Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley: A 19th-Century Ethnography from Central Asia by Vladimir Nalivkin and Maria Nalivkina (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley: A 19th-Century Ethnography from Central Asia by Vladimir Nalivkin and Maria Nalivkina Liqun Cai (bio) and Mu Wu (bio) Vladimir Nalivkin and Maria Nalivkina, Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley: A 19th-Century Ethnography from Central Asia, edited by Marianne Kamp, translated by Mariana Markova and Marianne Kamp (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2016). 242 pp., ill. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-0-253-02138-0. Between the early 1860s and the mid-1880s, favorable international circumstances incentivized the expansion of the Russian Empire by keeping the cost of conquests low. During this period, Russia conquered the three Transoxiana khan-ates and subordinated the Turkmen tribes near the Caspian Sea, as well as the Ferghana Valley ruled by the Kokand Khanate. Russian imperial administration was extended to the former khanates' remote areas. In this era of armchair anthropology and ethnography, scientific ethnography was still in the making, and etic ethnographies through participatory observation were relatively rare, let alone the specialized ethnography on indigenous Muslim women. A Sketch of the Everyday Life of Women of the Sedentary Native Population of the Fergana Valley, coauthored by the Nalivkin spouses, was a groundbreaking, detailed [End Page 207] account of the daily lives of Muslim women through the eyes of outsiders. First published in Russian in 1886, this unique ethnography of women is still valuable and has been used repeatedly as a source of information about the culture of Uzbeks and the Fergana Valley during the imperial period. In 2016, the book was translated into English for the first time by the renowned linguist and orientalist Marianne Kamp and the anthropologist Mariana Markova, both of whom contributed to its introduction and commentary. Vladimir Nalivkin was an officer under the command of General Skobelev. He fought in several Russian campaigns but retired, as he could not accept the cruel, immoral way of Russian warfare. Vladimir's military education gave him useful knowledge about terrain and language, as well as observation skills. As for Maria, her high school education in St. Petersburg helped her to collect the majority of materials for the book. The Nalivkins' eight-year-long sojourn in the village of Nanay in the Fergana Valley made them aware of the breakdown and disappearance of the ancient civilization there in the wake of the Russian conquest. They realized the urgency of recording the daily life of the local sedentary population – Sarts – through ethnography. Its detailed description in the book supports the authors' generalizations about the Sart culture, leaving the reader to marvel at the Nalivkins' familiarity with the local language and culture. The book consistently traces two main themes through its ten chapters: Islam and women. Chapter 1 gives a brief description of the geography and environment of Fergana Valley. Chapter 2 describes the Sarts' religious practices and clergy. Chapter 3 provides details about houses and utensils. Chapter 4 portrays the appearance and clothing of the Sart women. Chapter 5 depicts their occupations and food, and chapter 6 – their character and behavior. In chapters 7 through 9, the authors reconstruct the arc of Sart women's life cycle, from birth through girlhood, marriage and possibly divorce, to death. Chapter 10 discusses the situation with prostitution in the region. The Nalivkins followed the standards of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society's Ethnographic Division, which recommended beginning ethnographic studies with the exploration of the geographical environment. To avoid the tedious cataloging of physical details, the authors arranged this part of the book as a tour of the Fergana Valley. On this journey, they took readers through the narrow streets with their mosques, bazaars, and shops before embarking on a detailed description of the livelihoods of farmers and traders. [End Page 208] Agriculture was an important occupation for the Sarts of the Fergana Valley, where the growing season is long, summer temperatures are high, and irrigation is possible. The arrival of the Russian army and the Kokand khan's surrender had little effect on the farming Sarts. The Russian conquest also did not undermine the fundamental role of Islam in their lives. The discussion of religion in the book begins with lengthy translations from the Qur'an – several hundred verses...