Under Solomon's Throneprovides a rare ground-level analysis of post-Soviet Central Asia's social and political paradoxes by focusing on an urban ethnic community: the Uzbeks in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, who ...have maintained visions of societal renewal throughout economic upheaval, political discrimination, and massive violence.
Morgan Liu illuminates many of the challenges facing Central Asia today by unpacking the predicament of Osh, a city whose experience captures key political and cultural issues of the region as a whole. Situated on the border of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan-newly independent republics that have followed increasingly divergent paths to reform their states and economies-the city is subject to a Kyrgyz government, but the majority of its population are ethnic Uzbeks. Conflict between the two groups led to riots in 1990, and again in 2010, when thousands, mostly ethnic Uzbeks, were killed and nearly half a million more fled across the border into Uzbekistan. While these tragic outbreaks of violence highlight communal tensions amid long-term uncertainty, a close examination of community life in the two decades between reveals the way Osh Uzbeks have created a sense of stability and belonging for themselves while occupying a postcolonial no-man's-land, tied to two nation-states but not fully accepted by either one.
The first ethnographic monograph based on extensive local-language fieldwork in a Central Asian city, this study examines the culturally specific ways that Osh Uzbeks are making sense of their post-Soviet dilemmas. These practices reveal deep connections with Soviet and Islamic sensibilities and with everyday acts of dwelling in urban neighborhoods. Osh Uzbeks engage the spaces of their city to shape their orientations relative to the wider world, postsocialist transformations, Islamic piety, moral personhood, and effective leadership. Living in the shadow of Solomon's Throne, the city's central mountain, they envision and attempt to build a just social order.
Mass mobilization is among the most dramatic and inspiring forces for political change. When ordinary citizens take to the streets in large numbers, they can undermine and even topple undemocratic ...governments, as the recent wave of peaceful uprisings in several postcommunist states has shown. However, investigation into how protests are organized can sometimes reveal that the origins and purpose of "people power" are not as they appear on the surface. In particular, protest can be used as an instrument of elite actors to advance their own interests rather than those of the masses.
Weapons of the Wealthyfocuses on the region of post-Soviet Central Asia to investigate the causes of elite-led protest. In nondemocratic states, economic and political opportunities can give rise to elites who are independent of the regime, yet vulnerable to expropriation and harassment from above. In conditions of political uncertainty, elites have an incentive to cultivate support in local communities, which elites can then wield as a "weapon" against a predatory regime. Scott Radnitz builds on his in-depth fieldwork and analysis of the spatial distribution of protests to demonstrate how Kyrgyzstan's post-independence development laid the groundwork for elite-led mobilization, whereas Uzbekistan's did not.
Elites often have the wherewithal and the motivation to trigger protests, as is borne out by Radnitz's more than one hundred interviews with those who participated in, observed, or avoided protests. Even Kyrgyzstan's 2005 "Tulip Revolution," which brought about the first peaceful change of power in Central Asia since independence, should be understood as a strategic action of elites rather than as an expression of the popular will. This interpretation helps account for the undemocratic nature of the successor government and the 2010 uprising that toppled it. It also serves as a warning for scholars to look critically at bottom-up political change.
How do individuals decide to exercise their democratic rights? This 2006 book argues that they first assess their economic autonomy, meaning their ability to make a living independent of government ...authorities. Before individuals consider whether their resources and organizational abilities are adequate to act on their interests, they calculate the risk of political activism to their livelihood. This is particularly evident in regions of the world where states monopolize the economy and thus can readily harass activists at their workplaces. Economic autonomy links capitalism and democracy through individuals' calculations about activism. Accounts of activists' decisions about establishing independent media, leading political organizations, and running for office and descriptions of government harassment in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, along with examples from most regions of the world, illustrate these arguments. Economic autonomy and the interaction among democratic rights help explain the global proliferation of hybrid regimes, governments that display both democratic and authoritarian characteristics.
How does ideology function during periods of political and economic turmoil? This book, based on long-term ethnographic research in a destitute former mining town in Kyrgyzstan, testifies to the ...precariousness of life in the former Soviet republics in the decades after the collapse of the USSR. It follows inhabitants as they make sense of a radically changing world and as they try to imbue their lives with relevance and direction, while concentrating in depth on their engagement with a range of religious ideas and other ideological currents, including scientific atheism, evangelical Christianity, Sunni Islamic revivalism, and traditional shamanistic beliefs. By examining such a broad variety of belief systems and how they manifest themselves in daily life, the author provides new insights into how ideology works (or fails to work) and how cultural and religious convictions are collectively produced and shaped.
Speaking Soviet with an Accentpresents the first English-language study of Soviet culture clubs in Kyrgyzstan. These clubs profoundly influenced the future of Kyrgyz cultural identity and fostered ...the work of many artists, such as famed novelist Chingiz Aitmatov.Based on extensive oral history and archival research, Ali Igmen follows the rise of culture clubs beginning in the 1920s, when they were established to inculcate Soviet ideology and create a sedentary lifestyle among the historically nomadic Kyrgyz people. These "Red clubs" are fondly remembered by locals as one of the few places where lively activities and socialization with other members of their ail (village or tribal unit) could be found.Through lectures, readings, books, plays, concerts, operas, visual arts, and cultural Olympiads, locals were exposed to Soviet notions of modernization. But these programs also encouraged the creation of a newfound "Kyrgyzness" that preserved aspects of local traditions and celebrated the achievements of Kyrgyz citizens in the building of a new state. These ideals proved appealing to many Kyrgyz, who, for centuries, had seen riches and power in the hands of a few tribal chieftains and Russian imperialists.This book offers new insights into the formation of modern cultural identity in Central Asia. Here, like their imperial predecessors, the Soviets sought to extend their physical borders and political influence. But Igmen also reveals the remarkable agency of the Kyrgyz people, who employed available resources to meld their own heritage with Soviet and Russian ideologies and form artistic expressions that continue to influence Kyrgyzstan today.
Kyrgyzstan is an interesting example of a relatively weak state, which for its brief period of independence has already ousted two presidents, experienced two revolutions, survived two interethnic ...conflicts and yet remained intact. This book explores this apparent paradox and argues that the schism between domestic and international dimensions of state and regime security is key to understanding the nature of Kyrgyz politics. The book shows how the foreign policy links to the Manas Air Base, used by the US military and essential for supplying their forces in Afghanistan, the economic arrangements necessary for sustaining the base, both inside and outside Kyrgyzstan, and the myriad of different actors involved in all this, combined to overshadow points of friction to ensure stable continuance of the status quo. Overall, the book shows how broad geopolitical forces and complex local factors together have a huge impact on the formation of Kyrgyz foreign policy.
Kemel Toktomushev is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Public Policy and Administration, University of Central Asia.
Introduction
1. One world, rival theories
2. Foreign policy and regime security of weak states
3. Development of Kyrgyz foreign policy
4. Military security and foreign policy
5. Manas Air Base
Conclusion
This book explores the conceptions of genealogy, kinship and 'tribalism' in the intertwined construction of personhood and national identity in the Kyrgyz Republic. It makes an important contribution ...to several theoretical and regional debates.
A pioneering study of kinship, patronage, and politics in Central Asia, Blood Ties and the Native Son tells the story of the rise and fall of a man called Rahim, an influential and powerful patron in ...rural northern Kyrgyzstan, and of how his relations with clients and kin shaped the economic and social life of the region. Many observers of politics in post-Soviet Central Asia have assumed that corruption, nepotism, and patron-client relations would forestall democratization. Looking at the intersection of kinship ties with political patronage, Aksana Ismailbekova finds instead that this intertwining has in fact enabled democratization-both kinship and patronage develop apace with democracy, although patronage relations may stymie individual political opinion and action.
The tectonic history of the Kyrgyz South Tianshan in the western Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) remains controversial, first of all, due to the limited amount of geochemical and isotope data. Our ...paper presents the first results of a detailed geochemical study (major and trace elements, Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes) of Middle Paleozoic mafic volcanic and subvolcanic rocks of the Ferghana and Atbashi–Kokshaal accretionary belts of the South Tianshan orogen in Kyrgyzstan, which formed during the evolution of the Turkestan Ocean. A special focus is given to the relation between magmatic rocks and sedimentary units of marine origin, chert, siliceous shale/mudstone, volcanogenic–carbonate clastics, seamount carbonates, and turbidites, which we consider as elements of Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS). The age range of marine sediments is Late Silurian to Early Carboniferous, but the age of the most volcanic rocks associated with fossil-bearing OPS sediments is Devonian. The magmatic rocks have geochemical affinity to oceanic island basalts (OIB-type) and, to a lesser extent, mid-oceanic ridge (MORB-type) basalts associated with hemipelagic siliceous mudstone and pelagic chert. The rocks with OIB-type affinity are associated with chert, siliceous shale and carbonaceous clastics and carbonates. They are enriched in TiO2, LREE (La/Smn=1.9), and Nb (Zr/Nbav.=10), have differentiated HREE (Gd/Ybn=2.0), medium to low εNd (~5.7) and are characterized by clear Nb positive anomalies in normalized multi-element plots (Nb/Thpm=1.3, Nb/Lapm=1.1). The OIBs formed by relatively low degrees of melting (<5%) of mantle sources in the garnet stability field and erupted in an oceanic island setting. The MORB-type samples associated with siliceous mudstone and chert are less enriched in incompatible elements, possess flat REE and multi-element pattern, and show higher εNd values (~9.1); they were probably produced by high-degree melting of spinel lherzolite and/or harzburgite and erupted in a mid-oceanic ridge setting. The geological, lithological and geochronological data suggest that the OPS units with dominantly OIB-type basalts formed at one or several seamount chains of the Turkestan Ocean, which were accreted to the Kazakhstan continent, and thus contribute to our understanding of the Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the western CAOB during the Serpukhovian–Bashkirian.
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•Southern Tianshan hosts Middle Paleozoic oceanic sediments and mafic volcanic rocks.•Volcanic rocks are associated with marine chert, carbonate, siliceous shale and turbidite.•Volcanic rocks possess geochemical features of OIB with subordinate MORB.•The dominating OIBs were derived from low-degree melting of garnet peridotite.•Wide age range of OIBs and their domination in OPS suggest a relatively large oceanic realm.
From Belonging to Beliefpresents a nuanced ethnographic study of Islam and secularism in post-Soviet Central Asia, as seen from the small town of Bazaar-Korgon in southern Kyrgyzstan. Opening with ...the juxtaposition of a statue of Lenin and a mosque in the town square, Julie McBrien proceeds to peel away the multiple layers that have shaped the return of public Islam in the region. She explores belief and nonbelief, varying practices of Islam, discourses of extremism, and the role of the state, to elucidate the everyday experiences of Bazaar-Korgonians. McBrien shows how Islam is explored, lived, and debated in both conventional and novel sites: a Soviet-era cleric who continues to hold great influence; popular television programs; religious instruction at wedding parties; clothing; celebrations; and others. Through ethnographic research, McBrien reveals how moving toward Islam is not a simple step but rather a deliberate and personal journey of experimentation, testing, and knowledge acquisition. Moreover she argues that religion is not always a matter of belief-sometimes it is essentially about belonging.From Belonging to Beliefoffers an important corrective to studies that focus only on the pious turns among Muslims in Central Asia, and instead shows the complex process of evolving religion in a region that has experienced both Soviet atheism and post-Soviet secularism, each of which has profoundly formed the way Muslims interpret and live Islam.
