Orientalism and Empire. North Caucasus Mountain Peoples and the Georgian Frontier, 1845-1917

58 Orientalism and Empire

comprehensible to its religious-minded proponents. Religious think-
ers such as Khomiakov or Il’minskii could not yet imagine a world in
which the fruits of literacy might conflict with the values of
Orthodoxy. The cultivation of native soil, however, a prerequisite for
a people’s eventual participation in the community of civilization,
need not include the revival of Orthodoxy. The next two chapters ex-
plore the dimensions of secular nationality or ethnicity as part of
what we have identified as the imperial preoccupation with cultural
authenticity and tradition on the frontiers of the empire.