What Function Do Tribalism And Kinship Play In Fashionable-Day Kazakhstan?

In Kazakhstan, energy and wealth are sometimes stored and handed down in a household. However the idea of blood ties goes past instant or prolonged relations. Political alliances and influential clans are additionally organized round tribal or regional kinship, which fits again centuries to the instances when in the present day’s Central Asian nations had been a gaggle of separate tribes.

Nowadays, clan politics is blamed for being a driving power behind rampant nepotism, regional division, and wealth inequality within the area. However for peculiar individuals, these kinship-based networks are sometimes a supply of social cohesion and mutual help.

Easy questions such “Which a part of the nation are you from?” or “The place is your loved ones from?” or “What tribe do you belong to?” permit the asking social gathering to virtually construct a mini-profile of one other particular person’s roots, any shared blood relations, and even character traits attributed to that individual tribe.

In a stay dialogue on June 23, I spoke with Shalkar Nurseitov, a political analyst from Kazakhstan, concerning the function of tribalism and kinship within the current and the way forward for his nation.

Sadly, our second introduced speaker, Kyrgyz anthropologist Aksana Ismailbekova, couldn’t be part of because of technical points.

Some key takeaways:

Shalkar Nurseitov: “In Kazakhstan, we’ve three zhuzes: Ender Zhuz, Center Zhuz, and Junior Zhuz. There isn’t any consensus amongst historians on their historical past, however there are some theories. […] There are stereotypes. For instance, it’s believed that the representatives of the Elder zhuz ought to lead the nation and occupy most important political positions. There’s a stereotype that members of Junior Zhuz are usually extra aggressive and protest on a regular basis. Previously 30 years, most of political protests really came about in western Kazakhstan, which is occupied by the tribes of Junior Zhuz.”

“Tribalism performs a terrific function in politics and enterprise however in day by day life persons are not involved about kinship division. They take into account this query once they get married as a result of it’s essential to marry somebody who doesn’t belong to your tribe. The general public in Kazakhstan can recite seven generations. However for probably the most [part], particularly these dwelling in cities, kinship division isn’t vital in day by day life. Due to capitalism, new social guidelines, social media, or information consumption, persons are getting, in my opinion, much less involved about tribalism.”