ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the influence of traditions and customs on upbringing, and can be considered a continuation of the previous chapter, now moving to the transition from adolescence to young adulthood and the various traditions and customs of the family and ethnic group that are associated with that stage. In particular we discuss various important life stages (selection of partner, marriage, divorce) in the context of rituals inherited for centuries, many of which are specific to the ethnic group rather than religious in character. Our idea is to show the evaluation by youth of the role of tradition in the context of modernization, how it has affected family life and influenced upbringing in the region, and to explore the balance between traditions and modernity. Here, there is a very direct link to the modernization versus archaization debate discussed in the introduction: we want to see to what extent and in what ways there has been a recrudescence of traditional customs in the region, and to what extent old customs are changing under the influence of modernizing tendencies.
