Contacts
|
THE CRISIS OF REPRODUCTION OF THE ADYGHE ETHICS IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIONORMATIVE CHANGES IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS IN THE XVIII-XIX CENTURIES
Afaunova, Alina G. , Kuzminov, Peter A.
Kavkaz Forum. 2026. Issue 26.
Abstract:
The relevance of the research is determined by the need for a systematic historical and socio-philosophical rethinking of the causes and mechanisms of the crisis of reproduction of the Adyghe ethics in the context of the integration of Circassia into the imperial administrative and legal space. The analysis of the destruction of traditional social architectonics and, as a result, the decadence of traditional public institutions makes it possible to identify patterns of identity crisis, which has lasting value in time and space. To solve the stated problem, an interdisciplinary approach was used, combining the concept of «orientalism» by E. Said, the theory of hegemony by A. Gramsci, the ethical philosophy of A. McIntyre, the ethnophilosophical works of A.A. Shaov and others, aimed at a multidimensional historical and socio-philosophical reflection on the phenomenon of the decline of cultural subjectivity, the analysis of internal moral imperatives and their transition into the field of social reality. The authors consider the decline of ethnic subjectivity through the prism of the conflict between traditional ethics and the socionormative reality that changed during the Caucasian War. It is established that the marginalization of the Adyghe elite as a standard and zealot for the best aspects of Circassian ethos played an important role in the radical transformation of the Mountain people’s value system, consolidating the transition from the authority of tradition embodying the «ethical design» of ethnoculture to the reality of the Western European world involved in the «culture of dying», which turned into an acute crisis for the Adygs, destroying the previously integral world of ethical values. meanings. As a result, the usual semantic connectives – ritual, law, status, duty, and honor – lose their syncretism and split into autonomous, often conflicting orders. Legal and public behavior is increasingly decoded through Western rational categories, and the internal moral logic of the community is no longer a universal regulator of everyday life. This leads to a weakening of the integrative mechanisms of culture – rites of passage, collective sanctions, public institutions – and to the strengthening of moral individualism. The result is a multiplicity of competing discourses of identity, cultural selection of memory, and generational deformation of the ethical norm as the core of ethnic ethos, which inexorably leads to the loss of cultural subjectivity.
Keywords: adygs, khabze, adat, ethics, crisis, socionormative, changes.
Language: Russian
Download the full text
 For citation: Afaunova, A.G., Kuzminov, P.A. The crisis of reproduction of the Adyghe ethics in the context of socionormative changes in the North Caucasus in the XVIII-XIX centuries. KAVKAZ-FORUM. 2026, iss. 26 (33), pp. 129-146. (In Russian). ← Contents of issue |
| © 2026 Kavkaz forum | |||