Subject: Re: Kyrgyz Tribes and Clans
From: yoshida setsuko (yoshidas@email-jp.com)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 01:48:09 EDT
Dear Victoria Clement,
I read your email asking about attitudes towards tribes in Kyrgyzstan. I am
not sure whether you have already gotten some answers personally, I too
would like to add some information on that issue. I am an social
anthropologist and have done fieldwork since 1994 in a village of northern
Kyrgyzstan.
In Kyrgyzstan, so-called "tribalism" combined with political struggles has
been reported by native and non-native writers. In the media, it seems that
"tribalism" is always treated something to overcome and we can say it isn't
the topic being prohibited from discussing officially. It is very natural
for native people to ask each other their tribal/clan affiliations on a
daily basis. But I think there is some difference of contexts between
"tribalism" and "tribal/clan identity". I call the latter as patrilineal
identity originating from patrilineal descent categories, on which they
depend in their social lives. Particularly, "tribalism" appears in articles
on political issues, but few discuss on "patrilineal identity" in their
social contexts from the point of daily lives, in cities and/or villages.
Well, this is my opinion. Thank you.
YOSHIDA Setsuko
Lecturer in Sociocultural Anthropology,
Rissho University in Tokyo
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