Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on women's roles in some parts of the Central Asian region during ancient times from anthropological, archaeological, and historical perspectives.

Paper long abstract

This paper focuses on women's roles in some parts of the Central Asian region during ancient times from anthropological, archaeological, and historical perspectives. Biased assumptions on gender roles have been prevailing in most of the cultures. Several excavations in Central Asia revealed that all women did not conform to a typical gender role indeed. In this paper, we aim to review the archaeological interpretations of material culture through existing publications and our argument on women's roles in some parts of ancient Central Asia. The discourse on the Issyk Golden Man or Woman, the ancient writings from Herodotus concerning Amazons, and archaeological records of ancient burials of women with weapons and armor in Central Asia highlights an interest in the role of women in physical combat in Central Asia during the 6th Century BC to 6th Century AD. While evidence supports the existence of women warriors in Central Asia's ancient past, contemporary perceptions of these roles' being unusual or surprising should be re-framed. Robb and Harris (2018) argue European Neolithic era gender expression in clothing and social tasks was less differentiated between male and female compared to the later Bronze age gendered communities. Contextualizing gender interpretations considered location and time are crucial. Investigating task differentiation based on gender in ancient Central Asia and employing a feminist archaeological perspective, we argue that women in nomadic Central Asia ancient communities performed many roles, including military and spiritual leadership. Further, we argue that given the contextual gender in location and time, the presence of women in such military and spiritual leadership roles is not surprising or unusual.

Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on the children of ethnic Kazakh migrants who came to Kazakhstan from neighboring countries after 1991. I argue that they have constructed an idea of “home” which differs greatly from that of their parents. This is supported by interviews conducted during my ongoing research.

Paper long abstract

In 1991, the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan found itself faced with a litany of critical questions - namely, of how to consolidate Kazakhstan’s sovereignty and foster stability in the wake of Soviet rule. Nursultan Nazarbayev, with his ethnonationalist contingent, sought to achieve this, in part, by establishing a program of return for the millions of ethnic Kazakhs living outside of what was referred to as their ethnic and historical homeland. These “returnees” have been the subject of a body of literature that has focused on how these migrants understand the boundaries of their homeland. Some researchers posit that they are transmigrants, because they are able to negotiate the borders of “home” to encompass both the land of their birth and that of their ancestors - they “stretch” these boundaries to maintain relationships between their identities, communities, and subjectivities within both places. However, little work has been done considering how the children of these returnees, who migrated to Kazakhstan with their parents at a young age, have come to understand their own homeland. In this paper, I argue that these adult children have likely constructed an idea of home which differs greatly from that of their parents and that the lack of inquiry into their experiences constitutes a lacuna within the literature. This argument is supported by insights taken from interviews conducted during my ongoing research on this topic, and by literature from other cultural contexts which explores similar questions of the homeland among first-generation migrants and their children.

Paper short abstract

In the context of the worsening climate crisis and the strengthening of global environmental movements, MoveGreen NGO in Bishkek quite successfully mobilizes urban youth, disoriented in modern conditions, and gives them new guidelines in the formation of identity through eco-consciousness.

Paper long abstract

Deteriorating urban air quality in major Central Asian cities, and the emergence of new data on air pollution and its impact on health, has given rise to a wave of new urban activism. Along with the already existing and for some time operating organizations, new non-governmental organizations and individual initiatives have appeared in these cities.

In Bishkek, this new activism is especially appealing to urban youth. In this paper, I share my experience of observing and working together with a youth-eco-advocacy-NGO with a young female leader. This NGO has air quality as focus, was founded by foreign actors, but is successfully operating in the context of modern Bishkek and its problems with air. I look at this NGO from the inside, through the personality of its leader. I look at the work, focus, methods, techniques, perspectives, fears and emotional engagement. Air quality and the fight against air pollution was quite a peripheral topic compared to other environmental business-like ideas, such as sewing cotton eco-bags, recycling of plastic and producing eco-food. However, in the context of the worsening climate crisis and the strengthening of global environmental movements, the considered eco-NGO quite successfully mobilizes urban youth of Bishkek, disoriented in modern conditions and gives them new guidelines in the formation of identity through eco-consciousness.

This paper is based on 9-month field research and participant observation, and applies perspective at the intersection of social anthropology, visual/media studies, social movements theory and activism.