Ethnic History and Settlement of the Sunacks on the Territory of Kazakhstan

Abstract

Of particular importance when considering questions of the origin of the history of an ethnic group is the study of some ethnic, ethnographic, and other groups. In particular, these groups are a consequence of the territorial division of part of the ethnic group, the incompleteness of the process of assimilation of some other population or part of it, the remnants of a previously existing tribal division, as well as the presence of a special ethnosocial or ethnoconfessional status (subethnic group) of a certain part of the population. This article examines the ethnogenesis and main regions where the Sunaks are located as a subethnic group that is not included in the tribal and clan system of traditional Kazakh society. Ethnographic studies show that such ethnic groups consisted of different clans, tribes, and even peoples, but in language, culture, economic, and cultural type they were very close to the Kazakh ethnic group. The Sunaks, as representatives of a subethnic group, inhabit the territory of modern southern Kazakhstan. The settlement area of the Sunaks was a clearly concentrated space - the middle stream of the Syr Darya. In addition, the Sunaks did not lead a nomadic lifestyle, like representatives of other tribal formations that inhabited the southern part of Kazakhstan.