In the modern world, being a culturally defined Uzbek is quite hard for me. I often ask myself what it means to me to be part of an Uzbek culture. To my dismay, I don’t quite feel like I’m an Uzbek person anymore. Having been away for too long, my Uzbek language has deteriorated, and my cultural values have undergone both a plastic and internal surgery. It is quite shocking to realize how acutely and noticeably I have lost touch with my Uzbek-ness, while my flight to modernism and the subsequent inadvertent cultural detachment have prevailed more and more sharply in contrast.
If viewed through a prism of a public poll, I would be considered somewhat of a heretic, but despite being characterized by many conservatives an improper Uzbek, I believe my character was intimately shaped by the Uzbek culture, and engraved with the right morals and infused with human sensibilities.
In the recent years, I have much distanced myself from my Uzbek roots seamlessly and voluntarily, willingly and subconsciously. Growing up I would often hear, “This isn’t the Uzbek way,” or “this isn’t an Uzbek thing to say.” Now I fully understand the true meaning of those words. If I were to abide by the philosophy of the Uzbek culture, I would be required to first and foremost marry an Uzbek woman, as it is undeniably the most esteemed cornerstone of the intricate marital code of my culture, but one which I choose not want to uphold. These days, my parents humorously call me a cultural contrarian, but I strongly disagree with it, which ironically, in effect, only reinforces my perceived contrarianism - I am clearly a divergent.
Today, the Uzbek culture seems to be at odds with the transcending intercultural novelties of the fervently globalizing world....
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.... As every era, every civilization leaves behind monuments and artistic culture in the form of cities and works of art, all this forms the basis for the nation’s memory of its historical heritage.
The cradle of many ancient cultures and the center of many empires, it is perhaps the most fascinating of all Central Asian republics. The past has left us many "autographs,” in architecture and in traditions, while the land itself has shaped its citizens. My native land has accomplished the greatest mission in its history - it has tied together a city and a desert, the settled and the nomads, integrating them into a single nation on its sacred soil. It’s shone through war and peace, lived conquered and free, but just as its past is a tightly knit web of vibrant colors, its future seems complex and puzzling – an algorithm of beliefs, traditions and ethnic peculiarities.
This was, of course, only a humorous exaggeration, a case of political satire. Yet beneath the humor, there lies a very profound testament to the belief that Russia's political culture has been inherited from its czarist days and manifested throughout its subsequent development. The traditions from the pre-Revolution and pre-1921 Russia, it seems, had left its brand on the 70-years of Communist rule. The Soviet communism system was at once a foreign import from Germany and a Russian creation: "on the one hand it is international and a world phenomenon; on the other hand it is national and Russian…it was Russian history which determined its limits and shaped its character." (Berdyaev, "Origin")
Khanam, R. (2005). Encyclopaedic Ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia. A-I, V. 1. Global Vision Publishing House. p. 470.
Westernizers in Russia strongly believed that Russia’s future development would rely on the adoption of Western technology and thinking. They looked for inspiration and ideas primarily from Hegel’s philosophies and texts. (Bova 43) According to Hegel, human history could be “understood as progress toward the realization of freedom and reason in human life.” He claimed that each individual is an intrinsically free being and cannot be contained. (Bova 44) This theory caught the attention of Russian thinkers quickly, and soon they began to question the role that Russia would play in the development of human society along the European model. This questioning eventually paved the way for the role that Russian westernizers would perform in the history of Russia. M.A. Bakunin, a radical westernizer, took philosophical inspiration from Hegel. Bakunin praised Hegel, referring to him as the “greatest philosopher of the...
The transformation of individuals also included citizens’ desire to become more cultured. Many Soviet citizens characterized peasants, those who were not yet part of the transformation, as “economical[ly] and cultural[y] backwards” (70); thus, the people wanted to be more cultured to distinguish themselves from the lower-class. Such things as brushing teeth, table manners, and public behavior allowed them to be distinguished (80). Fitzpatrick says on page 80, “Newspapers and journals carried regular accounts of successes in mastering the first level of culture, […] these should not always be taken literally.” Fitzpatrick again emphasizes that much of the reports during this period were propaganda.
...eved this state of mind through the geography, history and traditions of the nation. Russia, although having geography, history and traditional values standing against it, has made a significant effort to preserve strong features of democracy through recent decades. Bibliography Grudzinska-Gross, Irena. The Scar of Revolution: Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Gustafson, Thane, and Daniel Yergin. Russia 2010. New York: Random, 1993. Heywood, Andrew. Political Ideas and Concepts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. McDaniel, Tim. The Agony of the Russian Idea. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Melvin, Neil. Russians Beyond Russians. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995. Rzhevsky, Nicholas. Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. He achieved fame, but with much hardship along the way. He was censored and threatened with not only his life but that of his wife and children by playing the role of a public figure in Soviet Russia. The question is was he a committed communist or a victim? The events in his life, good or bad, shaped the music that he created and led to one of the greatest symphonies of the 20th century, his Fifth Symphony.
As mentioned in Armenian Genocide and the Christian Existence, after more than 75 years, the Armenian people have still not healed and are faced daily with the effects of the past. The Christian religion in this group of people has been exterminated since 1915 to some. And not even just the feeling of religion, but something exterminated during this time was the culture. (Guroian, 1991) With the notion of being “Turkified” many lost a sense of who they were and what their ethnicity and culture was during this time of hopeful survival and forced
History has a strange way of coming back around when it comes to human civilization. It has been said repeatedly that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. However, just because there is a potential for danger in the future, this does not mean that humanity must ignore what once was. History is normally remembered through what is known as a memorial. When a memorial is put into a physical representation, it is then known as a monument.The need to memorialize events or people is complex; in some cases, monuments honor moments of great achievement, while in other cases, monuments pay homage to deep sacrifice. A monument's size, location, and materials are all considerations in planning and creating a memorial to the past. Examples of such feats are the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and even Mount Rushmore. For the latter of the
Located in the province of Xianjing, the Uyghurs are isolated by massive mountains, deserts, Communist China, and extreme poverty. The Uyghurs are of Turkic origin, and were one of the 9 original tribes. One of these tribes, the Ottomans, sacked Constantinople in 1459, starting the rein of the Sultans for 400 years. The superpower carved a massive empire, from its roots in Turkey, to spread from the Russian steppes to the Alps to India, and stamping their name on history in blood. European history in the 1400‘s, 1500‘s, and 1600‘s centered on the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire and the Arabic people carved two massive empires in an extremely short time. They crushed the medieval christian kingdoms around Jerusalem, and quickly started attacking Christian kingdoms in Spain, Greece, and the Balkans. These conflicts between Muslims and Christians have been the longest and bloodiest in the history of the world, and still persist today. These Ottomans are, understandably, the most wel...
Thorough out this novel, Bowen attempts to reconcile her Western prejudice with those of the Tiv society. Her experience and her failures contribute to her lessons and revelations. She now holds the knowledge that language and social relationships are indispensable to research. Conclusively, Bowen understands that culture is reliant on understanding the cultures language and that this understanding will aid in social relationships.
Franklin, Simon and Emma Widdis, eds. National Identity in Russian Culture: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004.
National identities are some of the must fundamental tools in the build-up of countries, and can be created from a number of possibilities, ranging from outside military threats to the feeling of belonging in society. This is best seen in countries like England, where the epic poem Beowulf plays a large role in the country’s identity, and the United States, where George Washington’s life story plays an important factor in the forming of its national identity. Serving as major symbols for later generations, these stories/figures have become everlasting, and continue to impact the regions to this very day. However, the inclusion of a country that Westerners are less than familiar with, Kyrgyzstan for example, changes the discussion almost entirely because of its small stature and almost inefficient role in geopolitics. Kyrgyzstan is
Monuments are a symbol of a significant time in history. Monuments represent life, death, success, and struggle just to name a few. They have become as important to society as the events they represent. They bring history alive to new generations and memories to those who experience them firsthand. Monuments create a bridge between generations. Many parents feel a certain indescribable joyfulness when they see the look in their child’s eyes they had went they viewed the same monument.
Russia culture is very different from any other culture that I have ever read about. This is a country that is dominated by males. Males actually run the county of Russia. The men are so dominated that every Russian women dream is to be married and have a family with these men. Russia is known for its poor society. In the book Sakharov he mentions how he moved from one place to another. He first was in Moscow’s larger apartments with his family. In this apartment there were six families. With thin the six families they had to share the kitchen and the bathroom. Then he states that he moved into a very old house and in this old house there was a leaking ceiling. With in this house there were still six families that shared everything. (Sakharov 24-25)