Starodubrovskaya I.V. Post-Soviet social transformation of the North- Caucasian rural communities (on the example of Dagestan) // The Russian Peasant Studies. 2026. V.11. №1. P. 113-136.
EDN: GWEAFK
Annotation
The article considers social transformations in Dagestani rural communities based on the results of the long fieldwork in 18 villages of different size, location and ethnic composition and on the interpretation of the traditional society model developed within early modernization theories. Thus, Dagestani rural communities go through multidirectional social transformations, but emancipation is the dominant trend. Generational and gender hierarchies weaken, kin and community impose less restrictions for individual choices, the closeness of communities is gradually overcome. All social regulations (adat, Saria, secular legislation) function less efficiently, and symptoms of anomie are evident even in rural areas, which determines the spread of administrative and violent mechanisms for conflict resolution. Islam in general and its contemporary globalized forms in particular play controversial role in social transformations by both preserving traditions and stimulating changes. In Dagestan, Islam became the language of generational emancipation but led to the rejection of many soviet modernization achievements in gender relations. Religious confrontation in rural communities, provoked by the spread of fundamentalist Islam, led to acute generational conflicts, destruction of family and community ties, and legitimation of violence, which is still observed in Dagestan.
Keywords
Rural community, social transformation, traditional society, modernization, multiple modernities, generational hierarchy, gender hierarchy, Islam, Dagestan.
About the author
Irina V. Starodubrovskaya, PhD (Economics), Professor, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Narxoz University. Zhandosov St., 55, Almaty, 050035, Kazakhstan.
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