Professor Michele Commercio’s recent book, Polygynous Marriages Among the Kyrgyz: Institutional Change and Endurance, asks why polygyny has become a normalized practice in post-Soviet independent Kyrgyzstan. Based on in-depth field work conducted over numerous research trips to Kyrgyzstan, Commercio explores how communist institutions gradually limited the frequency of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz, and how the breakdown of those institutions combined with enduring hegemonic constructions of gender–meaning prevailing relational constructions of masculinity and femininity–slowly contributed to the reemergence of unconcealed polygynous marriages among the Kyrgyz. She argues that polygyny has become normalized, or socially acceptable and widely dispersed, among the Kyrgyz because it is a rooted and recognizable practice legitimized by customary law and Islam that can enable men and women to meet societal expectations regarding acceptable gender norms and/or solve practical economic problems that arose in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Polygynous Marriages Among the Kyrgyz: Institutional Change and Endurance is available for purchase from the University of Pittsburgh Press, Amazon, and other booksellers nationwide.