Description
Focusing on the trajectories of Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian families in the unresolved conflicts over Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, this paper explores how ethnically mixed families respond to the unique challenges they face and their ability to contribute to ‘small acts of peace’ (Mac Ginty, 2021, p. 2) in the absence of elite-level conflict resolution. In particular, it sheds light on the gendered experience of ethnic mixing and its implications in the context of violent conflict. After the Georgian-Abkhaz war in 1992-1993, many Georgian women married to Abkhaz men were forced to stay in Abkhazia, whereas Abkhazian women married to Georgian men had to leave to Georgia proper. Drawing on ethnographic material, the paper first analyses the gendered nature of displacement in mixed families, in particular how women in the context of violent conflict are expected to subordinate their ethnic identity to that of their husbands. It then explores how many of these women have negotiated their often-complex web of belonging and the struggles they face when resisting absolute loyalty to one side or another by attempting to move across both physical and cultural borders.
