Back to Laz Bicagi

[Interested Party]

I have enjoyed the linguistics and the history lesson. I hadn't realized the Gurians and the Mengrelian peoples were Laz. So Laz were a Circassian people? Or were the terms interchangeable? Were the Adyghe considered Laz? Did the Gurian and Mengrelian bicagi differ as much as their kindjals did? For that matter I have always wondered if the Gurian kindjal was primarily used to settle disputes within the Gurian group, as, I have read, stabbing in the larger Caucasian culture was considered bad manners if the person was in your ethnic group. The same way Vietnam era Marines used an entrenching tool to settle inter-platoon disputes, or in my Dad's generation it was considered bad manners to shoot a friend with a caliber larger than .25 and above the waist? These little etiquette quirks to keep social groups from falling into chaos are interesting and a good segue.