The religious factor in the reification of “neo-ethnic” identities in Kyrgyzstan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8079031 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aurélie Biard (Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 323-335 |
| Publication date | 2010-04-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Nationalities Papers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00905991003653140 |
| OpenAlex | W2054515337 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 5 |
This paper studies how religions, Islam in particular, play a part in the attempted reifications of “neo-ethnic” identities in Kyrgyzstan, a Turkic-speaking republic with a nomadic tradition and a Muslim majority ( Hanafî Sunni Islam). In a context characterized by brutal transformations (decline in living standards, widening social inequalities, etc.) and by an increasingly failing central state whose autocratic rule appears ineffective, Islam intervenes as a paradoxical resource that is subjected to contrary uses. The traditional social link between collective identity and Islam is in fact reinvested ideologically within the framework of the new state construction. As a result a key question is what function the re-emergence of religion on the Kyrgyz political scene fulfils, especially considering broad disenchantment with politics. Islam is first re-emphasized as a national element by the authorities and, in the process, it becomes the subject of a drive towards territorialization that aims at erasing any transnational and/or pan-Islamist dimension from this universalist religion. Yet Islam and ethnicity are reinvested again in a new mode, the mode of subjectivization of religious belief, which gives rise, outside state control, to overlapping and often contradicting Islamic identities
Autocracy · Democracy · Disenchantment · Ethnic group · Ideology · Islam · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Reification (Marxism · Sociology · State (computer science · Anthropology · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Soviet and Russian History
Multicultural Society of Kyrgyzstan
Religion and the Construction of Ethnic Identity in Kyrgyzstan
From Nomadic Traditionalists to Sedentary Scripturalists
Social Remittances in Religion
An Uneven Revival
State Regulation of Religion and Radicalism in the Post-Communist Muslim Republics
Securitising Islam, securitising ethnicity
The Mosaic of Muslim Religiosity and Social-Political Attitudes in Kyrgyzstan
Islam and power legitimation
Shared Space, Divided Space
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,77 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |