Svan Funeral Dirges (Zär): Cultural Context

Abstract

This article is a companion paper to Scherbaum and Mzhavanadze (2020), Mzhavanadze and Scherbaum (2020) and Scherbaum and Mzhavanadze (2021). Together they describe the results of an interdisciplinary study of the three-part funeral dirge of Svan zär ('zari' in Georgian). In the present paper, we provide all the contextual (ethnographic, ethnological, historical) data that we collected from various written and/or oral sources and then processed and organized in a comprehensible way to help the reader better understand this unique phenomenon. We believe that in order to help answer the basic question of 'how zärs work,' the results of the acoustical, musicological, and phonetic (as well as language-music interface) analyses in the other three articles must be interpreted through an understanding of the full context of this unique cultural behavior. Thus, not only did we collect and integrate all the related data and review the literature, but we also raise and discuss some problematic issues, such as, for example, the etymology of the term zär. We also offer an interpretation/description of some conflicting historical data to generate interest for its further research. In addition, we introduce the reader to some details of our field research (2015, 2016), as they may be of great importance when discussing or interpreting the results of the analyses presented in other (analytical) parts of this interdisciplinary study. KEYWORDS Traditional Georgian vocal music Multipart dirgeFunerary ritual eternal home. Although all versions of zär are believed to be different, to our untutored ears, they sound remarkably similar. Now, in the early afternoon, as the body is slowly escorted to its final resting place in the cemetery, the assembled procession sings "Ts'mindao Ghmerto," the Trisagion hymn, in Georgian. Upon arrival at the final resting place at the grave site, zär is chanted for one last rendition before the body is finally laid to rest.