One the Needle, Another the Thread

Volume 34
Fall-Winter
2008

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Contemporary For sixty years the Ahiska were exiled from their homeland in Meskhetia. Despite decades of oppression, they have preserved much of their folklore, such as traditional dance and music, as well as occupational traditions...

References

Tomlinson, Kathryn. 2005. Bread is First before Everything!: Moral Economy in Households and States. In Contesting Moralities: Science, Identity, Conflict, 105–16. Ed. Nanneke Redclift. London: UCL Press.

Ranard, Donald A., ed. 2006. Meskhetian Turks: An Introduction to Their History, Culture, and Resettlement Experiences. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Felicia Faye McMahon is acquisitions editor of Voices and research associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Syracuse University. Since 1998, she has coordinated the folk arts program for the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, New York.

New York Folklore Society
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nyfs@nyfolklore.org

One the Needle, Another the Thread: Ahiska in Syracuse by Felicia Faye McMahon

In 2005 the U.S. State Department granted refugee status to fifteen thousand Ahiska from the Krasnodar region of Russia. Often identified by resettlement agencies as Meskhetian Turks (in their own language, Akhyskha Tiurkliari) during the Ottoman Expire (1299–1922), the Ahiska emigrated from Turkey to Meskhetia, now a region in Georgia, which borders Turkey. Stalin’s regime had deported the Ahiska to Soviet Central Asia in 1944, but during ethnic clashes in Uzbekistan in 1989, the Ahiska were forced to flee to Krasnodar. As a Muslim minority, they have been treated as illegal immigrants and denied Russian citizenship.

For sixty years the Ahiska were exiled from their homeland in Meskhetia. Despite decades of oppression, they have preserved much of their folklore, such as traditional dance and music, as well as occupational traditions like wool spinning and blanket and carpet making. Their sophisticated agricultural skills, however, are not useful for their new urban lives in Syracuse and other American cities, where Ahiska communities work to acclimate to American life and simultaneously preserve their heritage.

Ahiska wedding dance at Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse on March 31, 2007. All photos courtesy of Felicia Faye McMahon.

My first meeting with Sanabar Kakhromanova was challenging for both of us. I speak no Russian or Meskhetian Turkish (a blending of Turkish and Russian languages), and Sanabar speaks no English, so to this day we communicate through a Russian translator. Because Sanabar is Muslim, she feels most at ease working with a female interpreter. In addition to language barriers, publications about Ahiska language and traditional arts are limited. I nonetheless immediately experienced the warmth and generosity of Sanabar, her husband, her children, and her Ahiska community. Later, when I coordinated a public folk arts program with Elmira Amurlayeeva, a community dance leader, she described our collaboration aptly: “One the needle, another the thread.”

Ulduz Safarova with granddaughter, Albania.

When guests like myself visit any Ahiska home, they are immediately made to feel comfortable and welcome. A tablecloth is spread on the floor to accommodate guests, who are always offered bread and chai with fruit or sweets. Scholar Kathryn Tomlinson suggests that this gesture of Ahiska hospitality has a religious connection to Islam. As a root metaphor for Ahiska culture, it is expressed in the phrase, “Misfire elixir kepi’ Dan, rush elixir any’ ad” (If a guest comes through the door, God will send as much as He has created for you through the window) (2005, 111). Chai is served hot and sweet without milk, and it concludes every meal. No good hostess ever fails to offer her guests tea.

Ulduz Safarova demonstrates needlework in the folk arts tent at Mayfest 2008.

A typical meal in the Ahiska home begins with yogurt and etmek, a large round load of bread. Yogurt and bread are staples that women continue to make from scratch in the home. In Russia, Ahiska women typically baked one or two dozen loaves of bread each week, except for summer months when the weather was too hot. During that period bread was purchased in stores. Etmek is never wasted; stored properly it stays fresh for two or three days. Katmer, a special flaky bread, consists of many thin layers of dough that are brushed with oil, folded, and baked. Bread has such a cultural significance that a simple meal of homemade kalamen (a square-shaped bread), served with chicken and halva (butter and flour sweetened with sugar water), is the first meal shared privately by Ahiska newlyweds. Wedding guests are served both traditional and modern foods, which may include vinegret (Russian beet salad), khinkali (Georgian dumplings), pakhlava (a flaky pastry), and sometimes vodka (Ranard 2006, 21).

Other traditional foods served in Ahiska homes include dolma, cabbage or grape leaves stuffed with rice, spices, and ground beef; hanim, layered pastry with beef; hinkali or manti, boiled dumplings filled with beef; pilav, spiced rice; chorba, tomato-based soup with beef and lentils or chicken and rice; and kowurma, a dish of layered vegetables. A typical meal is an elaborate affair that begins with etmek, yogurt, and chai, and continues with chorba and the main course, such as dolma, hanim, hinkali, or manti, accompanied by pilav. This is followed by a dessert course of chai, sweets, and fresh or dried fruits.

Ahiska knitting and crochet.

In their Syracuse homes, I noticed that the Ahiska have preserved their unique folk arts. Women sew yastuh, flat woolen pillows, for a bride’s dowry, as well as minderler, elongated seating cushions. Scarves trimmed with hand-crocheted lace (el mandely) are waved by dancers when they perform haliy, a traditional circle dance, at weddings and other social celebrations. At these festive gatherings, one hears the traditional music of zurna (folk oboe), davoul (drum), or keyboard, which now substitutes for the saz (guitar). Although it takes a designated dancer or “needle” to begin, once he or she initiates the dance, many others form a veritable dancing thread, connecting everyone in the room to one another.

Ahiska scarf trimmed with el mandely.

Marina Izotova (left) with Vasilya Fakhlulova.

“One the Needle, Another the Thread - Ahiska in Syracuse by Felicia Faye McMahon was published in Voices Vol. 34, Fall-Winter 2008. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now.