Kazakhs, a Nation of Two Identities
Kazakhstan has arrived at a civilizational crossroads. Kazakhs want to break away from the Soviet past, but traditionalist resistance to modernizing trends may prevent it from becoming a democracy.
Nation-Building in Kazakhstan : Kazakh and Kazakhstani Identities Controversy
The article dwells upon the factors impacting the process of nation-building in Kazakhstan. The question of national identity is widely discussed in Post-Soviet countries as it is directly connected to the national ideology, history, language and other issues. The authors consider the rebirth of the title nation, competition of the civil and ethnic approaches to the nationbuilding, and contradiction of Kazakh and Russian languages to be topical issues in the formation of national identity in modern Kazakhstan. Particularly important role is given to Kazakh language claiming the status of the main attribute of ethnic cultural symbolism of Kazakhstan. The article discusses the peculiarities of the policy of kazakhization and provides a conclusion that this is an effective solution for national and interethnic relations issues in Kazakhstan.
Indigenous People, Traditional People, And Conservation In The Amazon
IN A STUNNING REVERSAL OF IDEOLOGICAL FORTUNE, traditional people in the Amazon, who until recently were deemed, at best, candidates for, if not hindrances to, "development," have been promoted to the forefront of modernity. This change has occurred primarily through the association made between traditional people and conservation. At the same time, indig enous peoples, formerly despised or hunted down by their neigh bors, have become role models to dispossessed people in the Amazon. We felt compelled to write this essay partly in response to two major current misunderstandings. The first one questions the foundations of traditional peoples' commitment to conser vation. Is such commitment a kind of forgery? Is it, more blandly phrased, a case of a Western projection of ecological concerns onto an ad hoc constructed "ecologically noble sav age"? The second misunderstanding, clearly linked to the former, asserts that "foreign" nongovernmental organizations and ide ologies were responsible for the connection made between con servation of biological diversity and traditional people of the Amazon. This misunderstanding makes for strange bedfellows. Progressive first-world activists and scholars and third-world military leaders and communists alike share in that belief.