Brief introduction – The Latali-Project in #Svaneti #SouthCaucasus

Latali is a village community in the north-western part of Georgia, in the administrative region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, in the Greater Caucasus. Tourism has become the main economic force of the region, and many questions arise regarding where it can be developed and how it will be compatible with environmental aspects and the way of life of the locals. The Latali-Project is an interdisciplinary fieldwork founded by the Heinrich Böll (BOELL) Foundation, in which participated the “Froh! e.V.” NGO and students of the German Ostfalia University, Tbilisi State University, and Tbilisi Free University, where they visited Latali for 5 days to document its local values and people’s perspectives. I received an invitation from one of the project’s academic partners, Professor Stefan Applis, who had a big role in making all this possible, whom we met in person just a few days before in another part of Svaneti. It can be said that in a social sense, I was the most external person, and I must add to the report right away that I did not feel any of this during my stay there. Thus, as the most external person, everyone can believe that I write about what I experienced there without any personal bias.

The Latali-Records – Field report

I participated in three days of fieldwork between September 5 and 7. First of all, I have to say in advance that, despite what has been said here, the results speak for themselves, both their quality and quantity. Several of us were surprised by how successful the process of this project was, especially in terms of its organization, since we did not work along with point-by-point progress of sharp and pre-compiled drafts; in more than one case the information gained on the spot decided the program of the day or the next day. Of course, in our current case, this gave us flexibility, and there were no specific expectations, which I think helped a lot with the mood of the entire program and gave us room for a much more efficient operation. The nearly forty people split into different teams quite freely and in many cases only before departure, and the number of teams traveling to different locations was always variable, but each time the composition included both Georgian and German students, in the case of larger on-site projects with an experienced expert who either he managed the specific operation (for example, in the case of film recording, interviews) or helped in cooperation with the locals. Such randomly formed teams, with a random mix of Georgians and Germans, yet completely harmonious cooperation and problem-free progress. What’s more, it couldn’t have worked otherwise, and here I would like to touch on an important aspect, why such projects are important. First of all, why couldn’t a different team composition have worked? The answer to this is very simple, because the Georgians were definitely needed for the sake of communication with the locals, but the Germans brought and handled many of the technical devices used on site. And this is a special point to highlight, that in the case of all such collaborations, there is not only a kind of knowledge transfer, but nowadays there is also a good chance of a technology transfer. And with technology and different tools comes the knowledge that qualifies you to use them. Of course, this transfer of technology means something different for every collaboration, both in terms of the project and the tools brought in, but today there are many different techniques, if only one more efficient tool is involved, it can make a big difference in terms of the final result. After Covid, digitization gained a new momentum, which are unavoidable today. And tools that have proven themselves on a given occasion can be purchased locally and put into system-level use, so there are many more aspects to this, just think of partner contracts with specific manufacturers. This was also an important aspect in our present case, excellent recordings were made with both traditional cameras and drones, excellent scans of different spaces were created. These can be said to be a kind of professional factors, but while we’re at it, we have to say that in addition to the sufficient preparation, which the students had without exception, in addition to the professional authorities, the success of the project depended on the human factors. Many of us have probably already had the good fortune to experience in a wide variety of fields – if it was recognized – that in many cases the problematic and inefficient operation of a work process is not due to a lack of professional knowledge, but due to human factors, whether it is a complete team operation or just individual problems. In our present case, it was this human background that worked best, thanks to both the participants and our local environment. I experienced complete openness from everyone to everything, whether it was any kind of help, constructive comment, idea, or anything else. In addition, and probably partly for this reason, no one went overboard, no one interfered in things that they did not understand, and in addition to being sufficiently independent, no one tried to improvise too much. Everyone contributed to the project based on their knowledge and ingenuity, yet there were no excessive desires for production, everyone kept their modesty as much as possible. There was real trust between us, and let’s not forget that we were talking about teams with a constantly changing composition, and moreover, several components, since the tasks were complex at each specific location. Arriving back at our hosts, we saw a completely friendly and non-spastic environment, but people working continuously. Those who came back from the fieldwork processed the collected materials, but the editors of the website summarizing the processed materials also worked all the time to ensure that it could be completed by the time the materials are presented when the fieldwork is completed. And the local residents sacrificed their time for us during the works at the end of the summer, when they were already heavily preparing for winter, when they work non-stop anyway, but we could also experience freshness and dedication, with which they guided us around the places and reported on the informal parts of it. But those who provided us with accommodation and did everything during our stay to ensure that we could work efficiently, even from now on, helped us if translation was needed (for example, a song sung in Svan language) and in such matters. Let’s not forget that for us, the presence of the Georgians and their help also extended to such basics as writing the names of the locals correctly, for example. We were really faced with complex tasks, to such an extent. But they succeeded thanks to everyone’s joint work.

A rare exemplary attitude and behavior was therefore experienced both on the part of the visitors and the locals. It is hoped that the environment of all of us will benefit from the results of the works, which will help local people to appreciate their values even more, will open up a new and more detailed world to tourists, who will better appreciate the environment where they go, the affairs of Latali and Svaneti will also reach the residents of other regions of Georgia, and for us the readership and listening audience of our own language, and possibly the literature, will be expanded with these experiences and results.

Special thanks to Nino Tserediani and Leri Tserediani for doing everything they could to make us feel at home and focus on the project as much as possible, and they have continued to help us in everything. From my own point of view, the locals I met, Thanks to Paata Kvanchiani, Emil Kvanchiani and Jan Kvanchiani for giving us their time and showing us everything they could on the spot and telling us everything worth knowing about it. It was a fantastic experience to be among them in Latali!

Text: László Róbert Mézes on facebook (2023)

Fotos: László Róbert Mézes (2023)