Nation, religion and social heat: heritaging Uyghur mäshräp in Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT

This article brings together archival and ethnographic research to explore the ways that expressive culture and intangible cultural heritage flow across national borders, how transnational communities in Central Asia engage with discourses and practices of preservation and revitalization, and how local heritage initiatives can respond to the pressures of economic marginalization, migration, Islamization and cultural assimilation. Mäshräp gatherings involving music, dancing and joking have played a prominent role in modern imaginings of Uyghur national identity, and in local processes of community-making. Since 2009, Uyghurs in Kazakhstan have engaged in new forms of ‘heritaging’ mäshräp, attempting to revive their role as a medium for strengthening communities and sustaining language and culture. We argue that the unruly, affective and performative aspects of mäshräp are key to the success of these social goals, and we highlight their role as a space for the negotiation of tensions between religion, nation and hot sociality.

KEYWORDS:

• Uyghur
• Kazakhstan
• expressive culture
• heritage
• Islam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A version of this song was performed by the prominent Uyghur singer Sanubar Tursun as part of a song suite titled Ishchan Yigit (Hard-working lad), which is widely available on Sanubar Tursun: Arzu (Felmay Records 2013).

2 The British Academy-funded research project from which this article arises also attends to the important sphere of women's chay gatherings, their contemporary revival, and their social roles in Uyghur communities in Kazakhstan. Blog posts and short films of chay and mäshräp, including many of the scenes described in this article, can be found on the project's website (http://www.meshrep.uk/).

3 The article is based on analysis of the correspondence of Russian officials kept in the Central State Archive of Uzbekistan under the title ‘Investigation of the Reliability of Persons Who in the City of Verny Organized Muslim Circles Called Gap and Mäshräp with Special Rules, and Collected Money for Unknown Goals’.

4 The term Kirghiz at that time also encompassed people later formally recognized as Kazakh.

5 ‘Almuta meshrivi’ uyush-turghan mäshräplär ara musabiqä. 1–2 bolumlär. DVD. 2017.

6 Short clips and a full-length edited film of the mäshräp discussed here can be viewed on the project's website (http://www.meshrep.uk/the-yerkent-meshrep/).

7 Kamalov (2019) notes that alcohol is banned in ‘traditional’ male gatherings in Kazakhstan, while at olturush gatherings it is allowed in a limited form.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy [Grant no. SDP2\100236].