The CaucasusThis entry deals mainly with Azerbaijan. This is
because of the shortage of relevant scholarship on
the rest of the Muslim Caucasus. At the turn of the
twentieth century in the Caucasus, where the great
majority of the population lived in rural areas, aila
ijmasi(family communes) were the common form
of household composition. These were based on
common ownership and use of land and livestock
by large extended families. The complex organiza-
tion of such social groups was marked by a rigid
system of etiquette governing intergenerational and
affinal relations, with the male elders,ak saqqal,
predominating in authority. But on matters con-
cerning women, the ak birchek, female elder, would
also be the authority referred to (Heyat 2002, 60).
Generally, the status of an elder was achieved as
much through their personal qualities of leadership
as their age.
Later, through the early part of the twentieth cen-
tury with developments in trade and industry (espe-
cially the oil industry), family communes began to
break up and nuclear families started to evolve.
This process was greatly accelerated by the Soviet
system; under collectivization the rural family unit
lost much of its economic function and power.
From the 1970s the nuclearization of families fur-
ther accelerated with urbanization and the increase
in apartment building and the housing stock gener-
ally. However, in the rural areas households of
three or more generations living as one unit were
very common. In Baku composite households of
different generations with the addition of young
relatives from the regions was not uncommon. For
young people from rural areas who came to study
at the capital city one of the means of being accom-
modated was to move in with a relative. This was
often done in exchange for child minding or other
domestic chores. Hiring domestic labor often had
to be disguised as an interfamily arrangement of
labor and financial exchange.
Today in the Muslim Caucasus, the tradition of
closely-knit extended families seeking residence in
close geographical proximity to each other and
maintaining frequent contact continues (Chenciner
1997, Hortaçsu and Baçtu©2000). The economy of
shortages and the all-pervasive Soviet system of
nepotism had reinforced reliance on family mem-
Household Forms and Composition
bers as the core of personal networks essential for
access to scarce resources and employment oppor-
tunities (Tohidi 1998, Heyat 2000). In the present
post-Soviet era, despite the emergence of money as
a source of power and influence, the need for pool-
ing of family resources as a means of survival in the
face of severe economic difficulties has led to the
continuity in the strength of the extended family.
In Azerbaijan, the demographic, social, and cul-
tural changes following the economic breakdown,
transition to free market, and the war with Arme-
nia in the early 1990s have led to the departure
from the country of large numbers of men in search
of work in Russia, other former Soviet republics,
and further afield (Heyat 2002, 175). Consequ-
ently, there are today far greater numbers of female-
headed households than there have ever been in the
region’s history. The economic empowerment of
young people with knowledge of Western lan-
guages and expertise working for multinational
organizations, Western non-governmental organi-
zations, and foreign companies in Baku has also led
to the formation of single occupancy households
there. In the past, given the shortage of housing, liv-
ing alone was highly unusual and not socially con-
doned, especially for women.
In the present free market era, there is a growing
gap in wealth and social distinctions (Heyat 2002).
As the new rich are able to build and acquire much
larger accommodation space, some in the form of
mansions, their household size is reduced since
newly married couples and even some of the single
young professionals are able to afford their own
separate apartments. At the same time, economic
difficulties and the influx of foreigners have led to
some families in Baku renting out their homes and
moving in with parents, in-laws, or even siblings in
order to gain an additional income. This has meant
a contra-nuclearization process in which three or
more generations, or adult siblings and their re-
spective families, cram into apartments previously
assigned to a nuclear family household. In the rural
areas, however, there is increasing gender and gen-
erational imbalance as young people in search
of work, particularly the males, depart for urban
centers or abroad. In Azerbaijan, female-headed
households and households where the adult males
are mostly absent, or often in transit, have increas-
ingly become the norm.