This book contains a good historical and contemporary history of the Kazaks in Central Asia and China.
Sections: The Kazaks of Northwestern China: The Physical and Cultural Setting; Kazaks in Central Eurasia and China to the Twentieth Century; China's Kazaks, 1912-1949; CCP Minority Policy and Its Implementation in Xinjiang; Life at the Local Level: Development and Change in Xinjiang's Autonomous Kazak Areas; Kazak Culture and Chinese Politics; Kazakhstan and China's Kazaks in the Twenty-First Century
Comments: 2/9/10
The following quotes I find very interesting:
- "Despite the Kazaks' centuries-long commitment to Islam, Western accounts of Kazak culture invariably describe the Kazaks as nominal Muslims, a depiction that often accompanies discussion of the Kazaks as backward or simple folk, who are thereby incapable of the supposedly deeper religious commitment evinced by other, more devout Muslim communities." (p. 44)
- "Such depictions have continued to influence modern scholarship." (p. 45)
- "Ultimately, as Deweese notes, from a Muslim viewpoint, there can be no "nominal" adoption of Islam: One either accepts the tenets of the religion or one doesn't. The depths of a person's religious devotion is not a matter for others to assess, but lies in the mind of the individual believer." (p.46)
Descriptors: 1990s, B, book, China, ethnography, history, Kazakhs, overview, post-Soviet, pre-Tsarist, S, Soviet, Tsarist, Xinjiang; superficial
