Ethnic Differentiation, Interethnic Relations and Conflict in Central Asia: The Case of the Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kazakstan
Final Report Abstract
The overall project and its sub-projects allow a very detailed and yet comparable insight into Uzbeks in the diaspora. In spite of some difficulties, we have been able to successfully implement the research scheme. Research in Kazakstan was conducted in and around the city of Shymkent, and particularly in the settlement of Sayram where Uzbeks form a majority. As in other sites, the closing of the borders to Uzbekistan has greatly inhibited on people’s freedom to visit relatives, get education, or do business there. The younger generation therefore does not communicate with Uzbekistanians as often as their parents did. Moreover, incentives for getting higher education in Kazakstan motivate them to learn Kazak or Russian while there is no big fear about losing their native language and culture as the state still supports ethnic minorities. One tool in this is the ‘Assembly of the People of Kazakstan’ an institution ‘strengthening the interests of all ethnic groups’ residing in the country. Uzbeks and Kazaks settling in the same locations typically feel close to each other but still show strong ethnic boundaries. It is rather a widespread level of understanding each other and knowing the differences. Assimilation either way is rare. A particular issue are the so-called oralman, or Kazak repatriates who came from Uzbekistan and other places since independence. They create a distinct group that does not share much commonality with the locals, except belonging to the same ethnicity as Kazaks. This, however, does not translate into much collective identity. Local Kazaks rather treat their neighbouring Uzbeks closer than their co-ethnic oralman. Due to the long-lasting coexistence, people know whom to trust or mistrust, and do or do not cooperate accordingly. The exception is when it comes to marriage where oralman are preferred to Uzbeks and ethnicity becomes the prime factor. Politically, as in the other republics, the titular group has gained much importance since independence. And while the idea of (ethnic and religious) tolerance has been intensively propagated by the state, Uzbeks are well aware of the role the new nation state has ascribed to them. Research in Tajikistan was carried out in a rural area of the district of Temurmalik, where Uzbeks constitute roughly one third of the population, and various other sites of the province of Khatlon, as well as near and in Dushanbe. Compared to the Kazakstan case, Tajikistan’s Uzbek population is predominantly rural, and distinguished by more pronounced internal diversity. Among the four cases, Tajikistan further stands out as the country with the highest proportion of Uzbeks among the total population. Actually, the Uzbek’s share was highest around the mid-1990s and has most notably declined thereafter, and the dominant ethnic process in post-Soviet Tajikistan may be called either ‘Tajikization’ or ‘De-Uzbekization’ (to a lesser extent also ‘De-Turkization’). Tajik nationalist discourse and language policy, such as reflected by the Law on Language of 2009, sets clear limitations to the attractiveness of Uzbek ethnic identity. Moreover, since the late 1990s official statistics of Tajikistan have ceased to count some of these subgroups Uzbeks but rather as separate minorities. This policy partly converges with aspirations of ethnic entrepreneurs who, since the period of perestroika, have used the new freedom of press and association rights for revivals of specific group identities, and are welcome to register such groups as a distinct minority with the government board of national minority affairs. The process of ‘Tajikization’ is strongest close to the political and ideological centres than in remote rural sites. The fact that there still are numerous rural Uzbek settlements in Tajikistan, to refer to the comparative frame one more, distinguishes the case from Kyrgyzstan where after the Osh events Uzbeks moved from rural to urban sites for considerations of safety. Uzbeks in Southern Tajikistan do not feel threatened by their neighbours, and those who can make a living on stockbreeding and farming, do not face pressure to assimilate or to hide their ‘Uzbekness’. However, those who have to consider career perspectives, either for themselves or for their children, are more prone to “ethnic conversion.” Other strategies to cope with this new condition that have been discerned among Uzbeks of Southern Tajikistan include emphatic declarations of loyalty to the Tajik state and slightly changing patterns of intermarriage with Tajiks. Currently the projects are in the process of writing-up, analyzing data, and finalizing their theses and publications. As mentioned above, an edited volume is planned for which already one of the leading international publishers in the discipline has signalled its interest.
Publications
- 2013. ‘Fulbe and Uzbeks Compared.’ In Finke, P. and G. Schlee (eds.). CASCA – Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia: Framing the Research, Initial Projects Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Department ‘Integration and Conflict’ Halle/Saale, 27-64
Schlee, G.
- 2014. ‘F. Bart zhane ėtnostik biregeililik, ėtnostin shegaralary maseleleri’ [Barth and issues of ethnic identity and ethnic boundaries]. In Kalysh A. et al. (eds.). Materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii ‘II Argynbayevskie chteniya’ ... [Materials of the International Conference “II Argynbaev Lectures]. Almaty: Kazak Universiteti, 140-142
Alibayeva, I.
- 2014. ‘Spetsialnaya tema nomera: strategii identifikatsii v Sredney / Tsentralnoy Azii.’ Ėtnograficheskoe obozrenie 2014 (4), 3-10. (Strategies of Identification in Central Asia. Special Issue of Ėtnograficheskoe obozrenie)
Schlee, G. (with P. Finke)
- (2015) ‘Nekotorye istochniki po Vostochnoy Bukhare v kontse devyatnadtsatogo veka’ [Some sources on Eastern Bukhara at the end of the 19th century]. In Alimov, D. et al. (eds.). Materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchnoteoreticheskoy konferentsii ‘Razvitie istoricheskikh i obshchestvennykh nauk v period nezavisimosti Tadzhikistana’, (17-18 aprelya 2015g.). Vol. 1. Dushanbe: Irfon, 55-57
Holzwarth, W.
- (2015) ‘Some Sources on Eastern Bukhara in the Nineteenth Century.’ In Alimov, D. et al. (eds.). Materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-teoreticheskoy konferentsii ‘Razvitie istoricheskikh i obshchestvennykh nauk v period nezavisimosti Tadzhikistana’, (17-18 aprelya 2015g.). Vol. 2. Dushanbe: Irfon, 140-143
Holzwarth, W.
- 2015. ‘Bukharan Armies and Uzbek Military Power, 1670 - 1870: Coping with the Legacy of a Nomadic Conquest.’ In Franz, K. and W. Holzwarth (eds.). Nomad Military Power in Iran and Adjacent Areas in the Islamic period. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 273-354
Holzwarth, W.
- 2015. ‘Mavodi ba“ze sarchashmaho oid ba vaz“i siësii Bukhoroi Sharqī’ [Data of some sources relating to the political situation of Eastern Bukhara]. In Rasuliyon, Q. and T. Ziyozoda (eds.). Naqshi Hisor dar tamadduni Sharq. Mavodi konfronsi baynalmilalī bakhshida ba 3000-solagii Hisor. 27-28 yanvari soli 2015. Dushanbe: Donishgohi Millii Tojikiston. Fakulteti Ta“rikh. 2015, 29
Holzwarth, W.
- 2016. ‘Temurmalik und die grünen Hügel.’ In Bill, S. and D. Schreiber, Tadschikistan: Mit Duschanbe, Pamir und Fangebirge. Berlin: Trescher, 386-387
Holzwarth, W.
- 2017. ‘From Identification to Framing and Alignment: A New Approach to the Comparative Analysis of Collective Identities.’ Current Anthropology Vol. 58 (3), June 2017, pp. 340-359
Schlee, G. et al.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1086/691970) - ‘Sharing Food in Southern Tajikistan.’ In Alymbaeva, A.A. (ed.). Food and Identity in Central Asia. Halle (Saale): Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Department ‘Integration and Conflict’, 2017, pp 117-126
Holzwarth, W.
- ‘When Food Talks: Insights from Southern Kazakhstan.’ In Alymbaeva, A.A. (ed.). Food and Identity in Central Asia. Halle (Saale): Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Department ‘Integration and Conflict’, 2017, pp. 21-30
Alibayeva, I.
