The captive and the gift : cultural histories of sovereignty in Russia and the Caucasus / Bruce Grant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grant, Bruce, 1964-

Series:

Culture and society after socialism.

Cornell paperbacks.

Culture and society after socialism

Cornell paperbacks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sovereignty--Social aspects--Caucasus.

Sovereignty.

Sovereignty--Social aspects--Russia.

Sovereignty--Social aspects--Soviet Union.

Caucasus--Civilization.

Caucasus.

Caucasus--Relations--Russia.

Russia--Relations--Caucasus.

Russia.

Caucasus--Relations--Soviet Union.

Soviet Union--Relations--Caucasus.

Soviet Union.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (212 p.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Caucasus region of Eurasia, wedged in between the Black and Caspian Seas, encompasses the modern territories of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as the troubled republic of Chechnya in southern Russia. A site of invasion, conquest, and resistance since the onset of historical record, it has earned a reputation for fearsome violence and isolated mountain redoubts closed to outsiders. Over extended efforts to control the Caucasus area, Russians have long mythologized stories of their countrymen taken captive by bands of mountain brigands. In The Captive and the Gift, the anthropologist Bruce Grant explores the long relationship between Russia and the Caucasus and the means by which sovereignty has been exercised in this contested area. Taking his lead from Aleksandr Pushkin's 1822 poem "Prisoner of the Caucasus," Grant explores the extraordinary resonances of the themes of violence, captivity, and empire in the Caucasus through mythology, poetry, short stories, ballet, opera, and film. Grant argues that while the recurring Russian captivity narrative reflected a wide range of political positions, it most often and compellingly suggested a vision of Caucasus peoples as thankless, lawless subjects of empire who were unwilling to acknowledge and accept the gifts of civilization and protection extended by Russian leaders. Drawing on years of field and archival research, Grant moves beyond myth and mass culture to suggest how real-life Caucasus practices of exchange, by contrast, aimed to control and diminish rather than unleash and increase violence. The result is a historical anthropology of sovereign forms that underscores how enduring popular narratives and close readings of ritual practices can shed light on the management of pluralism in long-fraught world areas.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Promethean Beginnings

2. Histories of Encounter, Raidings, and Trade

3. Noble Giving, Noble Taking

4. Rites of Encounter

5. Captive Russians

6. Caucasian Refl ections

7. From Prometheus to the Present

Glossary

References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

0-8014-6019-0

OCLC:

726824364