VIEWING THE 19TH - CENTURY KAZAKH NOMADS THROUGH THE LENS OF RUSSIAN ETHNOGRAPHERS

Abstract

Ethnographic findings of Russian colonial representatives are the main sources for studying the Steppe inhabitants from the time of their first contact with the Russian Empire until the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. Generally, such ethnographic accounts bring biases and prejudices to describing the nomads’ traditions and mores, portraying them as “backward people”, who need to be civilized according to “European standards”. By implementing content method analysis, my research paper aims to scrutinize the extent of partiality, inaccuracies, and contradictions between different ethnographic narratives to learn more about the Kazakhs of the 19th century, the time of the intensive incorporation of the Steppe in the Russian Imperial colonial system.