CONCUBINAGE IN THE OSSETIANS FAMILY RELATIONS AT THE END OF THE 18<sup>TH</sup>-19<sup>TH</sup> CENTURIES
The article is devoted to the study of the practice of bigamy in the traditional model of family organization in Ossetia. The study covers the period from the middle of the 18th to the 19th century. An analysis of the specifics of the introduction of Russian law innovations into the family space allows us to imagine the process of transition from the traditional norms of the customary legal culture of Ossetians and the formation of a new legal consciousness. This study proposes a structural and functional analysis of the institution of second wives (nomylus) in the Ossetian society. The aim of the study is to analyze the family and marriage law of Ossetians, some aspects of which reveal the social origin of nomylus women, their position in the family, and inheritance rights. For the first time, the institution of bigamy becomes the object of research, as well as the consequences that took place after administrative measures against bigamy. At the same time, the process of eradicating the institution of nomylus is analyzed on the example of several cases from family practice. The activities of the Russian administration is considered, which, in the context of the implementation of the provisions of the peasant reform of 1861, recognized concubinage as illegal and freed wives-nomylus and their children as representatives of the not free estate, recognizing them as freedmen. The features of marriages and divorce proceedings with a second wife (nomylus) are revealed. The specific factors of differentiation of the status of the nomylus wife and the main wife are determined, including economic, property, etc. The economic side of the conclusion of concubinage is studied. The results of the work are important for understanding the transformational processes that affected all spheres of Ossetian society in the 19th century and reflected, among other things, in the ways and forms of regulation of marriage and family relations.