Lightning, Sacrifice, and Possession in the Traditional Religions of the Caucasus Author(s): Kevin Tuite Source: Anthropos, Bd. 99, H. 1. (2004), pp. 143-159 Published by: Anthropos Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40466310 . Accessed: 18/08/2011 08:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Anthropos Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Anthropos. http://www.jstor.org I Anthropos jy 99.2004: 143-159 ^ Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in the TraditionalReligions of the Caucasus KevinTuite Abstract. - In many communitiesof the West Caucasus, tainoverlooking the village Shuapxo in thehigh- lightning-strikevictims were regarded with particularawe, land provinceof Pshavi in northeastGeorgia. and a dance was performedaround their bodies duringwhich Those who attendthe annualsummer festival at the name of one or another is with the god uttered,along for the most members mysteriousvocable coppa. Data concerningthis ritualwill be Iremtk'alo, part of the framedin an analysis of the representationsof possession, Udzilaurtaclan, must hike uphill for at leastthree sacrifice, and, in general, the appropriationof people or hoursfrom the nearest village, if theygo on foot animals by divine beings in traditionalCaucasian religious (as mostdid until Iremtk'alois Certainfeatures of the of the Pshavs veryrecently). thought. religiousthought barrenof trees,and farfrom the nearest and Khevsurs of the northeastGeorgian highlands will be spring compared and contrastedwith those of the peoples of the or river.All waterand firewoodmust be hauled West Caucasus. [Caucasus, Fshav-Khevsureti,lightning-strike up by people or pack animals.The same goes victims,sacrifice, possession] for the food,except for thatwhich makes the ascent underits own dozens of in fromthe power: sheep Kevin T'iite, Ph.D. (Chicago 1988) Linguistics and several whichwill meettheir deaths Universityof Chicago; since 1991 Prof,of Ethnolinguisticsin bulls, theDepartment of Anthropologyof theUniversité de Montréal. at Ioseb K'oc'lisvili's handsin thecourse of the - Since 1985 linguisticand ethnographicfieldwork in theRepu- It was on the wherethe shrinenow - day. spot blic of Georgiaon numerousoccasions. Publicationsinclude: stands,K'oc'lisvili explains, that the hero K'op'ala KartvelianMorphosyntax (Munich 1998); Ethnolinguisticsand bestedthe of the in a AnthropologicalTheory (co-editor. Montréal: in press); Current strongest ogres (devebi) Trends in Caucasian, East European, and Inner Asian Lin- boulder-throwingcompetition. These ogreswere guistics(co-editor. Amsterdam: in press) and various articles huge,powerful, and terrifyingto behold.Some in Journalof Indo-EuropeanStudies, Lingua, Anthropological weresaid to havenine heads. When they walked, Linguistics,Historio graphia Linguistica (see also References theirfeet sank into the as Cited). ground thoughthey werewading through drifted snow. The champion amongthe ogres picked up a massiveboulder and threwit fromthe mountaintop. It sailed across the On a crispmorning in late July1996, the chief riverbelow, a branchof theAragvi, and landed priestIoseb K' oc'lis vili explainedto me how on theother side. K'oc'lisvili gestured to thespot the stone shrineto K' op'ala came to be built wherethe stonecame to earth,perhaps half a at Iremtk'alo.For thoseaccustomed to places of kilometredownward and overa kilometreto the worshiperected by central squares or otherconve- westof wherewe stood.K'op'ala pickedup an nientlocations, the choice of thissite would seem evenlarger rock, hefted it, and thought it toolight. perverse,if notmasochistic. The meadowknown So he tookanother boulder, pressed it againstthe as Iremtk'alo,"the deer's threshingground," is firstas thoughpacking two snowballs together, and situatedat 2225 metresaltitude, atop a moun- let it fly.The giantrock would have fallenshort 144 KevinTuite Map: The Caucasus. of its mark,however, had not the deityK' viria the stanceof objectiveobservers are responsible intervened.He struckthe airbornrock withhis forthese designations. Charachidzé (1981b) refers whip,so thatit flewfurther than the rock thrown to K' op'ala as a "dieu,"employing the French bythe ogre, and it landed on a fortressbuilt by the lexemealso appliedto theSupreme Deity. I know ogresat Cixetgori. Ioseb K'oc'lisvili pointed to the of no instanceof a Georgianmountaineer utilising siteof Cixetgori,on themountainside across the theclosest Georgian equivalent {xmerti) with ref- river.The daybefore, he prayedthere and offered erenceto K' op'ala; theyprefer to qualifyhim as a sacrifices.The ogreswere defeated in combatby "hero"(gmiri) or "childof God" (xvtissvili).There K' op'ala and his companionIaqsar. Those that has been,to be sure,much speculation about what survivedtook refuge underground, leaving the land theseterms mean. How does a societyimagine freefor people to settlethere and live peacefully. its "god" or "gods?"With what classes of beings Thatis whyK'oc'lisvili's ancestors built the shrine are theyin contrast?How is theconcept of god at Iremtk'alo,and thatis whythe Udzilaurta clan employedas a tool of thought?What represen- gathersthere in midsummereach year,to offer tationsunderlie, or motivate,activities such as livestock,breads, and beer at thesite of K' op'ala' s prayerand sacrifice,which seem to be formsof victory. communicationor exchangewith god(s)? To what The readerwill doubtlesshave concludedby degreecan thegod(s) of one societybe usefully now thatK' op'ala, K' viriaand the ogres never comparedwith those of another,especially where actuallyexisted, at leastnot as described,and will thecommunities in questionparticipate in distinct perhapshave classified K'oc'lisvili's narrative as a culturalareas, or are characterizedby different legend,folktale, or myth.K' op'ala himselfmight politico-economicorders? For the purposes of this be labelleda "hero,"or perhaps- as theobject of paper,the term "god" will serve to index a modeof a cult- a "deity,"or "god."In thepages to follow, speakingabout (or to) individualsnamed in texts. - therewill be frequentmention of "gods," "deities," The textsmay be classified byoutside observers, - "divinities,"and "spirits."In some cases these notnecessarily by thosewho producethem as wordstranslate fairly precisely the terms chosen by songs,hymns, myths, ballads, and so forth.To thepriests, oracles, healers, and others, whose nar- the referentsI label "gods" are attributedways rativesconstitute much of theempirical basis for of manifestingtheir presence, communicating or thisstudy. Quite often, however, writers adopting interactingwith people, or influencingthe state of Anthropos99.2004 Lightning,Sacrifice, and Possession in theTraditional Religions of theCaucasus 145 affairsin the experienced world which are depicted makespassing reference to the "royal graves of the as significantlydifferent from those of humans. In thunder-c'op'ayk'"as beingamong the idols and thecases to be studiedhere, "gods" are ascribed sacredobjects burnt by the so-called Huns {Honk' suchcharacteristics as invisibility (under ordinary or Honastank')of theNorth Caucasus upon their circumstances)and immortality.They residein conversionto Christianity,an eventsaid to have spaces separatefrom those inhabited by humans, takenplace in thelate 7thcentury.1 In his notes andordinarily off limits to the latter. Speech acts in to theEnglish translation of thispassage, Dowsett whichthey are attributed the role of addresseeare (165 f.) linksthe lexemec'op'ay to coppay,the qualitativelydifferent from communicative acts nameof an Ossetic"ceremonial dance arounda betweenhumans. One could say thatdiscursive victimstruck by lightning,a refrainsung at the genresdescribing gods or addressedto themplay burial of the same, and a rite at the time of a majorrole, in conjunctionwith ritual and the drought,"citing the Ossetic dictionaries of Miller uses of space,in constitutingthem as a cultural (1927-1934) and Abaev (1958-1989).Dowsett's category.I make no claims,though, that all mem- glossrefers to thedescription, a few pages earlier bersof a givensocial group talk about gods in the inDasxurancTs text, of some "satanically deluded sameway, to saynothing of how they might think errors"symptomatic of theHuns' alleged"north- aboutthem. (Indeed, there is abundantevidence ern dull-wittedstupidity," among which is the fromthe Caucasus that"god-related" discursive beliefthat "if flashes of thunderingfiery lightning practicesof men differin significantways from and etherealfire struck a man or some material thoseof women;likewise the practicesof ritual object,they considered him or it to be some specialistsdiffer from those of othermembers of sortof sacrificeto a god K'u(w)ar" (Dasxuranc'i thecommunity.) In certainrespects my usage of 1961:155 f.). Dowsett'sconjecture has recently theterms "god" and "deity" will parallel that of the been citedby Golden(1998) in thecontext of a ethnographerswhose works are citedthroughout study of thereligious beliefs of the medieval Qip- thepaper, in thatit will represent my interpretation