Anna Horolets

Lines of research  

The lines of research of ethnologists in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan in particular, 

primarily include the study of ethnic groups residing in respective countries with regard to 

their customs, oral and literary tradition, material culture including culture sites. When 

analyzing research interests of the faculty at Social and Cultural Anthropology Department at 

the National University of Mongolia and Anthropology Department at AUCA – i.e. the 

“pioneers” social/cultural anthropology in Central Asia, - one can see that  

1) anthropology of religion (e.g. beliefs, rituals; shamanism, Islam) is one of the most 

prominently represented research areas alongside ethnicity/national identity studies and 

history. The faculty is also developing a variety of interest that are rather new to the discipline 

in the region:  

2) political and economic anthropology, the latter including interest in rural area and 

rural development;  

3) urban anthropology; 

4) the studies of nomadism,  

5) anthropology of trade;  

6) influence of ecological and geographic aspects of the environment on cultural 

practices and vice versa;  

7) recently migration

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 has become one of the lines of research;  

                                                 

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 The migration flows to and from the country are studied since the migration  situation is quite complex: 

migrants are not only refugees from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, but also Germans, Jews, Russians who left the 

country but sometimes remain in contact with those who stayed; there are also labour migration flows that go 

from the country (e.g. to Russia where approximately 400 thousand people find employment according to some 

estimations); and Chinese labour migrants that work in Kyrgyz rural areas. 

 

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8) there is also an interest in theory and methodology of anthropology;  

9) the topic traditional to western anthropological studies such as kinship are studied; 

10) folklore studies and linguistic anthropology fall within the group of research 

interests that have been a continuation of soviet ethnological and folklore studies; 

11) narrative and travel writing analysis; 

12) apart from “own country” such regions/countries/polities as Middle East, Japan, 

Eurasia, Osman Empire. (for more details see Annex 1 and 3).