Private Space in the Value System of a Traditional Society

Abstract

Drawing principally on the Kazakh ethnographic materials, the article discusses the notion of private space in the context of a traditional society. The minimal need for private space and privacy stems from a particular feature of this society’s worldview, namely its collectivist character. Taking Kazakh folk games and table customs as a case, the author examines the ways in which the rise of the shame threshold has been conducive to the development and strengthening of the need for private space. Modernization brings about changes in the part that private space plays in the value system of the society; hence the increase of the need for privacy which is considered by the younger generations of the Kazakh as prevailing over the collective values. The different attitudes toward private space among the parents and the children may at the same time lead to various misunderstandings among social generations.