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Этнография и востоковедение в туркестанских женотделах в первой половине 1920-х
This article is devoted to the field Oriental studies, which were
carried out by the Soviet women’s departments employees in the first half of
1920s in Turkestan. In this study, I made an attempt to introduce new Turkestan
women’s departments archival documents into scientific circulation, alike
to analyze them in the context of the interaction of power and academic
knowledge. I will demonstrate this with three related examples. Firstly, female
women’s departments employees tried to obtain ethnographic information by
doing questionnaires to build effective strategies for emancipating Muslim
women. The questionnaires recorded information about the worldview, women
life style of the region indigenous peoples. Secondly, the employees turned to
the epistolary traveler’s heritage, scientists and Turkestan Governor- General
colonial administrators. This is evidenced by the recommended literature list
«on the women’s issue», which the women’s departments employees should have
read. Thirdly, female employees independently turned to local orientalists and
ethnographers for clarifications on why the locals treated the low women socio-
cultural status as a normal phenomenon. The study found that questionnaires,
the colonial literature study and direct appeal to scientists turned out to be
futile attempts to comprehend the region people’s indigenous cultures and
rather hindered emancipation.