Conflicts and mechanisms of their regulation in the Buryat society of the XVIII-XIX centuries

The aim of the study is to identify the main types of conflicts and their resolution mechanisms in the Buryat society of the XVIII-XIX centuries. The work is based on archival materials and literary data of the considered time. The main sources for the study included archival documents from the State archive funds of the Republic of Buryatia (the Fund № 460 "Verkholenskaya stepnaya kontora" and Fund No. 5 "Kudarinskaya stepnaya duma") and the works of authors of XVIII-XIX centuries (I.I. Lindenau, A. Raev, N.M. Astyrev, M.N. Khangalov). In addition, the codes of customary law of Buryats and linguistic materials ("Buryatsko-russkii slovar’" (1973) and "buryaad-orod toli" (2010)) were used. The article analyzes the structure of power in Buryat society, determines the role of community and clan in the regulation of conflicts. It is noted that the issues of reconciliation were considered at the different levels of Buryat power. The paper characterizes the Buryat arbitration court, while it is stated that it was often an intermediate instance, whose decisions could be appealed in the Russian court. The study outlines the main types of conflicts that took place in the Buryat society of the XVIII-XIX centuries. In particular, the causes of family conflicts and the position of the court on them are identified. The author points to the manifestations of spontaneous aggression and arbitrariness that caused the conflict. Punishments determined by the court included community service sentences or the requirement of making a contribution to benefit the community, besides the physical execution and imposition of fines. An effective means of prevention of such behavior was considered, for example, to take a written commitment from the perpetrator to avoid antisocial misconducting in the future. It is noted that in the customary law of the Buryats the interests of the founders and representatives of the Buddhist church were protected first and foremost. Thus, the study shows that the community was interested in resolving conflicts and reconciling the parties. The main regulator of conflict situations in the Buryat society of the XVIII-XIX centuries was the arbitration court, which over time increasingly turned into a place of preliminary consideration of cases, and the final verdict on them was made in the general court. The arbitral court, relying on customary law, solved the problem of the punishment of the aggressor, paying damages to the victim, combating the spread of the conflict with the aim of preserving public order. In the practice of conflict regulation in different groups of Buryats there were certain local features.

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