Stuff of boundaries? Kyrgyz–Russian marriages and the actualization of ethnic difference. Issue 5 (20th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pelkmans, Mathijs; Umetbaeva, Damira
• Is Part Of: History and anthropology. Volume 29:Issue 5(2018)
• Page Start: 541
• Page End: 562
• Publication Date: 2018-10-20
• Subjects: Boundaries -- ethnicity -- Central Asia -- Russians -- Kyrgyz; Anthropology -- Periodicals; History -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2018.1555708
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0275-7206

Abstract

ABSTRACT: What are ethnic boundaries made of? How do people come to experience such boundaries? Notwithstanding the formidable analytic attention to the role and effects of boundary drawing in social life, such questions are rarely asked. We look at the apparently stable boundary between Russians and Kyrgyz villagers in the Issyk-Kul region to trace how its dimensions were naturalized through settler colonialism, Soviet modernization, and post-socialist upheaval. But even if naturalized, the boundary behaves as a 'presence absence' whose relevance fluctuates and whose momentary features remain unpredictable, as we demonstrate by focusing on transgressive mixed marriages between Russian and Kyrgyz villagers.