Subject: Re: Kyrgyz Tribes and Clans
From: Peter Finke (finke@eth.mpg.de)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 11:28:56 EDT
Dear Yoshida Setsuko,
I think this was a very important point you made. In fact, it seems that
"tribalism" and similar misnomers are - by western scholars as well as by
Central Asians - often attributed to any kind of nepotism - even in Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan where this kind of transmitting identity and alliances never
existed. I don´t know that much for Kirgizstan but I would argue for Kazakstan,
the country I know best in Central Asia, that the meaning of patrilineal
descent groups for recruiting loyalty and for distributing resources is quite
limited. In fact, you find by far more complex network systems including party
membership or whatever people have as social resources to build on. We should
be careful in supporting a public view of the survival of "archaic" structures
in Central Asia. In my view there is a serious lack of empirical studies which
describe current patterns of social organisation and its influence on politics.
Peter Finke
------------------------------------------------------ Peter Finke Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology finke@eth.mpg.de | Tel: +49 345 2927 113 | Postfach 110351 Fax: +49 345 2927 102 | 06017 Halle/S. ----------------------------------------------------
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