,Ossetic, and of therepresentations of Elijah and St. Georgeis Kabardiancounterparts, therefore, K'op'ala ap- in factfairly widespread in East Europeanfolk pearsas a thoroughlydomesticated deity, a reliable .The South Slavic Zeleni Juraj "Green defenderof thehuman community. Rather than to George,"for example, whose festival is celebrated capturesouls, he is alwayson call to freethem on 23-24 April,was invokedfor springtime fertil- fromdemons. Indeed, it is evidentthat the negative ityand protection of livestockfrom predators (es- aspectsof the west Caucasianstorm gods have peciallywolves) (Ivanov and Toporov 1974: 180- been projectedonto the Pkhoviandemons, and 216; Koleva 1974). At a chronologicallydeeper onlythe positive features have beeninherited by level, thereis evidencefrom several traditions K'op'ala. The derivationof K'op'ala fromKupala forthe exchange of featuresbetween what some mightseem to some to be a highlyspeculative specialistsin Indo-Europeancomparative religion hypothesis,despite the phonetic similarity between have reconstructedas a Varuna-typesovereign thenames, and the various semantic resemblances deity(associated with magic, prophecy, and the sharedby K'op'ala andthe divine personages dis- punishmentof oathbreakerswith disease; the de- cussedelsewhere in thisarticle. What renders it ityunderlying Elijah), and an Indra-typemonster- moreprobable is itsconsistence with what appears slayingwar god, overlainby St. George.The to havebeen a thoroughgoingrestructuring - one Greeksupreme deity is a notableexample, couldeven call it a reform- of theinherited reli- havingincorporated many of theattributes recon- gioussystem in Pkhovisome centuries ago. This structedfor the second-function war god, including restructuringgave riseto new conceptionsof the theuse of (Sergent 1997: 302-305; priesthood,of therelation between human society Puhvel1989: 130 f.). The Baltic and Slavic "divine and thesupernatural realms, and of sacrificeand striker"*Per(k)un- might represent the opposite possession. phenomenon,that is, a storm-and-wargod taking overthe attributes of a first-functionVaruna-type celestialsovereign (Jakobson 1985a). In thecase 4 The PkhovianReform of PkhovianK'op'ala, however,overlap with the representationof Giorgi has gone to thepoint of The provincesof Pshaviand Khevsuretiwould, assimilation,at thecost of thosefeatures of the on theface of it, seemunlikely candidates to be westCaucasian and Indo-European storm gods re- thelast refuge of Caucasianpaganism, a religious latedto sacrifice, possession, and the unpredictable system still relatively intact up untilWorld War II use of force. and themass resettlement of the Khevsurs in the 1950s.Pkhovi, as thesetwo provinces were called in themedieval chronicles as I will 35 Women referredto Wacilla as xoryxicau " of grains" Georgian (and and Wastyrdjias lœgtydzwar "patron-saintof men" (Du- referto themhere), is situatedonly 100 kmnorth mézil 1978:238; Benveniste1959: 133, 140). of theGeorgian capital Tbilisi, and the local pop-

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 489 ulationspeaks a varietyof Georgiannot very dif- likelyto be veryancient, going back to thetime ferentfrom the standard language of six or seven of the separationof theSvan languagefrom the centuriesago. Thereis certainlynothing remotely ancestralProto-Kartvelian language in theBronze comparableto theextreme linguistic diversity of Age. The investigationsof Bardavelidze(1957), Daghestan,or even that of western Georgia, where Charachidzé(1968), Virsaladze(1976) and this theKartvelian languages Mingrelian and Svan, and writer(Tuite 2000, 2001), amongothers, have theunrelated northwest Caucasian language Ab- uncovereda numberof commonfeatures which khaz,are spokenby sizeablespeech communities. would appear to have been characteristicof the The paradoxdoes notstop there. was no Georgianbelief system of fouror fivemillennia less inaccessiblefrom the lowland west Georgian ago: (Imeretian)capital of Kutaisithan Pkhovi is from (1) Thecontrast, or opposition, of male-linked/ Tbilisi,yet the Svan eliteparticipated actively in divine"purity" and female-linked/corporeal"im- theearly medieval political formations of purity,"the latter derived from an ancientrepre- (4th-5thc. AD) and (8th-10th c), and sentationof womenas inherentlypowerful, but subsequentlyin theGeorgian kingdom united by threateningtomale/divine "purity." People, places, BagratIII andDavit IV (llth-13thc). The more and objectscan be renderedmore "pure" by the remotedistrict of UpperSvaneti alone, along the bloodof sacrificedanimals, which contrasted with uppervalley of the Ingur River, has overone hun- thedangerous, "polluting" blood of womenshed dredGeorgian Orthodox churches, almost all of duringmenstruation and childbirth.Associated themconstructed in theperiod from the 9th to the withthis notion of opposedprinciples of "purity" 13thcentury, the golden age ofGeorgian feudalism and "impurity"is the seemingparadox that the (Taq'aishvili1991).36 I haveargued elsewhere that survivalof the communityrequires contact and the traditionalreligious practices of the Svans, cooperationbetween them. as attestedin the late 19thand 20th centuries, (2) A gradienthierarchy of beings according to showthe imprint of centuriesof feudalism,which theirdegree of participationin thedivine princi- persistedas a politicaland economicorder until ple, a factorwhich is susceptibleto increaseor itsabolition by the Tsarist government in the mid- decrease. 19thcentury (Tuite 2001). Pkhovi,by contrast, (3) Practiceswhich foster network-building and is rarelymentioned by medievalchroniclers, and relationsof interdependencebetween neighboring whenit is, it is usuallycharacterized as a nest socialgroups, such as exogamically-orientedmari- of unrulypagans, which can onlybe pacifiedby talpreferences, fictive kinship (sworn siblinghood, the sword.Christian churches are conspicuously adoption,fosterage) crossing class and ethnic lines, absent,as is anyevidence of theimplantation of and perhapssomething akin to the "believer-un- lowland-stylefeudalism. The social and political believer"shrines at the Pkhovi-Weinakhfron- systemwas essentiallyclassless and egalitarian- tier,at whichboth Georgians and Chechenswor- withone importantexception - up to thepresent shipped(Goniashvili 1971; Ochiauri 1967: 68-70; day. Yet a closerexamination of thechants, bal- Volkova1989: 200-203). lads, and ethnographicdescriptions of Pkhovian (4) Pairedfemale and male divinebeings, of culturereveals a surprisingfact: Christianity and whichthe female circulates between the hearth (the feudalismhave in factleft a profoundimprint on interiorof domesticspace, the interior of theinte- the traditionalreligious system, but only at the rior)and the remote, uninhabited, unreachable out- cosmologicallevel. side (exteriorof theexterior). Her male counter- The natureof therestructuring undergone by part,usually named after St. George (Geo. Givargi, the inheritedreligious system in Pkhovican be Svansgerœg), circulates between the public spaces best understoodthrough a comparisonwith the ofthe community (the exterior of the interior) and traditionalreligion of theSvans. As Charachidzé thoseoutside spaces exploitedfor the profitof (1968: 109) noted,non-Christian practices and be- thecommunity (the interior of theexterior). For liefs observedin both Svanetiand Pkhoviare thisreason, the various St. Georgesare invoked as patronsof hunters, woodsmen, travellers, warriors, evenlivestock-thieves. 36 Frequentcontacts between lowland centers and even the The ancestralreligion has evolvedalong very mostremote valleys of UpperSvaneti go backat leastto differentpaths in Svaneti and in Pkhovi. In a recent theBronze Age, when Svaneti was an importantsource of ofthe ofmedieval lowland metals arsenic-rich and study impact Georgian high-grade (especially copper gold), hierarchicalization on givingrise to local, Svanetian schools of metalworking and sociopolitical ("feudalism") otherarts. thereligious systems of theeastern and western

Anthropos99.2004 490 KevinTuite

Georgianhighlands, I noteda sharpdistinction of each highlandclan or communeis believed betweenthe changes undergone by Svanetiantra- to residein a shrine,a complexof simplestone ditionalreligion - in reactionto theimplantation buildings outside of the village.The shrine,its of feudalinstitutions, Orthodox churches and a surroundingterritory, and a sizeable portionof local aristocracyfrom at leastthe 9th century -, thecommunity's farmland, pastures and forests are and thosewhich occurred in Pkhovi,which "n'a saidto belongto theinvisible "lord," being desig- jamais été intégréeau systèmeféodale" (Chara- natedxat'is mamuli "shrine's [hereditary] land" or chidzé 1971:45), despitethe sporadicincursions xodabuni(another borrowing from the lexicon of of royaltroops bent on bringingthem to submis- lowlandfeudalism, meaning "lord's land"). The sion. The notionsof OrthodoxChristianity and shrinelands were workedby the "vassals"col- feudalsocioeconomic organization reached Pkhovi lectively,with a sizeableportion of the harvest via transmissionfrom neighboring tribes, some of retainedby theshrine. The grain,considered sa- whichhad becomenominal fiefs of theGeorgian cred,was storedby a shrineofficial in a special crown,although with minimal impact on their granary,and used to brewbeer and bake bread for traditionalsystems of land tenureand self-gov- communalfeast days. Should a "vassal"die with- ernance.Lowland concepts also percolatedinto outleaving heirs, or emigrate from the community, themountains through the mediationof satellite thefamily lands reverted to theshrine. The texts communitiesin theeastern Georgian provinces of fromPshavi collected by A. Ochiauri(1991: 39 f., Tianetiand K'akheti,formed over the centuries 271 f.) includeaccounts of a humanoverlord from by Pkhoviansin searchof farmland,vineyards, thelowlands transferring possession of an escaped and pastures(Topchishvili 1981, 1984). Untilthe serfto a divineoverlord in themountains, and of mass displacementsof the Sovietperiod, Pkho- two adjacentxvtissvilni depicted quarreling over viansliving at loweraltitudes maintained regular possessionof landand the peasants living on it. contactwith the highland communities, especially The"feudalization" of Pkhoviancosmology ap- on theoccasions of majorfestivals. The religious pearsto haveoccurred in thecontext of a general- andcultural centers remained in Pkhovi,although ized restructuringof the indigenous religious sys- the majorhighland shrines were linkedto sub- tem,and a monopolizationof importantsocial and ordinatesanctuaries in the peripheralareas, the religiousfunctions by specialistpriests (qevisberi residentxvtissvilni of whichwere typicallydes- orxucesi, "elder") and oracles (kadagi, sometimes ignatedas their"younger brothers." As a regime thesame person as thechief priest), recruited from of land ownershipbased on thehierarchical and specificlineages in each community.In Svaneti, personalrelation between vassals and ,feu- forexample, many feast days are celebrated within dalism(Geo. p'at'ronq'moba, lit. "lord-vassality") the home or amonga groupof neighboring house- providedthe Pkhovianswith new conceptsand holds(called lask'œf), and are presided over by the terminologyfor imagining the mutual dependency elderman or womanof thehost family. Prayers betweenhumans and deities,and therelationship and thepresentation of offeringsin publicritual of bothto the land. To summarizevery briefly, spaces (mostlyOrthodox churches, which came the hierarchyof humanand supernaturalbeings intothe possession of local lineagegroups after came to be conceivedin feudalterms, with the the abolitionof feudalism)are theresponsibility supremedeity {jmertï) enthroned at a heavenly of householdheads or semi-professional"priests" court(xvtis k'ari), wherethe xvtissvilni("chil- (bap'œr) who were trained by apprenticeshipto a drenof God") periodicallyassemble. These latter moreexperienced priest, and who serve at the plea- are dividedinto those created divine by God (cit sureof the village council (Xaradze and Robakidze camosulni,"descended from heaven" to founda 1964:86).37 In Pkhovi,by contrast,the household sanctuary),and the naxorcivlarni,"former mor- is farless oftenused as a ceremonialsite, except tals,"legendary heroes who had beenelevated to duringthe late-winterand springseason - cor- divinestatus by him(A. Ochiauri1991: 14). Like respondingto OrthodoxLent - whenthe family a feudalmonarch, God dividedthe land among the members(usually the womenfolk) perform a series xvtissvilniand set them in authority over the people of domesticrituals intended to appeaseor ward dwellingon theirterritory (A. Ochiauri1991:49, offpotential sources of harm.At othertimes of 53-55, 95, 129). The xvtissvilniare addressedas bat'onni"lords," the members of the community37 As one Svan it referto themselvesas "vassals,"a ter- proverbputs "thefolk-doctor, the priest, and q'mani theblacksmith are foreveryone" (akimi ρ 'ap 'i muskitcimis minologyidentical to thatof medievalGeorgian li), thatis, theyare consideredspecialized practitionersin feudalismin the lowlands.The patronxvtissvili the serviceof the community(Nizharadze 1962: 173).

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 491

theyear almost all ceremoniesare performedat 252). Shouldthe disease continueto spreadun- one or anotherof thecommunity's public shrines, abated,a special ceremonyis performed,called underthe direction of theclan's chiefpriest (tav- saxmto-sak'viriao"for God, for K' viria."Beer qevisberi).All animalsacrifices were performed is brewed,and meat-and cheese-filledbreads bythe priest or his designated assistants.38 The two ("plagueofferings," zam-sac'ir) are baked. A ram principaltypes of sacrificewere the purificatory is sacrificedto God, whereasa goat (or kid) is offeringof a bull or sheep,intended to makethe offeredto K' viria(Mindadze 1979). The choiceof sacrificer(s)more acceptable to the purity-obsessed sacrifice to K' viriareflects his subordinatestatus xvtissvilni,and thepropitiatory offering of a goat relativeto God, and echoes the west Caucasian eitherto deities of subordinate rank and ambiguous practicesdescribed earlier in this article.Goat nature(the potentially malicious dobilni, "sworn sacrificeis also practicedat a handfulof Pshav sisters"of thexvtissvilni), or to "ogres"(devebi) andKhevsur shrines specifically dedicated to Elia, and "demons"(esmak'ebi). Note thatin Pkhovi, wherethe community prays for the protection of as informantshave repeatedly affirmed, goats are theircrops from hail and adverseweather. At the neversacrificed to themale xvtissvilni. This repre- smallKhevsur shrine to Elia nearXaxabos Jvari, sentsan importantcontrast to theAbkhazian and a goat-kidis sacrificedon thesecond day of the Ossetianpractice, mentioned earlier, of offeringprincipal summer festival of Atengena(late July). goatsto theirmost powerful male-gendered gods. The meatis cutfrom the bones without breaking Theexceptions, where goats are known to have them,then cooked. After the goat meat has been beensacificed to malexvtissvilni in Pkhovi,merit eaten,the bones are collectedand set insidethe a briefdetour. In muchof Georgia,especially in goatskin,which is hungfrom a long pole on a the lowlands,St. Barbarais invokedin prayers mountaintop.The intentionis to remindthe sub- forchildren sick withthe infectiousdiseases - ordinatespirits who bring hail that "a goat-kidhas especiallysmallpox - euphemisticallyknown to been killedfor Elia, and thereforeElia does not theGeorgians as thebat'onebi, lit. "lords," since givethem permission to destroy the crops, for he is theseillnesses are believedto be sentby God thechief patron of thesky and clouds (ca-yrubelt himself(Bleichsteiner 1954; Bardavelidze 1941b). uprosimmartveli)" (Ruxadze 1999:97-107). As in the traditionalmedical practices of many The "swornsisters," and sometimes other types Europeancountries, St. Barbarais imaginedas a of subordinatespirits, are representedat each patronof healing, and in particularwho intercedes Pkhovianshrine complex, with characterizations forvictims of smallpoxand lightningstrike.39 In and functionscontrasting distinctly from those of Pkhovi,however, prayers in timesof a smallpox theresident xvtissvili. At somedistance from the outbreakare directed not to St. Barbara,but rather latter's sanctuary,which is consideredparticularly to thepowerful male-gendered deity K' viria,di- "pure"ground, off limits to women,are one or vine mediatorbetween the remote supreme God moreshrines where offerings are presented to such andhuman society ("K' viria,whose tent is pitched femalespirits as the"Place Mother" (adgilis deda), inGod's court,relieve us fromthis illness spawned the"Mother of God" (yvtismsobeli),orthe "sworn by God [es xtisagangamasobili sarfrelni]"). The sister(s)"(dobili) of thexvtissvili. Men, and espe- interventionof K' viria,rather than K'op'ala or ciallywomen, petition these deities for the health Iaqsar,is consistentwith the belief that smallpox is and fertilityof people and livestock,and fora broughtby sent by God himself,rather than safechildbirth. Although a sourceof benefit to the by"demons" easily subdued by K'op'ala's impos- community,the "swornsisters" of thexvtissvili ing physicalforce (Mindadze 1979; 2000:246- areimagined to be capableof visiting disease (es- peciallychildhood illnesses) upon people, as well more as 38 Indeed,the ethnographicmaterials from a centuryago as preventingit, and, importantly,having implythat the only meat eaten by Pkhovianscame either a "demonic"side to theircharacter, which can fromdomestic animals ceremonially slaughtered by a shrine surfaceat anytime. At somevillages in northern official,or game animals killed by a hunter(whose activities Khevsuretiare the ruined shrines of deitieswhich thehunt in thoseof a during manyrespects parallel priest "turninto demons (esmak'ad when performinga sacrifice). gadaikceva) 39 One medievalGeorgian hagiography, cited by Mindadze peoplestop praying to them.If earlierthey could (2000:254), characterizesSt. Barbaraas "a specialhelper helppeople, now they are only capable of causing of thosesick fromsmallpox (sak'utar meoxed q'vavilisa harm"(Ochiauri 1988: 194 f.). These so-called "di- sneulebisatvis),"in accordancewith her beinga helper arethe residents and abolized"(garnie frivlebuli) spirits of thoseafflicted by "fire,plague, lightning(cecxlisa the an- zamisada mexisagan),and in generalas a protectorfrom of shrinesabandoned by communitywho, unexpecteddeath." geredby neglectand the lack of offerings,turn

Anthropos99.2004 492 KevinTuite intoharmful beings of femalegender believed to While the Pkhovianpriests preside at public inflictillness upon children who hazardtoo close rituals,the oracles are the power behind the throne. to theirruined sanctuaries. The sameambiguous, The oracles,who werealmost always men, com- potentiallydemonic, nature characterizes other su- municatedthe xvtissviWs instructions to the com- pernaturalauxiliaries of thePkhovian xvtissvilni. munity. He - or ratherthe deity speaking through Some of theseare believed to be accompaniedby him- selectedthe shrine officials, chose the site invisiblehunting dogs (mc'evarnï)or an armyof fornew shrinebuildings, diagnosed the cause of wolf-like"enforcers" (iasauli), which they would illnesses,and predicted the future (Ochiauri 1954; unleashupon "vassals"who somehowprovoked Charachidzé1968: 169-186). Like thepriest, he theiranger.40 The guardsnake (gvelisperi) which was subjectedto heavyobligations to maintain patrolsK'op'ala's sacredhops field appears to be ritualpurity; also like thepriest, he was selected a creatureof thesame sort.After massacring the directlyby the xvtissvili,although he was usu- ogres,K'op'ala was said to have keptone alive, ally patrilineallydescended from previous ora- chainedup undera cliffat theend of a valleynear cles (1968: 122f.). The ethnographicaccounts of Ak'usho.He woulduse thisogre as an enforcer,a centuryor so ago, as well as thosecollected releasinghim to punishthose who incurredhis by me in recentyears, reflect an opposition- wrath(A. Ochiauri1991: 99). indeed,a tension- in Pkhovianrepresentations of Whatthese auxiliary spirits have in commonis therole of the (almostalways male) oracleand a closeassociation with a malexvtissvili, in whose theroles of othertypes of possessedindividuals, shrinecomplex they reside, and a dangerousna- mostof whom were female. Although oracles went turewhich is ordinarilyexploited by their superior into trances,and some manifestedthe frenzied as an instrumentof punishment.The two sides, movementsand disordered speech (xabusi) typical beneficialand harmful,of the lightninggod of of possession,they acquired a degreeof control thewestern Caucasian peoples are distributedbe- overtheir communicative function, and couldgo tweentwo contrastive and complementarysets of into spokesmanmode - withor withoutsigns supernaturalbeings in thePkhovian religious sys- of psychicagitation - when it was called for tem:the positive-valued,exclusively male xvtis- (1968: 153f., 199-201). Female possessionwas svili,and theirambiguously-valued female, ani- usuallydiagnosed as punishmentfor some real or mal, or monstrousauxiliaries. As a preliminaryimagined sin againstthe deity, and tendedto be workinghypothesis, which I intendto examinein sporadicand involuntary. In the highlands, women furtherfieldwork in highlandGeorgia, I propose seersdid exist, but their role was limitedto contact thatthe segmentation of positiveand ambiguous withthe souls of the dead {mesultane) or thediag- divinetraits, and their projection onto two sets of nosisof certain types of ailment (mk'itxavi). In the spirits,was an innovationof thePkhovian reform, lowlandcommunities of easternGeorgia, mostly consistentwith the rigorous "binarization" of reli- formersatellite villages of Pkhovian origin, female giousand social ideologywhich gave riseto the oraclesare fairlynumerous, but they are viewed systemdescribed by 19th-and early20th-century with disdain and mistrustby highlandshrine of- Georgianethnographers. This hypothesisoffers a ficials.As in thehighlands, these women regard new perspectiveon the soul-liberationfunction theirpossession as punishmentfor sin rather than attributedto K'op'ala. The clusterof traitscom- as a signof divineelection (Bardavelidze 1941a; prisingthe representations ofWacilla and the other Charachidzé1968: 187-201; author'sfieldnotes). lightninggods of thewestern Caucasus - random Consistentwith the increasingdominance of selectionand appropriation ofa victim,whose soul thepriest and oraclein the religiouslife of the will have a privilegedrelation to the deity,and Pkhoviancommunity was an increasedspecial- appeasementwith a goat sacrifice- are divided izationof religiousknowledge, in the formof betweenthe Pkhovian demons, who play a fun- elaborateprayers and invocations(lengthy and damentallynegative role, and thedivinized hero complicatedtexts containing lists of deities,often K'op'ala, whoseintervention is purely positive. imbeddedin more-or-lessgarbled fragments from theOrthodox liturgy or theGospels), and precise normsconcerning the performance ofpurifications and sacrifices,the preparation of ritual breads, the 40 Bardavelidze1957: 22; Charachidzé1968: 298 f.; Mindadze handlingof grainfrom the shrine's fields, and so 2000:146. The termiasauli, which referred to a typeof forth.This was at the level of social agentsent to enforceroyal decrees in medievalGeorgia, expressed is ultimatelyfrom Mongol ]asa'ul, an assistantor adjutant andreligious ideology in the form of the thorough- officer(P. Golden,pers. comm.). going,crystalline binarism - unequalledelsewhere

Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of the Caucasus 493 inthe Caucasus - thathas fascinated ethnographers wandering souls of peoplewho diedunnatural or forover a century.The shrineofficials, especially prematuredeaths. In the case of the Caucasus, thosewith a lifetimevocation, were required to it shouldbe notedthat there is littleevidence attainand maintain a level of "purity" - avoidance of an institutioncomparable to Buryat"hunting of theproximity of womenat certaintimes of the shamanism,"although one mightdiscern similari- year,abstention from certain foods, regular and tiesbetween the Pkhovian ballads of thegoddess costlypurificatory sacrifices - thatwas beyondthe Samdzimarisharing the bed of certainlegendary reachof rank-and-filecommunity members. The oracles,and the Buryat belief that the shaman had increasingsystematization, regulation and special- a supernaturalwife of animalorigin (Charachidzé izationof thePkhovian religious order, I hypoth- 1968:142-144; Hamayon1996). Whatis com- esize, madethe role of a lightninggod withthe mon to both cases is the evidentmarginaliza- propertiesof Slavic Perun^/Kupala,Abkhazian tionof "horizontal"inspirational practices - those Afa or OsseticWacilla particularly problematic. which are available,in principle,to anymember Such a deityrepresented, in effect,those aspects of the society,and whichare markedby trance of sacrificeand possessionwhich the Pkhovian and possession- in favorof the institutionof hierarchysought to bringunder its control.The "vertical"inspiration, based on esotericknowledge Indo-Europeanand western Caucasian storm gods controlledby priest-like specialists, a phenomenon struckwhenever, wherever, and whomeverthey whichoften accompanies increasing sociopolitical chose,seizing victims without waiting for the com- complexificationand centralization(Hugh- Jones munityto take the initiativeof makinga sac- 1996). AlthoughPkhovi remained a relatively rifice.They also took the initiativein selecting egalitariansociety in mostrespects, the authority theirprophets, i. e., thoselightning-strike victims and prestigeheld by the chiefpriests and their whosurvived, and perhaps (as theAbkhazian data oraclesled some Soviet-periodethnographers to implies)individuals suffering from certain men- employsuch terms as "aristocracy"or "theocracy" tal disorders.To conceivea divinebeing in such (Bardavelidze1957: 34-36). Some of thisauthor- termswould imply certain limits on the human ity,it appears,came at theexpense of theperiph- community'scontrol over exchanges with the di- eralizationand feminizationof random(or self- vine world,both in theform of sacrificeand in selected)possession in favorof quasi-hereditary the formof communicationthrough authorized oracles,accompanied by the "domestication"of spokespeople.As a consequenceof thePkhovian a redoubtablethunderbolt-slinging storm god as reform,in a sense,the gods retain the appearance K'op'ala, ogre-slayerand liberatorof lost souls. - ofomnipotence while in factceding some of their One wonders and it is a questionthat goes far - authorityto specialistpriests and oraclesdrawn beyondthe modest bounds of this article whether fromparticular patrilineages in thecommunity. the restructurationof Pkhovian society rendered The socioreligiousorder observed in 20th- it particularlycapable of resistingthe increasing centuryPkhovi bears a certainresemblance to hegemonyof politicalformations to the north, thatof whatR.Hamayon has labelled"pastoral south,and east,or whether,on thecontrary, the shamanism"in a diachronicstudy of thereligious restructurationwas itselfthe fruit of thatspirit of institutionsofthe Buryat tribes of Siberia(Hama- resistance. yon 1996). By contrastwith the earlier "hunting shamanism,"in whichthe shaman,through his statusas the "son-in-law"of supernaturalgame- givingspirits, played an integralrole in assuring ReferencesCited the successof hunters,in pastoralistBuryat so- cietiesthe shamanicfunction has been subordi- Abaev,Vasili I. 1949 Osetinskijjazyk i foFklor.Moscow: Izd. Akad.Nauka natedto a patrilineallyorganized ancestor-based SSSR. religiousorder. The primaryritual specialists have 1958-1989 Istoriko-etimologiceskijslovar' osetinskogoja- cometo be morelike priests, responsible for mak- zyka.Vols. 1-5. Moscow:Izd. Akad.Nauka SSSR. meatand ing offeringsof domestic-animal dairy Nino of Abak'elia, products,or have given way to the clergy 1991 Mifi ritualν ZapadnojGruzii. Tbilisi: Mecniereba. LamaisticBuddhism. Of particularinterest is the and feminizationof shamanism Akaba,Lili X. peripheralization u abxazov. In: Most shamansare now fe- 1967 Ο nekotoryxreligioznyx perezitkax amongthe Buryats: L. X. Akaba and S.D. Inal-Ipa(eds.), Sovremennoe male, theirsphere of activityis limitedto pri- abxazskoeselo. Ètnograficeskieocherki; pp. 27-51. vatematters such as dealingwith the troublesome Tbilisi.Mecniereba.

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