This thesis analyses close social relations among Uyghurs in Kashgar. It discusses and analyses some of the most important practices and concepts pertaining to the constitution of close social relations in lower to higher middle-class urban and semi urban Kashgar. Central to these are kinship (tughqandarchiliq) and marriage (toy qilish, nikahlinish, öylinish ...). Kinship provides the central idiom for expressing and re-presenting close social relations, both in linguistic terms and pertaining to exchange and bodily and spatial practices. Marriage is a central part of kinship practices and has a structural relevance for social organisation. It is the ideal for affnes to be produced as close relatives through the marriage process and lastly unite into one social unit. Thus marriage is not a secondary relation created between genealogically predefned social units, but is primary and central to constructing these units. A bride is not transferred from one unit to the other, as much as she, over the long marriage process involving much visiting and gift giving, combines and unites the two sides into one family. This is an important incentive to marry close, since the affnes need to have the potential of becoming such close relatives. Although this logic is not always adhered to, and many other strategies exist, this logic of close marriage is central to the local understanding of marriage and kinship and is clearly visible in many elements of the marriage process, such as the toy neziri, quda körüshüsh and öy körsitish. The importance and ambivalence of the affnes are also a structurally important element contributing to the relative ease of divorce, since a marriage that does not produce close relatives through affnity can be seen as a failed marriage of which divorce is only a necessary, though painful, logical consequence. On the other hand marriages are also life cycle events celebrated in the local community and contribute to constituting this community through a continuous exchange of gifts including labour help. Both affnity and close neighbourly relations are close social relations based upon exchange, trust and mutual dependency. They are formulated in the idioms of kinship (they are kinship!) and are performed in a number of practices including weddings and other marriage related events. They make up a centre-piece in what kinship, i.e. mutuality of being, means in Kashgar.
