Set up seminar for the working group in Jalalabad
Dates: May 3-4, 2009
Place: Jalalaba State University campus (JASU), Jalal-Abat town
Language: Russian and Kyrgyz
Goals of the seminar:
Acquainting the participants with the main directions of the research and discussing peculiarities of research trends.
Acquainting the participants with specificity of anthropology discipline and its research methods (compared with other social sciences’ disciplines)
Short training on research methods
Acquainting the participants with the conditions of the project (organizational and administrative)
Lecturers and moderators:
Aida Alymbaeva (AA), senior researcher, Aigine
Zemfira Inogamova (ZI), researcher, Aigine. She also provided the translation from/to English during the seminar.
Dr. Vernon Schubel (VS), professor, Kenyon College, USA
Following documents were prepared for the seminar:
Program
Manual for the fieldwork
Agreements
Two films on Nyldy Ata and Boz Tektir
Copies of photos and pictures from previous field researches of Aigine
This year, in 2009 we started a new research project in the Jalal-Abat province of Kyrgyzstan. The main goal of the research is to gather emic materials on traditional (or indigenous) knowledge in three directions:
Sacred sites,
Bio- and cultural diversity connected to sacred sites
Climate change and its influence on local culture, possible ways of adaptation to climate change
Selection process of the member for the field working group:
We started preparing a working group in the Jalal-Abat oblast by establishing contact with Kubanyshbek Bolotbekov, faculty of JASU, who became our local coordinator. He helped in searching for candidates: circulating and sending us the application forms. We received 14 application forms and selected 6 participants. They are qualified teachers of the university and we expect a high level of results from their fieldwork.
The following six people became members of the working group in Jalal-Abat oblast:
Kubanychbek Bolotbekov, instructor and deputy dean of philology and culture department, JASU, local coordinator of Aigine
Kamchybek Sabirov, instructor of philosophy, JASU
Samagan Nurgaziev, graduate student of agriculture and economics, JASU
Kudratbek Khalmatov, history teacher, JASU
Amangeldy Sherimbaev, assistant professor, philology and culture, JASU
Kuttumidin Bazarkulov, journalist, local branch of national radio-TV-corporation; he resigned, excusing himself by lack of time.
As result of the seminar we have developed and discussed the concept of our field research project for the Jalal-Abat province. There were discussed and developed the logic of the field research in Jalal-Abat oblast. This oblast is one of the biggest regions in Kyrgyzstan, with eight administrative districts; in comparison the Talas oblast has only four districts. It was decided that during the first two months of the project (May and June) the working group will make the following steps: A) gather information from in areas neighboring Jalal-Abat town and other available districts; B) monitoring of the sacred sites in the oblast and gathering information from relatives, friends, acquaintances, healers and other people who are sources of such information; This will be a base for the plan for July and August when expeditions to the remote and hard-to-reach districts should be organized.
