‘Abyroy’ from status to contract: social honour in Kazakh culture

It is accepted that rules regulating and controlling social behaviour exist in all societies. Accordingly, honour and shame constitute the two poles of social evaluation of individuals and their actions. In Kazakhstan, the concept of abyroy (honour), which is one of the two main determinants of social status along with the concept of uyat (shame), is remarkably visible as a regulator and determinant of social action both in the public sphere and within the framework of family or kinship relations. Of course, no matter how strong the authority of abyroy, it cannot escape being a part of social change. In this study, the meaning and function of abyroy in Kazakhstan, the way it is perceived and the contradictions it causes in the process of social change are analysed with the help of concrete observations and interviews in the field. For this purpose, firstly, the outlines of social honour and shame in terms of the structure of constructed and idealized types of society – traditional (status-based) society and modern (contract-based) society – are pointed out. Then, the concept of abyroy in traditional Kazakh society, where nomadic animal husbandry culture was the main determining factor, is discussed. In the last section, the function, meaning and consequences of abyroy depending on the changing sociocultural and economic environment are analysed in terms of social action. Based on this, it is concluded that the emergence and maintenance of two types of practices, in every field in the region due to historical and economic processes has caused a conflict between the codes of the status society and the codes of the contract society: while honour (abyroy) continues to preserve its traditional character to a large extent, its world of meaning has been expanded with modern codes, but since it has lost its traditional ground, it can survive with the concessions it has received from modernity.