Elke Kamm

• Philipps University of Marburg

Two hundred years ago, Germans emigrated to the South Caucasus. Settling in villages like Asureti (formerly Elisabethtal) in Georgia, they became quite wealthy. In 1941, the Germans were deported to Central Asia and Georgians were resettled in the empty villages. In Asureti there still exist numerous impressive, albeit poorly conserved half-timbere...

Traditional law continues to be relevant for the Svans (Georgians), who usually live in the highlands of the Caucasus, but who have also migrated to various parts of Georgia. To grasp its practice we draw on approaches in which its use is discussed as a strategy for '(re)asserting collective identities' (Benda-Beckmann) in order to enforce specific...