KAZAKHSTAN AND EAST TURKESTAN: INTERETHNIC INTERACTION FROM THE 19th TO THE 21st CENTURY (THROUGH THE LENS OF MATERIAL CULTURE)

This study, presented in historical retrospect (from the late 19th to the 21st century), examines the interaction between the Uyghurs and the population of the Semirechye region of Kazakhstan. In the 19th century, Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire, while East Turkestan belonged to Qing China (Xinjiang). Due to a number of objective historical factors, ethnocultural interaction between these regions was particularly close within the borders of present-day Almaty Region in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Semirechye) and the Ili area of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (PRC). Among these factors were the territorial proximity of the regions, which fostered close ethnocultural and economic ties, significant historical events, and the development of migration patterns that, from the 18th to the 20th centuries, led to the formation of ethnic diasporas in the areas under consideration. The aim of the study is to examine the transformation of traditional practices within a multiethnic environment, using material culture as a primary lens, and to identify the factors that have driven cultural change. The research draws upon field data collected during several ethnographic expeditions conducted across the Central Asian republics in the 1970s–1990s, as well as in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (PRC) between 1990 and 2007. The study of interethnic interaction was carried out primarily through the comparative method. The applied historical-comparative approach enabled the analysis of cultural development in historical retrospect, while comparative juxtaposition allowed for an exploration of this process in the contemporary context. The findings demonstrate that although the process of interethnic interaction evolved historically, it has become particularly pronounced under modern conditions. Intercultural exchange and mutual influence were most evident among urban populations, especially those that were dispersed and had largely lost their former ethnic cohesion. As part of the undertaken research, historical-comparative methods were tested, which made it possible to explicate the evolutionary trajectories of the phenomenon under study in temporal dynamics and cultural paradigms.