ტერმინ მახვშის სემანტიკური ტრანსფორმაციის სოციოკულტურული ასპექტები

ანოტაცია

The article is an attempt to analyze the genesis of the social term “makhvshi,” its historical significance, and the gradual transformation of its semantics.

The ethnographic term “Makhvshi” is often used in everyday life in Svaneti, and at the same time is widely used throughout Georgia as an epithet for a respectable person.

What is the original essence of this term and its brief history?

According to ethnographic data, the term “makhvshi” literally meant “head, master of the family.” In the late medieval and nineteenth-century sources, the term “makhvshi” (along with several other terms, e.g., “fusd” and “fust”) is also used as an epithet for the Dedeshkelians, a certain group of Svanetian chiefs. This means that the original meaning of “makhvshi” is similar to the meaning of a head of the family in every part of Georgia. In the traditional life of Svaneti, it was not required for a “makhvshi” to be a senior or an elder in the family. There are several examples when the head of the family was a middle-aged male with special economic skills or, in some cases, even a female.

Starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, this term is often mentioned in the records of scholars and travelers. During this time, the term received a new meaning, and it was now referring to the heads of the communities, which were structured according to the new (Russian) legislation. Thus, the old term partially gained a new social meaning.

The history of the issue is as follows: From 1865 onwards, the Russian government has adopted a regulation that required the establishment of a new rural governance throughout Georgia after the implementation of the peasant reform. According to this regulation, the public administration of the village was entrusted with all functions delegated to the community-rural government in Russia, i.e., the village administration was tasked with managing administrative as well as economic affairs. The village community body was composed of the village board and its governors. The supreme body of the village was considered to be the peasant congress. Executive power was assigned to the head of the community (mamasakhlisi) and legal power to the court. The village community staff had to be determined at the discretion of the community itself. From that time on, the person who was elected as village manager was also called ”makhvshi”.

At the same time, the new status and content of the term “makhvshi” was reflected in the outline of survival theory that circulated around the world at the time: this new status of elected village manager was documented in the records of researcher-travelers and was generalized as an element of traditional Georgian culture – "Makhvshi", the head of the family.

At the same time, even though it was the result of Russian rule, the peasant congress was regarded as a remnant of ancient folk self-government. The historical context was ignored and the phenomenon was artificially archaized. The paper attempts to critique and reconsider this approach.

Nowadays, the term “makhvshi” remains the word in use, and as before, it means the head of the family, but at the same time, the term ”makhvshi” is often used as an epithet, both in Svaneti and outside of it, by the media and politicians, as well as in poetry and prose.