ABSTRACT
Throughout the nineteenth century, the economy of the Middle Horde Kazakh clans was firmly based in nomadic pastoralism. The imperatives of the nomadic way of life shaped many of the principles, rules and procedures of Kazakh judicial customs [adat]. That is, the meanings and values that Kazakhs attached to such principles as justice, retribution, crime and punishment, and judicial authority were in many ways deeply rooted in the everyday relationships of the nomad to his livestock, the land and his kin. As long as the Middle Horde Kazakhs remained nomads, adat was conditioned at least in part by nomadic needs. In this chapter, I examine the features of Kazakh nomadic pastoralism and kinship organization that were important to the expression of the rules and procedures of adat adjudication. I explore the relationship of the Middle Horde Kazakh nomad to land and livestock. Kinship, land and livestock formed the basis of the relationship between adat and nomadism, which was manifested in the person of the biy: the biy was at once a judge and the respected leader of a nomadic kinship group. Through an examination of the ways that the biy expressed his authority, I seek to understand how the judicial behavior of the Middle Horde Kazakhs was shaped at least in part by their identity as nomads. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the relationship of adat and nomadism was severely challenged by the changes in socioeconomic conditions of nomadic herds as well as the reconfiguration of power relationships under Russian colonial rule.
