Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 31

BLACK MATSONI: PRAGMATICS OF THE TBILISI STREET CODE

Evgeniya Zakharova

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
evgenics()gmail.com

Abstract: In this work the author deals with urban street code as an example of Soviet and post-Soviet ponyatiya (codes of the underworld) in a non- Russian-speaking society. The author’s research is based on data collected during her fieldwork in Tbilisi in 2007–2012. Tbilisi street code represents a component element of the street culture that has penetrated all layers of society. On the one hand, the practitioners of ponyatiya trace it to the thieves-in-law code, and on the other hand they associate it with national ideals of manliness. The author places her argument in the context of the discussion on behavioural codes and combines ethnographic and ethnomethodological approaches to her study. She considers the practices of street mediation and showdown. By defining the key patterns and exact procedures of public interaction, as well as the rhetorical devices of the disputes within a communicative community, the author demonstrates that the code shapes social reality.

Keywords: behavioural codes, rules, street culture, thieves-in-law, masculinity, disputing culture, argumentative devices.

To cite: Zakharova E., 'Chernyy matsoni: pragmatika tbilisskogo ulichnogo kodeksa' [Black Matsoni: Pragmatics of the Tbilisi Street Code], Antropologicheskij forum, 2016, no. 31, pp. 25–62.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/031/zakharova.pdf