Tsypylma Darieva is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asia and Africa Studies. She is the author of Urban Spaces after Socialism: Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian Cities (Campus, 2011).Florian Muehlfried is affiliated with the Caucasian Studies Program at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Previously, he was a guest lecturer in Georgia, a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and a visiting professor at UNICAMP, Brazil. He is the author of Being a State and States of Being in Highland Georgia (Berghahn, 2014).Kevin Tuite is Professor of Anthropology at the Universite de Montreal. He also directed the Caucasus Studies program at the FSU-Jena from 2011 to 2014. His publications include the Language, Culture and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology (co-edited with Christine Jourdan) (Cambridge, 2006).

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionTsypylma Darieva, Florian Muehlfried and Kevin TuiteChapter 1. Between 'Great' and 'Little Traditions'? Situating Shia Saints in Contemporary BakuTsypylma DarievaChapter 2. Women as Bread-bakers and Ritual-makers: Gender, Visibility and Sacred Space in Upper SvanetiNino Tserediani, Kevin Tuite and Paata BukhrashviliChapter 3. The Chain of Seven Pilgrimages in Kotaik, Armenia: Between Folk and Official ChristianityLevon Abrahamian, Zaruhi Hambardzumyan, Gayane Shagoyan, and Gohar StepanyanChapter 4. Sacred Sites in the Western Caucasus and the Black Sea Region: Typology, Hybridization, FunctioningIgor V. KuznetsovChapter 5. The Power of the Shrine and Creative Performances in Ingiloy Sacred RitualsNino Aivazishvili-GehneChapter 6. Accompanying the Souls of the Dead: The Transformation of Sacral Time and EncountersHege TojeChapter 7. Not Sharing the SacraFlorian MuehlfriedChapter 8. Informal Shrines and Social Transformations: The Murids as New Religious Mediators among Yezidis in ArmeniaHamlet MelkumyanChapter 9. Sharing the Not-Sacred: Rabati and Displays of MulticulturalismSilvia SerranoBibliographyIndex

"This volume shares in a rich resurgence of writing on religious activity across the former Soviet Union and particularly in areas of the Caucasus, offering sharp insight on arguably most popular religious traditions-surrounding shrine pilgrimage-about which we know the least of all. The editors have gathered the highly qualified scholars for the task, including a number of specialists from the Caucasus proper." * Bruce Grant, New York University

Tsypylma Darieva is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asia and Africa Studies. She is the author of Urban Spaces after Socialism: Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian Cities (Campus, 2011).Florian Muehlfried is affiliated with the Caucasian Studies Program at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Previously, he was a guest lecturer in Georgia, a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and a visiting professor at UNICAMP, Brazil. He is the author of Being a State and States of Being in Highland Georgia (Berghahn, 2014).Kevin Tuite is Professor of Anthropology at the Universite de Montreal. He also directed the Caucasus Studies program at the FSU-Jena from 2011 to 2014. His publications include the Language, Culture and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology (co-edited with Christine Jourdan) (Cambridge, 2006).

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionTsypylma Darieva, Florian Muehlfried and Kevin TuiteChapter 1. Between 'Great' and 'Little Traditions'? Situating Shia Saints in Contemporary BakuTsypylma DarievaChapter 2. Women as Bread-bakers and Ritual-makers: Gender, Visibility and Sacred Space in Upper SvanetiNino Tserediani, Kevin Tuite and Paata BukhrashviliChapter 3. The Chain of Seven Pilgrimages in Kotaik, Armenia: Between Folk and Official ChristianityLevon Abrahamian, Zaruhi Hambardzumyan, Gayane Shagoyan, and Gohar StepanyanChapter 4. Sacred Sites in the Western Caucasus and the Black Sea Region: Typology, Hybridization, FunctioningIgor V. KuznetsovChapter 5. The Power of the Shrine and Creative Performances in Ingiloy Sacred RitualsNino Aivazishvili-GehneChapter 6. Accompanying the Souls of the Dead: The Transformation of Sacral Time and EncountersHege TojeChapter 7. Not Sharing the SacraFlorian MuehlfriedChapter 8. Informal Shrines and Social Transformations: The Murids as New Religious Mediators among Yezidis in ArmeniaHamlet MelkumyanChapter 9. Sharing the Not-Sacred: Rabati and Displays of MulticulturalismSilvia SerranoBibliographyIndex

"This volume shares in a rich resurgence of writing on religious activity across the former Soviet Union and particularly in areas of the Caucasus, offering sharp insight on arguably most popular religious traditions-surrounding shrine pilgrimage-about which we know the least of all. The editors have gathered the highly qualified scholars for the task, including a number of specialists from the Caucasus proper." * Bruce Grant, New York University

Tsypylma Darieva is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asia and Africa Studies. She is the author of Urban Spaces after Socialism: Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian Cities (Campus, 2011).Florian Muehlfried is affiliated with the Caucasian Studies Program at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Previously, he was a guest lecturer in Georgia, a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and a visiting professor at UNICAMP, Brazil. He is the author of Being a State and States of Being in Highland Georgia (Berghahn, 2014).Kevin Tuite is Professor of Anthropology at the Universite de Montreal. He also directed the Caucasus Studies program at the FSU-Jena from 2011 to 2014. His publications include the Language, Culture and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology (co-edited with Christine Jourdan) (Cambridge, 2006).

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionTsypylma Darieva, Florian Muehlfried and Kevin TuiteChapter 1. Between 'Great' and 'Little Traditions'? Situating Shia Saints in Contemporary BakuTsypylma DarievaChapter 2. Women as Bread-bakers and Ritual-makers: Gender, Visibility and Sacred Space in Upper SvanetiNino Tserediani, Kevin Tuite and Paata BukhrashviliChapter 3. The Chain of Seven Pilgrimages in Kotaik, Armenia: Between Folk and Official ChristianityLevon Abrahamian, Zaruhi Hambardzumyan, Gayane Shagoyan, and Gohar StepanyanChapter 4. Sacred Sites in the Western Caucasus and the Black Sea Region: Typology, Hybridization, FunctioningIgor V. KuznetsovChapter 5. The Power of the Shrine and Creative Performances in Ingiloy Sacred RitualsNino Aivazishvili-GehneChapter 6. Accompanying the Souls of the Dead: The Transformation of Sacral Time and EncountersHege TojeChapter 7. Not Sharing the SacraFlorian MuehlfriedChapter 8. Informal Shrines and Social Transformations: The Murids as New Religious Mediators among Yezidis in ArmeniaHamlet MelkumyanChapter 9. Sharing the Not-Sacred: Rabati and Displays of MulticulturalismSilvia SerranoBibliographyIndex

"This volume shares in a rich resurgence of writing on religious activity across the former Soviet Union and particularly in areas of the Caucasus, offering sharp insight on arguably most popular religious traditions-surrounding shrine pilgrimage-about which we know the least of all. The editors have gathered the highly qualified scholars for the task, including a number of specialists from the Caucasus proper." * Bruce Grant, New York University