Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 44

A Review of NICK MEGORAN, NATIONALISM IN CENTRAL ASIA: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE UZBEKISTAN-KYRGYZSTAN BOUNDARY.Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017, 348 pp.

Sergey Abashin

European University at St Petersburg
6/1А Gagarinskaya Str ., St Petersburg, Russia
s-abashin()mail.ru

Abstract: The review considers Nick Megoran’s new interpretations of the history of nationalism in the former Soviet countries of Central Asia. Megoran, who examines modern nation-building, claims that nationalisms as political projects in different countries encounter the local residents’ moral maps, in which ethnicity does not have a leading role. However, the reviewer believes that Megoran’s narrative is guided by the logic of unavoidable nationalism, materialization of national borders, and ethnicization of local identities.

Keywords: nationalism, Central Asia, borders, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, identity.

To cite: Abashin S., ‘A Review of Nick Megoran, Nationalism in Central Asia: A Biography of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan Boundary.Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017, 348 pp.’, Antropologicheskij forum, 2020, no. 44, pp. 166–172.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2020-16-44-166-172

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/044/abashin.pdf