Diverse Identities
Central Asia includes many countries with diverse identities, such as Mongolia and Northwest Muslim China, Afghanistan, and the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Caucasus are also often grouped with Central Asia and include the nations of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the contested region of Norgorno-Karabagh, and portions of Russia.
Landlocked Central Asia is a vast landscape that many of the most eager travelers would agree is at times inhospitable.
The extremes of temperature, from the seemingly endless Siberian tundra to the sweeping hot sands of the Gobi desert, make this a difficult landscape in which to prosper. Though once closed to much of the world because of Soviet rule in the twentieth century, the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus are now open-some more so than others. While impossible to cover all of the musical cultures of this vast landscape, this chapter will discuss case studies from specific countries to offer students a glimpse into the lives of these wonderfully diverse peoples. From Central Asia, we will discuss case studies from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan; and from the Caucasus, we will look at case studies from Armenia and Georgia.
After the 1917 revolution, traditional music was replaced by that celebrating communism and USSR nationalism.
