Contemporary Kazakh Crafts in the Focus of Ethno-Symbolism: Methodological Aspects

Abstract

The issues of studying symbolism and symbol-creativity in the art of contemporary Kazakh crafts have made the methodological potential of Anthony Smith’s ethno-symbolic concept topical. Relying on the scholar's belief that national traditions are based on a set of stable ethno-cultural symbols that ensure their longevity and vitality, contemporary Kazakh craft can be studied in the aspect of national identity. Anthony Smith’s ethno-symbolic discourse allows us to consider objects of national culture in their historical dynamics as a reconstruction of stable symbolic structures that preserve the national identity core. The study raises the conceptual issue of “ethnicity” and “nationality”, as Anthony Smith’s very position is conceptually opposed to the ideas of both constructivists and supporters of primordialism. The scholar believes that the cultural basis of a nation, its current state depends on “previous development”, on cultural traditions, language and ethnic symbols. Thus, the issues of cultural and national identity appear to be correlated in the aspect of tradition and modernity problem. Craft as a cultural phenomenon of one or another nation bears the stamp of ethnogenesis, in which the whole complex of social dynamics, conditioned by the ontological nature of various forms of human community, participates. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of socio-analysis on the two-structure society, consisting of production practices and “symbolic matrices” involved in sociogenesis, allows us to use its principles as a methodological approach to the study of both traditional crafts and their modern forms in the aspect of issues of cultural identity, the modernization of the past, the revival of traditional experience, etc. The analysis of some trends in contemporary Kazakh craft has shown that the aspiration for identity to a cultural “pattern” is oriented towards established ethno-cultural symbols. Ethno-symbolic discourse makes the semiotic attitude to traditional symbolism topical. It can be said with confidence that the ethno-symbolic approach opens up new opportunities to consider craft and traditional art as factors influencing the formation and preservation of cultural identity. This article was prepared as part of the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan project AR09259862 “Research of Traditional Crafts of Modern Kazakhstan: State and Search for Preservation”.