Eurasian Studies
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/1668
2024-03-29T12:53:36ZNATIONALISM FROM THE MARGINS: A CRITICAL STUDY OF ELITIST HISTORIOGRAPHY AND POLITICS IN MĀWARĀʾ AL-NAHR AND KHURĀSĀN (LATER UZBEKISTAN, TAJIKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN), 1800-1950.
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/7329
NATIONALISM FROM THE MARGINS: A CRITICAL STUDY OF ELITIST HISTORIOGRAPHY AND POLITICS IN MĀWARĀʾ AL-NAHR AND KHURĀSĀN (LATER UZBEKISTAN, TAJIKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN), 1800-1950.
Ahwar, Ahmad Javeed
This dissertation traces the history of national ideas in Māwarāʾ al-Nahr and Khurāsān, later known as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, from the margins. This study follows the transformations of ideas of differences from the early nineteenth century when tribal, clan, sectarian, and regional affiliations prevailed in Māwarāʾ al-Nahr and Khurāsān to the time when Uzbek elites and Soviets in Bukhara, Khwārazm, and Russian Turkistan, and Pashtun nationalist elites in Kabul, laid the foundation of ethnonational-territorial identities of “Uzbek,” “Tajik,” and “Afghan,” and enforced boundaries between them. Furthermore, this dissertation pays particular attention to the de-Persianization projects (in the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic/later Uzbek and Tajik SSRs and Afghanistan), which met with the insubordination of Tajiks.
The existing literature on nation-formation in Central Asia and Afghanistan is either written or indirectly influenced by elite sources. The prevalence of methodological nationalism has contributed to the reification of state-led and elitist nationalisms bearing the interests of the ruling groups in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Consequently, non-dominant/marginalized groups are represented as either passive or non-existent. Elite nationalism, backed by methodological nationalism, has contributed to the misrepresentation, misinterpretation, and erasure of the history of non-dominant/subaltern groups in the official national historiographies and politics of Māwarāʾ al-Nahr and Khurāsān (later Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan). This dissertation aims to better understand “non-elite/non-dominant nationalisms” in these countries by bringing enormous materials to light, arguing that it is the elites’ manipulation and control of state resources, media, statistics, and their suppression of non-dominant languages and non-dominant language groups that ensure the triumph of “majority-formation” and early nationalization projects in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. This dissertation approaches Tajik national consciousness from the position of “subalternity,” considering that Tajiks have been subjects of Uzbek and Afghan khanates for centuries and distinguishes Tajik consciousness from the formation of the Tajik SSR. It is also the dominance of pro-Uzbek Khujandī elites throughout the history of the Tajik SSR and their failure to promote the Tajik cause addressing the interests of Tajiks of the Uzbek SSR and Afghanistan, which adds to the marginality of the Tajik cause. Among other factors, the territorial and ideological constraints imposed by the Soviet regime, the indifference of Khujandī elites to the Tajik cause, and de-Persianization policies of the Uzbek SSR and Afghanistan contributed to the failure of Tajik national consciousness. The comparative and transnational perspective not only helps us rectify
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Anglo-Russian historiographies, which often separates Afghanistan from Central Asian studies but also challenges elitist historiographies that reduce discussions on the Tajik people to the territory of Tajikistan, leaving off the Tajiks of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan unattended.
Moreover, this study will place nationalist movements in broader historical and geographical contexts to explain how Tajik national consciousness failed and how Afghans and Uzbeks met with relative success. Furthermore, drawing upon the extensive research of primary sources such as court chronicles, local histories, Western travelogues, and the writings of leading pioneers of nationalism Maḥmūd Ṭarzī, Ṣadr al-Dīn ʿAynī, and ʿAbd al-Raʾūf Fiṭrat, this dissertation argues that the position of indigenous elitist sources (be it the feudal or nationalist one) towards non-dominant group is indistinguishable from the ruling class, pushing non-dominants to the margins. It is in European sources, in contrast to Edward Said’s notion of Orientalism, that non-dominant groups find a voice at times.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZHETEROGLOSSIA IN KAZAKHSTANI`S METAL SUBCULTURE: TECHNOLOGICALLY MEDIATED SONIC REPRESENTATION OF AUTHENTIC METAL VOICES
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/7142
HETEROGLOSSIA IN KAZAKHSTANI`S METAL SUBCULTURE: TECHNOLOGICALLY MEDIATED SONIC REPRESENTATION OF AUTHENTIC METAL VOICES
Dukayev, Ali
The current work attempts to investigate the concept of heteroglossia and its sonic representation in Kazakhstani`s metal subculture. Heteroglossia is a combination of voices that we consciously and subconsciously derive from our environment, that impact our daily communication. In order to move beyond conventional divisions of language and music, both are treated as communication within a soundscape, i.e. everything an ear is exposed to, and analyzed in terms of frequency and dynamics content. Overall, the paper attempts at uncovering the local heteroglossia that comes to define the common footing of the subculture, establish the universal and canon characteristics of metal sound, and showcase the technologically mediated processes that drive this heteroglossia`s expression within a local metal soundscape. In order to achieve this, I have conducted fieldwork, engaged in spectral and dynamics analysis of the locally produced music, and led a personal project. The results of the fieldwork indicate that the underlying common footing of the community is the concept of authenticity, which implies both non-conformity to the mainstream, and conformity to metal canons. Sonically, non-conformity to the mainstream is expressed through the inclusion of the local instrumentations and vocalizations, and creative and pragmatic decisions behind them. The conformity means the inclusion of distorted guitars and fast paced live-sounding drums. Such sonic mix presents a challenge to the clear expression of the local voices within global ones necessary for the convection of certain communicative purposes, since distorted guitars create spectral masking, obstructing audibility and clarity of other instruments and vocals. Resolving this issue falls on the sound engineer. Overall, the balanced expression of the local heteroglossia, i.e. a unique/authentic local metal soundscape, is a technologically mediated process, where the pivotal role is taken by a sound engineer, who shapes/alters/molds the soundscape to covey certain communicative functions and introduces his/her own voices, i.e. creative and pragmatic decisions.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZFROM KRESY TO KAZAKHSTAN: THREE GENERATIONS OF POLISH MINORITY
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/6247
FROM KRESY TO KAZAKHSTAN: THREE GENERATIONS OF POLISH MINORITY
Maskevich, Anastassiya
This study aims to investigate the transformations of ethnic identity of three
generations of Kazakhstani Poles and their ancestors who were deported from Ukraine to
Kazakhstan in the 1930s. Deportation and Sovietization led to the impoverishment of ethnic
identity, therefore in independent Kazakhstan Poles had to look for new sources of
identification. One the base of preserved ethnicity Poles pursue two opposite trends: the
reconstruction of identity on the basis of preserved ethnicity or try to distance themselves
from it by assimilation. The base of the research is collections of memoirs and fieldwork data
in the village Kamenka in North Kazakhstan. Thesis uses the generational approach to show
how the boundaries of ethnic identity have been changed inside the community. Using this
approach, we emphasize the importance of historical memory. We cannot exclude the
historical narrative and use only recollections to save the objectivity of the presented facts,
recollections show the transmission of specific characteristics and their erasing from
generation to generation
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZFEMALE SHRINE PILGRIMAGE IN CONTEMPORARY KAZAKHSTAN
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/6246
FEMALE SHRINE PILGRIMAGE IN CONTEMPORARY KAZAKHSTAN
Adzhar, Atikah
Ethnographies and popular belief posit that women dominate as pilgrims in
Islamic shrine pilgrimage in Kazakhstan. This thesis attempts to examine the larger
phenomenon of female pilgrim majorities in Islamic shrine pilgrimage and what factors
are responsible for it by focusing on a case study of shrine pilgrimage at Aisha Bibi
shrine in Kazakhstan as recorded through fieldwork. Islamic shrine pilgrimage first
developed through Sufi orders and were a tangible mark of Islam in newly converted
lands. Over the years, it has faced recent challenges to its orthodoxy yet it still remains
popular with Muslims around the world, particularly women. This thesis finds female
predominance in modern Islamic shrine pilgrimage as the result of not only the unique
historical and political particularities specific to each host country, such as the impact of
Soviet atheism and modern Kazakhstani nation building in developing Kazakhstani
shrine pilgrimage, but also of broader social traits of shared by women across the world,
which is widely indicative of women’s role in today’s global societies.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZORIGINS OF BOSNIAN HUMOUR AND ITS ROLE DURING THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/6146
ORIGINS OF BOSNIAN HUMOUR AND ITS ROLE DURING THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO
Orlov, David
This article presents an ethnographic study of Bosnian humour during the siege of Sarajevo. The siege of Sarajevo, which followed the collapse of Yugoslavia, lasted four years. Despite the atrocities and war crimes committed against the residents of Sarajevo during this period, they are known for the spirit they demonstrated, and humour was a crucial element of this spirit. On the basis of two-month fieldwork in Sarajevo, I demonstrate how Bosnians employed humour to comment on this traumatic event, made sense of it, and coped with the experience. Although humour under extreme conditions is mainly viewed as a coping mechanism, by exploring the origins of Bosnian humour and stereotypes about Bosnians, I demonstrate that a notable humorous response to the traumatic events of the 1990s was more than a coping mechanism or just a response to this particular war. As I argue, a humorous attitude toward life in Bosnia belongs to people’s identity; it has developed historically as a response to the sufferings of a peripheral group in the region and, as a result, has become a cultural artifact belonging to Bosnians’ ethnic consciousness. In their attempt to preserve a sense of normalcy and restore dignity during the siege, Sarajevans continued to engage in their traditional humour, as doing
otherwise would mean they had lost control over who they were.
2021-12-30T00:00:00ZTHE POLITICAL POWER OF THE MEDIEVAL ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES AND THE MAMLUK-ILKHANATE WARFARE BETWEEN 1284 AND 1304: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH AND THE ASSYRIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN CILICIAN ARMENIA AND ILKHANATE
http://nur.nu.edu.kz:80/handle/123456789/5600
THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE MEDIEVAL ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES AND THE MAMLUK-ILKHANATE WARFARE BETWEEN 1284 AND 1304: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH AND THE ASSYRIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN CILICIAN ARMENIA AND ILKHANATE
Saduakassov, Aidar
The modern history often avoids researching the marginalized medieval Christian
religious institutions due to the lack of their political significance. However, the medieval
accounts present the information about their significant role in the Mongol conquest of the
Mamluk Sultanate. From the one hand, the study of the ecclesiastical representatives of the
Assyrian Apostolic Church in the Mongol court is one of the underexplored topics in the
medieval history of Central Asia and Middle East. Morgan and Grousset explored the
significance of the Nestorian authorities in the court as a matter of the personal favorability of
khans, however, the effect of the Mongol conquest to the power of Christians in Ilkhanate was
undefined. Russell tried to examine this connection; however, her paradigm lacks scientific
proofs and proper methods of analysis. On the other hand, the studies of the Armenian
Apostolic Church were better developed. Ghazarian analyzed the effects of the Latin-Armenian
encounters to the Armenian domestic politics. Dashdonbog explored how the Mongol Armenian relationships affected the institutional power of the Armenian Church. However, the
authors fail to examine the question of why the Armenian Church became one of the most
significant religious entity among marginalized Christian religions in the Middle East. This
comparative study explores the relationships between the Mamluk-Ilkhanate warfare during
1284 and 1304 and the political power of the Nestorian and Armenian clergies in Ilkhanate and
Cilician Armenia. The main argument is that the political power of the Nestorian and Armenian
ecclesiastical authorities was damaged by the Mongol-Mamluk warfare between 1284 and
1304. In particular, apart the military damages of the warfare, the consequences of Islamization
of ilkhans and reciprocity with Catholics became significant factors that explain the downward
trend in political power of the Christian clergies in Cilician Armenia and Ilkhanate. Mainly,
these factors were the intentional discourses to stimulate the military capabilities of the
Armenians and Mongols through the attraction of the domestic and foreign alliances against vii
Mamluks. Furthermore, the study will also prove that the political ties between Armenian kings
and ecclesiastical authorities affected the survival of the Armenian Church and localization of
the Nestorian clergy. Hereby, the institutional power, political positions in the courts, patronage
and social status as well as repressions and institutional devastations are the main variables that
determine the political power of the ecclesiastical authorities in Ilkhanate and Cilician
Armenia. The thesis mainly explores the periods of Lewon II and Hetum II reigns in Cilician
Armenia; and simultaneously evaluates the period from Arghun khan’s reign to Ghazan khan’s
rule in Ilkhanate. The study uses content and linguistic-political discourse analyses as major
methodological tools. The research is based on Syriac, Latin, Armenian and Persian primary
sources that were conducted between 13th and 16th centuries. In particular, the diplomatic
reports, correspondences between rulers, ecclesiastical and Islamic chronicles will be evaluated
throughout the study. Hopefully, this paper will contribute to the political, military and
religious history of the medieval Middle East, Ciscaucasia and Central Asia
2021-06-01T00:00:00Z