Judith Beyer - The force of custom law and the ordering of everyday life in Kyrgyzstan

Parts of appeared in Revitalisation, Invention and Continued Existence of the Kyrgyz Aksakal Courts: Listening to Pluralistic Accounts of History, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 53/54 (2006): 14175.
Parts of appeared in Settling Descent: Place-Making and Genealogy in Talas, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asian Survey 30, no. 34 (2011): 45568.
Parts of appeared in There Is This Law: Performing the State in the Kyrgyz Courts of Elders, in Ethnographies of the State in Central Asia, eds. Madeleine Reeves, Johan Rasanayagam, and Judith Beyer, 99123 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014), and in Customizations of Law: Courts of Elders (Aksakal Courts) in Rural and Urban Kyrgyzstan, PoLAR 38, no. 1 (2015): 5371.
Parts of appeared in Ordering Ideals: Accomplishing Well-Being in a Kyrgyz Cooperative of Elders, Central Asian Survey 32, no. 4 (2013): 43247.
Parts of appeared in Beyer and Girke, Practicing Harmony Ideology: Ethnographic Reflections on Community and Coercion, Common Knowledge 21, no. 2 (2015): 196235.

Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260
Copyright 2016, University of Pittsburgh Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beyer, Judith, author.
Title: The Force of Custom: Law and the Ordering of Everyday Life in Kyrgyzstan / Judith Beyer.
Description: Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016. | Series: Central Eurasia in context | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016039764 | ISBN 9780822964209 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: KyrgyzstanSocial life and customs. | KyrgyzEthnic identityHistory. | EthnologyKyrgyzstan. | National characteristics, Kyrgyz. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural.
Classification: LCC DK917 .B49 2016 | DDC 390.095843dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039764

Cover art: Photo by the author
Cover design by Alex Wolfe

ISBN 9780822981541 (electronic)

To Felix and Constantin
with love

It is true, that what is settled by custom, though it be not good, yet at least it is fit.

FRANCIS BACON, OF INNOVATIONS (1740)

Over the many years of research and writing that have gone into this book, a great number of friends and colleagues have supported me and my work, and I would like to thank them here for their inspiration, assistance, encouragement, and collaboration: Sergei Abashin, Olumide Abimbola, Dirk Ackermann, Gulnara Aitpaeva, Natalia Alenkina, Dirk Bake, Talantaaly Bakchiev, Martin Beck, Ildik Bellr-Hann, Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Andrea Berg, Friedhelm Beyer, Matthias Beyer, Christoph Beyer, Kristian Bettke, Ksenia Bianchi, Malgorzata Biczyk, Christine Bichsel, David Bozzini, Andreas Braun, Suchandana Chatterjee and her family, Eva-Marie Dubuisson, Aida Egemberdieva, Beate Eschment, Birgitt and Bernd Friedrich, Rne Gerrets, Wolfgang and Johanna Girke, Stephen Gudeman, David Gullette, Otto Habeck, Stephanie Hesche, John Heathershaw, Irene Hilgers, Markus Hhne, Ali Imen, Lena Ignatova, Gulnara Iskakova, Rano Ismailova, Shabit Inogamov and Zarema Inogamova, Said Inogamov, Sherbet Inogamova, Aksana Ismailbekova, Maksat Kachkeev, Anara Karakulova, Botagoz Kassymbekova, Michael Kemper, Andrea Klein, Gesine Koch, Roman Knee, Herta and Hermann Knee, Kirsten Mahlke, Anja Neuner, Mateusz Laszczkowski, Jrgen Paul, Anett and Ronald Kirchhof, Gulmira Kokesheva, Nancy Kckert, Patrice Ladwig, Wolfgang Levermann, Nathan Light, Aidai Mambetalieva and her family, Bettina Mann, Till Mostowlansky, Beate Neumann, Kathrin Niehuus, Elida Nogoibaeva, Lenara Mambetalieva, Julie McBrien, Winnie hrlich, David Montgomery, Laura Newby, Frank Pieler, Armin Pippel, Johan Rasanayagam, Merim Razbaeva, Madeleine Reeves, Jutta Rittweger, Nurlan Sadykov, Merle Schatz, Burkhard Schnepel, Petra Strhle, Julie Theivendran, Anja Titze, Zarina Trapman, Tommaso Trevisani, Baktygul Tulebaeva-Shabdanalieva, Nurkyz Tuiteeva, Tursunaly Tulegenov, Bert and Jutta Turner, Monica Vasile, Larissa Vetters, Oliver Weihmann, Matthias Wulff, Lale Yalcin-Heckmann, Roberta Zavoretti, and Askar Zhakishev.

Without the help of Aizat Aisarakunova, Zemfira Inogamova-Hanbury, and Eliza Isabaeva, all of whom I met at different times during their studies at the American University in Central Asia, I would have never managed to handle the amount of fieldwork data I collected in Kyrgyzstan. These young and talented anthropologists spent weeks on end with me in Talas, accompanied me on various follow-up trips, meticulously transcribed hours of recorded talks, and provided a great deal of help with organizational matters. But most importantly, they have become really good friends.

A special thanks goes to Brian Donahoe for language editing this book manuscript. His knowledge of legal anthropology and his familiarity with the Russian and Kyrgyz languages as well as the geographical area have made his comments, suggestions, and advice invaluable.

I also thank Douglas Northrop for his continuous support in seeing the book come to fruition, and Peter Kracht for taking it on board at the University of Pittsburgh Press in the first place. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their very constructive comments on this manuscript.

Research for this book has been funded by several institutions that I would like to thank for their financial and administrative support: the Volkswagen Foundation, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, the Graduate School Society and Culture in Motion at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Central Asia and Caucasus Research and Training Initiative (CARTI) of the Open Society Foundations, and the Center of Excellence Cultural Foundations of Social Integration at the University of Konstanz.

Chong rakhmat to everyone in Aral and Engels! Thank you so much for sharing your lives with me and for continuing to welcome my family and me in your homes. I owe more than I can say to Baiyz Apa and her whole household: Nasir Baike and Elmira Ezhe and their children Urmat, Takhmina, Sani, Anarkul, and Zhusup. To all of Baiyz Apas other children and their families: thank you for your hospitality, your interest in my work, and your support, particularly Ydyrys Baike and Zhyldyz Ezhe for letting me live in your house and for taking care of all the small things. Thank you to their children Medina, Tunuk, mt, Baktygul, Zhangyl, and Anarbek for accepting me as part of your family. Chong rakhmat to Kudaibergen Ata for teaching me about what it means to be an aksakal in Talas, and thanks go to his wife and their children for their hospitality. Groes Dankeschn to the late Abaskan Ata and to Kozhoke Ata for telling me about their lives, especially their time in Germany in the 1940s. Thanks also to Abdysadyr Baike and his staff, particularly Kalipa Ezhe, for their tremendous help; to Ainura Ezhe for helping me with documents and for sharing her life story with me; to Kasym Ata for trusting me and for showing me his work, and to his wife for her hospitality; to Syrgak Baike for teaching me about shariat, and to Dinar Ezhe for making airan and borsook. Thank you, Tlberdi Ata, for your jokes!

Rakhmat also to Bektur Agai and Shailoobek Ata for what they taught me about the history of Aral and Engels. I would also like to thank the late Sabatar Baike for having been a great neighbor, Muslim Baike for driving us around, the late Askar Ata and his wife for their hospitality, all members of both aksakal courts for letting me take part in their work, Gulmira Ezhe for teaching us Kyrgyz, my dear neighbor Raia Apa for thinking anthropologically, and finally the late Cholponkul Ata for being my soulmate. To all these people and all the other inhabitants of Aral and Engels: