Everyday Life in Central Asia

Description

A lively reader on the peoples and cultures of Central Asia

For its citizens, contemporary Central Asia is a land of great promise and peril. While the end of Soviet rule has opened new opportunities for social mobility and cultural expression, political and economic dynamics have also imposed severe hardships. In this lively volume, contributors from a variety of disciplines examine how ordinary Central Asians lead their lives and navigate shifting historical and political trends. Provocative stories of Turkmen nomads, Afghan villagers, Kazakh scientists, Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik strongman, guardians of religious shrines in Uzbekistan, and other narratives illuminate important issues of gender, religion, power, culture, and wealth. A vibrant and dynamic world of life in urban neighborhoods and small villages, at weddings and celebrations, at classroom tables, and around dinner tables emerges from this introduction to a geopolitically strategic and culturally fascinating region.

Contents
Introduction: Central Asia and Everyday Life
Part One: Background
Introduction
1.Turks and Tajiks in Central Asian History Scott Levi

Part Two: Communities
Introduction
2. Everyday Life among the Turkmen Nomads Adrienne Edgar
3. Recollections of a Hazara Wedding in the 1930s Robert Canfield
4. Trouble in Birglich Robert Canfield
5. A Central Asian Tale of Two Cities:Locating Lives and Aspirations in a Shifting Post-Soviet Cityscape Morgan Y. Liu

Part Three: Gender
Introduction
6. The Limits of Liberation: Gender, Revolution, and the Veil in Everyday Life in Soviet
Uzbekistan Douglas Northrop
7. The Wedding Feast: Living the New Uzbek Life in the 1930s Marianne Kamp
8. Practical Consequences of Soviet Policy and Ideology for Gender in Central Asia and Contemporary Reversal Elizabeth Constantine
9. Dinner with Akhmet Greta Uehling

Part Four: Performance and Encounters
Introduction
10. An Ethnohistorical Journey through Kazakh Hospitality Paula A. Michaels
11. Konstitutsiya Buzildi: Gender Relations in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Peter Finke and Meltem Sancak
12. Fat and All That: Good Eating the Uzbek Way Russell Zanca
13. Public and Private Celebrations: Uzbekistan's National Holidays Laura Adams
14. Music Across the Kazakh Steppe Michael Rouland

Part Five: Nation, State, and Society in the Everyday
Introduction
15. The Shrinking of the Welfare State: Central Asians'Assessments of Soviet and Post-Soviet Governance Kelly McMann
16. Going to School in Uzbekistan Shoshana Keller
17. Alphabet Changes in Turkmenistan: State, Society, and the Everyday, 1904-2004 Victoria Clement
18. Travels in the Margins of the State: Everyday Geography in the Ferghana Valley Borderlands Madeleine Reeves

Part Six: Religion
Introduction
19. Divided Faith: Trapped between State and Islam in Uzbekistan Eric McGlinchey
20. Sacred Sites, Profane Ideologies: Religious Pilgrimage and the Uzbek State David Abramson and Elyor Karimov
21. Everyday Negotiations of Islam in Central Asia: Practicing Religion in the Uyghur
Neighborhood of Zarya Vostoka in Almaty, Kazakhstan Sean Roberts
22. Namaz, Wishing Trees, and Vodka: The Diversity of Everyday Religious Life in Central Asia David Montgomery
23. Christians as the Main Religious Minority in Central Asia Sebastien Peyrouse
Index
Contributors

Sujets

• Middle Eastern Studies
• Modern
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Modern history
• Eastern Europe
• Russian
• Russia
• Middle East
• History of Asia
• Central Asia
• Anthropology
• 21st Century
• Asia
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Russie

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 12 juillet 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253013538
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Everyday Life in Central Asia
Everyday Life in Central Asia
Past and Present
EDITED BY
Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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2007 by Indiana University
Press All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Everyday life in Central Asia : past and present / edited by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-34883-8 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-21904-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Asia, Central-Social life and customs. 2. Ethnology-Asia, Central. I. Sahadeo, Jeff, date II. Zanca, Russell G., date
DS328.2.E94 2007
958 .04-dc22
2006037058
1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08 07
To the countless Central Asians who have opened their doors and hearts to us and with whom we have shared meals and affection, joys and frustrations, and hopes and fears. We hope this book makes some contribution toward a deeper understanding of how much we all deserve a better world, even as we seek different pathways toward that end.
Learn and learn, ask and ask, do not be afraid.
-Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus-16th century mystical philosopher, physician, and alchemist)
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction: Central Asia and Everyday Life
Part 1. Background
Introduction
1. Turks and Tajiks in Central Asian History
Scott Levi
Part 2. Communities
Introduction
2. Everyday Life among the Turkmen Nomads
Adrienne Edgar
3. Recollections of a Hazara Wedding in the 1930s
Robert L. Canfield
4. Trouble in Birgilich
Robert L. Canfield
5. A Central Asian Tale of Two Cities: Locating Lives and Aspirations in a Shifting Post-Soviet Cityscape
Morgan Y. Liu
Part 3. Gender
Introduction
6. The Limits of Liberation: Gender, Revolution, and the Veil in Everyday Life in Soviet Uzbekistan
Douglas Northrop
7. The Wedding Feast: Living the New Uzbek Life in the 1930s
Marianne Kamp
8. Practical Consequences of Soviet Policy and Ideology for Gender in Central Asia and Contemporary Reversal
Elizabeth A. Constantine
9. Dinner with Akhmet
Greta Uehling
Part 4. Performance and Encounters
Introduction
10. An Ethnohistorical Journey through Kazakh Hospitality
Paula A. Michaels
11. Konstitutsiya buzildi! Gender Relations in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
Meltem Sancak and Peter Finke
12. Fat and All That: Good Eating the Uzbek Way
Russell Zanca
13. Public and Private Celebrations: Uzbekistan s National Holidays
Laura Adams
14. Music across the Kazakh Steppe
Michael Rouland
Part 5. Nation, State, and Society in the Everyday
Introduction
15. The Shrinking of the Welfare State: Central Asians Assessments of Soviet and Post-Soviet Governance
Kelly M. McMann
16. Going to School in Uzbekistan
Shoshana Keller
17. Alphabet Changes in Turkmenistan, 1904-2004
Victoria Clement
18. Travels in the Margins of the State: Everyday Geography in the Ferghana Valley Borderlands
Madeleine Reeves
Part 6. Religion
Introduction
19. Divided Faith: Trapped between State and Islam in Uzbekistan
Eric M. McGlinchey
20. Sacred Sites, Profane Ideologies: Religious Pilgrimage and the Uzbek State
David M. Abramson and Elyor E. Karimov
21. Everyday Negotiations of Islam in Central Asia: Practicing Religion in the Uyghur Neighborhood of Zarya Vostoka in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Sean R. Roberts
22. Namaz, Wishing Trees, and Vodka: The Diversity of Everyday Religious Life in Central Asia
David W. Montgomery
23. Christians as the Main Religious Minority in Central Asia
Sebastien Peyrouse
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Above all, we thank our informants, colleagues, and friends in Central Asia, for whom living day to day has become an increasingly challenging task. The warm hospitality and spontaneous joviality they show to us belies their modest means and anxieties over an uncertain future. Their cooperation with our contributors has allowed the publication of some wonderfully innovative pieces. We felt honored to edit the words of writers and scholars of such talent. Other important figures played crucial roles in this volume. Janet Rabinowitch s enthusiasm inspired its creation. Lisa Greenspoon assisted us with the editing process. Dennis Grammenos contributed his time and talent in producing the maps. Miki Bird, Jennifer Maceyko, and others at Indiana University Press provided friendly and helpful guidance. Candace McNulty gave the work a thorough copyedit. Funds from Carleton University supported the creation of the volume. Our own friends and families provided advice and constant encouragement throughout the project.
Everyday Life in Central Asia
Central Asia

States and Cities of Central Asia

Ferghana Valley
Introduction: Central Asia and Everyday Life
For its citizens, contemporary Central Asia is a land of great promise and peril. Promise, for the end of Soviet rule has allowed new opportunities for social mobility and cultural expression. Peril, for political and economic dynamics have imposed severe restrictions on independent activity and widened the gap between rich and poor. In this volume, we will examine how ordinary residents of Central Asia, past and present, lead their lives and navigate shifting historical and political patterns. Contributors, drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines, will tell provocative stories of Turkmen nomads, Afghan villagers, Kazakh scientists, Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik strongman, and guardians of religious shrines in Uzbekistan. These and other narratives of ordinary citizens and their everyday lives will intertwine with important questions and relations of gender, religion, power, culture, and wealth. Moving tales of personal struggle mix with those of success as Central Asians confront, adapt to, and seek to influence global movements and trends as well as increasingly strong and invasive states. We expose a vibrant and dynamic world of everyday life in urban neighborhoods and small villages, at weddings and celebrations, and around classroom tables as well as the dinner tables of the peoples of Central Asia.
Examining Central Asia from the perspective of everyday life offers important new insights on the region. In the past decade-plus almost the only facets of Central Asia exposed to the Western public at large came in terms of building democracy, religious extremism and terrorism, natural resource holdings, and the war in Afghanistan. Occasionally, there has appeared the odd human interest or features story in newspapers or on radio, such as textile-making traditions, bride kidnapping in Kazakhstan, the reinvention of the Silk Road, or the continued semi-nomadic existence of Chinggis Khan s mountainous descendants. While such reporting has served to illuminate certain features of daily life in Central Asia since the collapse of Communism, it rarely provides the contextualization to furnish readers or listeners with a richer historical or social awareness of a particular contemporary situation. We learn that key relationships-between men and women, for example-and key concepts-such as Islam-are in continuous flux, meaning different things at different times to different people. Central cultural events, including feasts and holidays, are at once intensely personal and indicate complicated interactions both within peer communities and with larger outside units, in particular the state. The rich contributions in this volume undermine stereotypes of the region s citizens as beholden to past traditions-be they age-old or Soviet-or as compliant subjects of authoritarian rulers. Yet readers should nonetheless recognize the extraordinary strain placed on these societies. We will read of tragedies in the past, as millions of women and nomads faced punishments, including death, for defying dictates of the Soviet state. We will also read articles that set the stage for tragedies in the present, such as the killings of hundreds of civilians in Andijon, Uzbekistan, in May 2005.
In bringing together twenty-three essays that include topics such as family life, cuisine, gender, state and government, entertainment, religion, and minority populations among Kazakhs, Turkmen, Uzbeks, as well as Russian settlers, we treat the transformations of society and culture with both respect and subtlety where our research has forced us to confront colonialism, violence, and domination. Trenchant critiques of tsarist and Soviet policies are balanced with the understandings of identity and self that we have learned through our work among Central Asians during the past decade or so. Furthermore, part of what will make this volume so appealing to people interested in Central Asia is the gamut of disciplinary expertise, from anthropology, history, political science, and sociology to musicology, rendering our approaches to everyday life diachronic and variegated.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Everyday life offers both new findings and new ways of looking at Central Asia. Until the 1990s Western social scientists and historians knew