PUBL.- Kyrgyzstan: A Photoethnography of Talas, Judith Beyer and Roman Knee
Posted by: Judith Beyer <beyer@eth.mpg.de>
Announcement - Book Publication
Judith Beyer and Roman Knee: Kirgistan. Ein ethnografischer Bildband
über Talas = Kyrgyzstan: A photoethnography of Talas. Hirmer Verlag, 2007
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Hirmer Verlag GmbH; Bilingual edition (March 2008)
Language: German and English
ISBN-10: 3777438057
ISBN-13: 978-3777438054
Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 9.3 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
How do people live in Kyrgyzstan today, and what are their everyday
lives like? This question is central to the present book, which the
authors Judith Beyer and Roman Knee call a photoethnography. Linking
ethnography (Greek ethnos = people; graphein = to describe) and
photography, they are attempting a new approach to communicating
culture. This photoethnography focuses on those areas of Kyrgyz
culture that are crucially important to the people and that help to
determine their daily lives. This includes their social contacts with
relatives, neighbors and friends, their economic activities, such as
cattle breeding and agriculture, and the various forms of social
organization in the villages and the region. This approach gives
readers the possibility of forming a new and clearer perspective for
looking at an unfamiliar culture: it is not the extraordinary, but the
everyday that is at the focus of this book.
The first section of the book starts with Manas, the mythical ancestor
figure. He is known as Manas Ata Father Manas in Talas, and the Kyrgyz
people themselves would begin an account of their history with him.
After this historical opening, which also includes texts on
petroglyphs and the Kyrgyz yurt, the authors go on to look at the
Talas region, life in the provincial capital and in the villages, and
at the province's special geographical and botanical features. The
main section of the book focuses on the people of the province and the
worlds they live in, often separated by age and gender. The conclusion
focuses on the lives of older people, on religion and sacred sites.
Thus this photoethnography starts and ends by considering ancestors: a
central cultural element for the Talas people. In this spirit, the
book's thematic sequence is based on the Talas people's understanding
of themselves.
The pictorial section is preceded by two introductory essays meant to
familiarize readers with both the cultural history and the
geographical features of Kyrgyzstan, and more particularly of the
Talas region (written by John Schoeberlein and Jörg Stadelbauer).
Judith Beyer, MA
Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology
Project Group Legal Pluralism
Advokatenweg 36
06114 Halle (Saale)
beyer@eth.mpg.de
www.eth.mpg.de/people/beyer
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