Lineamiento para evaluar la propuesta

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A few days after the kelin salom, the bride’s parents conduct charlar (inviting their daughter to her parents’ house.) The word charlar is based on chorlar, meaning ‘calling’ or ‘inviting’. In this ceremony, the parents invite their daughter to their home for the first time since her marriage. She arrives with her mother-in-law, husband’s relatives and new neighbours. The number of guests is agreed in advance, sometimes as an ex- change. For example, if the bride’s mother went to kelin salom with ten people, the groom’s mother had to give each one a tray of sweets, bread, fruits and material. Hence, the groom’s mother comes to charlar with ten people, for whom the bride’s mother pre- pares similar trays. These practices are all controlled by women and they are practised in the form of reciprocity.

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Arifkhanova (2007) stated that in the mid-1990s charlar was conducted as a grand cele- bration with some rich families celebrating it in restaurants. As with other rituals, the

mahalla as an instrument of the state stepped in to regulate expenditures and display. Mahalla regulated these ceremonies by advising to join the practice of charlar with that

of the nikoh during the main wedding party. This would give both families a rest and save them from another big preparation for charlar.

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Guests in this ceremony can be limited to between twenty and fifty people, and in some households it is celebrated only within the family circle. Sometimes the two sides come

to an agreement not to conduct one or more ceremonies, or to combine them. This was how my neighbour Mukarram and her in law (quda) agreed to skip the charlar and in- stead send the couple on a honeymoon to a holiday place in the mountains. Women con- trol their ceremonies and often, women change some parts or even the whole ceremony according to their needs.

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Women are the key actors in such negotiations, as Kandiyoti (2004, 338) argues, since they both preserve customs and negotiate changes in the ‘rich ritual life [that] is consid- ered part and parcel of national identity as well as [a] key marker of one’s social stand- ing in the community’ (338). As I have made clear in many parts of this thesis, it is mainly (though not exclusively) women who organise ceremonies and try to keep them in order. These ceremonies are a very important part of women’s lives, because they have so much close, friendly interaction during them.

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4.4. Conclusion

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This chapter describes marriage and practices connected with weddings, one of the most important social events of Uzbek life. In the first part of this chapter I discussed the types of marriages existing in Uzbekistan, the history of marriage, and how ceremonies are organised and celebrated. I discussed how the Uzbek state controls life-cycle rituals by issuing decrees, and the official support for the mahalla’s role in implementing state rules and regulations.

Given Soviet and current day economic and political realities, wedding practices in Uzbekistan changed: first by adopting different rituals from (Russian) European-style weddings, and later by reviving forms of old Uzbek practices. However organising weddings has always been managed by women and they take an active role in preserv- ing (and changing) these practices.

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There are several important factors in organising and conducting wedding practices; these are family status, class, effective communication and exchange between two fami- lies. I argue that family, relatives and mahalla-community relations are important actors in celebrations and practices. Observing only the one small institution of sovchilar and their work shows how strong the network of this institution is and how family, relatives and community live interdependently.

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In the second part I talked about wedding rituals and their history in the context of post - 1991 socio-cultural change and transformation. I discussed changes in wedding prac- tices, with some of them revived, some disappeared, and some of them newly developed after independence. Women’s interest increased on Islamic type of wedding, which was a new (forgotten old) way of celebration. These weddings emphasised difference be- tween Islamic and ‘European’, ‘modern’ society. There are some practices done by women only during the wedding ceremony which are claimed as either Islamic, or un- Islamic, or old Uzbek practices. However, at most weddings, people have continued to perform rituals and popular folk customs for years and kept doing so because their par- ents did so, or because they find them enjoyable. Although religious rituals were target- ed and banned, these rituals continue to be practised by people.

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I also argue that although many practices are performed as ‘fun’ (the groom pulls apart

goshanga, payandoz, throwing sweets on top of bride and groom etc. (see 4.3.4.)) in

fact they have meaning and symbolise masculine power and women’s submissiveness, as well as people’s wish to have children. Having a family, conducting a grand wedding, inviting and feeding lots of people and having many children continues to be an ideal life for many Uzbeks

CHAPTER 5: BIRTH AND BRINGING UP CHILDREN

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Introduction

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As with marriage rituals, pre-Soviet and Soviet researchers gathered ethnographic data and interpreted it through the lenses of their times and political preoccupations, general- ly describing practices they did not approve of as ‘backward’ and equating traditional or religious practices with folklore: the ‘dual Islams’ appearing once more. Again mirror- ing the analyses of marriage practices, since the rise of religious consciousness which accompanied independence, new Islamic interpretations have been put on birth and child-rearing practices.

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The practices connected with belief in ancestral spirits, fetishism, animism, witchcraft and evil eye were conducted by other Central Asian nations as well as Uzbekistan. Dur- ing the Soviet period extensive research was carried out by Soviet ethnographers into this practices in different regions of Uzbekistan. But, since independence, people have been changing their habits and questioning and debating them. In this regard, there are many questions asked during Friday mosque visits and extensive written information has become available. Some practices have ended, others are practised very rarely, but a few continue.

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In pre-Soviet Uzbekistan, Russian scholars recorded local family life and practices. A great deal of very interesting data was gathered (in particular Nalivkin 1886, Troiskaya 1927, and Gershenovich 1928), and articles published (Bartold, Maev, Horoshin,