Anthropological Researches by Academician Aleksandre Javakhishvili

Abstract

Aleksandre Javakhishvili, a Georgian scientist of the beginning of the XX has established quite high standards in research methodology of Anthropology. He was the first who studied Kartvelian (Georgian) ethnographic (Kartlian, Kakhetian, Gurian, Mingrelian, Imeretian, Rachian, Mtiuletian) groups by use of different fields of sciences (History, Geography, Linguistics, Ethnology). He formulated a programme for researches in the Caucasian Anthropology; raised an issue of the necessity to found a scientific-public organization that would systematically study the anthropology of the Caucasus and its neighboring regions; he was the first who marked the autochthony of the Caucasian race; distinguished the western, eastern and metamorphic anthropologic types among Georgians; studied the dolichocephalism among Georgians; carried out researches about the local peculiarities of the settlements in the Georgian Caucasus and geographical distribution of the population.