Usiądź albo będziesz nieszczęśliwa… Perswazja, normy i nacisk społeczny, czyli o praktykach matrymonialnych w północno-zachodnim Kirgistanie
Sit down or you will be unhappy… Social norms, persuasion, and pressure — about the matrimonial practices in northwestern Kyrgyzstan

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses the custom of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (called in Kyrgyz language kyz ala kačuu) in the context of social control and social pressure. It provides the description of the custom and the model marriage by abduction, with the focus on the pressure put on the bride. Moreover, we include the analysis which reveals that the abduction concerns not only the kidnapped woman and her future/potential husband, but also the community as a whole. The community, entangled in its moral norms through mutual (and not only individual) persuasive actions maintains a specific social model. Based on the subject literature, press, documentaries and field studies carried out by the author in the North-West of Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnapping is depicted as a type of norm, binding in that region.

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