On shame: The efficacy of exclaiming uiat! in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Uiat is a word ubiquitously spoken in Kyrgyzstan. It is hurled at children to stop improper behavior and thrown by adults to evaluate conduct. It is a relational practice that textures everyday life, cultivating discomfort in the body when spoken, gendering and aging those involved in its practice, and setting the boundaries of propriety. Uiat is most often translated as “shame.” The earliest work on honor and shame in anthropology established the prevalence of shame and outlined its basic work as a social mechanism of control, but the discussion, especially when considering Muslim societies, largely died out. Yet shame remains a prominent practice ripe for investigation. Looking at uiat as a dense, knotty practice carried out over time shows how shaming practices, in Kyrgyzstan at least, work to exert control and why they are so very efficacious. [shame, material semiotics, gender, age, embodiment, performativity, Muslim societies, postsocialist, Kyrgyzstan].