Adoption and Guardianship in the Kalmyk Society in the 19th century

Abstract

The social institution of adoption as a form of establishing artificial relationship, which was a common practice in traditional societies, exercised a prominent function of transition of power, material wealth and social status to successors. Adoption instituted the same rights and duties between the adoptive parents on the one part and the adopted child on the other part as between parents and their children. The tradition of adopting children of relatives by childless families (patrilineal relatives), as well as the tradition of fostering orphans in the families of deceased father’s brothers continued throughout the 19th century in the Kalmyk society. If Kalmyk children lost their parents, they were fostered in closely-related families. Childless families used to adopt a child of their relatives at their own will. It was commonly believed, that this adopted child would inevitably favor the birth of the family’s own children. Another reason for adoption was the will to ensure a secure old age. In the 19th century the institute of adoption in Kalmykia was common enough for all social strata: ‘according to our Kalmyk rights and traditions, whoever a proprietor ‘zaisan’ or an ordinary Kalmyk wishes to adopt, it shall be approved’. Moreover, childless families could even adopt children of a different lineage, provided the elder patrilineal relatives give their consent, and hand them down their property, uluses or aimags (territories) even if they had the children of their own.