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This landmark book provides a comprehensive anthropological introduction to contemporary Central Asia. Established and emerging scholars of the region critically interrogate the idea of a 'Central Asian World' at the intersection of post-Soviet, Persianate, East and South Asian worlds.
List of contents
Introduction: Situating Central Asian Worlds (Jeanne Feaux de la Croix and Madeleine Reeves)
FRAMEWORKS OF ANALYSIS
1. Vernacular Modes of History-Making (Svetlana Jacquesson)
2. Post-colonial Theory and the Study of Central Asia (Alima Bissenova)
3. Attempting Change: Development and Faith (Noor O'Neill Borbieva)
4. Gender and Queer Studies in Central Asia (Mohira Suyarkulova)
REVERBERATING LEGACIES
5. Pre-Soviet Oasis Legacies (Jeanine Däyeli)
6. Legacies of Soviet Nationalities Policy (Madeleine Reeves)
7. The Soviet Ethnographic Legacy (Sergey Abashin)
8. Afterlives of Perestroika (Isaac Scarborough)
9. Soviet Collapse and the Anthropology of Central Asia (John Schoeberlein)
LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION
10. Language, Performance and Nationhood (Eva-Marie Dubuisson)
11. Uyghur Muqams and the Performance of Traditional Literature (Nathan Light)
12. The Notion of Diaspora and Marking Dungan-ness (Soledad Jimenez Tovar)
13. Central Asians on Screen and in Front of Screens (Cloe Drieu)
POLITICS AND BELONGING
14. Local Political Organization in Afghanistan (Jennifer Murtazashvili)
15. The Politics of Migration 'Management' (Malika Bahovadinova)
16. Migration and Cultivating Religious Belonging (Emil Nasritdinov)
17. Marginalization and Getting by on the Streets (Grace Zhou)
18. Violent Paternalism: Surviving as an Uyghur in Xinjiang (Darren Byler)
19. Gender, Generation and Political Activism (Elmira Satybaldieva)
PERSONHOOD AND COMMUNITIES
20. Childhood and Health (Baktygul Tulebaeva)
21. Changing Pastoral Livelihoods (Carole Ferret)
22. The Social World of the Mahalla (Morgan Liu)
23. The Dvor and Urban Communities (Philipp Schroder)
24. Kinship Strategies after Conflict (Aksana Ismailbekova)
25. Kinship, Trade and Economic Security (Rune Steenberg)
ETHICAL REPERTOIRES
26. Customizing law (Judith Beyer)
27. The Value of Work (Jeanne Feaux de la Croix)
28. The Social Lives of 'Natural' Disasters (Sophie Roche)
29. Host and Guest (Magnus Marsden)
30. Dreams as Omens (Maria Louw)
31. Soap Operas and Modern Futures (Julie Billaud)
EVERYDAY ECONOMIES
32. Who owns the Land? (Tommaso Trevisani)
33. Industrial Labour (Eeva Keskula)
34. New Entrepreneurial Trajectories (Regine Spector)
35. Infrastructure and Inequality in Xinjiang (Agnieskza Joniak-Luthi)
36. The Halal Economy (Aisalkyn Botoeva)
37. Illegal Economies (Gulzat Botoeva)
MIGRATION AND DIASPORA
38. The Transnational Family (Juliette Cleuziou)
39. Migration and the 'Left-behind' (Diana Ibanez-Tirado)
40. Gulf Migrations (Manja Stephan-Emmrich)
41. Informality and Uzbek Migrant Networks in Russia (Rustamjon Urinboyev)
42. Ismaili Diaspora Networks (Till Mostowlansky)
ART, AESTHETICS, AND MATERIAL CULTURE
43. Craft and the Transmission of Knowledge (Stephanie Bunn)
44. Ceramics and the Master-Apprentice Relation (Haruka Kikuta)
45. Uyghur Subnational History as a Repository of Cultural Heritage (Ildiko Beller-Hann)
46. Sounding Islam (Rachel Harris)
47. Patriotism and Pop Music in Uzbekistan (Kerstin Klenke)
48. Art as Activism (Diana Kudaibergenova)
SACRED WORLDS
49. Sacred Geography of Kyrgyzstan: Diversity, Debates, Resilience (Gulnara Aitpaeva)
50. Varieties of Navigating Religious Experience (David Montgomery)
51. Muslim Marriages (Julie McBrien)
52. Dawat and Mosque Life (Yanti Holzchen)
53. Healing with Spirits (Danuta Penkala-Gaw¿cka)
Afterword: the Future of the Field (Caroline Humphrey)
About the author
Jeanne Feaux de la Croix is a social anthropologist focusing on water and energy issues. She is the author of
Iconic Places in Central Asia: The Moral Geography of Pastures, Dams and Holy Sites (2017) and is co-editor with Beatrice Penati of
Environmental Humanities in Central Asia (Routledge, 2023). She is setting up a transdisciplinary team at the University of Bern to foster environmental justice around marine renewable energy technologies.
Madeleine Reeves is Professor in the Anthropology of Migration at the University of Oxford. Her interests lie in the anthropology of space, power, mobility and reproduction. She is the author of
Border Work: Spatial Lives of the State in Rural Central Asia (2014) and the co-editor, most recently, of
The Everyday Lives of Sovereignty with Rebecca Bryant (2021). She is currently leading a new research project on infertility and the emergence of new reproductive markets in Central Asia.
Summary
This landmark book provides a comprehensive anthropological introduction to contemporary Central Asia. Established and emerging scholars of the region critically interrogate the idea of a ‘Central Asian World’ at the intersection of post-Soviet, Persianate, East and South Asian worlds.
