Traditions and Customs of the Kazakh People: Place and Role in the Modernization of Society

Abstract

The article analyzes the nature and essence of traditions and customs and their place and role in the modern everyday life of Kazakh people. Based on the outcomes of previous studies of Kazakh history, philosophy, and sociology and on the examination of the national cultural policy, especially the preservation of national culture and the revival of forgotten traditions and customs, it highlights main challenges related to the education in the field of progressive cultural traditions, reveals, reasons of why some of the cultural practices and norms stay alive when others disappearing. The study goal is to show the role of the traditions and customs of the Kazakh people in the revival process of the national culture during the period of social modernization. The article considers traditions and customs as an integral sociocultural dimension of human activity and communication, creating the basis for the entire diversity of cognitive experience. Based on the already published and widely known materials on nomadic and Turkic cultures, traditions, and customs, the author examines connections between historical traditions of the steppe life, their representation in the modern everyday life of the Khazakh people, and their future as a part of the national culture of independent Kazakhstan. For instance, hospitality is a foundational element of both the rites of the nomadic people of the Kazakh steppe and the cultural norms of the contemporary population of Kazakhstan. The article concludes by arguing that customs and traditions are a social mechanism that transfers social values from generation to generation and underlies the basis of national unity and cultural identity of the Kazakh people. Thus, the national culture, containing many traditions, customs, rituals, rituals, is the life-giving environment that can and should serve as a source of national revival for any state, and especially for Kazakhstan. Culture is able to accumulate knowledge and information about the world and pass it on from generation to generation. At the same time, it acts as the social and intellectual memory of a particular nation and humanity in general. Therefore, the purpose of the author during the period of modernization of society is to show the spiritual revival of the national culture of the Kazakh people as an integral part of the world cultural process.