Kabar Alyshuu
Kabar alyshuu (Iradi, "exchanging news") is the custom by which Iradis who meet on a road, at a well or at a camp exchange news in a fixed order. It is kept most strictly in the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR), where it carries news across the mountains and the steppe faster than any post, and where the clans trust it over the broadcasts of IradOne.[1]
Form
Both travellers stop: riders dismount and drivers pull over. After the greeting, the one who has come farther speaks first. He gives his news in a set order: his household and its health; the herds and the pastures; the road behind him, with the weather, the snow on the passes, the river crossings and the checkpoints and El-Choro posts he has passed; deaths, births and weddings; and last the "news of the world" (dünüyönün kabary): the cities, the line, prices and the Governor. The other then answers in the same order and repeats back anything that matters, so that the news can be carried on accurately. A traveller who keeps news back, or lies in it, is shamed as a kabar buzar ("news-spoiler").[1]
Use
Herders, traders at the crossings and El-Choro riders pass news on in this way, and folklorists estimate that it crosses the tribal regions in one or two days. The ISEZ authorities call it ush-ush ("whispering", rumour), although Gendarmerie officers at the crossings are said to ask herders for it informally. Long-distance lorry drivers and family telephone calls keep the same order, and the rooms for the valleys on the Tulpar messaging app imitate it.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2018). 'Roads, Refuge and Reputation: Honour Customs of the Iradi Clans.' Vol. 11, pp. 5–29.
- ^ Central Asian Cultural Studies Review (2021). 'News Without Newspapers: Information Networks in the Iradi Tribal Regions.' Vol. 14, pp. 41–60.