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The Continuity of Settlement of Social Feuds among Kurds in the Kurdistan Region
The Case of Mektebî Komellayetî
in Anthropology of the Middle East
Abstract
The autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region currently prides itself not only in its political autonomy and rapid economic development but also in promotion of the idea of human rights and the rule of law. It can be understood that modernising processes may inevitably lead to atrophy of traditional customs and social organisation of Kurdish society. One can easily discern that many cases of disputes among the inhabitants of the Kurdistan Region are processed according to judiciary principles that contradict the official legal doctrines. The examination and comparison of this mechanism in the previous century and nowadays led the author to the conclusion that the unofficial system of justice actually refers to the old tribal mechanism of solving feuds that has been repeatedly practised by bygone Kurdish generations.
Contributor Notes
Krzysztof Lalik is a Polish researcher with a master’s in Cultural Studies. In 2009, he published The Iraqi Kurdistan on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century (in Polish). His research interests and publications include historical, political and ethnographic profiles of the nations of the Persian Gulf area, including Turkey, as well as their ethnic and religious relations, especially between Muslims and Christians. He is a member of the scientific project ‘How to Make a Voice Audible? Continuity and Change of Kurdish Culture and of Social Reality in Postcolonial Perspectives’ at the Jagiellonian University, where he is completing a PhD. E-mail: krzysztof.lalik.pl@gmail.com