ABSTRACT
There was a widespread euphoria in the 1990s, in Uzbekistan and the outside world, that the introduction of Western-style political institutions and legal system would promote democratic governance in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Corruption was studied before the fall of the Soviet Union, but much of that literature was entirely state-centred. Hence, weddings display multivocality in the meaning of money and gift exchanges, and thereby exhibit a culture of money. Kandiyoti has demonstrated that both ordinary citizens and public officials in Uzbekistan are becoming heavily reliant on informal coping strategies, due to economic stagnation and shrinkage of the welfare state in the post-Soviet period. Instead, by using ethnographic methods we aim to explore the social meaning and ordinary activities surrounding informal transactions, in order to better understand the social context forming the premises and informing the meaning of transactions in Uzbekistan. The bulk of informal transactions in everyday life are simply manifestations of deeply embedded social norms and customs in Uzbekistan.
