In Mukhtar Auezov's celebrated novel about the Kazak poet Abai Kunanbaev, the young Abai distinguishes himself as a praiseworthy individual by gallantly assisting his kinsmen in their efforts to host a large memorial feast for Bozhei, the leader of a neighboring tribal lineage.  His efforts are doubly respected because his own father, a man of equal standing and an occasional nemesis of the deceased Bozhei, chose not to participate in the events.  In the eyes of the public, Abai's magnanimity helps compensate for his father's insolence.

This event is just one of many in the biographical novel which illustrates the dominant values and cultural practices of the Kazaks in the pre-Soviet period.  In a society without formal political offices, tribal leaders gained the respect of their followers and hence maintained their political authority by regularly demonstrating their generosity and hospitality.  Feasts held in connection with life-cycle events provided several appropriate opportunities to demonstrate these cultural ideals.  Although these ideals probably helped curb the greed of those in power, displays of generosity were not necessarily unilateral.  In another scene, the young Abai is disillusioned when he realizes that his father's considerable wealth ultimately derives from the lavish "gifts" of his followers.

While the above-mentioned memorial feast took place in the mid-nineteenth century, displays of generosity and hospitality during feasting events have continued to play a central role in Kazak social life.  After decades of Soviet rule, certain aspects of feasting have undergone change, but the cultural ideals and the nature of exchange associated with feasting have remained largely intact.  As before, successful feasts become the topic of frequent conversation, as well as the standard for competitive comparison.  Moreover, feasting still provides an avenue for individuals and families to acquire respect and prestige, in addition to political and material support.  Although acts of generosity are highly idealized, economic and political motives often lie beneath a thin veneer of pure altruism.  For this reason, feasting and gift exchange are best understood by looking at the broader political and economic context.  As before, those who appear to be the most magnanimous also seem to be the ones who benefit the most politically and materially from feasting activities.

This essay examines the dynamics of feasting and gift exchange in a rural region of post-Soviet Kazakstan.   In the post-Soviet period, the turbulent transition from a command-administrative economy to a capitalist market economy has had a devastating effect on rural Kazak households.  The persistence of extreme inflation (approximately 1200% in 1993), coupled with low and delinquent monthly salaries, has led to a sharp decline in the average standard of living.  At the same time, the introduction of a market economy has led to several new opportunities for investment.  In some respects, it seems remarkable that these factors have not brought about a temporary suspense in feasting activities.  Despite the perception and reality of economic hardship, rural Kazaks are continuing to expend a large amount of financial and labor resources on life-cycle feasts and gift exchange.  Among the Kazaks of Southern-Kazakstan (formerly Shymkent) province, monthly household expenditures on ritual feasts and gift exchange often outweigh all other combined expenses, especially during the summer and fall months.   In the average household, over half of the family income is spent on feast gifts, most of which are perceived to be a counter-gift for some previous exchange.

Despite the visibly high financial costs of feasting and gift exchange, rural Kazaks gain several advantages from sponsoring and attending these feasts.  After describing the central features of a successful feast, this essay offers several explanations as to why the Kazaks are so dedicated to feasting and gift exchange.

An Extraordinary Feast:

In the village of Qyzylqum, dozens of large feasts are held each year.   The late summer and early fall is the most popular time for feasts because the weather is nice, the livestock are fat, and there is a great variety of fruit and vegetables.  Every weekend (during the summer and fall), several different households sponsor their own outdoor feast (toi) to celebrate the life-cycle event of one or more household members.  While the largest feasts are held in honor of a younger son's circumcision or an older son's wedding, feasts are held for a variety of other events, including the birth of a child, the marriage of a daughter, and the fortieth or sixtieth birthday of a family member.  Some families save money by sponsoring a single feast to celebrate two separate occasions, such as a son's circumcision and a grandmother's sixtieth birthday.   (In addition to these joyous feasts, two different types of memorial feasts - one somber, the other festive - are held on the anniversary of a family member's death.)   The large joyous feasts are usually held during the evening and last for several hours.  Since the sponsoring household usually invites their entire network of relatives and friends to join the festivities, most feasts are attended by several hundred guests.  Although the sponsors of each feast are careful not to schedule their feast on the same night as a close relative's feast, many of the guests are nevertheless invited to attend more than one feast on the same evening.

All of the feasts are the subject of local gossip.  The number of guests, the presence of prominent individuals, the quantity and quality of food, the quality of entertainment, and the magnitude of gifts, among other things, are discussed and compared, both before and after a feast.  During the summer of 1995, one feast in particular was lauded as one of the most impressive ever to be held in the region.  This feast excelled in all of the categories mentioned above.  The sponsor of this renowned feast, Serikzhan, was the middle-aged director of a state farm.  He organized the feast in order to celebrate the circumcision of his youngest child and only son.

Preparations for Serikzhan's feast began a few months in advance.  In May, his wife, Nazipa, traveled to Iran in order to purchase a number of items for the feast.  Although most villagers had never left Kazakstan, this sort of trip was not entirely unusual for Nazipa, as she and a friend occasionally traveled to Moscow in order to buy consumer goods, which they would later resell for a profit.  On this particular trip, she purchased goods for the feast, as well as goods for trade and furniture for her home.  Her feast-related purchases included an assortment of decorative serving trays, several dozen packages of foreign candies, and an array of cloth and clothing to be presented as prizes for dancing and as counter-gifts for certain guests.  After this trip, she continued to purchase similar goods in the local markets.

In late June, one month before the feast was held, Serikzhan's five-year-old son, Zhanibek, was circumcized at home by a local doctor.  In Kazakstan, boys are generally circumcized between the ages of five and eight.  It is very common for two or even three boys, usually brothers or cousins, to undergo the procedure on the same day.  As the only son, however, Zhanibek underwent the operation alone.  In southern Kazakstan, it is customary to commemorate the circumcision with at least two events: a small gathering on the day of the circumcision and a much larger feast a month later.  Wealthy families may also host a third event, a day of competitive horse games complete with livestock prizes for the winners.  On the day Zhanibek was circumcized, Serikzhan invited a relatively small number of guests - a few dozen relatives and close friends - to his home.  As soon as they arrived, each of the guests entered the room where Zhanibek was lying in recovery beneath a simple white sheet.  In addition to congratulating the young boy for becoming a Muslim and commending him for his bravery, each guest gave him a small amount of money as a gift.  Zhanibek and his young friends spent most of the day counting and recounting all of the money he had earned.  After spending a few minutes in the recovery room, the guests were ushered to another room where they were served food and alcohol.  One of the guests was a mullah who recited prayers to thank God for the successful outcome (qudaigha shukir).

It is important to note that many of the celebrations associated with circumcision have been revived and reinvented in recent years.  For decades, the Soviet state outlawed circumcision as part of a comprehensive campaign against Islamic practices.  Russians do not circumcize their sons, and the Soviet Russian rulers did not agree with the Central Asian argument that circumcision had practical, as well as spiritual, benefits.  Throughout the Soviet period, most Soviet Muslim families, including party and government officials, continued to have their sons circumcized.  However, men in powerful state positions, such as Serikzhan, would not sponsor a large feast to publicize the fact that their sons had been circumcized.  Now, as in the pre-Soviet past, the powerful and wealthy are the ones holding the largest circumcision feasts.

After Zhanibek's circumcision, Serikzhan and his wife devoted much of their time to the many feast preparations.  They invited two of the province's distinguished musicians, a female singer and a male dombyra player, to perform at the feast.  And, for the important role of feast announcer, they invited a man who was famous for his wit and charm.  In addition to these arrangements, they ordered several hundred paper invitations which were later hand-delivered to people's homes.  This took a lot of effort as some of the more than six hundred invited guests lived in distant regions.

In the weeks before the feast, it was also necessary to recruit all of the people who would be setting up the feast area, preparing food and serving the guests.  One day, nearly a dozen of Serikzhan's closest friends and relatives met for dinner and discussed the logistics of the feast.  Each person was selected to supervise a particular aspect of the feast, such as invitations or guest seating.  Besides finding people to fill these leadership roles, Serikzhan and his wife recruited about thirty more volunteers, both men and women, to help with a variety of tasks.  The volunteers were recruited from several different social groups.  Close relatives, who were members of Serikzhan's tribal lineage (ru), hardly needed an invitation to help out.  Many people in this category were also neighbors, so their assistance was not only expected but heavily relied upon.  The women who married into the lineage (collectively referred to as abysyn-azhyn) contributed the most in terms of female labor.   In addition to tribal kinsmen and their wives, classmates, neighbors and friends were also recruited.  By performing these services, the volunteers were able to perpetuate a relationship based on mutual indebtedness with Serikzhan's family.

Labor contributions varied by gender, among other things.  Several men were assigned to mark off the feast area in Serikzhan's yard by constructing a simple rectangular fence (approximately 40 x 20 meters).  Large spotlights were attached to each of the corners to provide lighting.  The fence posts were then covered with white sheets.  In the center of the feast area, a tall pole was constructed and a number of thin white streamers were attached from the top of the pole to various points along the fence.  The entire feast area was supposed to resemble the inside of a round felt tent (kiiz ui), the traditional home of the formerly nomadic Kazaks.   At some feasts, this visual effect was completed by actually covering the feast area with burlap tent material.  But, at Serikzhan's feast, the feast area was left uncovered.  Inside the feast area, the men arranged twenty-five long wooden tables and benches.  And, after the center pole was in place, the men positioned three video monitors on a platform which was mounted on the middle of the pole.  This unusual feature made quite an impression on the guests who enjoyed watching the simultaneous video-recordings of the feast.  Besides constructing the feast area, the men's responsibilities included slaughtering and butchering the livestock, setting up the large cooking kettles, and cooking barbecued shish-kebabs (shashlyq).  Younger men and boys even helped with some of the food preparation by chopping several kilograms of carrots for the pilaf dish.

The women's responsibilities were equally cumbersome and time-consuming.  Most of the women's work centered around food preparation.  Although some meat sausages were prepared in advance, most of the food preparation did not begin until a few days before the feast.  Then, the women started to bake fresh flat bread, dinner rolls and cakes.  They also prepared a variety of pastries, including fried dough pieces (bauyrsaq) and small meat-filled pies (samsa), and an assortment of appetizers which were served cold, such as potato and egg salad, fried fish, and boiled chicken.  On the day of the feast, some women spent the entire day preparing and cooking the main dishes: soup, pilaf, steamed dumplings (manti) and boiled dumplings (pelmeni).  In addition to preparing meals for the evening feast, the women were obliged to prepare and serve meals for the volunteer workers, as well as a large number of elderly guests who chose not to attend the late evening's activities.  And, when the feast was over, the women did the bulk of the cleaning up.

Some of the feast labor was performed jointly by men and women.  A few hours before the feast was scheduled to begin, the men and the women helped each other set the tables.  Each table was covered with a plastic tablecloth and then loaded with an assortment of food and drink.  The foods included bread, pastries, cakes, chicken, fish, sausage, fruit, salads, nuts, cookies and candies, while the drinks included vodka, cognac, beer, fermented camel's milk, mineral water, cola and powdered drinks.  Throughout the feast, the men and the women again worked together to serve the hot dishes, as well as a constant flow of hot tea.

Obviously, a lot of money was needed to cover all of the feast expenses.  While a modest feast requires about 50,000 tennge, or about 800 dollars, for food, alcohol and other expenses, Serikzhan's feast probably cost about ten times that amount.  In order to pay for these expensive feast, most families are forced to take several short-term, interest-free loans from relatives and friends.  Since the total value of gifts received usually exceeds the total costs of sponsoring a feast, the borrowers manage to repay these loans by converting a portion of the gifts they receive into cash.  For a typical feast, about three or four sheep and one cow are slaughtered to provide meat for about three hundred guests.  Although meat is an essential ingredient for every course, it is not uncommon for poor families to cut costs by serving a plate of pilaf or a bowl of soup with only a few small pieces of meat per person.  Poor families also tended to avoid meat-intensive dishes, such as shashlyq.  For Serikzhan's feast, however, there was an overabundance of meat.  Twenty-five young lambs, one cow and one horse were slaughtered to provide meat for the feast.  Serikzhan was pleased that a sheep head would be presented at each table.  The guests were very impressed with the quantity of meat and with the wide assortment of drinks which were served.  While vodka, camel's milk, mineral water, beer and tea are customarily served at feasts, the average family cannot afford to provide cola and powdered drinks for a large number of guests.  Serikzhan and Nazipa also spent much more money than the average household on prizes and counter-gifts.  For example, instead of giving an inexpensive kerchief as a "prize" to a woman who danced well, they presented such prizewinners with three meters of an expensive cloth.

As the moment approached for the feast to begin, Serikzhan's yard began to swell with the arrival of guests.  They stood around and chatted with the volunteers as they waited for the announcer to call them to their seats.  At this point, Serikzhan, Nazipa and Zhanibek had all changed into their feasting attire.  Serikzhan was dressed in a well-fitting European-style suit, while his wife was wearing a white silk dress.  The young Zhanibek was dressed in the more traditional circumcision outfit - a black velvet suit with gold trim and a matching hat.  They stood by the main gate greeting all of the guests.  The guests were also dressed in their finest clothes.  The older men wore suits or dress slacks and shirts.  Some of them also wore a pointed, black-and-white felt hat or a round Uzbek-style cap.  Instead of wearing suits, the younger men and boys were dressed in the latest fashion - nylon jogging suits.  The women, on the other hand, wore bright silk dresses and floral print cotton dresses.  On top of these dresses, some women also wore a "traditional" black or red velvet vest with gold embroidered patterns.  Interestingly enough, many women who routinely cover their heads with kerchiefs at home choose not to wear a kerchief while attending a feast.  While the kerchief is typically worn by married women and thus serves as a symbol of marriage, it has long been associated with the custom of veiling.  In Muslim communities where women veil, they are more likely to veil in public than in private.  Therefore, it is somewhat strange that the women would prefer to wear the kerchief in private at home, but not in public at a feast.

Although the adult guests all stopped to congratulate Zhanibek, he was mostly interested in playing with his friends.  Meanwhile, many of the guests were intrigued by the three gift automobiles prominently displayed in Serikzhan's courtyard.  The bestowal of these three automobiles brought prestige to both the recipients and the donors.  I was told that the donors, who were state farm directors or equally powerful men, had probably received a similar gift from Serikzhan in the past.   These were not the only impressive gifts.  In the days before the feast, many guests had their gifts delivered directly to Serikzhan's house.  This was particularly the case for large, unwieldy gifts, such as a camel or a foal.  Serikzhan's corral was already filled with numerous camels and horses and dozens of sheep on the day before the feast.  Some of the guests arrived bearing even more gifts, such as carpets, suits, and money.  One of Zhanibek's uncles arrived with a beautiful white horse.  The horse was immediately saddled, so Zhanibek could be paraded around for the guests.

Finally, the announcer started to direct the guests to different tables, depending on their social status and their relationship to the hosts.  The best table, at the far end of the feast area, was reserved for the most influential guests, including the local governor and the directors and former directors of the region's state farms.  Like all other Kazak feasts, men and women were seated together.  As soon as the guests were seated, they were served tea and encouraged to start eating the assorted appetizers and breads.

After all of the guests were seated, the feast activities began.  At weddings, the first event is the formal entrance of the bride and groom, who are slowly led through the aisles and eventually to their table by a couple of dancers who are moving to a fast-paced wedding song (zhar-zhar).  Similarly, at a circumcision feast, the young boy is paraded through the guest tables while mounted on a horse or young camel.  Thus, Zhanibek was paraded through the crowd on the large white horse, while the guests threw wads of money at him and stuffed money into one of the saddlebags.  When the brief ride was over, Zhanibek stood by his parents while his grandfather recited a brief prayer.  His grandfather was then rewarded with a horse, and he too was forced to mount the horse and parade around the tables.

After this event, Zhanibek was free to play with his friends, and the focus shifted towards the guests and their hosts.  The servers started to bring out the first hot dish, a mutton soup.  And, the announcer, armed with a microphone, started to invite the guests, individually and in small groups, up to the announcer's table.  Over the course of several hours, each and every guest was summoned to the front.  At most feasts, the announcer jokes and teases the guests and then persuades them to say a few words in honor of the occasion.  Since most of the speeches are repetitive, the general audience does not listen attentively.  Instead, most tables maintain their own rounds of toasting complete with alcohol consumption.  In order to create a different atmosphere, Serikzhan and Nazipa decided to entertain their guests with music, rather than with the repetitive toasts.  Thus, rather than forcing each of the guests to give a toast, the announcer joked with the guests and then asked the professional musicians to perform a song which Serikzhan and Nazipa had specially picked out for them.  The announcer encouraged the honored guests to join the musicians by dancing.  The words to various Kazak songs were intentionally changed for some of the guests.

In addition to bypassing the toasting format, Serikzhan's feast was unusual in yet another way.  At all feasts, the host household receives a relatively large number of gifts but only gives away a relatively small number of gifts.  The hosts typically present a few counter-gifts to individuals who helped out a lot and to individuals who provided unusually large gifts.  The counter-gifts often consist of cloth or factory-made coats.  They also present prizes, such as a kerchief or a shot of vodka, to some of the guests for their dancing abilities.  At Serikzhan's feast, the magnitude and value of the counter-gifts and prizes was incredible.  Some of the guests received horses, while others received expensive, "imported" coats.  Most of the counter-gifts and prizes were piled on a table near the announcer's stand before the feast began.  Whenever the announcer invited a new group to the front, Serikzhan and Nazipa would shuffle through the gifts to find suitable gifts and/or prizes.

And so the feast continued for hours and hours.  The volunteer servers brought out one hot dish after another.  They made sure the guests had plenty of hot tea and the tables were loaded with drinks and appetizers.  Besides eating large quantities of food, the guests kept busy socializing and drinking with each other.  The announcer and the musicians maintained a festive, light atmosphere with their jokes and music.  The guests were also entertained by the video monitors, which displayed the live filming of the feast by two of Serikzhan's daughters.  Finally, after the last course was served and the last guests were summoned to the front, the feast was over.  Memories of this extraordinary feast, however, will long persist in the village of Qyzylqum.
 

Gift Exchange and the Art of Household Networking:

Although Serikzhan's feast was remarkable in many respects, it was only one of the many feasts held that summer.  The members of some households were invited to dozens of other feasts.  And, for each, they were expected to come up with an appropriate gift.  The gifts exchanged at feasts are not just simple tokens of friendship.  In Qyzylqum, gifts are the single largest household expense and they are the primary means by which households maintain strong social networks.  When asked why they spend so much on feasts and gifts, rural Kazaks give two different, yet complementary answers.  The first answer is associated with a fear of public shame.  It would be shameful if a family decided not to celebrate their son's circumcision, or to provide their daughter with an elaborate dowry, or to sponsor a memorial feast on the one-year anniversary of the grandfather's death.  Similarly, failure to present an appropriate gift at a neighbor's or relative's feast would bring shame to both parties.  The second explanation entails a need or desire for reciprocity.  As one woman put it, "We need to take a gift to their wedding today to ensure that they will bring a gift to our son's wedding in the future."  The logic of this argument also involves a desire to avoid the shame that her family would likely incur if nobody were to bring gifts to their son's wedding.

In the post-Soviet period, however, it has become more and more difficult for the average family to afford these expenses.  The persistence of inflation (approximately 1200% in 1993) coupled with low and delinquent monthly salaries, has put extreme burdens on household economies.  In a survey of one hundred households, the overwhelming majority acknowledged that their economic condition were much better five years ago.  Given this disturbing fact, it is fascinating to see how households are able to muster up the financial resources to participate in these ritual events.  But, the more compelling question is not how Kazaks manage to afford these seemingly excessive feasts, but rather why they bother to do so.  The stated fear of public shame only illustrates the perceived detriments of not participating in feast activities.  But, what are the advantages, if any, of doing so?  In this essay, I argue that feasts and gift exchange provide multiple opportunities for households to maintain and extend social networks, which are crucial for survival in the post-Soviet economy.

Feasting and gift exchange are primarily household activities, not individual activities.  In other words, gifts are exchanged between households, not individuals.  When Kazaks calculate the relative value of favors and gifts, they consider the balance of favors and gifts between households, not individuals.  The gifts (and favors) exchanged by individual household members on behalf of their household create social bonds which are then at the disposal of all household members.  For example, if Member X of Household A provides Household B with labor during a feast, a member of Household B might return the favor by helping Member Y of Household A get a job.  Finally, even though a feast might be held in honor of an individual family member, such as Zhanibek, a successful feast enhances the reputation of the entire household.

Prior to a feast, the members of a household mutually decide what type of gift they should present to the host household.  There is a wide range of standard gifts, including clothing, material, woven rugs, felt rugs, livestock, jewelry, electronic goods, and cash.  The gift is presented as a gift from the entire household.  If elderly parents or married children who live in the same household receive a separate invitation to a particular feast, then they would be expected to provide a separate gift.   Although the decisions are mutual, women are usually the ones to present the gifts, especially if the gift is clothing or jewelry.

The nature of gifts in Kazakstan differs from those societies where gifts and commodities are distinct and non-transferable.  Unlike the armshells and necklaces of the Kula exchange in the South Pacific, the goods exchanged in the Kazak ritual economy are not exclusively and eternally gifts.  All of the objects exchanged have some use-value.  They all can be recycled.  And, they all can be converted freely from a commodity to a gift, and from a gift to a commodity.  Numerous times, I have observed Kazak couples as they try to decide what they will present as a gift during an upcoming feast.  More often than not, they choose to recycle something they already have on hand, such as an unused coat or a sheep.  When making their decision, they consider whether the object's value is appropriate for the recipient and the occasion.  However, the original source and the future use of the gift are irrelevant.  The meaning of the gift lies in the transaction, not in the object.

The nature of gift exchange in Kazakstan also does not correspond to previous theories of gift exchange.  In some of the more prominent studies of gift exchange (Gregory 1982; Mauss 1990 [1925]); Sahlins 1972), gifts and commodities are viewed as mutually exclusive categories.  According to Appadurai (1986: 11), many Western anthropologists, in their unconscious effort "to romanticize small-scale societies" and "to marginalize and underplay the calculative, impersonal and self-aggrandizing features of non-capitalist societies," have exaggerated the distinctions between the gift and the commodity.  The gift, associated with the "spirit of reciprocity, sociability, and spontaneity," stands in sharp contrast to the "profit-oriented, self-centered, and calculated spirit" of commodity exchange.

The spirit conveyed by gifts in Kazakstan entails varying combinations of interest and disinterest, instrumentality and generosity, calculation and benevolence.  As in China (Yan 1996) and Japan (Befu 1966-67), on one end of the spectrum, there are the "expressive gifts," or gifts without any ulterior motives.  This type of gift includes the "good news" gift (suiinshy), which one person presents to the first person who told them a piece of really good news, such as a new birth.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are "instrumental gifts," of gifts which are exchanged directly for favors and services.  For example, many job opportunities in Kazakstan, such as a position on the police force, are secured through the exchange of a large monetary "gifts."  The typical feast gift lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between the purely expressive and the purely instrumental gift.  In other words, feast gifts convey multiple messages.  On one level, these gifts do represent personal ties of affection between two households.  But, at another level, the gifts carry meanings which relate to prestige and status.  For example, the members of the three households who presented Serikzhan with an automobile knew that their own social status would be affected by such a gift.  Finally, the gifts presented at feasts have yet another meaning.  They are all given in full expectation of reciprocity.  Thus, the gifts are instrumental in the sense that they help perpetuate a relationship of mutual indebtedness.

The gifts exchanged at ritual feasts symbolize social relationships between households (Mauss 1990; Marx 1973; Werbner 1990).  In most cases, the giving household and the receiving household have already exchanged gifts on other occasions.  The current gift simply demonstrates that the giving household seeks to continue the relationship in the manner of gift exchange, as well as other forms of social cooperation.  The feast provides an opportunity to confirm this social relationship.

As Werbner (1990) and Marx (1973) note, it is also possible to terminate a social relationship by not providing a gift at the appropriate time.  This rarely happens.  It is not uncommon, however, for Kazak households to give less than what the receiving household expects.  Sometimes, this is done intentionally, while other times, it is for purely economic reasons.  Regardless of the cause, these unbalanced exchanges are a recurring subject in women's gossip, as well as a source of inter-household conflict.

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, Kazaks are very concerned with determining the value of a gift so they can pick out the appropriate counter-gift in the future.   Like Americans exchanging gifts during Christmas (Miller 1993), Kazaks have culturally informed notions of quantitative equivalence in gift-giving.  There is no specified gift to give for a certain occasion.  The type of gift often depends on what the family has on hand.  The value of the gift, though, depends on gifts received from the other household in the past, and on gifts or services that may be needed in the near future.  On the one hand, mutually exchanged gifts of equivalent value signify relationships based on equality.  On the other hand, an excessive gift may be used to establish a degree of power over the receiving household.  For example, a household that repeatedly gives more than it receives in material gifts may expect the receiving household to help out with gifts of labor.  This is even the case when the excessive gifts are perceived to be acts of altruism by both households because the exchange partners are close relatives living under different economic conditions.

Through the constant exchange of services and gifts, life-cycle feasts provide many opportunities for rural Kazaks to reinforce their household networks.  In Kazakstan, feasting is the primary method used to build and maintain household networks.  The labor and gifts exchanged at feasts are reciprocated in future feasts and in other aspects of life.  All gifts, including services, are given in expectation of some return.  Just as these informal networks are celebrated during ritual events, they are manipulated in daily life. Throughout the Soviet period, personal connections were helpful in a variety of contexts: to obtain consumer goods, to secure employment, to go on vacation, to receive quality health care, to get children into a university, and to advance in one's career.  In the post-Soviet context, as in the Soviet past, access to goods and services are often obtained through personal acquaintances, rather than financial means alone.  In rural Kazakstan, personal connections are still used in a variety of contexts: to obtain employment, to get children into the university, to acquire private land, to guarantee special medical attention, to receive doctor's excuses, to get discounts on goods, and to bypass the normal fee for a number of services.

Social Factors Affecting Feast Participation:

Although every household has a reserve network of kin and some households have inherent demographic advantages, household networking should be regarded as an activity that requires decision, choice and skill.   For example, a household with limited resources may decide to provide labor help and a minimal gift during the circumcision feast of a relative so they may provide an expensive gift for the local administrator's son's wedding.  Feasts and gift exchange are not simply traditions that the Kazaks blindly follow.  Instead, the feasts and gifts are opportunities for actors to manipulate their standing in the social hierarchy.  And, for this reason, Kazaks invest a lot of thought, time and energy into their feasting habits.

Naturally, different households participate at varying levels in the continuous circuit of feasts.  The adult members of all households are routinely invited to the feasts of close relatives, neighbors, colleagues and classmates.  There are two factors, however, which influence the frequency of household feast attendance.  The first factor is related to the demographic life cycle of the household.  Households headed by middle-aged couples tend to be more active than those at other stages.  Beginning with the circumcision of their sons and accelerating with the marriages of their children, middle-aged couples need to have strong social networks in order to pull off successful feasts of their own and to survive in the non-ritual economy.  They maintain their networks by providing labor and gifts for others' feast and by frequently inviting guests to their homes.

Younger couples are just beginning to develop their own independent social networks.  Economically, they are still dependent on their parents.  They have less time and money for feasts and usually attend only the weddings of their classmates and close relatives.  If the couple lives with the boy's parents, the young wife often remains busy at home completing household chores and caring for their children and their husband's younger siblings while their husbands' parents attend feasts.  Like the younger couples, elderly couples are largely dependent on middle-aged couples for their survival needs.  As a result, they no longer have the same economic motives for participating in the ritual economy.  For the elderly, feasting is mostly a social activity.  Moreover, around the age of sixty, an older couple will sponsor their last feast, perhaps for their sixtieth birthday or for their youngest child's wedding.  A few years later, most elderly stop attending the evening feasts.  Instead, they arrive at the host household during the afternoon and enjoy a few hours socializing and eating with old friends.

The second factor influencing the frequency of feast attendance is social position.  People with power and influence, such as local government leaders and the new class of wealthy entrepreneurs, have the largest social networks.  Their networks even extend into surrounding regions and into the nearby cities.  As a consequence, they are the most vigorous feast attendees in the community.  Since they are considered to be wealthy in the village, they are expected to provide a larger gift than the average person.  During a feast, these individuals are always ushered to a position of honor at a head table in the "back" of the feast grounds.  This parallels the position of honor (tor) within Kazak homes, which is always the furthest position from the door.  These special guests are also among the first to be invited to share a toast.  In the summer and fall, it is not uncommon for such people to juggle invitations to several different feasts on the same day.  The duration of their stay at any one feast is an important indicator of the host household's status.  If influential guests leave early, most likely to rush off to another feast, it negatively affects the reputation of the feast by implicitly suggesting that the other engagement is more important.

Since wealthy villagers are constantly giving gifts, it seems likely then that they would suffer economically.  However, the contrary is true.  To begin, their expenses on gift exchange are balanced by material gains they receive from their positions of power.  More importantly, the wealthy generally make a handsome profit when they hold a feast of their own, for all of their generous gifts over time must be reciprocated.  Unlike the gifts received by the poor, which may or may not match the feast expenses, the gifts received by the wealthy go well beyond covering the expenses for the feast.  As a case study, gift exchange in Kazakstan stands in opposition to the famous potlatch exchange in Northwest America.  Descriptions of the potlatch feasts consistently emphasize that the feasts serve to redistribute goods from the wealthier members of the community to the poorer members of the community.  Rather than redistributing wealth, the feasts in Kazakstan promote the accumulation of wealth.
Economically, poor Kazak households are at a great disadvantage.  In the post-Soviet period, they are continuing to sponsor feasts, but their feasting patterns are changing.  Their feasts are becoming smaller and less expensive than before.  And, they are presenting other households with gifts of lesser value.  They are also delaying their wedding feasts for longer stretches of time, as well as having a greater number of combination feasts.  Among poor families, I often heard expressions of regret and resentment concerning the high cost of ritual exchange.  They are aware that the financial resources they expend on ritual are needed for basic survival.  But, they also realize that participation in the feasting provides them with social benefits and preserves their family pride.  So, like the elite households, they continue to attend and sponsor feasts.

Although they are invited to fewer feasts and are permitted to give gifts with smaller economic values, the resources poor households expend on ritual exchange are more likely to come at the expense of the family's basic nutritional needs.  In this regard, young children suffer more than their parents because they are rarely included in the festivities and only receive a handful of candies and peanuts that their mother brings home.  And, when poor households need to sponsor their own feast, the gifts they receive are less likely to meet the costs of the feast.  As a result, poor households are forced to rely on their relatives to come up with the necessary financial resources.  These debts serve to further relations of inequality among related households.

Socially, it is possible to argue that poor households enjoy some benefits from feasting.  On the one hand, feasts provide them with the opportunity to increase their social standing, albeit gradually.  But, more importantly, feasting reinforces values of cooperation, reciprocity and communal responsibility.  By helping others prepare for their feasts, they maintain important social bonds which they need for economic survival.

Consumption, Exchange and Identity at Feasts:

In addition to strengthening household networks, ritual feasts offer occasions for Kazak households to negotiate their position within the community.  According to Kazak custom, social status and power is achieved largely through displays of hospitality and generosity.  During feasts, both host and guest households have the opportunity to demonstrate their generosity and thus recreate their social status.  Host households present their guests with large quantities of food and entertainment, in addition to providing counter-gifts and prizes.  Guest households present their hosts with gifts and congratulatory toasts.

As they evaluate the relative success of a feast, rural Kazaks routinely compare the quality and quantity of food and gifts to local cultural standards.  Expectations vary according to the social status and the wealth of the host household.  In order to maintain their prestige, the wealthy are expected to be more generous in both their hospitality and their gift-giving.  The host household thus actively seeks to provide as much food as it can possibly afford in order to maintain or improve its social status.  Its tribal kinsmen also have some stake in this matter so they readily offer their physical labor and financial aid.  In general, the wealthy invite more guests and serve more meat per guest.  The wealthy also serve some factory-produced goods, such as candies, cookies and alcohol, while poor households tend to buy or make home-produced foods in these categories.

In the post-Soviet period, the wide availability of imported goods has had a significant impact on local consumer preferences.  During the Soviet period, the selection of consumer goods in rural areas was not very large and the goods were almost exclusively of Soviet origin.  In the post-Soviet period, many of these Soviet goods, the majority of which are produced outside of Kazakstan, are no longer available.  Instead, the rural Kazak consumer is now faced with a huge assortment of imported goods from China, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and India.  In general, Kazaks believe that the quality of imported goods, with the notable exception of Chinese goods, is much higher than their Soviet counterparts.  Several Kazaks told me that the flood of new and interesting products in the local bazaar is one of the few positive changes resulting from the fall of the Soviet Union.      Accordingly, rural Kazaks are adapting their food and gift preferences in ways to accommodate these new items.  The wealthy, in particular, place a high value on the consumption and exchange of these new imported goods.

The meanings attached to the use of these new foods varies within the community.  On the one hand, those who consume these products take great pride in their purchases and relate the use of such products to their family's material success.  During the present period of economic transition and social stratification, it is especially important for the elite to demonstrate that its place in the social order has not changed.  The conspicuous consumption of expensive imports provides one avenue for maintaining their image.  In this regard, the behavior and reputation of the Kazak elite, in both urban and rural areas, mirrors the image of the "New Russians."  As in Russia (Humphrey 1995), the consumption style of the Kazak elite, in both urban and rural areas, has provoked suspicion and criticism from those who can no longer afford to buy basic necessities.  It is not uncommon for individuals who cannot afford foreign goods to ridicule their consumption.  For example, several people told me that imported candies come in nice little wrappers, but the taste is inferior to Soviet candy.  Even though the Soviet Union no longer exists, Kazaks continue to refer to Soviet factory goods as "ours" (bizdiki) and to all other goods as "imported" (importnyi or shetelden).  In a study of consumption in Moscow, Caroline Humphrey (1995) suggests that the strong distinction between Soviet and non-Soviet goods can be explained by Soviet ideology which "insisted on the citizen's conscious identification with the activity of the state."

Consumption in rural Kazakstan, however, cannot be reduced to a simple dichotomy between the "haves" who desire foreign goods and the "have-nots" who can only afford local goods.  In the middle, there are numerous status-conscious households which try to emulate the behavior of wealthier households, but do not have the financial means to do so.  These households, for example, might purchase the same package of powdered drink mix, but in order to save money they will add much more water than specified on the label.  The final product appears to be the same as the sweet drinks consumed by the wealthy, but the taste is the same as water.

While imported goods are beginning to change the content of feast foods, the nomadic heritage of the Kazaks has continued to provide an element of stability in contemporary cuisine.  Although the Kazaks were forced to settle in the 1930s, many of Kazakstan's collective and state farms are primarily devoted to the production of livestock.  In addition, most rural households continue to raise a small number of privately-owned livestock.  Meat from pastoral animals is the essence of all Kazak dishes.  The highest cultural preference is bestowed on horse meat which is believed to have special curative powers.  While horse meat is restricted to specific dishes, beef and mutton can readily substitute for each other in any meal.  The heads of sheep and horses are routinely presented to male guests of honor, and specific cuts of meat are sometimes offered to culturally determined categories of relatives.  Horse and camel milk is also served at wedding feasts.

In addition to "traditional" Kazak meat dishes, chicken and fish, which did not play a significant role in the pre-Soviet diet of nomadic Kazaks, now occupy a unique place in Kazak cuisine.  They are not considered to be main entrees, nor are they served on a daily basis.  Boiled chicken and fried fish are reserved for ritual events where they are served as  cold appetizers before the hot meaty courses.  Finally, eggs are consumed daily by the families that raise chickens, but they are viewed as a poor substitute for meat and they are never served at ritual events.

The gifts exchanged during feasts are also used to display and negotiate difference in social status.  Wealthy households and status-conscious households are more likely to give commodities or cash than home-produced goods, such as felt rugs or livestock.  Like food, the nature of gifts and dowry items form an important part of village gossip.  Neighbors rigorously compare the gifts assembled for a dowry (zhasau) or a matchmaker party (qudalyq).  Before and after these gifts are bestowed, they are routinely shown to visitors who are asked whether the goods are sufficient.  Imported goods, which were highly coveted but rarely available in the past, are now expected by the more affluent.  Foreign, factory-produced rugs and clothing provide preferred substitutes for local handicrafts and Soviet-produced clothing.  In many respects, these new goods are filling a niche previously occupied by certain Soviet factories which were renown for producing higher quality goods.  With the independence of Kazakstan and the concurrent economic upheaval throughout the former Soviet empire, many of the old goods no longer reach the bazaars of rural Kazakstan.  So, the Kazaks are now replacing the prestige items of the past with new Asian and European imports.  Another example is cash gifts, where American dollars are viewed as a much more prestigious gift than their equivalent in Kazak tenge.

The consumption and exchange of imported goods at feasts is primarily associated with the wealthier households.  The meanings attached to the consumption of imported goods, however, varies within the community.  In the post-Soviet period, the use of imported consumer goods has intensified the level of competition in feasting and gift-giving among the local elite.  Meanwhile, middle-level households are seeking to emulate the consumption patterns of the wealthy in hopes of gaining status and prestige, while the poorest households are finding it more difficult to continue participating in the feasts.

In conclusion, this essay offers a variety of explanations to explain the why the rural Kazaks devote so much time, energy and resources to feasting.  First, feasting and gift exchange provide multiple opportunities for rural Kazaks to maintain and extend household networks which are manipulated in other contexts.  Second, although the feasts appear to be very expensive, most sponsors break even, and some even profit from hosting a feast.  Finally, through conspicuous exchange and conspicuous consumption, rural Kazaks manage to recreate their social status and identity through feasting and gift exchange.

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