Dr. Baktygul Shabdan (n茅e Tulebaeva)
Teaching and Research Associate
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 798-33066
Fax: +49 (0) 69 / 798-33065
Email: shabdan (at) em.uni-frankfurt.de
Room: IG 552
Office hours: Mondays, 12 pm -2 pm, registration by Email
Research focus
Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan), South Asia (India), anthropology of childhood and personhood, anthropology of Islam, Sufism in India, online religion, medical anthropology
Contact person for the area "Central Asia"
Central Asia is a geographically and culturally diverse region stretching from west to east from the Caspian Sea to China and Mongolia, and from north to south from Russia to Afghanistan and Iran. The entire region is topologically diverse and includes high mountain ranges such as the Tian Shan, grassy steppes, deserts, as well as subtropical and semi-arid regions.
Historically, Central Asia is associated with pastoral nomads who have developed special forms of adaptation to their environment. Some of these social and cultural characteristics of the nomadic way of life remain relevant today or have adapted over time to changing conditions.
Traditionally, Central Asia is identified with the region through which the routes of the so-called "Great Silk Road" once ran. It connected Asia and Europe and enabled exchanges of different cultures. From a political perspective, the term Central Asia refers primarily to the five post-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. For most of the 20th century, this part of Central Asia was ruled and governed first by the Russian Empire and then by the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s led to a sudden transition from a planned economy to a market economy. This so-called transformation period had profound socio-economic and cultural consequences. At the same time, the revival of values defined as 鈥渢raditional" and the return to Islam in the region have resulted in a unique combination of ethnographic characteristics that offer a broad spectrum for social and cultural anthropological research.
From an anthropological point of view, we are particularly interested in local expressions of social and political formations, variations of everyday Islam, the role of 鈥渆thnic" classifications in political communities, various pastoral and agricultural economic practices, as well as nomadic and sedentary lifestyles. So far, research has been carried out on topics such as: mobile lifestyle, human-nature relationships, yurts and material culture, holy places, land and water resources, kinship, the role of tribal orders in socio-political life, life-cycle rituals and celebrations, the revival of Islam, the role of women and children, traditional medicine, labor migration and much more.
We have been working with partner universities in Central Asia (see below) for a long time. Students have the opportunity to visit these institutions as part of exchange programs and be supervised for short-term field research.
American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
International University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan
Deutsch-Kasachische Universit盲t, Kazakhstan
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
The University of Isfahan, Iran