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Modern Clan Politics: The Power of "Blood" in Kazakhstan and Beyond
Edward Schatz explores the politics of kin-based clan divisions in the post-Soviet state of Kazakhstan. Drawing from extensive ethnographic and archival research, interviews, and wide-ranging secondary sources, he highlights a politics that poses a two-tiered challenge to current thinking about modernity and Central Asia. First, asking why kinship divisions do not fade from political life with modernization, he shows that the state actually constructs clan relationships by infusing them with practical political and social meaning. By activating the most important quality of clans - their "concealability" - the state is itself responsible for the vibrant politics of these subethnic divisions which has emerged and flourished in post-Soviet Kazakhstan.
Subethnic divisions are crucial to understanding how group solidarities and power relations coexist and where they intersect. But, in a second challenge to current thinking, Schatz argues that clan politics should not be understood simply as competition among primordial groups. Rather, the meanings attributed to clan relationships - both the public stigmas and the publicly proclaimed pride in clans - are part and parcel of this contest.
Drawing parallels with relevant cases from the Middle East, East and North Africa, and other parts of the former USSR, Schatz concludes that a more appropriate policy may be achieved by making clans a legitimate part of political and social life, rendering them less powerful or corrupt by increasing their transparency.
Political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, policy makers, and others who study state power and identity groups will find a wealth of empirical material and conceptual innovation for discussion and debate.
Subethnic divisions are crucial to understanding how group solidarities and power relations coexist and where they intersect. But, in a second challenge to current thinking, Schatz argues that clan politics should not be understood simply as competition among primordial groups. Rather, the meanings attributed to clan relationships - both the public stigmas and the publicly proclaimed pride in clans - are part and parcel of this contest.
Drawing parallels with relevant cases from the Middle East, East and North Africa, and other parts of the former USSR, Schatz concludes that a more appropriate policy may be achieved by making clans a legitimate part of political and social life, rendering them less powerful or corrupt by increasing their transparency.
Political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, policy makers, and others who study state power and identity groups will find a wealth of empirical material and conceptual innovation for discussion and debate.
280 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 29, 2020
This book provides a somewhat comprehensive image of how clan identity is used in Kazakhstani society. If you’re looking for a sensationalist account this book is not for you. It’s very academic and it’s sources, particularly the interviews contain very interesting first hand accounts of how locals perceive clan connections and their functions. I would recommend some pre-reading on constructivism and the sovietization of Central Asia before reading (Try Nomads and Soviet Rule by Thomas Alun).
April 3, 2016
By drawing upon the analytical tools of political science and sociology as well as the methods of ethnography, Edward Schatz uses this book to demonstrate how 'tribalism': the use of kin-relationships in politics, has evolved in Kazakhstan over the course of the 20th century.
He begins the book with a historical survey which situates his theoretical concerns in the policies of the Soviet Union. here, he explains how kinship helped Kazakhs to navigate a pastoral nomadic economy where the opportunities for capital accumulation were low and the need for information--on the best pastures and migration routes, for example--was high. He then examines the two-faced nature of Soviet policy as it was implemented in the 20s and beyond, which aimed explicitly to eradicate clan-based affiliations as 'backwards' even as its command economy, land reforms, and endemic shortages encouraged Kazakhs to rely on their kin to access scarce benefits.
This is the key insight Schatz argues for: the Soviet state, far from leading to the inevitable disappearance of clans & kinship networks, actually assured that such ties would remain relevant despite the enormous social and economic changes that transformed Kazakh life. They were able to do so, he contends, because kinship and clans are 'opaque'. Mutual assistance based on a sense of shared genealogy is not legible, in other words, to a state trying to ban it. In the second half of the book, Schats looks at this issue--the way clan ties can operate even while concealed from view--to analyze the political arena of Kazakhstan in the 1990s. Divergent views on clans have upheld them as a natural part of genuine Kazakh identity, on the one hand, and as nepotistic barriers to full economic potential on the other.
Thus Kazakhs, like scholars, still have not agreed on how best to interpret such networks and their role in political life. I appreciated Schatz's book, however, for considering the issue in a detailed way which appreciated historical change and situated this within perspectives from other disciplines. I would therefore highly recommend it for anyone interested in post-socialist transition studies, modernization, identity politics, and, of course Central Asian history and contemporary politics.
He begins the book with a historical survey which situates his theoretical concerns in the policies of the Soviet Union. here, he explains how kinship helped Kazakhs to navigate a pastoral nomadic economy where the opportunities for capital accumulation were low and the need for information--on the best pastures and migration routes, for example--was high. He then examines the two-faced nature of Soviet policy as it was implemented in the 20s and beyond, which aimed explicitly to eradicate clan-based affiliations as 'backwards' even as its command economy, land reforms, and endemic shortages encouraged Kazakhs to rely on their kin to access scarce benefits.
This is the key insight Schatz argues for: the Soviet state, far from leading to the inevitable disappearance of clans & kinship networks, actually assured that such ties would remain relevant despite the enormous social and economic changes that transformed Kazakh life. They were able to do so, he contends, because kinship and clans are 'opaque'. Mutual assistance based on a sense of shared genealogy is not legible, in other words, to a state trying to ban it. In the second half of the book, Schats looks at this issue--the way clan ties can operate even while concealed from view--to analyze the political arena of Kazakhstan in the 1990s. Divergent views on clans have upheld them as a natural part of genuine Kazakh identity, on the one hand, and as nepotistic barriers to full economic potential on the other.
Thus Kazakhs, like scholars, still have not agreed on how best to interpret such networks and their role in political life. I appreciated Schatz's book, however, for considering the issue in a detailed way which appreciated historical change and situated this within perspectives from other disciplines. I would therefore highly recommend it for anyone interested in post-socialist transition studies, modernization, identity politics, and, of course Central Asian history and contemporary politics.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews