Poaching, Fictive Kin Relationships, Adultery: Cultural Models of Socialization in the Disadvantaged Neighborhoods of the Lower Volga

Until now there have been a few works in Russian sociology devoted to the study of disadvantaged neighborhoods. The use of the concept of ghetto and cultural models that determine the socialization are particularly questionable. The authors suggest that the use of the concept of autonomous community instead of ghetto would be more relevant to show how socialization in different types of households occurs in the disadvantaged neighborhoods across Russia. Based on long-lasting field studies in Astrakhan oblast, the authors show how individuals in different generations are socialized in typical households of the area. We argue that the different types of households that emerged after 1991 can expose individuals to different cultural models. We find that solitary producers or partners in the settlements of the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain who are involved in IWT of sturgeon meat and caviar employ local collective cultural models that promote the hedonistic lifestyle, in particular widespread «easy» money, adultery and serial marriages. This results in the exclusion of adolescents and young adults from the households’ production chain, furthering the intergenerational gap when adults do not keep young people from leaving home. Thus, mainstream cultural models circulating among the youth are combined with «alternative» ones that are widespread among people of the older generation. Unlike settlements in the floodplain areas, settlers in the Volga River delta areas share unified «alternative» cultural models within the family firm type of household that allow them to maintain stable social order.