Identity and Integration - Jewish and Roma Diasporas in Post-Soviet Georgia

Abstract

There is, within the field of anthropology, a modest amount of literature published specifically for the benefit of those ethnographers who wish to study diaspora as a cultural phenomenon. Unfortunately, these models fail to wholly account for the existence of “rootless diaspora”– those cultures which exist in multiple but related forms across geographical spaces, but whose homeland has no bearing on the current formation of the diaspora. Though these cultures have existed throughout history, they have never been sufficiently addressed by the anthropological paradigm, resulting in a lack of substantive literature on the nature of the diaspora itself. At the forefront of this phenomenon are the Jewish and Roma diasporas: cultures which have historically existed across geographical spheres, and whose identities have been largely shaped by this fact. Despite numerous commonalities in cultural construction and historical experience, the Roma and Jewish communities have received extremely disparate degrees of attention as subjects of serious academic study – the Roma in particular, often regarded as the most widely marginalized ethnic group in the world, are scarcely researched outside of Western Europe. Using the current status of Jewish and Roma communities in Post-Soviet Georgia as a case study, this paper attempts to establish commonalities and differences in degrees of integration, and additionally contributes ethnographic information regarding both groups which has hitherto been largely neglected by academia.