ASD
        WHEN YOU HAVE studied sociology for some time you automatically look for explanations of structures and rituals in the culture and society. Visiting Georgia is like coming to the sociologist heaven. I must honestly say that I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what things represent as functions. And in a culture witch is non-western I even think that there might be a little anthropologist inside

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me striving to get out. Hamsun also described that urge to understand, and enlighten the society with new discoveries from distant cultures. Anyway I think that’s the main reason I decided to do some tedious research on a discovery I just made in the little village.

Collecting empirical evidence.
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I namely found out that all the small farms dumped the manure right into the street, or road. With no exceptions all shit ended up there. It was strange, and I had b\never seen anything like it other villages in Georgia. I definitely had a case her. Absolutely! So I started to wonder: Was this some strange way of showing disrespect for those traveling by? Because I had also noticed a informal network of paths in-between the houses, small tracks that winded themselves around the houses under the trees, and made it impossible to go anywhere without saying hello or get a glass of wine or even food before leaving for your original destination, a neighbor two houses further down the track? Then I found out that the only way to get to the original destination without spending hours drinking or talking was to use the main road, where all the manure was dumped. So maybe this was done to make it almost shameful to pass by your closest neighbors without visiting? I knew guests are very welcome in Georgia. It was a nut, and I spent more than one night thinking about this strange arrangement: All manure dumped right into the street. But I was sure this was even a greater discovery than I thought it was when it first struck my mind. One day I investigated some of the outlets of manure looking at the construction of the cowsheds, angles and other details of construction. Nothing. I also had to find out if this was the case with all the cowsheds at all properties, or at least get a percentage of occurrence of this phenomenon. Definitely a yes there, it occurred on all farms. It didn’t get me any closer to the solution. I even asked my wife what she thought, and my parents in law didn’t have the answer either. It was clear I needed other informants with closer relations to the occurring phenomenon.

Recruiting native informants.
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I had to share my ideas with some of the local farmers without upsetting them. After all it is a delicate matter. One afternoon I had my wife translate as I asked an old man about the manure in the street. ”Ah”, he said. ”We don’t have room for in on the properties, as you see we have tiny farms, smaller than in most Georgian villages, and we can’t dump it on our stairs". Exactly...right. 30 seconds was all it took to send my sociological mystery project down the drain.