Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, "China Watchers" were those unfortunate souls who parked themselves in Hong Kong and tried to figure out what was going on in China through analysis of all kinds of trivia, since real news did not reach them. They would glean bits of information from official radio and newspapers and try to build a picture of Chinese reality from it. "Kremlinologists" did the same for the USSR. Bacon's book on Central Asia, first written in 1965, harks back to that dark era, when knowledge about that vast sweep of the continent could not be had for love or money and Google Earth did not exist. Even though the book was re-issued in 1980, with an introduction by a well-known scholar, the contents remained the same. Elizabeth Bacon visited Central Asia only once, in 1934, and met some Russian anthropologists in Kazakhstan during that summer, but never conducted any anthropological studies at all. She never returned. Thus, what we have here is a compendium or handbook containing all the information about the change wrought on the peoples of Central Asia (Kazakh, Kirghiz, Karakalpak, Uzbek, Tajik, and Turkoman) by Tsarist Russian and Soviet power. She collected it from articles, newspapers, books, and other sources over the years. In addition, she deduced some of the picture by looking at "similar" situations and cultures in Iran and Afghanistan, a dicey proposition to say the least. She herself admits (p.157) that "it is often difficult to determine from the Soviet literature the extent of culture change, since descriptions tend to emphasize the Soviet ideal rather than the reality." Now THAT is an understatement if anything !
Bacon's approach derives from the one found in HRAF compendia (Human Resources Area Files of the 50s and 60s). She divides Central Asia into nomadic and oasis (more urban) cultures, then writes of "traditional" culture in each, but these are basically early 19th century conditions, just before the Russians took control between 1865 and 1885. She repeats her analysis of change twice; once for what the Tsarists did and once for what the Communists did after 1917. She writes clearly and well but stresses material/technical culture more than the religious or symbolic side. She has one chapter on general linguistic changes caused by increasing Russian education. The material might be useful as background information for people heading to Central Asia, but her chosen topic--culture change--does not fare well. She had a list in front of her of areas to be discussed, but we never see it. How else could we explain an author who can move seamlessly from the Russification of educated leaders to embroidery and change in decorative arts ?
Three major criticisms might explain why I don't think this book is much more than a kind of semi-interesting "Whole Central Asia Handbook" of 1965. First, she often quotes Soviet statistics. These may lie, or at best, may be said to withhold or blur information on categories she wants. She admits this, but then guesses anyhow. Secondly and unbelievably, she ignores major sources of change that I think even a university undergraduate should have considered. A) She never mentions World War II and the impact this must have had on the Central Asian peoples. B) She never mentions subsequent military service---the compulsory service that all males had to perform. What impact did it have ? Not a word ! C) Hardly a word about the effect of industrialization and one crop economy. What can I say ? I believe that these faults stem from her too close following of that dreaded list. And finally, though I would have liked some criticism of Soviet rule, of the oppression of peoples that it wrought, a personal opinion from the author, I understand that this was not in vogue in the 1960s, when researchers strove for some artificial "objectivity" and removed themselves from the picture. But, she never even mentions the word "colonialism". This proved a bit too much for me. If you need facts for a novel on the area, you might find some useful material here but I don't recommend this work. It is very illustrative of a certain kind of scholarship of yesteryear.
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2007
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- Sevket AkyildizReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2021
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