Koshumcha (Kyrgyzstan)

Koshumcha 🇰🇬
Location: Kyrgyzstan
Definition: Contribution given on important social celebrations
Keywords: Kyrgyzstan – FSU – Central Asia – Mutual help – Solidarity – Reciprocity – Public service – Problem-solving – Need
Clusters: Solidarity – Market
Author: Eugenia Pesci
Affiliation: PhD student, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland

By Eugenia Pesci, PhD student, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland

The word koshumcha can be translated from Kyrgyz as ‘additional’. It refers to contributions provided to the organisers of collective celebrations (toilor) and memorial events. It can also indicate any kind of assistance to the groom in paying the kalym (bride prize), or the gifts part of the kalym that are donated by the groom's parents on his first visit to the bride's parents; the latter, in turn, with the help of contributions from relatives reciprocate the gifts to the groom's parents (Yudachin 1985).

In Kyrgyzstan, koshumcha is donated at both joyous celebrations (zhakshylyk) and mourning rituals (zhamandyk), including: weddings (uilonuu toi); so-called ‘bride farewells’ (kyz uzatuu); births (beshek toi); circumcisions (sünnöt toi): first birthdays (tush¬oo toi); and meals for relatives and neighbours (ash) organised to mark death anniversaries or other meaningful events. All these celebrations and collective social obligations are part of the Kyrgyz customary law (salt) (Reeves 2012:129). Within the ritual economy related to life-cycle events, koshumcha is an important informal practice for maintaining social relations. Despite its similarities to other gift-giving practices, koshumcha is understood as a form of solidarity and mutual help that mobilizes social relationships, similar to pujogǔm and hongbao.

The origins of koshumcha are unclear but are likely connected to nomadic mourning rituals, where cattle or other goods were donated to the family of the deceased as a form of material support. Kyrgyz used to judge the importance of the deceased based on the degree of organisation of the funeral and the solidarity of the relatives (Abdubaitova 2018). During the Soviet period, koshumcha was mainly expressed through gifting consumer goods and commodities hard to find in the planned economy, and traditional hand-made Kyrgyz clothing, like the chapan (winter clothing) (see Turdalieva and Provis 2017: 203). The collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy resulted in the emergence of new values shaping more complex social relations, beyond kinship solidarity and support (Turdalieva and Provis 2017: 204). On the background of dramatic economic hardships, mass migration, and low state capacity, neoliberal values were met by the revival of pre-Soviet nomadic traditions, including the celebration of life cycle events where koshumcha is donated.

While gifting clothes, jewelry, and furniture is still practised, giving koshumcha ‘in the envelope’ is now very popular in Kyrgyzstan. Unlike other forms of money gifts, koshumcha is more a contribution to cover the costs borne by the family organising the celebration, a kind of interest-free loan among one’s social network, since those who visit the toi constantly owe money, or other people owe them. Guests put koshumcha in a closed envelope with their name on it and hand it to a designated person (usually a male member of the groom’s family), who writes down the name of the guest on a notebook and the amount of donated money. Likewise, people who give koshumcha keep a record of to whom, when, and how much money they had contributed. In this way, they can estimate how much will be returned to them once they will organise a toi. In calculating the amount of koshumcha, guests usually need to consider inflation and the exchange rate between the Kyrgyz some and the US dollar. The reciprocity principle at the basis of koshumcha is based on mutual trust, but there is always a risk of receiving less or nothing, which means a financial loss for the family organising the celebration, and the shaming of the relative who could not give the suitable amount of money expected from him/her. Sometimes, guests who cannot afford to give koshumcha write the word karyz (debt) in the envelope, meaning that they remain indebted to the family organising the toi until they are able to make their contribution. This is made in order not to ‘lose one’s face’ in front of other guests (Erkebaeva 2018), since refusing an invitation to a toi is considered a shame and a source of embarrassment (uiat). As pointed out by Reeves (2012:110), the ritual economy around life-cycle celebrations in Kyrgyzstan is sustained by remittances. Thus, many young people are pushed into labour migration so that the family can afford a toi and give the necessary amount of koshumcha, since not taking part in these forms of social obligations is considered shameful and described as ‘leaving kinship’ (see Eidson 2017).

Koshumcha is, hence, embedded in social relations, norms and traditions and it rests upon mutual obligations and expectations (see Granovetter 1985). Since the amount of the contribution towards the family’s expenses depends on the degree of kinship, social and material well-being, as well as social and emotional distance (Kochkunov 2018), koshumcha can be a way to determine the strength of ties between givers and receivers. However, new values brought by the market economy and neo-liberal ideals are rapidly changing the way koshumcha and toi are experienced, especially among the better-off urban middle class, also called the ‘new Kyrgyz’(see Provis 2015). Toi invitations and koshumcha then become useful instruments in building strategic relationships with influential acquaintances while excluding poorer, but closer members of the network. This contributes to the emergence of new patterns of social relationship construction, which can further deepen the economic and social gaps between urban and rural population.

Despite its importance for maintaining social relations, koshumcha and the entire ritual economy related to toi-making is often criticized because of the financial burden imposed on households. In February 2020, the independent online media outlet Kloop conducted a survey on koshumcha among 400 respondents across Kyrgyzstan. The answers showed that most of the respondents still give koshumcha and are willing to give their last resources for it. According to the estimates of the survey, 62 percent of the average monthly living wage of a Kyrgyz household is spent on koshumcha (Tologonova 2020). Nowadays, the average amount of money for koshumcha at weddings is around 50 USD, but in big cities like Bishkek and Osh it can be more than 100 USD. These are extremely high sums for most Kyrgyz families, especially when considering that the average wage in 2020 was around 19 thousand soms (around 224 USD) (National Statistical Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic n.d.). Koshumcha can become a real poverty trap as confirmed by respondents: those earning up to 20 thousand soms per month (240 USD) declared to spend about 35 thousand soms (412 USD) per year on koshumcha; those who earn more than 60 thousand soms (700 USD) per month spend on average 42 thousand soms (490 USD). This means that low-income households allocate to koshumcha a larger portion of their income than those with higher earnings (Tologonova 2020). Another important finding of the survey was that koshumcha has a generational dimension: while older generations see participation in every toi as necessary to maintain social ties expecting future contributions from relatives, younger ones consider koshumcha wasteful and a source of psychological pressure to meet family and community obligations.

Koshumcha, then, is an ambivalent social norm that both enables and constrains by creating a lock-in effect on the basis of kinship, social status, or network interests (see Ledeneva et. al. 2018). Embedded in norms and traditions of reciprocity and solidarity, koshumcha reinforces social ties but also creates a perpetual circle of economic and social obligations. Koshumcha is a ‘total service’(Mauss 1950), as it pervades all aspects of society, and its logic is dictated at the same time by self-interest and solidarity. Koshumcha is characterized by a high degree of ambivalence: it is both a practice of social solidarity and redistribution, while also a financial and moral burden for poorer families. The changing nature of koshumcha from reciprocity and mutual help to tools used to create influential networks is the result of a new moral economy where neoliberal principles and traditions related to the celebration of life-cycle events meet.

Funding

This research was realized as part of the EU Commission Horizon2020 MSCA Innovative Training Networks (MSCA-ITN) project MARKETS: Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environments and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, The Caucasus and Central Asia, Grant agreement ID: 861034.

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