Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley: A 19th-Century Ethnography from Central Asia - Softcover

Nalivkin, Vladimir; Nalivkina, Maria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253021383 ISBN 13: 9780253021380

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley is the first English translation of an important 19th-century Russian text describing everyday life in Uzbek communities. Vladimir and Maria Nalivkin were Russians who settled in a "Sart" village in 1878, in a territory newly conquered by the Russian Empire. During their six years in Nanay, Maria Nalivkina learned the local language, befriended her neighbors, and wrote observations about their lives from birth to death. Together, Maria and Vladimir published this account, which met with great acclaim from Russia's Imperial Geographic Society and among Orientalists internationally. While they recognized that Islam shaped social attitudes, the Nalivkins never relied on common stereotypes about the "plight" of Muslim women. The Fergana Valley women of their ethnographic portrait emerge as lively, hard-working, clever, and able to navigate the cultural challenges of early Russian colonialism. Rich with social and cultural detail of a sort not available in other kinds of historical sources, this work offers rare insight into life in rural Central Asia and serves as an instructive example of the genre of ethnographic writing that was emerging at the time. Annotations by the translators and an editor's introduction by Marianne Kamp help contemporary readers understand the Nalivkins' work in context.

About this title

Review

I am delighted to see an English translation of this work. It is wonderful and rich ethnography of a type that existed before there were any standard conventions―throughout the western world―for conducting and writing up such cross-cultural studies. . . . Gives us Central Asian perspectives and the observation of Central Asian peoples and their lifeways from the perspective of people who actually lived among them. Author: Russell Zanca Source: Northeastern Illinois University

From the Author

Marianne Kamp is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wyoming. She is author of The New Woman in Uzbekistan: Islam, Modernity and Unveiling under Communism.

Mariana Markova is an editor, translator, instructor, and researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0253021383
• ISBN 13: 9780253021380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 242
• Editor: Kamp Marianne