Justin Jacobs

Bio: Justin Jacobs is an academic researcher. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 9 citations.

The Many Deaths of a Kazak Unaligned: Osman Batur, Chinese Decolonization, and the Nationalization of a Nomad

Abstract: “IN ALL OF CHINA, XINJIANG is the most desolate and remote province,” wrote Governor Yang Zengxin in 1925. “And in all of Xinjiang,” he added, “Altay is the most desolate and remote region [juedi].”1 It was here, beneath the canopy of a windbeaten Kazak yurt, that Osman son of Islam was born in 1899. Nothing of his life is known for certain until he was within a decade of his death. In 1943, eight years before he was bound and shot on the execution grounds of Urumchi, he confessed to the president of Mongolia that he would be content only when he was recognized as Khan of the Altay.2 He went to his grave, however, as Osman Batur, a title conferred by his peers upon a self-made “hero” of non-noble birth. The agents of far-off powers, coveting the minerals buried beneath the Altay Mountains, gave him a host of other names. From Moscow, Lavrentii Beria called him the “Kazak Robin Hood.” From Nanjing, Nationalist Chinese officials called him “incorrigible” and “unpredictable” only weeks before they called him an “ally.” Years later, hot on his heels, the Chinese Communists decried him as a “bandit.” Yet the first American to perish during a covert CIA operation viewed him as an “asset” who could play a crucial role in World War III. Somewhat later, Kazak refugees in Turkey and Kazakstan crowned him a “martyr” before finally deciding that he was the aborted second coming of Genghis Khan. Osman the myth is alive and well. But who was Osman son of Islam? In order to understand Osman, we must first understand Xinjiang against the backdrop of Republican China (1912–1949). This far northwestern province, roughly

Imperial polities, intercolonialism, and the shaping of global governing norms: public health expert networks in Asia and the League of Nations Health Organization, 1908–37*

Abstract: This article stresses the role of colonial governments, not only national sovereign states, in Asia (and to a lesser extent, Africa) at the League of Nations in shaping global governing norms. It emphasizes the significance of lateral and horizontal cooperative actions across colonial governments, especially intercolonial networks of public health experts. It argues that the League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO) accepted these intercolonial practices in Asia in the 1920s, and that this led it to recognize colonial governments as formal and legitimate units in its intergovernmental conferences held in the mid 1930s. In the process, the LNHO provided an intercolonial channel for ‘national’ experts from colonial Asia to participate directly in regional and global governing norm-making processes. In turn, this highlights both the ambiguous nature of national experts and the intercolonial legacy in international health programmes in developing countries in the post-war period.

The Soviet and the Post-Soviet: Street Names and National Discourse in Almaty

Abstract: While discussing Kazakhstan's post-Soviet identity, scholars treat ‘Kazakhisation’ as a given, and the substance of the process of developing such an identity is usually ignored. This article gives...

“To Gallop Together to War is Simple-- To Make Peace is Complex” Indigenous Informal Restorative Conflict Resolution Practices Among Kazakhs: An Ethnographic Case Study

Abstract: ........................................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Statement of Purpose ................................................................................................. 4 Researcher’s Background ..................................................................................... 5 My Role as Researcher ......................................................................................... 7 Research Questions and Goals ................................................................................... 8 Significance of the Study ......................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................ 13 Context ..................................................................................................................... 13 Historical Background ............................................................................................. 15 Modern History ........................................................................................................ 18 Indigenous Dispute Resolution ................................................................................ 24 Theoretical Framework of Inquiry ........................................................................... 28 Theory of Subaltern Agency ............................................................................... 28 Essentialism Theory & Soviet Ethnos Theory .................................................... 32 Restoration of Trust Theory ................................................................................ 33 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................... 34 Culture as Shared Understandings ........................................................................... 34 Research Design ....................................................................................................... 38 Field Data Collection ............................................................................................... 41

Nomadic Nationhood: Cinema, Nationhood, and Remembrance in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

Abstract: This article examines the new Kazakh nation-state's attempt to provide a history to its people and how this attempt functions as a sort of "nomadic nationhood": an ongoing, vibrant process of building both a sense of national identity and a sense of historical remembrance that center on nomads. The state has taken the lead in this nation-building exercise, and Kazakh films, often relying on state support, have also played a starring role. Surveying a number of recent Kazakh films, the author argues that Kazakh filmmakers, responding to President Nursultan Nazarbayev's calls to create national narratives, have turned to nomads and the nomadic past as the source for Kazakh nationhood and remembrance. The reception among Kazakh citizens has produced a mixed bag: many audience members have celebrated what they see as a "new Kazakh patriotism" articulated onscreen. Others have criticized certain aspects of the onscreen nomadic nationhood, particularly the Kazakh state's role in promoting it and Kazakh filmmakers' adaptation of Hollywood techniques. Still others have stayed away from Kazakh films entirely, choosing instead to check out the latest Hollywood blockbusters. As a result, Nazarbayev declared in late 2009 that Kazakh filmmakers should start to pay more attention to the present and not just the past, but the cinematic nomadic nationhood has not stopped. The May 2012 film Myn Bala [A Thousand Boys] mines the same historical territory as 2005's The Nomad , the film that in many ways initiated the new Kazakh cinema's turn to the nomadic past. Резюме: В статье рассматривается политика истории в современном Казах­стане, который продвигает концепцию "кочевой национальности". Стивен Норрис понимает эту политику как живой процесс строи­тельства национальной идентичности и формирования исторической памяти, в центре которой кочевое прошлое. Казахский кинематограф, располагающий государственной поддержкой, играет в этом проекте национального государства важнейшую роль. В статье анализируется несколько недавних казахских фильмов, авторы которых отозвались на призыв президента Нурсултана Назарбаева создать национальный казахский нарратив. Они обращаются к кочевникам и кочевому прошлому как к источнику казахской национальности и памяти. Норрис анализирует образный язык и идеологическое послание этих фильмов и их восприятие аудиторией. Автор реконструирует диапазон оценок от восторженно-патриотических до умеренно критических и откровенно индифферентных и делает вывод о функционировании концепции "кочевой национальности" в современном казахстанском обществе.

Debating gender and Kazakhness: memory and voice in poetic duel aytis between China and Kazakhstan

Abstract: Aytis is a central component of Kazakh oral literature. It is a duelling performance of improvised oral poetry between two aqins (poets, or bards) accompanying themselves on the dombra, a two-stringed plucked instrument. This article analyses contending issues in a transnational aytis between Chinese and Kazakhstani aqins, and explores how gender plays into the complex interplay of transnational identity politics, nationalism, performer positionality, and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. This article argues that, though minority actors are subject to state-patronized national projects and the gender paradigms those projects entail, they can also obtain empowerment from performing tradition as a way to legitimize their status as culture producers and flexible citizens. Situated as the guardians of a constructed gender balance in society, women performers of oral tradition occasionally find themselves with opportunities to transgress the boundaries of their national and gender norms.