Photo of the day: The first tennis court in Armenia, 1905
19 Wednesday Dec 2012
Posted in An Armenian Journalist's Notes
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An Armenian Journalist's Notes
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Wow! It’s an incredible photo. Do you see the men on guard with rifles? Who are they guarding the players from? 1905 probably was a turbulent time under the Russian Empire dominance. This is when for the first time the independence of Eastern Armenia was declared as a goal and the tensions arose between the Armenia province and the Governor General of Caucasus, which Armenian avengers attempting the assassination of the Governor-General of Caucasus, Galytsin.
I am really curious as who the threat to these people was perceived to be.
The dress code of the people present is also interesting. Additionally, while coming from, clearly, well off families, the fact of the women (and men) in the photo being generally in shape is also a valuable piece of information allowing making some conclusions about the lifestyles then – Armenia must’ve not entered yet the “chalaghadj” era then …
🙂
The part on “chalaghadj” era is especially true 🙂
Soooo true about “shalaghadj” 😀 Yes, Armenia was a intellectual and civil countri without any “rabiz” and “hastaviz” contingent… Tennis and the fact of playing women (in white dresses… as in Englang 🙂 ) is the best indicator of it…
Come on, Lus, we are not competing with Britain 😉 And for your information – “rabiz” and “hastaviz” is also “cultural” phenomena :)))
Our problem is that we were never good in displaying us from a good looking angle. In spite, we are good in destroying and recreating ourselves, our cities, our values, our identities… the list is continuous 😉
Maybe…
I just mean, that this is english tradition to play tennis in whole white 😀
And yes, you’re right, we are not good in presenting ourseleves
Did you know that Aristakes Lastivertsi claims blaims all the ills of Armenia of his era on the Armenian women? They were the best looking in the region he says, and all the militant and barbarian tribes raided Armenia to possess them… He certainly didn’t like pur women 🙂
Aha, now it turned out that Armenian women are to blame for those “developments” :)))
But seriously, there are a lot of things untold/unspoken about women and men in Armenia. Just one example – in the institution of sexual violence and rape in genocidal wars women are violated by “enemy” men to be careers of a message – that their men were not able to “protect” them – therefore, this “actions” are to destroy the masculinity of the MEN for the first place. The vast majority of Armenian Genocide survivors were women and girls, so… For almost 90 years all the means and researches are concentrated to Genocide recognition or boycotting the deniers. Zero efforts were made to understand “these kinds” of collective memory and its psychological consequences in the generations…
I don’t argue that violence may collectively be applied to women more disproportionately. However, I would rather think there are at least two other reasons for the “disproportionate” survival of women in the aftermath of the AG:
1. the vast numbers of Armenian men were conscripted to the Turkish army prior to the large-scale implementation of the AG and eliminated there en mass;
2. eliminating men “helps” to violate their women;
3. there is more use from keeping women alive then men. 😉
You know, I was also thinking about the destroying the masculinity of [Armenian] men. I think in modern days unemployment does it better.
On an already touched upon grounds, “chalaghadj” does it even more 😉
I think the 90 years effort you mentioned has also other reasons. I think there is a deep embedded identity maintenance element to it through what I call glorification of victimhood maintenance of continuity through cultural totemism.
Finally, if there is any issue (in my mind) associated with the AG it is the elimination of its legacy. While what is being done along its lines is erection of victimdome and its transformation into a subject of pride – “the first genocide of the 21st century,” and that kind of ugly “first this and that” excess (I did my best to express myself diplomatically ) …
Lusine, do you really thing it is a presentation issue rather than who we are deep in our collective psyche?
i meant “our women”
I see your point. What I mean is that “chalaxaj”, unemployment and most importantly “identity crisis” might be the result of unsolved “problems” of the past. “Sa Hayastann e, u verch” (c) ;))) You know what I mean?
how about the continuing unsolved problems? you know what i mean 🙂
meant “glorification of victimhood and maintenance of continuity through cultural totemism.”
Reblogged this on SLAVA NAZARYAN.