Adats and Rituals Related to Blood Feuds the Peoples of Mountainous Dagestan (19th — Early 20th Century)

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the most common, and currently almost disappeared custom of blood feud. The authors aim to characterize the adats and rituals associated with blood feuds among the peoples of mountainous Dagestan in the 19th — early 20th century. The research is based on historical-comparative, historical-typological methods and the principle of historical-cultural reconstruction. The chronological framework of the study covers the 19th — early 20th century. This is the period of legal pluralism in Dagestan, when the norms of customary law (adats), Sharia and the laws of the Russian Empire were in force in the mountains.The reasons for the occurrence of blood feuds, adats regulating the legal consequences of murder, as well as the rites of reconciliation of blood relatives are identified and investigated. It is established that in Dagestan, due to the specific features of the socio-economic and political system, such types of criminal punishment as deprivation of liberty, execution, corporal and degrading measures of influence did not arise for the murder of a person. The results of the study can be used by employees of education and culture to familiarize the younger generation with the legal experience of their ancestors.