ABSTRACT

The ethnographic data in the preceding chapters indicated how domestic units in Abari Village have retained many features of traditional structures and values. It was also argued that these serve, within the Soviet system, as a means for their members to promote their interests as they see fit. I wrote in the ‘ethnographic present’ to describe the fieldwork findings, but it was not to imply that the community had not changed. The impact of Soviet rule, which reached the village most noticeably with collectivization, has continually modified some and further reinforced other aspects of traditional village life as it was known in the immediately preceding period. As in the rest of this work, my particular interest is in villagers’ perceptions.