The Role of Participants of the Caucasus Highlanders Customary Laws (Adats) Collecting Project in the Context of the Imperial Knowledge Construction (in 1840-s)

The article analyses the project to collect and codify the customary law of the highlanders of the North Caucasus set up by the Office for the Management of Peaceful Highlanders at the Headquarters of the Caucasian Line and the Black Sea Coast in early 1840-s. We headline its goals, participants, organizational base s and results.
The paper concerns on the formation of scientific ideas about the traditional way of life of the North Caucasus highlanders based on the study of their customary laws collected by the Imperial militaries.
It is concluded that the compiled collections of adats of the Caucasian highlanders became a reflection of the ethnographic knowledge that was being formed during the integration of the North Caucasus into the imperial administrative and legal space.
Although, the codified adats codex was not in the practical use, the customary laws were brought together. The law codex either reflected the intellectual foundation on which historical and ethnographic research was based in the second half of the 19th century.
The Caucasus Highlanders customary laws sorting out and collecting project looks like one of the branches of Russian practices of collecting knowledge about new Imperial subjects. The participants extended the ranks of the simple customary laws’
codification. The important aftermath of their activity was constructing of the knowledge about culture and the perspective to reconstruct the early ethnical history of the region.