Uzbek Weddings: Sociological and Cultural Aspects

Abstract

This article discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations of the influence of national traditions on society. The role of ethnocultural values in the spiritual life of Uzbek society is shown. The authors examined weddings in terms of rituals, and applied the approach of E.Durkheim, A.R.Radcliffe-Brown, C.Levy-Strauss, and E.Lich. The wedding ceremony of the peoples of Central Asia is one of the most complex complexes of traditional household culture. It reflected the social and legal relations, family structure, beliefs, religion. The rite usually connected the features of the distant past, close past. New phenomena were introduced into it with great difficulty, even if the state and religion were interested in changing the rite. The basic structure of the wedding ceremony in Central Asia was the same and included the following stages: matchmaking - wedding - post-wedding ceremonies. The study revealed the main characteristics of ethnocultural values, consisting of traditions, customs, rites and rituals. According to the authors, the practice of holding weddings with Uzbeks indicates that the most common factor is the banal prejudice “so that everything is like people have. People try to have “if not better, then at least at the level of others”. The main characteristics of the concepts “wedding”, “celebration”, “ritual”, as well as traditions and customs of the Uzbek people during wedding events are analyzed. Preventive measures to reduce and change the approach of Uzbeks to weddings are considered.