“Khab u Khaz” in Armenian Industrial Culture

Abstract

A classic manifestation of economic cooperation in the Armenian dairying culture is the phenomenon of milk-lending, when a group of neighboring women of the community in a village or summer mountain pasture agree to process the milk in turn, giving their milk for the day to one of them. In the past, this phenomenon was widespread in various Armenian ethnographic regions; now it exists mainly in Shirak, Javakhk, and is known as khabukhaz. According to the accepted order, each of the participants of the group has a stick, on which the amount of milk is marked with notches.

Milk-lending requires honest relations; otherwise it could not be held. Women even believed that the deceiver could suffer badly – cows will dry up, the milk will often curdle, spoil, and so on. This folk perception is vividly reflected in proverbs as well as in the medieval fable. Field materials prove that the cooperation of family members of the group is passed down from generation to generation.

The cooperation can be considered a wonderful idea of an Armenian housewife to take care of the needs of living, an original manifestation of the skill of organizing the industrial culture.  The groups were formed during gatherings and discussions of neighboring women. This cultural phenomenon is additional evidence of the fact that the Armenian woman is also capable of social activities, she had an important role not only in the family, but also in the industrial culture.

The main purpose of the cooperation was to prepare the annual supply of vital means of peasant’s livelihood, especially butter and cheese, which, without the formation of groups, was almost impossible to realize.