berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

Acknowledgements
Map of Central Asia
Map of Kyrgyzstan

Introduction: Someone Ate All Our Sheep

On the Kyrgyz Highlands
In Search of a Baseline
Looking Back on a Soviet Economy of Intensive Livestock Farming
From Kolkhoz to Village
The Anthropologist in the Face of Social Change
Some Local Authority Figures
- The Former Kolkhoz Chairman: The Bashkarma
- The New Official Local Authority: The Ayil Okmotu
- The “Biznesman”: Economic Power
- The Shepherd: A Prestigious but Powerless Figure
- The Moldo or the Affirmation of Religious Authority
The Rise of NGOs and the Development of Private Enterprise
Logics of Power: Appropriation, Plunder, and Capture of Resources

Chapter 1. Manas, Unesco, and the Kyrgyz Fabula

Manas: Political Uses of a Traditional Oral Epic
- Indigenization and Nationalization of the Epic
- Manas 1000: Political Ritual of the New Kyrgyz Identity
- Manas Gumbez: A National Heritage Site
- Manas Ayili and the Building of an International Image
UNESCO: Global Entrepreneur of the Kyrgyz National Imaginary
Polysemous Perceptions of the Creation of the New National Imaginary
Democracy, Decentralization, Tribal Identity, and Minorities
Affirmation of Ethnic Identity in the South of the Country
Enhancing “Tribal” Identity in the North
Manas in a Context of Globalization

Chapter 2. Kyrgyzstan and Good Governance Experts

The Ideology of Good Governance: Minimal Government, Private Enterprise and Civil Society
The UNPD: Decline of the State, Promotion of Local and Traditional Political Practices
From an Economic Planning Culture to a Project Culture
Promoting Democracy
The Development of Local Kyrgyz NGOs
Electoral Assistance: Technical Aid or Political Interference

Chapter 3. Elections and the Promotion of Democracy

Ethnography of an Election
IFES and Elections: Democracy@large
Ethnography of an American Political Foundation Training Session
Training and Strategy of Influence
- Eligibility: The Demokrat and Kyrgyzness

Chapter 4. The Fall of the Common House

The Soviet Regime or the Ambition to Establish Absolute Control over Human Flows
Askar Akayev’s Common House Ideology and Emigration of the Russian-Speaking Population
Rural Exodus and Urban Sprawl
From Migration to Increased Kyrgyz Mobility
The Russian Perspective: Gastarbeiter
The Political Weight of Remittances in Kyrgyzstan

Chapter 5. The Bazaar: Symbol of a Society of Traders

The Bazaar: The Return to a Natural Economic Order?
The “Bazarkoms”: New Social Figures
Property and Political Protection: The Dordoy Bazaar and Askar Salymbekov
- From Dordoy Bazar to Dordoy Associatsia: The Transmission of Capital
- Patronage and Political Clientele
- Redistribution and Social Legitimacy
- Soccer and Kok-boru
- Giving to the Dead and to God: Monuments and Jubilees
The Changing Face of the Bazaar: The Labor Market on Avenue Maladoja Guardia

Chapter 6. Civil Society and Election Monitoring

Koalitsia and the National Democratic Institute
Baisalov: Portrait of a Democracy Promotion Icon
Koalitsia and the ENEMO Transnational Network
Intellectual Influences: Non-Violent Movements
Koalitsia’s Hour of Glory: The Tulip Revolution
Participative Observation in an Election Mission
The Election Mission: A Multi-camp Caravan
The Deployment of Observers
Return to the Capital and Debriefing
The Press Conference
Cocktail Hour: The Communion Ritual of Democracy Promoters
Communion of Contentious Actors: Opposition Coalition, Koalitsia, and Kel-Kel

Chapter 7. The Transnationalization of Politics

Anthropology of a Fraudulent Election
Electoral Observation and Local Dynamics
A Changing Political Personnel: From Appointees to Elected Officials
Becoming a Deputat: An Exemplary Political Battle
Political Transhumance, Opposition, Marginalization, and Exile
Political Practices and Regional Factionalism
The New Role of the President and Appointed Political Personnel
From Communism to Keminism
From Keminism to Teyitism
The Political Change in 2005: Revolution, Overthrow, or Coup?

Conclusion: The Kyrgyz Laboratory and the Global Politics
Afterword: From the Kyrgyz Fabula to the Ethnic Apocalypse?

Appendix I: Kyrgyz Republic Timeline
Appendix II: Census of Kyrgyzstan Population

Index

Where Are All Our Sheep?

Kyrgyzstan, A Global Political Arena

Boris Petric
Translated from the French by Cynthia Schoch

186 pages, 2 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-78238-783-1 Hb Published (September 2015)

eISBN 978-1-78238-784-8 eBook

Details

“This very rich and accessible ethnography speaks to all social sciences researchers working in countries that live through major social, political, economic and symbolic restructuration due to their adoption of the market economy and democracy (Central Asia, the Balkans)…This ethnography is an excellent point of departure for future anthropology researchers who work in a very complex and paradoxical world of today.” • Anthropology News

“…a wide-ranging and engaging book, which provides a vivid portrait of the fall-out from two decades of economic and political experimentation in this ‘laboratory’ for democratic reform in Central Asia.” • Anthropos

“…the best book to date on post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. It combines personal observations with careful, critical analysis. The style is at times humorous and conversational, creating the impression at first glance that it might be a somewhat superficial account of the region. In fact, however, it is an extraordinarily perceptive analysis of the process of transition and re-adjustment in a highly complex society.” • Shirin Akiner, University of Cambridge and University of London

After the collapse of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan chose a path of economic and political liberalization. Only a few years later, however, the country ceased producing anything of worth and developed a dependence on the outside world, particularly on international aid. Its principal industry, sheep breeding, was decimated by reforms suggested by international institutions providing assistance. Virtually annihilated by privatization of the economy and deserted by Moscow, the Kyrgyz have turned this economic “opening up” into a subtle strategy to capture all manner of resources from abroad. In this study, the author describes the encounters, sometimes comical and tinged with incomprehension, between the local population and the well-meaning foreigners who came to reform them.

Boris Petric is a Social Anthropologist and a Senior Researcher at the CNRS in Marseilles. His first book Pouvoir, don et réseaux en Ouzbékistan post-soviétique (2002), was awarded the Le Monde prize for university research. He recently edited Democracy at Large: NGO’s, Political Foundations, Think Tanks and International Organisations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Series: Volume 16, Dislocations

Subject: Anthropology (General) Development Studies

Area: Asia

LC: HC420.7.P4813 2015

BISAC: SOC042000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Developing Countries; SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; POL041000 POLITICAL SCIENCE/NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations)

BIC: JHMC Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography; GTF Development studies