From pioneers to entrepreneurs: Young women, consumerism, and the 'world picture' in Kyrgyzstan

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 17, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 639-654

  Kuehnast, Kathleen ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENTREPRENEUR; GENDER ROLE; POST-COMMUNISM; SOCIAL CHANGE; TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY; WOMENS STATUS;

KYRGYZSTAN;

EID: 0032447629     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634939808401061     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. This article is based on 20 months of research conducted in Kyrgyzstan carried out between 1990 and 1996 and supported at various stages by the Social Science Research Council Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (1995-96); Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship of the University of Minnesota (1994-95); Wenner-Gren Anthropological Fellowship for Dissertation Research (1993-94); IREX Long-Term Research Grant (1993-94); University of Minnesota: Small Grant for Short-Term Research (1992, 1993); IREX Developmental Fellowship for language training (1991); Smithsonian Institution Fellowship (1990); and University of Minnesota Tuition Fellowship (1990). I am indebted to Gloria Goodwin Raheja for her critical readings of earlier versions of this article. The comments of Kathleen Barlow, Iraj Bashiri, Rysbyubyu Beybutova, Hermine De Soto, Cate Cowan, and Anara Tabyshalieva were also very helpful in this regard. I also acknowledge the remarkable and ceaseless hospitality that the Kyrgyz extended to me over the course of 11 different visits to their country. I thank particularly all those who participated in my research as informants, especially for their open-mindedness and willingness to allow me into their intimate world of family and friends. I appreciate their enthusiasm to be 'studied' and their good humour in reminding me that I, too, was being studied. In particular, my many thanks to 'Aida' for her candid remarks and earnest participation in my study.
2. This article is derived from a larger body of research in which I suggest that the study of age-cohorts is particularly important for understanding women's issues in the post-Soviet society. My observations about generational differences are not based on an assumption that homogeneity exists within each age-cohort, nor do I present 'Kyrgyz women' as a unified group. Instead, I emphasize the generational motif as a means of exploring the ways in which cultural identity is constructed within each age group of women and the ways that individual coping strategies are grounded in both ideological training and societal events occurring in adolescence or early adulthood. See Kathleen Kuehnast, The stone must lie where it has fallen: Dilemmas of gender and generation in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan'. PhD dissertation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1997).
3. In her research on age-cohorts, Ann Foner (1978) argues that each group 'bears the stamp of the historical context through which it flows' (1978: S343). Similarly, Schuman and Scott (1989) have suggested that national events that occur when an age-cohort is in its adolescence or early adulthood shape its members' long-term responses to change. In their survey of adult Americans, Schuman and Scott asked respondents to name the national or world event that seemed especially significant to them in their lifetime. Their findings strongly suggest that the memories most often recalled were related to events that occurred in the interviewees' adolescence or early adulthood. Generational effects, they argue, including value differences among age-cohorts, are the result of the intersection of personal and national history.
4. 'Aida' is a pseudonym. Changing my informant's name does not necessarily guarantee her anonymity, since it is difficult to offer authentic descriptions of an individual while maintaining respect for their privacy. It should also be noted that fictitious names have also been assigned to Aida's friends.
5. I returned to Kyrgyzstan in May-June 1996 to investigate the growing problem of poverty among women and children for the Asian Development Bank. Many Kyrgyz cited the privatization of the collective farms as the beginning of their household problems.
6. In Osh oblast the growing number of private religious schools was cited as another factor for an increased drop-out rate in public schools. In the place of secular education, children are given oral religious instruction. A majority of these religious schools are funded by Islamic-affiliated countries such as Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. If the fees in public schools continue to rise unabated, there will be, as one Osh deputy minister in education suggested in 1996, a growing number of children (both boys and girls) schooled in a religious setting.
7. One of the most pressing concerns facing the health of children in Kyrgyzstan is micro-nutrient deficiencies, especially in regard to the need for iron, folic acid, and iodine. Even though there are fortification
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