The Karakalpaks ("kara" means black and "kalpak" means hat) live mainly in north-western Uzbekistan. The Karakalpaks emerged as a confederation of tribes in the 15th or 16th centuries. They are genetically extremely heterogeneous. In the 16th century they became virtually independent, though not united, but their independence was short-lived. During the next 200 years they became subjects of the Dzungars, Bukharans and Kazakhs. The Dzungars forced them to flee in two directions. One group, the upper Karakalpaks, travelled up the Syr Darya River into the Fergana Basin. The second, the lower Karakalpaks, moved closer to the Aral Sea. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Karakalpaks were a union of semi-nomadic tribes. However, in the 1920s, the Karakalpak Republic was formed in Uzbekistan, a region with an extremely arid climate that rarely receives more than 10 cm of rainfall per year.
Karakalpak tribes are divided into clans called Uru. The Uru, in turn, are subdivided into family groups called koshe. Koshe members are descendants of a common male ancestor. They share land and are extremely loyal to each other. The Karakalpak language is divided into two dialects: a northeastern dialect, very similar to Kazakh, and a southwestern dialect, more similar to Uzbek. Until 1930, the Karakalpak language had no written language. Although the majority of Karakalpaks live in Uzbekistan, smaller populations live in Russia, Turkey, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
Karakalpaks are generally poor and unemployment is high, but people do their best to earn a living: they work in their vegetable gardens and orchards, fish, trade at markets, raise livestock, do temporary or seasonal work, etc. There is no social security system, only a network of local committees that can provide temporary support to those in dire need. The Karakalpaks live according to the patrilineal principle, i.e. kinship goes through the male line. Large families are the ideal, and a nuclear family consists of four generations living in one house. Karakalpaks believe that families that eat together will maintain their friendship. Although school attendance has declined since independence in the 1990s, literacy rates are high.
Rites of passage are important to the Karakalpaks. When a child is born, the Karakalpak mother invites all family members to meet the child. They see marriage as a way of uniting the two families and preserving the lineage. Weddings are celebrated for several days with music, dancing, speeches and feasts. When someone dies, the deceased's family must perform rituals while mourners come to offer their condolences. A Muslim mullah leads the procession to the cemetery where he says the last prayers. The family is responsible for the burial of the deceased.
