(1955) Sukhum, Alashara

Translated by Zaira, K. Hewitt and George B. Hewitt (CHAPTER I: SUCKLING-ADOPTION and ATALYK FOSTERAGE)

According to Soviet ethnography, the practice of adoption -- developed in response to blood-feud, childlessness, and the acquisition of patronage -- essentially has nothing in common with  atalychestvo.  But whilst it should be clearly distinguished from the institution under investigation, it still has a certain closeness to  atalychestvo: possibly it took shape after the pattern, and under the influence, of  atalychestvo and so represents one of its surviving variants, i.e. a phenomenon of seconday elaboration. Either way, it is impossible to ignore in a work on atalychestvo the broader issue of adoption.

The name of another oldest resident of Abkhazia, Tlabgan Ketsba, first became famous from the newspapers. On 15 April 1953, the newspaper "Izvestia" reported that the state-farmers of the village Gal were celebrating 132 years of its oldest resident, Tlabgan Ketsba. 

‘He is a living witness of many historical events of the XIX century. He was the first to settle in Gal, and he has now more than 135 descendants there. Despite his advanced age, the old man could see, could hear and remembered the events that occurred more than 100 years earlier.

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford-online

In association with
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (University of Oxford)
and
Oxford University Anthropology Society

The old people told a story which they heard from their grandparents. There was a valley where there is the lake Ritsa now.

The text by Shalva Inal-ipa is taken from the book ‘Abkhazian Etiquette’.

© Oleg Shamba, 2010

Chapter One: Some Historical Roots of Traditional Abkhazian Household Culture

Abkhazian cuisine was shaped by the agricultural, climatic and economical factors of the area. Because the Abkhaz were mainly farmers and cattle-breeders, their basic dietary staples were corn, millet, and dairy products. In the past, wild game and edible plants growing in the wild were a significant part of the diet, but today they are rarely on the table.

History of Winemaking

The Abkhazian love affair with wine dates back centuries. Among the archeological discoveries that confirm this ancient wine culture are pitchers containing grape seeds that date back to 3000-2000 B.C. and a bronze statuette found in the 1950s in the Bombora settlement of the Gudauta region (a man holding a huge wine horn; scientists date the statue back to about the second millennium B.C.). A drawing of this statute is found on the label of the popular Apsny wine brand.

Proverbs and Sayings of the Caucasian Mountain Peoples

Compiled by Oleg Shamba 

Remember at least a word From the wise words of a sage, That it may not be lost. For even the splinter of a big tree Gives us warmth, when burning in a stove. K. Lomia (Translated from the Abkhazian).