Pankisi, Kists, ethnicity, informality

The Kists are a tiny ethnic group of about 7,000 people inhabiting the Pankisi Valley in eastern Georgia. They speak a language from the Vainakh group of the North-East Caucasian language family and traditionally they have been mostly Sufi Muslims. Although they are linguistically and culturally close to Chechens and Ingush, the Vainakh nations of the Northern Caucasus, and some linguists even consider their language a dialect of Chechen, the Kists have developed a specific ethnic identity. This was enabled by the fact that they settled in Pankisi before the modern Chechen and Ingush national identities were formed. Despite attempted Christianization in times of tsarist Russia and secularization and Georgianization in times of the USSR, the Kists have preserved their ethnic identity until the turn of the 21st century, when it became endangered in connection with the influx of Chechen refugees. Not only the almost Georgianized Kists have rediscovered their Vainakh roots, but the rise of Salafi Islam, which was brought to Pankisi mainly by the Chechen refugees, put in danger two main sources of Kist ethnic identity – the local Sufi Islam and a bulk of traditional political institutions and practices based on local customary law. Also the existence of the independent Georgian state has brought several challenges for the Kist ethnicity, above all the high unemployment rate which leads to outmigration, and the official Georgian integration policy. The aim of the paper, which is based on a field research conducted in Pankisi between 2010 and 2018 is as follows: First, it identifies the challenges for the Kist ethnic identity which were brought by the external influences, including the “global” Salafi Islam, second, it explores how the local informal institutions and customary law transformed in order to preserve the Kist ethnic identity and thus the community as a whole.