Contributor, Editor, Supervisor
2,313
edits
Difference between revisions of "Sadghegrdzelo (Georgia)"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
no edit summary
Editor2018 (talk | contribs) |
Editor2018 (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 29: | Line 29: | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
|- | |- | ||
|style="font-size:1.1em;"| The term ''sadghegrzelo'' is a compound of the words ''dghe'' (day) and ''ghrdzeli'' (long). In this form, ''sadghegrzelo'' means ‘to a long life,’ a wish that is expressed in the form of a toast. In the context of a festive meal presided over by a toastmaster (''tamada'' ), the toasts follow a generally uniform, yet not entirely fixed, structure. The ''tamada'' raises the first toast in each of the many rounds of toasting and introduces a topic that is then taken up and elaborated on by the other participants in the ritual. Certain topics are obligatory, such as toasts to the family and the deceased, and a certain pattern is prescribed, such as following a toast to the deceased by proposing a toast to life, often presented as a toast to children. In addition, toasts to attributed identity (such as family or gender) are commonly proposed before toasts to acquired identity (such as profession or hobbies, Chatwin 1997)<ref> Chatwin, M. 1997. ''Foodways and Sociocultural Transformation in the Republic of Georgia, 1989-1994. ''Tbilisi: Metsniereba Press </ref>. |} | |style="font-size:1.1em;"| The term ''sadghegrzelo'' is a compound of the words ''dghe'' (day) and ''ghrdzeli'' (long). In this form, ''sadghegrzelo'' means ‘to a long life,’ a wish that is expressed in the form of a toast. In the context of a festive meal presided over by a toastmaster (''tamada'' ), the toasts follow a generally uniform, yet not entirely fixed, structure. | ||
The ''tamada'' raises the first toast in each of the many rounds of toasting and introduces a topic that is then taken up and elaborated on by the other participants in the ritual. Certain topics are obligatory, such as toasts to the family and the deceased, and a certain pattern is prescribed, such as following a toast to the deceased by proposing a toast to life, often presented as a toast to children. In addition, toasts to attributed identity (such as family or gender) are commonly proposed before toasts to acquired identity (such as profession or hobbies, Chatwin 1997)<ref> Chatwin, M. 1997. ''Foodways and Sociocultural Transformation in the Republic of Georgia, 1989-1994. ''Tbilisi: Metsniereba Press </ref>. | |||
|} | |||
''I have a problem understanding someone whom I know really well when suddenly [at a banquet this person] begins to behave completely differently. And then this behaviour becomes so normal, it’s like a “blurring of the borders.”…The borders between the real me and this imagined me, which I want to play, become so blurred that you don’t know who you are. And the people with whom you interact are also lost.’'' (Interview with a young female employee of an NGO, conducted by the author in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 2004). | ''I have a problem understanding someone whom I know really well when suddenly [at a banquet this person] begins to behave completely differently. And then this behaviour becomes so normal, it’s like a “blurring of the borders.”…The borders between the real me and this imagined me, which I want to play, become so blurred that you don’t know who you are. And the people with whom you interact are also lost.’'' (Interview with a young female employee of an NGO, conducted by the author in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 2004). | ||