Fifth Generation

I mentioned in another post that I watched a documentary on bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.

Bride kidnapping is a practice in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Karakalpakstan. These cultures require a bride price. If a man cannot afford to pay the bride price, he kidnaps the bride. I have also heard the practice exists in Hmong culture, another culture where a man must pay a bride price.

I found the script of the Documentary “The Kidnapped Bride” online. Here is the page online that has all of the information on the documentary including video clips. The documentary shows both positive and negatives of bride kidnapping ending the film with a happy couple.

Bride kidnapping is also a practice in the Caucasus.

Bride kidnapping has been the subject of comedy films. One of my favorites is “Kidnapping Caucasian Style” a Shurik movie from the USSR. In this movie, Shurik visits the Caucasus to do research on Caucasian customs. There a good Communist girl is being kidnapped by a government official in order to marry her. Shurik rescues her from the forced marriage.

I also heard that Borat tries to kidnap Pamela Anderson in order to marry her in his movie. Ha ha ha! Too bad I won’t watch that movie.

Karakalpakistan in an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. The major ethnic group of the region is the Karakalpaks, a Turkic group. They are primarily Sunni Muslim and live in the area near the Aral Sea. Their capital city is Nukus.

I read an interesting article on bride kidnapping in Karakalpakistan. I knew about bride napping in Kyrgyzstan for a recently saw a documentary on the practice. I also knew about the practice in the Caucasus region. There is a very funny Russian comedy about Caucasian kidnapping.

This article talks about bride kidnapping in Karakalpakistan.

Do you ever have those “I am a bad mom” moments? I have heard that having those feelings means that you are a good mom. Well, the other night I was driving the van and my almost three year old son was sitting in the back. The song “Ridin Dirty” came on the radio and my son sang all of the words. It was shocking to hear a two year old sing “I’m riding dirty”. He even knew the “pop pop!” part.

I already had to switch off certain songs when my daughter was in the car. It was too sickening to hear her sing about her “lovely lady lumps”. I never allow my kids to hear Akon. His songs deeply offend me.  I guess now it is time to switch the channel when my son is in the car.

I can’t get into Christian pop. Something about Christian pop irritates me. The top forty stations play the nastiest music. (I heard this horrible song about a lollypop yesterday.) So I just stick to talk radio. At least I am learning something while I am driving in the car. Maybe my kids are learning a little bit too.  I will also ask my husband to make me a new CD of Russian and Uzbek songs. At least if they are singing about nasty things, I won’t understand it.

Mordvins are a Finno- Uralic group. Some live in the Mordavia Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation. Two major Mordvin groups are the Erzyan and the Moksha. They consider themselves separate groups

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This is a Mordvin singing group called Toroma.

Chelkans are a Turkic people who primarily live in the Altai Republic of Russia. As of the most recent census there were only 855 Chelkans left.  Chelkans are closely related to the Altai people. Their language is considered a dying language. I was unable to find what religion they follow, but based on a picture I saw (that was copywrited) they probably are primarily Shamanist or still practice Shamanism combined with another religion like Buddhism or Christianity.