Culture and Customs of the Caucasus

Culture and Customs of the Caucasus PDF Author: Peter L. Roudik
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313348863
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Students struggling to find information on the modern lives of those living in Eurasia need not look any farther! Written for high school and undergraduate students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus fills a major void on library shelves. This unique reference work explores contemporary life in three former Soviet Union republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. No other reference book offers such exhaustive material on the traditions and customs of all three nations. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and comprehensive volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics. In the early 1990's, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia emerged from the grip of the Soviet Union and stood on their own for the first time in almost a century. Today, these three nations are slowly emerging from communism's dark cloud, thriving culturally and gaining strength economically. Written for high-school students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus is the ultimate one-stop reference source that explores the three countries in the region-no other reference work provides such comprehensive and current material. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and wide-ranging volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics.

Culture and Customs of the Caucasus

Culture and Customs of the Caucasus PDF Author: Peter L. Roudik
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313348863
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description
Students struggling to find information on the modern lives of those living in Eurasia need not look any farther! Written for high school and undergraduate students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus fills a major void on library shelves. This unique reference work explores contemporary life in three former Soviet Union republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. No other reference book offers such exhaustive material on the traditions and customs of all three nations. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and comprehensive volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics. In the early 1990's, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia emerged from the grip of the Soviet Union and stood on their own for the first time in almost a century. Today, these three nations are slowly emerging from communism's dark cloud, thriving culturally and gaining strength economically. Written for high-school students, Culture and Customs of the Caucasus is the ultimate one-stop reference source that explores the three countries in the region-no other reference work provides such comprehensive and current material. Students studying world culture, social studies, and multicultural issues can use this engaging and wide-ranging volume to learn about the Caucasus's history, urban life, religion, literature, cuisine, holidays, and leisure activities, among many other topics.

Culture and Customs of the Caucasus

Culture and Customs of the Caucasus PDF Author: Peter Roudik
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313348855
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This unique reference work explores contemporary life in three former Soviet Union republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Legends of the Caucasus

Legends of the Caucasus PDF Author: David Hunt
Publisher: Saqi
ISBN: 0863568238
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The Caucasus has an extremely rich folk literature, almost unknown among English speakers, which includes myths, legends, magical tales, anecdotes and proverbs. The one hundred and one legends included in this book reflect the cultures of fourteen different ethnic groups - their dynamism and the matters that concerned them: survival against external dangers, the risk of starvation and the persistence of the family or clan as a coordinated group. Descended from an oral tradition, much of their knowledge was retained in memories and passed down the generations. Yet, with the introduction of the alphabet, the way of life they portray is rapidly becoming extinct. An incomparable collection, Legends of the Caucasus conveys the poetry and romance of these swiftly vanishing tribes. 'This book has brought into light some of the hidden treasures of the Caucasus ... A major contribution not only to the study of the Caucasus, but also to world folklore.' John Colarusso, McMaster University, Canada 'Inventive and meticulous in rendering the extraordinary folk poetry of the many nations of the Caucasus ... [This is] essential reading for anyone seeking an insight into the cultures of the Caucasus.' Donald Rayfield, Queen Mary University of London, UK

The Caucasus

The Caucasus PDF Author: Thomas de Waal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190683112
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This new edition of The Caucasus is a thorough update of an essential guide that has introduced thousands of readers to a complex region. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the break-away territories that have tried to split away from them constitute one of the most diverse and challenging regions on earth, impressing the visitor with their multi-layered history and ethnic complexity. Over the last few years, the South Caucasus region has captured international attention again because of disputes between the West and Russia, its unresolved conflicts, and its role as an energy transport corridor to Europe. The Caucasus gives the reader a historical overview and an authoritative guide to the three conflicts that have blighted the region. Thomas de Waal tells the story of the "Five-Day War" between Georgia and Russia and recent political upheavals in all three countries. He also finds time to tell the reader about Georgian wine, Baku jazz and how the coast of Abkhazia was known as "Soviet Florida." Short, stimulating and rich in detail, The Caucasus is the perfect guide to this fascinating and little-understood region.

The Archaeology of the Caucasus

The Archaeology of the Caucasus PDF Author: Antonio Sagona
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107016592
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 563

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Book Description
This conspectus brings together in an accessible and systematic manner a dizzy array of archaeological cultures situated between several worlds.

Azerbaijan - Culture Smart!

Azerbaijan - Culture Smart! PDF Author: Nikki Kazimova
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1857335481
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
For Westerners, the modern state of Azerbaijan may be hard to pinpoint. This small, oil-rich country in the southern Caucasus, on the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, only made its way on to the contemporary world map after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. As the world shrinks and competition for precious resources intensifies, the direction this strategically and economically important country takes will affect us all. The historically tolerant and pluralist Azeri people have an ancient history and a rich culture. Azerbaijan lay on the route of the Great Silk Road, the trade network that connected China with Europe, and its people have lived through centuries of conquests by different imperial powers. It was also situated in the heart of the Great Game, the struggle for control of Central Asia played out between Russia and the West at the turn on the nineteenth century, which seems to be going through a modern remake. Azerbaijan has been called “the quintessential borderland, many times over: between Europe and Asia, Islam and Christianity, Russia and the Middle East, Turks and Iranians, Shi’a and Sunni Islam.” Azerbaijan was briefly independent after the First World War, when it was the first Muslim state to adopt progressive Western values. A democratic republic with full women’s suffrage, it boasted the first women’s high school, the first opera, and the first female opera composer, as well as the first ballet in the Muslim world. There followed seventy years of Soviet rule. After a bitter war in 1991–94, areas of Azerbaijan were occupied by neighboring Armenia, and the country has absorbed a huge number of refugees. At the same time, it is experiencing a new oil boom and the economy is growing. Among the people, there is a growing sense of national identity. Culture Smart! Azerbaijan looks at the many facets of this identity and explains the complex workings of Azerbaijani society. It will equip you with vital information and advice about the customs, practices, and sensibilities of a society poised on the brink of change.

Achaemenid Culture and Local Traditions in Anatolia, Southern Caucasus and Iran

Achaemenid Culture and Local Traditions in Anatolia, Southern Caucasus and Iran PDF Author: Askolʹd Igorevich Ivanchik
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900416328X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This book contains articles concerning relationship between the 'imperial' culture of the Achaemenids and local traditions, including a publication of the unique painting from Tatarl? in Western Anatolia and the results of recent excavations in the Southern Caucasus and Iran. Originally published as issue 3-4 of Volume 13 (2007) of Brill's journal "Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia," For more details on this journal, please click here.

The Medieval South Caucasus

The Medieval South Caucasus PDF Author: Ivan Foletti
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN: 9788021083226
Category : Albania
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The volume serves as an introduction to what its editors have chosen to call the "artistic cultures" prevalent during the Middle Ages in the region of the South Caucasus. Although far from comprehensive in terms of material, chronology and geography, the volume intends to raise awareness of a region whose artistic wealth and cultural diversity has remained relatively unknown to most medievalists. Stretching from Eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea in the West to the Caspian Sea in the East, and from the snow-capped Great Caucasus mountain range in the north to the Armenian highlands in the south, medieval southern Caucasia was originally divided into the kingdom of Caucasian Albania, Greater and Lesser Armenia, and western and eastern Georgia, that is, the kingdoms of Lazica (Egrisi) and Iberia (Kartli) respectively. Together, these entities made the South Caucasus a true frontier region between Europe and Asia and a place of transcultural exchange. Its official Christianization began as early as in the fourth century, even before Constantine the Great founded Constantinople or had himself been converted to Christianity. During the subsequent centuries, the region became a well-connected and strategic buffer zone for its neighboring and occupant Byzantine, Persian, Islamic, Seljuk and Mongol powers. And although subject to constantly shifting borders, the medieval kingdoms of the South Caucasus remained an internally diverse yet shared and distinct geographical and historical unity. Far from being isolated, these cultures were part of a much wider medieval universe. Because of the transcultural nature and elevated artistic quality of their objects and monuments, they have much to offer the field of art history, which has recently been challenged to think more globally in terms of transculturation, movement and appropriation among medieval cultures.

Mountain Jews

Mountain Jews PDF Author:
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9789652783158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
According to tradition Caucasian Jews descended from the Ten Tribes exiled from the Kingdom of Israel in the first millenium BCE, making them one of the oldest communities of Jewish people anywhere. This remarkable population preserved its Jewish identity and developed a culture of its own in a region inhabited by a host of different peoples and plagued by ethnic tensions. The term "Mountain Jews" (they call themselves "Juhur") dates back to Imperial Russia's occupation of the Caucasus in the early nineteenth century, when the tsar's visiting representative referred to "Mountain Jews" living mainly in the east and north of the Caucasus range, in what is today the largely Muslim areas of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. After their emigration to Israel, Caucasian Jews continued to resist integration, sharing in Israel's upbuilding without losing touch with their roots in and ties to the Caucasus. Along with her fellow essayists Mordechai Altshuler, Moshe Yosifov, Michael Zand, Ariella Amar, Boris Khaimovich, Anatoly Binyaminov, and Tyilo Khizghilov, author Liya Mikdash-Shamailov, a Jew of Caucasian origin, successfully blends her scientific interest in the community with her own special affinity with its culture. The fruit of many years of field work and extensive research, Mountain Jews presents, in words and striking pictures of this people and its practices, the history, spiritual life, language and literature, daily life, material culture, and decorative arts which together define the rich and extraordinary cultural heritage of Caucasian, "Mountain" Jews.

Abkhasians: the Long-living People of the Caucasus

Abkhasians: the Long-living People of the Caucasus PDF Author: Sula Benet
Publisher: New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description