Manana Tsereteli

PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology
The University of Georgia
Assistant Professor
Researcher at the Tamaz Beradze Institute of Kartvelology
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2597-1791
mtsereteli@ug.edu.g

“Ganjafa” as Cultural Artifact: Examining Playing Cards as Carriers of Meaning

This study examines the information about the existence of Ganjafa (also Ganjipa) in the manuscripts of Rafiel Eristavi, a prominent 19th-century Georgian public figure and writer. “Ganjafa” is a traditional Georgian game introduced to Georgia from Persia. The information preserved in Rafiel Eristavi’s writings offers a unique opportunity to understand the “Ganjafa” as a Cultural Artifact. The study aims to analyze the context and meaning of “Ganjafa” in Rafiel Eristavi’s writings and to Examine Playing Cards as Carriers of Meaning. The results obtained will contribute to explaining the role of games in social and cultural life based on various theories, like Thomas M. Malaby, GRANT McCracken, and Arjun Appadurai. Combination of these authors' theories allows me to analyze "ganjafa" as an artifact which carries cultural meanings that move across contexts and have "metacommunicative characteristics".

Keywords: Ganjafa; metacommunication; cultural variability; change of meaning.