Generic Conflicts and Barymta: the Evolution of Content

Abstract

Kazakhstan's entry into the Russian Empire became a catalyst for many socio-economic processes and the transformation of the system of social institutions. The purpose of the author's research is to study the cause-and–effect relationships of tribal confrontation and the evolution of the content of the barymta institute in the boundary framework of the late XIX – early XX centuries. The administrative and territorial lines of research are limited to the Semipalatinsk province of Karkaraly county, where, within the specified chronological framework, it is possible to trace the evolution of the transition of social institutions of Kazakh society and the transformation of their content. In their research, the authors reveal the issues of social history at the junction of interdisciplinary approaches based on an empirical analysis of primary sources, archival documents deposited in the funds of Kazakh archives, published publications of travel scientists and open-access research materials, articles, monographs, collections of materials, dissertations. The authors paid special attention to the system of value orientations of the traditional Kazakh society and the evolution of social institutions in the focus of reforming regulatory and legal relations, family and hierarchical management structures. Innovations in the Kazakh steppe served as an impetus to strengthen the tribal struggle for a place in the echelon of grassroots power, determined tribal strife and barymta as a weapon of retaliation. In the new system of legal norms, the traditional institution of barymta acquired criminal content, although in the nomadic value system it was a way of protecting the honor of the clan, demonstrating the strength of the clan, and a traditional form of protecting property. The clan-hierarchical principle did not undergo any practical changes; the traditional nomadic Kazakh society adapted and «integrated» into the imperial system, preserving the patriarchal-clan institutions until the mid-20s of the twentieth century.