Chapter 14 FROM CULTURE TO CULT: MUSEUM COLLECTIONS AND RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY GEORGIAN NATIONAL DISCOURSE
Résumé
In 1999, the Georgian Ministry of Culture, the Baltimore Walters Art Gallery and the Foundation for International Arts and Education decided to exhibit 160 artefacts, including sacred objects, from Georgian collections in American museums. A small circle of students in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, started a protest action against the exhibiting of sacred artefacts, soon gaining support from the political opposition leaders and a large part of population. As a result, the authorities decided to cancel the exhibition. Based on the case study of these protest actions, this chapter aims to show the ways in which modern-day Georgian nationalism has been remodeled around religious categories, and the political and social implications of this remodeling. The chapter argues, that the impoverishment of the specific religious meaning of Christianity during the socialist rule has provided a background for filling Orthodox Christianity with new meanings and interpretations. In the context of new political developments, this process facilitated the re-emergence of Christianity as the central aspect of the national and political discourse. In present-day Georgia religion appears to engage discourses and issues which go beyond religious matters, such as those of foreign policy, political orientation, corruption, and national identity. Such re-interpretation of Christianity in the contemporary context has contributed to the process of de-secularization of the society.
Domaines
Science politique
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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