Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Cultural Studies

Eva-Marie
Dubuisson, PhD

Mellon
Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Humanities,

University of California, Berkeley, Department of Anthropology

 Political
Participation in Central Asia: The Value of a People’s Voice in Kazakh Aitys
Poetry

January
7, 2011 Friday

11:00-12:30

 FASS 2054

ABSTRACT 

In this talk I examine the threat of commodification inherent in a contemporary oral

tradition of Kazakh improvisational poetry. What does it mean for a group of poets

to “sell out,” and how does the examination of this threat illuminate an alternate

form of authority in a Central Asian political climate consistently cast as

authoritarian and as a “failed transition” to capitalist democracy? Looking at the

mutually constitutive legitimacy of poets and their sponsors, who come from the

ranks of the political‐economic elite, I argue here that as a whole, this oral tradition

exemplifies a dialogic form of leadership, one for which poets, sponsors, and

audiences advocate more generally as a model of regional and state power. Leaders

can and should be strong, but they should be accountable to the people they govern.

Here I illuminate the real value of a “people’s voice” in a climate of censorship and

repression: language and performance are not just a topic of inquiry, but rather a

helpful heuristic in the study of authority and political participation in the region.