The force of custom : law and the ordering of everyday life in Kyrgyzstan / Judith Beyer.
2016
KLS234 .B49 2016 (Mapit)
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Author
Title
The force of custom : law and the ordering of everyday life in Kyrgyzstan / Judith Beyer.
Imprint
Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2016]
Description
xxvi, 244 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm.
Series
Central Eurasia in context.
Formatted Contents Note
Introduction. Invoking custom
Histories of legal plurality
Settling descent
Imagining the state
Performing authority
Buying and paying respect
Taking and giving carpets
Taming custom
Conclusion. Ordering everyday life in Kyrgyzstan.
Histories of legal plurality
Settling descent
Imagining the state
Performing authority
Buying and paying respect
Taking and giving carpets
Taming custom
Conclusion. Ordering everyday life in Kyrgyzstan.
Summary
"The Force of Custom presents a finely textured ethnographic study that sheds new light on the legal and moral ordering of everyday life in northwestern Kyrgyzstan. Through her extensive fieldwork and firsthand experience, Judith Beyer reveals how Kyrgyz in Talas province negotiate proper behavior and regulate disputes by invoking custom, known to the locals as salt. While salt is presented as age-old tradition, its invocation is shown to be a highly developed and flexible rhetorical strategy that people adapt in order to meet the challenges of contemporary political, legal, economic, and religious environments. Officially, codified state law should take precedence when it comes to dispute resolution, yet the unwritten laws of salt and the increasing importance of Islamic law provide the standards for ordering everyday life. As Beyer further demonstrates, interpretations of both Islamic and state law are also intrinsically linked to salt. By interweaving case studies on kinship, legal negotiations, festive events, mourning rituals, and political and business dealings, Beyer shows how salt is the binding element in rural Kyrgyz social life and how it is used to explain and negotiate moral behavior and to postulate communal identity. In this way, salt provides a time-tested, sustainable source of authentication that defies changes in government and the shifting tides of religious movements"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-228) and index.
Location
STA
Call Number
KLS234 .B49 2016
Language
English
ISBN
9780822964209 (paperback)
0822964201 (paperback)
0822964201 (paperback)
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