Kinship Systems of Xoja Groups in Southern Kazakhstan

Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 15, Issue 1, Summer, 2020

The Kazakhs, Turkmens, Tajiks, Qaraqalpaqs, Uyghurs and Uzbeks in Central Asia share some distinct sacred lineages -Sayyids and Xojas -some of which appear in two or more of these ethnic groups. In the article, I will analyse some data on the history and identity of Islamic sacred lineages of Samarqand, compiled during ethnographic research of the population and archival materials. I will analyse the stories of the representatives of sacred families about their past, as well as published narratives. The analysis of the sources shows that despite the preservation of the historical family library, a secularised society and the Sovietera education influenced the views and the identity of sacred families.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, 2019

The article is devoted to the theoretical-methodological basis of studying, which is based on researching diasporas, of the history of Uigurs in Uzbekistan, who have the most diasporas all over the world. This issue has been lightened through some factors of diasporas such as forming stages of Uighurs in Uzbekistan as a diaspora, their migration, the number of the migrants, social structure, locative geography, ethnic factors affecting the migratory movement, transnational and trans-border features, the reasons of permanently living in the territory of Uzbekistan, their relations with the historical homeland and so on. Also, some specialties like in Uzbekistan, Uighur diaspora's assimilation, acculturation, transmission, transformation, their identity as tasks of the country where they live, and others points have been covered. Moreover, their contribution to the peace among different nations and folk in Uzbekistan because of suitable made social-political conditions has been highlighted.

Transition to Modernity, 1992

A visitor to Kazakhstan is struck by the dominance of Russian everywhere. A general impression is that both the official language and the first spoken language of non-Kazakhs and the majority of Kazakhs is Russian. Kazakh appears to play the role of a secondary language in all major cities and regions dominated by Russians. A specialist in Turkic languages who before visiting Kazakhstan worked with some Kazakh literary or folklore texts but does not know the real situation of language is astonished that instead of genuine Kazakh words he read in these texts he hears Russian words and phrases in almost every utterance. Naturally there also exists a high standard variety of Kazakh, free of code-mixing and code-switching, but in most cases it functions in strictly limited situations. The attempt of this paper is to show linguistic behaviours of Kazakhs in Kazakh-Russian language contacts and to show the state of Kazakh in modern Kazakhstan.

Background/Objectives: The study aims to determine the Turkic origins of the traditional Kazakh historical thought and Islamic influence on its formation and to provide a scientific reconstruction of the Kazakh Khanate's history. Methods: Methodological analysis of the medieval-era written sources presupposes the usage of the methods of forecasting and assumption, comparison and scientific reconstruction, aimed at the disclosure of the content of scientifically-confirmed events and facts that can be found in genealogical tables, genealogies, and traditional written sources. Genealogy is used as an auxiliary method. Findings: As a result, the functions of genealogical data as a unique historical source that reveals the essence of the social and political relationships and social institutions of the traditional Kazakh society were classified. Thus, greater emphasis was placed on the religious and spiritual aspects of ethno-political processes in the society, which previously were not covered in the fundamental studies based on ideological postulates. The paper also provides the periodization of the Kazakh historical thought formation and development, systematizes the process of integration of the Islamic historical thought and the foundations of the Turkic worldview into the genealogical data that strengthened the tribal structure of the Kazakh society. For the first time, the concept of transformation of the ancient Turkic notion of the sacredness of the authority over the Islamic spiritual and political values advocated by the Turko-Islamic Sufi Ahmad Yasawi as a basis of the state ideology of the Kazakh Khanate was proposed. The Kazakh shezhire (genealogy) as a genre of oral history was evaluated methodologically. Applications/Improvements: The results of this study can be used in teaching relevant disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, etc. at higher educational institutions, and as sources for research papers and dissertations.

PLoS ONE, 2011

Kazakh populations have traditionally lived as nomadic pastoralists that seasonally migrate across the steppe and surrounding mountain ranges in Kazakhstan and southern Siberia. To clarify their population history from a paternal perspective, we analyzed the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome from Kazakh populations living in southern Altai Republic, Russia, using a high-resolution analysis of 60 biallelic markers and 17 STRs. We noted distinct differences in the patterns of genetic variation between maternal and paternal genetic systems in the Altaian Kazakhs. While they possess a variety of East and West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups, only three East Eurasian paternal haplogroups appear at significant frequencies (C3*, C3c and O3a3c*). In addition, the Y-STR data revealed low genetic diversity within these lineages. Analysis of the combined biallelic and STR data also demonstrated genetic differences among Kazakh populations from across Central Asia. The observed differences between Altaian Kazakhs and indigenous Kazakhs were not the result of admixture between Altaian Kazakhs and indigenous Altaians. Overall, the shared paternal ancestry of Kazakhs differentiates them from other Central Asian populations. In addition, all of them showed evidence of genetic influence by the 13 th century CE Mongol Empire. Ultimately, the social and cultural traditions of the Kazakhs shaped their current pattern of genetic variation.

The introduction to this issue has two strands. First, it contextualises the articles, which address kinship from varied perspectives, and situates them in their broader cultural context. Second, it adopts a comparative perspective by differentiating between the present articles with those published a decade earlier on the same themes in this journal, to examine whether, how and to what extent kinship has changed in the face of modernity, globalisation, wars, migrations and political change. It concludes that, compared with a decade ago, kinship has not only not weakened, but it has revived further and penetrated other institutions beyond family, or called upon to ensure and protect the continuity of cultural norms and values, from the threats paused by modernity and by the global, cultural and political invasions.

In the 19th century Railways were a symbol of progress and an essential condition of modernisation. In a colonial context they served not only military and economic aims, but also formed the outlines of the conquered territory. The construction of the Transcaspian Railway in 1885 – 1898 radically changed the traditional routes along which people and goods circulated in Turkestan, standardising the impressions western European travellers had of Russian territory. In this paper the crystallisation of a propaganda narrative surrounding the Transcaspian railway is traced through the accounts of a number of French travellers: Gustave Léon Niox,(1840-1921); d’Orval, (1851-1911), Napoléon Ney, (1849-1900) & Jean de Pontevès Sabran, (1851-1912). Other material is taken from more specialized publications, in particular those of the engineer Edgar Boulangier, (1850-1899) sent to Turkestan especially to study Russian railway construction. These initial impressions made up a canvas according to which Léon de Beylié, (1849-1910) also saw Turkestan in 1889 and Jules Verne described the adventures of Claudius Bombarnac in the novel of the same name in 1892.

Governance in the independent Central Asia persists as a one man show since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Reelected in march 2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev and Islam Karimov as record-term central Asian presidents do rule their countries as record CIS-leaders for almost 26 years (both since 1989, Nazarbayev in fact just one day longer than Islam Karimov). But also the Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon are in power since 23 years and the first Turkmen president Niyazov ruled 15 years until his unexpected death in 2006. Analyzing the Uzbek case and its difference country by country in the Central Asian context, this paper tries to explain a set of main reasons for the infinity of presidencies based on the concept of Neopatrimonialism and to analyze its political and economical obstacles.