Publication Details:
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Title:
From Philanthropy to Corpse Ledgers: Satirical Ethics of Wealth, Disease, and Despair
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International Association for Caucasus Heritage and Identity Studies
Contributor(s):
Editor-in-Chief: Gor Margaryan
Subject:
Religion ; Ethnography ; Caucasus
Uncontrolled Keywords:
satire ; moral economy ; capitalism ; cholera ; suicide ; South Caucasus
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Abstract:
This article examines how satirical journals in the early twentieth-century South Caucasus emerged as moral elites by publicly defining responsibility for suffering and death under conditions of rapid capitalist transformation. Focusing on the Armenian journal Khatabala and the Caucasian Turkic journal Molla Nasreddin, it argues that satire became a central arena in which economic inequality, urban crisis, and social despair were translated into moral judgments about power, obligation, and neglect. In a period marked by oil capitalism, epidemics such as cholera, and rising instances of suicide linked to poverty, social pressure, and political upheaval, satirical caricature did more than criticise individuals. It constructed moral hierarchies that distinguished legitimate from exploitative wealth, care from indifference, and social misfortune from moral failure. Cholera was depicted not simply as disease but as the outcome of urban neglect and administrative irresponsibility, while suicide appeared as a sign of social abandonment and the crushing weight of modern economic and moral expectations. Through these representations, satirists claimed authority to interpret suffering and to assign ethical responsibility, positioning themselves as cultural actors with disproportionate influence over public norms. Based on Michel Foucault’s concept of moral discourse, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power, and Luc Boltanski’s work on suffering and critique, the article shows how satire transformed structural problems of capitalism into shared moral narratives. It also demonstrates that Armenian and Caucasian Turkic satirists, despite political tensions, articulated parallel critiques of elite indifference and social inequality. By foregrounding satire as a site where capitalism, crisis, and human vulnerability were made into questions of moral responsibility, the article expands the concept of moral elites beyond religious or policy actors and highlights the role of visual media in shaping the moral boundaries of modern society.
Publisher:
International Association for Caucasus Heritage and Identity Studies