IV.Dayeakut'iwn in the Caucasus


It is of the greatest interest that institutions in some ways similar to dayeakut'iwn are known from other parts of the Caucasus. In the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries some European travelers to the Caucasus were struck by what seemed to them peculiar customs, and they described these customs in their diaries. For example, in the early nineteenth century the French merchant traveller Taibout de Marigny wrote about the Circassians of the northwest Caucasus:

It is very rare for a boy to receive his education under the parental roof; the right of educating him is granted to the first person who presents himself; and if more than one arrives at the same moment, there are arbiters who determine how long each of them shall instruct the child. The atalyk [tutor or foster-father] carries off the infant, sometimes secretly, and confides it to a nurse; and, as soon as it can dispense with her care, his education begins. It consists of all bodily exercises adopted to increase strength and agility: riding, wrestlying, shooting with the bow, the gun, or the pistol, etc.; in the art of conducting an incursion with success; in skill in theft, and in being able to brave hunger and fatigue; they endeavor also to render them eloquent, and to form their judgment in order to enable them to be influential members of the assemblies. This education, which reminds us of that of the heroic times of Greece, was held in such high estimation by the khans of Tartary, that they used to send their children to be brought up by the atalyks in Circassia. The young man's return to his parental home is celebrated by a grand fete, to which all the relations are invited, and to which he is brought in triumph. The atalyk returns home loaded with presents and henceforth enjoys in the family of his pupil a degree of relationship which is always preserved, and which nothing can destroy (50).

The Englishman J. A. Longworth, a correspondent of the London Times, spent a year among the Circassians (1838/39). In describing the education of boys, he wrote: "Boys are banished at an early age from the paternal roof to that of the foster-father, or atalyk, that no parental indulgence may interfere with the austerity of their education. But, though perhaps the great object in its establishment, hardihood is not the sole result of this discipline. I have more than once alluded to the strong social feeling that seems to unite the Circassians into one family" (51).

The same custom was observed among the Abkhaz people in the western Caucasus according to nineteenth century Russian ethnographers. Among the Abkhazes, the nurse or "foster-mother" was chosen with great care, long before the child's birth. Usually a woman of lower economic class than her ward, custom required that she be rewarded by the child's parents when she accepted her duties. Once the nurse had taken the child to her own village, she became known as anadz'dzei (nurse or mother-nurse); her husband was called abadz'dzei (father-nurse), while the baby was called akhopha (pupil or foster-child). Custom dictated that when the children were three years and five to seven years of age, they be taken home and shown to their parents. Since girls as well as boys were raised in this fashion, appropriate gifts were given to them, amd their "foster-parents" were rewarded again. When the girl was twelve and the boy fifteen, their education was considered completed, and they were taken to their real homes to stay. This occasion was marked by a special ceremony. The Georgians and Ossetes also practised variations of the same custom (52).

If European travelers and ethnographers were surprised by the "adoption" and upbringing of children by persons other than their parents, another related practice in the Caucasus surprised them even more. Thls was the adoption--not of children, but of mature individuals -- by members of the opposite sex, a custom which was observed in practice among the Circassians, Kabardians, Abkhazes, Chechens, Ingushes, Avars, Ossetes, and Georgians. Common to all these groups was an element of the adoption ceremony which involved the biting or kissing of the "adopting" woman's breast by the "adoptee." The seventeenth century Catholic missionary, Arcangelo Lamberti, described this ceremony among the Mingrels of westem Georgia: "When two persons wish to enter into close relationship with each other, and they are of different sexes, then the man presses gently with his teeth the nipple of the woman's breast, amd after this procedure tbey regard each other as mother and son, or as brother and sister, according to tbeir age"(53). Among the Svans, this custom (known as linturali) was particularly elaborate; one nineteenth century Russian ethnographer compared it to the gallant services performed by medieval European knights for their chosen ladies:

When a Svan wished to enter into a fictitious relationship with a certain lady by adoption, with the aim of serving and protecting that lady, he had the right to fulfill his desire by observing the custom of linturali. The first step, according to the custom, was to inform the chosen lady of his intention; it depended upon her decision whether she would accept or reject the proposition. If she gave her consent with the umderstanding of her relatives and husband (if she was married), the Svan went into her home accompanied by a friend and carrying a quantity of brandy. He was welcomed and cordially entertained. When the whole family was assembled in one room of the house, the Svan approached his chosen lady with a full cup of brandy in his hand and asked God's blessing upon the linturali. He knelt on one knee before her, and with his head submissiveiy lowered, he asked her humbly if it was her wish to touch his breast with her teeth, or whether she wanted him to touch her breast in the same way, which meant: Did she wish to be his foster-mother, or he her foster-father If she was adopting him, the Svan strewed a little salt on her bare breast, and, touching the place three times with his teeth, he said:"Si di mi gezil ",meaning in theSvan language: "Thou art mother, I am son. The ceremony was concluded with the exchange of warm kisses between the new relatives. On the day after the ceremony the Svan received from hls foster-mother a present consisting usually of one sheep or cow, or some other head of cattle, and in return, he tried to send her better gifts After the exchmge of gifts, they regarded each other as blood relatives, visited each other, and even could sleep together in one bed without anyone questioning the moral purity of their relations. Sometimes this custom was perfommed with a view to putting an end to gossip or bad rumors about the morality of a woman, married or single (54).

The modern sources reviewed above raise an interesting question about dayeakut'iwn in ancient Armenia. It will be noted that in the seventeenth to nineteenth century descriptions of the Caucasian customs of atalychestvo (adoption of children) and linturali (adoption of mature individuals by members of the opposite sex), women appear to have played an important role. In the case of atalycbestvo, the infant was entrusted to a chosen "foster-mother" (designated by a special term) who nursed the child and directed its education. Both boys amd girls were raised by such adoptive women at some distance from their homes. Similarly, the custom of linturali, with its ceremony of adoption through breast-biting or breast-kissing, was predominantly centered around the woman. Recalling the fifth century classical Armenian sources introduced in the first part of this study, one is struck by the fact that these sources characterize the male as the significant figure around whom the preservation and education of a boy child revolved.

To what may this descrepancy be attributed? Before trying to answer this question, it should be pointed out that it is not our purpose to try to establish a genetic link between ancient Armenian dayeakut'iwn and nineteenth century Caucasian manifestations of related practices. To do so would require information presently not available (55). Yet, it would be a mistake to ignore the information available about Caucasian atalychestvo/linturali. In the process of contrasting institutions separated by geography and by a time factor of more than a thousand years, therefore, certain methodological conventions must be cast aside.

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Footnotes 50-55

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