Renegotiating Identities and Cultural Legacies Chapter Twelve Be(com)ing Uzbek

Upper Qashqadarya
The fourth setting, the region around the twin cities of Shahrisabz and Kitob, or Upper Qashqadarya province, is equally not an oasis in the strict sense. It has an agricultural core surrounded by adjacent pasture areas that gradually merge into each other. The boundaries between the sedentary and nomadic realms were similarly never as clear-cut as, for example, in Bukhara. Located along the upper course of the Qashqadarya River and close to the surrounding mountains, it is a region of moderate abundance in terms of water and green lands. Historically, this area was never a key player, except for a brief period of time during the rise of Timur who was born in a village nearby.²⁸
The ecology of the area also affected the ethnic composition of the population. With sedentary agriculturalists and seminomadic pastoralists living in relatively close proximity, it was possible for the latter to settle at the outskirts of the fertile core without abandoning their previous lifestyle. This led to the current configuration where there are basically three distinct categories, although only two of them have a label of their own. The central settlements are inhabited primarily by Uzbeks who speak a dialect not very different from neighboring Samarkand or the Uzbek literary language. In the outer villages toward the steppe belt, however, a variant of Qipchaq is used that differs significantly. Its speakers are accordingly labeled as zhokchilar, those who say “zhok”—meaning “not,”—in contrast to speakers of standard Uzbek, who say “yok.” As this is not an official category, their number can only be estimated, but they form a sizable minority, and in some districts a majority, of the population. Finally, Tajik is spoken in many of the remote villages that comprise the third, less cohesive group.
It is, however, much more than a purely linguistic difference that divides the residents of this region. Both their dialect and settlements remind that the zhokchilar are descendants of former pastoralists and culturally akin to Kazakhs or Kyrgyz. They could, indeed, qualify as the real successors of the Shaybanid, or the Uzbeks proper, but in the local context their language and way of life is rather conceptualized as a substandard behavior. Therefore, there is little bilingualism in any other direction than toward literary or yokchi Uzbek. This holds true also for the Tajiks who apparently lost ground in the central settlements in the plains a long time ago. Assimilation is thus pretty much unidirectional here, as was the case in the Fergana Valley.²⁹
Mixed marriages similarly constitute the reason for a trend toward becoming yokchi Uzbeks. It is a bit less frequent due to the distances of the settlement or the relative remoteness of both the zhokchi villages in the steppe and the Tajik ones in the mountains. But as in the other sites, they are not seen as something to be avoided by all means. Most cases therefore concern individuals who have moved to town or follow their spouses there. As zhokchi is neither a proper linguistic nor ethnic category, however, the result would not be understood as a mixed family either.
Again, one can describe a cultural core here, which is set locally as the default version of language and culture. This is similar to the Fergana Valley, which has the version of “pure” Uzbekness that is closest to the literary form. There is little ambivalence here, as the Tajiks are considered as outside the core due to their marginal location in the mountains, which also implies a less civilized way of life in the local understanding. But this is still not thought of as a primarily genetic process, so that people may change their identity and be readily accepted into the mainstream culture if they so choose. A person may have difficulty shedding their zhokchi dialect, but the next generation will be fully integrated and thus contribute to an ongoing “yokchization” of the population.