Daghestan: Tradition and Survival (Caucasus World) [Hardcover]

Robert Chenciner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0312173806 | ISBN-13: 978-0312173807

Situated in the rugged mountain peaks and deep valleys of north eastern Caucasus, Daghestan is home to more than 30 distinct peoples. Each of these peoples has their own language yet they share a surprisingly homogeneous culture that has both withstood and absorbed centuries of external influences. Robert Chenciner has travelled extensively throughout the region, and here he gives a fascinating account of the swiftly vanishing traditional ways of life in the villages of this inaccessible mountain area and how the Daghestanis of today are adapting to this change. With more than 90 black and white photographs, this is a unique chronicle of a unique culture as seen through one man's eyes.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (December 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312173806
• ISBN-13: 978-0312173807
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,390,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars rich and bewildering, August 25, 1999

By 

N. Twickel (Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daghestan: Tradition and Survival (Caucasus World) (Hardcover)

Robert Chenciner has written the first English book on contemporary Daghestan. This alone is laudable, given the difficult access to the Russian mountain republic in the Caucasus and the scarcity of information on it abroad. Chenciner, a multi-faceted scholar, has researched his topic for over a decade. He is - among other things - an expert on rugs, folk-tales and costume. The book is very much an attempt to preserve traditional Daghestani village culture, which is indeed in danger. The author acknowledges that it is the product of ten years' work - most chapters seem collected from an abundance of accumulated travel notes. Others contain endless pieces of folk-tales, interwoven with personal impressions. They come in a funny order - sex, birth and death in the beginning, religion and nationalism at the end. The middle is about food, textiles and fighting beasts. Sadly, Chenciner has relatively little to say about Daghestan's Babylonic array of 29 indigenous languages (which are also endangered). His chapter on religion is slight and looks little further than 1991 - an inexcusable omission, given that the country has since been treading the path to a religious war. Overall, the book very much resembles Daghestan - it is complex and bewildering. One should take time to read it and to look carefully at the authors' brilliant pictures, which round off his preservation work. Nikolaus von Twickel