Ethnology in Georgia

Abstract

Ethnology in Georgia as a scientific discipline was formed after the establishment of Soviet power. In the 1930s, it was declared a «bourgeois» science and limited to an empirical description of traditional culture and life. Accordingly, ethnography could not thoroughly study the social development processes and develop a theory of social transformation. The revival and free development of ethnology became possible only after the restoration of Georgia’s independence. Not only have Georgian ethnologists opened the door to Western science, but Georgian culture has become one of the preferred objects of study for foreign scholars.