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Abstract. This paper presents a remarkable case of ethnic ambiguity amongst Uzbek- and Tajik-speakers in the oasis of Bukhara. Together, they constitute one bilingual and largely endogamous cultural entity in which internal differences are vigorously denied. Both share the same institutional framework, within which interaction is coordinated, as well as fundamental cognitive schemas concerning ethnic belonging. According to these schemas similarity is the product of common residence and socialization rather than descent and language. Thus, one may simultaneously be an Uzbek and a Tajik, as the main source of identity is locality and a shared way of doing things.
[ethnicity, identify, social environment, bilingualism, Uzbekistan]
Introduction1
"There are no true Tajiks here. They look different. We just speak Tajik, but otherwise we are Uzbeks. Of course, the Uzbeks here also speak Tajik, and so they are maybe also not true Uzbeks. You know, we used to live here under the rule of the same padishah for many centuries so we became like this. But since we live in Uzbekistan we are maybe more Uzbeks than we are Tajiks. After all, we are all Bukharians (buxorolik)". (Alisher, former mayor in the district of Romitan)
Wliat Alisher is referring to is the fact that many people in Romitan and other parts of rural Bukhara would find it difficult to tell their own ethnic affiliation. His native tongue is Tajik, but like most other people he is equally fluent in Uzbek and uses both of them indiscriminately and often without noticing. In his passport, however, which in Uzbekistan still contains an entry of one's ethnicity, he is registered as an Uzbek. This is true for the vast majority of Tajik-speakers in Bukhara, although a minority of them is officially categorized as Tajik. In this paper we will deal with the question of when someone might be called an Uzbek or a Tajik and if these are indeed mutually exclusive categories. Rather, it will be argued, they define one common social arena in which two fundamentally different languages (one Turkic and one Indo-European) are used at the same time. In a certain way, while individuals tend to, sometimes temporarily, lean to one of the two categories depending on the preferred language, everybody simultaneously belongs to both categories.2
The...