Georgia in-between: religion in public schools

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Georgian village and supplemented by a range of interviews and observations from different parts of Georgia, this paper explores the creative presence of religion in public schools. In 2005 and in line with the strong secularization and modernization discourse, the Georgian parliament passed a new law on education, restricting the teaching of religion in public schools and separating religious organizations and public schools; nevertheless, mainstream Orthodox Christianity is widely practiced in schools. The paper aims to show how Georgians use religious spaces in secular institutions to practice their identity, to perform being “true Georgians.” At the same time, they are adopting a strong secularization and modernization discourse. By doing so they create a new space, a third space, marked by in-betweenness. The study uses the theoretical lens of Thirdspace for analyzing the hybridity, the in-betweenness of practices and attitudes inherent for politics, religion, and everyday life of Georgians.

Keywords:

• religion
• Thirdspace
• hybridity
• Georgia
• Caucasus

Notes

1. See http://mes.gov.ge/old/upload/editor/file/Brdzanebebi/2010/Tebervali/kanoni%20ganatlebis%20shesaxeb.pdf.

2. For quite a long time, spatiality in the study of religion was important mainly for housing the sacred space (alongside with earlier authors such as Mircea Eliade and others), as something geographical that invokes and shapes religiosity. Later with the spatial turn, the interest has been directed toward space as constructed and constructing, and toward interdisciplinary understandings of space (Corrigan 2009). Anthropologists examine social relationships that produce certain experiences and perceptions of places, and how their meanings are created (Serje 2009). For a great overview, see Hervieu-Léger (2002).

3. From Caucasus Research Resource Centers, “Caucasus Barometer” (time-data set Georgia). http://www.crrccenters.org/caucasusbarometer/. Accessed March 21, 2016.

4. The names have been changed, with the exact location remaining undisclosed, as the practice of displaying icons for devotion is against the law.

5. It stands in contrast to the so-called domestic religiosity (term coined by Dragadze 1993), where women still perform the most important roles.

6. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBHDQPIjDyc&feature=youtu.be. The religiosity in schools gives insight as to how the religion is lived out as an ethnic category; for studies about different countries, see works such as Orsi (2010) and the volume on everyday religion (Ammerman 2007a).

7. The importance of threshold rituals is widely studied (Turner [1969] 1995; Van Gennep [1909] 2011).

8. The topic of how specifically Orthodox Christianity stands as a proxy for ethnicity is widely researched and will not be further elaborated upon here (Nodia 2009; Zedania 2011). For the display of religiosity in Armenian schools, see the article by Mkrtchyan (2014). I am grateful to my anonymous reviewer for pointing out another study, by Kapferer (1988), exploring how “nationalism makes political religious.”

9. In the analysis published by Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC 2014), the authors state that

an important change in governmental policy is connected to a new law which was adopted in 2005 and manifested the willingness of the government to implement an effective policy regarding the protection of religious neutrality and the principles of secularism. This turning point in educational policy groups problems and challenges in “before 2005” and “after 2005.”

10. For a further discussion of this topic, see Batiashvili (2012).

11. As Blum (2007, 15) observes, the trends of homogenization are met by the counter-trends of rejection.

12. Recently, the introduction of a new subject in social studies at the school level, teaching several issues related to gender, equality, LGBT rights, etc., was met with huge resistance from conservative politicians, the Orthodox Parent Union, and the church. The Orthodox Parent Union claimed that the idea behind those subjects in school is to detach children from their identity and is against the nation and against family, and makes them “faceless citizens” of the world. The church issued a statement expressing concerns that the new subject would psychologically damage children. For the debates, see local media online (in Georgian): http://netgazeti.ge/life/96882/.

13. For Russia, see a recent dissertation by Naletova (2007, 146–147).

14. For debates in 2007, see the following link (in Georgian): http://en.alplus.am/5615.html.

15. The fluidity of these relations has been aptly studied in recent publications (Agadjanian, Jödicke, and van der Zweerde 2014; Janelidze 2014; Serrano 2010; Zviadadze 2015). The term itself is borrowed from Bauman (2005, 2013).

16. The space itself changes attitudes; it can discipline and it can enhance meanings. It is open to multiple interpretations. The display changes the meaning of the space as well. It is also open and reversible. When referring to his home, Giorgi tells me how his mother covers the icons in the dining room when guests and a big party are expected. She feels bad that the icons should face the party and spares them from the loud Georgian celebrations with excessive drinking.

17. Samkhretis Karibje, 25 May 2015. Accessed 5 May 2016. http://sknews.ge/index.php?newsid=5600.

18. From Netgazeti, 16 May 2015. Accessed 20 March 2016. http://netgazeti.ge/life/31755/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Georgian Rustaveli Foundation [grant number FR/344/2-152/14].