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Abstract

This paper examines the representation of gender in the archaeological discourse on the Botai Eneolithic culture in northern Kazakhstan and the impact of these representations on the wider narrative on the Eurasian steppe. While the Botai culture is frequently cited as a key case in discussions of horse domestication and Eneolithic social complexity in the region, analyses of its social dynamics frequently rely on interpretive frameworks that embed assumptions about gender, power, and agency.

In this study, the representation of gender in the discourse on the Botai culture will be explored using qualitative research methods on sixteen open-access publications in Russian and English. This research identifies recurring patterns in how scholars distribute agency, authority, and symbolic meaning in reconstructions of the Botai past. The analysis shows that men are more often described as central historical actors, such as leaders, innovators, and ritual specialists, while women are more frequently associated with domestic activity, fertility symbolism, or supportive roles. In several texts, gender itself is treated as an obvious or secondary category, even in contexts where labor organization, ritual practice, and social structure are central to interpretation. These representations are not derived from the archaeological evidence itself. Instead, they reflect interpretive framework and long-standing disciplinary approach that shape how material remains are translated into social narratives. By situating Botai literature within broader debates in gender-aware archaeology, the paper demonstrates how traditional narrative bias, such as active men and passive women, become normalized and reproduced, even when the material record is ambiguous.

The paper also examines how institutional and disciplinary conventions shape interpretive results, including patterns of citation, the marginal presence of gender-focused scholarship, and the tendency to treat gender as self-evident rather than as a subject of examination.

The research advocates for more reflexive approaches to gender in steppe archaeology. Making underlying assumptions explicit and testing alternative interpretations can produce richer and more accurate understandings of social life in Eneolithic Central Eurasia. Re-examining Botai archaeology through this lens not only complicates established narratives of early pastoral societies but also highlights how interpretations of the past continue to reflect the intellectual traditions of the present.

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Visual analysis of gender portrayal in school textbooks are often limited in corpus and subject areas. Most studies rely on a small number of textbooks, which restricts them in capturing broader patterns. At the same time, the scholarship frequently focuses on history or language textbooks, overlooking other subject areas. In this study, I address these limitations by analyzing a substantially larger corpus of textbooks across all school subjects.

This work analyzes visual gender representation in Uzbekistan’s school textbooks through a combination of quantitative and semiotic image analysis. The corpus comprises 82 textbooks for lower secondary-general education (Grades 5 to 9) approved by the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020-2021 academic year. The preliminary findings are consistent with the results of similar studies conducted in other national contexts and point to three main patterns: 1) There is a significant gap in the numerical representation of women and men, favoring men; 2) Occupational representation in textbook images strongly reinforces gendered social roles – women are often depicted in caregiving roles while men are portrayed in authoritative positions; 3) Although there is not significant variation across subject areas, languages textbooks, especially those developed with the help of European actors/donors, demonstrate a more balanced representation and fewer gender stereotypes. As one of the first studies to conduct a systematic visual analysis of school textbooks in the Central Asian context, this research contributes to broader comparative discussions by offering cross-subject and cross-grade insights into gender representation.

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This article examines Inner Me (2024), an installation-performance by contemporary Mongolic artist Bayanchuleet, as an embodied articulation of Mongolic shamanic animism within conditions of rapid social and cultural transformation. Across the steppe, Mongolic cosmology has long understood human life as inseparable from sky, earth, and ancestral presence, conceiving the world as composed of multiple coexisting realms in continuous interaction. While such relational assumptions persist within Mongolic ways of knowing, dominant narratives in contemporary China privilege linear models of development, progress, and artistic value. Inner Me confronts this tension through an immersive installation and live dance performance that stages the lived fragmentation experienced by young Mongols navigating between nomadic memory and urban modernity.

The installation is organized around the suspended roof ring (toono) of a Mongolic yurt, from which wires, mirrors, and fabric extend outward to form a dense spatial environment. Entering this structure with a shamanic drum, Bayanchuleet moves through the installation with gestures that oscillate between ritual rhythm and visible physical strain. His choreography transforms the installation from a symbolic setting into a relational field shaped by material forces, ancestral traces, and environmental conditions. Situating Inner Me as the culmination of the earlier works Unseen Tenger and Looking for New Totem, this article argues that the exhibition renders Mongolic shamanic animism perceptible as an embodied, spiral-temporal mode of relating in which ancestral presence remains palpable but no longer guarantees stable orientation.

The essay brings the work into conversation with Western feminist and Indigenous theorists including Leslie Marmon Silko, Donna Haraway, M. Jacqui Alexander, and Nathan Snaza, using their concepts as interpretive bridges that make the work more legible to Western readers rather than as frameworks that explain or subsume Mongolic artistic and cosmological practices. Through choreography, spatial composition, and embodied negotiation, Inner Me reveals a shamanic way of worlding that persists within contemporary conditions of fragmentation.