Life in a Muslim Uzbek Village: Cotton Farming After Communism (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

"Life in a Muslim Uzbek Village: Cotton Farming After Communism CSCA" aims to identify and explain aspects of Uzbek cultural life in a farming village on a 'kolkhoz' (collective farm) that account for both cultural patterns and culture change. This case study depicts the cultural changes and continuities that have occurred as a result of Uzbekistan's recent political independence from the Soviet Union. It describes, from the author's own experience and understanding of Uzbek rural life, how the production and global exportation of cotton has brought new challenges and opportunities to contemporary Uzbek citizens. Students will see how vital cotton is to the modern Uzbek way of life as a means through which the people generate the bulk of their country's wealth (and, as a result, their own autocratic society). In light of their changing environs, the people of Uzbekistan have been forced to negotiate a new identity and culture for themselves in relation to their country, their continent, and the rest of the world. Front Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Copyright......Page 3 Contents ......Page 5 FOREWORD......Page 9 PREFACE......Page 13 INTRODUCTION......Page 17 Introduction......Page 30 Encountering Central Asia in Queens, New York......Page 31 The Academic Path to Uzbekistan......Page 32 From Moscow to Tashkent......Page 34 Among Fellow Scholars at the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences......Page 36 What Could Be So Bad About the Countryside?......Page 39 Getting Closer to the Village......Page 40 The Road to the Kolkhoz......Page 42 Village Economic Basics......Page 44 Buying and Selling......Page 49 When Does the Bus Come?......Page 51 Kolkhoz Living Arrangements and Family Households......Page 53 The Demanding, Selfish State and Its Relationship to the Kolkhoz......Page 55 Conclusion......Page 59 Questions......Page 60 2 Historical Connections and Today's Kolkhoz......Page 61 Reinterpreting the Soviet-Constructed Past, Reflecting on Continuity......Page 69 Paradoxes of Colonialist Observers: Savages Ignoble and Noble Yesterday and Today......Page 75 Society and Land During the Kokand Khanate: Pre-Russian Imperial Uzbek Villages......Page 79 Russian Imperial Approach to Landlessness and Peasantry......Page 82 Essential Aspects of Social Relations and Structure Past and Present......Page 84 Contesting History......Page 87 Questions......Page 92 Who Says You Can't Eat Cotton? Cotton in Social Life......Page 93 Speaking of Things Better Left Unsaid......Page 96 The Mud Collective and Talk of Better Days......Page 97 When We Say "Pick," You Say "How Much"......Page 99 Talk of "Transition" Undermined by Communist Ethos......Page 101 Women as Full-Time Cotton Peasants......Page 106 Made in India......Page 108 New Year's Day (Navruz)......Page 110 Independence Day......Page 111 Weddings......Page 113 Poverty, Cotton, and a Path to the Past?......Page 114 Questions......Page 118 Introduction......Page 119 Osh Eimiz! (Let's Eat Pilaf!)......Page 121 Mealtime Etiquette......Page 125 The Importance of Feeling Full......Page 127 Living by Bread Alone......Page 129 Electrification (Sort of ) and the People Who Didn't Starve......Page 132 Curtailing Excessive Weddings......Page 135 The Value of a Daughter......Page 143 Enacting Weddings and Traditional Continuities......Page 144 The "Price" of Hospitality......Page 148 Otadan Mekhmon Iuqori (A Guest Is Higher Than the Father)......Page 150 The Tale of the Man on the Road: An Odd Way of Relating to a Guest......Page 152 Keeping Up Appearances......Page 154 Questions......Page 155 The Bazaar as Microcosm of Post-Soviet Life......Page 156 The Marketplace Encounter as an Extension of the Village and Its Social Relations......Page 160 The Kiosks......Page 162 Wishful Thinking About the Countryside......Page 163 Doctors Becoming Peasants......Page 164 Reconsidering Formal Education......Page 166 This Is Not Farming! We're Not Farmers!......Page 169 From Caretaker State to New Thinking on Self-Reliance......Page 171 Enduring Collectivism......Page 172 State Administration of the Kolkhoz......Page 175 The Mahalla Komitet (Neighborhood Committee)......Page 180 The Kolkhoznik as Consumer: Timor Emptor! (May the Buyer Be Afraid!)......Page 182 So Long, Agro-Welfare......Page 185 Conclusion......Page 186 Questions......Page 187 6 Uzbekistan's Cotton, Home Economics, and the Larger World......Page 188 Domestic Serfdom: Mother-in-Law/Daughter-in-Law Relations......Page 189 Women Make the Best Cotton Pickers......Page 191 The Cotton Picker's Day......Page 194 Tarnished "Gold": Cotton Earnings and the Individual......Page 196 Insult to Injury......Page 198 Affirming Village Identity: You Are What You Wear......Page 205 Identity and Plantation......Page 207 Conclusion......Page 213 Questions......Page 214 ANDIJAN VIOLENCE: CONTINUING DETERIORATION OR WATERSHED?......Page 215 THE TERRORS OF INDEPENDENCE......Page 217 THE EMPTYING OF UZBEKISTAN OWING TO LABOR MIGRATION......Page 220 INTERDEPENDENCE AND RESEARCH NEEDS......Page 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 227 INDEX......Page 232