KAZAKHS OF THE KYZYLKUM REGION IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES: A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The principal areas of research concerning the Kyzylkum region in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were primarily associated with the study of the region’s flora and fauna, as well as the ethnoecological and ethnoeconomic processes of the populations inhabiting this territory. The purpose of this article is to provide a historiographical analysis of the available sources and scholarly studies concerning the economic activities, settlement system, and ethnocultural characteristics of the Kazakhs, the indigenous population of the Kyzylkum region, whose traditional model of economic adaptation and environmental development evolved under the conditions of an arid natural environment during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In preparing this article, various historical sources and ethnographic studies produced during the second half of the nineteenth century and containing information on the Kazakh population of the Kyzylkum region were employed for the historiographical analysis of the subject. Among the pre-revolutionary studies examined were the works of A. P. Khoroshkhin, V. Peltz, P. P. Ivanov, B. V. Andrianov, M. S. Andreev, Barbott de Marny, and N. Dingelstedt. Among the studies produced during the Soviet period, information characterizing the economic activities of the Kazakhs of the Kyzylkum region can be found in the works of E. Meylart, U. Kh. Shalekenov, and Shaniyazov. In more recent years, the studies of A. U. Toktabay and T. E. Kartayeva have been devoted to a comprehensive examination of the traditional culture of the Kazakhs of the Kyzylkum region. For the historiographical analysis of studies concerning the Kazakhs of the Kyzylkum region in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, historical-comparative, historical-systemic, and historical-typological methods were employed. The application of these methods was guided by the principles of historicism and objectivity. As a result of the study, the principal directions in the scholarly investigation of the Kazakh population of the Kyzylkum region, conducted from the second half of the nineteenth century through subsequent historical periods, were identified. The study also revealed the distinctive features of research addressing the population’s economic activities, conditions of livelihood, and forms of adaptation to and utilization of the natural environment most suitable for human habitation under the conditions of an arid region.