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UZBEK 837
In pre-revolutionary Transoxiana, educational facilities were few. The literacy
rate among the native population was 3.6 percent in 1897. Very early the Soviet
government established an effective secular mass educational system, which
soon displaced traditional forms of instruction. Soviet sources claim that in
Uzbekistan in 1979 the literacy rate was 99.7 percent, and literacy rates for men
and women for the first time were nearly equal.
During their nomadic stage the Uzbek had an extensive tribal and clan structure,
but centuries of sedentary agricultural and town life have caused this system
to almost disappear, except among those rural Soviet Uzbeks with a more recent
pastoral or nomadic background and among the current Afghan Uzbek. Nevertheless,
kinship ties among immediate blood relatives are strong, and most Uzbek
go to great efforts and expense to maintain contact with relatives, despite population
movements due to education, work opportunities and the development
of new towns. There is a strong sense of mutual obligation among those who
are related by blood or marriage. The three-generation household is common;
married sons and their families generally live with their parents. However,
modern housing, especially in urban areas, is less spacious, thus preventing the
co-residence of different generations and discouraging large families. Also, because
of educational opportunities, more Uzbek are finding work away from
their home areas. Furthermore, as more women enter the work force, they desire
fewer children; and as older women remain in the work force, there are fewer
grandmothers at home to assist in childraising.
Soviet law requires that marriages be registered and a civil ceremony performed,
but some couples are married in a second traditional ceremony. Marriage
feasting often follows traditional patterns, with a series of banquets, gift-giving
sessions, going to the bride's home to take her to the groom's home and friends
and relatives waiting outside the wedding chamber until the marriage is consummated.
Young people now have greater personal freedom in spouse selection,
but parental approval is almost always sought. Some marriages are still arranged
by parents, and among some Uzbeks, the custom of marrying only within certain
lineages persists, for example, among the "white bone" (descendants of former
nomadic aristocracy) or among the hoja lines (descendants of former religious
aristocracy). Marriage to non-Muslims is rare and is generally between an Uzbek
man and a European woman. In such instances, especially in rural areas, the
woman is expected to conform to Uzbek social practices. Divorce is not uncommon
in such marriages. Uzbek girls are expected to be virgins at the time of
marriage. The brideprice (kalim) is forbidden by law; however, it is sometimes
manifest in the form of wedding gifts. Rural girls frequently marry young but
most now wait until completing the middle school (tenth grade—age 17). Polygyny,
of course, is outlawed, but it is sometimes encountered in both rural and
urban areas under the subterfuge of not registering subsequent wives. Uzbek
marriages are relatively stable; the divorce rate is approximately one-third that
of the average for the Soviet Union as a whole; divorce more commonly occurs
among urban and more highly educated people.