Social-Economic, Ethno-Cultural and Linguistic Outcomes of Migration (with the Example of One Georgian Village)
Social-Economic, Ethno-Cultural and Linguistic Outcomes of Migration (with the Example of One Georgian Village)

Summary/Abstract: The article shows how the social-economic, ethno-cultural and linguistic picture of the society can be changed after migration, how the favorable conditions for both forced and voluntary assimilation can appear at the same time in certain geographical area, near the urban settlement, accelerating the process of shifting of the ethno-cultural and linguistic patterns of the minority group to those of dominant one and leading the process to losing the identity of the community. The study highlights how the Tsovatush economy was destroyed in the conditions of the Soviet collectivization. The issue is studied with the example of the minority Tsovatush society, migrated in about 1820-30s from the Georgian highland (so-called Mtatusheti) to the lowland, the village Zemo Alvani, located in East Georgia, namely, in Kakheti region, Akhmeta district. The target group cannot be found in any part of the world but only in this village, moreover, half the village, nowadays inhabited by less than two thousand Tsovatush people.The work summarizes the outcomes of several-year research outcomes. It is based on the living sources and contains valuable materials for a wide audience, the representatives of different scientific fields. By using recognized sociolinguistic and ethnographic research methods, the article relays on the analysis of the fieldwork materials, obtained several times in the modern settlement of the target community – Zemo Alvani, and of the scientific literature. Research outcomes give the possibility to generalize and spread them over other analogical communities.

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