'Tribalism' and identity in contemporary circumstances: The case of Kazakstan

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 17, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 443-462

  Esenova, Saulesh ^a  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNIC MINORITY; POST-COMMUNISM; RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION; URBANIZATION;

KAZAKHSTAN;

EID: 0031755863     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634939808401046     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. The ideal type of tribe, in the Weberian sense, is a stateless, segmentary social group characterized by a (myth of) common lineage and bound together by linear loyalties.
2. See on this view: Bennigsen, A (1971) Islamic or local consciousness among Soviet nationalities, in Allworth, Ed. (ed.) Soviet Nationality Problems, New York: Columbia University Press, p 69; Suleymenov. R. (1987) Kul'turnoe Razvitie Kazakhstana v Poslevoennye Gody, Alma-Ata.
3. See on this view: Bennigsen, A (1971) Islamic or local consciousness among Soviet nationalities, in Allworth, Ed. (ed.) Soviet Nationality Problems, New York: Columbia University Press, p 69; Suleymenov. R. (1987) Kul'turnoe Razvitie Kazakhstana v Poslevoennye Gody, Alma-Ata.
4. This can be contrasted with the case of Uzbekistan, where historically there was cultural competition between nomadic and settled communities, and between the largest settlements. For an analysis of the regional political scene, and a good summary of the historical background see Critchlow, J. (1991) Nationalism in Uzbekistan. A Soviet Republic Road to Sovereignty, Boulder. San-Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, pp 200-211.
5. For this purpose, the volume 'Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East' P. S. Khoury and J. Kostiner (eds) 1990, Univ. of California) offers a full understanding of the continuous interaction of tribes and states at different times and in different parts of the Middle East.
6. Tibi, B. 'The simultaneity of the unsimultaneous: old tribes and imposed nation-states in the Modern Middle East'. Bassam Tibi is a political scientist, who extensively uses this term in this paper. Published in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) (1990) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California, p 127.
7. Albert Hourani, 'Tribes and states in Islamic history', in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner J. (eds) (1990) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California, pp 303-304.
8. Albert Hourani, ibid.
9. The links between holders of the state power, as a centre of a resource allocation, and their tribal community can be characterized as a patron-client relationship.
10. Fuad Khuri in his book From Village to Suburb: Order and Change in Greater Beirut, Chicago (1974) has shown how, even before the Lebanese civil war began in 1975, immigrants to Beirut from the mountain villages were forming almost the equivalent of tribal groups.
11. Lois Beck, 'Tribes and the state in 19th-and 20th-century Iran', in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) (1990) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California.
12. Albert Hourani, 'Tribes and states in Islamic history', pp 304-306.
13. Gellner, E. (1995) 'The Maghreb as a mirror for Man' in Anthropology and Politics, Blackwell, p 203. Ernest Gellner provides excellent analysis of Ibn Khaldum's work. He explains the political process in the Muslim world in terms of circulation of elites, which had its specific version '...rulers weakened by the benefits of urban life need to be replaced... by a new tribal invasion, introducing a new dynasty with a revived tribal power base. But this merely rotates the personnel and does not alter the overall structure.' Ibid, p 205. Also, on this topic see: Gellner, E. (1990) 'Tribalism and the state in the Middle East' in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East.
14. Gellner, E. (1995) 'The Maghreb as a mirror for Man' in Anthropology and Politics, Blackwell, p 203. Ernest Gellner provides excellent analysis of Ibn Khaldum's work. He explains the political process in the Muslim world in terms of circulation of elites, which had its specific version '...rulers weakened by the benefits of urban life need to be replaced... by a new tribal invasion, introducing a new dynasty with a revived tribal power base. But this merely rotates the personnel and does not alter the overall structure.' Ibid, p 205. Also, on this topic see: Gellner, E. (1990) 'Tribalism and the state in the Middle East' in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East.
15. Gellner, E. (1995) 'The Maghreb as a mirror for Man' in Anthropology and Politics, Blackwell, p 203. Ernest Gellner provides excellent analysis of Ibn Khaldum's work. He explains the political process in the Muslim world in terms of circulation of elites, which had its specific version '...rulers weakened by the benefits of urban life need to be replaced... by a new tribal invasion, introducing a new dynasty with a revived tribal power base. But this merely rotates the personnel and does not alter the overall structure.' Ibid, p 205. Also, on this topic see: Gellner, E. (1990) 'Tribalism and the state in the Middle East' in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East.
16. Ironically, oil was found in almost all Middle Eastern countries just after these states achieved sovereignty.
17. The few nationalist elite were too weak to hold a power and were replaced by traditional ones which openly promote tribal divisions. (Examples: interview with the president of Upper Yemen and then, Iran - creation of tribes). Tribalism has not, however, disappeared. In Upper Yemen. for example 'throughout the period 1975-1982 the tribes were military and politically in demand... [Then,] oil has been found in eastern Yemen.' Since that time tribalism was gradually excluded from political debate. It is an interesting detail that when the president of Upper Yemen in 1986 asserted that Yemen is a tribal country. it was received rather surprisingly by the local community. In fact, large parts of Yemen were not really tribal in the sense discussed here.
18. Recent urban migrants were forming almost the equivalent of tribal groups.
19. For good examples, see Diarra, F-A. and Fougeyrollas, P. (1974) Two Studies on Ethnic Group Relations in Africa: Senegal, The United Republic of Tanzania, Unesco, Paris.
20. As a citizen of the Republic of Kazakstan, of course I had certain 'hypotheses' on what was going on in the country before I started to think of professional research on the present topic.
21. The total population of the Republic of Kazakstan (1995) was estimated as 16,679 thousands people, 44 per cent living in the rural areas (7,345 thousands) 222,300 people participated in migration within the republic during nine months in 1995. Among them 65 per cent are Kazaks (as opposed to 63.4 per cent in 1994). The overwhelming majority are young people between 16 and 36 years of age who went to the cities. Source: The State Report on the Demographic Situation in 1995. The Government of the Republic of Kazakstan. Almaty 1996.
22. The scheme of Kazak tribes and smaller divisions was first published in 1925 as an appendix to the book written by Tynyshpaev. It was re-published in 1990. The genealogical part of the scheme has never been dated after 1925 and left incomplete.
23. The Kazaks are Turkic people, who first appeared in this region as a distinct ethnic group in the 15th century. See Olcott, M. (1987) The Kazakhs: A Guide, California: Stanford University Press, for a powerful exposition of historical themes.
24. The term modernization here and further in this work means updating, upgrading renovation, reconstruction or stabilization in the face of adverse, physical or economic structures.
25. It is generally agreed that the Kazak Khanate was formed as a stable political formation in the mid-15th century. (The borders of modern Kazakstan coincide approximately with borders of the former Kazak Khanate plus some territory of Southern Siberia which presently belongs to Russia.) The fact of formation of Khanate has forced the ethnic consolidation of Kazaks (Abuseitova, 1985, pp 38-42; Olcott, 1987, pp 3-9). By the time of Kasym Khan (reigned 1511-1523), the number of Kazaks was estimated at one million people (Tolybekov, 1971, p 184).
26. The earliest Kazak towns served commercial purposes, either as markets for trade with non-Kazaks. or as staging points on the Great Silk Road. Larger cities, such as Taraz (present-day Aulie-Ata) Sairam, Otrar and some others, dating from the 7th century, were destroyed by Chingiz-Khan, who conquered Semirech'e in 1218. Southern Kazakstan was repeatedly attacked by marauding tribesmen (such as the Oirat or Jungars) after that, and so the periodic rebuilding of trading centres failed to establish permanent centres of urban life (Olcott, pp 6-9). In the north, though, there was a different pattern, since Russia began to acquire territory there in the 16th and 17th centuries. Russian fortifications established a number of towns (Uralsk, Gur'ev and some others) in the north-western part of Kazakstan, and these centres allowed for new cultural contacts between Kazaks, Russians and Volga Tatars.
27. For more information about ecological limitations of pastoral nomadism, see Khazanov. A. (1990) 'Ecological limitations of nomadism in the Eurasian steppes and their social and cultural implications', in Asian and African Studies, 24, pp 1-15.
28. Tolybekov. S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka (Kazakh Nomadic Society from 17th until the beginning of 20th centuries) Almaty. p 170; Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii (Nomads of Asia) Moscow; see also: Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Basil Blackwell, p 110. There was the nomadism debate among Soviet scholars in 1940-1950 which came to prominence within the framework of Soviet science. That discussion concerned the problem of feudalism in a pastoral nomadic society, in particular among Central Asian nomads during the Middle Ages. Feudalism was credited with the nomads. This view was maintained later in some Soviet sources, particularly those written in the 1950s and 1960s (For this view: see Semenov, I. (1982) Kochevnichesho i nekotorye obshchie problemy teorii khoziaistva i obshestva, in Sovetskaia etnografiia, No 3). More recent examinations of early Kazak society by some scholars like Tolybekov and Markov refused the feudal status of pastoral nomads as the orthodoxy. These writers consider the early Kazak state to be not a feudal society but rather a military democracy: they postulate that the political authority of the Khan was an extension of his military prowess. The persistent communalism of nomads, their non-specialization, rudimentary political centralization and collective control of land formed the productive relations which provided the kind of economic cooperation or consent not of feudal dependency. The issues of that debate are touched in Olcott's study of Kazaks (The Kazakhs, p 14) and widely enlightened in Gellner's (1988) Work State and Society in Soviet Thought, pp 92-115.
29. Tolybekov. S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka (Kazakh Nomadic Society from 17th until the beginning of 20th centuries) Almaty. p 170; Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii (Nomads of Asia) Moscow; see also: Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Basil Blackwell, p 110. There was the nomadism debate among Soviet scholars in 1940-1950 which came to prominence within the framework of Soviet science. That discussion concerned the problem of feudalism in a pastoral nomadic society, in particular among Central Asian nomads during the Middle Ages. Feudalism was credited with the nomads. This view was maintained later in some Soviet sources, particularly those written in the 1950s and 1960s (For this view: see Semenov, I. (1982) Kochevnichesho i nekotorye obshchie problemy teorii khoziaistva i obshestva, in Sovetskaia etnografiia, No 3). More recent examinations of early Kazak society by some scholars like Tolybekov and Markov refused the feudal status of pastoral nomads as the orthodoxy. These writers consider the early Kazak state to be not a feudal society but rather a military democracy: they postulate that the political authority of the Khan was an extension of his military prowess. The persistent communalism of nomads, their non-specialization, rudimentary political centralization and collective control of land formed the productive relations which provided the kind of economic cooperation or consent not of feudal dependency. The issues of that debate are touched in Olcott's study of Kazaks (The Kazakhs, p 14) and widely enlightened in Gellner's (1988) Work State and Society in Soviet Thought, pp 92-115.
30. Tolybekov. S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka (Kazakh Nomadic Society from 17th until the beginning of 20th centuries) Almaty. p 170; Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii (Nomads of Asia) Moscow; see also: Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Basil Blackwell, p 110. There was the nomadism debate among Soviet scholars in 1940-1950 which came to prominence within the framework of Soviet science. That discussion concerned the problem of feudalism in a pastoral nomadic society, in particular among Central Asian nomads during the Middle Ages. Feudalism was credited with the nomads. This view was maintained later in some Soviet sources, particularly those written in the 1950s and 1960s (For this view: see Semenov, I. (1982) Kochevnichesho i nekotorye obshchie problemy teorii khoziaistva i obshestva, in Sovetskaia etnografiia, No 3). More recent examinations of early Kazak society by some scholars like Tolybekov and Markov refused the feudal status of pastoral nomads as the orthodoxy. These writers consider the early Kazak state to be not a feudal society but rather a military democracy: they postulate that the political authority of the Khan was an extension of his military prowess. The persistent communalism of nomads, their non-specialization, rudimentary political centralization and collective control of land formed the productive relations which provided the kind of economic cooperation or consent not of feudal dependency. The issues of that debate are touched in Olcott's study of Kazaks (The Kazakhs, p 14) and widely enlightened in Gellner's (1988) Work State and Society in Soviet Thought, pp 92-115.
31. Tolybekov. S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka (Kazakh Nomadic Society from 17th until the beginning of 20th centuries) Almaty. p 170; Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii (Nomads of Asia) Moscow; see also: Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Basil Blackwell, p 110. There was the nomadism debate among Soviet scholars in 1940-1950 which came to prominence within the framework of Soviet science. That discussion concerned the problem of feudalism in a pastoral nomadic society, in particular among Central Asian nomads during the Middle Ages. Feudalism was credited with the nomads. This view was maintained later in some Soviet sources, particularly those written in the 1950s and 1960s (For this view: see Semenov, I. (1982) Kochevnichesho i nekotorye obshchie problemy teorii khoziaistva i obshestva, in Sovetskaia etnografiia, No 3). More recent examinations of early Kazak society by some scholars like Tolybekov and Markov refused the feudal status of pastoral nomads as the orthodoxy. These writers consider the early Kazak state to be not a feudal society but rather a military democracy: they postulate that the political authority of the Khan was an extension of his military prowess. The persistent communalism of nomads, their non-specialization, rudimentary political centralization and collective control of land formed the productive relations which provided the kind of economic cooperation or consent not of feudal dependency. The issues of that debate are touched in Olcott's study of Kazaks (The Kazakhs, p 14) and widely enlightened in Gellner's (1988) Work State and Society in Soviet Thought, pp 92-115.
32. Tolybekov. S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka (Kazakh Nomadic Society from 17th until the beginning of 20th centuries) Almaty. p 170; Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii (Nomads of Asia) Moscow; see also: Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Basil Blackwell, p 110. There was the nomadism debate among Soviet scholars in 1940-1950 which came to prominence within the framework of Soviet science. That discussion concerned the problem of feudalism in a pastoral nomadic society, in particular among Central Asian nomads during the Middle Ages. Feudalism was credited with the nomads. This view was maintained later in some Soviet sources, particularly those written in the 1950s and 1960s (For this view: see Semenov, I. (1982) Kochevnichesho i nekotorye obshchie problemy teorii khoziaistva i obshestva, in Sovetskaia etnografiia, No 3). More recent examinations of early Kazak society by some scholars like Tolybekov and Markov refused the feudal status of pastoral nomads as the orthodoxy. These writers consider the early Kazak state to be not a feudal society but rather a military democracy: they postulate that the political authority of the Khan was an extension of his military prowess. The persistent communalism of nomads, their non-specialization, rudimentary political centralization and collective control of land formed the productive relations which provided the kind of economic cooperation or consent not of feudal dependency. The issues of that debate are touched in Olcott's study of Kazaks (The Kazakhs, p 14) and widely enlightened in Gellner's (1988) Work State and Society in Soviet Thought, pp 92-115.
33. Along with Islamic ideas, Kazaks still preserve a broad range of traditions and customs dating back to local pre-Islamic traditions which have been subjected to the influence of Islam, and in the popular awareness they are now mostly perceived as Muslim traditions.
34. Summary of Ibn Khaldun's argument. Borrowed from Hall, J. A. (1985) Powers and Liberties. The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West, Basil Blackwell, p 93.
35. The city-based ulema did not possess adequate technical or organizational resources for the effective conversion of the pastoral tribes of the interior of Kazakstan to Islam, and these tribes therefore escaped control by centrally governed, hierarchical, urban, literate Islamic specialists in doctrine. This made Islam useless as an instrument of political power because of the complete lack of organization. That is why the Islamic ulema in Kazakstan were always too weak to establish a hierarchy of their own; and for this reason, the majority of the population remained loyal to Shamanism even though they were nominally Muslims.
36. Russian domination of Kazakstan was gradually established from the late 18th century, despite some resistance from unwilling Kazaks. The whole territory had been absorbed into the Russian Empire by 1867.
37. For example, Ali Khan Bukeyhanov: he graduated from the Higher Institute of Forestry in Omsk and was best known as the founder and leader of the Alash Orda party. He was an active member of the Constitutional Democrat Party and served as a member of its central committee. From 1905 he was a steady contributor to Kadet party publications as well as to the budding Kazak press (Russian translation of: Bennigsen, A., Lemercier-Quelquejay, C. (1964) La Presse et le Mouvement National chez les Musulmans de Russie avant 1920, Paris: Mouton.
38. The starting point of their political activity is related to 1905 when they organized the first official Kazak Congress in Orenburg.
39. The particular effect of the Russian colonization on the process of destruction of the tribal communities will be discussed in the following section.
40. The Kazak language belongs to the Nogai-Kypchak sub-group of the Kypchak or north-eastern group of Turkic tongues. The spoken language has few dialects, which are not very different from each other. The literary language was fixed in the middle of the 19th century and spoken dialects were not far apart. (Bennigsen, 1971, p 71). Therefore, people did not have to learn a new language form when becoming literate, as was in the case of Uzbek and Tadjick.
41. The notion of the lack of a working class tradition among the Kazaks was employed to justify the influx of workers (and of those who were supposed to compose a corresponding industrial elite) from the European part of the Soviet Union to Kazakstan. Beneficial conditions were created for the Russian workforce, and this became one of the Soviet traditions which provoked a mass inflow of Russian labour migrants to Kazakstan. This is how Kazakstan got Russians as a majority of its workers in the principal industries (oil, mining, engineering). At present, this fact is interpreted in Russian nationalist discourse as one of the arguments to separate regions to the north of Kazakstan (regions where the 'Slavonic' part of the population comprises 70 per cent of the population), to the benefit of the Russian Federation.
42. Now, cultural homogeneity among Kazaks is still missing. A Kazak (education-dependent) urban culture was created not on the basis of traditional Kazak culture, but in opposition to it, and with a great Russian influence. There is, indeed, a greater 'near-cultural' homogeneity among Russians and urban Kazaks, than among urban Kazaks and those Kazaks who come from rural areas, where remnants of the traditional culture are still preserved.
43. Asylbekov, A. (1991) 'O sotsial' noy politicheskoy i etnicheskoy strukture Kazakhstana', Izvestia AN KazSSR Seria Obshestvennyh Nauk No 3. According to the general census of 1897. Kazaks constituted 82 per cent of the total population.
44. The most massive campaign was the development of the Virgin Lands in the 1950s. It resulted in the resettlement to Kazakstan of hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The campaign took place at a time when the Volga Germans and other ethnic groups were being resettled in Kazakstan and when prisoners released from the concentration camps (Gulags) decided to remain in the republic. At the time of the 1959 population census, Kazaks constituted less than one-third of all residents. Kazakstan... UNDP Human Dev. Report, p 17-18. Following the October Revolution, the proportion of Kazaks in comparison with the overall population began drastically to decline, which can be directly attributed to the forced implementation of the practice of communism. Total losses of Kazaks for the period from 1916 to 1939 are estimated at 3,635,000 people (this data reflects the mortality rate): 615,000 Kazaks emigrated during the same period from the territory of Kazakstan. For more information see, Mezhnatsional'nye otnoshenia v Kazakhstane (Teoria i Praktika regulirovaniya) Almaty, 1993, pp 132-149.
45. But the condition of society more generally was complicated by another factor, the sudden increase in the influence of Islam. In the north, wandering Sufi mystics made Kazak converts, and in the south, a more politicized form of Islamic orthodoxy was introduced by Central Asian mullahs, who were opposed to the Russian presence, and who at the same time used the power vacuum brought about by the decline in the traditional power of the Khan for their own purposes. They had established a religious organization of some kind by 1860 (Olcott, p 103).
46. Abuseitova, M. (1985) Obrazovanie Kazahskogo Haustra (XV-XVI Veba), Almaty: Akademiya nauk.
47. Allworth, Ed. (1989) Central Asia: 120 Years of Russian Rule, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
48. Asylbekov, A. (1991) 'O sotsial'noy, politicheskoy i etnicheskoy structure Kazakhstana', Izvestia, AN KazSSR, Seria Obshestvennyh Nauk, No 3.
49. Bennigsen, A. (1971) Islamic or local consciousness among Soviet nationalities, in Allworth, Ed. (ed.) Soviet Nationality Problems, New York: Columbia University Press.
50. Beck, Lois (1990) 'Tribes and the state in 19th-and 20th-century Iran', in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California.
51. Bennigsen, A., Lemercier-Quelquejay, C (1964) La Presse et la Mouvement National chez les Musumans de Russie avant 1920, Paris: Mouton. In Russian translation published: Alem, Almanah, Almaty, 1991.
52. Critchlow, J. (1991) Nationalism in Uzbekistan. A Soviet Republic Road to Sovereignty, Boulder, San-Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press.
53. Diarra, F-A., Fougeyrollas, P. (1974) Two Studies on Ethnic Group Relations in Africa: Senegal, The United Republic of Tanzania, Unesco, Paris.
54. Gellner, E. (1988) State and Society in Soviet Thought, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
55. Gellner, E. (1990) 'Tribalism and the state in the Middle East' in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California.
56. Gellner, E. (1995) 'The Maghreb as a Mirror for Man' in Anthropology and Politics, Oxford: Blackwell.
57. Hall, J. A. (1985) Powers and Liberties. The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
58. Hourani, A. (1990) 'Tribes and states in Islamic history', in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds.) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California.
59. Khazanov, A. (1990) 'Ecological limitations of nomadism in the Eurasian steppes and their social and cultural implications, Asian and African Studies, 24.
60. Kudayberdy-Uly, Sh. (1990) Rodoslovnaya T'urkov, Kirgizov, Kazakhov and Hanskih Dinastiy, Almaty, Zhazushy.
61. Markov, G. E. (1976) Kochevniki Azii, Moscow. Mezhnatsionalnye Otnoshenia v Kazakhstane (Teoria I Practika Regulirivania) Almaty, 1993.
62. Olcott, M. (1987) The Kazakhs: A Guide, California: Stanford University Press.
63. Suleymenov, R. (1987) Kul'turnoe Razvitie Kazakhstana v Poslevoennye Gody, Alma-Ata.
64. Tibi, B. (1990) 'The simultaneity of the unsimultaneous: old tribes and imposed nation states in the modern Middle East', in Khoury, P. S. and Kostiner, J. (eds) Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, University of California.
65. Tolybekov, S. E. (1971) Kochevoe obshestvo Kazakhov v 17-nachale 20 veka. Politiko-economicheskiy analiz, Alma-Ata.
66. Tynyshpaev, M. (1925) Nekotorye materialy po istorii Kazahskogo naroda, Tashkent.
67. Valikhanov (1994) 'Legalizing colonial status of Kazakstan in the 30s of the 19th century', Kazakstan, No 14, April.