TY - CHAP
T1 - DECOLONIZING ‘THE FIELD’ IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CENTRAL ASIA
T2 - ‘Being there’ and ‘being here’
AU - Bissenova, Alima
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Jeanne Feaux de la Croix and Madeleine Reeves; individual chapters, the contributors.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - I wrote this chapter in the spirit of contributing to the decolonization of Central Asian anthropology. Drawing on an analysis of the works of the Russian orientalist, Aleksei Levshin (1798-1879), and his Kazakh critic, Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865), I analyse historical practices of ‘entry into the field’, ‘being in the field’, and publication of the results, i.e., ‘descriptions and stories of the field’, in the West and Russia before the so-called ‘reflexive’ and ‘postcolonial turns’. I examine what Clifford Geertz terms the ‘gap between engaging others where they are and representing them where they are not,' and discuss how this gap continues to inflect the anthropology of Central Asia today.
AB - I wrote this chapter in the spirit of contributing to the decolonization of Central Asian anthropology. Drawing on an analysis of the works of the Russian orientalist, Aleksei Levshin (1798-1879), and his Kazakh critic, Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865), I analyse historical practices of ‘entry into the field’, ‘being in the field’, and publication of the results, i.e., ‘descriptions and stories of the field’, in the West and Russia before the so-called ‘reflexive’ and ‘postcolonial turns’. I examine what Clifford Geertz terms the ‘gap between engaging others where they are and representing them where they are not,' and discuss how this gap continues to inflect the anthropology of Central Asia today.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174104640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85174104640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4324/9781003021803-7
DO - 10.4324/9781003021803-7
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85174104640
SN - 9780367898908
SP - 82
EP - 95
BT - The Central Asian World
PB - Taylor and Francis
ER -